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diff --git a/old/7gens10.txt b/old/7gens10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26a4443 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7gens10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23300 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren +[Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers] + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture + Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7069] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +GENESIS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE VISION OF CREATION (Genesis i. 26--ii. 3) + +HOW SIN CAME IN (Genesis iii. 1-15) + +EDEN LOST AND RESTORED (Genesis iii. 24; Revelation xxii. 14) + +THE GROWTH AND POWER OF SIN (Genesis iv. 3-16) + +WHAT CROUCHES AT THE DOOR (Genesis iv. 7, R.V.) + +WITH, BEFORE, AFTER (Genesis v. 22; Genesis xvii. 1; +Deuteronomy xiii. 4) + +THE COURSE AND CROWN OF A DEVOUT LIFE (Genesis v. 24) + +THE SAINT AMONG SINNERS (Genesis vi. 9-22) + +'CLEAR SHINING AFTER RAIN' (Genesis viii. 1-22) + +THE SIGN FOR MAN AND THE REMEMBRANCER FOR GOD (Genesis ix. 8-17) + +AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH (Genesis xii. 1-9) + +ABRAM AND THE LIFE OF FAITH + +GOING FORTH (Genesis xii. 5) + +COMING IN + +THE MAN OF FAITH (Genesis xii. 6, 7) + +LIFE IN CANAAN (Genesis xii. 8) + +THE IMPORTANCE OF A CHOICE (Genesis xiii. 1-13) + +ABBAM THE HEBREW (Genesis xiv. 13) + +GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM (Genesis xv. 5-18) + +THE WORD THAT SCATTERS FEAR (Genesis xv. 1) + +FAITH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS (Genesis xv. 6) + +WAITING FAITH REWARDED AND STRENGTHENED BY NEW REVELATIONS +(Genesis xvii. 1-9) + +A PETULANT WISH (Genesis xvii. 18) + +'BECAUSE OF HIS IMPORTUNITY' (Genesis xviii. l6-33) + +THE INTERCOURSE OF GOD AND HIS FRIEND + +THE SWIFT DESTROYER (Genesis xix. 15-26) + +FAITH TESTED AND CROWNED (Genesis xxii. 1-14) + +THE CROWNING TEST AND TRIUMPH OF FAITH + +JEHOVAH-JIREH (Genesis xxii. 14) + +GUIDANCE IN THE WAY (Genesis xxiv. 27) + +THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM (Genesis xxv. 8) + +A BAD BARGAIN (Genesis xxv. 27-34) + +POTTAGE _versus_ BIRTHRIGHT (Genesis xxv. 34) + +THE FIRST APOSTLE OF PEACE AT ANY PRICE (Genesis xxvi. 12-25) + +THE HEAVENLY PATHWAY AND THE EARTHLY HEART (Genesis xxviii. 10-22) + +MAHANAIM: THE TWO CAMPS (Genesis xxxii. 1, 2) + +THE TWOFOLD WRESTLE--GOD'S WITH JACOB AND JACOB'S WITH GOD +(Genesis xxxii. 9-12) + +A FORGOTTEN VOW (Genesis xxxv. 1) + +THE TRIALS AND VISIONS OF DEVOUT YOUTH (Genesis xxxvii. 1-11) + +MAN'S PASSIONS AND GOD'S PURPOSE (Genesis xxxvii. 23-36) + +GOODNESS IN A DUNGEON (Genesis xl. 1-15) + +JOSEPH, THE PRIME MINISTER (Genesis xli. 38-48) + +RECOGNITION AND RECONCILIATION (Genesis xlv. 1-15) + +JOSEPH, THE PARDONER AND PRESERVER + +GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING (Genesis xlvii. 1-12) + +TWO RETROSPECTS OF ONE LIFE (Genesis xlvii. 9; Genesis xlviii. 15, 16) + +'THE HANDS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF JACOB' (Genesis xlix. 23, 24) + +THE SHEPHERD, THE STONE OF ISRAEL (Genesis xlix. 24) + +A CALM EVENING, PROMISING A BRIGHT MORNING (Genesis l. 14-26) + +JOSEPH'S FAITH (Genesis l. 25) + +A COFFIN IN EGYPT (Genesis l. 26) + + + + + THE VISION OF CREATION + + + 'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our + likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of + the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the + cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping + thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man + in His own image: in the image of God created He him; + male and female created He them. And God blessed them: + and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and + replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion + over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, + and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. + And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing + seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every + tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; + to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the + earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing + that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I + have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And + God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it + was very good. And the evening and the morning were the + sixth day. + + 'Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all + the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His + work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day + from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the + seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He + had rested from all His work which God created and made.' + --GENESIS i. 26-ii. 3. + +We are not to look to Genesis for a scientific cosmogony, and are +not to be disturbed by physicists' criticisms on it as such. Its +purpose is quite another, and far more important; namely, to imprint +deep and ineffaceable the conviction that the one God created all +things. Nor must it be forgotten that this vision of creation was +given to people ignorant of natural science, and prone to fall back +into surrounding idolatry. The comparison of the creation narratives +in Genesis with the cuneiform tablets, with which they evidently are +most closely connected, has for its most important result the +demonstration of the infinite elevation above their monstrosities +and puerilities, of this solemn, steadfast attribution of the +creative act to the one God. Here we can only draw out in brief the +main points which the narrative brings into prominence. + +1. The revelation which it gives is the truth, obscured to all other +men when it was given, that one God 'in the beginning created the +heaven and the earth.' That solemn utterance is the keynote of the +whole. The rest but expands it. It was a challenge and a denial for +all the beliefs of the nations, the truth of which Israel was the +champion and missionary. It swept the heavens and earth clear of the +crowd of gods, and showed the One enthroned above, and operative in, +all things. We can scarcely estimate the grandeur, the emancipating +power, the all-uniting force, of that utterance. It is a worn +commonplace to us. It was a strange, thrilling novelty when it was +written at the head of this narrative. _Then_ it was in sharp +opposition to beliefs that have long been dead to us; but it is +still a protest against some living errors. Physical science has not +spoken the final word when it has shown us how things came to be as +they are. There remains the deeper question, What, or who, +originated and guided the processes? And the only answer is the +ancient declaration, 'In the beginning God created the heaven and +the earth.' + +2. The record is as emphatic and as unique in its teaching as to the +mode of creation: 'God said ... and it was so.' That lifts us above +all the poor childish myths of the nations, some of them disgusting, +many of them absurd, all of them unworthy. There was no other agency +than the putting forth of the divine will. The speech of God is but +a symbol of the flashing forth of His will. To us Christians the +antique phrase suggests a fulness of meaning not inherent in it, for +we have learned to believe that 'all things were made by Him' whose +name is 'The Word of God'; but, apart from that, the representation +here is sublime. 'He spake, and it was done'; that is the sign- +manual of Deity. + +3. The completeness of creation is emphasised. We note, not only the +recurrent 'and it was so,' which declares the perfect correspondence +of the result with the divine intention, but also the recurring 'God +saw that it was good.' His ideals are always realised. The divine +artist never finds that the embodiment of His thought falls short of +His thought. + + 'What act is all its thought had been? + What will but felt the fleshly screen? + +But He has no hindrances nor incompletenesses in His creative work, +and the very sabbath rest with which the narrative closes +symbolises, not His need of repose, but His perfect accomplishment +of His purpose. God ceases from His works because 'the works were +finished,' and He saw that all was very good. + +4. The progressiveness of the creative process is brought into +strong relief. The work of the first four days is the preparation of +the dwelling-place for the living creatures who are afterwards +created to inhabit it. How far the details of these days' work +coincide with the order as science has made it out, we are not +careful to ask here. The primeval chaos, the separation of the +waters above from the waters beneath, the emergence of the land, the +beginning of vegetation there, the shining out of the sun as the +dense mists cleared, all find confirmation even in modern theories +of evolution. But the intention of the whole is much rather to teach +that, though the simple utterance of the divine will was the agent +of creation, the manner of it was not a sudden calling of the world, +as men know it, into being, but majestic, slow advance by stages, +each of which rested on the preceding. To apply the old distinction +between justification and sanctification, creation was a work, not +an act. The Divine Workman, who is always patient, worked slowly +then as He does now. Not at a leap, but by deliberate steps, the +divine ideal attains realisation. + +5. The creation of living creatures on the fourth and fifth days is +so arranged as to lead up to the creation of man as the climax. On +the fifth day sea and air are peopled, and their denizens 'blessed,' +for the equal divine love holds every living thing to its heart. On +the sixth day the earth is replenished with living creatures. Then, +last of all, comes man, the apex of creation. Obviously the purpose +of the whole is to concentrate the light on man; and it is a matter +of no importance whether the narrative is correct according to +zoology, or not. What it says is that God made all the universe, +that He prepared the earth for the delight of living creatures, that +the happy birds that soar and sing, and the dumb creatures that move +through the paths of the seas, and the beasts of the earth, are all +His creating, and that man is linked to them, being made on the same +day as the latter, and by the same word, but that between man and +them all there is a gulf, since he is made in the divine image. That +image implies personality, the consciousness of self, the power to +say 'I,' as well as purity. The transition from the work of the +first four days to that of creating living things must have had a +break. No theory has been able to bridge the chasm without admitting +a divine act introducing the new element of life, and none has been +able to bridge the gulf between the animal and human consciousness +without admitting a divine act introducing 'the image of God' into +the nature common to animal and man. Three facts as to humanity are +thrown up into prominence: its possession of the image of God, the +equality and eternal interdependence of the sexes, and the lordship +over all creatures. Mark especially the remarkable wording of verse 27: +'created He _him_ male and female created He _them_.' So 'neither is +the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman.' Each is +maimed apart from the other. Both stand side by side, on one level +before God. The germ of the most 'advanced' doctrines of the relations +of the sexes is hidden here. + + + + +HOW SIN CAME IN + + + 'Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the + field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the + woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree + of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We + may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of + the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the + garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither + shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said + unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth + know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes + shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good + and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good + for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a + tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the + fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also unto her + husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them + both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; + and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves + aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking + in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his + wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God + amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called + unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he + said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, + because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who + told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the + tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not + eat And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be + with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the + Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast + done? and the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I + did eat. And the Lord God said onto the serpent. Because + thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, + and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt + thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy + life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, + and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy + head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'--GENESIS iii 1-15. + +It is no part of my purpose to enter on the critical questions +connected with the story of 'the fall.' Whether it is a legend, +purified and elevated, or not, is of less consequence than what is +its moral and religious significance, and that significance is +unaffected by the answer to the former question. The story +presupposes that primitive man was in a state of ignorant innocence, +not of intellectual or moral perfection, and it tells how that +ignorant innocence came to pass into conscious sin. What are the +stages of the transition? + +1. There is the presentation of inducement to evil. The law to which +Adam is to be obedient is in the simplest form. There is +restriction. 'Thou shalt not' is the first form of law, and it is a +form congruous with the undeveloped, though as yet innocent, nature +ascribed to him. The conception of duty is present, though in a very +rudimentary shape. An innocent being may be aware of limitations, +though as yet not 'knowing good and evil.' With deep truth the story +represents the first suggestion of disobedience as presented from +without. No doubt, it might have by degrees arisen from within, but +the thought that it was imported from another sphere of being +suggests that it is alien to true manhood, and that, if brought in +from without, it may be cast out again. And the temptation had a +personal source. There are beings who desire to draw men away from +God. The serpent, by its poison and its loathly form, is the natural +symbol of such an enemy of man. The insinuating slyness of the +suggestions of evil is like the sinuous gliding of the snake, and +truly represents the process by which temptation found its way into +the hearts of the first pair, and of all their descendants. For it +begins with casting a doubt on the reality of the prohibition. 'Hath +God said?' is the first parallel opened by the besieger. The +fascinations of the forbidden fruit are not dangled at first before +Eve, but an apparently innocent doubt is filtered into her ear. And +is not that the way in which we are still snared? The reality of +moral distinctions, the essential wrongness of the sin, is obscured +by a mist of sophistication. 'There is no harm in it' steals into +some young man's or woman's mind about things that were forbidden at +home, and they are half conquered before they know that they have +been attacked. Then comes the next besieger's trench, much nearer +the wall--namely, denial of the fatal consequences of the sin: 'Ye +shall not surely die,' and a base hint that the prohibition was +meant, not as a parapet to keep from falling headlong into the +abyss, but as a barrier to keep from rising to a great good; 'for +God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall +be opened, and ye shall be as gods.' These are still the two lies +which wile us to sin: 'It will do you no harm,' and 'You are +cheating yourselves out of good by not doing it.' + +2. Then comes the yielding to the tempter. As long as the +prohibition was undoubted, and the fatal results certain, the +fascinations of the forbidden thing were not felt. But as soon as +these were tampered with, Eve saw 'that the tree was good for food, +and that it was a delight to the eyes.' So it is still. Weaken the +awe-inspiring sense of God's command, and of the ruin that follows +the breach of it, and the heart of man is like a city without walls, +into which any enemy can march unhindered. So long as God's 'Thou +shalt not, lest thou die' rings in the ears, the eyes see little +beauty in the sirens that sing and beckon. But once that awful voice +is deadened, they charm, and allure to dally with them. + +In the undeveloped condition of primitive man temptation could only +assail him through the senses and appetites, and its assault would +be the more irresistible because reflection and experience were not +yet his. But the act of yielding was, as sin ever is, a deliberate +choice to please self and disobey God. The woman's more emotional, +sensitive, compliant nature made her the first victim, and her +greatest glory, her craving to share her good with him whom she +loves, and her power to sway his will and acts, made her his +temptress. 'As the husband is, the wife is,' says Tennyson; but the +converse is even truer: As the wife is, the man is. + +3. The fatal consequences came with a rush. There is a gulf between +being tempted and sinning, but the results of the sin are closely +knit to it. They come automatically, as surely as a stream from a +fountain. The promise of knowing good and evil was indeed kept, but +instead of its making the sinners 'like gods,' it showed them that +they were like beasts, and brought the first sense of shame. To know +evil was, no doubt, a forward step intellectually; but to know it by +experience, and as part of themselves, necessarily changed their +ignorant innocence into bitter knowledge, and conscience awoke to +rebuke them. The first thing that their opened eyes saw was +themselves, and the immediate result of the sight was the first +blush of shame. Before, they had walked in innocent unconsciousness, +like angels or infants; now they had knowledge of good and evil, +because their sin had made evil a part of themselves, and the +knowledge was bitter. + +The second consequence of the fall is the disturbed relation with +God, which is presented in the highly symbolical form fitting for +early ages, and as true and impressive for the twentieth century as +for them. Sin broke familiar communion with God, turned Him into a +'fear and a dread,' and sent the guilty pair into ambush. Is not +that deeply and perpetually true? The sun seen through mists becomes +a lurid ball of scowling fire. The impulse is to hide from God, or +to get rid of thoughts of Him. And when He _is_ felt to be +near, it is as a questioner, bringing sin to mind. The shuffling +excuses, which venture even to throw the blame of sin on God ('the +woman whom _Thou_ gavest me'), or which try to palliate it as a +mistake ('the serpent beguiled me'), have to come at last, however +reluctantly, to confess that 'I' did the sin. Each has to say, 'I +did eat.' So shall we all have to do. We may throw the blame on +circumstances, weakness of judgment, and the like, while here, but +at God's bar we shall have to say, '_Mea_ culpa, _mea_ culpa.' + +The curse pronounced on the serpent takes its habit and form as an +emblem of the degradation of the personal tempter, and of the +perennial antagonism between him and mankind, while even at that +first hour of sin and retribution a gleam of hope, like the stray +beam that steals through a gap in a thundercloud, promises that the +conquered shall one day be the conqueror, and that the woman's seed, +though wounded in the struggle, shall one day crush the poison- +bearing, flat head in the dust, and end forever his power to harm. +'Known unto God are all his works from the beginning,' and the +Christ was promised ere the gates of Eden were shut on the exiles. + + + + +EDEN LOST AND RESTORED + + + 'So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of + the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which + turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.' + --GENESIS iii. 24. + + 'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they + may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in + through the gates into the city.' + REVELATION xxii. 14. + +Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.' Eden was fair, but +the heavenly city shall be fairer. The Paradise regained is an +advance on the Paradise that was lost. These are the two ends of the +history of man, separated by who knows how many millenniums. Heaven +lay about him in his infancy, but as he journeyed westwards its +morning blush faded into the light of common day--and only at +eventide shall the sky glow again with glory and colour, and the +western heaven at last outshine the eastern, with a light that shall +never die. A fall, and a rise--a rise that reverses the fall, a rise +that transcends the glory from which he fell,--that is the Bible's +notion of the history of the world, and I, for my part, believe it +to be true, and feel it to be the one satisfactory explanation of +what I see round about me and am conscious of within me. + +1. _Man had an Eden and lost it._ + +I take the Fall to be a historical fact. To all who accept the +authority of Scripture, no words are needed beyond the simple +statement before us, but we may just gather up the signs that there +are on the wide field of the world's history, and in the narrower +experience of individuals, that such a fall has been. + +Look at the condition of the world: its degradation, its savagery-all +its pining myriads, all its untold millions who sit in darkness +and the shadow of death. Will any man try to bring before him the +actual state of the heathen world, and, retaining his belief in a +God, profess that these men are what God meant men to be? It seems +to me that the present condition of the world is not congruous with +the idea that men are in their primitive state, and if this is what +God meant men for, then I see not how the dark clouds which rest on +His wisdom and His love are to be lifted off. + +Then, again--if the world has not a Fall in its history, then we +must take the lowest condition as the one from which all have come; +and is that idea capable of defence? Do we see anywhere signs of an +upward process going on now? Have we any experience of a tribe +raising itself? Can you catch anywhere a race in the act of +struggling up, outside of the pale of Christianity? Is not the +history of all a history of decadence, except only where the Gospel +has come in to reverse the process? + +But passing from this: What mean the experiences of the individual-these +longings; this hard toil; these sorrows? + +How comes it that man alone on earth, manifestly meant to be leader, +lord, etc., seems but cursed with a higher nature that he may know +greater sorrows, and raised above the beasts in capacity that he may +sink below them in woe, this capacity only leading to a more +exquisite susceptibility, to a more various as well as more poignant +misery? + +Whence come the contrarieties and discordance in his nature? + +It seems to me that all this is best explained as the Bible explains +it by saying: (1) Sin has done it; (2) Sin is not part of God's +original design, but man has fallen; (3) Sin had a personal +beginning. There have been men who were pure, able to stand but free +to fall. + +It seems to me that that explanation is more in harmony with the +facts of the case, finds more response in the unsophisticated +instinct of man, than any other. It seems to me that, though it +leaves many dark and sorrowful mysteries all unsolved, yet that it +alleviates the blackest of them, and flings some rays of hope on +them all. It seems to me that it relieves the character and +administration of God from the darkest dishonour; that it delivers +man's position and destiny from the most hopeless despair; that +though it leaves the mystery of the origin of evil, it brings out +into clearest relief the central truths that evil is evil, and sin +and sorrow are not God's will; that it vindicates as something +better than fond imaginings the vague aspirations of the soul for a +fair and holy state; that it establishes, as nothing else will, at +once the love of God and the dignity of man; that it leaves open the +possibility of the final overthrow of that Sin which it treats as an +intrusion and stigmatises as a fall; that it therefore braces for +more vigorous, hopeful conflict against it, and that while but for +it the answer to the despairing question, Hast Thou made all men in +vain? must be either the wailing echo 'In vain,' or the denial that +He has made them at all, there is hope and there is power, and there +is brightness thrown on the character of God and on the fate of man, +by the old belief that God made man upright, and that man made +himself a sinner. + +2. _Heaven restores the lost Eden_. + +'God is not ashamed to be called their God, _for_ He hath +prepared them a _city_.' + +The highest conception we can form of heaven is the reversal of all +the evil of earth, and the completion of its incomplete good: the +sinless purity--the blessed presence of God--the fulfilment of all +desires--the service which is _blessed_, not toil--the changelessness +which is progress, not stagnation. + +3. _Heaven surpasses the lost Eden_. + +(1) Garden--City. + +The perfection of association--the _nations_ of the saved. Here +'we mortal millions live alone,' even when united with dearest. Like +Egyptian monks of old, each dwelling in his own cave, though all +were a community. + +(2) The richer experience. + +The memory of past sorrows which are understood at last. + +Heaven's bliss in contrast with earthly joys. + +Sinlessness of those who have been sinners will be more intensely +lustrous for its dark background in the past. Redeemed men will be +brighter than angels. + +The impossibility of a fall. + +Death behind us. + +The former things shall no more come to mind, being lost in blaze of +present transcendent experience, but yet shall be remembered as +having led to that perfect state. + +Christ not only repairs the 'tabernacle which was fallen,' but +builds a fairer temple. He brings 'a statelier Eden,' and makes us +dwell for ever in a Garden City. + + + + +THE GROWTH AND POWER OF SIN + + + 'And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought + of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And + Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and + of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, + and to his offering: But unto Cain, and to his offering, + he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his + countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art + thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou + doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest + not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be + his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked + with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they + were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his + brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, + Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am + I my brother's keeper? And He said, What hast thou done? + the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the + ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which + hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from + thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not + henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and + a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto + the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. + Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face + of the earth; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I + shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth: and it + shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall + slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever + slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. + And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him + should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of + the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of + Eden.' + GENESIS iv. 3-16. + +Many lessons crowd on us from this section. Its general purport is +to show the growth of sin, and its power to part man from man even +as it has parted man from God. We may call the whole 'The beginning +of the fatal operations of sin on human society.' + +1. The first recorded act of worship occasions the first murder. Is +not that only too correct a forecast of the oceans of blood which +have been shed in the name of religion, and a striking proof of the +subtle power of sin to corrupt even the best, and out of it to make +the worst? What a lesson against the bitter hatred which has too +often sprung up on so-called religious grounds! No malice is so +venomous, no hate so fierce, no cruelty so fiendish, as those which +are fed and fanned by religion. Here is the first triumph of sin, +that it poisons the very springs of worship, and makes what should +be the great uniter of men in sweet and holy bonds their great +separator. + +2. Sin here appears as having power to bar men's way to God. Much +ingenuity has been spent on the question why Abel's offering was +accepted and Cain's rejected. But the narrative itself shows in the +words of Jehovah, 'If thou doest well, is there not acceptance?' +that the reason lay in Cain's evil deeds. So, in 1 John iii. 12, the +fratricide is put down to the fact that 'his works were evil, and +his brother's righteous'; and Hebrews xi. 4 differs from this view +only in making the ground of righteousness prominent, when it +ascribes the acceptableness of Abel's offering to faith. Both these +passages are founded on the narrative, and we need not seek farther +for the reason of the different reception of the two offerings. +Character, then, or, more truly, faith, which is the foundation of a +righteous character, determines the acceptableness of worship. +Cain's offering had no sense of dependence, no outgoing of love and +trust, no adoration,--though it may have had fear,--and no moral +element. So it had no sweet odour for God. Abel's was sprinkled with +some drops of the incense of lowly trust, and came from a heart +which fain would be pure; therefore it was a joy to God. So we are +taught at the very beginning, that, as is the man, so is his +sacrifice; that the prayer of the wicked is an abomination. Plenty +of worship nowadays is Cain worship. Many reputable professing +Christians bring just such sacrifices. The prayers of such never +reach higher than the church ceiling. Of course, the lesson of the +story is not that a man must be pure before his sacrifice is +accepted. Of course, the faintest cry of trust is heard, and a +contrite heart, however sinful, is always welcome. But we are taught +that our acts of worship must have our hearts in them, and that it +is vain to pray and to love evil. Sin has the awful power of +blocking our way to God. + +3. Note in one word that we have here at the beginning of human +history the solemn distinction which runs through it all. These two, +so near in blood, so separate in spirit, head the two classes into +which Scripture decisively parts men, especially men who have heard +the gospel. It is unfashionable now to draw that broad line between +the righteous and the wicked, believers and unbelievers. Sheep and +goats are all one. Modern liberal sentiment--so-called--will not +consent to such narrowness as the old-fashioned classification. +There are none of us black, and none white; we are all different +shades of grey. But facts do not quite bear out such amiable views. +Perhaps it is not less charitable, and a great deal truer, to draw +the line broad and plain, on one side of which is peace and safety, +and on the other trouble and death, if only we make it plain that no +man need stop one minute on the dark side. + +4. The solemn divine voice reads the lesson of the power of sin, +when once done, over the sinner. Like a wild beast, it crouches in +ambush at his door, ready to spring and devour. The evil deed once +committed takes shape, as it were, and waits to seize the doer. +Remorse, inward disturbance, and above all, the fatal inclination to +repeat sin till it becomes a habit, are set forth with terrible +force in these grim figures. What a menagerie of ravenous beasts +some of us have at the doors of our hearts! With what murderous +longing they glare at us, seeking to fascinate us, and make us their +prey! When we sin, we cannot escape the issues; and every wrong +thing we do has a kind of horrible life given it, and sits +henceforth there, beside us, ready to rend us. The tempting, +seducing power of our own evils was never put in more startling and +solemnly true words, on which the bitter experience of many a poor +victim of his own past is a commentary. The eternal duty of +resistance is farther taught by the words. Hope of victory, +encouragement to struggle, the assurance that even these savage +beasts may be subdued, and the lion and adder (the hidden and the +glaring evils--those which wound unseen, and which spring with a +roar) may be overcome, led in a silken leash or charmed into +harmlessness, are given in the command, which is also a promise, +'Rule thou over it.' + +5. The deadly fruit of hate is taught us in the brief account of the +actual murder. Notice the impressive plainness and fewness of the +words. 'Cain rose up against his brother, and slew him.' A kind of +horror-struck awe of the crime is audible. Observe the emphasis with +which 'his brother' is repeated in the verse and throughout. +Observe, also, the vivid light thrown by the story on the rise and +progress of the sin. It begins with envy and jealousy. Cain was not +wroth because his offering was rejected. What did he care for that? +But what angered him was that his brother had what he had not. So +selfishness was at the bottom, and that led on to envy, and that to +hatred. Then comes a pause, in which God speaks remonstrances,--as +God's voice--conscience--does now to us all,--between the +imagination and the act of evil. A real or a feigned reconciliation +is effected. The brothers go in apparent harmony to the field. No +new provocation appears, but the old feelings, kept down for a time, +come in again with a rush, and Cain is swept away by them. Hatred +left to work means murder. The heart is the source of all evil. +Selfishness is the mother tincture out of which all sorts of sin can +be made. Guard the thoughts, and keep down self, and the deeds will +take care of themselves. + +6. Mark how close on the heels of sin God's question treads! How God +spoke, we know not. Doubtless in some fashion suited to the needs of +Cain. But He speaks to us as really as to him, and no sooner is the +rush of passion over, and the bad deed done, than a revulsion comes. +What we call conscience asks the question in stern tones, which make +a man's flesh creep. Our sin is like touching the electric bells +which people sometimes put on their windows to give notice of +thieves. As soon as we step beyond the line of duty we set the alarm +going, and it wakens the sleeping conscience. Some of us go so far +as to have silenced the voice within; but, for the most part, it +speaks immediately after we have gratified our inclinations wrongly. + +7. Cain's defiant answer teaches us how a man hardens himself +against God's voice. It also shows us how intensely selfish all sin +is, and how weakly foolish its excuses are. It is sin which has rent +men apart from men, and made them deny the very idea that they have +duties to all men. The first sin was only against God; the second +was against God and man. The first sin did not break, though it +saddened, human love; the second kindled the flames of infernal +hatred, and caused the first drops to flow of the torrents of blood +which have soaked the earth. When men break away from God, they will +soon murder one another. + +Cain was his brother's keeper. His question answered itself. If Abel +was his brother, then he was bound to look after him. His self- +condemning excuse is but a specimen of the shallow pleas by which +the forgetfulness of duties we owe to all mankind, and all sins, are +defended. + +8. The stern sentence is next pronounced. First we have the grand +figure of the innocent blood having a voice which pierces the +heavens. That teaches in the most forcible way the truth that God +knows the crimes done by 'man's inhumanity to man,' even when the +meek sufferers are silent. According to the fine old legend of the +cranes of Ibycus, a bird of the air will carry the matter. It +speaks, too, of God's tender regard for His saints, whose blood is +precious in His sight; and it teaches that He will surely requite. +We cannot but think of the innocent blood shed on Calvary, of the +Brother of us all, whose sacrifice was accepted of God. His blood, +too, crieth from the ground, has a voice which speaks in the ear of +God, but not to plead for vengeance, but pardon. + + 'Jesus' blood through earth and skies, + Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries.' + +Then follows the sentence which falls into two parts--the curse of +bitter, unrequited toil, and the doom of homeless wandering. The +blood which has been poured out on the battlefield fertilises the +soil; but Abel's blasted the earth. It was a supernatural +infliction, to teach that bloodshed polluted the earth, and so to +shed a nameless horror over the deed. We see an analogous feeling in +the common belief that places where some foul sin has been committed +are cursed. We see a weak natural correspondence in the devastating +effect of war, as expressed in the old saying that no grass would +grow where the hoof of the Turk's horse had stamped. + +The doom of wandering, which would be compulsory by reason of the +earth's barrenness, is a parable. The murderer is hunted from place +to place, as the Greek fable has it, by the furies, who suffer him +not to rest. Conscience drives a man 'through dry places, seeking +rest, and finding none.' All sin makes us homeless wanderers. There +is but one home for the heart, one place of repose for a man, +namely, in the heart of God, the secret place of the Most High; and +he who, for his sin, durst not enter there, is driven forth into 'a +salt land and not inhabited,' and has to wander wearily there. The +legend of the wandering Jew, and that other of the sailor, condemned +for ever to fly before the gale through stormy seas, have in them a +deep truth. The earthly punishment of departing from God is that we +have not where to lay our heads. Every sinner is a fugitive and a +vagabond. But if we love God we are still wanderers indeed, but we +are 'pilgrims and sojourners with Thee.' + +9. Cain's remonstrance completes the tragic picture. We see in it +despair without penitence. He has no word of confession. If he had +accepted his chastisement, and learned by it his sin, all the +bitterness would have passed away. But he only writhes in agony, and +adds, to the sentence pronounced, terrors of his own devising. God +had not forbidden him to come into His presence. But he feels that +he dare not venture thither. And he was right; for, whether we +suppose that some sensible manifestation of the divine presence is +meant by 'Thy face' or no, a man who had unrepented sin on his +conscience, and murmurings in his heart, could not hold intercourse +with God; nor would he wish to do so. Thus we learn again the lesson +that sin separates from our Father, and that chastisements, not +accepted as signs of His love, build up a black wall between God and +us. + +Nor had Cain been told that his life was in danger. But his +conscience made a coward of him, as of us all, and told him what he +deserved. There were, no doubt, many other children of Adam, who +would be ready to avenge Abel's death. The wild justice of revenge +is deep in the heart of men; and the natural impulse would be to +hunt down the murderer like a wolf. It is a dreadful picture of the +defiant and despairing sinner, tortured by well-founded fears, shut +out from the presence of God, but not able to shut out thoughts of +Him, and seeing an avenger in every man. + +We need not ask how God set a mark on Cain. Enough that His doing so +was a merciful alleviation of his lot, and teaches us how God's +long-suffering spares life, and tempers judgment, that there may +still be space for repentance. If even Cain has gracious protection +and mercy blended with his chastisement, who can be beyond the pale +of God's compassion, and with whom will not His loving providence +and patient pity labour? No man is so scorched by the fire of +retribution, but many a dewy drop from God's tenderness falls on +him. No doubt, the story of the preservation of Cain was meant to +restrain the blood-feuds so common and ruinous in early times; and +we need the lesson yet, to keep us from vengeance under the mask of +justice. But the deepest lesson and truest pathos of it lies in the +picture of the watchful kindness of God lingering round the wretched +man, like gracious sunshine playing on some scarred and black rock, +to win him back by goodness to penitence, and through penitence to +peace. + + + + +WHAT CROUCHES AT THE DOOR + + + 'If thou doest not well, sin croucheth at the door: and + unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over + him.'--GENESIS iv. 7 (R. V.). + +These early narratives clothe great moral and spiritual truths in +picturesque forms, through which it is difficult for us to pierce. +In the world's childhood God spoke to men as to children, because +there were no words then framed which would express what we call +abstract conceptions. They had to be shown by pictures. But these +early men, simple and childlike as they were, had consciences; and +one abstraction they did understand, and that was sin. They knew the +difference between good and evil. + +So we have here God speaking to Cain, who was wroth because of the +rejection of his sacrifice; and in dim, enigmatical words setting +forth the reason of that rejection. 'If thou doest well, shalt thou +not be accepted?' Then clearly his sacrifice was rejected because it +was the sacrifice of an evil-doer. His description as such is given +in the words of my text, which are hard for us to translate into our +modern, less vivid and picturesque language. 'If thou doest not +well, sin lieth at the door; and unto thee shall be his desire, and +thou shalt rule over him.' Strange as the words sound, if I mistake +not, they convey some very solemn lessons, and if well considered, +become pregnant with meaning. + +The key to the whole interpretation of them is to remember that they +describe what happens after, and because of, wrong-doing. They are +all suspended on 'If thou doest not well.' Then, in that case, for +the first thing--'sin lieth at the door.' Now the word translated +here 'lieth' is employed only to express the _crouching_ of an +animal, and frequently of a wild animal. The picture, then, is of +the wrong-doer's sin lying at his door there like a crouching tiger +ready to spring, and if it springs, fatal. 'If thou doest not well, +a wild beast crouches at thy door.' + +Then there follow, with a singular swift transition of the metaphor, +other words still harder to interpret, and which have been, as a +matter of fact, interpreted in very diverse fashions. 'And unto thee +shall be _its'_ (I make that slight alteration upon our version) +'desire, and thou shalt rule over it.' Where did we hear these words +before? They were spoken to Eve, in the declaration of her punishment. +They contain the blessing that was embedded in the curse. 'Thy desire +shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.' The longing of +the pure womanly heart to the husband of her love, and the authority +of the husband over the loving wife--the source of the deepest joy +and purity of earth, is transferred, by a singularly bold metaphor, +to this other relationship, and, in horrible parody of the wedded +union and love, we have the picture of the sin, that was thought of +as crouching at the sinner's door like a wild beast, now, as it were, +wedded to him. He is mated to it now, and it has a kind of tigerish, +murderous desire after him, while he on his part is to subdue and +control it. + +The reference of these clauses to the sin which has just been spoken +of involves, no doubt, a very bold figure, which has seemed to many +readers too bold to be admissible, and the words have therefore been +supposed to refer to Abel, who, as the younger brother, would be +subordinate to Cain. But such a reference breaks the connection of +the sentence, introduces a thought which is not a consequence of +Cain's not doing well, has no moral bearing to warrant its +appearance here, and compels us to travel an inconveniently long +distance back in the context to find an antecedent to the 'his' and +'him' of our text. It seems to be more in consonance, therefore, +with the archaic style of the whole narrative, and to yield a +profounder and worthier meaning, if we recognise the boldness of the +metaphor, and take 'sin' as the subject of the whole. Now all this +puts in concrete, metaphorical shape, suited to the stature of the +bearers, great and solemn truths. Let us try to translate them into +more modern speech. + +1. First think, then, of that wild beast which we tether to our +doors by our wrong-doing. + +We talk about 'responsibility' and 'guilt,' and 'consequences that +never can be effaced,' and the like. And all these abstract and +quasi-philosophical terms are implied in the grim, tremendous +metaphor of my text 'If thou doest not well, a tiger, a wild beast, +is crouching at thy door.' We are all apt to be deceived by the +imagination that when an evil deed is done, it passes away and +leaves no permanent results. The lesson taught the childlike +primitive man here, at the beginning, before experience had +accumulated instances which might demonstrate the solemn truth, was +that every human deed is immortal, and that the transitory evil +thought, or word, or act, which seems to fleet by like a cloud, has +a permanent being, and hereafter haunts the life of the doer, as a +real presence. If thou doest not well, thou dost create a horrible +something which nestles beside thee henceforward. The momentary act +is incarnated, as it were, and sits there at the doer's doorpost +waiting for him; which being turned into less forcible but more +modern language, is just this: every sin that a man does has +perennial consequences, which abide with the doer for evermore. + +I need not dwell upon illustrations of that to any length. Let me +just run over two or three ways in which it is true. First of all, +there is that solemn fact which we put into a long word that comes +glibly off people's lips, and impresses them very little--the solemn +fact of responsibility. We speak in common talk of such and such a +thing lying at some one's door. Whether the phrase has come from +this text I do not know. But it helps to illustrate the force of +these words, and to suggest that they mean this, among other things, +that we have to answer for every deed, however evanescent, however +long forgotten. Its guilt is on our heads. Its consequences have to +be experienced by us. We drink as we have brewed. As we make our +beds, so we lie on them. There is no escape from the law of +consequences. 'If 'twere done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it +were done quickly.' But seeing that it is not done when 'tis done, +then perhaps it would be better that it were not done at all. Your +deed of a moment, forgotten almost as soon as done, lies there at +your door; or to take a more modern and commercial figure, it is +debited to your account, and stands inscribed against you for ever. + +Think how you would like it, if all your deeds from your childhood, +all your follies, your vices, your evil thoughts, your evil +impulses, and your evil actions, were all made visible and embodied +there before you. They are there, though you do not see them yet. +All round your door they sit, ready to meet you and to bay out +condemnation as you go forth. They are there, and one day you will +find out that they are. For this is the law, certain as the +revolution of the stars and fixed as the pillars of the firmament: +'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap' There is no seed +which does not sprout in the harvest of the moral life. Every deed +germinates according to its kind. For all that a man does he has to +carry the consequences, and every one shall bear his own burden. 'If +thou doest not well,' it is not, as we fondly conceive it sometimes +to be, a mere passing deflection from the rule of right, which is +done and done with, but we have created, as out of our very own +substance, a witness against ourselves whose voice can never be +stifled. 'If thou doest not well' thy sin takes permanent form and +is fastened to thy door. + +And then let me remind you, too, how the metaphor of our text is +confirmed by other obvious facts, on which I need but briefly dwell. +Putting aside all the remoter bearings of that thought of +responsibility, I suppose we all admit that we have consciences; I +suppose that we all know that we have memories; I suppose we all of +us have seen, in the cases of others, and have experienced for +ourselves, how deeds long done and long forgotten have an awful +power of rising again after many long years. + +Be sure that your memory has in it everything that you ever did. A +landscape may be hidden by mists, but a puff of wind will clear them +away, and it will all lie there, visible to the furthest horizon. +There is no fact more certain than the extraordinary swiftness and +completeness with which, in certain circumstances of life, and often +very near the close of it, the whole panorama of the past may rise +again before a man, as if one lightning flash showed all the dreary +desolation that lay behind him. There have been men recovered from +drowning and the like, who have told us that, as in an instant, +there seemed unrolled before their startled eyes the whole scroll of +their earthly career. + +The records of memory are like those pages on which you write with +sympathetic ink, which disappears when dry, and seems to leave the +page blank. You have only to hold it before the fire, or subject it +to the proper chemical process, and at once it stands out legible. +You are writing your biography upon the fleshly tables of your +heart, my brother; and one day it will all be spread out before you, +and you will be bid to read it, and to say what you think of it. The +stings of a nettle will burn for days, if they are touched with +water. The sting and inflammation of your evil deeds, though it has +died down, is capable of being resuscitated, and it will be. + +What an awful menagerie of unclean beasts some of us have at our +doors! What sort of creatures have you tethered at yours? Crawling +serpents, ugly and venomous; wild creatures, fierce and bloody, +obscene and foul; tigers and bears; lustful and mischievous apes and +monkeys? or such as are lovely and of good report,--doves and lambs, +creatures pure and peaceable, patient to serve and gentle of spirit? +Remember, remember, that what a man soweth--be it hemlock or be it +wheat--that, and nothing else, 'shall he reap.' + +2. Now, let us look for a moment at the next thought that is here; +which is put into a strong, and, to our modern notions, somewhat +violent metaphor;--the horrible longing, as it were, of sin toward +the sinner: 'Unto thee shall be its desire.' + +As I explained, these words are drawn from the previous chapter, +where they refer to the holy union of heart and affection in husband +and wife. Here they are transferred with tremendous force, to set +forth that which is a kind of horrible parody of that conjugal +relation. A man is married to his wickedness, is mated to his evil, +and it has, as it were, a tigerish longing for him, unhallowed and +murderous. That is to say--our sins act towards us as if they +desired to draw our love to themselves. This is just another form of +the statement, that when once a man has done a wrong thing, it has +an awful power of attracting him and making him hunger to do it +again. Every evil that I do may, indeed, for a moment create in me a +revulsion of conscience; but it also exercises a fascination over me +which it is hard to resist. It is a great deal easier to find a man +who has never done a wrong thing than to find a man who has only +done it once. If the wall of the dyke is sound it will keep the +water out, but if there is the tiniest hole in it, the flood will +come in. So the evil that you do asserts its power over you, or, in +the vigorous metaphor of my text, it has a fierce, longing desire +after you, and it gets you into its clutches. + +'The foolish woman sitteth in the high places of the city, and +saith, Whoso is simple let him turn in hither.' And foolish men go +after her, and--'know not that her guests are in the depth of hell.' +Ah! my brother! beware of that siren voice that draws you away from +all the sweet and simple and pure food which Wisdom spreads upon her +table, to tempt the beast that is in you with the words, 'Stolen +waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.' Beware of +the first step, for as sure as you are living, the first step taken +will make the second seem to become necessary. The first drop will +be followed by a bigger second, and the second, at a shorter +interval, by a more copious third, until the drops become a shower, +and the shower becomes a deluge. The river of evil is ever wider and +deeper, and more tumultuous. The little sins get in at the window, +and open the front door for the full-grown house-breakers. One +smooths the path for the other. All sin has an awful power of +perpetuating and increasing itself. As the prophet says in his +vision of the doleful creatures that make their sport in the +desolate city, 'None of them shall want her mate. The wild beasts of +the desert shall meet with the wild beasts of the island.' Every sin +tells upon character, and makes the repetition of itself more and +more easy. 'None is barren among them.' And all sin is linked +together in a slimy tangle, like a field of seaweed, so that the man +once caught in its oozy fingers is almost sure to be drowned. + +3. And now, lastly, one word about the command, which is also a +promise: 'To thee shall be its desire, and thou shalt rule over it.' + +Man's primitive charter, according to the earlier chapters of +Genesis, was to have dominion over the beasts of the field. Cain +knew what it was to war against the wild creatures which contested +the possession of the earth with man, and to tame some of them for +his uses. And, says the divine voice, just as you war against the +beasts of prey, just as you subdue to your purposes and yoke to your +implements the tamable animals over which you have dominion, so rule +over _this_ wild beast that is threatening you. It is needful +for all men, if they do not mean to be torn to pieces, to master the +animal that is in them, and the wild thing that has been created out +of them. It is bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. It is your +own evil that is thus incarnated there, as it were, before you; and +you have to subdue it, if it is not to tyrannise over you. We all +admit that in theory, but how terribly hard the practice! The words +of our text seem to carry but little hope or comfort in them, to the +man who has tried--as, no doubt, many of us have tried--to flee the +lusts that war against the soul, and to bridle the animal that is in +him. Those who have done so most honestly know best how hard it is, +and may fairly ask, Is this useless repetition of the threadbare +injunction all that you have to say to us? If so, you may as well +hold your tongue. A wild beast sits at my door, you say, and then +you bid me, 'Rule thou over it!' Tell me to tame the tiger! 'Canst +thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? Wilt thou take him a servant +for ever?' + +I do not undervalue the earnest and sometimes partially successful +efforts at moral reformation which some men of more than usual force +of character are able to make, emancipating themselves from the +outward practice of gross sin, and achieving for themselves much +that is admirable. But if we rightly understand what sin is--namely, +the taking self for our law and centre instead of God--and how deep +its working and all-pervading its poison, we shall learn the tragic +significance of the prophets question, 'Can the leopard change his +spots?' Then may a man cast out sin from his nature by his own +resolve, when the body can eliminate poison from the veins by its +own energy. If there is nothing more to be said to the world than +this message, 'Sin lieth at thy door--rule thou over it,' we have no +gospel to preach, and sin's dominion is secure. For there is nothing +in all this world of empty, windy words, more empty and windy than +to come to a poor soul that is all bespattered and stained with sin, +and say to him: 'Get up, and make thyself clean, and keep thyself +so!' It cannot be done. + +So my text, though it keeps itself within the limits of the law and +only proclaims duty, must have hidden, in its very hardness, a sweet +kernel of promise. For what God commands God enables us to do. + +Therefore these words, 'Rule thou over it,' do really point onwards +through all the ages to that one fact in which every man's sin is +conquered and neutralised, and every man's struggles may be made +hopeful and successful, the great fact that Jesus Christ, God's own +Son, came down from heaven, like an athlete descending into the +arena, to fight with and to overcome the grim wild beasts, our +passions and our sins, and to lead them, transformed, in the silken +leash of His love. + +My brother! your sin is mightier than you. The old word of the Psalm +is true about every one of us, 'Our iniquities are stronger than +we.' And, blessed be His name! the hope of the Psalmist is the +experience of the Christian: 'As for my transgressions, Thou wilt +purge them away.' Christ will strengthen you, to conquer; Christ +will take away your guilt; Christ will bear, has borne your burden; +Christ will cleanse your memory; Christ will purge your conscience. +Trusting to Him, and by His power and life within us, we may conquer +our evil. Trusting to Him, and for the sake of His blood shed for us +all upon the cross, we are delivered from the burden, guilt, and +power of our sins and of our sin. With thy hand in His, and thy will +submitted to Him, 'thou shalt tread on the lion and the adder; the +young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under foot.' + + + + +WITH, BEFORE, AFTER + + + 'Enoch walked with God,'--GENESIS v. 22. + + 'Walk before Me.'--GENESIS xvii. 1. + + 'Ye shall walk after the Lord your God.'--DEUTERONOMY xiii. 4. + +You will have anticipated, I suppose, my purpose in doing what I +very seldom do--cutting little snippets out of different verses and +putting them together. You see that these three fragments, in their +resemblances and in their differences, are equally significant and +instructive. They concur in regarding life as a walk--a metaphor +which expresses continuity, so that every man's life is a whole, +which expresses progress, which expresses change, and which implies +a goal. They agree in saying that God must he brought into a life +somehow, and in some aspect, if that life is to be anything else but +an aimless wandering, if it is to tend to the point to which every +human life should attain. But then they diverge, and, if we put them +together, they say to us that there are three different ways in +which we ought to bring God into our life. We should 'walk +_with_ Him,' like Enoch; we should 'walk _before_' Him, as +Abraham was bade to do; and we should 'walk _after_' Him, as +the command to do was given to all Israel. And these three +prepositions, _with_, _before_, _after_, attached to the general idea +of life as a walk, give us a triple aspect--which yet is, of course, +fundamentally, one--of the way in which life may be ennobled, dignified, +calmed, hallowed, focussed, and concentrated by the various relations +into which we enter with Him. So I take the three of them. + +1. 'Enoch walked _with_ God.' + +That is a sweet, simple, easily intelligible, and yet lofty way of +putting the notion which we bring into a more abstract and less +impressive shape when we talk about communion with God. Two men +travelling along a road keep each other company. 'How can two walk +together except they be agreed?' The companion is at our side all +the same, though the mists may have come down and we cannot see Him. +We can hear His voice, we can grasp His hand, we can catch the +echoes of His steps. We know He is there, and that is enough. Enoch +and God walked together, by the simple exercise of the faith that +fills the Invisible with one great, loving Face. By a continuous, +definite effort, as we are going through the bustle of daily life, +and amid all the pettiness and perplexities and monotonies that make +up our often weary and always heavy days, we can realise to +ourselves that He is of a truth at our sides, and by purity of life +and heart we can bring Him nearer, and can make ourselves more +conscious of His nearness. For, brethren, the one thing that parts a +man from God, and makes it impossible for a heart to expatiate in +the thought of His presence, is the contrariety to His will in our +conduct. The slightest invisible film of mist that comes across the +blue abyss of the mighty sky will blot out the brightest of the +stars, and we may sometimes not be able to see the mist, and only +know that it is there because we do not see the planet. So +unconscious sin may steal in between us and God, and we shall no +longer be able to say, 'I walk with Him.' + +The Roman Catholics talk, in their mechanical way, of bringing down +all the spiritual into the material and formal, about the 'practice +of the presence of God.' It is an ugly phrase, but it means a great +thing, that Christian people ought, very much more than they do, to +aim, day by day, and amidst their daily duties, at realising that +most elementary thought which, like a great many other elementary +thoughts, is impotent because we believe it so utterly, that +wherever we are, we may have Him with us. It is the secret of +blessedness, of tranquillity, of power, of everything good and +noble. + +'I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers +were,' said the Psalmist of old. If he had left out these two little +words, 'with Thee,' he would have been uttering a tragic complaint; +but when they come in, all that is painful, all that is solitary, +all that is transient, bitterly transient, in the long succession of +the generations that have passed across earth's scene, and have not +been kindred to it, is cleared away and changed into gladness. Never +mind, though you are a stranger, if you have that companion. Never +mind, though you are only a sojourner; if you have Him with you, +whatever passes He will not pass; and though we dwell here in a +system to which we do not belong, and its transiency and our +transiency bring with them many sorrows, when we can say, 'Lord! +Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations,' we are at +home, and that eternal home will never pass. + +Enoch 'walked with God,' and, of course, 'God took him,' There was +nothing else for it, and there could be no other end, for a life of +communion with God here has in it the prophecy and the pledge of a +life of eternal union hereafter. So, then, 'practise the presence of +God.' An old mystic says: 'If I can tell how many times to-day I +have thought about God, I have not thought about Him often enough.' +Walk with Him by faith, by effort, by purity. + +2. And now take the other aspect suggested by the other word God +spoke to Abraham: 'I am the Almighty God, walk _before_ Me and +be thou perfect.' + +That suggests, as I suppose I do not need to point out, the idea not +only of communion, which the former phrase brought to our minds, but +that of the inspection of our conduct. 'As ever in the great +Taskmaster's eye,' says the stern Puritan poet, and although one may +object to that word 'Taskmaster,' yet the idea conveyed is the +correct expansion of the commandment given to Abraham. Observe how +'walk before Me' is dovetailed, as it were, between the revelation +'I am the Almighty God' and the injunction 'Be thou perfect.' The +realisation of that presence of the Almighty which is implied in the +expression 'Walk before Me,' the assurance that we are in His sight, +will lead straight to the fulfilment of the injunction that bears +upon the moral conduct. The same connection of thought underlies +Peter's injunction, 'Like as He ... is holy, so be ye holy in all +manner of conversation,' followed immediately as it is by, 'If ye +call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth'--as a +present estimate--'according to every mail's work, pass the time of +your sojourning here in fear'--that reverential awe which will lead +you to be 'holy even as I am holy.' + +This thought that we are in that divine presence, and that there is +silently, but most really, a divine opinion being formed of us, +consolidated, as it were, moment by moment through our lives, is +only tolerable if we have been walking with God. If we are sure, by +the power of our communion with Him, of His loving heart as well as +of His righteous judgment, then we can spread ourselves out before +Him, as a woman will lay out her webs of cloth on the green grass +for the sun to blaze down upon them, and bleach the ingrained filth +out of them. We must first walk 'with God' before the consciousness +that we are walking 'before' Him becomes one that we can entertain +and not go mad. When we are sure of the 'with' we can bear the +'before.' + +Did you ever see how on a review day, as each successive battalion +and company nears the saluting-point where the General inspecting +sits, they straighten themselves up and dress their ranks, and pull +themselves together as they pass beneath his critical eye. A +master's eye makes diligent servants. If we, in the strength of God, +would only realise, day by day and act by act of our lives, that we +are before Him, what a revolution could be effected on our +characters and what a transformation on all our conduct! + +'Walk before Me' and you will be perfect. For the Hebrew words on +which I am now commenting may be read, in accordance with the usage +of the language, as being not only a commandment but a promise, or, +rather, not as two commandments, but a commandment with an appended +promise, and so as equivalent to 'If you will walk before Me you +will be perfect.' And if we realise that we are under 'the pure eyes +and perfect judgment of' God, we shall thereby be strongly urged and +mightily helped to be perfect as He is perfect. + +3. Lastly, take the other relation, which is suggested by the third +of my texts, where Israel as a whole is commanded to 'walk +_after_ the Lord' their God. + +In harmony with the very frequent expression of the Old Testament +about 'going after idols' so Israel here is to 'go after God.' What +does that mean? Communion, the consciousness of being judged by God, +will lead on to aspiration and loving, longing effort to get nearer +and nearer to Him. 'My soul followeth hard after Thee,' said the +Psalmist, 'Thy right hand upholdeth me.' That element of yearning +aspiration, of eager desire to be closer and closer, and liker and +liker, to God must be in all true religion. And unless we have it in +some measure, it is useless to talk about being Christian people. To +press onwards, not as though we had already attained, but following +after, if that we may apprehend that for which also we are +apprehended, is the attitude of every true follower of Christ. The +very crown of the excellence of the Christian life is that it never +can reach its goal, and therefore an immortal youth of aspiration +and growth is guaranteed to it. Christian people, are you following +after God? Are you any nearer to Him than you were ten years ago? +'Walk with Me, walk before Me, walk after Me.' + +I need not do more than remind you of another meaning involved in +this same expression. If I walk after God, then I let Him go before +me and show me my road. Do you remember how, when the ark was to +cross Jordan, the commandment was given to the Israelites to let it +go well on in front, so that there should be no mistake about the +course, 'for ye have not passed this way heretofore.' Do not be in +too great a hurry to press upon the heels of God, if I may so say. +Do not let your decisions outrun His providence. Keep back the +impatience that would hurry on, and wait for His ripening purposes +to ripen and His counsels to develop themselves. Walk after God, and +be sure you do not go in front of your Guide, or you will lose both +your way and your Guide. + +I need not say more than a word about the highest aspect which this +third of our commandments takes, 'His sheep follow Him'--'leaving us +an example that we should follow in His steps,' that is the +culmination of the walking 'with,' and 'before,' and 'after' God +which these Old Testament saints were partially practising. All is +gathered into the one great word, 'He that saith he abideth in Him +ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.' + + + + +THE COURSE AND CROWN OF A DEVOUT LIFE + + + 'And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took + him.' + GENESIS v. 24. + +This notice of Enoch occurs in the course of a catalogue of the +descendants of Adam, from the Creation to the Deluge. It is +evidently a very ancient document, and is constructed on a +remarkable plan. The formula for each man is the same. So-and-so +lived, begat his heir, the next in the series, lived on after that +so many years, having anonymous children, lived altogether so long, +and then died. The chief thing about each life is the birth of the +successor, and each man's career is in broad outline the same. A +dreary monotony runs through the ages. How brief and uniform may be +the records of lives of striving and tears and smiles and love that +stretched through centuries! Nine hundred years shrink into less +than as many lines. + +The solemn monotony is broken in the case of Enoch. This paragraph +begins as usual--he 'lived'; but afterwards, instead of that word, +we read that he 'walked with God'--happy they for whom such a phrase +is equivalent to 'live'--and, instead of 'died,' it is said of him +that 'he _was not_.' That seems to imply that he, as it were, +slipped out of sight or suddenly disappeared; as one of the psalms +says, 'I looked, and lo! he was not.' He was there a moment ago--now +he is gone; and my text tells how that sudden withdrawal came about. +God, with whom he walked, put out His hand and took him to Himself. +Of course. What other end could there be to a life that was all +passed in communion with God except that apotheosis and crown of it +all, the lifting of the man into closer communion with his Father +and his Friend? + +So, then, there are just these two things here--the noblest life and +its crown. + +1. The noblest life. + +'He walked with God.' That is all. There is no need to tell what he +did or tried to do, how he sorrowed or joyed, what were his +circumstances. These may all fade from men's knowledge as they have +somewhat faded from his memory up yonder. It is enough that he +walked with God. + +Of course, we have here, underlying the phrase, the familiar +comparison of life to a journey, with all its suggestions of +constant change and constant effort, and with the suggestion, too, +that each life should be a progress directly tending to one clearly +recognised goal. But passing from that, let us just think for a +moment of the characteristics which must go to make up a life of +which we can say that it is walking with God. The first of these +clearly is the one that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews +puts his finger upon, when he makes faith the spring of Enoch's +career. The first requisite to true communion with God is vigorous +exercise of that faculty by which we realise the fact of His +presence with us; and that not as a jealous-eyed inspector, from +whose scrutiny we would fain escape, but as a companion and friend +to whom we can cleave. 'He that cometh to God,' and walks with God, +must first of all 'believe that He _is_'; and passing by all +the fascinations of things seen, and rising above all the +temptations of things temporal, his realising eye must fix upon the +divine Father and see Him nearer and more clearly than these. You +cannot walk with God unless you are emancipated from the dominion of +sense and time, and are living by the power of that great faculty, +which lays hold of the things that are unseen as the realities, and +smiles at the false and forged pretensions of material things to be +the real. We have to invert the teaching of the world and of our +senses. My fingers and my eyes and my ears tell me that this gross, +material universe about me is the real, and that all beyond it is +shadowy and (sometimes we think) doubtful, or, at any rate, dim and +far off. But that is false, and the truth is precisely the other +way. The Unseen is the Real, and the Material is the merely +Apparent. Behind all visible objects, and giving them all their +reality, lies the unchangeable God. + +Cultivate the faculty and habit of vigorous faith, if you would walk +with God. For the world will put its bandages over your eyes, and +try to tempt you to believe that these poor, shabby illusions are +the precious things; and we have to shake ourselves free from its +harlot kisses and its glozing lies, by very vigorous and continual +efforts of the will and of the understanding, if we are to make real +to ourselves that which is real, the presence of our God. + +Besides this vigorous exercise of the faculty of faith, there is +another requisite for a walk with God, closely connected with it, +and yet capable of being looked at separately, and that is, that we +shall keep up the habit of continual occupation of thought with Him. +That is very much an affair of habit with Christian people, and I am +afraid that the neglect of it is the habitual practice of the bulk +of professing Christians nowadays. It is hard, amidst all our work +and thought and joys and sorrows, to keep fresh our consciousness of +His presence, and to talk with Him in the midst of the rush of +business. But what do we do about our dear ones when we are away +from them? The measure of our love of them is accurately represented +by the frequency of our remembrances of them. The mother parted from +her child, the husband and the wife separated from one another, the +lover and the friend, think of each other a thousand times a day. +Whenever the spring is taken off, then the natural bent of the +inclination and heart assert themselves, and the mind goes back +again, as into a sanctuary, into the sweet thought. Is that how we +do with God? Do we so walk with Him, as that thought, when released, +instinctively sets in that direction? When I take off the break, +does my spirit turn to God? If there is no hand at the helm, does +the bow always point that way? When the magnet is withdrawn for a +moment, does the needle tremble back and settle itself northwards? +If we are walking with God, we shall, more times a day than we can +count when the evening comes on, have had the thought of Him coming +into our hearts 'like some sweet beguiling melody, so sweet we know +not we are listening to it.' Thus we shall 'walk with God.' + +Then there is another requisite. 'How can two walk together except +they be agreed?' 'He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also +so to walk even as He walked.' There is no union with God in such +communion possible, unless there be a union with Him by conformity +of will and submission of effort and aim to His commandments. Well, +then, is that life possible for us? Look at this instance before us. +We know very little about how much knowledge of God these people in +old days had, but, at all events, it was a great deal less than you +and I have. Their theology was very different from ours; their +religion was absolutely identical with ours. Their faith, which +grasped the God revealed in their creed, was the same as our faith, +though the creed which their faith grasped was only an outline +sketch of yours and mine. But at all times and in all generations, +the element and essence of the religious life has been the same-that +is, the realising sense of the living divine presence, the +effort and aspiration after communion with Him, and the quiet +obedience and conformity of the practical life to His will. And so +we can reach out our hands across all the centuries to this pre- +Noachian, antediluvian patriarch, dim amongst the mists, and feel +that he too is our brother. + +And he has set us the example that in all conditions of life, and +under the most unfavourable circumstances, it is possible to live in +this close touch with God. For in his time, not only was there, as I +have said, an incomplete and rudimentary knowledge of God, but in +his time the earth was filled with violence, and gigantic forms of +evil are represented as having dominated mankind. Amidst it all, the +Titanic pride, the godlessness, the scorn, the rudeness, and the +violence, amidst it all, this one 'white flower of a blameless life' +managed to find nutriment upon the dunghill, and to blossom fresh +and fair there. You and I cannot, whatever may be our hindrances in +living a consistent Christian life, have anything like the +difficulties that this man had and surmounted. For us all, whatever +our conditions, such a life is possible. + +And then there is another lesson that he teaches us, viz. that such +a life is consistent with the completest discharge of all common +duties. The outline, as far as appearance was concerned, of this +man's life was the same as the outline of those of his ancestors and +successors. They are all described in the same terms. The formula is +the same. Enoch lived, Mahalaleel, and all the rest of the half- +unpronounceable names, they lived, they begat their heirs, and sons +and daughters, and then they died. And the same formula is used +about this man. He walked with God, but it was while treading the +common path of secular life that he did so. + +He found it possible to live in communion with God, and yet to do +all the common things that men did then. Anybody's house may be a +Bethel--a house of God--and anybody's work may be worship; and +wherever we are and whatever we do, it is possible therein to serve +God, and there to walk with Him. + +2. And now a word about the crown of this life of communion. 'He was +not, for God took him' + +What wonderful reticence in describing, or rather hinting at, the +stupendous miracle that is here in question! Is that like a book +that came from the legend-loving and legend-making brains of men; or +does it sound like the speech of God, to whom nothing is +extraordinary and nothing needs to have a mark of admiration after +it? It was the same to Him whether Enoch died or whether He simply +took him to Himself. If one wants to know what men would have made +of such a thing, if _they_ had had to tell it, let them read +those wretched Rabbinical fables that have been stitched on to this +verse. There they will see how men describe miracles; and here they +will see how God does so. + +'_He was not_.' As I have said, he disappeared; that was what +the world knew. 'God took him'; that was what God tells the world. + +Thus this strange exception to the law of death stood, as I suppose, +to the ancient world as doing somewhat the same office for them that +the translation of Elijah afterwards partially did for Israel, and +that the resurrection of Jesus Christ does completely for us, viz. +it brought the future life into the realm of fact, and took it out +of the dim region of speculation altogether. He establishes a truth +who proves it, and he proves a fact that shows it. A doctrine of a +future state is not worth much, but the fact of a future state, +which was established by this incident then, and is certified for us +all now, by the Christ risen from the dead, is all-important. Our +gospel is all built upon facts, and this is the earliest fact in +man's history which made man's subsistence in other conditions than +that of earthly life a certainty. + +And then, again, this wonderful exception shows to us, as it did to +that ancient world, that the natural end of a religious life is +union with God hereafter. It seems to me that the real proofs of a +future life are two: one, the fact of Christ's resurrection, and the +other, the fact of our religious experience. For anything looks to +me more likely, and less incredible, than that a man who could walk +with God should only have a poor earthly life to do it in, and that +all these aspirations, these emotions, should be bounded and ended +by a trivial thing, that touches only the physical frame. Surely, +surely, there is nothing so absurd as to believe that he who can say +'Thou art my God,' and who has said it, should ever by anything be +brought to cease to say it. Death cannot kill love to God; and the +only end of the religious life of earth is its perfecting in heaven. +The experiences that we have here, in their loftiness and in their +incompleteness, equally witness for us, of the rest and the +perfectness that remain for the children of God. + +Then, again, this man in his unique experience was, and is, a +witness of the fact that death is an excrescence, and results from +sin. I suppose that he trod the road which the divine intention had +destined to be trodden by all the children of men, if they had not +sinned; and that his experience, unique as it is, is a survival, so +to speak, of what was meant to be the law for humanity, unless there +had intervened the terrible fact of sin and its wages, death. The +road had been made, and this one man was allowed to travel along it +that we might all learn, by the example of the exception, that the +rule under which we live was not the rule that God originally meant +for us, and that death has resulted from the fact of transgression. +No doubt Enoch had in him the seeds of it, no doubt there were the +possibilities of disease and the necessity of death in his physical +frame, but God has shown us in that one instance, and in the other +of the great prophet's, how _He_ is not subject to the law that +men shall die, although men are subject to it, and that if He will, +He can take them all to Himself, as He did take these two, and will +take them who, at last, shall not die but be changed. + +Let me remind you that this unique and exceptional end of a life of +communion may, in its deepest, essential character, be experienced +by each of us. There are two passages in the book of Psalms, both of +which I regard as allusions to this incident. The one of them is in +the forty-ninth Psalm and reads thus: 'He will deliver my soul from +the power of the grave, for He will take me.' Our version conceals +the allusion, by its unfortunate and non-literal rendering +'receive.' The same word is employed there as here. Can we fail to +see the reference? The Psalmist expects his soul to be 'delivered +from the power of the grave,' because God _takes_ it. + +And again, in the great seventy-third Psalm, which marks perhaps the +highwater mark of pre-Christian anticipations of a future state, we +read: 'Thou wilt guide me by Thy counsel, and afterwards _take_ +me' (again the same word) 'to glory.' Here, again, the Psalmist +looks back to the unique and exceptional instance, and in the +rapture and ecstasy of the faith that has grasped the living God as +his portion, says to himself: 'Though the externals of Enoch's end +and of mine may differ, their substance will be the same, and I, +too, shall cease to be seen of men, because God takes me into the +secret of His pavilion, by the loving clasp of His lifting hand.' + +Enoch was led, if I may say so, round the top of the valley, beyond +the head waters of the dark river, and was kept on the high level +until he got to the other side. You and I have to go down the hill, +out of the sunshine, in among the dank weeds, to stumble over the +black rocks, and wade through the deep water; but we shall get over +to the same place where he stands, and He that took him round by the +top will 'take' us through the river; and so shall we 'ever be with +the Lord' + +'Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him.' This verse +is like some little spring with trees and flowers on a cliff. The +dry genealogical table--and here this bit of human life in it! How +unlike the others--they _lived_ and they _died_; this man's life was +walking with God and his departure was a fading away, a ceasing to be +found here. It is remarkable in how calm a tone the Bible speaks of +its supernatural events. We should not have known this to be a miracle +but for the Epistle to the Hebrews. + +The dim past of these early chapters carries us over many centuries. +We know next to nothing about the men, where they lived, how they +lived, what thoughts they had, what tongue they spoke. Some people +would say that they never lived at all. I believe, and most of you, +I suppose, believe that they did. But how little personality we give +them! Little as we know of environment and circumstances, we know +the main thing, the fact of their having been. Then we are sure that +they had sorrow and joy, strife and love, toil and rest, like the +rest of us, that whether their days were longer or shorter they were +filled much as ours are, that whatever was the pattern into which +the quiet threads of their life was woven it was, warp and weft, the +same yarn as ours. In broad features every human life is much the +same. Widely different as the clothing of these grey fathers in +their tents, with their simple contrivances and brief records, is +from that of cultivated busy Englishmen to-day, the same human form +is beneath both. And further, we know but little as to their +religious ideas, how far they were surrounded with miracles, what +they knew of God and of His purposes, how they received their +knowledge, what served them for a Bible. Of what positive +institutions of religion they had we know nothing; whether for them +there was sacrifice and a sabbath day, how far the original gospel +to Adam was known or remembered or understood by them. All that is +perfectly dark to us. But this we know, that those of them who were +godly men lived by the same power by which godly men live nowadays. +Whatever their creed, their religion was ours. Religion, the bond +that unites again the soul to God, has always been the same. + + + + +THE SAINT AMONG SINNERS + + + 'These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man + and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with + God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. + The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was + filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, + and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted + His way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end + of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled + with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy + them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; + rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it + within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion + which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall + be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, + and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou + make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it + above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the + side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt + thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of + waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is + the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing + that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I + establish My covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, + thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives + with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two + of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them + alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls + after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of + every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of + every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. + And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and + thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food + for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all + that God commanded him, so did he.'--GENESIS vi. 9-22. + +1. Notice here, first, the solitary saint. Noah stands alone 'in his +generations' like some single tree, green and erect, in a forest of +blasted and fallen pines. 'Among the faithless, faithful only he.' +His character is described, so to speak, from the outside inwards. +He is 'righteous,' or discharging all the obligations of law and of +his various relationships. He is 'perfect.' His whole nature is +developed, and all in due symmetry and proportion; no beauty +wanting, no grace cultivated at the expense of others. He is a full +man; not a one-sided and therefore a distorted one. Of course we do +not take these words to imply sinlessness. They express a relative, +not an absolute, completeness. Hence we may learn both a lesson of +stimulus and of hope. We are not to rest satisfied with partial +goodness, but to seek to attain an all-round perfectness, even in +regard to the graces least natural to our dispositions. And we can +rejoice to believe that God is generous in His acceptance and +praise. He does not grudge commendation, but takes account of the +deepest desires and main tendencies of a life, and sees the germ as +a full-blown flower, and the bud as a fruit. + +Learn, too, that solitary goodness is possible. Noah stood +uninfected by the universal contagion; and, as is always the case, +the evil around, which he did not share, drove him to a more rigid +abstinence from it. A Christian who is alone 'in his generations,' +like a lily among nettles, has to be, and usually is, a more earnest +Christian than if he were among like-minded men. The saints in +'Caesar's household' needed to be very unmistakable saints, if they +were not to be swept away by the torrent of godlessness. It is hard, +but it is possible, for a boy at school, or a young man in an +office, or a soldier in a barrack, to stand alone, and be +Christlike; but only on condition that he yields to no temptation to +drop his conduct to the level around him, and is never guilty of +compromise. Once yield, and all is over. Flowers grow on a dunghill, +and the very reeking rottenness may make the bloom finer. + +Learn, too, that the true place for the saint is 'in his +generations.' If the mass is corrupt, so much the more need to rub +the salt well in. Disgust and cowardice, and the love of congenial +society, keep Christian people from mixing with the world, which +they must do if they are to do Christ's work in it. There is a great +deal too much union with the world, and a great deal too much +separation from it, nowadays, and both are of the wrong sort. We +cannot keep too far away from it, by abstinence from living by its +maxims, and tampering with its pleasures. We cannot mix too much +with it if we take our Christianity with us, and remember our +vocation to be its light. + +Notice, again, the companion of the solitary saint. What beauty +there is in that description of the isolated man, passing lonely +amid his contemporaries, like a stream of pure water flowing through +some foul liquid, and untouched by it, and yet not alone in his +loneliness, because 'he walked with God!' The less he found +congenial companionship on earth, the more he realised God as by his +side. The remarkable phrase, used only of Enoch and of Noah, implies +a closer relation than the other expression, 'To walk before God.' +Communion, the habitual occupation of mind and heart with God, the +happy sense of His presence making every wilderness and solitary +place glad because of Him. the child's clasping the father's hand +with his tiny fingers, and so being held up and lifted over many a +rough place, are all implied. Are we lonely in outward reality? Here +is our unfailing companion. Have we to stand single among +companions, who laugh at us and our religion? One man, with God to +back him, is always in the majority. Though surrounded by friends, +have we found that, after all, we live and suffer, and must die +alone? Here is the all-sufficient Friend, if we have fellowship with +whom our hearts will be lonely no more. + +Observe that this communion is the foundation of all righteousness +in conduct. Because Noah walked with God, he was 'just' and +'perfect.' If we live habitually in the holy of holies, our faces +will shine when we come forth. If we desire to be good and pure, we +must dwell with God, and His Spirit will pass into our hearts, and +we shall bear the fragrance of his presence wherever we go. Learn, +also, that communion with God is not possible unless we are fighting +against our sin, and have some measure of holiness. We begin +communion with Him, indeed, not by holiness, but by faith. But it is +not kept up without the cultivation of purity. Sin makes fellowship +with God impossible. 'Can two walk together, except they be agreed?' +'What communion hath light with darkness?' The delicate bond which +unites us in happy communion with God shrivels up, as if scorched, +at the touch of sin. 'If we say that we have fellowship with Him, +and walk in darkness, we lie.' + +2. Notice the universal apostasy. Two points are brought out in the +sombre description. The first is moral corruption; the second, +violence. Bad men are cruel men. When the bonds which knit society +to God are relaxed, selfishness soon becomes furious, and forcibly +seizes what it lusts after, regardless of others' rights. Sin saps +the very foundations of social life, and makes men into tigers, more +destructive to each other than wild beasts. All our grand modern +schemes for the reformation of society will fail unless they begin +with the reformation of the individual. To walk with God is the true +way to make men gentle and pitying. + +Learn from this dark outline that God gazes in silence on the evil. +That is a grand, solemn expression, 'Corrupt before God.' All this +mad riot of pollution and violence is holding its carnival of lust +and blood under the very eye of God, and He says never a word. So is +it ever. Like some band of conspirators in a dark corner, bad men do +deeds of darkness, and fancy they are unseen, and that God forgets +_them_, because they forget God; and all the while His eye is +fixed on them, and the darkness is light about them. Then comes a +further expression of the same thought: 'God looked upon the earth.' +As a sudden beam of sunshine out of a thunder-cloud, His eye flashes +down, not as if He then began to know, but that His knowledge then +began, as it were, to act. + +3. What does the stern sentence on the rotten world teach us? A very +profound truth, not only of the certain divine retribution, but of +the indissoluble connection of sin with destruction. The same word +is thrice employed in verses 11 and 12 to express 'corruption' and +in verse 13 to express 'destruction.' A similar usage is found in 1 +Corinthians iii. 17, where the same Greek word is translated +'defile' and 'destroy.' This teaches us that, in deepest reality, +corruption is destruction, that sin is death, that every sinner is a +suicide. God's act in punishment corresponds to, and is the +inevitable outcome of, our act in transgression. So fatal is all +evil, that one word serves to describe both the poison-secreting +root and the poisoned fruit. Sin is death in the making; death is +sin finished. + +The promise of deliverance, which comes side by side with the stern +sentence, illustrates the blessed truth that God's darkest +threatenings are accompanied with a revelation of the way of escape. +The ark is always shown along with the flood. Zoar is pointed out +when God foretells Sodom's ruin. We are no sooner warned of the +penalties of sin, than we are bid to hear the message of mercy in +Christ. The brazen serpent is ever reared where the venomous snakes +bite and burn. + +4. We pass by the details of the construction of the ark to draw the +final lesson from the exact obedience of Noah. We have the statement +twice over, He did 'according to all that God commanded him.' It was +no easy thing for him to build the ark, amidst the scoffing of his +generations. Smart witticisms fell around him like hail. All the +'practical men' thought him a dreamy fool, wasting his time, while +they prospered and made something of life. The Epistle to the +Hebrews tells us the secret of his obedience: 'By faith, Noah,' etc. +He realised the distant unseen, because he believed Him who warned +him of it. The immediate object of his faith was 'the things not +seen as yet'; but the real, deepest object was God, whose word +showed him these. So faith is always trust in a divine Person, +whether it lays hold of the past sacrifice, the present indwelling +Spirit, or the future heaven. + +Noah's example teaches us the practical effects of faith. 'Moved +with godly fear,' says Hebrews; by which is meant, not a mere dread +of personal evil, for Noah was assured of safety--but that godly +reverence and happy fear which dwells with faith, and secures +precise obedience. Learn that a faith which does not work on the +feelings is a very poor thing. Some Christian people have a great +horror of emotional religion. Unemotional religion is a great deal +worse. The road by which faith gets at the hands is through the +heart. And he who believes but feels nothing, will do exactly as +much as he feels, and probably does not really believe much more. + +So after Noah's emotion followed his action. He was bid to prepare +his ark, we have only to take refuge in the ark which God has +prepared in Christ; but the principle of Noah's obedience applies to +us all. He realised so perfectly that future, with its double +prospect of destruction and deliverance, that his whole life was +moulded by the conduct which should lead to his escape. The far-off +flood was more real to him than the shows of life around him. +Therefore he could stand all the gibes, and gave himself to a course +of life which was sheer folly unless that future was real. Perhaps a +hundred and twenty years passed between the warning and the flood; +and for all that time he held on his way, nor faltered in his faith. +Does our faith realise that which lies before us with anything like +similar clearness? Do we see that future shining through all the +trivial, fleeting present? Does it possess weight and solidity +enough to shape our lives? Noah's creed was much shorter than ours; +but I fear his faith was as much stronger. + +5. We may think, finally, of the vindication of his faith. For a +hundred and twenty years the wits laughed, and the 'common-sense' +people wondered, and the patient saint went on hammering and +pitching at his ark. But one morning it began to rain; and by +degrees, somehow, Noah did not seem quite such a fool. The jests +would look rather different when the water was up to the knees of +the jesters; and their sarcasms would stick in their throats as they +drowned. So is it always. So it will be at the last great day. The +men who lived for the future, by faith in Christ, will be found out +to have been the wise men when the future has become the present, +and the present has become the past, and is gone for ever; while +they who had no aims beyond the things of time, which are now sunk +beneath the dreary horizon, will awake too late to the conviction +that they are outside the ark of safety, and that their truest +epitaph is 'Thou fool!' + + + + +'CLEAR SHINING AFTER RAIN' + + + 'And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all + the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a + wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; + The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven + were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; + And the waters returned from off the earth continually: + and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the + waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh + month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the + mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually + until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first + day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. + And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah + opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he + sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until + the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent + forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated + from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no + rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him + into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the + whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, + and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed + yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove + out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the + evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt + off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off + the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent + forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any + more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first + year, in the first month, the first day of the month, + the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah + removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, + the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, + on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the + earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth + of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy + sons wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living + thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, + and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth + upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the + earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. + And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and + his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping + thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the + earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. + And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of + every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered + burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a + sweet savour; and the Lord said in His heart, I will + not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for + the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; + neither will I again smite any more every thing living, + as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and + harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and + day and night shall not cease,'--GENESIS viii. 1-22. + +The universal tradition of a deluge is most naturally accounted for +by admitting that there was a 'universal deluge.' But 'universal' +does not apply to the extent as embracing the whole earth, but as +affecting the small area then inhabited--an area which was probably +not greater than the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris. The story +in Genesis is the Hebrew version of the universal tradition, and its +plain affinity to the cuneiform narratives is to be frankly +accepted. But the relationship of these two is not certain. Are they +mother and daughter, or are they sisters? The theory that the +narrative in Genesis is derived from the Babylonian, and is a +purified, elevated rendering of it, is not so likely as that both +are renderings of a more primitive account, to which the Hebrew +narrative has kept true, while the other has tainted it with +polytheistic ideas. In this passage the cessation of the flood is +the theme, and it brings out both the love of the God who sent the +awful punishment, and the patient godliness of the man who was +spared from it. So it completes the teaching of the flood, and +proclaims that God 'in wrath remembers mercy.' + +1. 'God remembered Noah.' That is a strong 'anthropomorphism,' like +many other things in Genesis--very natural when these records were +written, and bearing a true meaning for all times. It might seem as +if, in the wild rush of the waters from beneath and from above, the +little handful in the ark were forgotten. Had the Judge of all the +earth, while executing 'terrible things in righteousness,' leisure +to think of them who were 'afar off upon the sea'? Was it a blind +wrath that had been let loose? No; in all the severity there was +tender regard for those worthy of it. Judgment was discriminating. +The sunshine of love broke through even the rain-clouds of the +flood. + +So the blessed lesson is taught that, in the widest sweep of the +most stormy judgments, there are those who abide safely, fearing no +evil. Though the waters are out, there is a rock on which we may +stand safe, above their highest wave. And why did God 'remember +Noah'? It was not favouritism, arbitrary and immoral. Noah was bid +to build the ark, because he was 'righteous' in a world of evil- +doers; he was 'remembered' in the ark, because he had believed God's +warning, obeyed God's command as seeing the judgment 'not seen as +yet,' and so 'became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.' +They who trust God, and, trusting Him, realise as if present the +future judgment, and, 'moved with fear,' take refuge in the ark, are +never forgot by Him, even while the world is drowned. They live in +His heart, and in due time He will show that He remembers them. + +2. The gradual subsidence of the flood is told with singular +exactitude of dates, which are certainly peculiar if they are not +historical. The slow decrease negatives the explanation of the story +as being the exaggerated remembrance of some tidal-wave caused by +earthquake and the like. Precisely five months after the flood +began, the ark grounded, and the two sources, the rain from above +and the 'fountains of the deep' (that is, probably, the sea), were +'restrained,' and a high wind set in. That date marked the end of +the increase of the waters, and consequently the beginning of their +decrease. Seven months and ten days elapsed between it and the +complete restoration of the earth to its previous condition. That +time was divided into stages. Two months and a half passed before +the highest land emerged; two months more and the surface was all +visible; a month and twenty-seven days more before 'the earth was +dry.' The frequent recurrence of the sacred numbers, seven and ten, +is noticeable. The length of time required for the restorative +process witnesses to the magnitude of the catastrophe, impresses the +imagination, and suggests the majestic slowness of the divine +working, and how He uses natural processes for His purposes of moral +government, and rules the wildest outbursts of physical agents. The +Lord as king 'sitteth upon the flood,' and opens or seals the +fountains of the great deep as He will. Scripture does not tell of +the links between the First Cause and the physical effect. It brings +the latter close up to the former. The last link touches the fixed +staple, and all between may be ignored. + +But the patient expectance of Noah comes out strongly in the story, +as well as the gradualness of God's working. Not till 'forty days'--a +round number--after the land appeared, did He do anything. He +waited quietly till the path was plain. Eager impatience does not +become those who trust in God. It is not said that the raven was +sent out to see if the waters were abated. No purpose is named, nor +is it said that it returned at all. 'To and fro' may mean over the +waste of waters, not back and forward to and from the ark. The +raven, from its blackness, its habit of feeding on carrion, its +fierceness, was a bird of ill-omen, and sending it forth has a grim +suggestion that it would find food enough, and 'rest for the sole of +its foot,' among the swollen corpses floating on the dark waters. +The dove, on the other hand, is the emblem of gentleness, purity, +and tenderness. She went forth, the very embodiment of meek hope +that wings its way over dark and desolate scenes of calamity and +judgment, and, though disappointed at first, patiently waits till +the waters sink further, discerns the earliest signs of their drying +up, and comes back to the sender with a report which is a prophecy: +'Your peace shall return to you again.' Happy they who send forth, +not the raven, but the dove, from their patient hearts. Their gentle +wishes come back with confirmation of their hopes, 'as doves to +their windows.' + +3. But Noah did not leave the ark, though 'the earth was dry.' God +had 'shut him in,' and it must be God who brings him out. We have to +take heed of precipitate departure from the place where He has fixed +us. Like Israel in the desert, it must be 'at the commandment of the +Lord' that we pitch the camp, and at the commandment of the Lord +that we journey. Till He speaks we must remain, and as soon as He +speaks we must remove. 'God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth ... +and Noah went forth.' Thus prompt must be our obedience. A sacrifice +of gratitude is the fit close of each epoch in our lives, and the +fit beginning of each new one. Before he thought of anything else, +Noah built his altar. All our deeds should be set in a golden ring +of thankfulness. So the past is hallowed, and the future secure of +God's protection. It is no unworthy conception of God which +underlies the strongly human expression that he 'smelled the sweet +savour.' He delights in our offerings, and our trustful, grateful +love is 'an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable' to Him. +The pledge that He will not any more curse the ground for man's sake +is occasioned by the sacrifice, but is grounded on what seems, at +first sight, a reason for the very opposite conclusion. Man's evil +heart the reason for God's forbearance? Yes, because it is _'evil +from his youth_.' He deals with men as knowing our frame, the +corruption of our nature, and the need that the tree should be made +good before it can bring forth good fruit. Therefore He will not +smite, but rather seek to draw to repentance by His goodness, and by +the faithful continuance of His beneficence in the steadfast +covenant of revolving seasons, 'filling our hearts with food and +gladness.' + + + + +THE SIGN FOR MAN AND THE REMEMBRANCER FOR GOD + + + 'And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, + saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, + and with your seed after you; And with every living + creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, + and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that + go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I + will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all + flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; + neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the + earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant + which I make between Me and you and every living creature + that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My + bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a + covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come to + pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow + shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember My + covenant, which is between Me and you and every living + creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more + become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall + be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may + remember the everlasting covenant between God and every + living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And + God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, + which I have established between Me and all flesh that + is upon the earth. + GENESIS ix. 8-17. + +The previous verses of this chapter lay down the outlines of the new +order which followed the flood. The blessing and the command to be +fruitful are repeated. The dominion over animals is confirmed, but +enlarged by the permission to use them as food, and by the laying on +them of 'the terror of you and the dread of you.' The sanctity of +human life is laid down with great emphasis. Violence and bloodshed +had brought about the flood. The appalling destruction effected by +it might lead to the mistaken notion that God held man's life cheap. +Therefore the cornerstone of future society is laid in that +declaration that life is inviolable. These blessings and commands +are followed by this remarkable section, which deals with God's +covenant with Noah, and its token in the rainbow. + +1. The covenant is stated, and the parties concerned in it +enumerated in verses 3-11. When Noah came forth from the ark, after +the stupendous act of divine justice, he must have felt that the +first thing he needed was some assurance as to the footing on which +he and the new world round him stood with God. The flood had swept +away the old order. It had revealed terrible possibilities of +destruction in nature, and terrible possibilities of wrath in God. +Was any knowledge of His intentions and ways possible? Could +continuance of the new order be counted on? The answer to such +questions was--God's covenant. Now, as then, when any great +convulsions shake what seems permanent, and bring home to men the +thinness of the crust of use and wont roofing an infinite depth of +unknown possibilities of change, on which we walk, the heart cries +out for some assurance of perpetuity, and some revelation of God's +mind. We can have such, as truly as Noah had, if we use the +Revelation given us in Jesus. + +In God's covenant with Noah, the fact of the covenant may first be +noted. What is a covenant? The term usually implies a reciprocal +bond, both parties to which come under obligations by it, each to +the other. But, in this case, there are no obligations on the part +of man or of the creatures. This covenant is God's only. It is +contingent on nothing done by the recipients. He binds Himself, +whatever be the conduct of men. This covenant is the self-motived +promise of an unconditional mercy. May we not say that the 'New +Covenant' in Jesus Christ is after the pattern of this, rather than +after the manner of compacts which require both parties to do their +several parts? + +But note the great thought, that God limits His freedom of action by +this definite promise. Noah was not left to grope in dread among the +terrible possibilities opened by the flood. God marked out the line +on which He would move, and marked off a course which He would not +pursue. It is like a king giving his subjects a constitution. Men +can reckon on God. He has let them know much of the principles and +methods of His government. He has buoyed out His course, as it were, +on the ocean, or pricked it down upon a chart. We have not to do +with arbitrary power, with inscrutable will. Our God is not one who +'giveth no account of any of His matters.' To use a common saying, +'We know where to have Him.' + +The substance of this covenant is noteworthy. It is concerned solely +with physical nature. There is nothing spiritual or 'religious' +about it. There are to be no more universal deluges. That is all +which it guarantees. But consider how important such an assurance +was in two aspects. Note the solemn light which it threw on the +past. It taught that the flood was an exception in the divine +government, which should stand unrepeated for ever, in its dread +pre-eminence testifying how awful it was as a judicial act, and how +outrageous had been the guilt which it drowned out of existence and +sight. A wholesome terror at the unexampled act of judgment would +fill the hearts of the little group which now represented mankind. + +Consider the effect of the covenant in encouraging hope. We have +said that the one thing needful for Noah was some assurance that the +new order would last. He was like a man who has just been rescued +from an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. The ground seems to reel +beneath him. Old habitudes have been curled up like leaves in the +fire. Is there to be any fixity, any ground for continuous action, +or for labour for a moment beyond the present? Is it worth while to +plant or sow? Men who have lived through national tempests or +domestic crashes know how much they need to be steadied afterwards +by some reasonable assurance of comparative continuity. And these +men, in the childhood of the race, would need it much. So they were +sent out to till the earth, and to begin again strenuous lives, with +this covenant to keep them from falling into a hand-to-mouth style +of life, which would have brought them down to barbarism. We all +need the same kind of assurance; and then, when we get it, such is +the weakness of humanity, we are tempted to think that continuity +means eternity, and that, because probably to-morrow shall be as +this day, there will never come a to-morrow which shall be quite +unlike to-day. The crust of cooled earth, on which we walk, is thick +enough to bear man and all his works, but there comes a time when it +will crack. The world will not be flooded again, but we forget, what +Noah did not know, that it will be burned. + +The parties to the covenant must be noticed. Note how frequently the +share in it, which all living creatures have, is referred to in the +context. In verse 10 the language becomes strained (in the +original), in order to express the universal participation of all +living creatures; and in verse l3 'the earth' itself is spoken of as +one party. God recognises obligations to all living things, and even +to the dumb, non-sentient earth. He will not causelessly quench one +bright, innocent life, nor harm one clod. Surely this is, at least, +an incipient revelation of a God whose 'tender mercies are over all +his works.' He 'doth take care for oxen'; and man, with all the +creatures that are with him, and all the wild ones that 'come not +near' him, and all the solid structure of the world, are held in one +covenant of protecting and sustaining providence and power. + +2. The sign of the covenant is described at great length in verses +12-17. Note that verses 12, 13 state the general idea of a token or +sign, that verses 14-16 deepen this by stating that the token to man +is a reminder to God, and that verse 17 sums up the whole with +emphatic repetition of the main points. The narrative does not +imply, as has often been supposed, that the rainbow was visible for +the first time after the deluge. To suppose that, is to read more +into the story than is there, or than common sense tolerates. If +there were showers and sunshine, there must have been rainbows. But +the fair vision strode across the sky with no articulate promise in +its loveliness, though it must always have kindled wonder, and +sometimes stirred deeper thoughts. Now, for the first time, it was +made 'a sign,' the visible pledge of God's promise. + +Mark the emphasis with which God's agency is declared and His +ownership asserted. '_I_ do set _My_ bow.' Neither Noah nor the writer +knew anything about refraction or the prismatic spectrum. But perhaps +they knew more about the rainbow than people do who know all about +how it comes, except that God sets it in the cloud, and that it is His. +Let us have the facts which science labels as such, by all means, and +the more the better; but do not let us forget that there are other facts +in nature which science has no means of attaining, but which are as +solid and a great deal deeper than those which it supplies. + +The natural adaptation of the rainbow for this office of a token is +too plain to need dwelling on. It 'fills the sky when storms prepare +to part,' and hence is a natural token that the downpour is being +stayed. Somewhere there must be a bit of blue through which the sun +can pierce; and the small gap, which is large enough to let it out, +will grow till all the sky is one azure dome. It springs into sight +in front of the cloud, without which it could not be, so it typifies +the light which may glorify judgments, and is born of sorrows borne +in the presence of God. It comes from the sunshine smiting the +cloud; so it preaches the blending of love with divine judgment. It +unites earth and heaven; so it proclaims that heavenly love is ready +to transform earthly sorrows. It stretches across the land; so it +speaks of an all-embracing care, which enfolds the earth and all its +creatures. + +It is not only a 'sign to men.' It is also, in the strong +anthropomorphism of the narrative, a remembrancer to God. Of course +this is accommodation of the representation of His nature to the +limitations of ours. And the danger of attaching unworthy ideas to +it is lessened by noticing that He is said to set His bow in the +cloud, before it acts as His remembrancer. Therefore, He had +remembered before it appeared. The truth, conveyed in the childlike +language, is that God has His covenant ever before Him, and that He +responds to and honours the appeal made to Him, by that which He has +Himself appointed for a sign to men. The expectant eyes of the +trustful man and the eye of God meet, as it were, in looking on the +sign. On earth it nourishes faith; in heaven it moves to love and +blessing. God can be reminded of what He always remembers. The +rainbow reminds Him of His covenant by its calm light. Jesus Christ +reminds Him of His grace by His intercession before the throne. We +remind Him of His plighted faithfulness by our prayers. 'Ye that are +the Lord's remembrancers, keep not silence.' + + + + +AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH + + + 'Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy + country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's + house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will + make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and + make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And + I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that + curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth + be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken + unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy + and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And + Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, + and all their substance that they had gathered, and the + souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth + to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of + Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto + the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the + Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared + unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this + land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who + appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a + mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, + having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and + there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon + the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on + still toward the south.' + GENESIS xii. 1-9. + + +I + + +We stand here at the well-head of a great river--a narrow channel, +across which a child can step, but which is to open out a broad +bosom that will reflect the sky and refresh continents. The call of +Abram is the most important event in the Old Testament, but it is +also an eminent example of individual faith. For both reasons he is +called 'the Father of the Faithful.' We look at the incident here +mainly from the latter point of view. It falls into three parts. + +1. The divine voice of command and promise.--God's servants have to +be separated from home and kindred, and all surroundings. The +command to Abram was no mere arbitrary test of obedience. God could +not have done what He meant with him, unless He had got him by +himself. So Isaiah (li. 2) put his finger on the essential when he +says, 'I called him alone.' God's communications are made to +solitary souls, and His voice to us always summons us to forsake +friends and companions, and to go apart with God. No man gets speech +of God in a crowd. If you desired to fill a person with electricity, +you used to put him on a stool with glass legs, to keep him from +earthly contact. If the quickening impulse from the great magnet is +to charge the soul, that soul must be isolated. 'He that loveth +father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.' + +The vagueness of the command is significant. Abram did not know +'whither he went.' He is not told that Canaan is the land, till he +has reached Canaan. A true obedience is content to have orders +enough for present duty. Ships are sometimes sent out with sealed +instructions, to be opened when they reach latitude and longitude +so-and-so. That is how we are all sent out. Our knowledge goes no +farther ahead than is needful to guide our next step. If we 'go out' +as He bids us, He will show us what to do next. + + 'I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me.' + +Observe the promise. We may notice that it needed a soul raised +above the merely temporal to care much for such promises. They would +have been but thin diet for earthly appetites. 'A great nation'; a +divine blessing; to be a source of blessing to the whole world, and +a touchstone by their conduct to which men would be blessed or +cursed;--what was there in these to fascinate a man, unless he had +faith to teach him the relative importance of the earthly and the +heavenly, the present and the future? Notice that the whole promise +appeals to unselfish desires. It is always, in some measure, +elevating to live for a future, rather than a present, good; but if +it be only the same kind of good as the present would yield, it is a +poor affair. The only really ennobling faith is one which sets +before itself a future full of divine blessing, and of diffusion of +that blessing through us, and which therefore scorns delights, and +for such gifts is content to be solitary and a wanderer. + +2. The obedience of faith.--We have here a wonderful example of +prompt, unquestioning obedience to a bare word. We do not know how +the divine command was conveyed to Abram. We simply read, 'The Lord +said'; and if we contrast this with verse 7, 'The Lord appeared ... +and said,' it will seem probable that there was no outward sign of +the divine will. The patriarch knew that he was following a divine +command, and not his own purpose; but there seems to have been no +appeal to sense to authenticate the inward voice. He stands, then, +on a high level, setting the example of faith as unconditional +acceptance of, and obedience to, God's bare word. + +Observe that faith, which is the reliance on a person, and therefore +trust in his word, passes into both forms of confidence in that word +as promise, and obedience to that word as command. We cannot cut +faith in halves, and exercise the one aspect without the other. Some +people's faith says that it delights in God's promises, but it does +not delight in His commandments. That is no faith at all. Whoever +takes God at His word, will take all His words. There is no faith +without obedience; there is no obedience without faith. + +We have already said enough about the separation which was effected +by Abram's journey; but we may just notice that the departure from +his father's house was but the necessary result of the gulf between +them and him, which had been opened by his faith. They were +idolaters; he worshipped one God. That drove them farther apart than +the distance between Sichem and Haran. When sympathy in religion was +at an end, the breach of all other ties was best. So to-day, whether +there be outward separation or no, depends on circumstances; but +every true Christian is parted from the dearest who is not a +Christian, by an abyss wider than any outward distance can make. The +law for us is Abram's law, 'Get thee out.' Either our faith will +separate us from the world, or the world will separate us from our +faith and our God. + +The companionship of Lot, who attaches himself to Abram, teaches +that religion, in its true possessors, exercises an attractive +influence over even common natures, and may win them to a loftier +life. Some weak eyes may discern more glory in the sunshine tinting +a poor bit of mist into ruddy light than in the beam which is too +bright to look at. A faithful Abram will draw Lot after him. + +'They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of +Canaan they came.' Compare this singular expression with chapter xi. +31, where we have Terah's emigration from Ur described in the same +terms, with the all-important difference in the end, 'They came' not +into Canaan, but 'unto Haran, and dwelt there.' Many begin the +course; one finishes it. Terah's journeying was only in search of +pasture and an abode. So he dropped his wider scheme when the +narrower served his purpose. It was an easy matter to go from Ur to +Haran. Both were on the same bank of the Euphrates. But to cross the +broad, deep, rapid river was a different thing, and meant an +irrevocable cutting loose from the past life. Only the man of faith +did that. There are plenty of half-and-half Christians, who go along +merrily from Ur to Haran; but when they see the wide stream in +front, and realise how completely the other side is separated from +all that is familiar, they take another thought, and conclude they +have come far enough, and Haran will serve their turn. + +Again, the phrase teaches us the certain issue of patient pilgrimage +and persistent purpose. There is no mystery in getting to the +journey's end. 'One foot up, and the other foot down,' continued +long enough, will bring to the goal of the longest march. It looks a +weary journey, and we wonder if we shall ever get thither. But the +magic of 'one step at a time' does it. The guide is also the +upholder of our way. 'Every one of them appeareth before God in +Zion.' + +3. The life in the land.--The first characteristic of it is its +continual wandering. This is the feature which the Epistle to the +Hebrews marks as significant. There was no reason but his own choice +why Abram should continue to journey, and prefer to pitch his tent +now under the terebinth tree of Moreh, now by Hebron, rather than to +enter some of the cities of the land. He dwelt in tents because he +looked for the city. The clear vision of the future detached him, as +it will always detach men, from close participation in the present. +It is not because we are mortal, and death is near at the furthest, +that the Christian is to sit loose to this world, but because he +lives by the hope of the inheritance. He must choose to be a +pilgrim, and keep himself apart in feeling and aims from this +present. The great lesson from the wandering life of Abram is, 'Set +your affection on things above.' Cultivate the sense of belonging to +another polity than that in the midst of which you dwell. The +Canaanites christened Abram 'The Hebrew' (Genesis xiv. 13), which +may be translated 'The man from the other side.' That is the name +which all true Christians should deserve. They should bear their +foreign extraction in their faces, and never be naturalised subjects +here. Life is wholesomer in the tent under the spreading tree, with +the fresh air blowing about us and clear sky above, than in the +Canaanite city. + +Observe, too, that Abram's life was permeated with worship. Wherever +he pitches his tent, he builds an altar. So he fed his faith, and +kept up his communion with God. The only condition on which the +pilgrim life is possible, and the temptations of the world cease to +draw our hearts, is that all life shall be filled with the +consciousness of the divine presence, our homes altars, and +ourselves joyful thankofferings. Then every abode is blessed. The +undefended tent is a safe fortress, in which dwelling we need not +envy those who dwell in palaces. Common tasks will then be fresh, +full of interest, because we see God in them, and offer them up to +Him. The wandering life will be a life of walking with God, and +progressive knowledge of Him; and over all the roughnesses and the +sorrows and the trivialities of it will be spread 'the light that +never was on sea or land, the consecration' of God's presence, and +the peacefulness of communion with Him. + +Again, we may notice that the life of obedience was followed by +fuller manifestations of God, and of His will. God 'appeared' when +Abram was in the land. Is it not always true that obedience is +blessed by closer vision and more knowledge? To him that hath shall +be given; and he who has followed the unseen Guide through dimly +discerned paths to an invisible goal, will be gladdened when he +reaches the true Canaan, by the sight of Him whom, having not seen, +he loved. Even here on earth obedience is the path to fuller +knowledge; and when the pilgrims who have left all and followed the +Captain of salvation through a deeper, darker stream than Abram +crossed, have touched the other side, God will appear to them, and +say, as the enraptured eye gazes amazed on the goodly land, 'Arise, +walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; +for I will give it unto thee.' + + + + +ABRAM AND THE LIFE OF FAITH + + +II + + +A great act of renunciation at the divine call lies at the +foundation of Israel's history, as it does at the foundation of +every life that blesses the world or is worth living. The divine +Word to Abram first gives the command in all its authoritativeness +and plain setting forth of how much had to be surrendered, and then +in its exuberant setting forth of how much was to be won by +obedience. God does not hide the sacrifices that have to be made if +we will be true to His command. He will enlist no recruits on false +pretences. All ties of country, kindred, and father's house have to +be loosened, and, if need be, to be cut, for His command is to be +supreme, and clinging hands that would hold back the pilgrim have to +be disengaged. If a man realises God's hold on him, he feels all +others relaxed. The magnetism of the divine command overcomes +gravitation, and lifts him high above earth. The life of faith ever +begins as that of 'the Father of the Faithful' began, with the +solemn recognition of a divine will which separates. Further, Abram +saw plainly what he had to leave, but not what he was to win. He had +to make a venture of faith, for 'the land that I will shew thee' was +undefined. Certainly it was somewhere, but where was it? He had to +fling away substance for what seemed shadow to all but the eye of +faith, as we all have to do. The familiar, undeniable good of the +present has to be waived in favour of what 'common sense' calls a +misty possibility in the future. To part with solid acres and get +nothing but hopes of an inheritance in the skies looks like +insanity, and is the only true wisdom. 'Get thee out' is plain; 'the +land that I will shew thee' looks like the doubtful outlines seen +from afar at sea, which may be but clouds. + +But Abram had a great hope blazing in front, none the less bright or +guiding because it all rested on the bare promise of God. It is the +prerogative of faith to give solidity and reality to what the world +thinks has neither. The wanderer who had left his country was to +receive a land for his own; the solitary who had left his kindred +was to become the founder of a nation; the unknown stranger was to +win a great name,--and how wonderfully that has come true! Not only +was he to be blessed, but also to be a blessing, for from him was to +flow that which should bless all the earth,--and how transcendently +that has come true! The attitude of men to him (and to the universal +blessing that should descend from him) was to determine their +position in reference to God and 'blessings' or 'cursings' from him. +So the migration of Abram was a turning-point in universal history. + +Obedience followed the command, immediate as the thunder on the +flash, and complete. 'So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto +him,'--blessed they of whose lives that may be the summing-up! Happy +the life which has God's command at the back of every deed, and no +command of His unobeyed! If our acts are closely parallel with God's +speech to us, they will prosper, and we shall be peaceful wherever +we may have to wander. Success followed obedience in Abram's case, +as in deepest truth it always does. That is a pregnant expression: +'They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of +Canaan they came.' A strange itinerary of a journey, which omits all +but the start and the finish! And yet are these not the most +important points in any journey or life,--whither it was directed +and where it arrived? How little will the weary tramps in the desert +be remembered when the goal has been reached! Dangers and privations +soon pass from memory, and we shall think little of sorrows, cares, +and pains, when we arrive at home. The life of faith is the only one +which is always sure of getting to the place to which it seeks to +journey. Others miss their aim, or drop dead on the road, like the +early emigrants out West; Christian lives get to the city. + +Once in the land, Abram was still a stranger and pilgrim. He first +planted himself in its heart by Sichem, but outside the city, under +the terebinth tree of Moreh. The reason for his position is given in +the significant statement that 'the Canaanite was then in the land.' +So he had to live in the midst of an alien civilisation, and yet +keep apart from it. As Hebrews says, he was 'dwelling in +tabernacles,' because he 'looked for a city.' The hope of the +permanent future made him keep clear of the passing present; and we +are to feel ourselves pilgrims and sojourners, not so much because +earth is fleeting and we are mortal, as because our true affinities +are with the unseen and eternal. But the presence of 'the Canaanite' +is connected also with the following words, which tell that 'the +Lord appeared unto Abram,' and now after his obedience told him that +this was the land that was to be his. He unfolds His purposes to +those who keep His commandments; obedience is the mother of insight. +The revelation put a further strain on faith, for the present +occupiers of the land were many and strong; but it matters not how +formidably and firmly rooted the Canaanite is, God's children can be +sure that the promise will be fulfilled. We can calmly look on his +power and reckon on its decay, if the Lord appears to us, as to +Abram--and He surely will if we have followed His separating voice, +and dwell as strangers here, because our hearts are with Him. + +After the appearance of God and the promise, we have an outline of +the pilgrim's life, as seen in Abram. He signalised God's further +opening of His purposes, by building an altar on the place where He +had been seen by him. Thankful recognition and commemoration of the +times in our lives when He has most plainly drawn near and shown us +glimpses of His will, are no less blessed than due, and they who +thus rear altars to Him will wonder, when they come to count up how +many they have had to build. But the life of faith is ever a pilgrim +life, and Bethel has soon to be the home instead of Shechem. There, +too, Abram keeps outside the city, and pitches his tent. There, too, +the altar rises by the side of the tent. The transitory provision +for housing the pilgrim contrasts with the solid structure for +offering sacrifices. The tent is 'pitched,' and may be struck and +carried away to-morrow, but the altar is 'builded.' That part of our +lives which is concerned with the material and corporeal is, after +all, short in duration and small in importance; that which has to do +with God, His revelations, and His worship and service, lasts. What +is left in ancient historic lands, like Egypt or Greece, is the +temples of the gods, while the huts of the people have perished long +centuries ago. What we build for God lasts; what we pitch for +ourselves is transient as we are. + + + + +GOING FORTH + + + 'They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into + the land of Canaan they came.'--GENESIS xii. 5. + + +I + + +The reference of these words is to Abram's act of faith in leaving +Haran and setting out on his pilgrimage. It is a strange narrative +of a journey, which omits the journey altogether, with its weary +marches, privations, and perils, and notes but its beginning and its +end. Are not these the main points in every life, its direction and +its attainment? There are-- + + 'Two points in the adventure of the diver, + One--when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge, + One--when, a prince, he rises with his pearl.' + +Abram and his company had a clear aim. But does not the Epistle to +the Hebrews magnify him precisely because he 'went out, not knowing +whither he went'? Both statements are true, for Abram had the same +combination of knowledge and ignorance as we all have. He knew that +he was to go to a land that he should afterwards inherit, and he +knew that, in the first place, Canaan was to be his 'objective +point,' but he did not know, till long after he had crossed the +Euphrates and pitched his tent by Bethel, that it was the land. The +ultimate goal was clear, and the first step towards it was plain, +but how that first step was related to the goal was not plain, and +all the steps between were unknown. He went forth with sealed +orders, to go to a certain place, where he would have further +instructions. He knew that he was to go to Canaan, and beyond that +point all was dark, except for the sparkle of the great hope that +gleamed on the horizon in front, as a sunlit summit rises above a +sea of mist between it and the traveller. Like such a traveller, +Abram could not accurately tell how far off the shining peak was, +nor where, in the intervening gorges full of mist, the path lay; but +he plunged into the darkness with a good heart, because he had +caught a glimpse of his journey's end. So with us. We may have clear +before us the ultimate aim and goal of our lives, and also the step +which we have to take now, in pressing towards it, while between +these two there stretches a valley full of mist, the breadth of +which may be measured by years or by hours, for all that we know, +and the rough places and green pastures of which are equally hidden +from us. We have to be sure that the mountain peak far ahead, with +the sunshine bathing it, is not delusive cloud but solid reality, +and we have to make sure that God has bid us step out on the yard of +path which we _can_ see, and, having secured these two certainties, +we are to cast ourselves into the obscurity before us, and to bear in +our hearts the vision of the end, to cheer us amid the difficulties +of the road. + +Life is strenuous, fruitful, and noble, in the measure in which its +ultimate aim is kept clearly visible throughout it all. Nearer aims, +prescribed by physical necessities, tastes, circumstances, and the +like, are clear enough, but a melancholy multitude of us have never +reflected on the further question: 'What then?' Suppose I have made +my fortune, or won my wife, or established my position, or achieved +a reputation, behind all these successes lies the larger question. +These are not ends but means, and it is fatal to treat them as being +the goal of our efforts or the chief end of our being. There would +be fewer wrecked lives, and fewer bitter and disappointed old men, +if there were more young ones who, at starting, put clearly before +themselves the question: 'What am I living for? and what am I going +to do when I have secured the nearer aims necessarily prescribed to +me?' + +What that aim should be is not doubtful. The only worthy end +befitting creatures with hearts, minds, consciences, and wills like +ours is God Himself. Abram's 'Canaan' is usually regarded as an +emblem of heaven, and that is correct, but the land of our +inheritance is not wholly beyond the river, for God is the portion +of our hearts. He _is_ heaven. To dwell with Him, to have all +the current of our being running towards Him, to set Him before us +in the strenuous hours of effort and in the quiet moments of repose, +in the bright and in the dark days, are the conditions of +blessedness, strength, and peace. + +That aim clearly apprehended and persistently pursued gives +continuity to life, such as nothing else can do. How many of the +things that drew us to themselves, and were for a while the objects +of desire and effort, have sunk below the horizon! The lives that +are not directed to God as their chief end are like the voyages of +old-time sailors, who had to creep from one headland to another, and +steer for points which, one after another, were reached, left +behind, and forgotten. There is only one aim so great, so far in +advance that we can never reach, and therefore can never pass and +drop it. Life then becomes a chain, not a heap of unrelated +fragments. That aim made ours, stimulates effort to its highest +point, and therefore secures blessedness. It emancipates from many +bonds, and takes the poison out of the mosquito bites of small +annoyances, and the stings of great sorrows. It gleams ever before a +man, sufficiently attained to make him at rest, sufficiently +unattained to give the joy of progress. The pilgrims who had but one +single aim, 'to go to the land of Canaan,' were delivered from the +miseries of conflicting desires, and with simplicity of aim came +concentration of force and calm of spirit. + + + + +COMING IN + + +II + + +If life has a clear, definite aim, and especially if its aim is the +highest, there will be detachment from, and abandonment of, many +lower ones. Nothing worth doing is done, and nothing worth being is +realised in ourselves, except on condition of resolutely ignoring +much that attracts. 'They went forth'; Haran must be given up if +Canaan is to be reached. Artists are content to pay the price for +mastery in their art, students think it no hardship to remain +ignorant of much in order to know their own subject thoroughly; men +of business feel it no sacrifice to give up culture, leisure, and +sometimes still higher things, such as love and purity, to win +wealth. And we shall not be Christians after Christ's heart unless +we practise similar restrictions. The stream that is to flow with +impetus sufficient to scour its bed clear of obstructions must not +be allowed to meander in side branches, but be banked up in one +channel. Sometimes there must be actual surrender and outward +withdrawal from lower aims which, by our weakness, have become rival +aims; always there must be subordination and detachment in heart and +mind. The compass in an iron ship is disturbed by the iron, unless +it has been adjusted; the golden apples arrest the runner, and there +are clogs and weights in every life, which have to be laid aside if +the race is to be won. The old pilgrim fashion is still the only +way. We must do as Abram did: leave Haran and its idols behind us, +and go forth, ready to dwell, if need be, in deserts, and as +sojourners even when among cities, or we shall not reach the 'land +that is very far off.' It is near us if we forsake self and the +'things seen and temporal,' but it recedes when we turn our hearts +to these. + +'Into the land of Canaan they came.' No man honestly and rightly +seeks God and fails to find Him. No man has less goodness and +Christ-likeness than he truly desires and earnestly pursues. Nearer +aims are often missed, and it is well that they should be. We should +thank God for disappointments, for hopes unfulfilled, or proving +still greater disappointments when fulfilled. It is mercy that often +makes the harvest from our sowing a scanty one, for so we are being +taught to turn from the quest in which searching has no assurance of +finding, to that in which to seek is to find. 'I have never said to +any of the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.' We may not reach +other lands which seem to us to be lands of promise, or when we do, +may find that the land is 'evil and naughty,' but this land we shall +reach, if we desire it, and if, desiring it, we go forth from this +vain world. The Christian life is the only one which has no +failures, no balked efforts, no frustrated aims, no brave settings +out and defeated returnings. The literal meaning of one of the Old +Testament words for _sin_ is missing the mark, and that embodies the +truth that no man wins what he seeks who seeks satisfaction elsewhere +than in God. Like the rivers in Asiatic deserts, which are lost in +the sand and never reach the sea, all lives which flow towards anything +but God are dissipated and vain. + +But the supreme realisation of an experience like Abram's is +reserved for another life. No pilgrim Zion-ward perishes in the +wilderness, or loses his way or fails to come to 'the city of +habitation.' 'They go from strength to strength, every one of them +in Zion appeareth before God.' And when they appear there, they will +think no more, just as this narrative says nothing, of the sandy, +salt, waterless wildernesses, or the wearinesses, dangers, and toils +of the road. The experience of the happy travellers, who have found +all which they sought and are at home for ever in the fatherland +towards which they journeyed, will all be summed up in this, that +'they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of +Canaan they came.' + + + + +THE MAN OF FAITH + + + 'And Abram passed through the land unto the place of + Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was + then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and + said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there + builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto + him.'--GENESIS xii. 6, 7. + +Great epoch and man. Steps of Abram's training. First he was simply +called to go--no promise of inheritance--obeyed--came to Canaan-found +a thickly peopled land with advanced social order, and received no +divine vision till he was face to face with the Canaanite. + +1. _God's bit-by-bit leading of us._ + +How slowly the divine purpose was revealed--the trial before the +promise--did not know where, nor that Canaan was land, but only told +enough for his first march. + +So with us--our ignorance of future is meant to have the effect of +keeping us near God and training us to live a day at a time. + +God's finger on the page points to a word at a time. Each day's +route is given morning by morning in the order for the day. + +2. _Obedience often brings us into very difficult places._ + +Abram was ready to say, no doubt, 'This cannot be the land for me, +peopled as it is with all these Canaanites.' We are ever ready to +think that, if we find obstacles, we must have misunderstood God's +directions, but 'many adversaries' often indicate an 'open door.' + +3. _The presence of enemies brings the presence of God._ + +This is the first time we read that God _appeared_ to men. + +As the darkness thickens, the pillar of fire brightens. But not only +does God appear more clearly, but our spirits are more eager and +therefore able to see Him. We are mercifully left to feel the +enemies before we see Him present in His strength. + +4. _The victory for us lies in the vision of God and of His loving +purpose._ + +How superb the confidence of 'Unto thy seed will I give _this_ +land.' + +That vision is our true strength. And it will make us feel as +pilgrims, which is in itself more than half the battle. + + + + +LIFE IN CANAAN + + + 'And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east + of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the + west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar + unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.' + GENESIS xii. 3. + +These are the two first acts of Abram in the land of Canaan. + +1. _All life should blend earthly and heavenly._ + +They are not to be separated. Religion should run through everything +and take the whole of life for its field. Where we cannot carry it +is no place for us. It is a shame that heathenism should be more +penetrated by its religion than Christendom is. + +2. _The family should be a church._ + +Domestic religion. New Testament households. Abram a priest. The +decay of family religion, worship, and instruction. + +3. _The service to God should be more costly than to +ourselves._ + +Pitching a tent cheaper than building an altar. Give God the best. +We build ourselves ceiled houses and the ark dwells in curtains. +Pagans build elaborate temples, but their houses are hovels. Too +many Christians do the opposite. + +4. _Building for God lasts, for selves perishes._ + +A tent is stricken, and no trace remains but embers. The stones of +Jacob's altar may be standing yet. The Parthenon of Athens remains: +where are the hovels of the people? 'He that doeth the will of God +abideth for ever.' Permanent results of transitory deeds. + + + + +THE IMPORTANCE OF A CHOICE + + + 'And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and + all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And + Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. + And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, + unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, + between Beth-el and Hal; Unto the place of the altar, + which he had made there at the first: and there Abram + called on the name of the Lord. And Lot also, which went + with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the + land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell + together: for their substance was great, so that they + could not dwell together. And there was a strife between + the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's + cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then + in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no + strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my + herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the + whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, + from me: if thou wilt lake the left hand, then I will + go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, + then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, + and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well + watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and + Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land + of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him + all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and + they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram + dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the + cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. + But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the + Lord exceedingly.'--GENESIS xiii. 1-13. + +The main lesson of this section is the wisdom of seeking spiritual +rather than temporal good. That is illustrated on both sides. +Prosperity attends Abram and Lot while they think more of obeying +God than of flocks and herds. Lot makes a mistake, as far as this +world is concerned, when he chooses his place of abode for the sake +of its material advantages. But the introductory verses (vv. 1-4) +suggest a question, and seem to teach an important lesson. Was Abram +right in so soon leaving the land to which God had led him, and +going down to Egypt? Was that not taking the bit between his teeth? +He had been commanded to go to Canaan; should he not have stopped +there--famine or no famine--till the same authority commanded him to +leave the land? If God had put him there, should he not have trusted +God to keep him alive in famine? The narrative seems to imply that +his going to Egypt was a failure of faith. It gives no hint of a +divine voice leading him thither. We do not hear that he builded any +altar beside his tent there, as he had done in the happier days of +life by trust. His stay resulted in peril and in something very like +lying, for which he had to bear the disgrace of being rebuked by an +idolater, and having no word of excuse to offer. The great lesson of +the whole section, and indeed of Abram's whole life, receives fresh +illustration from the story thus understood, which preaches loudly +that trust is safety and wellbeing, and that it is always sin and +always folly to leave Canaan, where God has put us, even if there be +a famine, and to go down into Egypt, even if its harvests be +abundant. + +But another lesson is also taught. After the interruption of the +Egyptian journey, Abram had to begin all his Canaan life over again. +Very emphatically the narrative puts it, that he went to 'the place +where his tent had been at the beginning,' to the altar which he had +made at the first. Yes! that is the only place for a man who has +faltered and gone aside from the course of obedience. He must begin +over again. The backsliding Christian has to resort anew to the +place of the penitent, and to come to Christ, as he did at first for +pardon. It is a solemn thought that years of obedience and heroisms +of self-surrender, may be so annihilated by some act of self-seeking +distrust that the whole career has, as it were, to be begun anew +from the very starting-point. It is a blessed thought that, however +far and long we may have wandered, we can always return to the place +where we were at the beginning, and there call on the name of the +Lord. + +Note how we are taught here the great truth for the Old Testament, +that outward prosperity follows most surely those who do not seek +for it. Abram's wealth has increased, and his companion, Lot, has +shared in the prosperity. It is because he 'went with Abram' that he +'had flocks, and herds, and tents.' Of course, the connection +between despising the world and possessing it is not thus close in +New Testament times. But even now, one often sees that the men who +_will_ be rich fall into a pit of poverty, and that a heart set +on higher things, which counts earthly advantages second and not +first, wins a sufficiency of these most surely. Foxlike cunning, and +wolf-like rapacity, and Devil-like selfishness, which make up a +large portion of what the world calls 'great business capacity,' do +not always secure the prize. But the real possession of earth and +all its wealth depends to-day, as much as ever it did in Abram's +times, on seeking 'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.' +Only when we are Christ's are all things ours. They are ours, not by +the vulgar way of what the world calls ownership, but in proportion +as we use them to the highest ends of helping us to grow in wisdom +and Christ-likeness, in the measure in which we subordinate them to +heavenly good, in the degree in which we employ them as means of +serving Christ. We can see the Pleiades best by not looking directly +at, but somewhat away from, them; and just as pleasure, if made the +direct object of life, ceases to be pleasure, so the world's goods, +if taken for our chief aim, cease to yield even the imperfect good +which they can bestow. + +But now we have to look at the two dim figures which the remainder +of this story presents to us, and which shine there, in that far-off +past, types and instances of the two great classes into which men +are divided,--Abram, the man of faith; Lot, the man of sense. + +Mark the conduct of the man of faith. Why should he, who has God's +promise that all the land is his, squabble with his kinsman about +pasture and wells? The herdsmen naturally would come to high words +and blows, especially as the available land was diminished by the +claims of the 'Canaanite and Perizzite.' But the direct effect of +Abram's faith was to make him feel that the matter in dispute was +too small to warrant a quarrel. A soul truly living in the +contemplation of the future, and filled with God's promises, will +never be eager to insist on its rights, or to stand on its dignity, +and will take too accurate a measure of the worth of things temporal +to get into a heat about them. The clash of conflicting interests, +and the bad blood bred by them, seem infinitely small, when we are +up on the height of communion with God. An acre or two more or less +of grass land does not look all-important, when our vision of the +city which hath foundations is clear. So an elevated calm and 'sweet +reasonableness' will mark the man who truly lives by faith, and he +will seek after the things that make for peace. Abram could fight, +as Old Testament morality permitted, when occasion arose, as Lot +found out to his advantage before long. But he would not strive +about such trifles. + +May we not venture to apply his words to churches and sects? They +too, if they have faith strong and dominant, will not easily fall +out with one another about intrusions on each other's territory, +especially in the presence, as at this day, of the common foe. When +the Canaanite and the Perizzite are in the land, and Unbelief in +militant forms is arrayed against us, it is more than folly, it is +sin, for brethren to be turning their weapons against each other. +The common foe should make them stand shoulder to shoulder. Abram's +faith led, too, to the noble generosity of his proposal. The elder +and superior gives the younger and inferior the right of option, and +is quite willing to take Lot's leavings. Right or left--it mattered +not to him; God would be with him, whichever way he went; and the +glorious Beyond, for which he lived, blazed too bright before his +inward sight to let him be very solicitous where he was. 'I have +learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.' It does +not matter much what accommodation we have on ship-board, when the +voyage is so short. If our thoughts are stretching across the sea to +the landing at home, and the welcome there, we shall not fight with +our fellow-passengers about our cabins or places at the table. And +notice what rest comes when faith thus dwindles the worth of the +momentary arrangements here. The less of our energies are consumed +in asserting ourselves, and scrambling for our rights, and cutting +in before other people, so as to get the best places for ourselves, +the more we shall have to spare for better things; and the more we +live in the future, and leave God to order our ways, the more shall +our souls be wrapped in perfect peace. Mark the conduct of the man +of sense. We can fancy the two standing on the barren hills by +Bethel, from one of which, as travellers tell us, there is precisely +the view which Lot saw. He lifted up his greedy eyes, and there, at +his feet, lay that strange Jordan valley with its almost tropical +richness, its dark lines of foliage telling of abundant water, the +palm-trees of Jericho perhaps, and the glittering cities. Up there +among the hills there was little to tempt,--rocks and scanty +herbage; down below, it was like the lost Eden, or the Egypt from +which they had but lately come. + +What need for hesitation? True, the men of the plain were 'wicked +and sinners before the Lord exceedingly,' as the chapter says with +grim emphasis. But Lot evidently never thought about that. He knew +it, though, and ought to have thought about it. It was his sin that +he was guided in his choice only by considerations of temporal +advantage. Put his action into words, and it says, 'Grass for my +sheep is more to me than fellowship with God, and a good conscience.' +No doubt he would have had salves enough. 'I do not need to become +like them, though I live among them.' 'A man must look after his own +interests.' 'I can serve God down there as well as up here.' Perhaps +he even thought that he might be a missionary among these sinners. +But at bottom he did not seek first the kingdom of God, but the other +things. + +We have seldom the choice put before us so dramatically and sharply; +but it is as really presented to each. There is the shameless +cynicism of the men who avowedly only ask the question, 'Will it +pay?' But there are subtler forms which affect us all. It is the +standing temptation of Englishmen to apply a money standard to +everything, to adopt courses of action of which the only +recommendation is that they promote getting on in the world. Men who +call themselves Christians select schools for their children, or +professions for their boys, or marriages for their daughters, down +in Sodom, because it will give them a lift in life which they would +not get up in the starved pastures at Bethel, with nobody but Abram +and his like to associate with. If the earnestness with which men +pursue an end is to be taken as any measure of its importance in +their eyes, it certainly does not look much as if modern average +Christians did believe that it was of more moment to be united to +God, and to be growing like Him, than to secure a good large share +of earthly possessions. Tried by the test of conduct, their faith in +getting on is a great deal deeper than their faith in getting up. +But if our religion does not make us put the world beneath our feet, +and count all things but loss that we may win Christ, we had better +ask ourselves whether our religion is any better than Lot's, which +was second-hand, and was much more imitation of Abram than obedience +to God. + +Lot teaches us that material good may tempt and conquer, even after +it has once been overcome. His early life had been heroic; in his +young enthusiasm, he had thrown in his portion with Abram in his +great venture. He had not been thinking of his flocks when he left +Haran. Probably, as I have just said, he was a good deal galvanised +into imitation; but still, he had chosen the better part. But now he +has tired of a pilgrim's life. There are men who cut down the +thorns, and in whom the seed is sown; but thorns are tenacious of +life, and quick growing, and so they spread over the field and choke +the seed. It is easier to take some one bold step than to keep true +through life to its spirit. Youth contemns, but too often middle-age +worships, worldly success. The world tightens its grasp as we grow +older, and Lot and Demas teach us that it is hard to keep for a +lifetime on the heights. Faith, strong and ever renewed by +communion, can do it; nothing else can. + +Lot's history teaches what comes of setting the world first, and +God's kingdom second. For one thing, the association with it is sure +to get closer. Lot began with choosing the plain; then he crept a +little nearer, and pitched his tent 'towards' Sodom; next time we +hear of him, he is living in the city, and mixed up inextricably +with its people. The first false step leads on to connections +unforeseen, from which the man would have shrunk in horror, if he +had been told that he would make them. Once on the incline, time and +gravity will settle how far down we go. We shall see, in subsequent +sections, how far Lot's own moral character suffered from his +choice. But we may so far anticipate the future narrative as to +point out that it affords a plain instance of the great truth that +the sure way to lose the world as well as our own souls, is to make +it our first object. He would have been safe if he had stopped up +among the hills. The shadowy Eastern kings who swooped down on the +plain would never have ventured up there. But when we choose the +world for our portion, we lay ourselves open to the full weight of +all the blows which change and fortune can inflict, and come +voluntarily down from an impregnable fastness to the undefended +open. + +Nor is this all; but at the last, when the fiery rain bursts on the +doomed city, Lot has to leave all the wealth for which he has +sacrificed conscience and peace, and escapes with bare life; he +suffers loss even if he himself is 'saved as dragged through the +fire.' The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that +doeth the will of God abideth for ever. The riches which wax not +old, and need not to be left when we leave all things besides, are +surely the treasures which the calmest reason dictates should be our +chief aim. God is the true portion of the soul; if we have Him, we +have all. So, let us seek Him first, and, with Him, all else is +ours. + + + + +ABRAM THE HEBREW + + + 'And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the + Hebrew.' + GENESIS xiv. 13. + +This is a singular designation of Abram as 'The Hebrew.' Probably we +have in its use here a trace of the customary epithet which he bore +among the inhabitants of Canaan, and perhaps the presence of the +name in this narrative may indicate the influence of some older +account, traditional or written, which owed its authorship to some +of them. At all events, this is the first appearance of the name in +Scripture. As we all know, it has become that of the nation, but a +Jew did not call himself a 'Hebrew' except in intercourse with +foreigners. As in many other cases, the national name used by other +nations was not that by which the people called themselves. Here, +obviously, it is not a national name, for the very good reason that +there was no nation then. It is a personal epithet, or, in plain +English, a nickname, and it means, probably, as the ancient Greek +translation of Genesis gives it, neither more nor less than 'The man +from the other side,' the man that had come across the water. Just +as a mediaeval prince bore the _sobriquet_ Outremere-the 'man +from beyond the sea'--so Abram, to the aboriginal, or, at least, +long-settled, inhabitants of the country, was known simply as the +foreigner, the 'man from the other side' (of the Jordan, or more +probably of the great river Euphrates), the man from across the +water. + +Now that name may suggest, with a permissible, and, I hope, not +misleading play of fancy, just two things, which I seek now to press +upon our hearts and consciences. The one is as to how men become +Christians, and the other is as to how they look to other people +when they are. + +1. Men become Christians by a great emigration. + +'Get thee out from thy father's house, and from thy country, and +from thy kindred,' was the command to Abram. And he became the heir +to God's promises and the father of the faithful, because he did not +hesitate a moment to make the plunge and to leave behind him all his +past, his associations, his loves, much of his possessions, and, in +a very profound sense, his old self, and put a great impassable gulf +between him and them all. + +Now I am not going to say anything so narrow or foolish as that the +Christian life must always begin with a conscious and sudden change; +but this I am quite sure of, that in the vast majority of cases of +thoroughly and out-and-out religious men, there must be a conscious +change, whether it has been diffused through months or years, or +concentrated in one burning moment. There has been a beginning; +whether it has been like the dawn, or whether it has been like the +kindling of a candle, the beginning of the flashing of the divine +light into the heart; and the men that are most really under the +influence of religious truth can, as a rule, looking back upon their +past experience, see that it divides itself into two halves, +separated from each other by a profound gulf--the time on the other +side, and that on this side, of the great river. We must take heed +lest by insisting on any one way of entrance into the kingdom we +seem to narrow God's mercy, or sadden true hearts, or make the +method of approach a test of the fact of entrance. God's city has +more than twelve gates; they open to all the thirty-two points of +the compass, yet there is, in the religious experience of the truest +saints, always something analogous to this change. And what I desire +to press upon you is, that unless you are only religious people +after the popular superficial fashion of the day, there will be +something like it in your lives. + +There will be a change in a man's deepest self, so that he will be a +'new creature,' with new tastes, new motives stirring to action, new +desires pressing for satisfaction, new loves sweetly filling his +heart, new insight into the meanings and true good of life and time +guiding his conduct, new aversions withdrawing him from old delights +which have become hateful now, new hopes pluming their growing +wings, and new powers bearing him along a new road. There will be a +change in his relations to God and to God's will. God in Christ will +have become his centre, instead of self, which was so before. He +lives in a new world, being himself a new man. + +Our Lord uses this very illustration when He says, 'He that heareth +My Word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and +cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life.' +That is a great migration, is it not, from the condition of a corpse +to that of a living man? Paul, too, gives the same idea with a +somewhat different turn of the illustration, when he gives 'thanks +to the Father who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and +translated us into the kingdom of,'--not, as we might expect to +complete the antithesis, 'the light,' but--the 'kingdom of the Son +of His love,' which is the same thing as the light. The illustration +is probably drawn from the practice of the ancient conquering +monarchs, who, when they subjugated a country, were wont to lead +away captive long files of its inhabitants as compulsory colonists, +and set them down in another land. Thus the conquering Christ comes, +and those whom He conquers by His love, He shifts by a great +emigration out of the dominion of that darkness which is at once +tyranny and anarchy, and leads them into the happy kingdom of the +light. + +Thus, then, all Christian men become such, because they turn their +backs upon their old selves, and crucify their affections and lusts; +and paste down the leaf, as it were, on which their blotted past is +writ, and turn over a new and a fairer one. And my question to you, +dear brethren, is, Are you men from the other side, who were not +born where you live now, and who have passed out of the native +Chaldea into the foreign--and yet to the new self home--land of +union with God? + +2. This designation may be taken as teaching that a Christian should +be known as a foreigner, a man from across the water. + +Everybody in Canaan that knew Abram at all knew him as not one of +themselves. The Hebrew was the name he went by, because his +unlikeness to the others was the most conspicuous thing about him, +even to the shallowest eye. Abram found himself, when he had +migrated into Canaan, in no barbarous country, but plunged at once +into the midst of an organised and compact civilisation, that walled +its cities, and had the comforts and conveniences and regularities +of a settled order; and in the midst of it all, what did he do? He +elected to live in a tent. 'He dwelt in tabernacles, as the Epistle +to the Hebrews comments upon his history, 'because he looked for a +city.' The more his expectations were fixed upon a permanent abode, +the more transitory did he make his abode here. If there had been no +other city to fill his eyes, he would have gone and lived in some of +those that were in the land. If there had been no other order to +which he felt himself to belong, he would have had no objection to +cast in his lot with the order and the people with whom he lived on +friendly terms. But although he bought and sold with them, and +fought for them and by their sides, and acquired from them land in +which to bury his dead, he was not one of them, but said, 'No! I am +not going into your city. I stay in my tent under this terebinth +tree; for I am here as a stranger and a sojourner.' No doubt there +were differences of language, dress, and a hundred other little +things which helped the impression made on the men of the land by +this strange visitor who lived in amity but in separation, and they +are all crystallised in the name which the popular voice gave him, +'The man from the other side.' + +That is the impression which Christian people ought to make in the +world. They should be recognised, by even unobservant eyes who know +nothing of the inner secret of their lives, as plainly belonging to +another order. If we seek to keep fresh in our own minds the +consciousness that we do so, it will make itself manifest in all our +bearing and actions. So that exhortation to cultivate the continual +sense that our true city--the mother city of our hearts and hopes--is +in heaven is ever to be reiterated, and as constantly obeyed, as the +necessary condition of a life worthy of our true affinities and of +our glorious hopes. + +Nor less needful is the other exhortation--live by the laws of your +own land, not by those of the foreign country where you are for a +time. If you do that thoroughly, you will not need to say, 'I am +from another country.' Your conduct will say it for you. An English +ship is a bit of England, in whatever latitude it may be, and +however far beyond the three-mile limit of the King's authority upon +the seas it may float. And so, wherever there is a Christian man, +there is a bit of God's kingdom, and over that little speck in the +midst of the ocean of the world the flag with the Cross on it should +fly, and the laws of the Christ should be the only laws that have +currency. If it could be said of us as Haman said to his king about +the Jews, that we were a people with laws 'diverse from those of all +people,' we should be doing more than, alas! most of us do, to +honour Him whom we profess to serve. Follow Christ, and people will +be quick enough to say of you 'The man from the other side,' 'He +does not belong to our city.' There is no need for ostentation, nor +for saying, 'Come and see my zeal for the Lord,' nor for blowing +trumpets before us at street corners or elsewhere. The less of all +that the better. The more we try to do the common things done by the +folk round us, but from another motive, the more powerful will be +our witness for our Master. + +For instance, when John Knox was in the French galleys, he was +fastened to the same oar with some criminal, perhaps a murderer. The +two men sat on the same bench, did the same work, tugged at the same +heavy sweep, were fed with the same food, suffered the same sorrows. +Do you think there was any doubt as to the infinite gulf between +them? We may be working side by side, at the very same tasks, and +under similar circumstances, with men that have no share in our +faith, and no sympathy with our hopes and aspirations, and yet, +though doing the same thing, it will _not_ be the same thing. +And if we keep Christ before us, and follow His steps who has left +us an example, depend upon it people will very soon find out that we +are men 'from across the water.' + +Notice, further, how this dissimilarity and obvious aloofness from +the order of things in which we dwell is still perfectly compatible +with all sorts of helpful associations. The context shows us that. +There had come a flood of invasion, under kings with strange and +barbarous names, from the far East. They had swept down upon the +fertile valley of Siddim, and there had inflicted devastation. +Amongst the captives had been Lot, Abram's relative, and all his +goods had been taken. One fugitive, as it appears, had escaped, and +the first thing he did was to go straight to 'the man from the other +side,' and tell him about it, as if sure of sympathy and help. No +doubt the relationship between Abram and Lot was the main reason why +the panting survivor made his way to the hills where Abram's tent +was pitched, but there was also confidence in his willingness to +help the Sodomites who had lost their goods. So it was not to the +sons of Heth in Mamre that the fugitive turned in his extremity, but +he 'told Abram the Hebrew.' + +I need not narrate over again the familiar story of how, for once in +his peaceful life, the 'friend of God' girds on his sword and +develops military instincts in his prompt and well-planned pursuit, +which show that if he did not try to conquer some part of the land +which he knew to be his by the will of God, it was not for want of +ability, but because he 'believed God,' and could wait. We all know +how he armed his slaves, and made a swift march to the northern +extremity of the land, and then, by a nocturnal surprise, came down +upon the marauders and scattered them like chaff, before his onset, +and recovered Lot and all the spoil. + +Let us learn that, if Christian men will live well apart from the +world, they will be able to sympathise with and help the world; and +that our religion should fit us for the prompt and heroic +undertaking, as it certainly does for the successful accomplishment, +of all deeds of brotherly kindness and sympathy, bringing help and +solace to the weak and the wearied, liberty to the captives, and +hope to the despairing. + +I do not believe that Christian men have any business to draw swords +now. Abram is in that respect the Old Testament type of a God- +fearing hero, with the actual sword in his hands. The New Testament +type of a Christian warrior without a sword is not one jot less, but +more, heroic. The form of sympathy, help, and 'public spirit' which +the 'man from the other side' displayed is worse than an anachronism +now in the light of Christ's law. It is a contradiction. But the +spirit which breathed through Abram's conduct should be ours. We are +bound to 'seek the peace of the city' where we dwell as strangers +and pilgrims, avoiding no duty of sympathy and help, but by prompt, +heroic, self-forgetting service to all the needy, sorrowful, and +oppressed, building up such characters for ourselves that fugitives +and desperate men shall instinctively turn to men from the other +side for that help which, they know full well, the men of the +country are too selfish or cowardly to give. + +May I venture to suggest yet another and very different application +of this name? To the aboriginal inhabitants of heaven, the angels +that kept their first estate, redeemed men are possessors of a +unique experience; and are the 'men from the other side.' They who +entered on their pilgrimage through the Red Sea of conversion, pass +out of it through the Jordan of death. They who become Christ's, by +the great change of yielding their hearts to Him, and who live here +as pilgrims and sojourners, pass dryshod through the stream into His +presence. And there they who have always dwelt in the sunny +highlands of the true Canaan, gather round them, and call them, not +unenvying, perhaps, their experience, 'The men that have crossed.' +The 'Hebrews of the Hebrews' in the heavens are those who have known +what it is to be pilgrims and sojourners, and to whom the promise +has been fulfilled in the last hour of their journey, 'When thou +passest through the river, I will be with thee.' _They_ teach +the angels a new song who sing, 'Thou hast led us through fire and +through water, and brought us into a wealthy place.' + + + + +GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM + + + 'And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now + toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to + number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. + And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him + for righteousness. And He said unto him, I am the Lord + that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give + thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, + whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And He + said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and + a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years + old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took + unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and + laid each piece one against another: but the birds + divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the + carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was + going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an + horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto + Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger + in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and + they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also + that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and + afterward shall they come out with great substance. And + thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be + buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation + they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the + Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, + when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking + furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those + pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with + Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, + from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river + Euphrates.'--GENESIS xv. 5-18. + +1. Abram had exposed himself to dangerous reprisals by his victory +over the confederate Eastern raiders. In the reaction following the +excitement of battle, dread and despondency seem to have shadowed +his soul. Therefore the assurance with which this chapter opens came +to him. It was new, and came in a new form. He is cast into a state +of spiritual ecstasy, and a mighty 'word' sounds, audible to his +inward ear. The form which it takes--'I am thy shield'--suggests +the thought that God shapes His revelation according to the moment's +need. The unwarlike Abram might well dread the return of the +marauders in force, to avenge their defeat. Therefore God speaks to +his fears and present want. Just as to Jacob the angels appeared as +a heavenly camp guarding his undefended tents and helpless women; +so, here and always, God is to us what we most need at the moment, +whether it be comfort, or wisdom, or guidance, or strength. The +manna tasted to each man, as the rabbis say, what he most desired. +God's gifts take the shape of man's necessity. + +Abram had just exercised singular generosity in absolutely refusing +to enrich himself from the spoil. God reveals Himself as 'his +exceeding great reward.' He gives Himself as recompense for all +sacrifices. Whatever is given up at His bidding, 'the Lord is able +to give thee much more than this.' Not outward things, nor even an +outward heaven, is the guerdon of the soul; but a larger possession +of Him who alone fills the heart, and fills the heart alone. Other +riches may be counted, but this is 'exceeding great,' passing +comprehension, and ever unexhausted, and having something over after +all experience. Both these aspects of God's preciousness are true +for earth; but we need a shield only while exposed to attack. In the +land of peace, He is only our reward. + +2. Mark the triumphant faith which wings to meet the divine promise. +The first effect of that great assurance is to deepen Abram's +consciousness of the strange contradiction to it apparently given by +his childlessness. It is not distrust that answers the promise with +a question, but it is eagerness to accept the assurance and +ingenuous utterance of difficulties in the hope of their removal. +God is too wise a father not to know the difference between the +tones of confidence and unbelief, however alike they may sound; and +He is too patient to be angry if we cannot take in all His promise +at once. He breaks it into bits not too large for our lips, as He +does here. The frequent reiterations of the same promises in Abram's +life are not vain. They are a specimen of the unwearied repetition +of our lessons, 'Here a little, there a little,' which our teacher +gives His slow scholars. So, once more, Abram gets the promise of +posterity in still more glorious form. Before, it was likened to the +dust of the earth; now it is as the innumerable stars shining in the +clear Eastern heaven. As he gazes up into the solemn depths, the +immensity and peace of the steadfast sky seems to help him to rise +above the narrow limits and changefulness of earth, and a great +trust floods his soul. Abram had lived by faith ever since he left +Haran; but the historian, usually so silent about the thoughts of +his characters, breaks through his usual manner of narrative to +insert the all-important words which mark an epoch in revelation, +and are, in some aspects, the most significant in the Old Testament. +Abram 'believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for +righteousness.' + +Observe the teaching as to the nature and object of faith in that +first clause. The word rendered 'believed' literally means to steady +oneself by leaning on something. So it gives in a vivid picture more +instructive than many a long treatise what faith is, and what it +does for us. As a man leans his trembling hand on a staff, so we lay +our weak and changeful selves on God's strength; and as the most +mutable thing is steadied by being fastened to a fixed point, so we, +though in ourselves light as thistledown, may be steadfast as rock, +if we are bound to the rock of ages by the living band of faith. The +metaphor makes it plain that faith cannot be merely an intellectual +act of assent, but must include a moral act, that of confidence. +Belief as credence is mainly an affair of the head, but belief as +trust is an act of the will and the affections. + +The object of faith is set in sunlight clearness by these words,--the +first in which Scripture speaks of faith. Abram leaned on 'the Lord.' +It was not the promise, but the promiser, that was truly the object +of Abram's trust. He believed the former, because he trusted Him who +made it. Many confusions in Christian teaching would have been avoided +if it had been always seen that faith grasps a person, not a doctrine, +and that even when the person is revealed by doctrine, it is him, and +not only it, which faith lays hold of. Whether God speaks promises, +teachings of truth, or commandments, faith accepts them, because it +trusts Him. Christ is revealed to us for our faith by the doctrinal +statements of the New Testament. But we must grasp Himself, as so +revealed, if we are to have faith which saves the soul. This same +thought of the true object of faith as personal helps us to understand +the substantial identity of faith in all ages and stages of revelation, +however different the substance of the creeds. Abram knew very little +of God, as compared with our knowledge. But it was the same God whom +Abram trusted, and whom we trust as made known in His Son. Hence we +can stretch out our hands across the ages, and clasp his as partaker +of 'like precious faith.' We walk in the light of the same sun,--he +in its morning beams, we in its noonday glory. There has never been +but one road to God, and that is the road which Abram trod, when 'he +believed in the Lord.' + +3. Mark the full-orbed gospel truth as to the righteousness of faith +which is embedded in this record of early revelation, 'He counted it +to him for righteousness.' A geologist would be astonished if he +came on remains in some of the primary strata which indicated the +existence, in these remote epochs, of species supposed to be of much +more recent date. So here we are startled at finding the peculiarly +New Testament teaching away back in this dim distance. No wonder +that Paul fastened on this verse, which so remarkably breaks the +flow of the narrative, as proof that his great principle of +justification by faith was really the one only law by which, in all +ages, men had found acceptance with God. Long before law or +circumcision, faith had been counted for righteousness. The whole +Mosaic system was a parenthesis; and even in it, whoever had been +accepted had been so because of his trust, not because of his works. +The whole of the subsequent divine dealings with Israel rested on +this act of faith, and on the relation to God into which, through +it, Abram entered. He was not a perfectly righteous man, as some +passages of his life show; but he rose here to the height of loving +and yearning trust in God, and God took that trust in lieu of +perfect conformity to His will. He treated and regarded him as +righteous, as is proved by the covenant which follows. The gospel +takes up this principle, gives us a fuller revelation, presents the +perfect righteousness of Christ as capable of becoming ours by +faith, and so unveils the ground on which Abram and the latest +generations are equally 'accepted in the beloved.' This reckoning of +righteousness to the unrighteous, on condition of their faith, is +not because of any merit in faith. It does not come about in reward +of, but by means of, their faith, which is nothing in itself, but is +the channel only of the blessing. Nor is it a mere arbitrary act of +God's, or an unreal imputing of what is not. But faith unites with +Christ; and 'he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,' so as +that 'in Him we have redemption.' His righteousness becomes ours. +Faith grafts us into the living Vine, and we are no longer regarded +in our poor sinful individual personality, but as members of Christ. +Faith builds us into the rock; but He is a living Stone, and we are +living stones, and the life of the foundation rises up through all +the courses of the great temple. Faith unites sinful men to God in +Christ; therefore it makes them partakers of the 'blessedness of the +man, ... to whom the Lord will not impute sin,' and of the +blessedness of the man to whom the Lord reckons his faith for +righteousness. That same faith which thus clothes us with the white +robe of Christ's righteousness, in lieu of our own tattered raiment, +also is the condition of our becoming righteous by the actual +working out in our character of all things lovely and of good +report. It opens the heart to the entrance of that divine Christ, +who is first made _for_ us, and then, by daily appropriation of +the law of the spirit of life, is made _in_ us, 'righteousness +and sanctification, and redemption.' May all who read these lines +'be found in Him,' having 'that which is through the faith of +Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith!' + +4. Consider the covenant which is the consequence of Abram's faith, +and the proof of his acceptance. + +It is important to observe that the whole remainder of this chapter +is regarded by the writer as the result of Abram's believing God. +The way in which verse 7 and the rest are bolted on, as it were, to +verse 6, clearly shows this. The nearer lesson from this fact is, +that all the Old Testament revelation from this point onward rests +on the foundation of faith. The further lesson, for all times, is +that faith is ever rewarded by more intimate and loving +manifestations of God's friendship, and by fuller disclosure of His +purposes. The covenant is not only God's binding Himself anew by +solemn acts to fulfil His promises already made, but it is His +entering into far sweeter and nearer alliance with Abram than even +He had hitherto had. That name, 'the friend of God,' by which he is +still known over all the Mohammedan world, contains the very essence +of the covenant. In old days men were wont to conclude a bond of +closest amity by cutting their flesh and interchanging the flowing +blood. Henceforth they had, as it were, one life. We have not here +the shedding of Abram's blood, as in the covenant of circumcision. +Still, the slain animals represent the parties to the covenant, and +the notion of a resulting unity of the closest order as between God +and Abram is the very heart of the whole incident. + +The particulars as to the rite by which the covenant was established +are profoundly illuminative. The significant division of the animals +into two shows that they were regarded as representing the +contracting parties, and the passing between them symbolised the +taking up of the obligations of the covenant. This strange rite, +which was widely spread, derives importance from the use of it +probably made in Hebrews ix 16, 17. The new covenant, bringing still +closer friendship and higher blessings, is sealed by the blood of +Christ. He represents both God and man. In His death, may we not say +that the manhood and the Godhead are parted, and we, standing as it +were between them, encompassed by that awful sacrifice, and enclosed +in its mysterious depths, enter into covenant with God, and become +His friends? + +We need not to dwell upon the detailed promises, of which the +covenant was the seal. They are simply the fuller expansion of those +already made, but now confirmed by more solemn guarantees. The new +relation of familiar friendship, established by the covenant itself, +is the main thing. It was fitting that God's friend should be in the +secret of His purposes. 'The servant knoweth not what his lord +doeth,' but the friend does. And so we have here the assurance that +faith will pierce to the discernment of much of the mind of God, +which is hid from sense and the wisdom of this world. If we would +know, we must believe. We may be 'men of God's counsel,' and see +deeply into the realities of the present, and far ahead into what +will then become the certainties of the future, if only we live by +faith in the secret place of the Most High, and, like John, lean so +close on the Master's bosom that we can hear His lowest whisper. + +Notice, too, the lessons of the smoking furnace and the blazing +torch. They are like the pillar of fire and cloud. Darkness and +light; a heart of fire and a wrapping of darkness,--these are not +symbols of Israel and its checkered fate, as Dean Stanley thinks, +but of the divine presence: they proclaim the double aspect of all +divine manifestations, the double element in the divine nature. He +can never be completely known; He is never completely hid. Ever does +the lamp flame; ever around it the smoke wreathes. In all His self- +revelation is 'the hiding of His power'; after all revelation He +dwelleth 'in the thick darkness.' Only the smoke is itself fire, but +not illumined to our vision. The darkness is light inaccessible. +Much that was 'smoke' to Abram has caught fire, and is 'light' to +us. But these two elements will ever remain; and throughout eternity +God will be unknown, and yet well known, pouring Himself in ever- +growing radiance on our eyes, and yet 'the King invisible.' + +Nor is this all the teaching of the symbol. It speaks of that +twofold aspect of the divine nature, by which to hearts that love He +is gladsome light, and to unloving ones He is threatening darkness. +As to the Israelites the pillar was light, and to the Egyptians +darkness and terror; so the same God is joy to some, and dread to +others. 'What maketh heaven, that maketh hell.' Light itself can +become the source of pain the most exquisite, if the eye is +diseased. God Himself cannot but be a torment to men who love +darkness rather than light. Love and wrath, life and death, a God +who pities and who cannot but judge, are solemnly proclaimed by that +ancient symbol, and are plainly declared to us in the perfect +revelation in Christ Jesus. + +Observe, too, the manner of the ratification of the covenant. The +symbol of the Divine presence passed between the pieces. No mention +is made of Abram's doing so. Why this one-sided covenant? Because +God's gracious dealings with men are one-sided. He seeks no oaths +from us; He does not exchange blessings for our gifts. His covenant +is the free result of His unmotived love, and is ratified by a +solemn sacrifice, which we do not offer. We have nothing to do but +to take what He gives. All ideas of barter and bargain are far from +Him. Our part is but to embrace His covenant, which is complete and +ratified whether we embrace it or not. What a wonderful thought that +is of a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God! We do not hear +so much of it as our fathers did. The more is the pity. It means +that God has, as it were, buoyed out across the boundless ocean of +His possible modes of action a plain course, which He binds Himself +to keep; that He has frankly let us into the very secret of His +doings; that He has stooped to use human forms of assurance to make +it easier to trust Him; that He has confirmed His promise by a +mighty sacrifice. Therefore we may enter into closest friendship +with Him, and take for our own the exultant swan-song of Abram's +royal son: 'Although my house be not so with God [although my life +be stained, and my righteousness unfit to be offered to His pure +eyes]; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in +all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my +desire.' + + + + +THE WORD THAT SCATTERS FEAR + + + 'Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding + great reward.' + GENESIS XV. 1. + + +I + + +Abram was now apparently about eighty-five years old. He had been +fourteen years in Palestine, and had, for the only time in his life, +quite recently been driven to have recourse to arms against a +formidable league of northern kings, whom, after a swift forced +march from the extreme south to the extreme north of the land, he +had defeated. He might well fear attack from their overwhelmingly +superior forces. So this vision, like all God's words, fits closely +to moments needs, but is also for all time and all men. + +1. The call to conquer fear. + +Fear not.--(_a_) There is abundant reason for fear in facts of +life. There are so many certain evils, and so many possible evils, +that any man who is not a feather-brained fool must sometimes quail. + +(_b_) Reasons for fear in our relations to divine law. + +(_c_) The only rational way of conquering fears is by showing +them to be unfounded. It is waste of breath to say, Don't be afraid, +and to do nothing to remove the occasions of fear. It is childish to +try to get rid of fears by shutting the eyes tight and refusing to +look formidable facts in the face. + +(_d_) The revelation of God is the true antidote to fear. + +(_e_) 'Fear not' is the characteristic word of divine +revelation. It is of frequent occurrence from Abraham till John in +Patmos. + +2. The ground of the call in the Revelation of God as Shield. + + (_a_) As to outward evils, His protection assures us, not of +absolute exemption, but of His entire control of them, so that men +and circumstances are His instruments, and His will only is +powerful. Chedorlaomer and all the allied kings are nothing; 'a +noise,' as the prophet said of a later conqueror. All the bitterness +and terror is taken out of evil. If any fiery dart pass through the +shield, all its poison is wiped off in passage. So there remains no +reason for fear, since all things work together for good. Behind +that shield we are safe as diver in his bell, though seas rave and +sea-monsters swim around. + +(_b_) As to inward evils, our Shield assures us of absolute +exemption. 'Shield of faith.' Faith is shield because it takes hold +of God's strength. + +3. The ground of the call in the Revelation of God as Reward. +Abraham had refused all share in booty, a large sacrifice, and here +he is promised, A Reward in God, _i.e._ He gives Himself in +recompense for all sacrifices in path of duty. 'The Lord is able to +give thee much more than these.' This promise opens out to general +truth that God Himself is the true reward of a devout life. There +are many recompenses for all sacrifices for God, some of them +outward and material, some of them inward and spiritual, but the reward +which surpasses all others is that by such sacrifices we attain to +greater capacity for God, and therefore possess more of Him. This is +the only Reward worth thinking of--God only satisfies the soul. With +Him we are rich; without Him poor; 'exceeding great'--'riches in +glory,' transcending all measure. The revelations of God as Shield +and Reward are both given in reference to the present life, but the +former applies only to earth, where 'without are fighters, within are +fears'; while 'the latter is mainly true for heaven, where those +who have fought, having God for their Shield, will possess Him for +their Reward, in a measure and manner which will make all earthly +experiences seem poor. Here the 'heirs of God' get subsistence money, +which is a small instalment of their inheritance; there they enter +into possession of it all. + + +II + + +Many years have passed since Abram was called to go forth from his +father's house, assured that God would make of him a great nation. +They had been years of growing power. He has been dwelling at Mamre, +as a prince among the people of the land, a power. There sweeps down +on Southern Palestine the earliest of those invasions from the vast +plains of the North which afterwards for generations were the +standing dread of Abram's descendants. Like the storm pillars in +their own deserts, are these wild marauders with the wild names that +never appear again in the history. Down on the rich valleys and +peaceful pasture lands they swoop for booty, not for conquest. Like +some sea-bird, they snatch their prey and away. They carry with them +among the long train of captives Abram's ungenerous brother-in-law, +Lot. Then the friend of God, the father of the faithful, musters his +men, like an Arab sheikh as he was, and swiftly follows the track of +the marauders over the hills of Samaria, and across the plain of +Jezreel. The night falls, and down he swoops upon them and scatters +them. Coming back he had interviews with the King of Sodom, when he +refuses to take any of the spoil, and with Melchizedek. Abram is +back at Mamre. How natural that fear and depression should seize +him: the reaction from high excitement; the dread that from the +swarming East vengeance would come for his success in that night +surprise; the thought that if it did, he was a wandering stranger in +a strange land and could not count on allies. Then there would come, +perhaps, the remembrance of how long God had delayed the very +beginnings of the fulfilment, 'Seeing I go childless.' + +To this mood of mind the divine vision is addressed. 'Fear not--I am +thy shield' whatever force comes against thee, 'and thine exceeding +great reward,'--perhaps in reference to his refusal to take +anything from the spoil. But God says this to us all. In these +antique words the very loftiest and purest principles of spiritual +religion are set forth. + +He that loves and trusts God possesses God. + +He that possesses God has enough for earth. + +He that possesses God has enough for heaven. + +1. It is possible for a man to have God for his. 'I am thy Reward,'--not +merely Rewarder, but Reward. + +How can one spiritual Being belong to another?--plainly, By mutual +love. + +The Gospel assures us of God's love, and makes it possible for ours +to be fixed on Him. + +Faith gives us God for ours. + +The highest view of the blessings of the Gospel is that God Himself +becomes our reward. + +How sad the insanity of men appears, in the ordinary aims of their +life, its rewards and its objects of desire! How they chase after +variety! + +How much loftier and truer a conception of the blessing of religion +this is than notions of mere escape and the like! + +2. The possession of God is enough for earth. + +God the all-sufficient object for our spirits, His love, the +communication of Himself, the sense of His presence, the depths of +His infinite character, of His wondrous ways, of His revealed Truth +as an object for thought: of His authoritative will as imperative +for will and conscience: aspiration towards Him. + +God the Eternal Object. + +To find Him in everything, and everything in Him, is to be at rest. + +This is what He promises-- + +Not a life of outward success and ease--much nobler than if He did. + +Take Abram's as a type. + +In war He will be our Defence. + +In absence of other joys He will be Enough. + +Sphered and included in Him is all sweetness. He sustains all +relations, and does for us what these other joys and goods partially +do. + +The possession of His love should put away all fear, since having +Him we are not at the mercy of externals. + +What, then, is Life as men ordinarily make it?--what a blunder! + +3. To possess God is enough for heaven. + +Such a relationship is the great proof of immortality. + +Christ and Sadducees. + +The true glory of heaven is in fuller possession of God: no doubt +other things, but these subsidiary. + +The Reward is God. + +The idea of recompense ample and full for all sorrow. + +More than adequate wages for all work. + +That final reward will show how wise the wanderer was, who left his +father's house and 'looked for a city.' God is not ashamed to be +called their God. + +Christ comes to us--offers Himself. + +Think of how rich with Him, and oh, think of how poor without Him! + +Which will you have on earth? + +Which will you have in another world? + + + + +FAITH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS + + + 'And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him + for righteousness.' + GENESIS XV. 6. + +It is remarkable to find this anticipation of New Testament teaching +so far back. It is like finding one full-blown flower in a garden +where all else is but swelling into bud. No wonder that Paul +fastened on it to prove that justification by faith was older than +Moses, than law or circumcision, that his teaching was the real +original, and that faith lay at the foundation of the Old Testament +religion. + +1. The Nature of Faith.--The metaphor in the Hebrew word is that of +a man leaning all his weight on some strong stay. Surely that +metaphor says more than many definitions. It teaches that the +essence of faith is absolute reliance, and that unites us with Him +on whom we rely. Its result will be steadfastness. We are weak, +mobile, apt to be driven hither and thither, but light things lashed +to fixed things become fixed. So 'reeds shaken with wind' are +changed into iron pillars. + +2. The Object of Faith.--'Lord.' It is a Person, not the promise but +the Promiser. Of course, reliance on the Person results in +acceptance of His word, and here it is God's word as to the future. +Our faith has to do with the future, but also with the past. Its +object is Christ, the historic Christ, the living Christ, the Christ +who will come again. How clear the nature of faith becomes when its +object is clear! It cannot be mere assent, but trust. How clear +becomes its identity in all ages! The creeds may be different in +completeness, but the object of faith is the same, and the emotion +is the same. + +3. The effect of Faith.--Righteous is conformity to the will of God. +Abram was not righteous, but he yielded himself to God and trusted +Him, and God accepted that as the equivalent of righteousness. The +acceptance was shown by the Covenant, and by the fulfilment of the +promises. + +So here is the great truth that faith is accepted for righteous. It +is rightly regarded and treated as righteous, by the estimate of +God, who estimates things as they really are. It _is_ righteousness, +for-- + +(_a_) Faith is itself a supreme act of righteousness, as being +accordant with God's supreme desire for man. + +(_b_) Faith unites with Christ the righteous. + +(_c_) Faith will blossom out into all righteousness. + + + + +WAITING FAITH REWARDED AND STRENGTHENED BY NEW REVELATIONS + + + 'And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord + appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty + God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will + make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply + thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God + talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant + is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. + Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy + name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have + I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and + I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of + thee. And I will establish My covenant between Me and + thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an + everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy + seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy + seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, + all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; + and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou + shalt keep My covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed + after thee In their generations.' + GENESIS xvii. 1-9. + +Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He was ninety- +nine when God appeared to him, as recorded in this chapter. There +had been three divine communications in these twenty-five years--one +at Bethel on entering the land, one after the hiving off of Lot, and +one after the battle with the Eastern kings. The last-named vision +had taken place before Ishmael's birth, and therefore more than +thirteen years prior to the date of the lesson. + +We are apt to think of Abraham's life as being crowded with +supernatural revelations. We forget the foreshortening necessary in +so brief a sketch of so long a career, which brings distant points +close together. Revelations were really but thinly sown in Abram's +life. For something over thirteen years he had been left to walk by +faith, and, no doubt, had felt the pressure of things seen, silently +pushing the unseen out of his life. + +Especially would this be the case as Ishmael grew up, and his +father's heart began to cling to him. The promise was beginning to +grow dimmer, as years passed without the birth of the promised heir. +As verse 18 of this chapter shows, Abram's thoughts were turning to +Ishmael as a possible substitute. His wavering confidence was +steadied and quickened by this new revelation. We, too, are often +tempted to think that, in the highest matters, 'a bird in the hand +is worth two in the bush,' and to wish that God would be content +with our Ishmaels, which satisfy us, and would not withdraw us from +possessed good, to make us live by hope of good unseen. We need to +reflect on this vision when we are thus tempted. + +1. Note the revelation of God's character, and of our consequent +duty, which preceded the repetition of the covenant. 'I am the +Almighty God.' The aspect of the divine nature, made prominent in +each revelation of Himself, stands in close connection with the +circumstances or mental state of the recipient. So when God appeared +to Abram after the slaughter of the kings, He revealed Himself as +'thy Shield' with reference to the danger of renewed attack from the +formidable powers which He had bearded and beaten. In the present +case the stress is laid on God's omnipotence, which points to doubts +whispering in Abram's heart, by reason of God's delay in fulfilling +His word, and of his own advancing years and failing strength. Paul +brings out the meaning of the revelation when he glorifies the faith +which it kindled anew in Abram, 'being fully assured that, what He +had promised, He was able also to perform' (Rom. iv. 21). Whenever +our 'faith has fallen asleep' and we are ready to let go our hold of +God's ideal and settle down on the low levels of the actual, or to +be somewhat ashamed of our aspirations after what seems so slow of +realisation, or to elevate prudent calculations of probability above +the daring enthusiasms of Christian hope, the ancient word, that +breathed itself into Abram's hushed heart, should speak new vigour +into ours. 'I am the Almighty God--take My power into all thy +calculations, and reckon certainties with it for the chief factor. +The one impossibility is that any word of Mine should fail. The one +imprudence is to doubt My word.' + +What follows in regard to our duty from that revelation? 'Walk +before Me, and be thou perfect.' Enoch walked _with_ God; that +is, his whole active life was passed in communion with Him. The idea +conveyed by 'walking _before_ God' is not precisely the same. +It is rather that of an active life, spent in continual +consciousness of being 'naked and opened before the eyes of Him to +whom we have to give account.' That thrilling consciousness will not +paralyse nor terrify, if we feel that we are not only 'ever in the +great Task-Master's eye,' but that God's omniscience is all-knowing +love, and is brought closer to our hearts and clothed in gracious +tenderness in Christ whose 'eyes were as a flame of fire,' but whose +love is more ardent still, who knows us altogether, and pities and +loves as perfectly as He knows. + +What sort of life will spring from the double realisation of God's +almightiness, and of our being ever before Him? 'Be thou perfect.' +Nothing short of immaculate conformity with His will can satisfy His +gaze. His desire for us should be our aim and desire for ourselves. +The standard of aspiration and effort cannot be lowered to meet +weakness. This is nobility of life--to aim at the unattainable, and +to be ever approximating towards our aim. It is more blessed to be +smitten with the longing to win the unwon than to stagnate in +ignoble contentment with partial attainments. Better to climb, with +faces turned upwards to the inaccessible peak, than to lie at ease +in the fat valleys! It is the salt of life to have our aims set +fixedly towards ideal perfection, and to say, 'I count not myself to +have apprehended: but ... I press toward the mark.' _Toward_ +that mark is better than _to_ any lower. Our moral perfection +is, as it were, the reflection in humanity of the divine +almightiness. + +The wide landscape may be mirrored in an inch of glass. Infinity may +be, in some manner, presented in miniature in finite natures. Our +power cannot represent God's omnipotence, but our moral perfection +may, especially since that omnipotence is pledged to make us perfect +if we will walk before Him. + +2. Note the sign of the renewed covenant. Compliance with these +injunctions is clearly laid down as the human condition of the +divine fulfilment of it. 'Be thou perfect' comes first; 'My covenant +is with thee' follows. There was contingency recognised from the +beginning. If Israel broke the covenant, God was not unfaithful if +He should not adhere to it. But the present point is that a new +confirmation is given before the terms are repeated. The main +purpose, then, of this revelation, did not lie in that repetition, +but in the seal given to Abram by the change of name. + +Another sign was also given, which had a wider reference. The change +of name was God's seal to His part. Circumcision was the seal of the +other party, by which Abram, his family, and afterwards the nation, +took on themselves the obligations of the compact. + +The name bestowed is taken to mean 'Father of a Multitude.' It was +the condensation into a word, of the divine promise. What a trial of +Abram's faith it was to bid him take a name which would sound in +men's ears liker irony than promise! He, close on a hundred years +old, with but one child, who was known not to be the heir, to be +called the father of many! How often Canaanites and his own +household would smile as they used it! What a piece of senile +presumption it would seem to them! How often Abram himself would be +tempted to think his new name a farce rather than a sign! But he +took it humbly from God, and he wore it, whether it brought ridicule +from others or assurance in his own heart. It takes some courage for +any of us to call ourselves by names which rest on God's promise and +seem to have little vindication in present facts. The world is fond +of laughing at 'saints,' but Christians should familiarise +themselves with the lofty designations which God gives His children, +and see in them not only a summons to life corresponding, but a +pledge and prophecy of the final possession of all which these +imply. God calls 'things that are not, as though they were'; and it +is wisdom, faith, and humility--not presumption--which accepts the +names as omens of what shall one day be. + +The substance of the covenant is mainly identical with previous +revelations. The land is to belong to Abram's seed. That seed is to +be very numerous. But there is new emphasis placed on God's relation +to Abram's descendants. God promises to be 'a God unto thee, and to +thy seed after thee,' and, again, 'I will be their God' (verses 7, +8). That article of the old covenant is repeated in the new (Jer. +xxxi. 33), with the addition, 'And they shall be My people,' which +is really involved in it. We do not read later more spiritual ideas +into the words, when we find in them here, at the very beginning of +Hebrew monotheism, an insight into the deep truth of the reciprocal +possession of God by us, and of us by God. What a glimpse into the +depths of that divine heart is given, when we see that we are His +possession, precious to Him above all the riches of earth and the +magnificences of heaven! What a lesson as to the inmost blessedness +of religion, when we learn that it takes God for its very own, and +is rich in possessing Him, whatever else may be owned or lacking! + +To possess God is only possible on condition of yielding ourselves +to Him. When we give ourselves up, in heart, mind, and will, to be +His, He is ours. When we cease to be our own, we get God for ours. +The self-centred man is poor; he neither owns himself nor anything +besides, in any deep sense. When we lose ourselves in God, we find +ourselves, and being content to have nothing, and not even to be our +own masters or owners, we possess ourselves more truly than ever, +and have God for our portion, and in Him 'all things are ours.' + + + + +A PETULANT WISH + + + 'And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live + before Thee! + GENESIS xvii. 18. + +These words sound very devout, and they have often been used by +Christian parents yearning for the best interests of their children, +and sometimes of their wayward and prodigal children. But +consecrated as they are by that usage, I am afraid that their +meaning, as they were uttered, was nothing so devout and good as +that which is often attached to them. + +1. Note the temper in which Abraham speaks here. The very existence +of Ishmael was a memorial of Abraham's failure in faith and +patience. For he thought that the promised heir was long in coming, +and so he thought that he would help God. For thirteen years the +child had been living beside him, winding a son's way into a +father's heart, with much in his character, as was afterwards seen, +that would make a frank, daring boy his old father's darling. Then +all at once comes the divine message, 'This is not the son of the +Covenant; this is not the heir of the Promise. Sarah shall have a +child, and from him shall come the blessings that have been +foretold.' And what does Abraham do? Fall down in thankfulness +before God? leap up in heart at the conviction that now at last the +long-looked-for fulfilment of the oath of God was impending? Not he. +'O that _Ishmael_ might live before Thee. Why cannot _he_ do? Why may +he not be the chosen child, the heir of the Promise? Take him, O God!' + +That is to say, he thinks he knows better than God. He is petulant, +he resists his blessing, he fancies that his own plan is quite as +good as the divine plan. He does not want to draw away his heart +from the child that it has twined round. So he loses the blessing of +the revelation that is being made to him; because he does not bow +his will, and accept God's way instead of his own. Now, do you not +think that that is what we do? When God sends us Isaac, do we not +often say, 'Take Ishmael; he is my own making. I have set all my +hopes on him. Why should I have to wrench them all away?' In our +individual lives we want to prescribe to God, far too often, not +only the _ends_, but the _way_ in which we shall get to the ends; and +we think to ourselves, 'That road of my own engineering that I have +got all staked out, that is the true way for God's providence to take.' +And when His path does not coincide with ours, then we are discontented, +and instead of submitting we go with our pet schemes to Him; and if +not in so many words, at least in spirit and temper, we try to force +our way upon God, and when He is speaking about Isaac insist on pressing +Ishmael on His notice. + +It is often so in regard to our individual lives; and it is so in +regard to the united action of Christian people very often. A great +deal of what calls itself earnest contending for 'the faith once +delivered to the saints' is nothing more nor less than insisting +that methods of men's devising shall be continued, when God seems to +be substituting for them methods of His own sending; and so fighting +about externals and church polity, and determining that the world +has got to be saved in my own special fashion, and in no other, +though God Himself seems to be suggesting the new thing to me. That +is a very frequent phenomenon in the experience of Christian +communities and churches. Ishmael is so very dear. He is not the +child of promise, but he is the child that we have thought it +advisable to help God with. It is hard for us to part with him. + +Dear brethren, sometimes, too, God comes to us in various +providences, and not only reduces into chaos and a heap of confusion +our nicely built-up little houses, but He sometimes comes to us, and +lifts us out of some lower kind of good, which is perfectly +satisfactory to us, or all but perfectly satisfactory, in order to +give to us something nobler and higher. And we resist that too; and +do not see why Ishmael should not serve God's turn as he has served +ours; or think that there is no need at all for Isaac to come into +our lives. God never takes away from us a lower, unless for the +purpose of bestowing upon us a higher blessing. Therefore not to +submit is the foolishest thing that men can do. + +But if that be anything like an account of the temper expressed by +this saying, is it not strange that murmuring against God takes the +shape of praying? Ah! there is a great deal of 'prayer' as it calls +itself, which is just moulded upon this petulant word of Abraham's +momentarily failing faith and submission. How many people think that +to pray means to bring their wishes to God, and try to coax Him to +make them His wishes! Why, half the shallow sceptical talk of this +generation about the worthlessness of prayer goes upon that +fundamental fallacy that the notion of prayer is to dictate terms to +God; and that unless a man gets his wishes answered he has no right +to suppose that his prayers are answered. But it is not so. Prayer +is not after the type of 'O that Ishmael might live before Thee!' +That is a poor kind of prayer of which the inmost spirit is +resistance to a clear dictate of the divine will; but the true +prayer is, 'O that I may be willing to take what Thou art willing, +in Thy mercy and love, to send!' + +I believe in importunate prayer, but I believe also that a great deal +of what calls itself importunate prayer is nothing more than an obstinate +determination not to be satisfied with what satisfies God. If a man +has been bringing his wishes--and he cannot but have such--continuously +to God, with regard to any outward things, and these have not been +answered, he needs to look very carefully into his own temper and heart +in order to make sure that what seems to be waiting upon God in +importunate petition is not pestering Him with refused desires. To make +a prayer out of my rebellion against His will is surely the greatest +abuse of prayer that can be conceived. And when Abraham said, 'O that +Ishmael might live before Thee!' if he said it in the spirit in which I +think he did, he was not praying, but he was grumbling. + +2. And then notice, still further, how such a temper and such a +prayer have the effect of hiding joy and blessing from us. + +This was the crisis of Abraham's whole life. It was the moment at +which his hundred years nearly of patient waiting were about to be +rewarded. The message which he had just received was the most lovely +and gracious word that ever had come to him from the heavens, +although many such words had come. And what does he do with it? +Instead of falling down before God, and letting his whole heart go +out in jubilant gratitude, he has nothing to say but 'I would rather +that Thou didst it in another way. It is all very well to speak +about sending this heir of promise. I have no pleasure in that, +because it means that my Ishmael is to be passed by and shelved.' So +the proffered joy is turned to ashes, and Abraham gets no good, for +the moment, out of God's greatest blessing to him; but all the sky +is darkened by mists that come up from his own heart. + +Brethren, if you want to be miserable, perk up your own will against +God's. If you want to be blessed, acquiesce in all that He does +send, in all that He has sent, and, by anticipation, in all that He +will send. For, depend upon it, the secret of finding sunbeams in +everything is simply letting God have His own way, and making your +will the sounding-board and echo of His. If Abraham had done as he +ought to have done, that would have been the gladdest moment of his +life. You and I can make out of our deepest sorrows the occasions of +pure, though it is quiet, gladness, if only we have learned to say, +'Not my will, but Thy will be done.' That is the talisman that turns +everything into gold, and makes sorrow forget its nature, and almost +approximate to solemn joy. + +3. My last word is this: God loves us all too well to listen to such +a prayer. + +Abraham's passionate cry was so much empty wind, and was like a +straw laid across the course of an express train, in so far as its +power to modify the gracious purpose of God already declared was +concerned. And would it not be a miserable thing if we could deflect +the solemn, loving march of the divine Providence by these hot, +foolish, purblind wishes of ours, that see only the nearer end of +things, and have no notion of where their further end may go, or +what it may be? + +Is it not better that we should fall back upon this thought, though, +at first sight, it seems so to limit the power of petition, 'We know +that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us'? There +is nothing that would more wreck our lives than if what some people +want were to be the case--that God should let us have our own way, +and give us serpents because we asked for them and fancied they were +eggs; or let us break our teeth upon bestowed stones because, like +whimpering children crying for the moon, we had asked for them under +the delusion that they were bread. + +Leave all that in His hands; and be sure of this, that the true way +to peace, to rest, to gladness, and to wringing the last drop of +possible sweetness out of gifts and losses, disappointments and +fruitions, is to have no will but God's will enthroned above and in +our own wills. If Abraham had acquiesced and submitted, Ishmael and +Isaac would have been a pair to bless his life, as they stood +together over his grave. And if you and I will leave God to order +all our ways, and not try to interfere with His purposes by our +short-sighted dictation, 'all things will work together for good to +us, because we love God,' and lovingly accept His will and His law. + + + + +'BECAUSE OF HIS IMPORTUNITY' + + + 'And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward + Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the + way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that + thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become + a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the + earth shall be blessed in him! For I know him, that he + will command his children and his household after him, + and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice + and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that + which He hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because + the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because + their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see + whether they have done altogether according to the cry + of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know. + And the men turned their faces from thence, and went + toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. + And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt Thou also destroy + the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be + fifty righteous within the city: wilt Thou also destroy + and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that + are therein? That be far from Thee to do after this + manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that + the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from + Thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? + And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous + within the city, then I will spare all the place for + their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, + I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am + but dust and ashes: Peradventure there shall lack five + of the fifty righteous: wilt Thou destroy all the city + for lack of five? And He said, If I find there forty + and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto Him + yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty + found there. And He said, I will not do it for forty's + sake. And he said unto Him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, + and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be + found there. And He said, I will not do it, if I find + thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon + me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be + twenty found there. And He said, I will not destroy it + for twenty's sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be + angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure + ten shall be found there. And He said, I will not destroy + it for ten's sake. And the Lord went His way, as soon as + He had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned + unto his place.'--GENESIS xviii. 16-33. + + +I + + +The first verse of this chapter says that 'the Lord appeared' unto +Abraham, and then proceeds to tell that 'three men stood over +against him,' thus indicating that these were, collectively, the +manifestation of Jehovah. Two of the three subsequently 'went toward +Sodom,' and are called 'angels' in chapter xix. 1. One remained with +Abraham, and is addressed by him as 'Lord,' but the three are +similarly addressed in verse 3. The inference is that Jehovah +appeared, not only in the one 'man' who spake with Abraham, but also +in the two who went to Sodom. + +In this incident we have, first, God's communication of His purpose +to Abraham. He was called the friend of God, and friends confide in +each other. 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,' and +it is ever true that they who live in amity and communion with God +thereby acquire insight into His purposes. Even in regard to public +or so-called 'political' events, a man who believes in God and His +moral government will often be endowed with a 'terrible sagacity,' +which forecasts consequences more surely than do godless +politicians. In regard to one's own history, it is still more +evidently true that the one way to apprehend God's purposes in it is +to keep in close friendship with Him. Then we shall see the meaning +of the else bewildering whirl of events, and be able to say, 'He +that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.' But the reason +assigned for intrusting Abraham with the knowledge of God's purpose +is to be noted. It was because of his place as the medium of +blessing to the nations, and as the lawgiver to his descendants. God +had 'known him,'--that is, had lovingly brought him into close +relations with Himself, not for his own sake only, but, much more, +that he might be a channel of grace to Israel and the world. His +'commandment' to his descendants was to lead to their worship of +Jehovah and their upright living, and these again to their +possession of the blessings promised to Abraham. That purpose would +be aided by the knowledge of the judgment on Sodom, its source, and +its cause, and therefore Abraham was admitted into the council- +chamber of Jehovah. The insight given to God's friends is given that +they may more fully benefit men by leading them into paths of +righteousness, on which alone they can be met by God's blessings. + +The strongly figurative representation in verses 20, 21, according +to which Jehovah goes down to ascertain whether the facts of Sodom's +sin correspond to the report of it, belongs to the early stage of +revelation, and need not surprise us, but should impress on us the +gradual character of the divine Revelation, which would have been +useless unless it had been accommodated to the mental and spiritual +stature of its recipients. Nor should it hide from us the lofty +conception of God's long-suffering justice, which is presented in so +childlike a form. He does 'not judge after ... the hearing of His +ears,' nor smite without full knowledge of the sin. A later stage of +revelation puts the same thought in language less strange to us, +when it teaches that 'the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him +actions are weighed,' and in His balances many a false estimate, +both of virtuous and vicious acts, is corrected, and retribution is +always exactly adjusted to the deed. + +But the main importance of the incident is in the wonderful picture +of Abraham's intercession, which, in like manner, veils, under a +strangely sensuous representation, lofty truths for all ages. It is +to be noted that the divine purpose expressed in 'I will go down +now, and see,' is fulfilled in the going of the two (men or angels) +towards Sodom; therefore Jehovah was in them. But He was also in the +One before whom Abraham stood. The first great truth enshrined in +this part of the story is that the friend of God is compassionate +even of the sinful and degraded. Abraham did not intercede for Lot, +but for the sinners in Sodom. He had perilled his life in warfare +for them; he now pleads with God for them. Where had he learned this +brave pity? Where but from the God with whom he lived by faith? How +much more surely will real communion with Jesus lead _us_ to +look on all men, and especially on the vicious and outcast, with His +eyes who saw the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd, torn, +panting, scattered, and lying exhausted and defenceless! +Indifference to the miseries and impending dangers of Christless men +is impossible for any whom He calls 'not servants, but friends.' + +Again, we are taught the boldness of pleading which is permitted to +the friend of God, and is compatible with deepest reverence. Abraham +is keenly conscious of his audacity, and yet, though he knows +himself to be but dust and ashes, that does not stifle his +petitions. His was the holy 'importunity' which Jesus sent forth for +our imitation. The word so rendered in Luke xi. 8, which is found in +the New Testament there only, literally means 'shamelessness,' and +is exactly the disposition which Abraham showed here. Not only was +he persistent, but he increased his expectations with each partial +granting of his prayer. The more God gives, the more does the true +suppliant expect and crave; and rightly so, for the gift to be given +is infinite, and each degree of possession enlarges capacity so as +to fit to receive more, and widens desire. What contented us to-day +should not content us to-morrow. + +Again, Abraham is bold in appealing to a law to which God is bound +to conform. 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' is +often quoted with an application foreign to its true meaning. +Abraham was not preaching to men trust that the most perplexing acts +of God would be capable of full vindication if we knew all, but he +was pleading with God that His acts should be plainly accordant with +the idea of justice planted by Him in us. The phrase is often used +to strengthen the struggling faith that + + 'All is right which seems most wrong, + If it be His sweet will.' + +But it means not 'Such and such a thing must be right because God +has done it,' but 'Such and such a thing is right, therefore God +must do it.' Of course, our conceptions of right are not the +absolute measure of the divine acts, and the very fact which Abraham +thought contrary to justice is continually exemplified in +Providence, that 'the righteous should be as the wicked' in regard +to earthly calamities affecting communities. So far Abraham was +wrong, but the spirit of his remonstrance was wholly right. + +Again, we learn the precious lesson that prayer for others is a real +power, and does bring down blessings and avert evils. Abraham did +not here pray for Lot, but yet 'God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot +out of the midst of the overthrow'(chap. xix. 29), so that there had +been unrecorded intercession for him too. The unselfish desires for +others, that exhale from human hearts under the influence of the +love which Christ plants in us, do come down in blessings on others, +as the moisture drawn up by the sun may descend in fructifying rain +on far-off pastures of the wilderness. We help one another when we +pray for one another. + +The last lesson taught is that 'righteous' men are indeed the 'salt +of the earth' not only preserving cities and nations from further +corruption, but procuring for them further existence and probation. +God holds back His judgments so long as hope of amendment survives, +and 'will not destroy for the ten's sake.' + + + + +THE INTERCOURSE OF GOD AND HIS FRIEND + + +II + + +We have seen that the fruit of Abraham's faith was God's entrance +into close covenant relations with him; or, as James puts it, 'It +was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the +friend of God.' This incident shows us the intercourse of the divine +and human friends in its familiarity, mutual confidence, and power. +It is a forecast of Christ's own profound teachings in His parting +words in the upper chamber, concerning the sweet and wondrous +intercourse between the believing soul and the indwelling God. + +1. The friend of God catches a gleam of divine pity and tenderness. +Abraham has no relations with the men of Sodom. Their evil ways +would repel him; and he would be a stranger among them still more +than among the Canaanites, whose iniquity was 'not yet full.' But +though he has no special bonds with them, he cannot but melt with +tender compassion when he hears their doom. Communion with the very +Source of all gentle love has softened his heart, and he yearns over +the wicked and fated city. Where else than from his heavenly Friend +could he have learned this sympathy? It wells up in this chapter +like some sudden spring among solemn solitudes--the first instance +of that divine charity which is the best sign that we have been with +God, and have learned of Him. All that the New Testament teaches of +love to God, as necessarily issuing in love to man, and of the true +love to man as overleaping all narrow bounds of kindred, country, +race, and ignoring all questions of character, and gushing forth in +fullest energy towards the sinners in danger of just punishment, is +here in germ. The friend of God must be the friend of men; and if +they be wicked, and he sees the frightful doom which they do not +see, these make his pity the deeper. Abraham does not contest the +justice of the doom. He lives too near his friend not to know that +sin must mean death. The effect of friendship with God is not to +make men wish that there were no judgments for evil-doers, but to +touch their hearts with pity, and to stir them to intercession and +to effort for their deliverance. + +2. The friend of God has absolute trust in the rectitude of His +acts. Abraham's remonstrance, if we may call it so, embodies some +thoughts about the government of God in the world which should be +pondered. + +His first abrupt question, flung out without any reverential +preface, assumes that the character of God requires that the fate of +the righteous should be distinguished from that of the wicked. The +very brusqueness of the question shows that he supposed himself to +be appealing to an elementary and indubitable law of God's dealings. +The teachings of the Fall and of the Flood had graven deep on his +conscience the truth that the same loving Friend must needs deal out +rewards to the good and chastisement to the bad. That was the simple +faith of an early time, when problems like those which tortured the +writers of the seventy-third Psalm, or of Job and Ecclesiastes, had +not yet disturbed the childlike trust of the friend of God, because +no facts in his experience had forced them on him. But the belief +which was axiomatic to him, and true for his supernaturally shaped +life with its special miracles and visible divine guard, is not the +ultimate and irrefragable principle which he thought it. In +widespread calamities the righteous are blended with the wicked in +one bloody ruin; and it is the very misery of such judgments that +often the sufferers are not the wrongdoers, but that the fathers eat +the sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. The +whirlwind of temporal judgments makes no distinctions between the +dwellings of the righteous and the wicked, but levels them both. No +doubt, the fact that the impending destruction was to be a direct +Divine interposition of a punitive kind made it more necessary that +it should be confined to the actual culprits. No doubt, too, +Abraham's zeal for the honour of God's government was right. But his +first plea belongs to the stage of revelation at which he stood, not +to that of the New Testament, which teaches that the eighteen on +whom the tower in Siloam fell were not sinners above all men in +Jerusalem. Abraham's confidence in God's justice, not Abraham's +conceptions of what that justice required, is to be imitated. A +friend of God will hold fast by the faith that 'His way is perfect,' +and will cherish it even in the presence of facts more perplexing +than any which met Abraham's eyes. + +Another assumption in his prayer is that the righteous are sources +of blessing and shields for the wicked. Has he there laid hold of a +true principle? Certainly, it is indeed the law that 'every man +shall bear his own burden,' but that law is modified by the +operation of this other, of which God's providence is full. Many a +drop of blessing trickles from the wet fleece to the dry ground. +Many a stroke of judgment is carried off harmlessly by the lightning +conductor. Where God's friends are inextricably mixed up with evil- +doers, it is not rare to see diffused blessings which are destined +indeed primarily for the former, but find their way to the latter. +Christians are the 'salt of the earth' in this sense too, that they +save corrupt communities from swift destruction, and for their sakes +the angels delay their blow. In the final resort, each soul must +reap its own harvest from its own deeds; but the individualism of +Christianity is not isolation. We are bound together in mysterious +community, and a good man is a fountain of far-flowing good. The +truest 'saviours of society' are the servants of God. + +A third principle is embodied in the solemn question, 'Shall not the +Judge of all the earth do right?' This is not meant in its bearing +here, as we so often hear it quoted, to silence man's questionings +as to mysterious divine acts, or to warn us from applying our +measures of right and wrong to these. The very opposite thought is +conveyed; namely, the confidence that what God does must approve +itself as just to men. He is Judge of all the earth, and therefore +bound by His very nature, as by His relations to men, to do nothing +that cannot be pointed to as inflexibly right. If Abraham had meant, +'What God does, must needs be right, therefore crush down all +questions of how it accords with thy sense of justice,' he would +have been condemning his own prayer as presumptuous, and the thought +would have been entirely out of place. But the appeal to God to +vindicate His own character by doing what shall be in manifest +accord with His name, is bold language indeed, but not too bold, +because it is prompted by absolute confidence in Him. God's +punishments must be obviously righteous to have moral effect, or to +be worthy of Him. + +But true as the principle is, it needs to be guarded. Abraham +himself is an instance that men's conceptions of right do not +completely correspond to the reality. His notion of 'right' was, in +some particulars, as his life shows, imperfect, rudimentary, and far +beneath New Testament ideas. Conscience needs education. The best +men's conceptions of what befits divine justice are relative, +progressive; and a shifting standard is no standard. It becomes us +to be very cautious before we say to God, 'This is the way. Walk +Thou in it,' or dismiss any doctrine as untrue on the ground of its +contradicting our instincts of justice. + +3. The friend of God has power with God. 'Shall I hide from Abraham +that thing which I do?' The divine Friend recognises the obligation +of confidence. True friendship is frank, and cannot bear to hide its +purposes. That one sentence in its bold attribution of a like +feeling to God leads us deep into the Divine heart, and the sweet +reality of his amity. Insight into His will ever belongs to those +who live near Him. It is the beginning of the long series of +disclosures of 'the secret of the Lord' to 'them that fear Him,' +which is crowned by 'henceforth I call you not servants; but ... +friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made +known unto you.' So much for the divine side of the communion. + +On the human side, we are here taught the great truth, that God's +friends are intercessors, whose voice has a mysterious but most real +power with God. If it be true, that, in general terms, the righteous +are shields and sources of blessing to the unholy, it is still more +distinctly true that they have access to God's secret place with +petitions for others as well as for themselves. The desires which go +up to God, like the vapours exhaled to heaven, fall in refreshing +rain on spots far away from that whence they rose. In these days we +need to keep fast hold of our belief in the efficacy of prayer for +others and for ourselves. God knows Himself and the laws of His +government a great deal better than any one besides does; and He has +abundantly shown us in His Word, and by many experiences, that +breath spent in intercession is not wasted. In these old times, when +worship was mainly sacrificial, this wonderful instance of pure +intercession meets us, an anticipation of later times. And from +thence onwards there has never failed proof to those who will look +for it, that God's friends are true priests, and help their brethren +by their prayers. Our voices should 'rise like a fountain night and +day' for men. But there is a secret distrust of the power, and a +flagrantly plain neglect of the duty, of intercession nowadays, +which need sorely the lesson that God 'remembered Abraham' and +delivered Lot. Luther, in his rough, strong way, says: 'If I have a +Christian who prays to God for me, I will be of good courage, and be +afraid of nothing. If I have one who prays against me, I had rather +have the Grand Turk for my enemy.' + +The tone of Abraham's intercession may teach us how familiar the +intercourse with the Heavenly Friend may be. The boldest words from +a loving heart, jealous of God's honour, are not irreverent in His +eyes. This prayer is abrupt, almost rough. It sounds like +remonstrance quite as much as prayer. Abraham appeals to God to take +care of His name and honour, as if he had said, If Thou doest this, +what will the world say of Thee, but that Thou art unmerciful? But +the grand confidence in God's character, the eager desire that it +should be vindicated before the world, the dread that the least film +should veil the silvery whiteness or the golden lustre of His name, +the sensitiveness for His honour--these are the effects of communion +with Him; and for these God accepts the bold prayer as truer +reverence than is found in many more guarded and lowly sounding +words. Many conventional proprieties of worship may be broken just +because the worship is real. 'The frequent sputter shows that the +soul's depths boil in earnest.' We may learn, too, that the most +loving familiarity never forgets the fathomless gulf between God and +it. Abraham remembers that he is 'dust and ashes'; he knows that he +is venturing much in speaking to God. His pertinacious prayers have +a recurring burden of lowly recognition of his place. Twice he +heralds them with 'I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord'; +twice with 'Oh let not the Lord be angry.' Perfect love casts out +fear and deepens reverence. We may come with free hearts, from which +every weight of trembling and every cloud of doubt has been lifted. +But the less the dread, the lower we shall bow before the Loftiness +which we love. We do not pray aright until we tell God everything. +The 'boldness' which we as Christians ought to have, means literally +a frank speaking out of all that is in our hearts. Such 'boldness +and access with confidence' will often make short work of so-called +seemly reverence, but it will never transgress by so much as a +hair's-breadth the limits of lowly, trustful love. + +Abraham's persistency may teach us a lesson. If one might so say, he +hangs on God's skirt like a burr. Each petition granted only +encourages him to another. Six times he pleads, and God waits till +he has done before He goes away; He cannot leave His friend till +that friend has said all his say. What a contrast the fiery fervour +and unwearying pertinacity of Abraham's prayers make to the stiff +formalism of the intercessions one is familiar with! The former are +like the successive pulses of a volcano driving a hot lava stream +before it; the latter, like the slow flow of a glacier, cold and +sluggish. Is any part of our public or private worship more +hopelessly formal than our prayers for others? This picture from the +old world may well shame our languid petitions, and stir us up to a +holy boldness and persistence in prayer. Our Saviour Himself teaches +that 'men ought always to pray, and not to faint,' and Himself +recommends to us a holy importunity, which He teaches us to believe +is, in mysterious fashion, a power with God. He gives room for such +patient continuance in prayer by sometimes delaying the apparent +answer, not because He needs to be won over to bless, but because it +is good for us to draw near, and to keep near, the Lord. He is ever +at the door, ready to open, and if sometimes, like Rhoda to Peter, +He does not open immediately, and we have to keep knocking, it is +that our desires may increase by delay, and so He may be able to +give a blessing, which will be the greater and sweeter for the +tarrying. + +So the friendship is manifested on both sides: on God's, by +disclosure of His purpose and compliance with His friend's request; +on Abraham's, by speech which is saved from irreverence by love, and +by prayer which is acceptable to God by its very importunity. Jesus +Christ has promised us the highest form of such friendship, when He +has said, 'I have called you friends: for all things that I have +heard of My Father I have made known unto you'; and again, 'If ye +abide in Me, ... ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done +unto you.' + + + + +THE SWIFT DESTROYER + + + 'And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened + Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, + which are here; lest them be consumed in the iniquity of + the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon + his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the + hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto + him: and they brought him forth, and set him without + the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought + them forth abroad, that He said, Escape for thy life; + look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; + escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot + said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, Thy + servant hath found grace in Thy sight, and Thou hast + magnified Thy mercy, which Thou hast shewed unto me in + saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest + some evil take me, and I die: Behold now, this city is + near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me + escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul + shall live. And He said unto him, See, I have accepted + thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow + this city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, + escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be + come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called + Zoar. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered + into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon + Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; + And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and + all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew + upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind + him, and she became a pillar of salt.'--GENESIS xix. 15-26. + +The religious significance of this solemn page of revelation is but +little affected by any of the interesting questions which criticism +raises concerning it, so that I am free to look at the whole +narrative for the purpose of deducing its perennial lessons. There +are four clearly marked stages in the story: the lingering of Lot in +the doomed city, and the friendly force which dragged him from it; +the prayer of abject fear, and the wonderful answer; the awful +catastrophe; and the fate of the wretched woman who looked back. + +1. Lot's lingering and rescue by force. Second thoughts are not +always best. When great resolves have to be made, and when a clear +divine command has to be obeyed, the first thought is usually the +nobler; and the second, which pulls it back, and damps its ardour, +is usually of the earth, earthy. So was it with Lot. Overnight, in +the excitement of the terrible scene enacted before his door, Lot +had been not only resolved himself to flee, but his voice had urged +his sons-in-law to escape from the doom which he then felt to be +imminent. But with the cold grey light of morning his mood has +changed. The ties which held him in Sodom reassert their power. +Perhaps daylight made his fears seem less real. There was no sign in +the chill Eastern twilight that this day was to be unlike the other +days. Perhaps the angels' summons roused him from sleep, and their +'arise' is literally meant. It might have given wings to his flight. +Urgent, and resonant, like the morning bugle, it bids him be +stirring lest he be swept away 'in the punishment of the city.' +Observe that the same word means 'sin' and 'punishment,'--a +testimony to the profound truth that at bottom they are one, sin +being pain in the root, pain being sin in the flower. So our own +word 'evil' covers all the ground, and means both sin and sorrow. +But even that pealing note does not shatter his hesitation. He still +lingers. What kept him? That which had first taken him there--material +advantages. He had struck root in Sodom. The tent life which he had +kept to at first has been long given up; we find him sitting in the +gate of the city, the place for gossip and friendly intercourse. He +has either formed, or is going to form, marriage alliances for his +daughters with men of the city who are as black as the rest. Perhaps +his wife, whom the story will not name, for pity or for horror, was a +Sodomite. To escape meant to leave all this and his wealth behind. If +he goes out, he goes out a pauper. So his heart, which is where his +treasure is, makes his movements slow. What insanity his lingering +must have seemed to the angels! I wonder if we, who cling so desperately +to the world, and who are so slow to go where God would have us to be +for our own safety, if thereby we shall lose anything of this world's +wealth, seem very much wiser to eyes made clear-sighted with the wisdom +of heaven. This poor hesitating lingerer, too much at home in the city +of destruction to get out of it even to save his life, has plenty of +brothers to-day. Every man who lets the world hold him by the skirts +when Christ is calling him to salvation, and every man who is reluctant +to obey any clear call to sacrifice and separation from godless men, +may see his own face in this glass, and perhaps get a glimpse of its +ugliness. + +What a homely picture, full of weighty truth, the story gives us, of +the angels each taking two of the reluctant four by the hand, and +dragging them with some degree of kindly force from destruction into +safety! So, in a great fire, domestic animals and horses seem to +find a strange fascination in the flames, and have to be carried out +of certain death by main force. They 'set him'--or we might read, +'made him rest'--outside the city. It was but a little distance, for +these 'cities' were tiny places, and the walls were soon reached. +But it was far enough to change Lot's whole feelings. He passes to +feeble despair and abject fear, as we shall see. That forlorn group, +homeless, friendless, stripped of everything, shivering outside the +gate in the cold morning air, may teach us how wise and prudent the +man is who seeks the kingdom of God second, and the other things +first. + +2. There was a pause outside the city. A new voice speaks now to +Lot. 'They' brought him forth; but 'He' said 'escape.' The same +'Lord' to whom Abraham had prayed, has now rejoined the mysterious +pair whom He had sent to Sodom. And Lot's entreaty is addressed to +Him whom he calls 'my Lord.' He uses singular pronouns throughout, +although the narrator says that he 'said unto _them_.' There +seems to be here the same idea as is embodied in the word 'Elohim'; +namely, that the divine powers are regarded as in some sense +separable, and yet all inhering in a personal unity. At all events, +we have here a distinct representation of an intercourse between God +and man, in which thoughts are conveyed to the human spirit direct +from the divine, and desires pass from the human to the divine. The +manner of the intercourse we do not know, but the possibility of the +fact can scarcely be denied by any believer in a God; and, however +we may call this miraculous or abnormal, the essence of the event +can be repeated in the experience of each of us. God still speaks to +men, and men may still plead with God. Unless our religion is +communion, it is nothing. + +The divine voice reiterates the angels' urgent command in still more +stringent words: 'Escape for thy life.' There is to be no more +angel-leading, but Lot's feet are to be made as hinds' feet by the +thought of the flaming death that is pursuing. His lingering looks +are sternly forbidden, since they would delay his flight and divide +his heart. The direction of his flight is for the first time pointed +out. The fertile plain, which had lured him down from the safe +hills, is prohibited. Only on the mountain-side, probably the +eastern mountains, where the morning red was beginning to blush, is +there safety. + +Lot's answer shows a complete change of feeling. He is too fully +alarmed now. His fright is so desperate that it has killed faith and +common sense. The natural conclusion from God's mercy, which he +acknowledges, would have been trust and obedience. 'Therefore I can +escape,' not 'but I cannot escape,' would have been the logic of +faith. The latter is the irrationality of fear. When a man who has +been cleaving to this fleeting life of earthly good wakes up to +believe his danger, he is ever apt to plunge into an abyss of +terror, in which God's commands seem impossible, and His will to +save becomes dim. The world first lies to us by 'You are quite safe +where you are. Don't be in a hurry to go.' Then it lies, 'You never +can get away now.' Reverse Lot's whimpering fears, and we get the +truth. Are not God's directions how to escape, promises that we +shall escape? Will He begin to build, and not be able to finish? +Will the judgments of His hand overrun their commission, like a +bloodhound which, in its master's absence, may rend his friend? 'We +have all of us one human heart,' and this swift leap from +unreasoning carelessness to as unreasoning dread, this failure to +draw the true conclusion from God's past mercy, and this despairing +recoil from the path pointed for us, and craving for easier ways, +belongs to us. 'A strange servant of God was this,' say we. Yes, and +we are often quite as strange. How many people awakened to see their +danger are so absorbed by the sight that they cannot see the cross, +or think they can never reach it! + +God answered the cry, whatever its fault, and that may well make us +pause in our condemnation. He hears even a very imperfect petition, +and can see the tiniest germ of faith buried under thick clods of +doubt and fear. This stooping readiness to meet Lot's weakness comes +in wonderful contrast with the terrible revelation of judgment which +follows. What a conception of God, which had room for this more than +human patience with weakness, and also for the flashing, lurid +glories of destructive retribution! Zoar is spared, not for the +unworthy reason which Lot suggested--because its minuteness might +buy impunity, as some noxious insect too small to be worth crushing--but +in accordance with the principle which was illustrated in Abraham's +intercession, and even in Lot's safety; namely, that the righteous are +shields for others, as Paul had the lives of all that sailed with him +given to him. + +God's 'cannot' answers Lot's 'cannot.' His power is limited by His +own solemn purpose to save His faltering servant. The latter had +feared that, before he could reach the mountain, 'the evil' would +overtake him. God shows him that his safety was a condition +precedent to its outburst. Lot barred the way. God could not 'let +slip the dogs of' judgment, but held them in the leash until Lot was +in Zoar. Very awful is the command to make haste, based on this +impossibility, as if God were weary of delay, and more than ready to +smite. However we may find anthropomorphism in these early +narratives, let us not forget that, when the world has long been +groaning under some giant evil, and the bitter seed is grown up into +a waving forest of poison, there is something in the passionless +righteousness of God which brooks no longer delay, but seeks to make +'a short work' on the earth. + +3. So we are brought face to face with the grim story of the +destruction. There is a world of tragic meaning in the simple note +of time given. 'The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered +into Zoar.' The low-lying cities of the plain would lie in shadow +for some time before the sun topped the eastern hills. What a dawn! +At that joyous hour, just when the sunshine struck down on the +smiling plain, and lake and river gleamed like silver, and all +things woke to new hopes and fresh life, then the sky darkened, and +the earth sank, and horrible rain of fiery bitumen fell from the +black pall, salt mud poured in streams, and over all hung a column +of fat, oily smoke. It is not my province to discuss the physical +cause of the destruction; but I may refer to the suggestions of Sir +J. W. Dawson, in his _Egypt and Syria_, and in _The Expositor_ for +May 1886, in which he shows that great beds of bituminous limestone +extend below the Jordan valley and much of the Dead Sea, and that the +escape of inflammable gag from these through the opening of a fissure +along a great 'line of fault,' is capable of producing all the effects +described. The 'brimstone' of the Authorised Version is probably +rather some form of bituminous matter which would be carried into the +air by such an escape of gas, and a thick saline mud would accompany +the eruption, encrusting anything it reached. Subsidence would follow +the ejection of quantities of such matter; and hence the word 'overthrew,' +which seems inappropriate to a mere conflagration, would be explained. + +But, however this may be, we have to recognise a supernatural +element in the starting of the train of natural causes, as well as +in the timing of the catastrophe, and a divine purpose of +retribution, which turns the catastrophe, however effected, into a +judgment. + +So regarded, the event has a double meaning. In the first place, it +is a revelation of an element in the divine character and of a +feature in the divine government. To the men of that time, it might +be a warning. To Abraham, and through him to his descendants, and +through them to us, it preaches a truth very unwelcome to many in +this day: that there is in God that which constrains Him to hate, +fight against, and punish, evil. The temper of this generation turns +away from such thoughts, and, in the name of the truth that 'God is +love,' would fain obliterate the truth that He does and will punish. +But if the punitive element be suppressed, and that in God which +makes it necessary ignored or weakened, the result will be a God who +has not force enough to love, but only weakly to indulge. If He does +not hate and punish, He does not pardon. For the sake of the love of +God, we must hold firm by the belief in the judgments of God. The +God who destroyed Sodom is not merely the God of an earlier +antiquated creed. 'Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of +the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also.' + +Again, this event is a prophecy. So our Lord has employed it; and +much of the imagery in which the last judgment is represented is +directly drawn from this narrative. So far from this story showing +to us only the superstitions of a form of belief which we have long +outgrown, its deepest meaning lies far ahead, and closes the history +of man on the earth. We know from the lips which cannot lie, that +the appalling suddenness of that destruction foreshadows the +swiftness of the coming of that last 'day of the Lord.' We know that +in literality some of the physical features shall be reproduced; for +the fire which shall burn up the world and all its works is no +figure, nor is it proclaimed only by such non-authoritative voices +as those of Jesus and His apostles, but also by the modern +possessors of infallible certitude, the men of science. We know that +that day shall be a day of retribution. We know, too, that the crime +of Sodom, foul and unnatural as it was, is not the darkest, but that +its inhabitants (who have to face that judgment too) will find their +doom more tolerable, and their sins lighter, than some who have had +high places in the Church, than the Pharisees and wise men who have +not taken Christ for their Saviour. + +4. The fate of the loiterer. Her backward look must have been more +than momentary, for the destruction of the cities did not begin till +Lot was safe in Zoar. She must have lingered far behind, and been +overtaken by the eruption of liquid saline mud, which, as Sir J. W. +Dawson has shown, would attend or follow the outburst of bituminous +matter, so that her fate was the natural consequence of her heart +being still in Sodom. As to the 'pillar of salt' which has excited +cavils on the one hand and foolish legends on the other, probably we +are to think rather of a heap than of a pillar. The word does not +occur in either meaning elsewhere, but its derivation implies +something raised above the level of the ground; and a heap, such as +would be formed by a human body encrusted with salt mud, would suit +the requirements of the expression. Like a man who falls in a +snowstorm, or, still more accurately, just as some of the victims at +Pompeii stumbled in their flight, and were buried under the ashes, +which still keep the outline of their figures, so Lot's wife was +covered with the half-liquid slimy mud. Granted the delay in her +flight, the rest is perfectly simple and natural. She was buried in +a horrible tomb; and, in pity to her memory, no name has been +written upon it. She remains to all generations, in a far truer +sense than superstition dreamed of when it pointed to an upright +salt rock as her prison and her monument, a warning of the danger of +the backward look, which betrays the true home of the heart, and may +leave us unsheltered in the open plain when the fiery storm bursts. +'Remember Lot's wife.' + +When the angels awoke Lot, the day was breaking. By the time that +Abraham had risen 'early in the morning,' and reached the place by +his tent from which he had yesterday looked on the smiling plain, +all was over, and the heavy smoke cloud wrapped the dead with its +pall-like folds. So swift and sudden is to be the coming of the Son +of man,--as the lightning which rushes in one fierce blinding flash +from one side of heaven to the other. Wherefore, God calls to each +of us: 'Escape for thy life; look not behind thee.' + + + + +FAITH TESTED AND CROWNED + + + 'And it came to pass after these things, that God did + tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, + Behold, here I am. And He said, Take now thy son, thine + only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the + land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering + upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And + Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his + ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac + his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and + rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told + him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, + and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his + young men, 'Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the + lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. + And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid + it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, + and a knife; and they went both of them together. And + Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: + and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the + fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt + offering! And Abraham said, My son, God will provide + Himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both + of them together. And they came to the place which God + had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and + laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and + laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched + forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And + the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, + and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And + He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do + thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest + God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only + son from Me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, + and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his + horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered + him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. + And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: + as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it + shall be seen.'--GENESIS xxii. 1-14. + + +I + + +A life of faith and self-denial has usually its sharpest trials at +or near its beginning. A stormy day has generally a calm close. But +Abraham's sorest discipline came all sudden, like a bolt from blue +sky. Near the end, and after many years of peaceful, uneventful +life, he had to take a yet higher degree in the school of faith. +Sharp trial means increased possession of God. So his last terrible +experience turned to his crowning mercy. + +1. The very first words of this solemn narrative raise many +questions. We have God appointing the awful trial. The Revised +Version properly replaces 'tempt' by 'prove.' The former word +conveys the idea of appealing to the worse part of a man, with the +wish that he may yield and do the wrong. The latter means an appeal +to the better part of a man, with the desire that he should stand. +Temptation says: 'Do this pleasant thing; do not be hindered by the +fact that it is wrong.' Trial, or proving, says: 'Do this right and +noble thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is painful.' The +one is 'a sweet, beguiling melody,' breathing soft indulgence and +relaxation over the soul; the other is a pealing trumpet-call to +high achievements. + +God's proving does not mean that He stands by, watching how His +child will behave. He helps us to sustain the trial to which He +subjects us. Life is all probation; and because it is so, it is all +the field for the divine aid. The motive of His proving men is that +they may be strengthened. He puts us into His gymnasium to improve +our physique. If we stand the trial, our faith is increased; if we +fall, we learn self-distrust and closer clinging to Him. No +objection can be raised to the representation of this passage as to +God's proving Abraham, which does not equally apply to the whole +structure of life as a place of probation that it may be a place of +blessing. But the manner of the trial here presents a difficulty. +How could God command a father to kill his son? Is that in +accordance with His character? Well, two considerations deserve +attention. First, the final issue; namely, Isaac's deliverance, was +an integral part of the divine purpose from the beginning of the +trial; so that the question really is, Was it accordant with the +divine character to require readiness to sacrifice even a son at His +command? Second, that in Abraham's time, a father's right over his +child's life was unquestioned, and that therefore this command, +though it lacerated Abraham's heart, did not wound his conscience as +it would do were it heard to-day. It is impossible to conceive of a +divine injunction such as this being addressed to us. We have +learned the inalienable sacredness of every life, and the awful +prerogative and burden of individuality. God's command cannot +enforce sin. But it was not wrong in Abraham's eyes for a father to +slay his son; and God might shape His message to the form of the +existing morality without derogation from His character, especially +when the result of the message would be, among other things, to +teach His abhorrence of human sacrifices, and so to lift the +existing morality to a higher level. + +2. The great body of the history sets before us Abraham standing the +terrible test. What unsurpassable beauty is in the simple story! It +is remarkable, even among the scriptural narratives, for the entire +absence of anything but the visible facts. There is not a syllable +about the feelings of father or of son. The silence is more pathetic +than many words. We look as into a magic crystal, and see the very +event before our eyes, and our own imaginations tell us more of the +world of struggle and sorrow raging under that calm outside than the +highest art could do. The pathos of reticence was never more +perfectly illustrated. Observe, too, the minute, prolonged details +of the slow progress to the dread instant of sacrifice. Each step is +told in precisely the same manner, and the series of short clauses, +coupled together by an artless 'and,' are like the single strokes of +a passing bell, or the slow drops of blood heard falling from a +fatal wound. The homely preparations for the journey are made by +Abraham himself. He makes no confidante of Sarah; only God and +himself knew what that bundle of wood meant. What thoughts must have +torn his soul throughout these weary days! How hard to keep his +voice round and full while he spoke to Isaac! How much the long +protracted tension of the march increased the sharpness of the test! +It is easier to reach the height of obedient self-sacrifice in some +moment of enthusiasm, than to keep up there through the commonplace +details of slowly passing days. Many a faith, which could even have +slain its dearest, would have broken down long before the last step +of that sad journey was taken. + +The elements of the trial were two: first, Abraham's soul was torn +asunder by the conflict of fatherly love and obedience to God. The +narrative intimates this struggle by continually insisting on the +relationship between the two. The command dwells with emphasis on +it: 'thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.' He takes with +him 'Isaac his son'; lays the wood on 'Isaac his son.' Isaac 'spake +unto Abraham his father'; Abraham answers, 'Here am I, my son'; and +again, 'My son, God will provide.' He bound 'Isaac his son'; he +'took the knife to slay his son'; and lastly, in the glad surprise +at the end, he offers the ram 'in the stead of his son.' Thus, at +every turn, the tender bond is forced on our notice, that we may +feel how terrible was the task laid on him--to cut it asunder with +his own hand. The friend of God must hold all other love as less +than His, and must be ready to yield up the dearest at His bidding. +Cruel as the necessity seems to flesh and blood, and specially +poignant as his pain was, in essence Abraham's trial only required +of him what all true religion requires of us. Some of us have been +called by God's providence to give up the light of our eyes, the joy +of our homes, to Him. Some of us have had to make the choice between +earthly and heavenly love. All of us have to throne God in our +hearts, and to let not the dearest usurp His place. In our weakness +we may well shrink from such a test. But let us not forget that the +trial of Abraham was not imposed by his own mistaken conceptions of +duty, nor by a sterner God than the New Testament reveals, but is +distinctly set before every Christian in essence, though not in +form, by the gentle lips from which flowed the law of love more +stringent and exclusive in its claims than any other: 'He that +loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.' + +The conflict in Abraham's soul had a still more painful aspect in +that it seemed to rend his very religion into two. Faith in the +promise on which he had been living all his life drew one way; faith +in the later command, another. God seemed to be against God, faith +against faith, promise against command. If he obeys now, what is to +become of the hopes that had shone for years before him? His whole +career will be rendered nugatory, and with his own hand he will +crush to powder his life's work. That wonderful short dialogue which +broke the stern silence of the journey seems to throw light on his +mood. There is nothing in literature sacred or secular, fact or +fiction, poetry or prose, more touching than the innocent curiosity +of Isaac's boyish question, and the yearning self-restraint of the +father's desperate and yet calm answer. But its value is not only in +its pathos. It seems to show that, though he knew not how, still he +held by the hope that somehow God would not forget His promise. Out +of his very despair, his faith struck, out of the flint of the hard +command, a little spark which served to give some flicker of light +amid the darkness. His answer to his boy does not make his sacrifice +less, but his faith more. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews +gives a somewhat different turn to his hopes, when he tells us that +he offered up the heir of the promises, 'accounting that God was +able to raise him from the dead.' Both ways of clinging to the early +promise, even while obeying the later command, seem to have passed +through his mind. The wavering from the one to the other is natural. +He is sure that God had not lied before, and means what He commands +now. He is sure that there is some point of reconciliation--perhaps +this, perhaps that, but certainly somewhat. So he goes straight on +the road marked for him, quite sure that it will not end in a blind +alley, from which there is no exit. That is the very climax of +faith--to trust God so absolutely, even when His ways seem +contradictory, as to be more willing to believe apparent +impossibilities than to doubt Him, and to be therefore ready for the +hardest trial of obedience. We, too, have sometimes to take courses +which seem to annihilate the hope and aims of a life. The lesson for +us is to go straight on the path of clear duty wherever it leads. If +it seem to bring us up to inaccessible cliffs, we may be sure that +when we get there we shall find some ledge, though it may be no +broader than a chamois could tread, which will suffice for a path. +If it seem to bring us to a deep and bridgeless stream, we shall +find a ford when we get to the water's edge. If the mountains seem +to draw together and bar a passage, we shall find, when we reach +them, that they open out; though it may be no wider than a canon, +still the stream can get through, and our boat with it. + +3. So we have the climax of the story--faith rewarded. The first +great lesson which the interposition of the Divine voice teaches us, +is that obedience is complete when the inward surrender is complete. +The outward act was needless. Abraham would have done no more if the +flashing knife had buried itself in Isaac's heart. Here is the first +great proclamation of the truth which revolutionises morality and +religion, the beginnings of the teaching which culminates in the +ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, and in the gospel of salvation, +not by deeds, but through faith. The will is the man, the true +action is the submission of the will. The outward deed is only the +coarse medium through which it is made visible for men: God looks on +purpose as performance. + +Again, faith is rewarded by God's acceptance and approval. 'I know +that thou fearest God,' not meaning that He learned the heart by the +conduct, but that, on occasion of the conduct, He breathes into the +obedient heart that calm consciousness of its service as recognised +and accepted by Him, which is the highest reward that His friend can +know. 'To be well pleasing to Him' is our noblest aim, which, +cherished, makes sacrifice sweet, and all difficult things easy. +'Nor know we anything more fair Than is the smile upon Thy face.' + +Again, faith is rewarded by a deeper insight into God's will. Much +has been said about the sacrifice of Isaac in its bearing upon the +custom of human sacrifice. We do not believe that Abraham was led to +his act by a mistaken idea, borrowed from surrounding idolatries. +His position as the sole monotheist amid these, the absence of +evidence that human sacrifice was practised then among his +neighbours, and, above all, the fact of the divine approval of his +intention, forbid our acceptance of that theory. Nor can we regard +the condemnation of such sacrifices as the main object of the +incident. But no doubt an incidental result, and, we may perhaps +say, a subsidiary purpose of it, was to stamp all such hideous +usages with the brand of God's displeasure. The mode of thought +which led to them was deeply rooted in the consciousness of the Old +World, and corresponded to a true conception of the needs of +humanity. The dark sense of sin, the conviction that it required +expiation, and that procurable only by death, drove men to these +horrid rites. And that ram, caught in the thicket, thorn-crowned and +substituted for the human victim, taught Abraham and his sons that +God appointed and provided a lamb for an offering. It was a lesson +won by faith. Nor need we hesitate to see some dim forecast of the +great Substitute whom God provided, who bears the sins of the world. + +Again, faith is rewarded by receiving back the surrendered blessing, +made more precious because it has been laid on the altar. How +strange and solemn must have been the joy with which these two +looked in each other's faces! What thankful wonder must have filled +Abraham's heart as he loosed the cord that had bound his son! It +would be many days before the thrill of gratitude died away, and the +possession of his son seemed to Abraham, or that of life seemed to +Isaac, a common thing. He was doubly now a child of wonder, born by +miracle, delivered by miracle. So is it ever. God gives us back our +sacrifices, tinged with a new beauty, and purified from earthly +alloy. + +We never know how sweet our blessings are till we have yielded them +to Him. 'There is no man that hath left' anything or any person for +Christ's sake and the gospel's who will not 'receive a hundred-fold +more in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.' + +Lastly, Abraham was rewarded by being made a faint adumbration, for +all time, of the yet more wondrous and awful love of the divine +Father, who, for our sakes, has surrendered His only-begotten Son, +whom He loved. Paul quotes the very words of this chapter when he +says: 'He that _spared_ not His _own Son_, but delivered Him up for us +all.' Such thoughts carry us into dim regions, in which, perhaps, +silence is best. Did some shadow of loss and pain pass over the divine +all-sufficiency and joy, when He sent His Son? Was the unresisting +innocence of the son a far-off likeness of the willing eagerness of +the sinless Sufferer who chose to die? Was the resolved surrender of +the father a faint prelude of the deep divine love which gave His +only Son for us? Shall we not say, 'Now I know that Thou lovest me, +because Thou hast not withheld Thy Son, Thine only Son, from me'? +Shall we not recognise this as the crown of Abraham's reward, that +his act of surrender of his dearest to God, his Friend, has been +glorified by being made the mirror of God's unspeakable gift of His +Son to us, His enemies? + + + + +THE CROWNING TEST AND TRIUMPH OF FAITH + + +II + + +The first words of this lesson give the keynote for its meaning. +'God did prove Abraham'; the strange command was a test of his +faith. In recent times the incident has been regarded chiefly as +embodying a protest against child-sacrifices, and no doubt that is +part of its intention, and their condemnation was part of its +effect, but the other is the principal thing. Abraham, as the +'Father of the Faithful,' has his faith tested by a series of events +from his setting out from Haran, and they culminate in this sharpest +of all, the command to slay his son. The life of faith is ever a +life of testing, and very often the fire that tries increases in +heat as life advances. The worst conflicts are not always at the +beginning of the war. + +Our best way of knowing ourselves is to observe our own conduct, +especially when it is hard to do nobly. We may easily cheat +ourselves about what is the basis and ruling motive of our lives, +but our actions will show it us. God does not 'test' us as if He did +not know what was gold and what base metal, but the proving is meant +to make clear to others and ourselves what is the worth and strength +of our religion. The test is also a means of increasing the faith +which it demonstrates, so that the exhortation to 'count it all joy' +to have faith tried is no overstrained counsel of perfection. + +The narrative plainly declares that the command to sacrifice his son +was to Abraham unmistakably divine. The explanation that Abraham, +living beside peoples who practised child-sacrifice, heard but the +voice of his own conscience asking, 'Canst thou do for Jehovah what +these do for Moloch?' does not correspond to the record. No doubt +God does speak through conscience; but what sent Abraham on his +terrible journey was a command which he knew did not spring up +within, but came to him from above. We may believe or disbelieve the +possibility or the actuality of such direct and distinguishable +commands from God, but we do not face the facts of this narrative +unless we recognise that it asserts that God made His will known to +Abraham, and that Abraham knew that it was God's will, not his own +thought. + +But is it conceivable that God should ever bid a man commit a crime? +To the question put in that bald way, of course there can be but one +answer, No. But several conditions have to be taken into account. +First, it is conceivable that God should test a man's willingness to +surrender what is most precious to him, and what all his hopes are +fixed on; and this command was given with the purpose that it should +not be obeyed in fact, if the willingness to obey it was proved. +Again, the stage of development of the moral sense at which Abraham +stood has to be remembered. The child-sacrifices around him were not +regarded as crimes, but as worship, and, while his affections were +the same as ours, and his father's heart was wrung, to slay Isaac +did not present itself to him as a crime in the way in which it does +so to us. God deals with men on the moral and spiritual level to +which they have attained, and, by descending to it, raises them +higher. + +The purpose of the command was to test faith, even more than to test +whether earthly love or heavenly obedience were the stronger. There +is a beautiful and instructive climax in the designations of Isaac +in verse 2, where four times he is referred to, 'thy son, thine only +son,' in whom all the hopes of fulfilment of the divine promise were +concentrated, so that, if this fruit from the aged tree were cut +off, no other could ever grow; 'whom thou lovest,'--there the sharp +point pierces the father's heart; 'even Isaac,' in which name all +the ties that knit him to Abraham are gathered up. Each word +heightens the greatness of the sacrifice demanded, and is a fresh +thrust of the dagger into Abraham's very life. Each suggests a +reason for not slaying Isaac, which sense might plead. God does not +hide the painfulness of surrender from us. The more precious the +treasure is, the more are we bound to lay it on the altar. But it +was Abraham's faith even more than his love that was tested. The +Epistle to the Hebrews lays hold on this as the main element in the +trial, that he who 'had received the promises' was called to do what +seemed to blast all hope of their being fulfilled. What a cruel +position to have God's command and God's promise apparently in +diametrical opposition! But faith loosened even that seemingly +inextricable tangle of contradiction, and felt that to obey was for +man, and to keep His promise was for God. If we do our duty, He will +see to the consequences. 'Tis mine to obey; 'tis His to provide.' + +Nothing in literature is more tenderly touched or more truly +imagined than that long, torturing journey--Abraham silent, Isaac +silently wondering, the servants silently following. And, like a +flash, at last 'the place' was seen afar off. How calmly Abraham +speaks to the two followers, mastering his heart's throbbing even +then! 'We will worship, and come again to you'--was that a 'pious +fraud' or did it not rather indicate that a ray of hope, like pale +light from a shrouded sun, shone for him? He 'accounted that God was +able to raise him up even from the dead.' Somehow, he knew not how, +Isaac slain was still to live and inherit the promises. Anything was +possible, but that God's word should fail was impossible. That +picture of the father and son alone, the one bearing the wood, the +other the fire and the knife, exchanging no word but once, when the +innocent wonder of Isaac's question must have shaken Abraham's +steadfastness, and made it hard for him to steady his voice to +answer, touches the deepest springs of pity and pathetic sublimity. +But the answer is in the same spirit as that to the servants, and +indicates the same hope. 'God will provide Himself a lamb, my son.' +He does not know definitely what he expects; he is ready to slay +Isaac, but his faith is not quenched, though the end seems so +inevitable and near. Faith was never more sharply tested, and never +more triumphantly stood the test. + +The divine solution of the riddle was kept back till the last +moment, as it usually is. The place is slowly reached, the hill +slowly climbed, the altar built, the unresisting Isaac bound (with +what deep thoughts in each, who can tell?), the steady hand holding +the glittering knife lifted--a moment more and it will be red with +heart's blood, and not till then does God speak. It is ever so. The +trial has 'its perfect work.' Faith is led to the edge of the +precipice, one step farther and all is over. Then God speaks, all +but just too late, and yet 'right early.' The willingness to make +the sacrifice is tested to the utmost, and being proved, the +sacrifice is not required. + +Abraham had said to Isaac, 'God will provide a lamb,' and the word +'provide' is that which appears in the name he gave to the +place--Jehovah-_jireh_. The name, then, commemorated, not the +servant's faith but the Lord's mercy, and the spirit of it was embodied +in what became a popular saying, 'In the mount of the Lord it shall +be provided.' If faith dwells there, its surrenders will be richly +rewarded. How much more dear was Isaac to Abraham as they journeyed +back to Beersheba! And whatever we lay on God's altar comes back a +'hundred-fold more in this life,' and brings in the world to come life +everlasting. + + + + +JEHOVAH-JIREH + + + 'And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; + (that is, The Lord will provide).'-GENESIS xxii. 14. + +As these two, Abraham and Isaac, were travelling up the hill, the +son bearing the wood, and the father with the sad burden of the fire +and the knife, the boy said: 'Where is the lamb?' and Abraham, +thrusting down his emotion and steadying his voice, said: 'My son, +God will provide Himself a lamb.' When the wonderful issue of the +trial was plain before him, and he looked back upon it, the one +thought that rose in his mind was of how, beyond his meaning, his +words had been true. So he named that place by a name that spoke +nothing of his trial, but everything of God's provision--'The Lord +will see,' or 'The Lord will provide.' + +1. The words have become proverbial and threadbare as a commonplace +of Christian feeling. But it may be worth our while to ask for a +moment what it was exactly that Abraham expected the Lord to +provide. We generally use the expression in reference to outward +things, and see in it the assurance that we shall not be left +without the supply of the necessities for which, because God has +made us to feel them, He has bound Himself to make provision. And +most blessedly true is that application of them, and many a +Christian heart in days of famine has been satisfied with the +promise, when the bread that was given has been scant. + +But there is a meaning deeper than that in the words. It is true, +thank God! that we may cast all our anxiety about all outward things +upon Him, in the assurance that He who feeds the ravens will feed +us, and that if lilies can blossom into beauty without care, we +shall be held by our Father of more value than these. But there is a +deeper meaning in the provision spoken of here. What was it that God +provided for Abraham? What is it that God provides for us? A way to +discharge the arduous duties which, when they are commanded, seem +all but impossible for us, and which, the nearer we come to them, +look the more dreadful and seem the more impossible. And yet, when +the heart has yielded itself in obedience, and we are ready to do +the thing that is enjoined, there opens up before us a possibility +provided by God, and strength comes to us equal to our day, and some +unexpected gift is put into our hand, which enables us to do the +thing of which Nature said: 'My heart will break before I can do +it'; and in regard to which even Grace doubted whether it was +possible for us to carry it through. If our hearts are set in +obedience to the command, the farther we go on the path of +obedience, the easier the command will appear, and to try to do it +is to ensure that God will help us to do it. + +This is the main provision that God makes, and it is the highest +provision that He can make. For there is nothing in this life that +we need so much as to do the will of our Father in heaven. All +outward wants are poor compared with that. The one thing worth +living for, the one thing which being secured we are blessed, and +being missed we are miserable, is compliance in heart with the +commandment of our Father; and that compliance wrought out in life. +So, of all gifts that He bestows upon us, and of all the abundant +provision out of His rich storehouses, is not this the best, that we +are made ready for any required service? When we get to the place we +shall find some lamb 'caught in the thicket by its horns'; and +heaven itself will supply what is needful for our burnt offering. + +And then there is another thought here which, though we cannot +certainly say it was in the speaker's mind, is distinctly in the +historian's intention, 'The Lord will provide.' Provide what? The +lamb for the burnt offering which He has commanded. It seems +probable that that bare mountain-top which Abraham saw from afar, +and named Jehovah-jireh, was the mountain-top on which afterwards +the Temple was built. And perhaps the wood was piled for the altar, +on which Abraham was called to lay his only son, on that very piece +of primitive rock which still stands visible, though Temple and +altar have long since gone; and which for many a day was the place +of the altar on which the sacrifices of Israel were offered. It is +no mere forcing of Christian meanings on to old stories, but the +discerning of that prophetic and spiritual element which God has +impressed upon these histories of the past, especially in all their +climaxes and crises, when we see in the fact that God provided the +ram which became the appointed sacrifice, through which Isaac's life +was preserved, a dim adumbration of the great truth that the only +Sacrifice which God accepts for the world's sin is the Sacrifice +which He Himself has provided. + +This is the deepest meaning of all the sacrificial worship, as of +Israel so of heathen nations--God Himself will provide a Lamb. The +world had built altars, and Israel, by divine appointment, had its +altar too. All these express the want which none of them can +satisfy. They show that man needed a Sacrifice; and that Sacrifice +God has provided. He asked from Abraham less than He gives to us. +Abraham's devotion was sealed and certified because he did not +withhold his son, his only son, from God. And God's love is sealed +because He hath not withheld His only-begotten Son from us. + +So this name that came from Abraham's grateful and wondering lips +contains a truth which holds true in all regions of our wants. On +the lowest level, the outward supply of outward needs; on a higher, +the means of discharging hard duties and a path through sharp +trials; and, on the highest of all, the spotless sacrifice which +alone avails for the world's sins--these are the things which God +provides. + +2. So, note again on what conditions He provides them. + +The incident and the name became the occasion of a proverb, as the +historian tells us, which survived down to the period of his +writing, and probably long after, when men were accustomed to say, +'In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.' The provision of +all sorts that we need has certain conditions as to the when and the +where of the persons to whom it shall be granted. 'In the mount of +the Lord it shall be provided.' If we wish to have our outward needs +supplied, our outward weaknesses strengthened, power and energy +sufficient for duty, wisdom for perplexity, a share in the Sacrifice +which taketh away the sins of the world, we receive them all on the +condition that we are found in the place where all God's provision +is treasured. If a man chooses to sit outside the baker's shop, he +may starve on its threshold. If a man will not go into the bank, his +pockets will be empty, though there may be bursting coffers there to +which he has a right. And if we will not ascend to the hill of the +Lord, and stand in His holy place by simple faith, and by true +communion of heart and life, God's amplest provision is nought to +us; and we are empty in the midst of affluence. Get near to God if +you would partake of what He has prepared. Live in fellowship with +Him by simple love, and often meditate on Him, if you would drink in +of His fulness. And be sure of this, that howsoever within His house +the stores are heaped and the treasury full, you will have neither +part nor lot in the matter, unless you are children of the house. +'In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.' And round it there +is a waste wilderness of famine and of death. + +Further, note _when_ the provision is realised. + +When the man is standing with the knife in his hand, and next minute +it will be red with the son's blood--then the call comes: 'Abraham!' +and then he sees the ram caught in the thicket. There had been a +long weary journey from their home away down in the dry, sunny +south, a long tramp over the rough hills, a toilsome climb, with a +breaking heart in the father's bosom, and a dim foreboding gradually +stealing on the child's spirit. But there was no sign of respite or +of deliverance. Slowly he piles together the wood, and yet no sign. +Slowly he binds his boy, and lays him on it, and still no sign. +Slowly, reluctantly, and yet resolvedly, he unsheathes the knife, +and yet no sign. He lifts his hand, and then it comes. + +That is God's way always. Up to the very edge we are driven, before +His hand is put out to help us. Such is the law, not only because +the next moment is always necessarily dark, nor because God will +deal with us in any arbitrary fashion, and play with our fears, but +because it is best for us that we should be forced to desperation, +and out of desperation should 'pluck the flower, safety.' It is best +for us that we should be brought to say, 'My foot slippeth!' and +then, just as our toes are sliding upon the glacier, the help comes +and 'Thy mercy held me up.' 'The Lord is her helper, and that right +early.' When He delays, it is not to trifle with us, but to do us +good by the sense of need, as well as by the experience of +deliverance. At the last moment, never before it, never until we +have found out how much we need it, and never too late, comes the +Helper. + +So 'it is provided' for the people that quietly and persistently +tread the path of duty, and go wherever His hand leads them, without +asking anything about where it does lead. The condition of the +provision is our obedience of heart and will. To Abraham doing what +he was commanded, though his heart was breaking as he did it, the +help was granted--as it always will be. + +3. And so, lastly, note what we are to do with the provision when we +get it. + +Abraham christened the anonymous mountain-top, not by a name that +reminded him or others of his trial, but by a name that proclaimed +God's deliverance. He did not say anything about his agony or about +his obedience. God spoke about that, not Abraham. He did not want +these to be remembered, but what he desired to hand on to later +generations was what God had done for him. Oh! dear friends, is that +the way in which we look back upon life? Many a bare, bald mountain- +top in your career and mine we have got our names for. Are they +names that commemorate our sufferings or God's blessings? When we +look back on the past what do we see? Times of trial or times of +deliverance? Which side of the wave do we choose to look at, the one +that is smitten by the sunshine or the one that is all black and +purple in the shadow? The sea looked at from the one side will be +all a sunny path, and from the other dark as chaos. Let us name the +heights that lie behind us, visible to memory, by names that +commemorate, not the troubles that we had on them, but the +deliverances that on them we received from God. + +This name enshrines the duty of commemoration--ay! and the duty of +expectation. 'The Lord will provide.' How do you know that, Abraham? +and his answer is, 'Because the Lord did provide.' That is a shaky +kind of argument if we use it about one another. Our resources may +give out, our patience may weary. If it is a storehouse that we have +to go to, all the corn that is treasured in it will be eaten up some +day; but if it is to some boundless plain that grows it that we go, +then we can be sure that there will be a harvest next year as there +has been a harvest last. And so we have to think of God, not as a +storehouse, but as the soil from which there comes forth, year by +year and generation after generation, the same crop of rich +blessings for the needs and the hungers of every soul. If we have to +draw from reservoirs we cannot say, 'I have gone with my pitcher to +the well six times, and I shall get it filled at the seventh.' It is +more probable that we shall have to say, 'I have gone so often that +I durst not go any more'; but if we have to go, not to a well, but +to a fountain, then the oftener we go, the surer we become that its +crystal cool waters will always be ready for us. 'Thou hast been +with me in six troubles; and in seven thou wilt not forsake me,' is +a bad conclusion to draw about one another; but it is the right +conclusion to draw about God. + +And so, as we look back upon our past lives, and see many a peak +gleaming in the magic light of memory, let us name them all by names +that will throw a radiance of hope on the unknown and un-climbed +difficulties before us, and say, as the patriarch did when he went +down from the mount of his trial and deliverance, 'The Lord will +provide.' + + + + +GUIDANCE IN THE WAY + + + 'I being in the way, the Lord led me.'--GENESIS xxiv. 27. + +So said Abraham's anonymous servant when telling how he had found +Rebekah at the well, and known her to be the destined bride of his +master's servant. There is no more beautiful page, even amongst the +many lovely ones in these ancient stories, than this domestic idyll +of the mission of the faithful servant from far Canaan across the +desert. The homely test by which he would determine that the maiden +should be pointed out to him, the glimpse of old-world ways at the +well, the gracious courtesy of the fair damsel, and the simple +devoutness of the speaker, who recognises in what to others were +trivial commonplaces God's guidance to the end which He had +appointed, his recognition of the divine hand moving beneath all the +nothings and littlenesses of daily life--may teach us much. + +1. The first thing that these words seem to me to suggest is the +conditions under which we may be sure that God leads--'I being in +the way.' + +Now, of course, some of you may know that the words of our text are, +by the Revised Version and others, rendered so as to obliterate the +clause telling where the speaker was when the Lord led him, and to +make the whole a continuous expression of the one fact--'As for me, +the Lord hath led me in the way to the house of my master's +brethren.' The literal rendering is, 'I in the way, Jehovah led me.' +No doubt the Hebrew idiom admits of the 'I' being thus emphatically +premised, and then repeated as 'me' after the verb, and possibly no +more is to be made of the words than that. But the fuller and more +impressive meaning is possible, and I venture to retain it, and to +see in it the expression of the truth that it is when we are 'in the +way' that God will certainly lead us. + +So that suggests, first, how the people that have any right to +expect any kind of guidance from God are those who have their feet +upon a path which conscience approves. Many men run into all manner +of perplexities by their own folly and self-will, and never ask +whether their acts are right or wrong, wise or foolish, until they +begin to taste the bitter consequences. Then they cry to God to help +them, and think themselves very religious because they do. That is +not the way to get God's help. Such folk are like Italian brigands +who had an image of the Virgin in their hats, and sometimes had the +Pope's commission in their pockets, and therefore went out to murder +and ravish, in sure and certain hope of God's favour and protection. + +But when we are 'in the way,' and know that we are doing what we +ought to do, and conscience says, 'Go on; never mind what stands +against you,' it is then, and only then, that we have a right to be +sure that the Lord will lead us. Otherwise, the best thing that can +happen to us is that the Lord should thwart us when we are on the +wrong road. Resistance, indeed, may be guidance; and it is often +God's manner of setting our feet in the way of His steps. We have no +claim on Him for guidance, indeed, unless we have submitted +ourselves to His commandments; yet His mercies go beyond our claims. +Just as the obedient child gets guidance, so the petulant and +disobedient child gets resistance, which is guidance too. The angel +of the Lord stands in front of Balaam, amongst the vines, though the +seer sometimes does not see, and blocks the path for him, and hedges +up the way with his flaming sword. Only, if we would have the sweet, +gracious, companionable guidance of our Lord, let us be sure, to +begin with, that we are 'in the way,' and not in any of the bypaths +into which arrogance and self-will and fleshly desires and the like +are only too apt to divert our feet. + +Another consideration suggested by these words, 'I being in the +way,' is that if we expect guidance we must diligently do present +duty. We are led, thank God, by one step at a time. He does with His +child, whom He is teaching to read His will, as we sometimes do with +our children, when we are occupied in teaching them their first +book-learning: we cover the page up, all but the line that we want +them to concentrate their eyes upon; and then, when they have got to +the end of that, slip the hand down, low enough to allow the next +line to come into view. So often God does with us. One thing at a +time is enough for the little brains. And this is the condition of +mortal life, for the most part--though there do come rare +exceptions. Not that we have to look a long way ahead, and forecast +what we shall do this time ten years off, or to make decisions that +involve a distant future--except once or twice in a lifetime--but +that we have to settle what is to be done in this flying minute, and +in the one adjacent to it. 'Do the duty that lies nearest thee,' and +the remoter duty will become clearer. There is nothing that has more +power to make a man's path plain before his feet than that he should +concentrate his better self on the manful and complete discharge of +the present moment's service. And, on the other hand, there is +nothing that will so fill our sky with mists, and blur the marks of +the faint track through the moor, as present negligence, or still +more, present sin. Iron in a ship's hull makes the magnet tremble, +and point away from its true source. He that has complied with evil +to-day is the less capable of discerning duty to-morrow; and he that +does all the duty that he knows will thereby increase the +probability that he will know all that he needs. 'If any man wills +to do His will, he shall know of the teaching'--enough, at any rate, +to direct his steps. + +But there is another lesson still in the words; and that is that, if +we are to be guided, we must see to it that we expect and obey the +guidance. + +This servant of Abraham's, with a very imperfect knowledge of the +divine will, had, when he set out on his road, prayed very earnestly +that God would lead him. He had ventured to prescribe a certain +token, naive in its simplicity: 'If the girl drops her pitcher, and +gives us drink gladly, and does not grudge to fill the troughs for +the cattle, that will show that she is of a good sort, and will make +the right wife for Isaac.' He had prayed thus, and he was ready to +accept whomsoever God so designated. He had not made up his mind, +'Bethuel's daughter is a relation of my master's, and so she will be +a suitable wife for his son.' He left it all with God, and then he +went straight on his road, and was perfectly sure that he would get +the guidance that he had sought. And when it came the good man bowed +and obeyed. + +Now there is a picture for us all. There are many people that say, +'O Lord! guide me.' when all the while they mean, 'Let me guide +Thee.' They are perfectly willing to accept the faintest and moat +questionable indications that may seem to point down the road where +their inclination drives them, and like Lord Nelson at Copenhagen, +will put the telescope to the blind eye when the flag is flying at +the admiral's peak, signalling 'Come out of action,' because they +are determined to stay where they are. + +Do not let us forget that the first condition of securing real +guidance in our daily life is to ask it, and that the next is to +look for it, and that a third is to be quite willing to accept it, +whether the finger points down the broad road that we would like to +go upon, or through some tangled path amongst the brushwood that we +would fain avoid. And if you and I, dear brethren, in the +littlenesses of our daily life, do fulfil these conditions, the +heavens will crumble, and earth will melt, before God will leave His +child untaught in the way in which he should go. + +Only, let us be patient. Do you remember what Joshua said to the +Israelites? 'Let there be a good space of vacant ground between you +and the guiding ark, that you may know by which way you ought to +go.' When men precipitately press on the heels of half-disclosed +providences, they are uncommonly apt to mistake the road. We must +wait till we are sure of God's will before we try to do it. If we +are not sure of what He would have us do, then, for the present, He +would have us do nothing until He speaks. 'I being in the way, the +Lord led me.' + +2. Now a word about the manner of the guidance. + +There was no miracle, no supernatural voice, no pillar of cloud or +fire, no hovering glory round the head of the village maiden. All +the indications were perfectly natural and trivial. A thousand girls +had gone to the wells that day all about Haran and done the very +same things that Rebekah did. But the devout man who had prayed for +guidance, and was sure that he was getting it, was guided by her +most simple, commonplace act; and that is how we are usually to be +guided. God leaves a great deal to our common sense. His way of +speaking to common sense is by very common things. If any of us +fancy that some glow at the heart, some sudden flash as of +inspiration, is the test of a divine commandment, we have yet to +learn the full meaning of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. For that +Incarnation, amongst all its other mighty influences, hallowed the +commonest things of life and turned them into ministers of God's +purposes. So remember, God's guidance may come to you through so +insignificant a girl as Rebekah. It may come to you through as +commonplace an incident as tipping the water of a spring out of an +earthen pot into a stone trough. None the less is it God's guidance; +and what we want is the eye to see it. He will guide us by very +common indications of His providence. + +3. And now, the last thing that I would say a word about is the +realisation in daily life of this guidance as a plain actual fact. + +This anonymous trusted servant of Abraham's, whose name we should +like to have known, had a mere segment of the full orb of the +knowledge of God that shines upon our path. With true Oriental +freedom to speak about the deepest matters, he was not afraid nor +ashamed to stand before Bethuel and Laban, and all these other +strangers that crowded round the doorway, and say, 'The Lord led +me.' There is a pattern for some of us tongue-tied, shamefaced +Christians. Whatever may be the truth about the degradations of +which heathen religion is full, there is a great deal in heathen +religion that ought to teach, and does teach, Christendom a lesson, +as to willingness to recognise and to confess God's working in daily +life. It may be very superficial; it may be very little connected +with high morality; but so far as it goes it is a thousand-fold +better than the dumb religion that characterises such hosts of +Christian people. + +A realisation of the divine guidance is the talisman that makes +crooked things straight and rough places plain; that brings peace +and calmness into our hearts, amid all changes, losses, and sorrows. +If we hold fast by that faith, it will interpret for us the +mysterious in the providences concerning our own lives, and will +help us to feel that, as I said, resistance to our progress may be +true guidance, and thwarting our wills may be our highest good. For +the road which we travel should, in all its turnings, lead us to +God; and whatsoever guides us to Him is only and always blessed. + +May I, for one moment, turn these words in another direction, and +remind you, dear friends, of how the sublimest application of them +is still to be realised? As a climber on a mountain-peak may look +down the vale up which he had painfully toiled for many days and see +the dusty path lying, like a sinuous snake, down all along it, so, +when we get up yonder, 'Thou shalt remember all the way by which the +Lord thy God hath led thee these many years in the wilderness,' and +shalt see the green pastures and the still waters, valleys of the +shadow of death, and burning roads with sharp flints, which have all +brought thee hither at last. We shall know then what we believe now, +that the Lord does indeed go before them who desire to follow Him, +and that the God of Israel is their reward. Then we shall say with +deepened thankfulness, deepened by complete understanding of life +here, seen in the light of its attained end, 'I being in the way, +the Lord led me,' and 'I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for +ever.' + + + + +THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM + + + 'Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old + age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered + to his people.'--GENESIS xxv. 8. + +'Full of years' does not seem to me to be a mere synonym for +longevity. That would be an intolerable tautology, for we should +then have the same thing said three times over--'an old man,' 'in a +good old age,' 'full of years.' There must be some other idea than +that in the words. If you notice that the expression is by no means +a usual one, that it is only applied to one or two of the Old +Testament characters, and those selected characters, I think you +will see that there must be some other significance in it than +merely to point to length of days. + +It may be well to note the instances. In addition to our text, we +find it employed, first, in reference to Isaac, in Genesis xxxv. 29, +where the words are repeated almost _verbatim_. That calm, +contemplative life, so unlike the active, varied career of his +father, also attained to this blessing at its close. Then we find +that the stormy and adventurous course of the great king David, with +its wonderful alternations both of moral character and of fortune, +is represented as being closed at last with this tranquil evening +glory: 'He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and +honour.' Once more we read of the great high priest Jehoiada, whose +history had been crowded with peril, change, brave resistance, and +strenuous effort, that with all the storms behind him he died at +last, 'full of days.' The only other instance of the occurrence of +the phrase is at the close of the book of Job, the typical record of +the good man suffering, and of the abundant compensations given by a +loving God. The fair picture of returning prosperity and family joy, +like the calm morning sunshine after a night of storm and wreck, +with which that wonderful book ends, has this for its last touch, +evidently intended to deepen the impression of peace which is +breathed over it all: 'So Job died, being old and full of days.' +These are all the instances of the occurrence of this phrase, and I +think we may fairly say that in all it is meant to suggest not +merely length of days, but some characteristic of the long life over +and above its mere length. We shall, I think, understand its meaning +a little better if we make a very slight and entirely warranted +change, and instead of reading '_full_ of years,' read '_satisfied_ +with years.' The men were satisfied with life; having exhausted its +possibilities, having drunk a full draught, having nothing more left +to wish for. The words point to a calm close, with all desires +gratified, with hot wishes stilled, with no desperate clinging to +life, but a willingness to let it go, because all which it could give +had been attained. + +So much for one of the remarkable expressions in this verse. There +is another, 'He was gathered to his people,' of which we shall have +more to say presently. Enough for the present to note the +peculiarity, and to suggest that it seems to contain some dim hint +of a future life, and some glimmer of some of the profoundest +thoughts about it. + +We have two main things to consider. + +1. The tranquil close of a life. + +It is possible, then, at the end of life to feel that it has +satisfied one's wishes. Whether it does or no will depend mostly on +ourselves, and very slightly on our circumstances. Length of days, +competence, health, and friends are important; but neither these nor +any other externals will make the difference between a life which, +in the retrospect, will seem to have been sufficient for our +desires, and one which leaves a hunger in the heart. It is possible +for us to make our lives of such a sort, that whether they run on to +the apparent maturity of old age, or whether they are cut short in +the midst of our days, we may rise from the table feeling that it +has satisfied our desires, met our anticipation, and been all very +good. + +Possibly, that is not the way in which most of us look at life. That +is not the way in which a great many of us seem to think that it is +an eminent part of Christian and religious character to look at +life. But it is the way in which the highest type of devotion and +the truest goodness always look at it. There are people, old and +young, who, whenever they look back, whether it be over a long tract +of years or over a short one, have nothing to say about it except: +'Vanity of vanities! all is vanity and vexation of spirit'; a +retrospect of weary disappointments and thwarted plans. + +How different with some of us the forward and the backward look! Are +there not some listening to me, whose past is so dark that it flings +black shadows over their future, and who can only cherish hopes for +to-morrow, by giving the lie to and forgetting the whole of their +yesterdays? It is hard to paint the regions before us like 'the +Garden of the Lord,' when we know that the locusts of our own +godless desires have made all the land behind us desolate. If your +past has been a selfish past, a godless past, in which passion, +inclination, whim, anything but conscience and Christ have ruled, +your remembrances can scarcely be tranquil; nor your hopes bright. +If you have only 'prospects drear,' when you 'backward cast your +eye,' it is not wonderful if 'forwards though you cannot see,' you +will 'guess and fear.' Such lives, when they come towards an end, +are wont to be full of querulous discontent and bitterness. We have +all seen godless old men cynical and sour, pleased with nothing, +grumbling, or feebly complaining, about everything, dissatisfied +with all which life has thus far yielded them, and yet clinging +desperately to it, and afraid to go. + +Put by the side of such an end this calm picture of the old man +going down into his grave, and looking back over all those long days +since he came away from his father's house, and became a pilgrim and +a stranger. How all the hot anxieties, desires, occupations, of +youth have quieted themselves down! How far away now seem the +warlike days when he fought the invading kings! How far away the +heaviness of heart when he journeyed to Mount Moriah with his boy, +and whetted the knife to slay his son! His love had all been buried +in Sarah's grave. He has been a lonely man for many years; and yet +he looks back, as God looked back over His creative week, and feels +that all has been good. 'It was all for the best; the great +procession of my life has been ordered from the beginning to its +end, by the Hand that shapes beauty everywhere, and has made all +things blessed and sweet. I have drunk a full draught; I have had +enough; I bless the Giver of the feast, and push my chair back; and +get up and go away.' He died an old man, and satisfied with his +life. + +Ay! And what a contrast that makes, dear friends, to another set of +people. There is nothing more miserable than to see a man, as his +years go by, gripping harder and tighter at this poor, fleeting +world that is slipping away from him; nothing sadder than to see +how, as opportunities and capacities for the enjoyment of life +dwindle, and dwindle, and dwindle, people become almost fierce in +the desire to keep it. Why, you can see on the face of many an old +man and woman a hungry discontent, that has not come from the mere +wrinkles of old age or care; an eager acquisitiveness looking out of +the dim old eyes, tragical and awful. It is sad to see a man, as the +world goes from him, grasping at its skirts as a beggar does at the +retreating passer-by that refuses him an alms. Are there not some of +us who feel that this is our case, that the less we have before us +of life here on earth, the more eagerly we grasp at the little which +still remains; trying to get some last drops out of the broken +cistern which we know can hold no water? How different this blessed +acquiescence in the fleeting away of the fleeting; and this +contented satisfaction with the portion that has been given him, +which this man had who died willingly, being satisfied with life! + +Sometimes, too, there is satiety--weariness of life which is not +satisfaction, though it looks like it. Its language is: 'Man +delights me not; nor woman neither. I am tired of it all.' Those who +feel thus sit at the table without an appetite. They think that they +have seen to the bottom of everything, and they have found +everything a cheat. They expect nothing new under the sun; that +which is to be hath already been, and it is all vanity and striving +after the wind. They are at once satiated and dissatisfied. Nothing +keeps the power to charm. + +How different from all this is the temper expressed in this text, +rightly understood! Abraham had had a richly varied life. It had +brought him all he wished. He has drunk a full draught, and needs no +more. He is satisfied, but that does not mean loss of interest in +present duties, occupations, or enjoyments. It is possible to keep +ourselves fully alive to all these till the end, and to preserve +something of the keen edge of youth even in old age, by the magic of +communion with God, purity of conduct, and a habitual contemplation +of all events as sent by our Father. When Paul felt himself very +near his end, he yet had interest enough in common things to tell +Timothy all about their mutual friends' occupations, and to wish to +have his books and parchments. + +So, calmly, satisfied and yet not sickened, keenly appreciating all +the good and pleasantness of life, and yet quite willing to let it +go, Abraham died. So may it be with us too, if we will, no matter +what the duration or the externals of our life. If we too are his +children by faith, we shall be 'blessed with faithful Abraham.' And +I beseech you to ask yourselves whether the course of your life is +such as that, if at this moment God's great knife were to come down +and cut it in two, you would be able to say, 'Well! I have had +enough, and now contentedly I go.' + +Again, it is possible at the end of life to feel that it is +complete, because the days have accomplished for us the highest +purpose of life. Scaffoldings are for buildings, and the moments and +days and years of our earthly lives are scaffolding. What are you +building inside the scaffolding, brother? What kind of a structure +will be disclosed when the scaffolding is knocked away? What is the +end for which days and years are given? That they may give us what +eternity cannot take away--a character built upon the love of God in +Christ, and moulded into His likeness. 'Man's chief end is to +glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.' Has your life helped you to +do that? If it has, though you be but a child, you are full of +years; if it has not, though your hair be whitened with the snows of +the nineties, you are yet incomplete and immature. The great end of +life is to make us like Christ, and pleasing to Christ. If life has +done that for us, we have got the best out of it, and our life is +completed, whatever may be the number of the days. Quality, not +quantity, is the thing that determines the perfectness of a life. +And like as in northern lands, where there is only a week or two +from the melting of the snow to the cutting of the hay, the whole +harvest of a life may be gathered in a very little space, and all be +done which is needed to make the life complete. Has your life this +completeness? Can you be 'satisfied' with it, because the river of +the flowing hours has borne down some grains of gold amidst the mass +of mud, and, notwithstanding many sins and failures, you have thus +far fulfilled the end of your being, that you are in some measure +trusting and serving the Lord Jesus Christ? + +Again, it is possible, at the end of life, to be _willing_ to +go as satisfied. + +Most men cling to life in grim desperation, like a climber to a +cliff giving way, or a drowning man clutching at any straw. How +beautiful the contrast of the placid, tranquil acquiescence +expressed in that phrase of our text! No doubt there will always be +the shrinking of the bodily nature from death. But that may be +overcome. There is no passion so weak but in some case it has 'mated +and mastered the fear of death,' and it is possible for us all to +come to that temper in which we shall be ready for either fortune, +to live and serve Him here, or to die and enjoy Him yonder. Or, to +return to an earlier illustration, it is possible to be like a man +sitting at table, who has had his meal, and is quite contented to +stay on there, restful and cheerful, but is not unwilling to put +back his chair, to get up and to go away, thanking the Giver for +what he has received. + +Ah! that is the way to face the end, dear brethren, and how is it to +be done? Such a temper need not be the exclusive possession of the +old. It may belong to us at all stages of life. How is it won? By a +life of devout communion with God. The secret of it lies in obeying +the commandment and realising the truth which Abraham realised and +obeyed: 'I am the Almighty God, walk before Me, and be thou +perfect.' 'Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thine exceeding +great reward.' That is to say, a simple communion with God, +realising His presence and feeling that He is near, will sweeten +disappointment, will draw from it its hidden blessedness, will make +us victors over its pains and its woes. Such a faith will make it +possible to look back and see only blessing; to look forward and see +a great light of hope burning in the darkness. Such a faith will +check weariness, avert satiety, promote satisfaction, and will help +us to feel that life and the great hereafter are but the outer and +inner mansions of the Father's house, and death the short though +dark corridor between. So we shall be ready for life or for death. + +2. Now I must turn to consider more briefly the glimpse of the +joyful society beyond, which is given us in that other remarkable +expression of our text: 'He was gathered to his people' + +That phrase is only used in the earlier Old Testament books, and +there only in reference to a few persons. It is used of Abraham, +Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron, and once (Judges ii. 10) of +a whole generation. If you will weigh the words, I think you will +see that there is in them a dim intimation of something beyond this +present life. + +'He was gathered to his people' is not the same thing as 'He died,' +for, in the earlier part of the verse, we read, 'Abraham gave up the +ghost and died ... and was gathered to his people.' It is not the +same thing as being buried. For we read in the following verse: 'And +his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in +the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before +Mamre.' It is then the equivalent neither of death nor of burial. It +conveys dimly and veiledly that Abraham was buried, and yet that was +not all that happened to him. He was buried, but also 'he was +gathered to his people.' Why! his own 'people' were buried in +Mesopotamia, and his grave was far away from theirs. What is the +meaning of the expression? Who were the people he was gathered to? +In death or in burial, 'the dust returns to the earth as it was.' +What was it that was gathered to his people? + +Dimly, vaguely, veiledly, but unmistakably, as it seems to me, is +here expressed at least a premonition and feeling after the thought +of an immortal self in Abraham that was not there in what 'his sons +Isaac and Ishmael laid in the cave at Machpelah,' but was somewhere +else and was for ever. That is the first thing hinted at here--the +continuance of the personal being after death. + +Is there anything more? I think there is. Now, remember, Abraham's +whole life was shaped by that commandment, 'Get thee out from thy +father's house, and from thy kindred, and from thy country.' He +never dwelt with his kindred; all his days he was a pilgrim and a +sojourner, a stranger in a strange land. And though he was living in +the midst of a civilisation which possessed great cities whose walls +reached to heaven, he pitched his tent beneath the terebinth tree at +Mamre, and would have nothing to do with the order of things around +him, but remained an exotic, a waif, an outcast in the midst of +Canaan all his life. Why? Because he 'looked for the city which hath +the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.' And now he has +gone to it, he is gathered to his people. The life of isolation is +over, the true social life is begun. He is no longer separated from +those around him, or flung amidst those that are uncongenial to him. +'He is gathered to his people'; he dwells with his own tribe; he is +at home; he is in the city. + +And so, brethren, life for every Christian man must be lonely. After +all communion we dwell as upon islands dotted over a great +archipelago, each upon his little rock, with the sea dashing between +us; but the time comes when, if our hearts are set upon that great +Lord, whose presence makes us one, there shall be no more sea, and +all the isolated rocks shall be parts of a great continent. Death +sets the solitary in families. We are here like travellers plodding +lonely through the night and the storm, but soon to cross the +threshold into the lighted hall, full of friends. + +If we cultivate that sense of detachment from the present, and of +having our true affinities in the unseen, if we dwell here as +strangers because our citizenship is in heaven, then death will not +drag us away from our associates, nor hunt us into a lonely land, +but will bring us where closer bonds shall knit the 'sweet +societies' together, and the sheep shall couch close by one another, +because all are gathered round the one shepherd. Then many a broken +tie shall be rewoven, and the solitary wanderer meet again the dear +ones whom he had 'loved long since, and lost awhile.' + +Further, the expressions suggest that in the future men shall be +associated according to affinity and character. 'He was gathered to +his people,' whom he was like and who were like him; the people with +whom he had sympathy, the people whose lives were shaped after the +fashion of his own. + +Men will be sorted there. Gravitation will come into play +undisturbed; and the pebbles will be ranged according to their +weights on the great shore where the sea has cast them up, as they +are upon Chesil beach, down there in the English Channel, and many +another coast besides; all the big ones together and sized off to +the smaller ones, regularly and steadily laid out. Like draws to +like. Our spiritual affinities, our religious and moral character, +will settle where we shall be, and who our companions will be when +we get yonder. Some of us would not altogether like to live with the +people that are like ourselves, and some of us would not find the +result of this sorting to be very delightful. Men in the Dantesque +circles were only made more miserable because all around them were +of the same sort as, and some of them worse than, themselves. And an +ordered hell, with no company for the liar but liars, and none for +the thief but thieves, and none for impure men but the impure, and +none for the godless but the godless, would be a hell indeed. + +'He was gathered to his people,' and you and I will be gathered +likewise. What is the conclusion of the whole matter? Let us follow +with our thoughts, and in our lives, those who have gone into the +light, and cultivate in heart and character those graces and +excellences which are congruous with the inheritance of the saints +in light. Above all, let us give our hearts to Christ, by simple +faith in Him, to be shaped and sanctified by Him. Then our country +will be where He is, and our people will be the people in whom His +love abides, and the tribe to which we belong will be the tribe of +which He is Chieftain. So when our turn comes, we may rise +thankfully from the table in the wilderness, which He has spread for +us, having eaten as much as we desired, and quietly follow the dark- +robed messenger whom His love sends to bring us to the happy +multitudes that throng the streets of the city. There we shall find +our true home, our kindred, our King. 'So shall _we_ ever be +with the Lord.' + + + + +A BAD BARGAIN + + + 'And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a + man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling + in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of + his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod + pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: + And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that + same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name + called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy + birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to + die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? + And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto + him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob + gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat + and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau + despised his birthright.' + GENESIS xxv. 27-34. + +Isaac's small household represented a great variety of types of +character. He himself lacked energy, and seems in later life to have +been very much of a tool in the hands of others. Rebekah had the +stronger nature, was persistent, energetic, and managed her husband +to her heart's content. The twin brothers were strongly opposed in +character; and, naturally enough, each parent loved best the child +that was most unlike him or her: Isaac rejoicing in the very +wildness of the adventurous, dashing Esau; and Rebekah finding an +outlet for her womanly tenderness in an undue partiality for the +quiet lad that was always at hand to help her and be petted by her. + +One's sympathy goes out to Esau. He was 'a man of the field,'--by +which is meant, not cultivated ground, but open country, which we +might call prairie. He was a 'backwoodsman,'--liked the wild +hunter's life better than sticking at home looking after sheep. He +had the attractive characteristics of that kind of men, as well as +their faults. He was frank, impulsive, generous, incapable of +persevering work or of looking ahead, passionate. His descendants +prefer cattle-ranching and gold-prospecting to keeping shops or +sitting with their lungs squeezed against a desk. + +Jacob had neither the high spirits nor the animal courage of his +brother. He was 'a plain man.' The word is literally 'perfect,' but +cannot be used in its deepest sense; for Jacob was very far indeed +from being that, but seems to have a lower sense, which might +perhaps be represented by 'steady-going,' or 'respectable,' in +modern phraseology. He went quietly about his ordinary work, in +contrast with his daring brother's escapades and unsettledness. + +The two types are intensified by civilisation, and the antagonism +between them increased. City life tends to produce Jacobs, and its +Esaus escape from it as soon as they can. But Jacob had the vices as +well as the virtues of his qualities. He was orderly and domestic, +but he was tricky, and keenly alive to his own interest. He was +persevering and almost dogged in his tenacity of purpose, but he was +not above taking mean advantages and getting at his ends by miry +roads. He had little love for his brother, in whom he saw an +obstacle to his ambition. He had the virtues and vices of the +commercial spirit. + +But we judge the two men wrongly if we let ourselves be fascinated, +as Isaac was, by Esau, and forget that the superficial attractions +of his character cover a core worthy of disapprobation. They are +crude judges of character who prefer the type of man who spurns the +restraints of patient industry and order; and popular authors, who +make their heroes out of such, err in taste no less than in morals. +There is a very unwholesome kind of literature, which is devoted to +glorifying the Esaus as fine fellows, with spirit, generosity, and +noble carelessness, whereas at bottom they are governed by animal +impulses, and incapable of estimating any good which does not appeal +to sense, and that at once. + +The great lesson of this story lies on its surface. It is the folly +and sin of buying present gratification of appetite or sense at the +price of giving up far greater future good. The details are +picturesquely told. Esau's eagerness, stimulated by the smell of the +mess of lentils, is strikingly expressed in the Hebrew: 'Let me +devour, I pray thee, of that red, that red there.' It is no sin to +be hungry, but to let appetite speak so clamorously indicates feeble +self-control. Jacob's coolness is an unpleasant foil to Esau's +impatience, and his cautious bargaining, before he will sell what a +brother would have given, shows a mean soul, without generous love +to his own flesh and blood. Esau lets one ravenous desire hide +everything else from him. He wants the pottage which smokes there, +and that one poor dish is for the moment more to him than birthright +and any future good. Jacob knows the changeableness of Esau's +character, and is well aware that a hungry man will promise +anything, and, when fed, will break his promise as easily as he made +it. So he makes Esau swear; and Esau will do that, or anything +asked. He gets his meal. The story graphically describes the greedy +relish with which he ate, the short duration of his enjoyment, and +the dark meaning of the seemingly insignificant event, by that +accumulation of verbs, 'He did eat and drink, and rose up and went +his way: so Esau despised his birthright.' + +Now we may learn, first, how profound an influence small +temptations, yielded to, may exert on a life. + +Many scoffs have been directed against this story, as if it were +unworthy of credence that eating a dish of lentils should have +shaped the life of a man and of his descendants. But is it not +always the case that trifles turn out to be determining points? +Hinges are very small, compared with the doors which move on them. +Most lives are moulded by insignificant events. No temptation is +small, for no sin is small; and if the occasion of yielding to sense +and the present is insignificant, the yielding is not so. + +But the main lesson is, as already noted, the madness of flinging +away greater future good for present gratifications of sense. One +cannot suppose that the spiritual side of 'the birthright' was in +the thoughts of either brother. Esau and Jacob alike regarded it +only as giving the headship of the family. It was merely the right +of succession, with certain material accompanying advantages, which +Jacob coveted and Esau parted with. But even in regard to merely +worldly objects, the man who lives for only the present moment is +distinctly beneath him who lives for a future good, however material +it may be. Whoever subordinates the present, and is able steadily to +set before himself a remote object, for which he is strong enough to +subdue the desire of immediate gratifications of any sort, is, in so +far, better than the man who, like a savage or an animal, lives only +for the instant. + +The highest form of that nobility is when time is clearly seen to be +the 'lackey to eternity,' and life's aims are determined with +supreme reference to the future beyond the grave. But how many of us +are every day doing exactly as Esau did--flinging away a great +future for a small present! A man who lives only for such ends as +may be attained on this side of the grave is as 'profane' a person +as Esau, and despises his birthright as truly. He knew that he was +hungry, and that lentil porridge was good, 'What good shall the +birthright do me?' He failed to make the effort of mind and +imagination needed in order to realise how much of the kind of +'good' that he could appreciate it would do to him. The smell of the +smoking food was more to him than far greater good which he could +only appreciate by an effort. A sixpence held close to the eye can +shut out the sun. Resolute effort is needed to prevent the small, +intrusive present from blotting out the transcendent greatness of +the final future. And for lack of such effort men by the thousand +fling themselves away. + +To sell a birthright for a bowl of lentils was plain folly. But is +it wiser to sell the blessedness and peace of communion with God +here and of heaven hereafter for anything that earth can yield to +sense or to soul? How many shrewd 'men of the highest commercial +standing' are making as bad a bargain as Esau's! The 'pottage' is +hot and comforting, but it is soon eaten; and when the bowl is +empty, and the sense of hunger comes back in an hour or two, the +transaction does not look quite as advantageous as it did. Esau had +many a minute of rueful meditation on his bad bargain before he in +vain besought his father's blessing. And suspicions of the folly of +their choice are apt to haunt men who prefer the present to the +future, even before the future becomes the present, and the folly is +manifest. 'What doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and +forfeit his life?' + +So a character like Esau's, though it has many fine possibilities +about it, and attracts liking, is really of a low type, and may very +easily slide into depths of degrading sensualism, and be dead to all +nobleness. Enterprise, love of stirring life, impatience of dull +plodding, are natural to young lives. Unregulated, impulsive +characters, who live for the moment, and are very sensitive to all +material delights, have often an air of generosity and joviality +which hides their essential baseness; for it _is_ base to live +for flesh, either in more refined or more frankly coarse forms. It +is base to be incapable of seeing an inch beyond the present. It is +base to despise any good that cannot minister to fleeting lusts or +fleshly pleasures, and to say of high thought, of ideal aims of any +sort, and most of all to say of religion, 'What good will it do me?' +To estimate such precious things by the standard of gross utility is +like weighing diamonds in grocers' scales. They will do very well +for sugar, but not for precious stones. The sacred things of life +are not those which do what the Esaus recognise as 'good.' They have +another purpose, and are valuable for other ends. Let us take heed, +then, that we estimate things according to their true relative +worth; that we live, not for to-day, but for eternity; and that we +suppress all greedy cravings. If we do not, we shall be 'profane' +persons like Esau, 'who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.' + + + + +POTTAGE VERSUS BIRTHRIGHT + + + 'Esau despised his birthright'--GENESIS xxv. 34. + +Broad lessons unmistakable, but points strange and difficult to +throw oneself back to so different a set of ideas. So + +I. Deal with the narrative. + +Not to tell it over again, but bring out the following points:-- + +(_a_) Birthright.--What? + +None of them any notion of sacred, spiritual aspect of it. + +To all, merely material advantages: headship of the clan. All the +loftier aspects gone from Isaac, who thought he could give it for +venison, from Esau, and from the scheming Rebekah and the crafty +Jacob. + +(_b_) The Bargain. + +It is not clear whether the transaction was seriously meant, or +whether it only shows Jacob's wish to possess the birthright and +Esau's indifference to it. + +At any rate, the barter was not supposed to complete Jacob's title, +as is shown by a subsequent piece of trickery. + +Isaac's blessing was conceived to confer it; that blessing, if once +given, could not be revoked, even if procured by fraud and given in +error. + +The belief would fulfil itself, as far as the chieftainship was +concerned. + +It is significant of the purely 'secular' tone of all the parties +concerned that only temporal blessings are included in Isaac's +words. + +(_c_) The Scripture judgment on all parties concerned. + +Great mistakes are made by forgetting that the Bible is a +passionless narrator of its heroes' acts, and seldom pauses to +censure or praise--so people have thought that Scripture gave its +vote for Jacob as against Esau. + +The character of the two men. + +Esau--frank, impulsive, generous, chivalrous, careless, and +sensuous. + +Jacob--meditative, reflective, pastoral, timid, crafty, selfish. +Each has the defects of his qualities. + +But the subsequent history of Jacob shows what heaven thought of +him. + +This dirty transaction marred his life, sent him a terrified exile +from Isaac's tent, and shook his soul long years after with guilty +apprehensions when he had to meet Esau. + +All subsequent career to beat his crafty selfishness out of him and +to lift him to higher level. + +II. Broad General Lessons. + +1. The Choice.--Birthright _versus_ Pottage. + +(_a_) The Present _versus_ The Future. + +Suppose it true that to both brothers the birthright seemed to +secure merely material advantage, yet even so the better part would +have been to sacrifice material present for material future. Even on +plane of worldly things, to live for to-morrow ennobles a man, and +he is the higher style of man who 'spurns delights and lives +laborious days' for some issue to be realised in the far future. + +The very same principle extended leads to the conviction that the +highest wisdom is his who lives for the furthest, which is also the +most certain, Future. + +(_b_) The Seen _versus_ The Unseen. + +However material the advantages of the birthright were supposed to +be, they _then_ appealed to imagination, not sense. _There_ was the +pottage in the pan: 'I can see that and smell it. This birthright, can +I eat _it_? Let me get the solid realities, and let who will +have the imaginary.' + +So the unseen good things, such as intellectual culture, fair +reputation, and the like, are better than the gross satisfactions +that can be handled, or tasted, or seen. + +And, on the very same principle, high above the seeker after these--as +high as he is above the drunkard--is the Christian, whose life is +shaped by the loftiest Unseen, even 'Him who is invisible.' + +2. The grim absurdity of the choice. + +The story seems to have a certain undertone of sarcasm, and a keen +perception of the immense stupidity of the man. + +Pottage and a full belly to-day--that was all he got for such a +sacrifice. + +'This their way is their folly.' + +3. How well the bargain worked at first, and what came of it at +last. + +No doubt Esau had his meal, and, no doubt, when a man sells his soul +to the devil (the mediaeval form of the story), he generally gets +the price for which he bargained, more or less, and oftentimes with +a dash of vinegar in the porridge, which makes it less palatable. + +What comes of it at last. Put side by side the pictures of Esau's +animal contentment at the moment when he had eaten up his mess, and +of his despair when he wailed, 'Hast thou not one blessing?' + +He finds out his mistake. A sense of the preciousness of the +despised thing wakes in him. + +And it is too late. There _are_ irrevocable consequences of +every false choice. Youth is gone: cannot alter that. Opportunities +gone: cannot alter that. Strength gone: cannot alter that. Habits +formed, associations, reputation, position, character, are all +determined. + +But there is a blessed _contrast_ between Esau's experience and +what may be ours. The desire to have the birthright is sure to bring +it to us. No matter how late the desire is of springing, nor how +long and insultingly we have suppressed it, we never go to our +Father in vain with the cry, 'Bless me, even me also.' + +'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his +own soul?' + + + + +THE FIRST APOSTLE OF PEACE AT ANY PRICE + + + 'Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same + year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. And the + man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he + became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and + possession of herds, and great store of servants: and + the Philistines envied him. For all the wells which his + father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his + father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them + with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; + for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed + thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and + dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water, + which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; + for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of + Abraham: and he called their names after the names by + which his father had called them. And Isaac's servants + digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing + water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's + herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the + name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. And + they digged another well, and strove for that also: and + he called the name of it Sitnah. And he removed from + thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove + not: and be called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, + For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be + fruitful in the land. And he went up from thence to + Beer-sheba. And the Lord appeared unto him the same + night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: + fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and + multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he + builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the + Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's + servants digged a well.'--GENESIS xxvi. 12-25. + +The salient feature of Isaac's life is that it has no salient +features. He lived out his hundred and eighty years in quiet, with +little to make history. Few details of his story are given, and some +of these are not very creditable. He seems never to have wandered +far from the neighbourhood of Beersheba. These quiet, rolling +stretches of thinly peopled land contented him, and gave pasture for +his flocks, as well as fields for his cultivation. Like many of the +tribes of that district still, he had passed from the purely nomad +and pastoral life, such as Abraham led, and had begun to 'sow in +that land.' That marks a stage in progress. His father's life had +been like a midsummer day, with bursts of splendour and heavy +thunder-clouds; his was liker a calm day in autumn, windless and +unchanging from morning till serene evening. The world thinks little +of such lives, but they are fruitful. + +Our text begins with a sweet little picture of peaceful industry, +blessed by God, and therefore prospering. Travellers tell us that +the land where Isaac dwelt is still marvellously fertile, even to +rude farming. But to be merely a successful farmer and sheep-owner +might have seemed poor work to the heir of such glowing promises, +and the prospect of a high destiny often disgusts its possessor with +lowly duties. 'But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we +with patience wait for it,' and the best way to fit ourselves for +great things in the future is to bend our backs and wills to humble +toil in the present. Peter expected every day to see the risen Lord, +when he said, 'I go a-fishing.' + +The Philistines' envy was very natural, since Isaac was an alien, +and, in some sense, an intruder. Their stopping of the wells was a +common act of hostility, and an effectual one in that land, where +everything lives where water comes, and dies if it is cut off. +Abimelech's reason for 'extraditing' Isaac might have provoked a +more pugnacious person to stay and defy the Philistines to expel +him. 'Thou art much mightier than we,' and so he could have said, +'Try to put me out, then,' and the result might have been that +Abimelech and his Philistines would have been the ones to go. But +the same spirit was in the man as had been in the lad, when he let +his father bind him and lay him on the altar without a struggle or a +word, and he quietly went, leaving his fields and pastures. 'Very +poor-spirited,' says the world; what does Christ say? + +Isaac was not 'original.' He cleaned out the wells which his father +had digged, and with filial piety gave them again the old names +'which his father had called them.' Some of us nowadays get credit +for being 'advanced and liberal thinkers,' because we regard our +fathers' wells as much too choked with rubbish to be worth clearing +out, and the last thing we should dream of would be to revive the +old names. But the old wells were not enough for the new time, and +so fresh ones were added. Isaac and his servants did not say, 'We +will have no water but what is drawn from Abraham's wells. What was +enough for him is enough for us.' So, like all wise men, they were +conservatively progressive and progressively conservative. The Gerar +shepherds were sharp lawyers. They took strong ground in saying, +'The _water_ is ours; you have dug wells, but we are ground- +owners, and what is below the surface, as well as what is on it, is +our property.' Again Isaac fielded, moved on a little way, and tried +again. A second well was claimed, and given up, and all that Isaac +did was to name the two 'Contention' and 'Enmity,' as a gentle +rebuke and memorial. Then, as is generally the result, gentleness +wearied violence out, and the Philistines tired of annoying before +Isaac tired of yielding. So he came into a quiet harbour at last, +and traced his repose to God, naming his last well 'Broad Places,' +because the Lord had made room for him. + +Such a quiet spirit, strong in non-resistance, and ready to yield +rather than quarrel, was strangely out of place in these wild days +and lands. He obeyed the Sermon on the Mount millenniums before it +was spoken. Whether from temperament or from faith, he is the first +instance of the Christian type of excellence in the Old Testament. +For there ought to be no question that the spirit of meekness, which +will not meet violence by violence, is the Christian spirit. +Christian morals alter the perspective of moral excellences, and +exalt meekness above the 'heroic virtues' admired by the world. The +violets and lilies in Christ's garden outshine voluptuous roses and +flaunting sunflowers. In this day, when there is a recrudescence of +militarism, and we are tempted to canonise the soldier, we need more +than ever to insist that the highest type is 'the Lamb of God,' who +was 'as a sheep before her shearers.' To fight for my rights is not +the Christian ideal, nor is it the best way to secure them. Isaac +will generally weary out the Philistines, and get his well at last, +and will have escaped much friction and many evil passions. + + 'Tis safer being meek than fierce.' + +Isaac won the friendship of his opponents by his patience, as the +verses after the text tell. Their consciences and hearts were +touched, and they 'saw plainly that the Lord was with him,' and sued +him for alliance. It is better to turn enemies into friends than to +beat them and have them as enemies still. 'I'll knock you down +unless you love me' does not sound a very hopeful way of cementing +peaceful relations. But 'when a man's ways please the Lord, he +maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.' But Isaac won more +than the Philistines' favour by his meek peacefulness, for 'the Lord +appeared unto him,' and assured him that, undefended and unresisting +as he was, he had a strong defence, and need not be afraid: 'Fear +not, for I am with thee.' The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit +is, in the sight of God, of great price, and that not only for 'a +woman'; and it brings visions of God, and assurances of tranquil +safety to him who cherishes it. The Spirit of God comes down in the +likeness of a dove, and that bird of peace sits 'brooding "only" on +the charmed wave' of a heart stilled from strife and wrath, like a +quiet summer's sea. + +Isaac's new home at Beersheba, having been thus hallowed by the +appearance of the Lord, was consecrated by the building of an altar. +We should hallow by grateful remembrance the spots where God has +made Himself known to us. The best beginning of a new undertaking is +to rear an altar. It is well when new settlers begin their work by +calling on the name of the Lord. Beersheba and Plymouth Rock are a +pair. First comes the altar, then the tent can be trustfully +pitched, but 'except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain +that build it.' And if the house is built in faith, a well will not +be lacking; for they who 'seek first the kingdom of God' will have +all needful 'things added unto them.' + + + + +THE HEAVENLY PATHWAY AND THE EARTHLY HEART + + + 'And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward + Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried + there all night, because the sun was set; and he took + of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, + and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and + behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it + reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending + and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above + it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, + and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to + thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall + be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad + to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to + the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the + families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with + thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou + goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I + will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have + spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, + and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I + knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful + is this place! this is none other but the house of God, + and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early + in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for + his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil + upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place + Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the + first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with + me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give + me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come + again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord + be my God; And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, + shall be God's house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I + will surely give the tenth unto Thee.'--GENESIS xxviii. 10-22. + +From Abraham to Jacob is a great descent. The former embodies the +nobler side of the Jewish character,--its capacity for religious +ideas; its elevation above, and separation from, the nations; its +consciousness of, and peaceful satisfaction in, a divine Friend; its +consequent vocation in the world. These all were deep in the founder +of the race, and flowed to it from him. Jacob, on the other hand, +has in him the more ignoble qualities, which Christian treatment of +the Jew has fostered, and which have become indissolubly attached to +the name in popular usage. He is a crafty schemer, selfish, over- +reaching, with a keen eye to the main chance. Whoever deals with him +has to look sharply after his own interests. Self-advantage in its +most earthly form is uppermost in him; and, like all timid, selfish +men, shifty ways and evasions are his natural weapons. The great +interest of his history lies in the slow process by which the +patient God purified him, and out of this 'stone raised up a worthy +child to Abraham.' We see in this context the first step in his +education, and the very imperfect degree in which he profited by it. + +1. Consider the vision and its accompanying promise. Jacob has fled +from home on account of his nobler brother's fierce wrath at the +trick which their scheming mother and he had contrived. It was an +ugly, heartless fraud, a crime against a doting father, as against +Esau. Rebekah gets alarmed for her favourite; and her fertile brain +hits upon another device to blind Isaac and get Jacob out of harm's +way, in the excuse that she cannot bear his marriage with a Hittite +woman. Her exaggerated expressions of passionate dislike to 'the +daughters of Heth' have no religious basis. They are partly feigned +and partly petulance. So the poor old blind father is beguiled once +more, and sends his son away. Starting under such auspices, and +coming from such an atmosphere, and journeying back to Haran, the +hole of the pit whence Abraham had been digged, and turning his back +on the land where God had been with his house, the wanderer was not +likely to be cherishing any lofty thoughts. His life was in danger; +he was alone, a dim future was before him, perhaps his conscience +was not very comfortable. These things would be in his mind as he +lay down and gazed into the violet sky so far above him, burning +with all its stars. Weary, and with a head full of sordid cares, +plans, and possibly fears, he slept; and then there flamed on 'that +inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude' to the pure, and its +terror to the evil, this vision, which speaks indeed to his then +need, as he discerned it, but reveals to him and to us the truth +which ennobles all life, burns up the dross of earthward-turned +aims, and selfish, crafty ways. + +We are to conceive of the form of the vision as a broad stair or +sloping ascent, rather than a ladder, reaching right from the +sleeper's side to the far-off heaven, its pathway peopled with +messengers, and its summit touching the place where a glory shone +that paled even the lustrous constellations of that pure sky. Jacob +had thought himself alone; the vision peoples the wilderness. He had +felt himself defenceless; the vision musters armies for his safety. +He had been grovelling on earth, with no thoughts beyond its +fleeting goods; the vision lifts his eyes from the low level on +which they had been gazing. He had been conscious of but little +connection with heaven; the vision shows him a path from his very +side right into its depths. He had probably thought that he was +leaving the presence of his father's God when he left his father's +tent; the vision burns into his astonished heart the consciousness +of God as there, in the solitude and the night. + +The divine promise is the best commentary on the meaning of the +vision. The familiar ancestral promise is repeated to him, and the +blessing and the birthright thus confirmed. In addition, special +assurances, the translation of the vision into word and adapted to +his then wants, are given,--God's presence in his wanderings, his +protection, Jacob's return to the land, and the promise of God's +persistent presence, working through all paradoxes of providence and +sins of His servant, and incapable of staying its operations, or +satisfying God's heart, or vindicating His faithfulness, at any +point short of complete accomplishment of His plighted word. + +We pass from the lone desert and the mysterious twilight of Genesis +to the beaten ways between Galilee and Jordan, and to the clear +historic daylight of the gospel, and we hear Christ renewing the +promise to the crafty Jacob, to one whom He called a son of Jacob in +his after better days, 'an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' +The very heart of Christ's work was unveiled in the terms of this +vision: From henceforth 'ye shall see the heaven opened, and the +angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.' So, +then, the fleeting vision was a transient revelation of a permanent +reality, and a faint foreshadowing of the true communication between +heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is the ladder between God and man. On +Him all divine gifts descend; by Him all the angels of human +devotion, consecration, and aspiration go up. This flat earth is not +so far from the topmost heaven as sense thinks. The despairing +question of Jewish wisdom, 'Who hath ascended up into heaven, or +descended? ... What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou +canst tell?'--which has likewise been the question of every age that +has not been altogether sunk in sensual delights--is answered once +for all in the incarnate and crucified and ascended Lord, by and in +whom all heaven has stooped to earth, that earth might be lifted to +heaven. Every child of man, though lonely and earthly, has the +ladder-foot by his side,--like the sunbeam, which comes straight +into the eyes of every gazer, wherever he stands. It becomes +increasingly evident, in the controversies of these days, that there +will remain for modern thought only the alternative,--either Jesus +Christ is the means of communication between God and man, or there +is no communication. Deism and theism are compromises, and cannot +live. The cultivated world in both hemispheres is being more and +more shut up to either accepting Christ as revealer, by whom alone +we know, and as medium by whom alone we love and approach, God; or +sinking into abysses of negations where choke-damp will stifle +enthusiasm and poetry, as well as devotion and immortal hope. + +Jacob's vision was meant to teach him, and is meant to teach us, the +nearness of God, and the swift directness of communication, whereby +His help comes to us and our desires rise to Him. These and their +kindred truths were to be to him, and should be to us, the parents +of much nobleness. Here is the secret of elevation of aim and +thought above the mean things of sense. We all, and especially the +young, in whose veins the blood dances, and to whom life is in all +its glory and freshness, are tempted to think of it as all. It does +us good to have this vision of the eternal realities blazing in upon +us, even if it seems to glare at us, rather than to shine with +lambent light. The seen is but a thin veil of the unseen. Earth, +which we are too apt to make a workshop, or a mere garden of +pleasure, is a Bethel,--a house of God. Everywhere the ladder +stands; everywhere the angels go up and down; everywhere the Face +looks from the top. Nothing will save life from becoming, sooner or +later, trivial, monotonous, and infinitely wearisome, but the +continual vision of the present God, and the continual experience of +the swift ascent and descent of our aspirations and His blessings. + +It is the secret of purity too. How could Jacob indulge in his +craft, and foul his conscience with sin, as long as he carried the +memory of what he had seen in the solitary night on the uplands of +Bethel? The direct result of the vision is the same command as +Abraham received, 'Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.' Realise My +presence, and let that kill the motions of sin, and quicken to +service. + +It is also the secret of peace. Hopes and fears, and dim uncertainty +of the future, no doubt agitated the sleeper's mind as he laid him +down. His independent life was beginning. He had just left his +father's tents for the first time; and, though not a youth in years, +he was in the position which youth holds with us. So to him, and to +all young persons, here is shown the charm which will keep the heart +calm, and preserve us from being 'over exquisite to cast the fashion +of uncertain evils,' or too eagerly longing for possible good. 'I am +with thee' should be enough to steady our souls; and the confidence +that God will not leave us till He has accomplished His own purpose +for us, should make us willing to let Him do as He will with ours. + +2. Notice the imperfect reception of the divine teaching. Jacob's +startled exclamation on awakening from his dream indicates a very +low level both of religious knowledge and feeling. Nor is there any +reason for taking the words in any but their most natural sense; for +it is a mistake to ascribe to him the knowledge of God due to later +revelation, or, at this stage of his life, any depth of religious +emotion. He is alarmed at the thought that God is near. Probably he +had been accustomed to think of God's presence as in some special +way associated with his father's encampment, and had not risen to +the belief of His omnipresence. There seems no joyous leaping up of +his heart at the thought that God is here. Dread, not unmingled with +the superstitious fear that he had profaned a holy place by laying +himself down in it, is his prevailing feeling, and he pleads +ignorance as the excuse for his sacrilege. He does not draw the +conclusion from the vision that all the earth is hallowed by a near +God, but only that he has unwittingly stumbled on His house; and he +does not learn that from every place there is an open door for the +loving heart into the calm depths where God is throned, but only +that _here_ he unwittingly stands at the gate of heaven. So he +misses the very inner purpose of the vision, and rather shrinks from +it than welcomes it. Was that spasm of fear all that passed through +his mind that night? Did he sleep again when the glory died out of +the heaven? So the story would appear to suggest. But, in any case, +we see here the effect of the sudden blazing in upon a heart not yet +familiar with the Divine Friend, of the conviction that He is really +near. Gracious as God's promise was, it did not dissipate the +creeping awe at His presence. It is an eloquent testimony of man's +consciousness of sin, that whensoever a present God becomes a +reality to a worldly man, he trembles. 'This place' would not be +'dreadful,' but blessed, if it were not for the sense of discord +between God and me. + +The morning light brought other thoughts, when it filled the silent +heavens, and where the ladder had stretched, there was but empty +blue. The lesson is sinking into his mind. He lifts the rude stone +and pours oil on it, as a symbol of consecration, as nameless races +have done all over the world. His vow shows that he had but begun to +learn in God's school. He hedges about his promise with a +punctilious repetition of God's undertaking, as if resolved that +there should be no mistake. Clause by clause he goes over it all, +and puts an 'if' to it. God's word should have kindled something +liker faith than that. What a fall from 'Abram believed in the Lord, +and He counted it to him for righteousness'! Jacob barely believed, +and will wait to see whether all will turn out as it has been +promised. That is not the glad, swift response of a loving, trusting +heart. Nor is he contented with repeating to God the terms of his +engagement, but he adds a couple of clauses which strike him as +being important, and as having been omitted. There was nothing about +'bread to eat, and raiment to put on,' nor about coming back again +'in peace,' so he adds these. A true 'Jew,'--great at a bargain, and +determined to get all he can, and to have no mistake about what he +must get before he gives anything! Was Jesus thinking at all of the +ancestor when He warned the descendants, in words which sound +curiously like an echo of Jacob's, not to be anxious 'what ye shall +eat,' nor 'what ye shall put on'? As the vow stands in the +Authorised Version, it is farther open to the charge of suspending +his worship of God upon the fulfilment of these conditions; but it +is better to adopt the marginal rendering of the Revised Version, +according to which the clause 'then shall the Lord be my God' is a +part of the conditions, not of the vow, and is to be read 'And [if] +the Lord will be ... then this stone ... shall be,' etc. If this +rendering be adopted, as I think it should be, the vow proper is +simply of outward service,--he will rear an altar, and he will tithe +his substance. Not a very munificent pledge! And where in it is the +surrender of the heart? Where is the outgoing of love and gratitude? +Where the clasping of the hand of his heavenly Friend with calm +rapture of thankful self-yielding, and steadfastness of implicit +trust? God did not want Jacob's altar, nor his tenths; He wanted +Jacob. But many a weary year and many a sore sorrow have to leave +their marks on him before the evil strain is pressed out of his +blood; and by the unwearied long-suffering of his patient Friend and +Teacher in heaven, the crafty, earthly-minded Jacob 'the supplanter' +is turned into 'Israel, the prince with God, in whom is no guile.' +The slower the scholar, the more wonderful the forbearance of the +Teacher; and the more may we, who are slow scholars too, take heart +to believe that He will not be soon angry with us, nor leave us +until He has done that which He has spoken to us of. + + + + +MAHANAIM: THE TWO CAMPS + + + 'And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met + him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's + host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim' + (_i.e._ Two camps).--GENESIS xxxii. 1, 2. + +This vision came at a crisis in Jacob's life. He has just left the +house of Laban, his father-in-law, where he had lived for many +years, and in company with a long caravan, consisting of wives, +children, servants, and all his wealth turned into cattle, is +journeying back again to Palestine. His road leads him close by the +country of Esau. Jacob was no soldier, and he is naturally terrified +to meet his justly incensed brother. And so, as he plods along with +his defenceless company trailing behind him, as you may see the Arab +caravans streaming over the same uplands to-day, all at once, in the +middle of his march, a bright-harnessed army of angels meets him. +Whether visible to the eye of sense, or, as would appear, only to +the eye of faith, they _are_ visible to this troubled man; and, +in a glow of confident joy, he calls the name of that place +'Mahanaim,' two camps. One camp was the little one of his down here, +with the helpless women and children and his own frightened and +defenceless self, and the other was the great one up there, or +rather in shadowy but most real spiritual presence around about him, +as a bodyguard making an impregnable wall between him and every foe. +We may take some very plain and everlastingly true lessons out of +this story. + +1. First, the angels of God meet us on the dusty road of common +life. 'Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.' + +As he was tramping along there, over the lonely fields of Edom, with +many a thought on his mind and many a fear at his heart, but feeling +'There is the path that I have to walk on,' all at once the air was +filled with the soft rustle of angel wings, and the brightness from +the flashing armour of the heavenly hosts flamed across his +unexpecting eye. And so is it evermore. The true place for us to +receive visions of God is in the path of the homely, prosaic duties +which He lays upon us. The dusty road is far more likely to be +trodden by angel feet than the remote summits of the mountain, where +we sometimes would fain go; and many an hour consecrated to devotion +has less of the manifest presence of God than is granted to some +weary heart in its commonplace struggle with the little troubles and +trials of daily life. These make the doors, as it were, by which the +visitants draw near to us. + +It is the common duties, 'the narrow round, the daily task,' that +not only give us 'all we ought to ask,' but are the selected means +and channels by which, ever, God's visitants draw near to us. The +man that has never seen an angel standing beside him, and driving +his loom for him, or helping him at his counter and his desk, and +the woman that has never seen an angel, according to the bold +realism and homely vision of the old German picture, working with +her in the kitchen and preparing the meal for the household, have +little chance of meeting such visitants at any other point of their +experience or event of their lives. + +If the week be empty of the angels, you will never catch sight of a +feather of their wings on the Sunday. And if we do not recognise +their presence in the midst of all the prose, and the commonplace, +and the vulgarity, and the triviality, and the monotony, the dust of +the small duties, we shall go up to the summit of Sinai itself and +see nothing there but cold grey stone and everlasting snows. 'Jacob +went on his way, and the angels of God met him.' The true field for +religion is the field of common life. + +And then another side of the same thought is this, that it is in the +path where God has bade us walk that we shall find the angels round +us. We may meet them, indeed, on paths of our own choosing, but it +will be the sort of angel that Balaam met, with a sword in his hand, +mighty and beautiful, but wrathful too; and we had better not front +him! But the friendly helpers, the emissaries of God's love, the +apostles of His grace, do not haunt the roads that we make for +ourselves. They confine themselves rigidly to 'the paths in which +God has before ordained that we should walk in them.' A man has no +right to expect, and he will not get, blessing and help and divine +gifts when, self-willedly, he has taken the bit between his teeth, +and is choosing his own road in the world. But if he will say, +'Lord! here I am; put me where Thou wilt, and do with me what Thou +wilt,' then he may be sure that that path, though it may be solitary +of human companionship, and leading up amongst barren rocks and over +bare moorlands, where the sun beats down fiercely, will not be +unvisited by a better presence, so that in sweet consciousness of +sufficiency of rich grace, he will be able to say, 'I, being in the +way, the Lord met me.' + +2. Still further, we may draw from this incident the lesson that +God's angels meet us punctually at the hour of need. + +Jacob is drawing nearer and nearer to his fear every step. He is now +just on the borders of Esau's country, and close upon opening +communications with his brother. At that critical moment, just +before the finger of the clock has reached the point on the dial at +which the bell would strike, the needed help comes, the angel guards +draw near and camp beside him. It is always so. 'The Lord shall help +her, and that right early.' His hosts come no sooner and no later +than we need. If they appeared before we had realised our danger and +our defencelessness, our hearts would not leap up at their coming, +as men in a beleaguered town do when the guns of the relieving force +are heard booming from afar. Often God's delays seem to us +inexplicable, and our prayers to have no more effect than if they +were spoken to a sleeping Baal. But such delays are merciful. They +help us to the consciousness of our need. They let us feel the +presence of the sorrow. They give opportunity of proving the +weakness of all other supports. They test and increase desire for +His help. They throw us more unreservedly into His arms. They afford +room for the sorrow or the burden to work its peaceable fruits. So, +and in many other ways, delay of succour fits us to receive succour, +and our God makes no tarrying but for our sakes. + +It is His way to let us come almost to the edge of the precipice, +and then, in the very nick of time, when another minute and we are +over, to stretch out His strong right hand and save us. So Peter is +left in prison, though prayer is going up unceasingly for him--and +no answer comes. The days of the Passover feast slip away, and still +he is in prison, and prayer does nothing for him. The last day of +his life, according to Herod's purpose, dawns, and all the day the +Church lifts up its voice--but apparently there is no answer, nor +any that regarded. The night comes, and still the vain cry goes up, +and Heaven seems deaf or apathetic. The night wears on, and still no +help comes. But in the last watch of that last night, when day is +almost dawning, at nearly the last minute when escape would have +been possible, the angel touches the sleeping Apostle, and with +leisurely calmness, as sure that he had ample time, leads him out to +freedom and safety. It was precisely because Jesus loved the +Household at Bethany that, after receiving the sisters' message, He +abode still for two days in the same place where He was. However our +impatience may wonder, and our faithlessness venture sometimes +almost to rebuke Him when He comes, with words like Mary's and +Martha's--'Lord, if Thou hadst been here, such and such sorrows +would not have happened, and Thou couldst so easily have been here'--we +should learn the lesson that even if He has delayed so long that the +dreaded blow has fallen, He has come soon enough to make it the +occasion for a still more glorious communication of His power. 'Rest +in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He shall give thee the +desires of thine heart.' + +3. Again, we learn from this incident that the angels of God come in +the shape which we need. + +Jacob's want at the moment was protection. Therefore the angels +appear in warlike guise, and present before the defenceless man +another camp, in which he and his unwieldy caravan of women and +children and cattle may find security. If his special want had been +of some blessing of another kind, no doubt another form of +appearance, suited with precision to his need, would have been +imposed upon these angel helpers. For God's gifts to us change their +character; as the Rabbis fabled that the manna tasted to each man +what each most desired. The same pure heavenly bread has the varying +savour that commends it to varying palates. God's grace is Protean. +It takes all the forms that man's necessities require. As water +assumes the shape of any vessel into which it is put, so this great +blessing comes to each of us, moulded according to the pressure and +taking the form of our circumstances and necessities. His fulness is +all-sufficient. It is the same blood that, passing to all the +members, ministers to each according to the needs and fashion of +each. And it is the same grace which, passing to our souls, in each +man is shaped according to his present condition and ministers to +his present wants. + +So, dear brethren, in that great fulness each of us may have the +thing that we need. The angel who to one man is protection, to +another shall be teaching and inspiration; to another shall appear +with chariots of fire and horses of fire to sweep the rapt soul +heavenward; to another shall draw near as a deliverer from his +fetters, at whose touch the bonds shall fall from off him; to +another shall appear as the instructor in duty and the appointer of +a path of service, like that vision that shone in the castle to the +Apostle Paul, and said, 'Thou must bear witness for me at Rome'; to +another shall appear as opening the door of heaven and letting a +flood of light come down upon his darkened heart, as to the +Apocalyptic seer in his rocky Patmos. And 'all this worketh that one +and the self-same' Lord of angels 'dividing to every man severally +as He will,' and as the man needs. The defenceless Jacob has the +manifestation of the divine presence in the guise of armed warriors +that guard his unwarlike camp. + +I add one last word. Long centuries after Jacob's experience at +Mahanaim, another trembling fugitive found himself there, fearful, +like Jacob, of the vengeance and anger of one who was knit to him by +blood. When poor King David was flying from the face of Absalom his +son, the first place where he made a stand, and where he remained +during the whole of the rebellion, was this town of Mahanaim, away +on the eastern side of the Jordan. Do you not think that to the +kingly exile, in his feebleness and his fear, the very name of his +resting-place would be an omen? Would he not recall the old story, +and bethink himself of how round that other frightened man + + 'Bright-harnessed angels stood in order serviceable' + +and would he not, as he looked on his little band of friends, +faithful among the faithless, have his eyesight cleared to behold +the other camp? Such a vision, no doubt, inspired the calm +confidence of the psalm which evidently belongs to that dark hour of +his life, and made it possible for the hunted king, with his feeble +band, to sing even then, 'I will both lay me down in peace and +sleep, for Thou, Lord, makest me dwell in safety, solitary though I +am.' + +Nor is the vision emptied of its power to stay and make brave by all +the ages that have passed. The vision was for a moment; the fact is +for ever. The sun's ray was flashed back from celestial armour, 'the +next all unreflected shone' on the lonely wastes of the desert--but +the host of God was there still. The transitory appearance of the +permanent realities is a revelation to us as truly as to the +patriarch; and though no angel wings may winnow the air around our +road, nor any sworded seraphim be seen on our commonplace march, we +too have all the armies of heaven with us, if we tread the path +which God has marked out, and in our weakness and trembling commit +ourselves to Him. The heavenly warriors die not, and hover around us +to-day, excelling in the strength of their immortal youth, and as +ready to succour us as they were all these centuries ago to guard +the solitary Jacob. + +Better still, the 'Captain of the Lord's host' is 'come up' to be +our defence, and our faith has not only to behold the many +ministering spirits sent forth to minister to us, but One mightier +than they, whose commands they all obey, and who Himself is the +companion of our solitude and the shield of our defencelessness. It +was blessed that Jacob should be met by the many angels of God. It +is infinitely more blessed that '_the_ Angel of the Lord'--the +One who is more than the many--'encampeth round about them that fear +Him, and delivereth them.' + +The postscript of the last letter which Gordon sent from Khartoum +closed with the words, 'The hosts are with me--Mahanaim.' Were they +not, even though death was near? Was that sublime faith a mistake--the +vision an optical delusion? No, for their ranks are arrayed around +God's children to keep them from all evil while He wills that they +should live, and their chariots of fire and horses of fire are sent +to bear them to heaven when He wills that they should die. + + + + +THE TWOFOLD WRESTLE--GOD'S WITH JACOB AND JACOB'S WITH GOD + + + 'And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of + my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return + unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal + well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the + mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed + unto Thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this + Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I + pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand + of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, + and the mother with the children. And Thou saidst, I + will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand + of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.' + --GENESIS xxxii. 9-12. + +Jacob's subtlety and craft were, as is often the case, the weapons +of a timid as well as selfish nature. No wonder, then, that the +prospect of meeting his wronged and strong brother threw him into a +panic, notwithstanding the vision of the camp of angels by the side +of his defenceless caravan of women and children. Esau had received +his abject message of propitiation in grim silence, sent no welcome +back, but with ominous haste and ambiguous purpose began his march +towards him with a strong force. A few hours will decide whether he +means revenge. Jacob's fright does not rob him of his ready wit; he +goes to work at once to divide his party, so as to ensure safety for +half of it. He schemes first, and prays second. The order might have +been inverted with advantage, but is like the man--in the lowest +phase of his character. His prayer shows that he is beginning to +profit by the long years of schooling. Though its burden is only +deliverance from Esau, it pleads with God on the grounds of His own +command and promise, of Jacob's unworthiness of God's past mercies, +and of His firm covenant. A breath of a higher life is stirring in +the shifty schemer who has all his life been living by his wits. Now +he has come to a point where he knows that his own power can do +nothing. With Laban, a man of craft like himself, it was diamond cut +diamond; and Jacob was equal to the position. But the wild Bedouin +brother, with his four hundred men, is not to be managed so; and +Jacob is driven to God by his conscious helplessness. It is the +germ, but only the germ, and needs much tending and growth before it +matures. The process by which this faint dawning of a better life is +broadened into day is begun in the mysterious struggle which forms +the main part of this lesson, and is God's answer to his prayer. + +1. We have, first, the twofold wrestling. The silent night-long +wrestle with the 'traveller unknown' is generally regarded as +meaning essentially the same thing as the wonderful colloquy which +follows. But I venture to take a somewhat different point of view, +and to suggest that there are here two well-marked stages. In the +first, which is represented as transacted in unbroken silence, 'a +man' wrestles with Jacob, and does not prevail; in the second, which +is represented as an interchange of speech, Jacob strives with the +'man,' and does prevail. Taken together, the two are a complete +mirror, not only of the manner of the transformation of Jacob into +Israel, but of universal eternal truths as to God's dealings with +us, and our power with Him. + +As to the former stage, the language of the narrative is to be +noted, 'There wrestled a man with him.' The attack, so to speak, +begins with his mysterious antagonist, not with the patriarch. The +'man' seeks to overcome Jacob, not Jacob the man. There, beneath the +deep heavens, in the solemn silence of night, which hides earth and +reveals heaven, that strange struggle with an unknown Presence is +carried on. We have no material for pronouncing on the manner of it, +whether ecstasy, vision, or an objective and bodily fact. The body +was implicated in the consequences, at all events, and the +impression which the story leaves is of an outward struggle. But the +purpose of the incident is the same, however the question as to its +form be answered. Nor can we pronounce, as some have done, on the +other question, of the personality of the silent wrestler. Angel, or +'the angel of the covenant,' who is a transient, and possibly only +apparent, manifestation in human form of Him who afterwards became +flesh and dwelt among us, or some other supernatural embodiment, for +that one purpose, of the divine presence,--any of these hypotheses +is consistent with the intentionally reticent text. What it leaves +unspoken, we shall wisely leave undetermined. God acts and speaks +through 'the man.' That is all we can know or need. + +What, then, was the meaning of this struggle? Was it not a +revelation to Jacob of what God had been doing with him all his +life, and was still doing? Was not that merciful striving of God +with him the inmost meaning of all that had befallen him since the +far-off day when he had left his father's tents, and had seen the +opened heavens, and the ladder, which he had so often forgotten? +Were not his disappointments, his successes, and all the swift +changes of life, God's attempts to lead him to yield himself up, and +bow his will? And was not God striving with him now, in the +anxieties which gnawed at his heart, and in his dread of the morrow? +Was He not trying to teach him how crime always comes home to roost, +with a brood of pains running behind it? Was not the weird duel in +the brooding stillness a disclosure, which would more and more +possess his soul as the night passed on, of a Presence which in +silence strove with him, and only desired to overcome that He might +bless? The conception of a Divine manifestation wrestling all night +long with a man has been declared 'crude,' 'puerile,' and I know not +how many other disparaging adjectives have been applied to it. But +is it more unworthy of Him, or derogatory to His nature, than the +lifelong pleading and striving with each of us, which He undoubtedly +carries on? The idea of a man contending with God has been similarly +stigmatised; but is it more mysterious than that awful power which +the human will does possess of setting at naught His counsels and +resisting His merciful strivings? + +The close of the first stage of the twofold wrestle is marked by the +laming of Jacob. The paradox that He, who could not overcome, could +yet lame by a touch, is part of the lesson. If His finger could do +that, what would the grip of His hand do, if He chose to put out His +power? It is not for want of strength that He has not crushed the +antagonist, as Jacob would feel, with deepening wonder and awe. What +a new light would be thus thrown on all the previous struggle! It +was the striving of a power which cared not for a mere outward +victory, nor put forth its whole force, lest it should crush him +whom it desired to conquer only by his own yielding. As Job says, +'Will He plead against me with His great power?' No; God mercifully +restrains His hand, in His merciful striving with men. Desiring to +overcome them, He desires not to do so by mere superior power, but +by their willing yielding to Him. + +That laming of Jacob's thigh represents the weakening of all the +life of nature and self which had hitherto been his. He had trusted +to his own cunning and quick-wittedness; he had been shrewd, not +over-scrupulous, and successful. But he had to learn that 'by +strength shall no man prevail,' and to forsake his former weapons. +Wrestling with his hands and limbs is not the way to prevail either +with God or man. Fighting with God in his own strength, he is only +able to thwart God's merciful purpose towards him, but is powerless +as a reed in a giant's grasp if God chooses to summon His +destructive powers into exercise. So this failure of natural power +is the turning-point in the twofold wrestle, and marks as well as +symbolises the transition in Jacob's life and character from +reliance upon self and craft to reliance upon his divine Antagonist +become his Friend. It is the path by which we must all travel if we +are to become princes with God. The life of nature and of dependence +on self must be broken and lamed in order that, in the very moment +of discovered impotence, we may grasp the hand that smites, and find +immortal power flowing into our weakness from it. + +2. So we come to the second stage, in which Jacob strives with God +and does prevail. 'Let me go, for the day breaketh.' Then did the +stranger wish to go; and if he did, why could not he, who had lamed +his antagonist, loose himself from his grasp? The same explanation +applies here which is required in reference to Christ's action to +the two disciples at Emmaus: 'He made as though He would have gone +further.' In like manner, when He came to them on the water, He +appeared as though He 'would have passed by.' In all three cases the +principle is the same. God desires to go, if we do not desire Him to +stay. He will go, unless we keep Him. Then, at last, Jacob betakes +himself to his true weapons. Then, at last, he strangely wishes to +keep his apparent foe. He has learned, in some dim fashion, whom he +has been resisting, and the blessedness of having Him for friend and +companion. So here comes in the account of the whole scene which +Hosea gives (Hos. xii. 4): 'He wept, and made supplication unto +Him.' That does not describe the earlier portion, but is the true +rendering of the later stage, of which our narrative gives a more +summary account. The desire to retain God binds Him to us. All His +struggling with us has been aimed at evoking it, and all His fulness +responds to it when evoked. Prayer is power. It conquers God. We +overcome Him when we yield. When we are vanquished, we are victors. +When the life of nature is broken within us, then from conscious +weakness springs the longing which God cannot but satisfy. 'When I +am weak, then am I strong.' As Charles Wesley puts it, in his grand +hymn on this incident:-- + + 'Yield to me now, for I am weak, + But confident in self-despair.' + +And God prevails when we prevail. His aim in all the process of His +mercy has been but to overcome our heavy earthliness and +selfishness, which resists His pleading love. His victory is our +yielding, and, in that yielding, obtaining power with Him. He +delights to be held by the hand of faith, and ever gladly yields to +the heart's cry, 'Abide with me.' I will not let Thee go, except +Thou bless me,' is music to His ear; and our saying so, in earnest, +persistent clinging to Him, is His victory as well as ours. + +3. We have, next, the new name, which is the prize of Jacob's +victory, and the sign of a transformation in his character. Before +this time he had been Jacob, the worker with wiles, who supplanted +his brother, and met his foes with duplicity and astuteness like +their own. He had been mainly of the earth, earthy. But that solemn +hour had led him into the presence-chamber, the old craft had been +mortally wounded, he had seen some glimpse of God as his friend, +whose presence was not 'awful,' as he had thought it long ago, nor +enigmatical and threatening, as he had at first deemed it that +night, but the fountain of blessing and the one thing needful. A man +who has once learned that lesson, though imperfectly, has passed +into a purer region, and left behind him his old crookedness. He has +learned to pray, not as before, prayers for mere deliverance from +Esau and the like, but his whole being has gone out in yearning for +the continual nearness of his mysterious antagonist-friend. So, +though still the old nature remains, its power is broken, and he is +a new creature. Therefore he needs a new name, and gets it from Him +who can name men, because He sees the heart's depths, and because He +has the right over them. To impose a name is the sign of authority, +possession, insight into character. The change of name indicates a +new epoch in a life, or a transformation of the inner man. The +meaning of 'Israel' is 'He (who) strives with God'; and the reason +for its being conferred is more accurately given by the Revised +Version, which translates, 'For thou hast striven with God and with +men,' than in the Authorised rendering. His victory with God +involved the certainty of his power with men. All his life he had +been trying to get the advantage of them, and to conquer them, not +by spear and sword, but by his brains. But now the true way to true +sway among men is opened to him. All men are the servants of the +servant and the friend of God. He who has the ear of the emperor is +master of many men. + +Jacob is not always called Israel in his subsequent history. His new +name was a name of character and of spiritual standing, and that +might fluctuate, and the old self resume its power; so he is still +called by the former appellation, just as, at certain points in his +life, the apostle forfeits the right to be 'Peter,' and has to hear +from Christ's lips the old name, the use of which is more poignant +than many reproachful words; 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath +desired to have you.' But in the last death-bed scene, when the +patriarch lifted himself in his bed, and with prophetic dignity +pronounced his parting benediction on Joseph's sons, the new name +reappears with solemn pathos. + +That name was transmitted to his descendants, and has passed over to +the company of believing men, who have been overcome by God, and +have prevailed with God. It is a charter and a promise. It is a +stringent reminder of duty and a lofty ideal. A true Christian is an +'Israel.' His office is to wrestle with God. Nor can we forget how +this mysterious scene was repeated in yet more solemn fashion, +beneath the gnarled olives of Gethsemane, glistening in the light of +the paschal full moon, when the true Israel prayed with such sore +crying and tears that His body partook of the struggle, and 'His +sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the +ground.' The word which describes Christ's agony is that which is +often rendered 'wrestling,' and perhaps is selected with intentional +allusion to this incident. At all events, when we think of Jacob by +the brook Jabbok, and of a 'greater than our father Jacob' by the +brook Kedron, we may well learn what persistence, what earnestness +and effort of the whole nature, go to make up the ideal of prayer, +and may well blush for the miserable indifference and torpor of what +we venture to call our prayers. These are our patterns, 'as many as +walk according to this rule,' and are thereby shown to be 'the +Israel of God,'--upon them shall be peace. + +4. We have, as the end of all, a deepened desire after closer +knowledge of God, and the answer to it. Some expositors (as, for +instance, Robertson of Brighton, in his impressive sermon on this +section) take the closing petition, 'Tell me, I pray thee, Thy +name,' as if it were the centre point of the whole incident. But +this is obviously a partial view. The desire to know that name does +not come to Jacob, as we might have expected, when he was struggling +with his unknown foe in the dark there. It is the end, and, in some +sense, the issue, of all that has gone before. Not that he was in +any doubt as to the person to whom he spoke; it is just because he +knows that he is speaking with God, who alone can bless, that he +longs to have some deeper, clearer knowledge still of Him. He is not +asking for a word by which he may call Him; the name is the +expression of the nature, and his parting request is for something +far more intimate and deep than syllables which could be spoken by +any lips. The certain sequel of the discovery of God as striving in +mercy with a man, and of yielding to him, is the thirst for deeper +acquaintance with Him, and for a fuller, more satisfying knowledge +of His inmost heart. If the season of mysterious intercourse must +cease, and day hide more than it discloses, and Jacob go to face +Esau, and we come down from the mount to sordid cares and mean +tasks, at least we long to bear with us as a love-token some whisper +in our inmost hearts that may cheer us with the peaceful truth about +Him and be a hidden sweetness. The presence of such a desire is a +sure consequence, and therefore a good test, of real prayer. + +The Divine answer, which sounds at first like refusal, is anything +but that. Why dost thou ask after My name? surely I need not to give +thee more revelation of My character. Thou hast enough of light; +what thou needest is insight into what thou hast already. We have in +what God has made known of Himself already to us--both in His +outward revelation, which is so much larger and sweeter to us than +it was to Jacob, but also in His providences, and in the inward +communion which we have with Him if we have let Him overcome us, and +have gained power to prevail with Him--sources of certain knowledge +of Him so abundant and precious that we need nothing but the loving +eye which shall take in all their beauty and completeness, to have +our most eager desires after His name more than satisfied. We need +not ask for more sunshine, but take care to spread ourselves out in +the full sunshine which we have, and let it drench our eyes and fire +our hearts. 'And He blessed him there.' Not till now was he capable +of receiving the full blessing. He needed to have self beaten out of +him; he needed to recognise God as lovingly striving with Him; he +needed to yield himself up to Him; he needed to have his heart thus +cleansed and softened, and then opened wide by panting desire for +the presence and benediction of God; he needed to be made conscious +of his new standing, and of the higher life budding within him; he +needed to experience the yearning for a closer vision of the face, a +deeper knowledge of the name,--and then it was possible to pour into +his heart a tenderness and fulness of blessing which before there +had been no room to receive, and which now answered in sweetest +fashion the else unanswered desire, 'Tell me, I pray thee, Thy +name.' + +In like manner we may each be blessed with the presence and +benediction of Him whose merciful strivings, when we knew Him not, +came to us in the darkness; and to whom, if we yield, there will be +peace and power in our hearts, and upon us, too, the sun will rise +as we pass from the place where our foe became our friend, and by +faith we saw Him face to face, and drank in life by the gaze. + + + + +A FORGOTTEN VOW + + + 'Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make + there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when + thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother,' + GENESIS XXXV. 1. + +Thirty years at least had passed since Jacob's vow; ten or twenty +since his return. He is in no haste to fulfil it, but has settled +down at Shechem and bought land there, and seems to have forgotten +all about Bethel. + +1. _The lesson of possible negligence_. + +(_a_) We are apt to forget vows when God has fulfilled His side +of them. Resolutions made in time of trouble are soon forgotten. We +pray and think about God more then than when things go well with us. +Religion is in many men's judgment for stormy weather only. + +(_b_) We are often more resolved to make sacrifices in the +beginning of our Christian course than afterwards. + +Many a brilliant morning is followed by cloudy day. + +Youth is often full of enthusiasms which after-days forget. + +2._ The reasons for the negligence_. + +Jacob felt a gradual fading away of impressions of need. He was +comfortably settled at Shechem. He was surrounded by a wild, godless +household who cherished their idols, and he knew that if he went to +Bethel idolatry must be given up. + +3. _The essentials to communion and service_. + +Surrender. Purity. Must bury idols under oak. + +4._The reward of sacrifice and of duty discharged_. + +The renewed appearance of God. The confirmation of name Israel. +Enlarged promises. So the old man's vision may be better than the +youth's, if he lives up to his youthful vows. + + + + +THE TRIALS AND VISIONS OF DEVOUT YOUTH + + + 'And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a + stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations + of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding + the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the + sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's + wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil + report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, + because he was the son of his old age: and he made him + a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that + their father loved him more than all his brethren, they + hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And + Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and + they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, + I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, + we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf + arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves + stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And + his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over + us? or shalt thou Indeed have dominion over us? And they + hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. + And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, + and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, + the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance + to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: + and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is + this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother + and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to + thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his + father observed the saying.'--GENESIS xxxvii. 1-11. + +'The generations of Jacob' are mainly occupied with the history of +Joseph, because through him mainly was the divine purpose carried +on. Jacob is now the head of the chosen family, since Isaac's death +(Gen. xxxv. 29), and therefore the narrative is continued under that +new heading. There may possibly be intended a contrast in 'dwelt' +and 'sojourned' in verse 1, the former implying a more complete +settling down. + +There are two principal points in this narrative,--the sad insight +that it gives into the state of the household in which so much of +the world's history and hopes was wrapped up, and the preludings of +Joseph's future in his dreams. + +As to the former, the account of it is introduced by the statement +that Joseph, at seventeen years of age, was set to work, according +to the wholesome Eastern usage, and so was thrown into the company +of the sons of the two slave-women, Bilhah and Zilpah. Delitzsch +understands 'lad' in verse 2 in the sense in which we use 'boy,' as +meaning an attendant. Joseph was, then, told off to be subordinate +to these two sets of his rough brothers. The relationship was enough +to rouse hatred in such coarse souls. And, indeed, the history of +Jacob's household strikingly illustrates the miserable evils of +polygamy, which makes families within the family, and turns brothers +into enemies. Bilhah's and Zilpah's sons reflected in their hatred +of Rachel's their mothers' envy of the true wife of Jacob's heart. +The sons of the bondwoman were sure to hate the sons of the free. + +If Joseph had been like his brothers, they would have forgiven him +his mother. But he was horrified at his first glimpse of +unrestrained young passions, and, in the excitement of disgust and +surprise, 'told their evil report.' No doubt, his brothers had been +unwilling enough to be embarrassed by his presence, for there is +nothing that wild young men dislike more than the constraint put on +them by the presence of an innocent youth; and when they found out +that this 'milk-sop' of a brother was a spy and a telltale, their +wrath blazed up. So Joseph had early experience of the shock which +meets all young men who have been brought up in godly households +when they come into contact with sin in fellow-clerks, servants, +students, or the like. It is a sharp test of what a young man is +made of, to come forth from the shelter of a father's care and a +mother's love, and to be forced into witnessing and hearing such +things as go on wherever a number of young men are thrown together. +Be not 'partaker of other men's sins.' And the trial is doubly great +when the tempters are elder brothers, and the only way to escape +their unkindness is to do as they do. Joseph had an early experience +of the need of resistance; and, as long as the world is a world, +love to God will mean hatred from its worst elements. If we are +'sons of the day,' we cannot but rebuke the darkness. + +It is an invidious office to tell other people's evil-doing, and he +who brings evil reports of others generally and deservedly gets one +for himself. But there are circumstances in which to do so is plain +duty, and only a mistaken sense of honour keeps silence. But there +must be no exaggeration, malice, or personal ends in the informer. +Classmates in school or college, fellow-servants, employees in great +businesses, and the like, have not only a duty of loyalty to one +another, but of loyalty to their superior. We are sometimes bound to +be blind to, and dumb about, our associates' evil deeds, but +sometimes silence makes us accomplices. + +Jacob had a right to know, and Joseph would have been wrong if he +had not told him, the truth about his brothers. Their hatred shows +that his purity had made their doing wrong more difficult. It is a +grand thing when a young man's presence deprives the Devil of elbow- +room for his tricks. How much restraining influence such a one may +exert! + +Jacob's somewhat foolish love, and still more foolish way of showing +it, made matters worse. There were many excuses for him. He +naturally clung to the son of his lost but never-forgotten first +love, and as naturally found, in Joseph's freedom from the vices of +his other sons, a solace and joy. It has been suggested that the +'long garment with sleeves,' in which he decked the lad, indicated +an intention of transferring the rights of the first-born to him, +but in any case it meant distinguishing affection; and the father or +mother who is weak enough to show partiality in the treatment of +children need not wonder if their unwise love creates bitter heart- +burnings. Perhaps, if Bilhah's and Zilpah's sons had had a little +more sunshine of a father's love, they would have borne brighter +flowers and sweeter fruit. It is fatal when a child begins to +suspect that a parent is not fair. + +So these surly brothers, who could not even say 'Peace be to thee!' +(the common salutation) when they came across Joseph, had a good +deal to say for themselves. It is a sad picture of the internal +feuds of the house from which all nations were to be blessed. The +Bible does not idealise its characters, but lets us see the seamy +side of the tapestry, that we may the more plainly recognise the +Mercy which forgives, and the mighty Providence which works through, +such imperfect men. But the great lesson for all young people from +the picture of Joseph's early days, when his whiteness rebuked the +soiled lives of his brothers, as new-fallen snow the grimy cake, +hardened and soiled on the streets, is, 'My son, if sinners entice +thee, consent thou not.' Never mind a world's hatred, if you have a +father's love. There is one Father who can draw His obedient +children into the deepest secrets of His heart without withholding +their portion from the most prodigal. + +Joseph's dreams are the other principal point in the narrative. The +chief incidents of his life turn on dreams,--his own, his fellow- +prisoners', Pharaoh's. The narrative recognises them as divinely +sent, and no higher form of divine communication appears to have +been made to Joseph, He received no new revelations of religious +truth. His mission was, not to bring fresh messages from heaven, but +to effect the transference of the nation to Egypt. Hence the lower +form of the communications made to him. + +The meaning of both dreams is the same, but the second goes beyond +the first in the grandeur of the emblems, and in the inclusion of +the parents in the act of obeisance. Both sets of symbols were drawn +from familiar sights. The homeliness of the 'sheaves' is in striking +contrast with the grandeur of the 'sun, moon, and stars.' The +interpretation of the first is ready to hand, because the sheaves +were 'your sheaves' and 'my sheaf.' There was no similar key +included in the second, and his brothers do not appear to have +caught its meaning. It was Jacob who read it. Probably Rachel was +dead when the dream came, but that need not make a difficulty. + +Note that Joseph did not tell his dreams with elation, or with a +notion that they meant anything particular. It is plainly the +singularity of them that makes him repeat them, as is clearly +indicated by the repeated 'behold' in his two reports. With perfect +innocence of intention, and as he would have told any other strange +dream, the lad repeats them. The commentary was the work of his +brothers, who were ready to find proofs of his being put above them, +and of his wish to humiliate them, in anything he said or did. They +were wiser than he was. Perhaps they suspected that Jacob meant to +set him at the head of the clan on his decease, and that the dreams +were trumped up and told to them to prepare them for the decision +which the special costume may have already hinted. + +At all events, hatred is very suspicious, and ready to prick up its +ears at every syllable that seems to speak of the advancement of its +object. + +There is a world of contempt, rage, and fear in the questions, +'Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion +over us?' The conviction that Joseph was marked out by God for a +high position seems to have entered these rough souls, and to have +been fuel to fire. Hatred and envy make a perilous mixture. Any sin +can come from a heart drenched with these. Jacob seems to have been +wise enough to make light of the dreams to the lad, though much of +them in his heart. Youthful visions of coming greatness are often +best discouraged. The surest way to secure their fulfilment is to +fill the present with strenuous, humble work. 'Do the duty that is +nearest thee.' 'The true apprenticeship for a ruler is to serve.' +'Act, act, in the living present.' The sheaves may come to bow down +some day, but 'my sheaf' has to be cut and bound first, and the +sooner the sickle is among the corn, the better. + +But yet, on the other hand, let young hearts be true to their early +visions, whether they say much about them or not. Probably it will +be wisest to keep silence. But there shine out to many young men and +women, at their start in life, bright possibilities of no ignoble +sort, and rising higher than personal ambition, which it is the +misery and sin of many to see 'fade away into the light of common +day,' or into the darkness of night. Be not 'disobedient to the +heavenly vision'; for the dreams of youth are often the prophecies +of what God means and makes it possible for the dreamer to be, if he +wakes to work towards that fair thing which shone on him from afar. + + + + +MAN'S PASSIONS AND GOD'S PURPOSE + + + 'And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his + brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his + coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, + and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there + was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and + they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a + company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their + camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to + carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, + What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal + his blood! Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, + and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother + and our flesh. And his brethren were content. Then there + passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and + lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the + Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought + Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, + behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his + clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, + The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they + took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and + dipped the coat in the blood; And they sent the coat of + many colours, and they brought it to their father; and + said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy + son's coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my + son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is + without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, + and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his + son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters + rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; + and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my + son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. And the + Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer + of Pharaoh's and captain of the guard.'--GENESIS xxxvii. 23-36. + +We have left the serene and lofty atmosphere of communion and +saintship far above us. This narrative takes us down into foul +depths. It is a hideous story of vulgar hatred and cruelty. God's +name is never mentioned in it; and he is as far from the actors' +thoughts as from the writer's words. The crime of the brothers is +the subject, and the picture is painted in dark tones to teach large +truths about sin. + +1. The broad teaching of the whole story, which is ever being +reiterated in Old Testament incidents, is that God works out His +great purposes through even the crimes of unconscious men. There is +an irony, if we may so say, in making the hatred of these men the +very means of their brother's advancement, and the occasion of +blessing to themselves. As coral insects work, not knowing the plan +of their reef, still less the fair vegetation and smiling homes +which it will one day carry, but blindly building from the material +supplied by the ocean a barrier against it; so even evil-doers are +carrying on God's plan, and sin is made to counterwork itself, and +be the black channel through which the flashing water of life pours. +Joseph's words (Gen. 1. 20) give the point of view for the whole +story: 'Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good ... +to save much people alive.' We can scarcely forget the still more +wonderful example of the same thing, in the crime of crimes, when +his brethren slew the Son of God--like Joseph, the victim of envy--and, +by their crime, God's counsel of mercy for them and for all was +fulfilled. + +2. Following the narrative, verses 23, 24, and 25 show us the +poisonous fruit of brotherly hatred. The family, not the nation, is +the social unit in Genesis. From the beginning, we find the field on +which sin works is the family relation. Cain and Abel, Ishmael and +Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and now the other children of Jacob and +Joseph, attest the power of sin when it enters there, and illustrate +the principle that the corruption of the best is the worst. The +children of Rachel could not but be hated by the children of other +mothers. Jacob's undisguised partiality for Joseph was a fault too, +which wrought like yeast on the passions of his wild sons. The long- +sleeved garment which he gave to the lad probably meant to indicate +his purpose to bestow on him the right of the first-born forfeited +by Reuben, and so the violent rage which it excited was not +altogether baseless. The whole miserable household strife teaches +the rottenness of the polygamous relation on which it rested, and +the folly of paternal favouritism. So it carries teaching especially +needed then, but not out of date now. + +The swift passage of the purely inward sin of jealous envy into the +murderous act, as soon as opportunity offered, teaches the short +path which connects the inmost passions with the grossest outward +deeds. Like Jonah's gourd, the smallest seed of hate needs but an +hour or two of favouring weather to become a great tree, with all +obscene and blood-seeking birds croaking in its branches. 'Whosoever +hateth his brother is a murderer,' Therefore the solemn need for +guarding the heart from the beginnings of envy, and for walking in +love. + +The clumsy contrivance for murder without criminality, which Reuben +suggested, is an instance of the shallow pretexts with which the +sophistry of sin fools men before they have done the wrong thing. +Sin's mask is generally dropped very soon after. The bait is useless +when the hook is well in the fish's gills. 'Don't let us kill him. +Let us put him into a cistern. He cannot climb up its bottle-shaped, +smooth sides. But that is not our fault. Nobody will ever hear his +muffled cries from its depths. But there will be no blood on our +hands.' It was not the first time, nor is it the last, that men have +tried to blink their responsibility for the consequences which they +hoped would come of their crimes. Such excuses seem sound when we +are being tempted; but, as soon as the rush of passion is past, they +are found to be worthless. Like some cheap castings, they are only +meant to be seen in front, where they are rounded and burnished. Get +behind them, and you find them hollow. + +'They sat down to eat bread,' Thomas Fuller pithily says: 'With what +heart could they say grace, either before or after meat?' What a +grim meal! And what an indication of their rude natures, seared +consciences, and deadened affections! + +This picture of the moral condition of the fathers of the Jewish +tribes is surely a strong argument for the historical accuracy of +the narrative. It would be strange if the legends of a race, instead +of glorifying, should blacken, the characters of its founders. No +motive can be alleged which would explain such a picture; its only +explanation is its truth. The ugly story, too, throws vivid light on +that thought, which prophets ever reiterated, 'not for your sakes, +but for My name's sake.' The divine choice of Israel was grounded, +not on merit, but on sovereign purpose. And the undisguised +plainness of the narrative of their sins is but of a piece with the +tone of Scripture throughout. It never palliates the faults even of +its best men. It tells its story without comment. It never indulges +in condemnation any more than in praise. It is a perfect mirror; its +office is to record, not to criticise. Many misconceptions of Old +Testament morality would have been avoided by keeping that simple +fact in view. + +3. The ill-omened meal is interrupted by the sudden appearance, so +picturesquely described, of the caravan of Ishmaelites with their +loaded camels. Dothan was on or near the great trade route to Egypt, +where luxury, and especially the custom of embalming, opened a +profitable market for spices. The traders would probably not be +particular as to the sort of merchandise they picked up on their +road, and such an 'unconsidered trifle' as a slave or two would be +neither here nor there. This opportune advent of the caravan sets a +thought buzzing in Judah's brain, which brings out a new phase of +the crime. Hatred darkening to murder is bad enough; but hatred +which has also an eye to business, and makes a profit out of a +brother, is a shade or two blacker, because it means cold-blooded +calculation and selfish advantage instead of raging passion. Judah's +cynical question avows the real motive of his intervention. He +prefers the paltry gain from selling Joseph to the unprofitable +luxury of killing him. It brings in regard to brotherly ties at the +end, as a kind of homage paid to propriety, as if the obligations +they involved were not broken as really by his proposal as by +murder. Certainly it is strange logic which can say in one breath, +'Let us sell him; ... for he is our brother,' and finds the clause +between buffer enough to keep these two contradictories from +collision. + +If any touch of conscience made the brothers prefer the less cruel +alternative, one can only see here another illustration of the +strange power which men have of limiting the working of conscience, +and of the fact that when a greater sin has been resolved on, a +smaller one gets to look almost like a virtue. Perhaps Judah and the +rest actually thought themselves very kind and brotherly when they +put their brother into strangers' power, and so went back to their +meal with renewed cheerfulness, both because they had gained their +end without bloodshed, and because they had got the money. They did +not think that every tear and pang which Joseph would shed and feel +would be laid at their door. + +We do not suppose that Joseph was meant to be, in the accurate sense +of the word, a type of Christ. But the coincidence is not to be +passed by, that these same powerful motives of envy and of greed +were combined in His case too, and that there again a Judah (Judas) +appears as the agent of the perfidy. + +We may note that the appearance of the traders in the nick of time, +suggesting the sale of Joseph, points the familiar lesson that the +opportunity to do ill deeds often makes ill deeds done. The path for +entering on evil is made fatally easy at first; that gate always +stands wide. The Devil knows how to time his approaches. A weak +nature, with an evil bias in it, finds everywhere occasions and +suggestions to do wrong. But it is the evil nature which makes +innocent things opportunities for evil. Therefore we have to be on +our guard, as knowing that if we fall it is not circumstances, but +ourselves, that made stumbling-blocks out of what might have been +stepping-stones. + +4. Leaving Joseph to pursue his sad journey, our narrative +introduces for the first time Reuben, whose counsel, as the verses +before the text tell us, it had been to cast the poor lad into the +cistern. His motive had been altogether good; he wished to save +life, and as soon as the others were out of the way, to bring Joseph +up again and get him safely back to Jacob. In chapter xlii. 22, +Reuben himself reminds his brothers of what had passed. There he +says that he had besought them not to 'sin against the child,' which +naturally implies that he had wished them to do nothing to him, and +that they 'would not hear.' In the verses before the text he +proposes the compromise of the pit, and the others 'hear.' So there +seem to have been two efforts made by him--first, to shield Joseph +from any harm, and then that half-and-half measure which was +adopted. He is absent, while they carry out the plan, and from the +cruel merriment of the feast--perhaps watching his opportunity to +rescue, perhaps in sickness of heart and protest against the deed. +Well meant and kindly motived as his action was--and self- +sacrificing too, if, as is probable, Joseph was meant by Jacob as +his successor in the forfeited birthright--his scheme breaks down, +as attempts to mitigate evil by compliance and to make compromises +with sinners usually do. The only one of the whole family who had +some virtue in him, was too timid to take up a position of +uncompromising condemnation. He thought it more polite to go part of +the way, and to trust to being able to prevent the worst. That is +always a dangerous experiment. It is often tried still; it never +answers. Let a man stand to his guns, and speak out the condemnation +that is in his heart; otherwise, he will be sure to go farther than +he meant, he will lose all right of remonstrance, and will generally +find that the more daring sinners have made his well-meant schemes +to avert the mischief impossible. + +5. The cruel trick by which Jacob was deceived is perhaps the most +heartless bit of the whole heartless crime. It came as near an +insult as possible. It was maliciously meant. The snarl about the +coat, the studied use of 'thy son' as if the brothers disowned the +brotherhood, the unfeeling harshness of choosing such a way of +telling their lie--all were meant to give the maximum of pain, and +betray their savage hatred of father and son, and its causes. Was +Reuben's mouth shut all this time? Evidently. From his language in +chapter xlii., 'His blood is required,' he seems to have believed +until then that Joseph had been killed in his absence. But he dared +not speak. Had he told what he did know, the brothers had but to +add, 'And he proposed it himself,' and his protestations of his good +intentions would have been unheeded. He believed his brother dead, +and perhaps thought it better that Jacob should think him slain by +wild beasts than by brothers' hands, as Reuben supposed him to be. +But his shut mouth teaches again how dangerous his policy had been, +and how the only road, which it is safe, in view of the +uncertainties of the future, to take, is the plain road of +resistance to evil and non-fellowship with its doers. + +6. And what of the poor old father? His grief is unworthy of God's +wrestler. It is not the part of a devout believer in God's +providence to refuse to be comforted. There was no religious +submission in his passionate sorrow. How unlike the quiet +resignation which should have marked the recognition that the God +who had been his guide was working here too! No doubt the +hypocritical condolences of his children were as vinegar upon nitre. +No doubt the loss of Joseph had taken away the one gentle and true +son on whom his loneliness rested since his Rachel's death, while he +found no solace in the wild, passionate men who called him 'father' +and brought him no 'honour.' But still his grief is beyond the +measure which a true faith in God would have warranted; and we +cannot but see that the dark picture which we have just been looking +at gets no lighter or brighter tints from the demeanour of Jacob. + +There are few bitterer sorrows than for a parent to see the children +of his own sin in the sins of his children. Jacob might have felt +that bitterness, as he looked round on the lovelessness and dark, +passionate selfishness of his children, and remembered his own early +crimes against Esau. He might have seen that his unwise fondness for +the son of his Rachel had led to the brothers' hatred, though he did +not know that that hatred had plunged the arrow into his soul. +Whether he knew it or not, his own conduct had feathered the arrow. +He was drinking as he had brewed; and the heart-broken grief which +darkened his later years had sprung from seed of his own sowing. So +it is always. 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' + +It is a miserable story of ignoble jealousy and cruel hate; and yet, +over all this foaming torrent, God's steadfast bow of peace shines. +These crimes and this 'affliction of Joseph' were the direct path to +the fulfilment of His purposes. As blind instruments, even in their +rebellion and sin, men work out His designs. The lesson of Joseph's +bondage will one day be the summing up of the world's history. 'Thou +makest the wrath of man to praise Thee: and with the remainder +thereof Thou girdest Thyself.' + + + + +GOODNESS IN A DUNGEON + + + 'And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the + prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: + and he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with + Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in + the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper + of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the + prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they + did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the + prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; + because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, + the Lord made it to prosper.'--GENESIS xxxix. 20-23. + +'And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the +king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of +Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against +the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. +And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, +into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. And the +captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served +them: and they continued a season in ward. And they dreamed a +dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man +according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the +baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And +Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, +and, behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that +were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore +look ye so sadly to day? And they said unto him, We have dreamed +a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto +them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray +you. And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to +him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me; And in the vine +were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her +blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe +grapes: And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, +and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into +Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation +of it: The three branches are three days: Yet within three days shall +Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou +shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner +when thou wast his butler. But think on me when it shall be well with +thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of +me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: For indeed I was +stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done +nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.'--GENESIS xl. 1-15. + +Potiphar was 'captain of the guard,' or, as the title literally +runs, chief of the executioners. In that capacity he had charge of +the prison, which was connected with his house (Gen. xl. 3). It is, +therefore, quite intelligible that he should have put Joseph in +confinement on his own authority, and the distinction drawn between +such a prisoner and the 'king's prisoners,' who were there by royal +warrant or due process of law, is natural. Such high-handed +treatment of a slave was a small matter, and it was merciful as well +as arrogant, for death would have been the punishment of the crime +of which Joseph was accused. Either Potiphar was singularly lenient, +or, as is perhaps more probable, he did not quite believe his wife's +story, and thought it best to hush up a scandal. The transfer of +Joseph from the house to the adjoining prison would be quietly +managed, and then no more need be said about an ugly business. + +So now we see him at the lowest ebb of his fortunes, flung down in a +moment by a lie from the height to which he had slowly been +climbing, having lost the confidence of his master, and earned the +unslumbering hatred of a wicked woman. He had wrecked his career by +his goodness. 'What a fool!' says the world. 'How badly managed +things are in this life,' say doubters, 'that virtue should not be +paid by prosperity!' But the end, even the nearer end in this life, +will show whether he was a fool, and whether things are so badly +arranged; and the lesson enforced by the picture of Joseph in his +dungeon, and which young beginners in life have special need to +learn, is that, come what will of it, right is right, and sin is +sin, that consequences are never to deter from duty, and that it is +better to have a clean conscience and be in prison than do +wickedness and sit at a king's table. A very threadbare lesson, but +needing to be often repeated. + +'But the Lord was with Joseph.' That is one of the eloquent 'buts' +of Scripture. The prison is light when God is there, and chains do +not chafe if He wraps His love round them. Many a prisoner for God +since Joseph's time has had his experience repeated, and received +tenderer tokens from Him in a dungeon than ever before. Paul the +prisoner, John in Patmos, Bunyan in Bedford jail, George Fox in +Lancaster Castle, Rutherford in Aberdeen, and many more, have found +the Lord with them, and showing them His kindness. We may all be +sure that, if ever faithfulness to conscience involves us in +difficulties, the faithfulness and the difficulties will combine to +bring to us sweet and strong tokens of God's approval and presence, +the winning of which will make a prison a palace and a gate of +heaven. + +Joseph's relations to jailer and fellow-prisoners are beautiful and +instructive. The former is called 'the keeper of the prison,' and is +evidently Potiphar's deputy, in more immediate charge of the prison. +Of course, the great man had an underling to do the work, and +probably that underling was not chosen for sweetness of temper or +facile leniency to his charges. But he fell under the charm of +Joseph's character--all the more readily, perhaps, because his +occupation had not brought many good men to his knowledge. This +jewel would flash all the more brightly for the dark background of +criminals, and the jailer would wonder at a type of character so +unlike what he was accustomed to. Eastern prisons to-day present a +curious mixture of cruelty and companionship. The jailers are on +intimate terms with prisoners, and yet are ready to torture them. +There is no discipline, nor any rules, nor inspection. The jailer +does as he likes. So it seems to have been in Egypt, and there would +be nothing unnatural in making a prisoner jailer of the rest, and +leaving everything in his hands. The 'keeper of the prison' was +lazy, like most of us, and very glad to shift duties on to any +capable shoulders. Such a thing would, of course, be impossible with +us, but it is a bit of true local colouring here. + +Joseph won hearts because God was with him, as the story is careful +to point out. Our religion should recommend us, and therefore +itself, to those who have to do with us. It is not enough that we +should be severely righteous, as Joseph had been, or ready to meet +trouble with stoical resignation, but we are to be gentle and +lovable, gracious towards men, because we receive grace from God. We +owe it to our Lord and to our fellows, and to ourselves, to be +magnets to attract to Jesus, by showing how fair He can make a life. +Joseph in prison found work to do, and he did not shirk it. He might +have said to himself: 'This is poor work for me, who had all +Potiphar's house to rule. Shall such a man as I come down to such +small tasks as this?' He might have sulked or desponded in idleness, +but he took the kind of work that offered, and did his best by it. +Many young people nowadays do nothing, because they think themselves +above the small humdrum duties that lie near them. It would do some +of us good to remember Joseph in the jail, and his cheerful +discharge of what his hands found to do there. + +Of course, work done 'because the Lord was with him,' in the +consciousness of His presence, and in obedience to Him, went well. +'The Lord made it to prosper,' as He always will make such work. + + 'When thou dost favour any action, + It runs, it flies.' + +And even if, sometimes, work done in the fear of the Lord does not +outwardly prosper, it does so in deepest truth, if it work in us the +peaceable fruit of righteousness. We need to have a more Christian +idea of what constitutes prosperity, and then we shall understand +that there are no exceptions to the law that, if a man does his work +by God and with God and for God, 'that which he does, the Lord makes +it to prosper.' + +The help that Joseph gave by interpreting the two high officials' +dreams cannot be considered here in detail, but we note that the +names of similar officers, evidently higher in rank than we should +suppose, with our notions of bakers and butlers, are found in +Egyptian documents, and that these two were 'king's prisoners,' and +put in charge of Potiphar, who alleviated their imprisonment by +detailing Joseph as their attendant, thus showing that his feeling +to the young Hebrew was friendly still. Dreams are the usual method +of divine communication in Genesis, and belong to a certain stage in +the process of revelation. The friend of God, who is in touch with +Him, can interpret these. 'The secret of the Lord is with them that +fear Him,' and it is still true that they who live close by God have +insight into His purposes. Joseph showed sympathy with the two +dreamers, and his question, 'Why look ye so sadly?' unlocked their +hearts. He was not so swallowed up in his own trouble as to be blind +to the signs of another's sorrow, or slow to try to comfort. Grief +is apt to make us selfish, but it is meant to make us tender of +heart and quick of hand to help our fellows in calamity. We win +comfort for our own sorrows by trying to soothe those of others. +Jesus stooped to suffer that He might succour them that suffer, and +we are to tread in His steps. + + + + +JOSEPH, THE PRIME MINISTER + + + 'And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a + one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And + Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed + thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou + art: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy + word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne + will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, + See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And + Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon + Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, + and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to + ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried + before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all + the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am + Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand + or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called + Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife + Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And + Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. And Joseph + was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king + of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of + Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. And + in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by + handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven + years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the + food in the cities: the food of the field, which was + round about every city, laid he up in the same.' + GENESIS xli. 38-48. + +At seventeen years of age Joseph was sold for a slave; at thirty he +was prime minister of Egypt (Gen. xxxvii, 2; xli. 46). How long his +prison life lasted is uncertain; but it was long enough for the +promises contained in his early dreams to 'try him' (Ps. cv. 19) +whether his faith would stand apparent disappointment and weary +delay. Like all the Scripture narratives, this history of Joseph has +little to say about feelings, and prefers facts. But we can read +between the lines, and be tolerably sure that the thirteen years of +trial were well endured, and that the inward life had grown so as to +fit him for his advancement. We have here a full-length portrait of +the prime minister, or vizier, which brings out three points--his +elevation, his naturalisation, and his administration. + +Joseph had not only interpreted Pharaoh's dream, but had suggested a +policy in preparation for the coming famine. He had recommended the +appointment of 'a wise and discreet man,' with supreme authority +over the land. Pharaoh first consulted 'his servants,' and, with +their consent, possibly not very hearty, appointed the proposer of +the plan as its carrier-out, quoting to him his own words, 'wise and +discreet.' + +The sudden installing of an unknown prisoner in high office has +often been thought hard to believe, and has been pointed to as proof +of the legendary character of the story. But the ground on which +Pharaoh put it goes far to explain it. He and his servants had come +to believe that 'God' spoke through this man, that 'the Spirit of +God' was in him. So here was a divinely sent messenger, whom it +would be impiety and madness to reject. Observe that Pharaoh and +Joseph both speak in this chapter of 'God.' There was a common +ground of recognition of a divine Being on which they met. The local +colour of the story indicates a period before the fuller revelation, +which drew so broad a line of demarcation between Israel and the +other nations. + +Joseph's sudden promotion is made the more intelligible by the +probability which the study of Egyptian history has given, that the +Pharaoh who made him his second in command was one of the Hyksos +conquerors who dominated Egypt for a long period. They would have no +prejudices against Joseph on account of his being a foreigner. A +dynasty of alien conquerors has generally an open door for talent, +and cares little who a man's father is, or where he comes from, if +he can do his work. And Joseph, by not being an Egyptian born, would +be all the fitter an instrument for carrying out the policy which he +had suggested. + +His ceremonial investiture with the insignia of office is true to +Egyptian manners. The signet ring, as the emblem of full authority; +the chain, as a mark of dignity; the robe of 'fine linen' (or rather +of cotton), which was a priestly dress--all are illustrated by the +monuments. The proclamation made before him as he rode in the second +chariot has been very variously interpreted. It has been taken for a +Hebraised Egyptian word, meaning 'Cast thyself down'; and this +interpretation was deemed the most probable, until Assyrian +discovery brought to light 'that _abarakku_ is the Assyrian +name of the grand vizier' (Fr. Delitzsch, _Hebrew Language Viewed +in the Light of Assyrian Research_, p. 26). Sayce proposes +another explanation, also from the cuneiform tablets: 'There was a +word _abrik_ in the Sumerian language, which signified a seer, +and was borrowed by the Semitic Babylonians under the varying forms +of _abrikku_ and _abarakku_. It is _abrikku_ which we have in Genesis, +and the title applied by the people to the "seer" Joseph proves to be +the one we should most naturally expect.' The Tel el-Amarna tablets +show that the knowledge of cuneiform writing was common in Egypt +(Sayce, _Higher Criticism and the Monuments_, p. 214). This +explanation is tempting, but it is perhaps scarcely probable that the +proclamation should have been in any other language than Egyptian, +or should have had reference to anything but Joseph's new office. It was +not as seer that he was to be obeyed, but as Pharaoh's representative, +even though he had become the latter because he had proved himself the +former. + +But in any case, the whole context is accurately and strongly +Egyptian. Was there any point in the history of Israel, down to an +impossibly late date, except the time of Moses, at which Jewish +writers were so familiar with Egypt as to have been capable of +producing so true a picture? + +The lessons of this incident are plain. First stands out, clear and +full, the witness it bears to God's faithfulness, and to His +sovereign sway over all events. What are all the persons concerned +in the narrative but unconscious instruments of His? The fierce +brothers, the unconcerned slave-dealers, Potiphar, his wife, the +prisoners, Pharaoh, are so many links in a chain; but they are also +men, and therefore free to act, and guilty if acting wrongly. Men +execute God's purposes, even when unconscious or rebellious, but are +responsible, and often punished, for the acts which He uses to +effect His designs. + +Joseph's thirteen years of trial, crowned with sudden prosperity, +may read all of us, and especially young men and women, a lesson of +patience. Many of us have to fight our way through analogous +difficulties at the outset of our career; and we are apt to lose +heart and get restive when success seems slow to come, and one +hindrance after another blocks our road. But hindrances are helps. +If one of Joseph's misfortunes had been omitted, his good fortune +would never have come. If his brethren had not hated him, if he had +not been sold, if he had not been imprisoned, he would never have +ruled Egypt. Not one thread in the tapestry could have been +withdrawn without spoiling the pattern. We cannot afford to lose one +of our sorrows or trials. There would be no summer unless winter had +gone before. There is a bud or a fruit for every snowflake, and a +bird's song for every howl of the storm. + +Plainly, too, does the story read the lesson of quiet doing of the +work and accepting the circumstances of the moment. Joseph was being +prepared for the administration of a kingdom by his oversight of +Potiphar's house and of the prison. His character was matured by his +trials, as iron is consolidated by heavy hammers. To resist +temptation, to do modestly and sedulously whatever work comes to our +hands, to be content to look after a jail even though we have +dreamed of sun and moon bowing down to us, is the best +apprenticeship for whatever elevation circumstances--or, to speak +more devoutly, God--intends for us. Young men thrown into city life +far away from their homes, and whispered to by many seducing voices, +have often to suffer for keeping themselves unspotted; but they are +being strengthened by rough discipline, and will get such promotion, +in due time, as is good for them. But outward success is not God's +best gift. It was better to be the Joseph who deserved his high +place, than to have the place. The character which he had grown into +was more than the trappings which Pharaoh put on him. And such a +character is always the reward of such patience, faith, and self- +control, whether chains and chariots are added or not. + +Little need be said about the other points of the story. Joseph's +naturalisation as an Egyptian was complete. His name was changed, in +token that he had completely become a subject of Pharaoh's. The +meaning of the formidable-looking polysyllable, which Egyptian lips +found easier than 'Joseph,' is uncertain. 'At present the origin of +the first syllable is still doubtful, and though the latter part of +the name is certainly the Egyptian _n-ti-pa-ankh_ ("of the +life"), it is difficult to say in which of its different senses the +expression _pa-ankh_ ("the life") is employed' (Sayce, _ut +supra_, p. 213). The prevailing opinion of Egyptian experts is +that it means 'Support of life.' + +The naturalising was completed by his marriage to Asenath (supposed +to mean 'One belonging to the goddess Neith'), a daughter of a high +officer of state, Poti-phera (meaning, like its shortened form, +Potiphar, 'The gift of Ra' the sun-god). Such an alliance placed him +at once in the very innermost circle of Egyptian aristocracy. It may +have been a bitter pill for the priest to swallow, to give his +daughter to a man of yesterday, and an alien; but, just as probably, +he too looked to Joseph with some kind of awe, and was not unwilling +to wed Asenath to the first man in the empire, wherever he had +started up from. + +But should not Joseph's religion have barred such a marriage? The +narrator gives no judgment on the fact, and we have to form our own +estimate. But it is not to be estimated as if it had occurred five +or six centuries later. The family of Jacob was not so fenced off, +nor was its treasure of revelation so complete, as afterwards. We +may be fairly sure that Joseph felt no inconsistency between his +ancestral faith, which had become his own in his trials, and this +union. He was risking a great deal; that is certain. Whether the +venture ended well or ill, we know not. Only we may be very sure +that a marriage in which a common faith is not a strong bond of +union lacks its highest sanctity, and is perilously apt to find that +difference in religious convictions is a strong separator. + +Joseph's administration opens up questions as to Egyptian land +tenure, and the like, which cannot be dealt with here. 'In the +earlier days of the monarchy the country was in the hands of great +feudal lords; ... the land belonged to them absolutely.... But after +the convulsion caused by the Hyksos conquest and the war of +independence, this older system of land tenure was completely +changed.... The Pharaoh is the fountain head, not only of honour, +but of property as well.... The people ceased to have any rights of +their own' (Sayce, _ut supra_, p. 216). + +We may note Joseph's immediate entrance upon office and his +characteristic energy in it. He 'went out from the presence of +Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.' No grass grew +under this man's feet. He was ubiquitous, personally overseeing +everything for seven long years. Wasteful consumption of the +abundant crops had to be restrained, storehouses to be built, +careful records of the contents to be made, after Egyptian fashion. +The people, who could not look so far as seven years ahead, and +wanted to enjoy, or make money out of, the good harvests, had to be +looked after, and an army of officials to be kept in order. Dignity +meant work for him. Like all true men, he thought more of his duty +than of his honours. Depend on it, he did not wear his fine clothes +or ride in the second chariot, when he was hurrying about the +country at his task. + +He had come 'out of prison to reign,' and, as we all find, if we are +God's servants, to reign means to serve, and the higher the place +the harder the task. The long years of waiting had nourished powers +which the seven years of busy toil tested. We must make ourselves, +by God's help, ready, in obscurity, and especially in youth, for +whatever may be laid on us in after days. And if we understand what +life here means, we shall be more covetous of spheres of diligent +service than of places of shining dignity. Whatever our task, let us +do it, as Joseph did his, with strenuous concentration, knowing, as +he did, that the years in which it is possible are but few at the +longest. + + + + +RECOGNITION AND RECONCILIATION + + + 'Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them + that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go + out from me. And there stood no man with him, while + Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he + wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh + heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; + doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not + answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And + Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray + you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your + brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not + grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me + hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. + For these two years hath the famine been in the land: + and yet there are five years, in the which there shall + neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before + you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to + save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not + you that sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me + a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a + ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and + go up to my father, and say unto him. Thus saith thy son + Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down + unto me, tarry not: And thou shalt dwell in the land of + Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy + children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, + and thy herds, and all that thou hast: And there will I + nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; + lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, + come to poverty. And, behold, your eyes see, and the + eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that + speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all + my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye + shall haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell + upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin + wept upon his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brethren, + and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked + with him.' + GENESIS xlv. 1-15. + + +I + + +If the writer of this inimitable scene of Joseph's reconciliation +with his brethren was not simply an historian, he was one of the +great dramatic geniuses of the world, master of a vivid minuteness +like Defoe's, and able to touch the springs of tears by a pathetic +simplicity like his who painted the death of Lear. Surely theories +of legend and of mosaic work fail here. + +1. We have, first, disclosure. The point at which the impenetrable, +stern ruler breaks down is significant. It is after Judah's torrent +of intercession for Benjamin, and self-sacrificing offer of himself +for a substitute and a slave. Why did this touch Joseph so keenly? +Was it not because his brother's speech shows that filial and +fraternal affection was now strong enough in him to conquer self? He +had sent Joseph to the fate which he is now ready to accept. He and +the rest had thought nothing of the dagger they plunged into their +father's heart by selling Joseph; but now he is prepared to accept +bondage if he may save his father's grey head an ache. The whole of +Joseph's harsh, enigmatical treatment had been directed to test +them, and to ascertain if they were the same fierce, cruel men as of +old. Now, when the doubt is answered, he can no longer dam back the +flood of forgiving love. The wisest pardoning kindness seeks the +assurance of sorrow and change in the offender, before it can safely +and wholesomely enjoy the luxury of letting itself out in tears of +reconciliation. We do not call Joseph a type of Christ; but the +plain process of forgiveness in his brotherly heart is moulded by +the law which applies to God's pardon as to ours. All the wealth of +yearning pardon is there, before contrition and repentance; but it +is not good for the offender that it should be lavished on him, +impenitent. + +What a picture that is of the all-powerful ruler, choking down his +emotion, and hurriedly ordering the audience chamber to be cleared! +How many curious glances would be cast over their shoulders, by the +slowly withdrawing crowd, at the strange group--the viceroy, usually +so calm, thus inexplicably excited, and the huddled, rude shepherds, +bewildered and afraid of what was coming next, in this unaccountable +country! How eavesdroppers would linger as near as they durst, and +how looks would be exchanged as the sounds of passionate weeping +rewarded their open ears! The deepest feelings are not to be +flaunted before the world. The man who displays his tears, and the +man who is too proud to shed them, are both wrong; but perhaps it is +worse to weep in public than not to weep at all. + +'I am Joseph.' Were ever the pathos of simplicity, and the simplicity +of pathos, more nobly expressed than in these two words?--(There +are but two in the Hebrew.) Has the highest dramatic genius ever +winged an arrow which goes more surely to the heart than that? +The question, which hurries after the disclosure, seems strange and +needless; but it is beautifully self-revealing, as expressive of +agitation, and as disclosing a son's longing, and perhaps, too, as +meant to relieve the brothers' embarrassment, and, as it were, to +wrap the keen edge of the disclosure in soft wool. + +2. We have, next, conscience-stricken silence. No wonder his +brethren 'could not answer' and 'were troubled at his presence.' +They had found their brother a ruler; they had found the ruler their +brother. Their former crime had turned what might have been a joy +into a terror. Already they had come to know and regret it. It might +seem to their startled consciences as if now they were about to +expiate it. They would remember the severity of Joseph's past +intercourse; they see his power, and cannot but be doubtful of his +intentions. Had all his strange conduct been manoeuvring to get +them, Benjamin and all, into his toils, that one blow might perfect +his revenge? Our suspicions are the reflections of our own hearts. +So there they stand in open-mouthed, but dumb, wonder and dread. It +would task the pencil of him who painted, on the mouldering +refectory wall at Milan, the conflicting emotions of the apostles, +at the announcement of the betrayer, to portray that silent company +of abased and trembling criminals. They are an illustration of the +profitlessness of all crime. Sin is, as one of its Hebrew names +tells us, missing the mark--whether we think of it as fatally +failing to reach the ideal of conduct, or as always, by a divine +nemesis, failing to hit even the shabby end it aims at. 'Every rogue +is a roundabout fool.' They put Joseph in the pit, and here he is on +a throne. They have stained their souls, and embittered their +father's life for twenty-two long years, and the dreams have come +true, and all their wickedness has not turned the stream of the +divine purpose, any more than the mud dam built by a child diverts +the Mississippi. One flash has burned up their whole sinful past, +and they stand scorched and silent among the ruins. So it always is. +Sooner or later the same certainty of the futility of his sin will +overwhelm every sinful man, and dumb self-condemnation will stand in +silent acknowledgment of evil desert before the throne of the +Brother, who is now the Prince and the Judge, on whose fiat hangs +life or death. To see Christ enthroned should be joy; but it may be +turned into terror and silent anticipation of His just condemnation. + +3. We have encouragement and complete forgiveness. That invitation +to come close up to him, with which Joseph begins the fuller +disclosure of his heart, is a beautiful touch. We can fancy how +tender the accents, and how, with some lightening of fear, but still +hesitatingly and ashamed, the shepherds, unaccustomed to courtly +splendours, approached. The little pause while they draw near helps +him to self-command, and he resumes his words in a calmer tone. With +one sentence of assurance that he is their brother, he passes at +once into that serene region where all passion and revenge die, +unable to breathe its keen, pure air. The comfort which he addresses +to their penitence would have been dangerous, if spoken to men blind +to the enormity of their past. But it will not make a truly +repentant conscience less sensitive, though it may alleviate the +aching of the wound, to think that God has used even its sin for His +own purposes. It will not take away the sense of the wickedness of +the motive to know that a wonderful providence has rectified the +consequences. It will rather deepen the sense of evil, and give new +cause of adoration of the love that pardons the wrong, and the +providence that neutralises the harm. + +Joseph takes the true point of view, which we are all bound to +occupy, if we would practise the Christian grace of forgiveness. He +looks beyond the mere human hate and envy to the divine purpose. +'The sword is theirs; the hand is Thine.' He can even be grateful to +his foes who have been unintentionally his benefactors. He thinks of +the good that has come out of their malice, and anger dies within +him. + +Highest attainment of all, the good for which he is grateful is not +his all-but-regal dignity, but the power to save and gladden those +who would fain have slain, and had saddened him for many a weary +year. We read in these utterances of a lofty piety and of a +singularly gentle heart, the fruit of sorrow and the expression of +thoughts which had slowly grown up in his mind, and had now been +long familiar there. Such a calm, certain grasp of the divine +shaping and meaning of his life could not have sprung up all at once +in him, as he looked at the conscience-stricken culprits cowering +before him. More than natural sweetness and placability must have +gone to the making of such a temper of forgiveness. He must have +been living near the Fountain of all mercy to have had so full a cup +of it to offer. Because he had caught a gleam of the divine pardon, +he becomes a mirror of it; and we may fairly see in this ill-used +brother, yearning over the half-sullen sinners, and seeking to open +a way for his forgiveness to steal into their hearts, and rejoicing +over his very sorrows which have fitted him to save them alive, and +satisfy them in the days of famine, an adumbration of our Elder +Brother's forgiving love and saving tenderness. + +4. The second part of Joseph's address is occupied with his message +to Jacob, and shows how he longed for his father's presence. There +is something very natural and beautiful in the repeated exhortations +to haste, as indicating the impatient love of a long-absent son. If +his heart was so true to his father, why had he sent him no message +for all these years? Egypt was near enough, and for nine years now +he had been in power. Surely he could have gratified his heart. But +he could not have learned by any other means his brethren's +feelings, and if they were still what they had been, no intercourse +would be possible. He could only be silent, and yearn for the way to +open in God's providence, as it did. + +The message to Jacob is sent from 'thy son Joseph,' in token that +the powerful ruler lays his dignity at his father's feet. No +elevation will ever make a true son forget his reverence for his +father. If he rise higher in the world, and has to own an old man, +away in some simple country home, for his sire, he will be proud to +do it. The enduring sanctity of the family ties is not the least +valuable lesson from our narrative for this generation, where social +conditions are so often widely different in parents and in children. +There is an affectionate spreading out of all his glory before his +father's old eyes; not that he cared much about it for himself, +since, as we have seen, elevation to him meant mainly work, but +because he knew how the eyes would glisten at the sight. His mother, +who would have been proud of him, is gone, but he has still the joy +of gladdening his father by the exhibition of his dignity. It +bespeaks a simple nature, unspoiled by prosperity, to delight thus +in his father's delight, and to wish the details of all his +splendour to be told him. A statesman who takes most pleasure in his +elevation because of the good he can do by it, and because it will +please the old people at home, must be a pure and lovable man. The +command has another justification in the necessity to assure his +father of the wisdom of so great a change. God had set him in the +Promised Land, and a very plain divine injunction was needed to +warrant his leaving it. Such a one was afterwards given in vision; +but the most emphatic account of his son's honour and power was none +the less required to make the old Jacob willing to abandon so much, +and go into such strange conditions. + +We have another instance of the difference between man's purposes +and God's counsel in this message. Joseph's only thought is to +afford his family temporary shelter during the coming five years of +famine. Neither he nor they knew that this was the fulfilment of the +covenant with Abraham, and the bringing of them into the land of +their oppression for four centuries. No shadow of that future was +cast upon their joy, and yet, the steady march of God's plan was +effected along the path which they were ignorantly preparing. The +road-maker does not know what bands of mourners, or crowds of +holiday makers, or troops of armed men may pass along it. + +5. This wonderfully beautiful scene ends with the kiss of full +reconciliation and frank communion. All the fear is out of the +brothers' hearts. It has washed away all the envy along with it. The +history of Jacob's household had hitherto been full of sins against +family life. Now, at last, they taste the sweetness of fraternal +love. Joseph, against whom they had sinned, takes the initiative, +flinging himself with tears on the neck of Benjamin, his own +mother's son, nearer to him than all the others, crowding his pent- +up love in one long kiss. Then, with less of passionate affection, +but more of pardoning love, he kisses his contrite brothers. The +offender is ever less ready to show love than the offended. The +first step towards reconciliation, whether of man with man or of man +with God, comes from the aggrieved. We always hate those whom we +have harmed; and if enmity were ended only by the advances of the +wrong-doer, it would be perpetual. The injured has the prerogative +of praying the injurer to be reconciled. So was it in Pharaoh's +throne-room on that long past day; so is it still in the audience +chamber of heaven. 'He that might the vantage best have took found +out the remedy.' 'We love Him, because He first loved us.' + +The pardoned men find their tongues at last. Forgiveness has opened +their lips, and though their reverence and thanks are no less, their +confidence and familiarity are more. How they would talk when once +the terror was melted away! So should it be with the soul which has +tasted the sweetness of Christ's forgiving love, and has known 'the +kisses of His mouth.' Long, unrestrained, and happy should be the +intercourse which we forgiven sinners keep up with our Brother, the +Prince of all the land. 'After that his brethren talked with him.' + + + + +JOSEPH, THE PARDONER AND PRESERVER + + +II + + +THE noble words in which Joseph dissipates his brothers' doubts +have, as their first characteristic, the recognition of the God by +whom his career had been shaped, and, for their next, the +recognition of the purpose for which it had been. There is a world +of tenderness and forgivingness in the addition made to his first +words in verse 4, 'Joseph, _your brother_.' He owns the mystic +bond of kindred, and thereby assures them of his pardon for their +sin against it. It was right that he should remind them of their +crime, even while declaring his pardon. But he rises high above all +personal considerations and graciously takes the place of soother, +instead of that of accuser. Far from cherishing thoughts of anger or +revenge, he tries to lighten the reproaches of their own +consciences. Thrice over in four verses he traces his captivity to +God. He had learned that wisdom in his long years of servitude, and +had not forgotten it in those of rule. + +There will be little disposition in us to visit offences against +ourselves on the offenders, if we discern God's purpose working +through our sorrows, and see, as the Psalmist did, that even our +foes are 'men which are Thy hand, O Lord.' True, His overruling +providence does not make their guilt less; but the recognition of it +destroys all disposition to revenge, and injured and injurer may one +day unite in adoring the result of what the One suffered at the +other's hands. Surely, some Christian persecutors and their victims +have thus joined hands in heaven. If we would cultivate the habit of +seeing God behind second causes, our hearts would be kept free from +much wrath and bitterness. + +Joseph was as certain of the purpose as of the source of his +elevation. He saw now what he had been elevated for, and he eagerly +embraced the task which was a privilege. No doubt, he had often +brooded over the thought, 'Why am I thus lifted up?' and had felt +the privilege of being a nation's saviour; but now he realises that +he has a part to play in fulfilling God's designs in regard to the +seed of Abraham. Cloudy as his outlook into the future may have +been, he knew that great promises affecting all nations were +intertwined with his family, separation from whom had been a sorrow +for years. But now the thought comes to him with sudden illumination +and joy: 'This, then, is what it all has meant, that I should be a +link in the chain of God's workings.' He knows himself to be God's +instrument for effecting His covenant promises. How small a thing +honour and position became in comparison! + +We cannot all have great tasks in the line of God's purposes, but we +can all feel that our little ones are made great by being seen to be +in it. The less we think about chariots and gold chains, and the +more we try to find out what God means by setting us where we are, +and to do that, the better for our peace and true dignity. A true +man does not care for the rewards of work half as much as for the +work itself. Find out what God intends, and never mind whether He +puts you in a dungeon or in a palace. Both places lie on the road +which He has marked and, in either, the main thing is to do His +will. + +Next comes the swiftly devised plan for carrying out God's purpose. +It sounds as if Joseph, with prompt statesmanship, had struck it out +then and there. At all events, he pours it forth with contagious +earnestness and haste. Note how he says over and over again 'My +father,' as if he loved to dwell on the name, but also as if he had +not yet completely realised the renewal of the broken ties of +brotherhood. It was some trial of the stuff he was made of, to have +to bring his father and his family to be stared at, and perhaps +mocked at, by the court. Many a successful man would be very much +annoyed if his old father, in his country clothes, and hands +roughened by toil, sat down beside him in his prosperity. Joseph had +none of that baseness. Jacob would come, if at all, as a half- +starved immigrant, and would be 'an abomination to the Egyptians.' +But what of that? He was 'my father,' and his son knows no better +use to make of his dignity than to compel reverence for Jacob's grey +hairs, which he will take care shall _not_ be 'brought down +with sorrow to the grave.' It is a very homely lesson--never be +ashamed of your father. But in these days, when children are often +better educated than their parents, and rise above them in social +importance, it is a very needful one. + +The first overtures of reconciliation should come from the side of +the injured party. That is Christ's law, and if it were Christians' +practice, there would be fewer alienations among them. It is +Christ's law, because it is Christ's own way of dealing with us. He, +too, was envied, and sold by His brethren. His sufferings were meant +'to preserve life.' Stephen's sermon in the Sanhedrin dwells on +Joseph as a type of Christ; and the typical character is seen not +least distinctly in this, that He against whom we have sinned pleads +with us, seeks to draw us nearer to Himself, and to lead us to put +away all hard thoughts of Him, and to cherish all loving ones +towards Him, by showing us how void His heart is of anger against +us, and how full of yearning love and of gracious intention to +provide for us a dwelling-place, with abundance of all needful good, +beside Himself, while the years of famine shall last. + + + + +GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING + + + 'Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father + and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and + all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; + and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took + some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them + unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What + is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy + servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers. + They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the + land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for + their flocks, for the famine is sore in the land of + Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants + dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spake unto + Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come + unto thee: The land of Egypt is before thee; in the + best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; + in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest + any men of activity among them, then make them rulers + over my cattle. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, + and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. + And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob + said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage + are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the + days of the years of my life been, and have not attained + unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in + the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, + and went out from before Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his + father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in + the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land + of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished + his father, and his brethren, and all his father's + household, with bread, according to their families.' + --GENESIS xlvii. 1-12. + +1. The conduct of Joseph in reference to the settlement in Goshen is +an example of the possibility of uniting worldly prudence with high +religious principle and great generosity of nature. He had promised +his brothers a home in that fertile eastern district, which afforded +many advantages in its proximity to Canaan, its adaptation to +pastoral life, and its vicinity to Joseph when in Zoan, the capital. +But he had not consulted Pharaoh, and, however absolute his +authority, it scarcely stretched to giving away Egyptian territory +without leave. So his first care, when the wanderers arrive, is to +manage the confirmation of the grant. He goes about it with +considerable astuteness--a hereditary quality, which is redeemed +from blame because used for unselfish purposes and unstained by +deceit. He does not tell Pharaoh how far he had gone, but simply +announces that his family are in Goshen, as if awaiting the +monarch's further pleasure. Then he introduces a deputation, no +doubt carefully chosen, of five of his brothers (as if the whole +number would have been too formidable), previously instructed how to +answer. He knows what Pharaoh is in the habit of asking, or he knows +that he can lead him to ask the required question, which will bring +out the fact of their being shepherds, and utilise the prejudice +against that occupation, to ensure separation in Goshen. All goes as +he had arranged. Thanks partly to the indifference of the king, who +seems to have been rather a _roi faineant_ in the hands of his +energetic _maire du palais_, and to have been contented to +give, with a flourish of formality, as a command to Joseph, what +Joseph had previously carefully suggested to him (vers. 6, 7). There +is nothing unfair in all this. It is good, shrewd management, and no +fault can be found with it; but it is a new trait in the ideal +character of a servant of God, and contrasts strongly with the type +shown in Abraham. None the less, it is a legitimate element in the +character and conduct of a good man, set down to do God's work in +such a world. Joseph is a saint and a politician. His shrewdness is +never craft; sagacity is not alien to consecration. No doubt it has +to be carefully watched lest it degenerate; but prudence is as +needful as enthusiasm, and he is the complete man who has a burning +fire down in his heart to generate the force that drives him, and a +steady hand on the helm, and a keen eye on the chart, to guide him. +Be ye 'wise as serpents' but also 'harmless as doves.' + +2 We may note in Joseph's conduct also an instance of a man in high +office and not ashamed of his humble relations. One of the great +lessons meant to be taught by the whole patriarchal period was the +sacredness of the family. That is, in some sense, the keynote of +Joseph's history. Here we see family love, which had survived the +trial of ill-usage and long absence, victorious over the temptation +of position and high associates. It took some nerve and a great deal +of affection, for the viceroy, whom envious and sarcastic courtiers +watched, to own his kin. What a sweet morsel for malicious tongues +it would be, 'Have you heard? He is only the son of an old shepherd, +who is down in Goshen, come to pick up some crumbs there!' One can +fancy the curled lips and the light laugh, as the five brothers, led +by the great man himself, made their rustic reverences to Pharaoh. +It is as if some high official in Paris were to walk in half a dozen +peasants in blouse and sabots, and present them to the president as +'my brothers.' It was a brave thing to do; and it teaches a lesson +which many people, who have made their way in the world, would be +nobler and more esteemed if they learned. + +3. The brother's words to Pharaoh are another instance of that +ignorant carrying out of the divine purposes which we have already +had to notice. They evidently contemplate only a temporary stay in +the country. They say that they are come 'to _sojourn_'--the +verb from which are formed the noun often rendered '_strangers_,' and +that which Jacob uses in verse 9, 'my _pilgrimage_.' The reason for +their coming is given as the transient scarcity of pasturage in Canaan, +which implies the intention of return as soon as that was altered. +Joseph had the same idea of the short duration of their stay; and +though Jacob had been taught by vision that the removal was in order +to their being made a great nation, it does not seem that his sons' +intentions were affected by that--if they knew it. So mistaken are our +estimates. We go to a place for a month, and we stay in it for +twenty years. We go to a place to settle for life, and our tent-pegs +are pulled up in a week. They thought of five years, and it was to be +nearly as many centuries. They thought of temporary shelter and food; +God meant an education of them and their descendants. Over all this +story the unseen Hand hovers, chastising, guiding, impelling; and the +human agents are free and yet fulfilling an eternal purpose, blind +and yet accountable, responsible for motives, and mercifully ignorant +of consequences. So we all play our little parts. We have no call to +be curious as to what will come of our deeds. This end of the action, +the motive of it, is our care; the other end, the outcome of it, is +God's business to see to. + +4. We may also observe how trivial incidents are wrought into God's +scheme. The Egyptian hatred of the shepherd class secured one of the +prime reasons for the removal from Canaan--the unimpeded growth of a +tribe into a nation. There was no room for further peaceful and +separate expansion in that thickly populated country. Nor would +there have been in Egypt, unless under the condition of comparative +isolation, which could not have been obtained in any other way. Thus +an unreasonable prejudice, possibly connected with religious ideas, +became an important factor in the development of Israel; and, once +again, we have to note the wisdom of the great Builder who uses not +only gold, silver, and precious stones, but even wood, hay, +stubble--follies and sins--for His edifice. + +5. The interview of Jacob with Pharaoh is pathetic and beautiful. +The old man comports himself, in all the later history of Joseph, as +if done with the world, and waiting to go. 'Let me die, since I have +seen thy face,' was his farewell to life. He takes no part in the +negotiation about Goshen, but has evidently handed over all temporal +cares to younger hands. A halo of removedness lies round his grey +hairs, and to Pharaoh he behaves as one withdrawn from fleeting +things, and, by age and nearness to the end, superior even to a +king's dignity. As he enters the royal presence he does not do +reverence, but invokes a blessing upon him. 'The less is blessed of +the better.' He has nothing to do with court ceremonials or +conventionalities. The hoary head is a crown of honour, Pharaoh +recognises his right to address him thus by the kindly question as +to his age, which implied respect for his years. The answer of the +'Hebrew Ulysses,' as Stanley calls him, breathes a spirit of +melancholy not unnatural in one who had once more been uprooted, and +found himself again a wanderer in his old age. The tremulous voice +has borne the words across all the centuries, and has everywhere +evoked a response in the hearts of weary and saddened men. Look at +the component parts of this pensive retrospect. + +Life has been to him a 'pilgrimage'. He thinks of all his wanderings +from that far-off day when at Bethel he received the promise of +God's presence 'in all places whither thou goest,' till this last +happy and yet disturbing change. But he is thinking not only, +perhaps not chiefly, of the circumstances, but of the spirit, of his +life. This is, no doubt, the confession 'that they were strangers +and pilgrims' referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews. He was a +pilgrim, not because he had often changed his place of abode, but +because he sought the 'city which hath foundations,' and therefore +could not be at home here. The goal of his life lay in the far +future; and whether he looked for the promises to be fulfilled on +earth, or had the unformulated consciousness of immortality, and +saluted the dimly descried coast from afar while tossing on life's +restless ocean, he was effectually detached from the present, and +felt himself an alien in the existing order. We have to live by the +same hope, and to let it work the same estrangement, if we would +live noble lives. Not because all life is change, nor because it all +marches steadily on to the grave, but because our true home--the +community to which we really belong, the metropolis, the mother city +of our souls--is above, are we to feel ourselves strangers upon +earth. They who only take into account the transiency of life are +made sad, or sometimes desperate, by the unwelcome thought. But they +whose pilgrimage is a journey home may look that transiency full in +the face, and be as glad because of it as colonists on their voyage +to the old country which they call 'home,' though they were born on +the other side of the world and have never seen its green fields. + +To Jacob's eyes his days seem 'few.' Abraham's one hundred and +seventy-five years, Isaac's one hundred and eighty, were in his +mind. But more than these was in his mind. The law of the moral +perspective is other than that of the physical. The days in front, +seen through the glass of anticipation, are drawn out; the days +behind, viewed through the telescope of memory, are crowded +together. What a moment looked all the long years of his struggling +life--shorter now than even had once seemed the seven years of +service for his Rachel, that love had made to fly past on such swift +wings! That happy wedded life, how short it looked! A bright light +for a moment, and + + 'Ere a man could say "Behold!" + The jaws of darkness did devour it up.' + +It is well to lay the coolness of this thought on our fevered +hearts, and, whether they be torn by sorrows or gladdened with +bliss, to remember 'this also will pass' and the longest stretch of +dreary days be seen in retrospect, in their due relation to +eternity, as but a moment. That will not paralyse effort nor abate +sweetness, but it will teach proportion, and deliver from the +illusions of this solid-seeming shadow which we call life. + +The pensive retrospect darkens as the old man's memory dwells upon +the past. His days have not only been few--that could be borne--but +they have been 'evil' by which I understand not unfortunate so much +as faulty. We have seen in preceding pages the slow process by which +the crafty Jacob had his sins purged out of him, and became 'God's +wrestler.' Here we learn that old wrong-doing, even when forgiven--or, +rather, when and because forgiven--leaves regretful memories +lifelong. The early treachery had been long ago repented of and +pardoned by God and man. The nature which hatched it had been +renewed. But here it starts up again, a ghost from the grave, and +the memory of it is full of bitterness. No lapse of time deprives a +sin of its power to sting. As in the old story of the man who was +killed by a rattlesnake's poison fang embedded in a boot which had +lain forgotten for years, we may be wounded by suddenly coming +against it, long after it is forgiven by God and almost forgotten by +ourselves. Many a good man, although he knows that Christ's blood +has washed away his guilt, is made to possess the iniquities of his +youth. 'Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy +mouth any more, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou +hast done.' + +But this shaded retrospect is one-sided. It is true, and in some +moods seems all the truth; but Jacob saw more distinctly, and his +name was rightly Israel, when, laying his trembling hands on the +heads of Joseph's sons, he laid there the blessing of 'the God which +fed me all my life long, ... 'the Angel which redeemed me from all +evil.' That was his last thought about his life, as it began to be +seen in the breaking light of eternal day. Pensive and penitent +memory may call the years few and evil, but grateful faith even +here, and still more the cleared vision of heaven, will discern more +truly that they have been a long miracle of loving care, and that +all their seeming evil has been transmuted into good. + + + + +TWO RETROSPECTS OF ONE LIFE + + + 'And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, Few and evil have the + days of the years of my life been.'--GENESIS xlvii. 9. + + 'The God which fed me all my life long unto this day; + the Angel which redeemed me from all evil.' + --GENESIS xlviii. 15,16. + +These are two strangely different estimates of the same life to be +taken by the same man. In the latter Jacob categorically contradicts +everything that he had said in the former. 'Few and evil,' he said +before Pharaoh. 'All my life long,' 'the Angel which redeemed me +from all evil,' he said on his death-bed. + +If he meant what he said when he spoke to Pharaoh, and characterised +his life thus, he was wrong. He was possibly in a melancholy mood. +Very naturally, the unfamiliar splendours of a court dazzled and +bewildered the old man, accustomed to a quiet shepherd life down at +Hebron. He had not come to see Pharaoh, he only cared to meet +Joseph; and, as was quite natural, the new and uncongenial +surroundings depressed him. Possibly the words are only a piece of +the etiquette of an Eastern court, where it is the correct thing for +the subject to depreciate himself in all respects as far inferior to +the prince. And there may be little more than conventional humility +in the words of my first text. But I am rather disposed to think +that they express the true feeling of the moment, in a mood that +passed and was followed by a more wholesome one. + +I put the two sayings side by side just for the sake of gathering up +one or two plain lessons from them. + +1. We have here two possible views of life. + +Now the key to the difference between these two statements and moods +of feeling seems to me to be a very plain one. In the former of them +there is nothing about God. It is all Jacob. In the latter we notice +that there is a great deal more about God than about Jacob, and that +determines the whole tone of the retrospect. In the first text Jacob +speaks of 'the days of the years of _my_ pilgrimage,' 'the days +of the years of _my_ life,' and so on, without a syllable about +anything except the purely earthly view of life. Of course, when you +shut out God, the past is all dark enough, grey and dismal, like the +landscape on some cloudy day, where the woods stand black, and the +rivers creep melancholy through colourless fields, and the sky is +grey and formless above. Let the sun come out, and the river flashes +into a golden mirror, and the woods are alive with twinkling lights +and shadows, and the sky stretches a blue pavilion above them, and +all the birds sing. Let God into your life, and its whole complexion +and characteristics change. The man who sits whining and +complaining, when he has shut out the thought of a divine Presence, +finds that everything alters when he brings that in. + +And, then, look at the two particulars on which the patriarch +dwells. 'I am only one hundred and thirty years old,' he says; a +mere infant compared with Abraham and Isaac! How did he know he was +not going to live to be as old as either of them? And 'if his days +were evil,' as he said, was it not a good thing that they were few? +But, instead of that, he finds reasons for complaint in the brevity +of the life which, if it were as evil as he made it out to be, must +often have seemed wearisomely long, and dragged very slowly. Now, +both things are true--life is short, life is long. Time is elastic--you +can stretch it or you can contract it. It is short compared with the +duration of God; it is short, as one of the Psalms puts it pathetically, +as compared with this Nature round us--'The earth abideth for ever'; +we are strangers upon it, and there is no abiding for us. It is short +as compared with the capacities and powers of the creatures that possess +it; but, oh! if we think of our days as a series of gifts of God, if we +look upon them, as Jacob looked upon them when he was sane, as being one +continued shepherding by God, they stretch out into blessed length. Life +is long enough if it manifests that God takes care of us, and if we learn +that He does. Life is long enough if it serves to build up a God-pleasing +character. + +It is beautiful to see how the thought of God enters into the dying +man's remembrances in the shape which was natural to him, regard +being had to his own daily avocations. For the word translated 'fed' +means much more than supplied with nourishment. It is the word for +doing the office of shepherd, and we must not forget, if we want to +understand its beauty, that Jacob's sons said, 'Thy servants are +shepherds; both we and also our fathers.' So this man, in the +solitude of his pastoral life, and whilst living amongst his woolly +people who depended upon his guidance and care, had learned many a +lesson as to how graciously and tenderly and constantly fed, and +led, and protected, and fostered by God were the creatures of His +hand. + +It was he, I suppose, who first gave to religious thought that +metaphor which has survived temple and sacrifice and priesthood, and +will survive even earth itself; for 'I am the Good Shepherd' is as +true to-day as when first spoken by Jesus, and 'the Lamb which is in +the midst of the throne shall lead them,' and be their Shepherd when +the flock is carried to the upper pastures and the springs that +never fail. The life which has brought us that thought of a +Shepherd-God has been long enough; and the days which have been so +expanded as to contain a continuous series of His benefits and +protections need never be remembered as 'few,' whatsoever be the +arithmetic that is applied to them. + +The other contradiction is equally eloquent and significant. 'Few +and evil' have my days been, said Jacob, when he was not thinking +about God; but when he remembered the Angel of the Presence, that +mysterious person with whom he had wrestled at Peniel, and whose +finger had lamed the thigh while His lips proclaimed a blessing, his +view changed, and instead of talking about 'evil' days, he says, +'The Angel that redeemed me from all evil.' Yes, his life had been +evil, whether by that we mean sorrowful or sinful, and the sorrows +and the sins had been closely connected. A sorely tried man he had +been. Far away back in the past had been his banishment from home; +his disappointment and hard service with the churlish Laban; the +misbehaviour of his sons; the death of Rachel--that wound which was +never stanched; and then the twenty years' mourning for Rachel's +son, the heir of his inheritance. These were the evils, the sins +were as many, for every one of the sorrows, except perhaps the +chiefest of them all, had its root in some piece of duplicity, +dishonesty, or failure. But he was there in Egypt beside Joseph. The +evils had stormed over him, but he was there still. And so at the +end he says, 'The Angel ... redeemed me from evil, though it smote +me. Sorrow became chastisement, and I was purged of my sin by my +calamities.' The sorrows are past, like some raging inundation that +comes up for a night over the land and then subsides; but the +blessing of fertility which it brought in its tawny waves abides +with me yet. Joseph is by my side. 'I had not thought to see thy +face, and God hath showed me the face of thy seed.' That sorrow is +over. Rachel's grave is still by the wayside, and that sorest of +sorrows has wrought with others to purify character. Jacob has been +tried by sorrows; he has been purged from sins. 'The Angel delivered +me from all evil.' So, dear friends, sorrow is not evil if it helps +to strip us from the evil that we love, and the ills that we bear +are good if they alienate our affections from the ills that we do. + +2. Secondly, note the wisdom and the duty of taking the completer +and brighter view. + +These first words of Jacob's are very often quoted as if they were +the pattern of the kind of thing people ought to say, 'Few and evil +have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage.' That is a text +from which many sermons have been preached with approbation of the +pious resignation expressed in it. But it does not seem to me that +that is the tone of them. If the man believed what he said, then he +was very ungrateful and short-sighted, though there were excuses to +be made for him under the circumstances. If the days had been evil, +he had made them so. + +But the point which I wish to make now is that it is largely a +matter for our own selection which of the two views of our lives we +take. We may make our choice whether we shall fix our attention on +the brighter or on the darker constituents of our past. + +Suppose a wall papered with paper of two colours, one black, say, +and the other gold. You can work your eye and adjust the focus of +vision so that you may see either a black background or a gold one. +In the one case the prevailing tone is gloomy, relieved by an +occasional touch of brightness; and in the other it is brightness, +heightened by a background of darkness. And so you can do with life, +fixing attention on its sorrows, and hugging yourselves in the +contemplation of these with a kind of morbid satisfaction, or +bravely and thankfully and submissively and wisely resolving that +you will rather seek to learn what God means by darkness, and not +forgetting to look at the unenigmatical blessings, and plain, +obvious mercies, that make up so much of our lives. We have to +govern memory as well as other faculties, by Christian principle. We +have to apply the plain teaching of Christian truth to our +sentimental, and often unwholesome, contemplations of the past. +There is enough in all our lives to make material for plenty of +whining and complaining, if we choose to take hold of them by that +handle. And there is enough in all our lives to make us ashamed of +one murmuring word, if we are devout and wise and believing enough +to lay hold of them by that one. Remember that you can make your +view of your life either a bright one or a dark one, and there will +be facts for both; but the facts that feed melancholy are partial +and superficial, and the facts that exhort, 'Rejoice in the Lord +alway; and again I say, Rejoice,' are deep and fundamental. + +3. So, lastly, note how blessed a thing it is when the last look is +the happiest. + +When we are amongst the mountains, or when we are very near them, +they look barren enough, rough, stony, steep. When we travel away +from them, and look at them across the plain, they lie blue in the +distance; and the violet shadows and the golden lights upon them and +the white peaks above make a dream of beauty. Whilst we are in the +midst of the struggle, we are often tempted to think that things go +hardly with us and that the road is very rough. But if we keep near +our dear Lord, and hold by His hand, and try to shape our lives in +accordance with His will--whatever be their outward circumstances +and texture--then we may be very sure of this, that when the end +comes, and we are far enough away from some of the sorrows to see +what they lead to and blossom into, then we shall be able to say, It +was all very good, and to thank Him for all the way by which the +Lord our God has led us. + +In the same conversation in which the patriarch, rising to the +height of a prophet and organ of divine revelation, gives this his +dying testimony of the faithfulness of God, and declares that he has +been delivered from all evil, he recurs to the central sorrow of his +life; and speaks, though in calm words, of that day when he buried +Rachel by 'Ephrath, which is Bethel.' But the pain had passed and +the good was present to him. And so, leaving life, he left it +according to his own word, 'satisfied with favour, and full of the +blessing of the Lord.' So we in our turns may, at the last, hope +that what we know not now will largely be explained; and may seek to +anticipate our dying verdict by a living confidence, in the midst of +our toils and our sorrows, that 'all things work together for good +to them that love God.' + + + + +'THE HANDS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF JACOB' + + + The archers shot at him, but his bow abode in strength, + and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands + of the mighty God of Jacob.' + GENESIS xlix. 23, 24. + +These picturesque words are part of what purports to be one of the +oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible--the dying Jacob's prophetic +blessing on his sons. Of these sons there are two over whom his +heart seems especially to pour itself--Judah the ancestor of the +royal tribe, and Joseph. The future fortunes of their descendants +are painted in most glowing colours. And of these two, the blessing +on the 'son who was dead and is alive again, who was lost and is +found' is the fuller of tender desire and glad prediction. The words +of our text are probably to be taken as prophecy, not as history--as +referring to the future conflicts and victories of the tribe, not to +the past trials and triumphs of its father. But be that as it may, +they contain, in most vivid metaphor, the earliest utterance of a +very familiar truth. They are the first hint of that thought which +is caught up and expanded in many a later saying of psalmist, and +prophet, and apostle. We hear their echoes in the great song +ascribed to David 'in the day that the Lord delivered him from the +hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul': 'He teacheth my +hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms'; and +the idea receives its fullest carrying out and noblest setting +forth, in the trumpet-call of the apostle, who had seen more +formidable weapons and a more terrible military discipline in Rome's +legions than Jacob knew, and who pressed them into his stimulating +call: 'Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.' 'Put +on the whole armour of God.' Strength for conflict by contact with +the strength of God is the common thought of all these passages--a +very familiar thought, which may perhaps be freshened for us by the +singular intensity with which this metaphor of our text presents it. +Look at the picture.--Here stands the solitary man, ringed all round +by enemies full of bitter hate. Their arrows are on the string, +their bows drawn to the ear. The shafts fly thick, and when they +have whizzed past him, and he can be seen again, he stands unharmed, +grasping his unbroken bow. The assault has shivered no weapon, has +given no wound. He has been able to stand in the evil day--and look! +a pair of great, gentle, strong hands are laid upon his hands and +arms, and strength passes into his feebleness from the touch of 'the +hands of the mighty God of Jacob.' So the enemy have two, not one, +to reckon with. By the side of the hunted man stands a mighty +figure, and it is His strength, not the mortal's impotence, that has +to be overcome. Some dream of such divine help in the struggle of +battle has floated through the minds, and been enshrined in the +legends, of many people, as when the panoplied Athene has been +descried leading the Grecian armies, or, through the dust of +conflict, the gleaming armour and white horses of the Twin Brethren +were seen far in advance of the armies of Rome. But the dream is for +us a reality. It _is_ true that we go not to warfare at our own +charges, nor by our own strength. If we love Him and try to make a +brave stand against our own evil, and to strike a manful blow for +God in this world, we shall not have to bear the brunt alone. +Remember he who fights for God never fights without God. + +There is a strange story in a later book of Scripture, which almost +reads as if it had been modelled on some reminiscence of these words +of the dying Jacob--and is, at any rate, a remarkable illustration +of them. The kingdom of Israel, of which the descendants of Joseph +were the most conspicuous part, was in the very crisis and agony of +one of its Syrian wars. Its principal human helper was 'fallen sick +of the sickness whereof he died.' And to his death-bed came, in a +passion of perplexity and despair, the irresolute weakling who was +then king, bewailing the impending withdrawal of the nation's best +defence. The dying Elisha, with curt authority, pays no heed to the +tears of Joash, but bids him take bow and arrows. 'And he said to +the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow,' and he put his +hand upon it; and '_Elisha put his hands upon the king's +hands_.' Then, when the thin, wasted, transparent fingers of the +old man were thus laid, guiding and infusing strength, by a strange +paradox, into the brown, muscular hands of the young king, he tells +him to open the casement that looked eastward towards the lands of +the enemy, and, as the blinding sunshine and the warm air streamed +into the sick-chamber, he bids him draw the bow. He was obeyed, and, +as the arrow whizzed Jordanwards, the dying prophet followed its +flight with words brief and rapid like it, 'the arrow of the Lord's +deliverance.' Here we have all the elements of our text singularly +repeated--the dying seer, the king the representative of Joseph in +the royal dignity to which his descendants have come, the arrows and +the bow, the strength for conflict by the touch of hands that had +the strength of God in them. The lesson of that paradox that the +dying gave strength to the living, the feeble to the strong, was the +old one which is ever new, that mere human power is weakness when it +is strongest, and that power drawn from God is omnipotent when it +seems weakest. And the further lesson is the lesson of our text, +that our hands are then strengthened, when His hands are laid upon +them, of whom it is written: 'Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is Thy +hand, and high is Thy right hand. + +As a father in old days might have taken his little boy out to the +butts, and put a bow into his hand, and given him his first lesson +in archery, directing his unsteady aim by his own firmer finger, and +lending the strength of his wrist to his child's feebler pull, so +God does with us. The sure, strong hand is laid on ours, and is +'profitable to direct.' A wisdom not our own is ever at our side, +and ready for our service. We but dimly perceive the conditions of +the conflict, and the mark at which we should aim is ever apt to be +obscured to our perceptions. But in all cases where conscience is +perplexed, or where the judgment is at fault, we may, if we will, +have Him for our teacher. And when we know not where to strike the +foes that seem invulnerable, like the warrior who was dipped in the +magic stream, or clothed in mail impenetrable as rhinoceros' hide, +He will make us wise to know the one spot where a wound is fatal. We +shall not need to fight as he that beats the air; to strike at +random; or to draw our bow at a venture, if we will let Him guide +us. + +Or if ever the work be seen clearly enough, but our poor hands +cannot take aim for very trembling, or shoot for fear of striking +something very dear to us, He will steady our nerves and make our +aim sure and true. We have often, in our fight with ourselves, and +in our struggle to get God's will done in the world, to face as +cruel a perplexity as the father who had to split the apple on his +son's head. The evil against which we have to contend is often so +closely connected with things very precious to us, that it is hard +to smite the one when there is such danger of grazing the other. +Many a time our tastes, our likings, our prejudices, our hopes, our +loves, make our sight dim, and our pulses too tumultuous to allow of +a good, long, steady gaze and a certain aim. It is hard to keep the +arrow's point firm when the heart throbs and the hand shakes. But in +all such difficult times He is ready to help us. 'Behold, we know +not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee,' is a prayer never +offered in vain. + +The word that is here rendered 'made strong,' might be translated +'made pliable,' or 'flexible' conveying the notion of deftness and +dexterity rather than that of simple strength. It is practised +strength that He will give, the educated hand and arm, masters of +the manipulation of the weapon. The stiffness and clumsiness of our +handling, the obstinate rigidity as well as the throbbing feebleness +of our arms, the dimness of our sight, may all be overcome. At His +touch the raw recruit is as the disciplined veteran; the prophet who +cannot speak because he is a child, gifted with a mouth and wisdom +which all the adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor to +resist. Do not be disheartened by your inexperience, or by your +ignorance; but as the prophet said to the young king, Take the bow +and shoot. God's strong hand will hold yours, and the arrow will fly +true. + +That strong hand is laid on ours, and lends its weight to our feeble +pull. The bow is often too heavy for us to bend, but we do not need +to strain our strength in the vain attempt to do it alone. Tasks +seem too much for us. The pressure of our daily work overwhelms us. +The burden of our daily anxieties and sorrows is too much. Some huge +obstacle starts up in our path. Some great sacrifice for truth, +honour, duty, which we feel we cannot make, is demanded of us. Some +daring defiance of some evil, which has caught us in its toils, or +which it is unfashionable to fight against, seems laid upon us. We +cannot rise to the height of the occasion, or bring ourselves to the +wrench that is required. Or the wearing recurrence of monotonous +duties seems to take ail freshness out of our lives, and all spring +out of ourselves; and we are ready to give over struggling any more, +and let ourselves drift. Can we not feel that large hand laid on +ours; and does not power, more and other than our own, creep into +our numb and relaxed fingers? Yes, if we will let Him. His strength +is made perfect in our weakness; and every man and woman who will +make life a noble struggle against evil, vanity, or sin, may be very +sure that God will direct and strengthen their hands to war, and +their fingers to fight. + +But the remarkable metaphor of the text not only gives the fact of +divine strength being bestowed, but also the _manner_ of the +gift. What a boldness of reverent familiarity there is in that +symbol of the hands of God laid on the hands of the man! How +strongly it puts the contact between us and Him as the condition of +our reception of power from Him! A true touch, as of hand to hand, +conveys the grace. It is as when the prophet laid himself down with +his warm lip on the dead boy's cold mouth, and his heart beating +against the still heart of the corpse, till the life passed into the +clay, and the lad lived. So, if we may say it, our Quickener bends +Himself over all our deadness, and by His own warmth reanimates us. + +Perhaps this same thought is one of the lessons which we are meant +to learn from the frequency with which our Lord wrought His miracles +of healing by the touch of His hand. 'Come and lay Thy hand on him, +and he shall live.' 'And He put forth His hand and touched him, and +said, I will, be thou clean.' 'Many said, He is dead; but Jesus took +him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.' The touch of His +hand is healing and life. The touch of our hands is faith. In the +mystery of His incarnation, in the flow of His sympathy, in the +forth-putting of His power, He lays hold not on angels, but He lays +hold on the seed of Abraham. By our lowly trust, by the forth- +putting of our desires, we stretch 'lame hands of faith,' and, +blessed be God! we do not 'grope,' but we grasp His strong hand and +are held up. + +The contact of our spirits with His Spirit is a contact far more +real than the touch of earthly hands that grasp each other closest. +There is ever some film of atmosphere between the palms. But 'he +that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,' and he that clasps +Christ's outstretched hand of help with his outstretched hand of +weakness, holds Him with a closeness to which all unions of earth +are gaping gulfs of separation. You remember how Mary cast herself +at Christ's feet on the resurrection morning, and would have flung +her arms round them in the passion of her joy. The calm word which +checked her has a wonderful promise in it. 'Touch me not, for I am +not yet ascended to my Father'; plainly leading to the inference, +'When I am ascended, then you may touch Me.' And that touch will be +more reverent, more close, more blessed, than any clasping of His +feet, even with such loving hands, and is possible for us all for +evermore. + +Nothing but such contact will give us strength for conflict and for +conquest. And the plain lesson therefore is--see to it, that the +contact is not broken by you. Put away the metaphor, and the simple +English of the advice is just this:--First, live in the desire and +the confidence of His help in all your need, of His strength as all +your power. As a part of that confidence--its reverse and under +side, so to speak--cherish the profound sense of your own weakness. + + 'In our own strength we nothing can; + Full soon were we down-ridden'-- + +as Luther has taught us to sing. Let there be a constant renewal, in +the midst of your duties and trials, of that conscious dependence +and feeling of insufficiency. Stretch out the empty hands to Him in +that desire and hope, which, spoken or silent, is prayer. Keep the +communications open, by which His strength flows into your souls. +Let them not be choked with self-confidence, with vanities, with the +rubbish of your own nature, or of the world. Do not twitch away your +hands from under the strong hands that are laid so gently upon them. +But let Him cover, direct, cherish, and strengthen your poor fingers +till they are strong and nimble for all your work and warfare. If +you go into the fight trusting to your own wit and wisdom, to the +vigour of your own arm, or the courage of your own heart, that very +foolhardy confidence is itself defeat, for it is sin as well as +folly, and nothing can come of it but utter collapse and disaster. +But if you will only go to your daily fight with yourself and the +world, with your hand grasping God's hand, you will be able to +'withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.' The +enemies may compass you about like bees, but in the name of the Lord +you can destroy them. Their arrows may fly thick enough to darken +the sun, but, as the proud old boast has it, 'then we can fight in +the shade'; and when their harmless points have buried themselves in +the ground, you will stand unhurt, your unshivered bow ready for the +next assault, and your hands made strong by the hands of the mighty +God of Jacob. 'In all these things we are more than conquerors, +through Him that loved us.' + + + + +THE SHEPHERD, THE STONE OF ISRAEL + + + '... The mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the Shepherd, + the stone of Israel.'--GENESIS xlix. 24. + +A slight alteration in the rendering will probably bring out the +meaning of these words more correctly. The last two clauses should +perhaps not be read as a separate sentence. Striking out the +supplement 'is,' and letting the previous sentence run on to the end +of the verse, we get a series of names of God, in apposition with +each other, as the sources of the strength promised to the arms of +the hands of the warlike sons of Joseph. From the hands of the +mighty God of Jacob--from thence, from the Shepherd, the stone of +Israel--the power will come for conflict and for conquest. This +exuberant heaping together of names of God is the mark of the flash +of rapturous confidence which lit up the dying man's thoughts when +they turned to God. When he begins to think of Him he cannot stay +his tongue. So many aspects of His character, so many remembrances +of His deeds, come crowding into his mind; so familiar and so dear +are they, that he must linger over the words, and strive by this +triple repetition to express the manifold preciousness of Him whom +no name, nor crowd of names, can rightly praise. So earthly love +ever does with its earthly objects, inventing and reiterating +epithets which are caresses. Such repetitions are not tautologies, +for each utters some new aspect of the one subject, and comes from a +new gush of heart's love towards it. And something of the same +rapture and unwearied recurrence to the Name that is above every +name should mark the communion of devout souls with their heavenly +Love. What a wonderful burst of such praise flowed out from David's +thankful heart, in his day of deliverance, like some strong current, +with its sevenfold wave, each crested with the Name--'The Lord is my +rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in +whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my +high tower.' + +Those three names which we find here are striking and beautiful in +themselves; in their juxtaposition; in their use on Jacob's lips. +They seem to have been all coined by him, for, if we accept this +song as a true prophecy uttered by him, we have here the earliest +instance of their occurrence. They all have a history, and appear +again expanded and deepened in the subsequent revelation. Let us +look at them as they stand. + +1. _The Mighty God of Jacob_.--The meaning of such a name is +clear enough. It is He who has shown Himself mighty and mine by His +deeds for me all through my life. The dying man's thoughts are busy +with all that past from the day when he went forth from the tent of +Isaac, and took of the stones of the field for his pillow when the +sun went down. A perplexed history it had been, with many a bitter +sorrow, and many a yet bitterer sin. Passionate grief and despairing +murmurs he had felt and flung out, while it slowly unfolded itself. +When the Pharaoh had asked, 'How old art thou?' he had answered in +words which owe their sombreness partly to obsequious assumption of +insignificance in such a presence, but have a strong tinge of +genuine sadness in them too: 'Few and evil have the days of the +years of my life been.' But lying dying there, with it all well +behind him, he has become wiser; and now it all looks to him as one +long showing forth of the might of his God, who had been with him +all his life long, and had redeemed him from all evil. He has got +far enough away to see the lie of the land, as he could not do while +he was toiling along the road. The barren rocks and white snow glow +with purple as the setting sun touches them. The struggles with +Laban; the fear of Esau; the weary work of toilsome years; the sad +day when Rachel died, and left to him the 'son of her sorrow'; the +heart sickness of the long years of Joseph's loss--all have faded +away, or been changed into thankful wonder at God's guidance. The +one thought which the dying man carries out of life with him is: God +has shown Himself mighty, and He has shown Himself mine. + +For each of us, our own experience should be a revelation of God. +The things about Him which we read in the Bible are never living and +real to us till we have verified them in the facts of our own +history. Many a word lies on the page, or in our memories, fully +believed and utterly shadowy, until in some soul's conflict we have +had to grasp it, and found it true. Only so much of our creed as we +have proved in life is really ours. If we will only open our eyes +and reflect upon our history as it passes before us, we shall find +every corner of it filled with the manifestations to our hearts and +to our minds of a present God. But our folly, our stupidity, our +impatience, our absorption with the mere outsides of things, our +self-will, blind us to the Angel with the drawn sword who resists +us, as well as to the Angel with the lily who would lead us. So we +waste our days; are deaf to His voice speaking through all the +clatter of tongues, and blind to His bright presence shining through +all the dimness of earth; and, for far too many of us, we never can +see God in the present, but only discern Him when He has passed by, +like Moses from his cleft. Like this same Jacob, we have to say: +'Surely God was in this place, and I knew it not.' Hence we miss the +educational worth of our lives, are tortured with needless cares, +are beaten by the poorest adversaries, and grope amidst what seems +to us a chaos of pathless perplexities, when we might be marching on +assured and strong, with God for our guide, and the hands of the +Mighty One of Jacob for our defence. + +Notice, too, how distinctly the thought comes out in this name--that +the very vital centre of a man's religion is his conviction that God +is his. Jacob will not be content with thinking of God as the God of +his fathers; he will not even be content with associating himself +with them in the common possession; but he must feel the full force +of the intensely personal bond that knits him to God, and God to +him. Of course such a feeling does not ignore the blessed fellowship +and family who also are held in this bond. The God of Jacob is to +the patriarch also the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. +But that comes second, and this comes first. Each man for himself +must put forth the hand of his own faith, and grasp that great hand +for his own guide. '_My_ Lord and _my_ God' is the true form of the +confession. 'He loved _me_ and gave Himself for _me_,' is the shape in +which the Gospel of Christ melts the soul. God is mine because His +love individualises me, and I have a distinct place in His heart, His +purposes, and His deeds. God is mine, because by my own individual +act--the most personal which I can perform--I cast myself on Him, by +my faith appropriate the common salvation, and open my being to the +inflow of His power. God is mine, and I am His, in that wonderful +mutual possession, with perpetual interchange of giving and receiving +not only gifts but selves, which makes the very life of love, whether +it be love on earth or love in heaven. + +Remember, too, the profound use which our Lord made of this name, +wherein Jacob claims to possess God. Because Moses at the bush +called God, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, they +cannot have ceased to be. The personal relations, which subsist +between God and the soul that clasps Him for its own, demand an +immortal life for their adequate expression, and make it impossible +that Death's skeleton fingers should have power to untie such a +bond. Anything is conceivable, rather than that the soul which can +say 'God is mine' should perish. And that continued existence +demands, too, a state of being which shall correspond to itself, in +which its powers shall all be exercised, its desires fulfilled, its +possibilities made facts. Therefore there must be the resurrection. +'God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for +them a city.' + +The dying patriarch left to his descendants the legacy of this great +name, and often, in later times, it was used to quicken faith by the +remembrance of the great deeds of God in the past. One instance may +serve as a sample of the whole. 'The Lord of Hosts is with us, the +God of Jacob is our refuge.' The first of these two names lays the +foundation of our confidence in the thought of the boundless power +of Him whom all the forces of the universe, personal and impersonal, +angels and stars, in their marshalled order, obey and serve. The +second bids later generations claim as theirs all that the old +history reveals as having belonged to the 'world's grey fathers.' +They had no special prerogative of nearness or of possession. The +arm that guided them is unwearied, and all the past is true still, +and will for evermore be true for all who love God. So the venerable +name is full of promise and of hope for us: 'The God of Jacob is our +refuge.' + +2. _The Shepherd_.--How that name sums up the lessons that +Jacob had learned from the work of himself and of his sons! 'Thy +servants are shepherds' they said to Pharaoh; 'both we, and also our +sons.' For fourteen long, weary years he had toiled at that task. +'In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my +sleep departed from mine eyes,' and his own sleepless vigilance and +patient endurance seem to him to be but shadows of the loving care, +the watchful protection, the strong defence, which 'the God, who has +been my Shepherd all my life long,' had extended to him and his. +Long before the shepherd king, who had been taken from the +sheepcotes to rule over Israel, sang his immortal psalm, the same +occupation had suggested the same thought to the shepherd patriarch. +Happy they whose daily work may picture for them some aspect of +God's care--or rather, happy they whose eyes are open to see the dim +likeness of God's care which every man's earthly relations, and some +part of his work, most certainly present. + +There can be no need to draw out at length the thoughts which that +sweet and familiar emblem has conveyed to so many generations. +Loving care, wise guidance, fitting food, are promised by it; and +docile submission, close following at the Shepherd's heels, +patience, innocence, meekness, trust, are required. But I may put +emphasis for a moment on the connection between the thought of 'the +mighty God of Jacob' and that of 'the Shepherd.' The occupation, as +we see it, does not call for a strong arm, or much courage, except +now and then to wade through snowdrifts, and dig out the buried and +half-dead creatures. But the shepherds whom Jacob knew, had to be +hardy, bold fighters. There were marauders lurking ready to sweep +away a weakly guarded flock. There were wild beasts in the gorges of +the hills. There was danger in the sun by day on these burning +plains, and in the night the wolves prowled round the flock. We +remember how David's earliest exploits were against the lion and the +bear, and how he felt that even his duel with the Philistine bully +was not more formidable than these had been. If we will read into +our English notions of a shepherd this element of danger and of +daring, we shall feel that these two clauses are not to be taken as +giving the contrasted ideas of strength and gentleness, but the +connected ones of strength, and therefore protection and security. +We have the same connection in later echoes of this name. 'Behold, +the Lord God shall come with _strong_ hand; He shall feed His +flock like a shepherd.' And our Lord's use of the figure brings into +all but exclusive prominence the good shepherd's conflict with the +ravening wolves--a conflict in which he must not hesitate even 'to +lay down his life for the sheep.' As long as the flock are here, +amidst dangers and foes, and wild weather, the arm that guides must +be an arm that can guard; and none less mighty than the Mighty One +of Jacob can be the Shepherd of men. But a higher fulfilment yet +awaits this venerable emblem, when in other pastures, where no lion +nor any ravening beast shall come, the 'Lamb, which is in the midst +of the throne,' and is Shepherd as well as Lamb, 'shall feed them, +and lead them by living fountains of waters.' + +3. _The Stone of Israel_.--Here, again, we have a name, that +after-ages have caught up and cherished, used for the first time. I +suppose the Stone of Israel means much the same thing as the Rock. +If so, that symbol, too, which is full of such large meanings, was +coined by Jacob. It is, perhaps, not fanciful to suppose that it +owes its origin to the scenery of Palestine. The wild cliffs of the +eastern region where Peniel lay, or the savage fastnesses in the +southern wilderness, a day's march from Hebron, where he lived so +long, came back to his memory amid the flat, clay land of Egypt; and +their towering height, their immovable firmness, their cool shade, +their safe shelter, spoke to him of the unalterable might and +impregnable defence which he had found in God. So there is in this +name the same devout, reflective laying-hold upon experience which +we have observed in the preceding. + +There is also the same individualising grasp of God as his very own; +for 'Israel' here is, of course, to be taken not as the name of the +nation but as his own name, and the intention of the phrase is +evidently to express what God had been to him personally. + +The general idea of this symbol is perhaps firmness, solidity. And +that general idea may be followed out in various details. God is a +rock for a foundation. Build your lives, your thoughts, your +efforts, your hopes there. The house founded on the rock will stand +though wind and rain from above smite it, and floods from beneath +beat on it like battering rams. God is a rock for a fortress. Flee +to Him to hide, and your defence shall be the 'munitions of rocks,' +which shall laugh to scorn all assault, and never be stormed by any +foe. God is a rock for shade and refreshment. Come close to Him from +out of the scorching heat, and you will find coolness and verdure +and moisture in the clefts, when all outside that grateful shadow is +parched and dry. + +The word of the dying Jacob was caught up by the great law-giver in +his dying song. 'Ascribe ye greatness to our God. He is the Rock.' +It reappears in the last words of the shepherd king, whose grand +prophetic picture of the true King is heralded by 'The Book of +Israel spake to me.' It is heard once more from the lips of the +greatest of the prophets in his glowing prophecy of the song of the +final days: 'Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah +is the Rock of Ages,' as well as in his solemn prophecy of the Stone +which God would lay in Zion. We hear it again from the lips that +cannot lie: 'Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The Stone which +the builders rejected, the same is become the headstone of the +corner?' And for the last time the venerable metaphor which has +cheered so many ages appears in the words of that Apostle who was +'surnamed Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone': 'To whom +coming as unto a living Stone, yea also as living stones are built +up.' As on some rocky site in Palestine, where a hundred generations +in succession have made their fortresses, one may see stones with +the bevel that tells of early Jewish masonry, and above them Roman +work, and higher still masonry of crusading times, and above it the +building of to-day; so we, each age in our turn, build on this great +rock foundation, dwell safe there for our little lives, and are laid +to peaceful rest in a sepulchre in the rock. On Christ we may build. +In Him we may dwell and rest secure. We may die in Jesus, and be +gathered to our own people, who, having died, live in Him. And +though so many generations have reared their dwellings on that great +rock, there is ample room for us too to build. We have not to +content ourselves with an uncertain foundation among the shifting +rubbish of perished dwellings, but can get down to the firm virgin +rock for ourselves. None that ever builded there have been +confounded. We clasp hands with all who have gone before us. At one +end of the long chain this dim figure of the dying Jacob, amid the +strange vanished life of Egypt, stretches out his withered hands to +God the Stone of Israel; at the other end, we lift up ours to Jesus, +and cry:-- + + 'Rock of Ages! cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee.' + +The faith is one. One will be the answer and the reward. May it be +yours and mine! + + + + +A CALM EVENING, PROMISING A BRIGHT MORNING + + + 'And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, + and all that went up with him to bury his father, after + he had buried his father. And when Joseph's brethren + saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will + peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all + the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger + unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he + died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I + pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their + sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, + forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy + father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And + his brethren also went and fell down before his face; + and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph + said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? + But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God + meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, + to save much people alive Now therefore fear ye not: I + will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted + them, and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in + Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an + hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children + of the third generation: the children also of Machir the + son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. And + Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely + visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land + which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And + Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, + God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones + from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten + years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a + coffin in Egypt.'--GENESIS l. 14-26. + +Joseph's brothers were right in thinking that he loved Jacob better +than he did them; and they knew only too well that he had reasons +for doing so. But their fear that Jacob's death would be followed by +an outbreak of long-smothered revenge betrayed but too clearly their +own base natures. They thought him like themselves, and they knew +themselves capable of nursing wrath to keep it warm through long +years of apparent kindliness. They had no room in their hearts for +frank, full forgiveness. So they had lived on through numberless +signs of their brother's love and care, and still kept the old +dread, and, probably, not a little of the old envy. How much +happiness they had lost by their slowness to believe in Joseph's +love! + +Is there nothing like this in our thoughts of God? Do men not live +for years on His bounty, and all the while cherish suspicions of His +heart? 'Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as +thyself.' It is hard to believe in a love which has no faintest +trace of desire for vengeance for all past slights. It is hard for +hearts conscious of their own slowness to pardon, to realise +undoubtingly God's infinite placability. + +The brothers' procedure is marked by unwarrantable lack of trust in +Joseph. Why did they not go to him at once, and appeal to his +brotherly affection? Their roundabout way of going to work by +sending a messenger was an insult to their brother, though it may +have been meant as honour to the viceroy. The craft which was their +father's by nature seems to have been amply transmitted. The story +of Jacob's dying wish looks very apocryphal. If he had been afraid +of Joseph's behaviour when he was gone, he was much more likely to +have spoken to Joseph about it before he went, than to have left the +gun loaded and bid them fire it after his death. Jacob knew his son +better, and trusted him more than his brothers did. + +We note, too, the ingenious way of slipping in motives for +forgiving, first in putting the mention of their relationship into +Jacob's mouth, and then claiming to be worshippers of 'thy (not our) +father's God.' They had proved how truly they were both, when they +sold him to the Midianites! + +Joseph's tears were a good answer. No doubt they were partly drawn +out by the shock of finding that he had been so misunderstood, but +they were omens of his pardon. So, when they were reported to the +brothers, they came themselves, and fulfilled the old dream by +falling down before him in abjectness. They do not call themselves +his brethren, but his slaves, as if grovelling was the way to win +love or to show it. A little affection would have gone farther than +much submission. If their attitude truly expressed their feelings, +their hearts were as untouched by Joseph's years of magnanimous +kindness as a rock by falling rain. If it was a theatrical display +of feigned subjection, it was still worse. Our Brother, against whom +we have sinned, wants love, not cowering; and if we believe in His +forgiveness, we shall give Him the hearts which He desires, and +after that shall render the unconditional submission which only +trust and love can yield. + +Joseph's answer is but the reiteration of his words at his first +making himself known. He soothes unworthy fears, says not a word of +reproach for their misunderstanding of him, waives all pretension to +deal out that retribution which God alone sends, and shows that he +has lost all bitterness in thinking of the past, since he sees in +it, not the working of their malice, but of God's providence, and is +ready to thank, if not them, at any rate Him, for having, by even so +painful a way, made him the instrument of widespread good. A man who +sees God's hand in his past, and thinks lightly of his sorrows and +nobly of the opportunities of service which they have brought him, +will waste no feeling on the men who were God's tools. If we want to +live high above low hatreds and revenges, let us cultivate the habit +of looking behind men to God. So we shall be saved from many +fruitless pangs over irrevocable losses and from many disturbing +feelings about other people. + +The sweet little picture of the great minister's last days is very +tenderly touched. Surrounded by his kindred, probably finding in a +younger generation the reverence and affection which the elder had +failed to give, he wears away the calm evening of the life which had +opened so stormily. It 'came in like a lion, it goes out like a +lamb.' The strong domestic instincts so characteristic of the Hebrew +race had full gratification. Honours and power at court and kingdom +probably continued, but these did not make the genial warmth which +cheered the closing years. It was that he saw his children's +children's children, and that they gathered round his knees in +confidence, and received from him his benediction. + +But it is in his death that the flame shoots up most brightly at the +last. 'By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing +of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his +bones.' He had been an Egyptian to all appearance all his life from +the day of his captivity, filling his place at court, marrying an +Egyptian woman, and bearing an Egyptian name, but his dying words +show how he had been a stranger in the midst of it all. As truly as +his fathers who dwelt in tents, he too felt that he here had no +continuing city. He lived by faith in God's promises, and therefore +his heart was in the unseen future far more than in the present. + +He died with the ancestral assurance on his lips. Jacob, dying, had +said to him, 'Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring +you again unto the land of your fathers' (Gen. xlviii. 21). Joseph +hands on the hope to his descendants. It is a grand instance of +indomitable confidence in God's word, not nonplussed, bewildered, or +weakened, though the man who cherishes it dies without seeing even a +beginning of fulfilment. Such a faith bridges the gulf of death as a +very small matter. In the strength of it we may drop our unfinished +tasks, and, needful as we may seem to wider or narrower circles, may +be sure that God and His word live, though we die. No man is +necessary. Israel was safe in Egypt, and sure to come out of it, +though Joseph's powerful protection was withdrawn. + +His career may teach another lesson; namely, that true faith does +not detach us from strenuous interest and toil in the present. +Though the great hope burned in his heart, he did all his work as +prime minister all the better because of it. It should always be so. +Life here is not worth living if there is not another. The distance +dignifies the foreground. The highest importance and nobleness of +the life that now is, lie in its being preparation or apprenticeship +for the greater future. The Egyptian vizier, with Canaan written on +his heart, and Egypt administered by his hands, is a type of what +every Christian should be. + +Possibly Joseph's 'commandment concerning his bones may have been +somewhat influenced by the Egyptian belief which underlies their +practice of embalming the body. He, too, may have thought that, in +some mysterious way, he would share in the possession of the land in +which his bones were to be laid. Or he may simply have been yielding +to natural sentiment. It is noteworthy that Jacob desired to be laid +beside his ancestors, and Joseph to be kept in Egypt for a time. +Both had the same assurance as to future possession of Canaan, but +it led to different wishes as to burial. Perhaps Joseph felt that +his position in Egypt required that his embalmed body should for a +while remain there. Perhaps he wished to leave with his people a +silent witness of his own hope, and a preacher, eloquent in its +dumbness, of the duty of their keeping alive that hope, whatever +might come upon them. + +'In a coffin in Egypt'--so the book ends. It might seem that that +mummy-case proclaimed rather the futility of the hope of restoration +to the land, and, as centuries rolled away, and the bondage became +heavier, no doubt many a wondering and doubting look was turned to +it. But there it lay, perhaps neglected, for more than three hundred +years, the visible embodiment of a hope which smiled at death and +counted centuries as nothing. At last the day came which vindicated +the long-deferred confidence; and, as the fugitives in their haste +shouldered the heavy sarcophagus, and set out with it for the Land +of Promise, surely some thrill of trust would pass through their +ranks, and in some hearts would sound the exhortation, 'If the +vision tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not +tarry.' + +We have not a dead Joseph to bid us wait with patience and never +lose our firm grip of God's promises, but we have a living Jesus. +Our march to the land of rest is headed, not by the bones of a +departed leader, but by the Forerunner, 'who is for us entered' +whither He will bring all who trust in Him. Therefore we should +live, as Joseph lived, with desires and trust reaching out beyond +things seen to the land assured to us by God's promise, doing our +day's task all the more vigorously because we do not belong to the +order of things in the midst of which we live; and then, when we lie +down at the end of our life's work, we shall not be saddened by +disappointed hopes, nor reluctantly close our eyes on good to come, +when we shall not be there to share it, but be sure that we shall +'see the good of Thy chosen,' and 'rejoice in the gladness of Thy +nation.' + + + + +JOSEPH'S FAITH + + + 'Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, + God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones + from hence.'--GENESIS l. 25. + +This is the one act of Joseph's life which the author of the Epistle +to the Hebrews selects as the sign that he too lived by faith. 'By +faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the +children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.' + +It was at once a proof of how entirely he believed God's promise, +and of how earnestly he longed for its fulfilment. It was a sign too +of how little he felt himself at home in Egypt, though to outward +appearance he had become completely one of its people. The ancestral +spirit was in him true and strong though he was 'separate from his +brethren.' He bore an Egyptian name, a swelling title, he married an +Egyptian woman, he had an Egyptian priest for father-in-law, but he +was an Israelite in heart; and in the midst of official cares and a +surfeit of honours, his desires turned away from them all towards +the land promised by God to his fathers. + +And when he lay dying, he could not bear to think that his bones +should moulder in the country where his life had been spent. 'I know +that this is not our land after all; swear to me that when the +promise that has tarried so long comes at last, you will take me, +all that is left of me, and carry it up, and lay it in some corner +of the blessed soil, that I too may somehow share in the inheritance +of His people. God shall surely visit you. Carry my bones up hence.' + +Perhaps there is in this wish a trace of something besides faith in +God's promises. Of course, there is a natural sentiment which no +clearness of knowledge of a future state wholly dispels. We all feel +as if somehow our bodies remain a part of ourselves even after +death, and we have wishes where they shall lie. But perhaps Joseph +had a more definite belief on the matter than that. What theory of +another life does an Egyptian mummy express? Why all that sedulous +care to preserve the poor relics? Was it not a consequence of the +belief that somehow or other there could be no life without a body, +and that in some mysterious way the preservation of that contributed +to the continuance of this? And so Joseph, who was himself going to +be embalmed and put into a mummy-case, may have caught something of +the tone of thought prevalent around him, and have believed that to +carry his bones to the land of promise was, in some obscure manner, +to carry _him_ thither. Be that as it may, whether the wish +came from a mistake about the relation of flesh and spirit, or only +from the natural desire which we too possess, that our graves may +not be among strangers, but beside our father's and our mother's--that +is not the main thing in this fact. The main thing is that this +dying man believed God's promise, and claimed his share in it. + +And on this the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, whoever he +was, fastens. Neglecting the differences in knowledge between Joseph +and the Christians whom he addresses, and pointing back to the +strong confidence in God and longing for participation in the +promises which brightened the glazing eye and gave _him_ 'hope +in his death,' he declares that the principle of action which guided +this man in the dim twilight of early revelation, is that same faith +which ought to guide us who live in the full light of the unsetting +sun. + +Taking, then, this incident, with the New Testament commentary upon +it, it leads us to a truth which we often lose sight of, but which +is indispensable if we would understand the relations of the earlier +and later days. + +1. _Faith is always the same, though knowledge varies._--There +is a vast difference between a man's creed and a man's faith. The +one may vary, does vary within very wide limits; the other remains +the same. The things believed have been growing from the beginning--the +attitude of mind and will by which they have been grasped has +been the same from the beginning, and will be the same to the end. +And not only so, but it will be substantially the same in heaven as +it is on earth. For there is but one bond which unites men to God; +and that emotion of loving trust is one and the same in the dim +twilight of the world's morning, and amid the blaze of the noonday +of heaven. The contents of faith, that on which it relies, the +treasure it grasps, changes; the essence of faith, the act of +reliance, the grasp which holds the treasure, does not change. + +It is difficult to decide how much Joseph's gospel contained. From +our point of view it was very imperfect. The spiritual life was +nourished in him and in the rest of 'the world's grey fathers' on +what looks to us but like seven basketsful of fragments. They had +promises, indeed, in which we, looking at them with the light of +fulfilment blazing upon them, can see the broad outlines of the +latest revelation, and can trace the future flower all folded +together and pale in the swelling bud. But we shall err greatly if +we suppose, as we are apt to do, that those promises were to them +anything like what they are to us. It requires a very vigorous +exercise of very rare gifts to throw ourselves back to their +position, and to gain any vivid and approximately accurate notion of +the theology of these ancient lovers of God. + +This, at any rate, we may, perhaps, say: they had a sure and clear +knowledge of the living God, who had talked with them as with a +friend; they knew His inspiring, guiding presence; they knew the +forgiveness of sins; they knew, though they very dimly understood, +the promise, 'In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be +blessed.' How far they looked across the gulf of death and beheld +anything--even cloudland--on the other side, is a question very hard +to answer, and about which confident dogmatism, either affirmative +or negative, is unwarranted. But it is to be remembered that, +whether they had any notion of a future state or no, they had a +promise which fulfilled for them substantially the same office as +that does for us. The promise of the land of Canaan gleaming before +them through the mists, bare and 'earthly' as it seems to us when +compared with our hope of an inheritance incorruptible in the +heavens, is, by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, identified +with that hope of ours, for he expressly says that, whilst they were +looking for an earthly Canaan, they were 'desiring a better country, +that is an heavenly.' So that, whether they definitely expected a +life after death or not, the anticipation of the land promised to +them and to their fathers held the same place in their creed, and as +a moral agent in their lives, which the rest that remains for the +people of God ought to do in ours. + +And it is to be taken into account also that fellowship with God has +in it the germ of the assurance of immortality. It seems almost +impossible to suppose a state of mind in which a man living in +actual communion with God shall believe that death is to end it all. +Christ's proof that immortal life was revealed in the Pentateuch, +was the fact that God there called Himself the God of Abraham and of +Isaac and of Jacob; by which our Lord meant us to learn that men who +are brought into personal relations with God can never die, that it +is impossible that a soul which has looked up to the face of the +unseen Father with filial love should be left in the grave, or that +those who are separated to be His, as He is theirs, should see +corruption. The relation once established is eternal, and some more +or less definite expectation of that eternity seems inseparable from +the consciousness of the relation. + +But be that as it may, and even taking the widest possible view of +the contents of the patriarchal creed, what a rude outline it looks +beside ours! Can there be anything in common between us? Can they be +in any way a pattern for us? Yes; as I said, faith is one thing, +creed is another. Joseph and his ancestors were joined to God by the +very same bond which unites us to Him. There has never been but one +path of life: 'They _trusted_ God and were lightened, and their +faces were not ashamed.' In that Old Covenant the one thing needful +was trust in the living Jehovah. In the New, the one thing needful +is the very same emotion, directed to the very same Lord, manifested +now and incarnate in the divine Son, our Saviour. In this exercise +of loving confidence, in which reason and will and affection blend +in the highest energy and holiest action, Joseph and we are one. +Across the gulf of centuries we clasp hands; and in despite of all +superficial differences of culture and civilisation, and all deeper +differences in knowledge of God and His loving will, Pharaoh's prime +minister, and the English workman, and the Hindoo ryot, may be alike +in what is deepest--the faith which grasps God. How all that +mysterious Egyptian life fades away as we think of the fundamental +identity of religious emotion then and now! It disguises our brother +from us, as it did from the wandering Arabs who came to buy corn, +and could not recognise in the swarthy, imperious Egyptian, with +strange head-dress and unknown emblems hanging by chains of gold +about his neck, the fair boy whom they had sold to the merchants. +But beneath it all is the brother's heart, fed by the same life- +blood which feeds ours. He trusts in God, he expects a future +because God has promised it, and, therefore, he is separated from +those among whom he dwells, and knit to us in this far-off island of +the sea, who so many centuries after are partakers of like precious +faith. + +And incomplete as his creed was, Joseph may have been a better +Christian than some of us, and was so, if what he knew nourished his +spiritual life more than what we know nourishes ours, and if his +heart and will twined more tenaciously round the fragments of +revelation which he possessed, and drew from them more support and +strength than we do from the complete Gospel which we have. + +Brethren, what makes us Christians is not the theology we have in +our heads, but the faith and love we have in our hearts. We must, +indeed, have a clear statement of truth in orderly propositions--that +is, a system of dogmas--to have anything to trust to at all. +There can be no saving faith in an unseen Person, except through the +medium of thoughts concerning Him, which thoughts put into words are +a creed. The antithesis which is often eagerly urged upon us--not +doctrines, but Christ--is a very incomplete and misleading one. +'Christ' is a mere name, empty of all significance till it is filled +with definite statements of who and what Christ is. But whilst I, +for my part, believe that we must have doctrines to make Christ a +reality and an object of faith to grasp at all, I would urge all the +more earnestly, because I thus believe, that, when we have these +doctrines, it is not the creed that saves, but the faith. We are +united to Christ, not by the doctrine of His nature and work, +needful as that is, but by trusting in Him as that which the +doctrine declares Him to be--Redeemer, Friend, Sacrifice, Divine +Lover of our souls. Let us always remember that it is not the amount +of religious knowledge which I have got, but the amount which I use, +that determines my religious position and character. Most of us have +in our creeds principles that have no influence upon our moral and +active life; and, if so, it matters not one whit how pure, how +accurate, how comprehensive, how consistent, how scriptural my +conceptions of the Gospel may be. If they are not powers in my soul, +they only increase my responsibility and my liability to +condemnation. The dry light of the understanding is of no use to +anybody. You must turn your creed into a faith before it has power +to bless and save. + +There are hosts of so-called Christians who get no more good out of +the most solemn articles of their orthodox belief than if they were +heathens. What in the use of your saying that you believe in God the +Father Almighty, when there is no child's love and happy confidence +in your heart? What the better are you for believing in Jesus +Christ, His divine nature, His death and glory, when you have no +reliance on Him, nor any least flutter of trembling love towards +Him? Is your belief in the Holy Ghost of the smallest consequence, +if you do not yield to His hallowing power? What does it matter that +you believe in the forgiveness of sins, so long as you do not care a +rush whether yours are pardoned or no? And is it anything to you or +to God that you believe in the life everlasting, if all your work, +and hopes, and longings are confined to 'this bank and shoal of +time'? Are you any more a Christian because of all that intellectual +assent to these solemn verities? Is not your life like some +secularised monastic chamber, with holy texts carved on the walls, +and saintly images looking down from glowing windows on revellers +and hucksters who defile its floor? Your faith, not your creed, +determines your religion. Many a 'true believer' is a real +'infidel.' + +Thank God that the soul may be wedded to Christ, even while a very +partial conception of Christ is in the understanding. The more +complete and adequate the creed, indeed, the mightier and more +fruitful in blessing will the faith naturally be; and every portion +of the full orb of the Sun of Righteousness which is eclipsed by the +shadow of our intellectual misconceptions, will diminish the light +and warmth which falls upon our souls. It is no part of our duty to +pronounce what is the minimum of a creed which faith needs for its +object. For myself, I confess that I do not understand how the +spiritual life can be sustained in its freshness and fervour, in its +fulness and reality, without a belief in the divinity and saving +work of Jesus Christ. But with that belief for the centre which +faith grasps, the rest may vary indefinitely. All who stand around +that centre, some nearer, some further off, some mazed in errors +which others have cast behind them, some of them seeing and +understanding more, and some less of Him and of His work--are His. +He loves them, and will save them all. Knowledge varies. The faith +which unites to God remains the same. + +2. We may gather from this incident another consideration, namely, +that _Faith has its noblest office in detaching from the +present_. + +All his life long, from the day of his captivity, Joseph was an +Egyptian in outward seeming. He filled his place at Pharaoh's court, +but his dying words open a window into his soul, and betray how +little he had felt that he belonged to the order of things in the +midst of which he had been content to live. This man, too, +surrounded by an ancient civilisation, and dwelling among granite +temples and solid pyramids and firm-based sphinxes, the very emblems +of eternity, confessed that here he had no continuing city, but +sought one to come. As truly as his ancestors who dwelt in +tabernacles, like Abraham journeying with his camels and herds, and +pitching his tent outside the walls of Hebron, like Isaac in the +grassy plains of the South country, like Jacob keeping himself apart +from the families of the land, their descendant, an heir with them +of the same promise, showed that he too regarded himself as a +'stranger and a sojourner.' Dying, he said, 'Carry my bones up from +hence. Therefore we may be sure that, living, the hope of the +inheritance must have burned in his heart as a hidden light, and +made him an alien everywhere but on its blessed soil. + +And faith will always produce just such effects. In exact proportion +to its strength, that living trust in God will direct our thoughts +and desires to the 'King in His beauty, and the land that is very +far off.' In proportion as our thoughts and desires are thus +directed, they will be averted from what is round about us; and the +more longingly our eyes are fixed on the furthest horizon, the less +shall we see the flowers at our feet. To behold God pales the +otherwise dazzling lustre of created brightness. They whose souls +are fed with heavenly manna, and who have learned that it is their +necessary food, will scent no dainties in the fleshpots of Egypt, +for all their rank garlic and leeks. It is simply a question as to +which of two classes of ideas occupies the thoughts, and which of +two sets of affections engages the heart. If vulgar brawling and +rude merrymakers fill the inn, there will be no room for the pilgrim +thoughts which bear the Christ in their bosom, and have angels for +their guard; and if these holy wayfarers enter, their serene +presence will drive forth the noisy crowd, and turn the place into a +temple. Nothing but Christian faith gives to the furthest future the +solidity and definiteness which it must have, if it is to be a +breakwater for us against the fluctuating sea of present cares and +thoughts. + +If the unseen is ever to rule in men's lives, it must be through +their thoughts. It must become intelligible, clear, real. It must be +brought out of the flickering moonlight of fancy and surmises, into +the sunlight of certitude and knowledge. Dreams, and hopes, and +peradventures are too unsubstantial stuff to be a bulwark against +the very real, undeniable present. And such certitude is given +through faith which grasps the promises of God, and twines the soul +round the risen Saviour so closely that it sits with Him in heavenly +places. Such certitude is given by faith alone. + +If the unseen is ever to rule in men's lives, it must become not +only an object for certain knowledge, but also for ardent wishes. +The vague sense of possible evils lurking in its mysteries must be +taken out of the soul, and there must come somehow an assurance that +all it wraps in its folds is joy and peace. It must cease to be +doubtful, and must seem infinitely desirable. Does anything but +Christian faith engage the heart to love, and all the longing wishes +to set towards, the things that are unseen and eternal? Where +besides, then, can there be found a counterpoise weighty enough to +heave up the souls that are laden with the material, and cleaving to +the dust? Nowhere. The only possible deliverance from the tyrannous +pressure of the trifles amidst which we live is in having the +thoughts familiarised with Christ in heaven, which will dwarf all +that is on earth, and in having the affections fixed on Him, which +will emancipate them from the pains and sorrows that ever wait upon +love of the mutable and finite creatures. + +Let us remember that such deliverance from the present is the +condition of all noble, joyous, pure life. It needs Christianity to +effect it indeed, but it does not need Christianity to see how +desirable it is, and how closely connected with whatever is lovely +and of good report is this detachment from the near and the visible. +A man that is living for remote objects is, in so far, a better man +than one who is living for the present. He will become thereby the +subject of a mental and moral discipline that will do him good. And, +on the other hand, a life which has no far-off light for its guiding +star, has none of the unity, of the self-restraint, of the tension, +of the conscious power which makes our days noble and strong. +Whether he accomplish them or fail, whether they be high or low, the +man who lets future objects rule present action is in advance of +others. 'To scorn delights and live laborious days,' which is the +prerogative of the man with a future, is always best. He is rather a +beast than a man, who floats lazily on the warm, sunny wavelets as +they lift him in their roll, and does not raise his head high enough +above them to see and steer for the solid shore where they break. +But only he has found the full, controlling, blessing, quickening +power that lies in the thought of the future, and in life directed +by it, to whom that future is all summed in the name of his Saviour. +Whatever makes a man live in the past and in the future raises him; +but high above all others stand those to whom the past is an +apocalypse of God, with Calvary for its centre, and all the future +is fellowship with Christ, and joy in the heavens. Having these +hopes, it will be our own faults if we are not pure and gentle, calm +in changes and sorrows, armed against frowning dangers, and proof +against smiling temptations. They are our armour--'Put on the +breastplate of faith ... and for an helmet the hope of salvation.' + +A very sharp test for us all lies in these thoughts. This change of +the centre of interest from earth to heaven is the uniform effect of +faith. What, then, of us? On Sundays we profess to seek for a city; +but what about the week, from Monday morning to Saturday night? What +difference does our faith make in the current of our lives? How far +are they unlike--I do not mean externally and in occupations, but in +principle--the lives of men who 'have no hope'? Are you living for +other objects than theirs? Are you nurturing other hopes in your +hearts, as a man may guard a little spark of fire with both his +hands, to light him amid the darkness and the howling storm? Do you +care to detach yourself from the world? or are you really 'men of +this world, which have their portion in this life,' even while +Christians by profession? A question which I have no right to ask, +and no power to answer but for myself; a question which it concerns +your souls to ask and to answer very definitely for yourselves. +There is no need to preach an exaggerated and impossible abstinence +from work and enjoyment in the world where God has put us, or to set +up a standard 'too high for mortal life beneath the sky.' Whatever +call there may have sometimes been to protest against a false +asceticism, and withdrawing from active life for the sake of one's +personal salvation, times are changed now. What we want to-day is: +'Come ye out and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing.' +In my conscience I believe that multitudes are having the very heart +of the Christian life eaten out by absorption in earthly pursuits +and loves, and by the effacing of all distinction in outward life, +in occupation, in recreation, in tastes and habits, between people +who call themselves Christians, and people who do not care at all +whether there is another world or not. There can be but little +strength in our faith if it does not compel us to separation. If it +has any power to do anything at all, it will certainly do that. If +we are naturalised as citizens there, we cannot help being aliens +here. 'Abraham,' says the New Testament, 'dwelt in tabernacles, +_for_ he looked for a city.' Just so! The tent life will always +be the natural one for those who feel that their mother-country is +beyond the stars. We should be like the wandering Swiss, who hear in +a strange land the rude, old melody that used to echo among the +Alpine pastures. The sweet, sad tones kindle home-sickness that will +not let them rest. No matter where they are, or what they are doing, +no matter what honour they have carved out for themselves with their +swords, they throw off the livery of the alien king which they have +worn, and turning their backs upon pomp and courts, seek the free +air of the mountains, and find home better than a place by a foreign +throne. Let us esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the +treasures of Egypt, and go forth to Him without the camp, for here +have we no continuing city. + +3. Again, we have here an instance that _Faith makes men energetic +in the duties of the present_. + +The remarks which I have been making must be completed by that +consideration, or they become hurtful and one-sided. You know that +common sarcasm, that Christianity degrades this present life by +making it merely the portal to a better, and teaches men to think of +it as only evil, to be scrambled through anyhow. I confess that I +wish the sneer were a less striking contrast to what Christian +people really think. But it is almost as gross a caricature of the +teaching of Christianity as it is of the practice of Christians. + +Take this story of Joseph as giving us a truer view of the effect on +present action of faith in, and longing for, God's future. He was, +as I said, a true Hebrew all his days. But that did not make him run +away from Pharaoh's service. He lived by hope, and that made him the +better worker in the passing moment, and kept him tugging away all +his life at the oar, administering the affairs of a kingdom. + +Of course it is so. The one thing which saves this life from being +contemptible is the thought of another. The more profoundly we feel +the reality of the great eternity whither we are being drawn, the +greater do all things here become. They are made less in their power +to absorb or trouble, but they are made infinitely greater in +importance as preparations for what is beyond. When they are first +they are small, when they are second they are great. When the mist +lifts, and shows the snowy summits of the 'mountains of God,' the +nearer lower ranges, which we thought the highest, dwindle indeed, +but gain in sublimity and meaning by the loftier peaks to which they +lead up. Unless men and women live for eternity, they _are_ +'merely players,' and all their busy days 'like a tale told by an +idiot, full of sound and fury, _signifying nothing_.' How +absurd, how monotonous, how trivial it all is, all this fret and +fume, all these dying joys and only less fleeting pains, all this +mill-horse round of work which we pace, unless we are, mill-horse- +like, driving a shaft that goes _through the wall_, and grinds +something that falls into 'bags that wax not old' on the other side. +The true Christian faith teaches us that this world is the workshop +where God makes men, and the next, the palace where He shows them. +All here is apprenticeship and training. It is of no more value than +the attitudes into which gymnasts throw themselves, but as a +discipline most precious. The end makes the means important; and if +we believe that God is preparing us for immortal life with Him by +all our work, then we shall do it with a will: otherwise we may well +be languid as we go on for thirty or forty years, some of us, doing +the same trivial things, and getting nothing out of them but food, +occupation of time, and a mechanical aptitude for doing what is not +worth doing. + +It is the horizon that gives dignity to the foreground. A picture +without sky has no glory. This present, unless we see gleaming +beyond it the eternal calm of the heavens, above the tossing tree- +tops with withering leaves, and the smoky chimneys, is a poor thing +for our eyes to gaze at, or our hearts to love, or our hands to toil +on. But when we see that all paths lead to heaven, and that our +eternity is affected by our acts in time, then it is blessed to +gaze, it is possible to love, the earthly shadows of the uncreated +beauty, it is worth while to work. + +Remember, too, that faith will energise us for any sort of work, +seeing that it raises all to one level and brings all under one +sanction, and shows all as cooperating to one end. Look at that +muster-roll of heroes of faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and +mark the variety of grades of human life represented there--statesmen, +soldiers, prophets, shepherds, widow women, martyrs--all fitted for +their tasks and delivered from the snare that was in their calling, +by that faith which raised them above the world, and therefore +fitted them to come down on the world with stronger strokes of duty. +This is the secret of doing with our might whatsoever our hand finds +to do-to trust Christ, to live _with_ Him, and _by_ the hope of the +inheritance. + +Then, brethren, let us see that our clearer revelation bears fruit +in a faith in the great divine promises as calm and firm as this +dying patriarch had. Then the same power will work not only the same +detachment and energy in life, but the same calmness and solemn +light of hope in death. It is very beautiful to notice how Joseph +dying almost overleaps the thought of death as a very small matter. +His brethren who stood by his bedside might well fear what might be +the consequences to their people when the powerful protector, the +prime minister of the kingdom, was gone. But the dying man has firm +hold of God's promises, and he knows that these will be fulfilled, +whether he live or no. 'I die,' says he, 'but God shall surely visit +you. _He_ is not going to die; and though I stand no more +before Pharaoh, you will be safe.' + +Thus we may contemplate our own going away, or the departure of the +dearest from our homes, and of the most powerful for good in human +affairs, and in the faith of God's true promises may feel that no +one is indispensable to our well-being or to the world's good. God's +chariot is self-moving. One after another, who lays his hand upon +the ropes, and hauls for a little space, drops out of the ranks. But +it will go on, and in His majesty He will ride prosperously. + +And for himself, too, the dying man felt that death was a very small +matter. 'Whether I live or die I shall have a share in the promise. +Living, perhaps my feet would stand upon its soil; dying, my bones +will rest there.' And we, who know a resurrection, have in it that +which makes Joseph's fond fancy a reality, and reduces the +importance of that last enemy to nothing. Some will be alive and +remain till the coming of the Lord, some will be laid in the grave +till His voice calls them forth, and carries their bones up from +hence to the land of the inheritance. But whether we be of +generations that fell on sleep looking for the promise of His +coming, or whether of the generation that go forth to meet Him when +He comes, it matters not. All who have lived by faith will then be +gathered at last. The brightest hopes of the present will be +forgotten. Then, when we too shall stand in the latter day, wearing +the likeness of His glory, and extricated wholly from the bondage of +corruption and the dust of death, we, perfected in body, soul, and +spirit, shall enter the calm home, where we shall change the +solitude of the desert and the transitoriness of the tent and the +dangers of the journey, for the society and the stability and the +security of the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker +is God. + + + + +A COFFIN IN EGYPT + + + 'They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.' + --GENESIS l. 26. + +So closes the book of Genesis. All its recorded dealings of God with +Israel, and all the promises and the glories of the patriarchal +line, end with 'a coffin in Egypt'. Such an ending is the more +striking, when we remember that a space of three hundred years +intervenes between the last events in Genesis and the first in +Exodus, or almost as long a time as parts the Old Testament from the +New. And, during all that period, Israel was left with a mummy and a +hope. The elaborately embalmed body of Joseph lay in its gilded and +pictured case, somewhere in Goshen, and was, no doubt, in the care +of the Israelites, as is plain from the fact that they carried it +with them at the exodus. For three centuries, that silent 'coffin in +Egypt' preached its impressive messages. What did it say? It spoke, +no doubt, to ears often deaf, but still some faint whispers of its +speechless testimony would sound in some hearts, and help to keep +vivid some hopes. + +First, it was a silent reminder of mortality. Egyptian consciousness +was much occupied with death. The land was peopled with tombs. But +the corpse of Joseph was perhaps not laid in one of these, but +remained housed somewhere in sight, as it were, of all Israel. Many +a passer-by would pause for a moment, and think; Here is the end of +dignity second only to Pharaoh's, to this has come that strong +brain, that true heart, Israel's pride and protection is shut up in +that wooden case. + + 'The glories of our birth and state + Are shadows, not substantial things; + There is no armour against fate, + Death lays his icy hand on kings.' + +Yes, but let us remember that while that silent sarcophagus enforced +the old, old lesson to the successive generations that looked on it +and little heeded its stern, sad teaching of mortality, it had other +brighter truths to tell. For the shrivelled, colourless lips that +lay in it, covered with many a fold of linen, had left as their last +utterance, 'I die, but God will surely visit you,' No man is +necessary. Israel can survive the loss of the strongest and wisest. +God lives, though a hundred Josephs die. It is pure gain to lose +human helpers, if thereby we become more fully conscious of our need +of a divine arm and heart, and more truly feel that we have these +for our all-sufficient stay. Blessed is the fleeting of all that can +pass, if its withdrawal lets the calm light of the Eternal, which +cannot pass, stream in uninterrupted on us! When the leaves fall, we +see more clearly the rock which their short-lived greenness in its +pride veiled. When the many-hued and ever-shifting clouds are swept +out of the sky by the wind, the sun that lent them all their colour +shines the more brightly. The message of every death-bed and grave +is meant to be, 'This and that man dies, but God lives.' The last +result of our contemplation of mortality, as affecting our dearest +and most needful ones, and as sure to include ourselves in its far- +reaching, close-woven net, ought to be to drive us to God's breast, +that there we may find a Friend who does not pass, and may dwell in +'the land of the living,' on whose soil the foot of all-conquering +Death dare never tread. + +Nor are these thoughts all the message of that 'coffin in Egypt.' In +the first verses of the next book, that of Exodus, there is a +remarkable juxtaposition of ideas, when we read that 'Joseph died +and all his brethren and all that generation.' But was that the end +of Israel? By no means, for the narrative goes on immediately to +say--linking the two things together by a simple 'and'--that 'the +children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and +multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty.' + +So life springs side by side with death. There are cradles as well +as graves. + + 'The individual withers, + And the race is more and more.' + +Leaves drop and new leaves come. The April days are not darkened, +and the tender green of the fresh leaf-buds is all the more vigorous +and luxuriant, because it is fed from the decaying leaves that +litter the roots of the long-lived oak. Thus through the ages the +pathetic alternation goes on. Penelope's web is ever being woven and +run down and woven again. Joseph dies; Israel grows. Let us not take +half-views, nor either fix our thoughts on the universal law of +dissolution and decay, nor on the other side of the process--the +universal emergence of life from death, reconstruction from +dissolution. In our individual histories and on the wider field of +the world's history, the same large law is at work, which is +expressed in the simplest terms by these old words, 'Joseph died, +and all his brethren and all that generation'--and 'the children of +Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly.' So the wholesome +lesson of mortality is stripped of much of its sadness, and retains +all its pathos, solemnity, and power to purify the heart. + +Again, that 'coffin in Egypt' was a herald of Hope. The reason for +Joseph's dying injunction that his body should be preserved after +the Egyptian fashion, and laid where it could be lifted and carried +away, when the long-expected deliverance was effected, was the dying +patriarch's firm confidence that, though he died, he had still +somehow a share in God's faithful promise. We do not know the +precise shape which his thought of that share took. It may have been +merely the natural sentiment which desires that the unconscious +frame shall moulder quietly beside the mouldering forms which once +held our dear ones. This naturalised Egyptian did his work manfully +in the land of his adoption, and flung himself eagerly into its +interests, but his heart turned to the cave at Machpelah, and, +though he lived in Egypt, he could not bear to think of lying there +for ever when dead, especially of being left there alone. There may +have been some trace in his wish of the peculiar Egyptian belief +that the preservation of the body contributed in some way to the +continuance of personal life, and that a certain shadowy self +hovered about the spot where the mummy was laid. Our knowledge of +the large place filled by a doctrine of a future life in Egyptian +thought makes it most probable that Joseph had at least some +forecast of that hope of immortality, which seems to us to be +inseparable from the consciousness of present communion with God. + +But, in any case, Israel had charge of that coffin because the dead +man that lay in it had, on the very edge of the gulf of death, +believed that he had still a portion in Israel's hope, and that, +when he had taken the plunge into the great darkness, he had not +sunk below the reach of God's power to give him personal fulfilment +of His yet unfulfilled promise. His dying command was the expression +of his unshaken faith that, though he was dead, God would visit him +with His salvation, and give him to see the prosperity of His +chosen, that he might rejoice in the gladness of the nation, and +glory with His inheritance. He had lived, trusting in God's bare +promise, and, as he lived, he died. The Epistle to the Hebrews lays +hold of the true motive power in the incident, when it points to +Joseph's dying 'commandment concerning his bones' as a noble +instance of Faith. + +Thus, through slow creeping centuries, this silent preacher said--'Hope +on, though the vision tarry, wait for it, for it will surely +come. God is faithful, and will perform His word.' There was much to +make hope faint. To bring Israel out of Canaan seemed a strange way +of investing it with the possession of Canaan. As the tardy years +trickled away, drop by drop, and the promise seemed no nearer +fulfilment, some film of doubt must have crept over Hope's bright +eyes. When new dynasties reigned, and Israel slowly sank into the +state of bondage, it must have been still harder to believe that the +shortest road to the inheritance was round by Goshen. But through +all the darkening course of Israel in these sad centuries, there +stood the 'coffin,' the token of a triumphant faith which had leapt, +as a trifle, over the barrier of death, and grasped as real the good +which lay beyond that frowning wall. We have a better Herald of hope +than a mummy-case and a pyramid built round it. We have an empty +grave and an occupied Throne, by which to nourish our confidence in +Immortality and our estimate of the insignificance of death. Our +Joseph does not say--'I die, but God will surely visit you,' but He +gives us the wonderful assurance of identification with Himself, and +consequent participation in His glory--'Because I live, ye shall +live also.' Therefore our hope should be as much brighter and more +confirmed than this ancient one was as that on which it is based is +better and more joyous. But, alas, there is no invariable proportion +between food supplied and strength derived. An orchid can fling out +gorgeous blooms, though it grows on a piece of dry wood, but plants +set in rich soil often show poor flowers. Our hope will be worthy of +its foundation, only on condition of our habitually reflecting on +the firmness of that foundation, and cultivating familiarity with +the things hoped for. + +There are many ways in which the apostle's great saying that 'we are +saved by hope' approves itself as true. Whatever leads us to grasp +the future rather than the present, even if it is but an earthly +future, and to live by hope rather than by fruition, even if it is +but a short-reaching hope, lifts us in the scale of being, ennobles, +dignifies, and in some respects purifies us. Even men whose +expectations have not wing-power enough to cross the dreadful ravine +of Death, are elevated in the degree in which they work towards a +distant goal. Short-sighted hopes are better than blind absorption +in the present. Whatever puts the centre of gravity of our lives in +the future is a gain, and most of all is that hope blessed, which +bids us look forward to an eternal sitting with Jesus at the right +hand of God. + +If such hope has any solidity in it, it will certainly detach us +from the order of things in which we dwell. The world is always +tempting us to 'forget the imperial palace' whither we go. The +Israelites must have been swayed by many inducements to settle down +for good and all in the low levels of fertile Goshen, and to think +themselves better off there than if going out on a perilous +enterprise to win no richer pastures than they already possessed. In +fact, when the deliverance came, it was not particularly welcome, +oven though oppression was embittering the peoples' lives. But, when +hope had died down in them, and desire had become languid, and +ignoble contentment with their flocks and herds had dulled their +spirits, Joseph's silent coffin must have pealed in their ears--'This +is not your rest; arise and claim your inheritance.' In like +manner, the pressure of the apparently solid realities of to-day, +the growth of the 'scientific' temper of mind which confines +knowledge to physical facts, the drift of tendency among religious +people to regard Christianity mainly in its aspect of dealing with +social questions and bringing present good, powerfully reinforce our +natural sluggishness of Hope, and have brought it about that the +average Christian of this day has fewer of his thoughts directed to +the future life than his predecessors had, or than it is good for +him to have. + +Among the many truths which almost need to be rediscovered by their +professed believers, that of the rest that remains for the people of +God is one. For the test of believing a truth is its influence on +conduct, and no one can affirm that the conduct of the average +Christian of our times bears marks of being deeply influenced by +that Future, or by the hope of winning it. Does he live as if he +felt that he was an alien among the material things surrounding him? +Does it look as if his true affinities were beyond the grave and +above the stars? If we did thus feel, not at rare intervals, when +'in seasons of calm weather, our souls have sight of that immortal +sea,' which lies glassy before the throne, and on whose banks the +minstrels stand singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, but +habitually and with a vivid realisation, which makes the things +hoped for more solid than what we touch and handle, our lives would +be far other than they are. We should not work less, but more, +earnestly at our present duties, whatever these may be, for they +would be seen in new importance as bearing on our place in that +world of consequences. The more our goal and prize are seen gleaming +through the dust of the race-ground, the more strenuous our effort +here. Nothing ennobles the trifles of our lives in time like the +streaming in on these of the light of eternity. That vision ever +present with us will not sadden. The fact of mortality is grim +enough, if forced upon us unaccompanied by the other fact that Death +opens the gate of our Home. But when the else depressing thought +that 'here we have no continuing city' is but the obverse and result +of the fact that 'we seek one to come,' it is freed from its +sadness, and becomes powerful for good and even for joy. We need, +even more than Israel in its bondage did, to realise that we are +strangers and pilgrims. It concerns the depth of our religion and +the reality of our profiting by the discipline, as well as of our +securing the enjoyment of the blessings, of the fleeting and else +trivial present, that we shall keep very clear in view the great +future which dignifies and interprets this enigmatical earthly life. + +Further, that 'coffin in Egypt' was a preacher of patience. As we +have seen, three centuries at least, probably a somewhat longer +period, passed between the time when Joseph's corpse was laid in it, +and the night when it was lifted out of it by the departing +Israelites. No doubt, hope deferred had made many a heart sick, and +the weary question, 'Where is the promise of His coming?' had in +some cases changed into bitter disbelief that the promise would ever +be fulfilled. But, for all these years, the dumb monitor stood there +proclaiming, 'If the vision tarry, wait for it.' + +Surely we need the same lesson. It is hard for us to acquiesce in +the slow march of the divine purposes. Life is short, and desire +would fain see the great harvests reaped before death seals our +eyes. Sometimes the very prospect of the great things that shall one +day be accomplished in the world, and we not there to see, weighs +heavily on us. Reformers, philanthropists, idealists of all sorts +are constitutionally impatient, and in their generous haste to see +their ideals realised, forget that 'raw haste' is 'half-sister to +delay' and are indignant with man for his sluggishness and with God +for His majestic slowness. Not less do we fret and fume and think +the days drag with intolerable slowness, before some eagerly +expected good rises like a star on our individual lives. But there +is deep truth in Paul's apparent paradox, that 'if we hope for that +we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' The more sure the +confidence, the more quiet the patient waiting. It is uncertainty +which makes earthly hope short of breath, and impatient of delay. + +But since a Christian man's hope is consolidated into certainty, and +when it is set on God, cannot only say, I trust that it will be so +and so, but, I know that it shall, it may well be content to be +patient for the fulfilment, 'as the husbandman waiteth for the +precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it.' 'One +day is with the Lord as a thousand years' in respect of the +magnitude of the changes which may be wrought by the instantaneous +operation of His hand when the appointed hour shall strike, and +therefore it should not strain our patience nor stagger our faith +that 'a thousand years' should be 'as one day,' in respect of the +visible approximation achieved in them, towards the establishment of +His purpose. The world was prepared for man through countless +millenniums. Man was prepared for the advent of Christ through long +centuries. Nineteen hundred years have effected comparatively little +in incorporating the issues of Christ's work in the consciousness +and characters of mankind. Much of the slowness of that progress of +Christianity is due to the faithlessness and sloth of professing +Christians. But it still remains true that God lifts His foot +slowly, and plants it firmly, in His march through the world. So, +both in regard to the progress of truth, and the diffusion of the +highest, and of the secondary, blessings of Christianity through the +nations, and in respect to the reception of individual good gifts, +we shall do wisely to leave God to settle the 'when' since we are +sure that He has bound Himself to accomplish the fact. + +Finally, that 'coffin in Egypt' was a pledge of possession. It lay +long among the Israelites to uphold fainting faith, and at last was +carried up before their host, and reverently guarded during forty +years' wanderings, till it was deposited in the cave at Machpelah, +beside the tombs of the fathers of the nation. Thus it became to the +nation, and remains for us, a symbol of the truth that no hope based +upon God's bare word is ever finally disappointed. From all other +anticipations grounded on anything less solid, the element of +uncertainty is inseparable, and Fear is ever the sister of Hope. +With keen insight Spenser makes these two march side by side, in his +wonderful procession of the attendants of earthly Love. There is +always a lurking sadness in Hope's smiles, and a nameless dread in +her eyes. And all expectations busied with or based upon the +contingencies of this poor life, whether they are fulfilled or +disappointed, prove less sweet in fruition than in prospect, and +often turn to ashes in the eating, instead of the sweet bread which +we had thought them to be. One basis alone is sure, and that is the +foundation on which Joseph rested and risked everything--the plain +promise of God. He who builds on that rock will never be put to +shame, and when floods sweep away every refuge built on sand, he +will not need to 'make haste' to find, amid darkness and storm, some +less precarious shelter, but will look down serenely on the wildest +torrent, and know it to be impotent to wash away his fortress home. + +There is no nobler example of victorious faith which prolonged +confident expectation beyond the insignificant accident of death +than Joseph's dying 'commandment concerning his bones.' His +confidence, indeed, grasped a far lower blessing than ours should +reach out to clasp. It was evoked by less clear and full promises +and pledges than we have. The magnitude and loftiness of the +Christian hope of Immortality, and the certitude of the fact on +which it reposes, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, should result in +a corresponding increase in the firmness and clearness of our hope, +and in its power in our lives. The average Christian of to-day may +well be sent to school to Joseph on his death-bed. Is our faith as +strong as--I will not ask if it is stronger than--that of this man +who, in the morning twilight of revelation, and with a hope of an +eternal possession of an earthly inheritance, which, one might have +thought, would be shattered by death, was able to fling his anchor +clean across the gulf when he gave injunction, 'Carry my bones up +hence'? We have a better inheritance, and fuller, clearer promises +and facts on which to trust. Shame to us if we have a feebler faith. + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +EXODUS, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE BOOK OF EXODUS + +FOUR SHAPING CENTURIES (Exodus i. 1-14) + +DEATH AND GROWTH (Exodus i. 6, 7) + +THE ARK AMONG THE FLAGS (Exodus ii. 1-10) + +THE BUSH THAT BURNED, AND DID NOT BURN OUT (Exodus iii. 2) + +THE CALL OF MOSES (Exodus iii. 10-20) + +A LAST MERCIFUL WARNING (Exodus xi. 1-10) + +THE PASSOVER: AN EXPIATION AND A FEAST, A MEMORIAL AND A PROPHECY +(Exodus xii. 1-14) + +THOUGHT, DEED, WORD (Exodus xiii. 9) + +A PATH IN THE SEA (Exodus xiv. 19-31) + +'MY STRENGTH AND SONG' (Exodus xv. 2) + +THE SHEPHERD AND THE FOLD (Exodus xv. 13) + +THE ULTIMATE HOPE (Exodus xv. 17) + +MARAH (Exodus xv. 23-25) + +THE BREAD OF GOD (Exodus xvi. 4-12) + +JEHOVAH NISSI (Exodus xvii. 15) + +GERSHOM AND ELIEZER (Exodus xviii. 3, 4) + +THE IDEAL STATESMAN (Exodus xviii. 21) + +THE DECALOGUE:--I. MAN AND GOD (Exodus xx. 1-11) + +THE DECALOGUE:--II. MAN AND MAN (Exodus xx. 12-21) + +THE FEAST OF INGATHERING IN THE END OF THE YEAR (Exodus xxiii. 16) + +'THE LOVE OF THINE ESPOUSALS' (Exodus xxiv. 1-12) + +THE BREAD OF THE PRESENCE (Exodus xxv. 30) + +THE GOLDEN LAMPSTAND (Exodus xxv. 31) + +THE NAMES ON AARON'S BREASTPLATE (Exodus xxviii. 12,29) + +THREE INSCRIPTIONS WITH ONE MEANING (Exodus xxviii. 36; Zech. xiv. +20; Rev. xxii. 4) + +THE ALTAR OF INCENSE (Exodus xxx. 1) + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--I. (Exodus xxx. 12) + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--II. (Exodus xxx. 15) + +THE GOLDEN CALF (Exodus xxxii. 1-8, 30-35) + +THE SWIFT DECAY OF LOVE (Exodus xxxii. 15-26) + +THE MEDIATOR'S THREEFOLD PRAYER (Exodus xxxiii. 12-23) + +GOD PROCLAIMING HIS OWN NAME (Exodus xxxiv. 6) + +SIN AND FORGIVENESS (Exodus xxxiv. 7) + +BLESSED AND TRAGIC UNCONSCIOUSNESS (Exodus xxxiv. 29; Judges xvi. +20) + +AN OLD SUBSCRIPTION LIST (Exodus xxxv. 21) + +THE COPIES OF THINGS IN THE HEAVENS (Exodus xl. 1-16) + + + + +THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS + + +THE BURNT OFFERING A PICTURE AND A PROPHECY (Lev. i. 1-9) + +STRANGE FIRE (Lev. x. 1-11) + +THE FIRST STAGE IN THE LEPER'S CLEANSING (Lev. xiv 1-7) + +THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (Lev. xvi. 1-19) + +'THE SCAPEGOAT' (Lev. xvi. 22) + +THE CONSECRATION OF JOY (Lev. xxiii. 33-44) + +SOJOURNERS WITH GOD (Lev. xxv. 23) + +GOD'S SLAVES (Lev. xxv. 42) + +THE KINSMAN REDEEMER (Lev. xxv. 48) + +THE OLD STORE AND THE NEW (Lev. xxvi. 10) + +EMANCIPATED SLAVES (Lev. xxvi. 13) + + + + +THE BOOK OF NUMBERS + + +THE WARFARE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE (Num. iv. 23) + +THE GUIDING PILLAR (Num. ix. 16) + +HOBAB (Num. x. 29) + +THE HALLOWING OF WORK AND OF REST (Num. x. 35, 36) + +MOSES DESPONDENT (Num. xi. 14) + +AFRAID OF GIANTS (Num. xiii. 17-33) + +WEIGHED, AND FOUND WANTING (Num. xiv. 1-10) + +MOSES THE INTERCESSOR (Num. xiv. 19) + +SERVICE A GIFT (Num. xviii. 7) + +THE WATERS OF MERIBAH (Num. xx. 1-13) + +THE POISON AND THE ANTIDOTE (Num. xxi. 4-9) + +BALAAM (Num. xxii. 5) + +AN UNFULFILLED DESIRE (Num. xxiii. 10; xxxi. 8) + + + + +THE BOOK OF EXODUS + + + + +FOUR SHAPING CENTURIES + + + 'Now these are the names of the children of Israel, + which came into Egypt: every man and his household + came with Jacob. 2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, + 3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4. Dan and Naphtali, + Gad and Asher. 5. And all the souls that came out of + the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was + in Egypt already. 6. And Joseph died, and all his + brethren, and all that generation. 7, And the children + of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and + multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land + was filled with them. 8. Now there arose up a new king + over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9. And he said unto + his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel + are more and mightier than we: 10. Come on, let us deal + wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to + pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join + also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get + them up out of the land. 11. Therefore they did set over + them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And + they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and + Raamses. 12. But the more they afflicted them, the more + they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because + of the children of Israel. 13. And the Egyptians made + the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14. And + they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in + mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in + the field: all their service, wherein they made them + serve, was with rigour.'--EXODUS i. 1-14. + +The four hundred years of Israel's stay in Egypt were divided into +two unequal periods, in the former and longer of which they were +prosperous and favoured, while in the latter they were oppressed. +Both periods had their uses and place in the shaping of the nation +and its preparation for the Exodus. Both carry permanent lessons. + +I. The long days of unclouded prosperity. These extended over +centuries, the whole history of which is summed up in two words: +death and growth. The calm years glided on, and the shepherds in +Goshen had the happiness of having no annals. All that needed to be +recorded was that, one by one, the first generation died off, and +that the new generations 'were fruitful, and increased abundantly, +and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty.' The emphatic +repetitions recall the original promises in Genesis xii. 2, xvii. +4,5, xviii. 18. The preceding specification of the number of the +original settlers (repeated from Genesis xlvi. 27) brings into +impressive contrast the small beginnings and the rapid increase. We +may note that eloquent setting side by side of the two processes +which are ever going on simultaneously, death and birth. + +One by one men pass out of the warmth and light into the darkness, +and so gradually does the withdrawal proceed that we scarcely are +aware of its going on, but at last 'all that generation' has +vanished. The old trees are all cleared off the ground, and +everywhere their place is taken by the young saplings. The web is +ever being woven at one end, and run down at the other. 'The +individual withers, but the race is more and more.' How solemn that +continual play of opposing movements is, and how blind we are to its +solemnity! + +That long period of growth may be regarded in two lights. It +effected the conversion of a horde into a nation by numerical +increase, and so was a link in the chain of the divine working. The +great increase, of which the writer speaks so strongly, was, no +doubt, due to the favourable circumstances of the life in Goshen, +but was none the less regarded by him, and rightly so, as God's +doing. As the Psalmist sings, '_He_ increased His people +greatly.' 'Natural processes' are the implements of a supernatural +will. So Israel was being multiplied, and the end for which it was +peacefully growing into a multitude was hidden from all but God. But +there was another end, in reference to which the years of peaceful +prosperity may be regarded; namely, the schooling of the people to +patient trust in the long-delayed fulfilment of the promise. That +hope had burned bright in Joseph when he died, and he being dead yet +spake of it from his coffin to the successive generations. Delay is +fitted and intended to strengthen faith and make hope more eager. +But that part of the divine purpose, alas! was not effected as the +former was. In the moral region every circumstance has two opposite +results possible. Each condition has, as it were, two handles, and +we can take it by either, and generally take it by the wrong one. +Whatever is meant to better us may be so used by us as to worsen us. +And the history of Israel in Egypt and in the desert shows only too +plainly that ease weakened, if it did not kill, faith, and that +Goshen was so pleasant that it drove the hope and the wish for +Canaan out of mind. 'While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered +and slept.' Is not Israel in Egypt, slackening hold of the promise +because it tarried, a mirror in which the Church may see itself? and +do _we_ not know the enervating influence of Goshen, making us +reluctant to shoulder our packs and turn out for the pilgrimage? The +desert repels more strongly than Canaan attracts. + +II. The shorter period of oppression. Probably the rise of a 'new +king' means a revolution in which a native dynasty expelled foreign +monarchs. The Pharaoh of the oppression was, perhaps, the great +Rameses II., whose long reign of sixty-seven years gives ample room +for protracted and grinding oppression of Israel. The policy adopted +was characteristic of these early despotisms, in its utter disregard +of humanity and of everything but making the kingdom safe. It was +not intentionally cruel, it was merely indifferent to the suffering +it occasioned. 'Let us deal _wisely_ with them'--never mind +about justice, not to say kindness. Pharaoh's 'politics,' like those +of some other rulers who divorce them from morality, turned out to +be impolitic, and his 'wisdom' proved to be roundabout folly. He was +afraid that the Israelites, if they were allowed to grow, might find +out their strength and seek to emigrate; and so he set to work to +weaken them with hard bondage, not seeing that that was sure to make +them wish the very thing that he was blunderingly trying to prevent. +The only way to make men glad to remain in a community is to make +them at home there. The sense of injustice is the strongest +disintegrating force. If there is a 'dangerous class' the surest way +to make them more dangerous is to treat them harshly. It was a +blunder to make 'lives bitter,' for hearts also were embittered. So +the people were ripened for revolt, and Goshen became less +attractive. + +God used Pharaoh's foolish wisdom, as He had used natural laws, to +prepare for the Exodus. The long years of ease had multiplied the +nation. The period of oppression was to stir them up out of their +comfortable nest, and make them willing to risk the bold dash for +freedom. Is not that the explanation, too, of the similar times in +our lives? It needs that we should experience life's sorrows and +burdens, and find how hard the world's service is, and how quickly +our Goshens may become places of grievous toil, in order that the +weak hearts, which cling so tightly to earth, may be detached from +it, and taught to reach upwards to God. 'Blessed is the man ... in +whose heart are thy ways,' and happy is he who so profits by his +sorrows that they stir in him the pilgrim's spirit, and make him +yearn after Canaan, and not grudge to leave Goshen. Our ease and our +troubles, opposite though they seem and are, are meant to further +the same end,--to make us fit for the journey which leads to rest +and home. We often misuse them both, letting the one sink us in +earthly delights and oblivion of the great hope, and the other +embitter our spirits without impelling them to seek the things that +are above. Let us use the one for thankfulness, growth, and patient +hope, and the other for writing deep the conviction that this is not +our rest, and making firm the resolve that we will gird our loins +and, staff in hand, go forth on the pilgrim road, not shrinking from +the wilderness, because we see the mountains of Canaan across its +sandy flats. + + + + +DEATH AND GROWTH + + + 'And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that + generation. 7. And the children of Israel were fruitful, + and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed + exceeding mighty....'--EXODUS i. 6, 7. + +These remarkable words occur in a short section which makes the link +between the Books of Genesis and of Exodus. The writer recapitulates +the list of the immigrants into Egypt, in the household of Jacob, +and then, as it were, having got them there, he clears the stage to +prepare for a new set of actors. These few words are all that he +cares to tell us about a period somewhat longer than that which +separates us from the great Protestant Reformation. He notes but two +processes--silent dropping away and silent growth. 'Joseph died, and +all his brethren, and all that generation.' Plant by plant the +leaves drop, and the stem rots and its place is empty. Seed by seed +the tender green spikelets pierce the mould, and the field waves +luxuriant in the breeze and the sunshine. 'The children of Israel +were fruitful, and increased abundantly.' + +I. Now, then, let us look at this twofold process which is always at +work--silent dropping away and silent growth. + +It seems to me that the writer, probably unconsciously, being +profoundly impressed with certain features of that dropping away, +reproduces them most strikingly in the very structure of his +sentence: 'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that +generation.' The uniformity of the fate, and the separate times at +which it befell individuals, are strongly set forth in the clauses, +which sound like the threefold falls of earth on a coffin. They all +died, but not all at the same time. They went one by one, one by +one, till, at the end, they were all gone. The two things that +appeal to our imagination, and ought to appeal to our consciences +and wills, in reference to the succession of the generations of men, +are given very strikingly, I think, in the language of my text--namely, +the stealthy assaults of death upon the individuals, and its +final complete victory. + +If any of you were ever out at sea, and looked over a somewhat +stormy water, you will have noticed, I dare say, how strangely the +white crests of the breakers disappear, as if some force, acting +from beneath, had plucked them under, and over the spot where they +gleamed for a moment runs the blue sea. So the waves break over the +great ocean of time; I might say, like swimmers pulled under by +sharks, man after man, man after man, gets twitched down, till at +the end--'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and _all_ that +generation.' + +There is another process going on side by side with this. In the +vegetable world, spring and autumn are two different seasons: May +rejoices in green leaves and opening buds, and nests with their +young broods; but winter days are coming when the greenery drops and +the nests are empty, and the birds flown. But the singular and +impressive thing (which we should see if we were not so foolish and +blind) which the writer of our text lays his finger upon is that at +the same time the two opposite processes of death and renewal are +going on, so that if you look at the facts from the one side it +seems nothing but a charnel-house and a Golgotha that we live in, +while, seen from the other side, it is a scene of rejoicing, budding +young life, and growth. + +You get these two processes in the closest juxtaposition in ordinary +life. There is many a house where there is a coffin upstairs and a +cradle downstairs. The churchyard is often the children's +playground. The web is being run down at the one end and woven at +the other. Wherever we look-- + + 'Every moment dies a man, + Every moment one is born.' + +'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the +children of Israel ... multiplied ... exceedingly.' + +But there is another thought here than that of the +contemporaneousness of the two processes, and that is, as it is +written on John Wesley's monument in Westminster Abbey, 'God buries +the workmen and carries on the work.' The great Vizier who seemed to +be the only protection of Israel is lying in 'a coffin in Egypt.' +And all these truculent brothers of his that had tormented him, they +are gone, and the whole generation is swept away. What of that? They +were the depositories of God's purposes for a little while. Are +God's purposes dead because the instruments that in part wrought +them are gone? By no means. If I might use a very vulgar proverb, +'There are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it,' +especially if God casts the net. So when the one generation has +passed away there is the other to take up the work. Thus the text is +a fitting introduction to the continuance of the history of the +further unfolding of God's plan which occupies the Book of Exodus. + +II. Such being the twofold process suggested by this text, let us +next note the lessons which it enforces. + +In the first place, let us be quite sure that we give it its due +weight in our thoughts and lives. Let us be quite sure that we never +give an undue weight to the one half of the whole truth. There are +plenty of people who are far too much, constitutionally and (perhaps +by reason of a mistaken notion of religion) religiously, inclined to +the contemplation of the more melancholy side of these truths; and +there are a great many people who are far too exclusively disposed +to the contemplation of the other. But the bulk of us never trouble +our heads about either the one or the other, but go on, forgetting +altogether that swift, sudden, stealthy, skinny hand that, if I +might go back to my former metaphor, is put out to lay hold of the +swimmer and then pull him underneath the water, and which will clasp +us by the ankles one day and drag us down. Do you ever think about +it? If not, surely, surely you are leaving out of sight one of what +ought to be the formative elements in our lives. + +And then, on the other hand, when our hearts are faint, or when the +pressure of human mortality--our own, that of our dear ones, or that +of others--seems to weigh us down, or when it looks to us as if +God's work was failing for want of people to do it, let us remember +the other side--'And the children of Israel ... increased ... and +waxed exceeding mighty; ... and the land was filled with them.' So +we shall keep the middle path, which is the path of safety, and so +avoid the folly of extremes. + +But then, more particularly, let me say that this double +contemplation of the two processes under which we live ought to +stimulate us to service. It ought to say to us, 'Do you cast in your +lot with that work which is going to be carried on through the ages. +Do you see to it that your little task is in the same line of +direction as the great purpose which God is working out--the +increasing purpose which runs through the ages.' An individual life +is a mere little backwater, as it were, in the great ocean. But its +minuteness does not matter, if only the great tidal wave which rolls +away out there, in the depths and the distance amongst the +fathomless abysses, tells also on the tiny pool far inland and yet +connected with the sea by some narrow, long fiord. + +If my little life is part of that great ocean, then the ebb and flow +will alike act on it and make it wholesome. If my work is done in +and for God, I shall never have to look back and say, as we +certainly shall say one day, either here or yonder, unless our lives +be thus part of the divine plan, 'What a fool I was! Seventy years +of toiling and moiling and effort and sweat, and it has all come to +nothing; like a long algebraic sum that covers pages of intricate +calculations, and the _pluses_ and _minuses_ just balance each other; +and the net result is a great round nought.' So let us remember the +twofold process, and let it stir us to make sure that 'in our embers' +shall be 'something that doth live,' and that not 'Nature,' but +something better--God--'remembers what was so fugitive.' It is not +fugitive if it is a part of the mighty whole. + +But further, let this double contemplation make us very content with +doing insignificant and unfinished work. + +Joseph might have said, when he lay dying: 'Well! perhaps I made a +mistake after all. I should not have brought this people down here, +even if I have been led hither. I do not see that I have helped them +one step towards the possession of the land.' Do you remember the +old proverb about certain people who should not see half-finished +work? All our work in this world has to be only what the +physiologists call functional. God has a great scheme running on +through ages. Joseph gives it a helping hand for a time, and then +somebody else takes up the running, and carries the purpose forward +a little further. A great many hands are placed on the ropes that +draw the car of the Ruler of the world. And one after another they +get stiffened in death; but the car goes on. We should be contented +to do our little bit of the work. Never mind whether it is complete +and smooth and rounded or not. Never mind whether it can be isolated +from the rest and held up, and people can say, 'He did that entire +thing unaided.' That is not the way for most of us. A great many +threads go to make the piece of cloth, and a great many throws of +the shuttle to weave the web. A great many bits of glass make up the +mosaic pattern; and there is no reason for the red bit to pride +itself on its fiery glow, or the grey bit to boast of its silvery +coolness. They are all parts of the pattern, and as long as they +keep their right places they complete the artist's design. Thus, if +we think of how 'one soweth and another reapeth,' we may be content +to receive half-done works from our fathers, and to hand on +unfinished tasks to them that come after us. It is not a great trial +of a man's modesty, if he lives near Jesus Christ, to be content to +do but a very small bit of the Master's work. + +And the last thing that I would say is, let this double process +going on all round us lift our thoughts to Him who lives for ever. +Moses dies; Joshua catches the torch from his hand. And the reason +why he catches the torch from his hand is because God said, 'As I +was with Moses so I will be with thee.' Therefore we have to turn +away in our contemplations from the mortality that has swallowed up +so much wisdom and strength, eloquence and power, which the Church +or our own hearts seem so sorely to want: and, whilst we do, we have +to look up to Jesus Christ and say, 'He lives! He lives! No man is +indispensable for public work or for private affection and solace so +long at there is a living Christ for us to hold by.' + +Dear brethren, we need that conviction for ourselves often. When +life seems empty and hope dead, and nothing is able to fill the +vacuity or still the pain, we have to look to the vision of the Lord +sitting on the empty throne, high and lifted up, and yet very near +the aching and void heart. Christ lives, and that is enough. + +So the separated workers in all the generations, who did their +little bit of service, like the many generations of builders who +laboured through centuries upon the completion of some great +cathedral, will be united at the last; 'and he that soweth, and he +that reapeth, shall rejoice together' in the harvest which was +produced by neither the sower nor the reaper, but by Him who blessed +the toils of both. + +'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation'; but +Jesus lives, and therefore His people 'grow and multiply,' and His +servants' work is blessed; and at the end they shall be knit +together in the common joy of the great harvest, and of the day when +the headstone is brought forth with shoutings of 'Grace! grace unto +it.' + + + + +THE ARK AMONG THE FLAGS + + + 'And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to + wife a daughter of Levi. 2. And the woman conceived, and + bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly + child, she hid him three months. 3. And when she could + not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, + and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the + child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's + brink. 4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would + be done to him. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down + to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked + along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among + the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 6. And when + she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the + babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This + is one of the Hebrews' children. 7. Then said his sister + to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse + of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for + thee? 8. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the + maid went and called the child's mother. 9. And Pharaoh's + daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse + it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman + took the child, and nursed it. 10. And the child grew, + and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he + became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she + said, Because I drew him out of the water.'--EXODUS ii. 1-10. + +I. It is remarkable that all the persons in this narrative are +anonymous. We know that the names of 'the man of the house of Levi' +and his wife were Amram and Jochebed. Miriam was probably the +anxious sister who watched what became of the little coffer. The +daughter of Pharaoh has two names in Jewish tradition, one of which +corresponds to that which Brugsch has found to have been borne by +one of Rameses' very numerous daughters. One likes to think that the +name of the gentle-hearted woman has come down to us; but, whether +she was called 'Meri' or not, she and the others have no name here. +The reason can scarcely have been ignorance. But they are, as it +were, kept in shadow, because the historian saw, and wished us to +see, that a higher Hand was at work, and that over all the events +recorded in these verses there brooded the informing, guiding Spirit +of God Himself, the sole actor. + + 'Each only as God wills + Can work--God's puppets, best and worst, + Are we: there is no last nor first.' + +II. The mother's motive in braving the danger to herself involved in +keeping the child is remarkably put. 'When she saw that he was a +goodly child, she hid him.' It was not only a mother's love that +emboldened her, as it does all weak creatures, to shelter her +offspring at her own peril, but something in the look of the infant, +as it lay on her bosom, touched her with a dim hope. According to +the Septuagint translation, both parents shared in this. And so the +Epistle to the Hebrews unites them in that which is here attributed +to the mother only. Stephen, too, speaks of Moses as 'fair in God's +sight.' As if the prescient eyes of the parents were not blinded by +love, but rather cleared to see some token of divine benediction +resting on him. The writer of the _Hebrews_ lifts the deed out +of the category of instinctive maternal affection up to the higher +level of faith. So we may believe that the aspect of her child woke +some prophetic vision in the mother's soul, and that she and her +husband were of those who cherished the hopes naturally born from +the promise to Abraham, nurtured by Jacob's and Joseph's dying wish +to be buried in Canaan, and matured by the tyranny of Pharaoh. Their +faith, at all events, grasped the unseen God as their helper, and +made Jochebed bold to break the terrible law, as a hen will fly in +the face of a mastiff to shield her brood. Their faith perhaps also +grasped the future deliverance, and linked it in some way with their +child. We may learn how transfiguring and ennobling to the gentlest +and weakest is faith in God, especially when it is allied with +unselfish human love. These two are the strongest powers. If they +are at war, the struggle is terrible: if they are united, 'the +weakest is as David, and David as an angel of God.' Let us seek ever +to blend their united strength in our own lives. + +Will it be thought too fanciful if we suggest that we are taught +another lesson,--namely, that the faith which surrenders its earthly +treasures to God, in confidence of His care, is generally rewarded +and vindicated by receiving them back again, glorified and +sanctified by the altar on which they have been laid? Jochebed +clasped her recovered darling to her bosom with a deeper gladness, +and held him by a surer title, when Miriam brought him back as the +princess's charge, than ever before. We never feel the preciousness +of dear ones so much, nor are so calm in the joy of possession, as +when we have laid them in God's hands, and have learned how wise and +wonderful His care is. + +III. How much of the world's history that tiny coffer among the +reeds held! How different that history would have been if, as might +easily have happened, it had floated away, or if the feeble life +within it had wailed itself dead unheard! The solemn possibilities +folded and slumbering in an infant are always awful to a thoughtful +mind. But, except the manger at Bethlehem, did ever cradle hold the +seed of so much as did that papyrus chest? The set of opinion at +present minimises the importance of the individual, and exalts the +spirit of the period, as a factor in history. Standing beside +Miriam, we may learn a truer view, and see that great epochs require +great men, and that, without such for leaders, no solid advance in +the world's progress is achieved. Think of the strange cradle +floating on the Nile; then think of the strange grave among the +mountains of Moab, and of all between, and ponder the same lesson as +is taught in yet higher fashion by Bethlehem and Calvary, that God's +way of blessing the world is to fill men with His message, and let +others draw from them. Whether it be 'law,' or 'grace and truth,' a +man is needed through whom it may fructify to all. + +IV. The sweet picture of womanly compassion in Pharaoh's daughter is +full of suggestions. We have already noticed that her name is handed +down by one tradition as 'Merris,' and that 'Meri' has been found as +the appellation of a princess of the period. A rabbinical authority +calls her 'Bithiah,' that is, 'Daughter of Jehovah'; by which was, +no doubt, intended to imply that she became in some sense a +proselyte. This may have been only an inference from her protection +of Moses. There is a singular and very obscure passage in I +Chronicles iv. 17, 18, relating the genealogy of a certain Mered, +who seems to have had two wives, one 'the Jewess,' the other +'Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh.' We know no more about him or +her, but Keil thinks that Mered probably 'lived before the exodus'; +but it can scarcely be that the 'daughter of Pharaoh,' his wife, is +our princess, and that she actually became a 'daughter of Jehovah,' +and, like her adopted child, refused royal dignity and preferred +reproach. In any case, the legend of her name is a tender and +beautiful way of putting the belief that in her 'there was some good +thing towards the God of Israel.' + +But, passing from that, how the true woman's heart changes languid +curiosity into tenderness, and how compassion conquers pride of race +and station, as well as regard for her father's edict, as soon as +the infant's cry, which touches every good woman's feelings, falls +on her ear! 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.' All the +centuries are as nothing; the strange garb and the stranger mental +and spiritual dress fade, and we have here a mere woman, affected, +as every true sister of hers to-day would be, by the helpless +wailing. God has put that instinct there. Alas that it ever should +be choked by frivolity or pride, and frozen by indifference and +self-indulgence! Gentle souls spring up in unfavourable soil. +Rameses was a strange father for such a daughter. How came this dove +in the vulture's cage? Her sweet pity beside his cold craft and +cruelty is like the lamb couching by the lion. Note, too, that +gentlest pity makes the gentlest brave. She sees the child is a +Hebrew. Her quick wit understands why it has been exposed, and she +takes its part, and the part of the poor weeping parents, whom she +can fancy, against the savage law. No doubt, as Egyptologists tell +us, the princesses of the royal house had separate households and +abundant liberty of action. Still, it was bold to override the +strict commands of such a monarch. But it was not a self-willed +sense of power, but the beautiful daring of a compassionate woman, +to which God committed the execution of His purposes. + +And that is a force which has much like work trusted to it in modern +society too. Our great cities swarm with children exposed to a worse +fate than the baby among the flags. Legislation and official charity +have far too rough hands and too clumsy ways to lift the little life +out of the coffer, and to dry the tears. We must look to Christian +women to take a leaf out of 'Bithiah's' book. First, they should use +their eyes to see the facts, and not be so busy about their own +luxury and comfort that they pass the poor pitch-covered box +unnoticed. Then they should let the pitiful call touch their heart, +and not steel themselves in indifference or ease. Then they should +conquer prejudices of race, pride of station, fear of lowering +themselves, loathing, or contempt. And then they should yield to the +impulses of their compassion, and never mind what difficulties or +opponents may stand in the way of their saving the children. If +Christian women knew their obligations and their power, and lived up +to them as bravely as this Egyptian princess, there would be fewer +little ones flung out to be eaten by crocodiles, and many a poor +child, who is now abandoned from infancy to the Devil, would be +rescued to grow up a servant of God. She, there by the Nile waters, +in her gracious pity and prompt wisdom, is the type of what +Christian womanhood, and, indeed, the whole Christian community, +should be in relation to child life. + +V. The great lesson of this incident, as of so much before, is the +presence of God's wonderful providence, working out its designs by +all the play of human motives. In accordance with a law, often seen +in His dealings, it was needful that the deliverer should come from +the heart of the system from which he was to set his brethren free. +The same principle which sent Saul of Tarsus to be trained at the +feet of Gamaliel, and made Luther a monk in the Augustinian convent +at Erfurt, planted Moses in Pharaoh's palace and taught him the +wisdom of Egypt, against which he was to contend. It was a strange +irony of Providence that put him so close to the throne which he was +to shake. For his future work he needed to be lifted above his +people, and to be familiar with the Egyptian court as well as with +Egyptian learning. If he was to hate and to war against idolatry, +and to rescue an unwilling people from it, he must know the +rottenness of the system, and must have lived close enough to it to +know what went on behind the scenes, and how foully it smelled when +near. He would gain influence over his countrymen by his connection +with Pharaoh, whilst his very separation from them would at once +prevent his spirit from being broken by oppression, and would give +him a keener sympathy with his people than if he had himself been +crushed by slavery. His culture, heathen as it was, supplied the +material on which the divine Spirit worked. God fashioned the +vessel, and then filled it. Education is not the antagonist of +inspiration. For the most part, the men whom God has used for His +highest service have been trained in all the wisdom of their age. +When it has been piled up into an altar, then 'the fire of the Lord' +falls. + +Our story teaches us that God's chosen instruments are immortal till +their work is done. No matter how forlorn may seem their outlook, +how small the probabilities in their favour, how divergent from the +goal may seem the road He leads them, He watches them. Around that +frail ark, half lost among the reeds, is cast the impregnable shield +of His purpose. All things serve that Will. The current in the full +river, the lie of the flags that stop it from being borne down, the +hour of the princess's bath, the direction of her idle glance, the +cry of the child at the right moment, the impulse welling up in her +heart, the swift resolve, the innocent diplomacy of the sister, the +shelter of the happy mother's breast, the safety of the palace,--all +these and a hundred more trivial and unrelated things are spun into +the strong cable wherewith God draws slowly but surely His secret +purpose into act. So ever His children are secure as long as He has +work for them, and His mighty plan strides on to its accomplishment +over all the barriers that men can raise. + +How deeply this story had impressed on devout minds the truth of the +divine protection for all who serve Him, is shown by the fact that +the word employed in the last verse of our lesson, and there +translated 'drawn,' of which the name 'Moses' is a form, is used on +the only occasion of its occurrence in the Old Testament (namely +Psalm xviii. 16, and in the duplicate in 2 Sam. xxii. 17) with plain +reference to our narrative. The Psalmist describes his own +deliverance, in answer to his cry, by a grand manifestation of God's +majesty; and this is the climax and the purpose of the earthquake +and the lightning, the darkness and the storm: 'He sent from above, +He took me, He drew me out of many waters.' So that scene by the +margin of the Nile, so many years ago, is but one transient instance +of the working of the power which secures deliverance from +encompassing perils, and for strenuous, though it may be +undistinguished, service to all who call upon Him. God, who put the +compassion into the heart of Pharaoh's dusky daughter, is not less +tender of heart than she, and when He hears us, though our cry be +but as of an infant, 'with no language but a cry,' He will come in +His majesty and draw us from encompassing dangers and impending +death. We cannot all be lawgivers and deliverers; but we may all +appeal to His great pity, and partake of deliverance like that of +Moses and of David. + + + + +THE BUSH THAT BURNED, AND DID NOT BURN OUT + + + 'And, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush + was not consumed.' EXODUS iii. 1 + +It was a very sharp descent from Pharaoh's palace to the wilderness, +and forty years of a shepherd's life were a strange contrast to the +brilliant future that once seemed likely for Moses. But God tests +His weapons before He uses them, and great men are generally +prepared for great deeds by great sorrows. Solitude is 'the mother- +country of the strong,' and the wilderness, with its savage crags, +its awful silence, and the unbroken round of its blue heaven, was a +better place to meet God than in the heavy air of a palace, or the +profitless splendours of a court. + +So as this lonely shepherd is passing slowly in front of his flock, +he sees a strange light that asserted itself, even in the brightness +of the desert sunshine. 'The bush' does not mean one single shrub. +Rather, it implies some little group, or cluster, or copse, of the +dry thorny acacias, which are characteristic of the country, and +over which any ordinary fire would have passed like a flash, leaving +them all in grey ashes. But this steady light persists long enough +to draw the attention of the shepherd, and to admit of his +travelling some distance to reach it. And then--and then--the Lord +speaks. + +The significance of this bush, burning but not consumed, is my main +subject now, for I think it carries great and blessed lessons for +us. + +Now, first, I do not think that the bush burning but not consumed, +stands as it is ordinarily understood to stand, for the symbolical +representation of the preservation of Israel, even in the midst of +the fiery furnace of persecution and sorrow. + +Beautiful as that idea is, I do not think it is the true +explanation; because if so, this symbol is altogether out of keeping +with the law that applies to all the rest of the symbolical +accompaniments of divine appearances, all of which, without +exception, set forth in symbol some truth about God, and not about +His Church; and all of which, without exception, are a +representation in visible and symbolical form of the same truth +which was proclaimed in articulate words along with them. The symbol +and the accompanying voice of God in all other cases have one and +the same meaning. + +That, I think, is the case here also; and we learn from the Bush, +not something about God's Church, however precious that may be, but +what is a great deal more important, something about God Himself; +namely, the same thing that immediately afterwards was spoken in +articulate words. + +In the next place, let me observe that the fire is distinctly a +divine symbol, a symbol of God not of affliction, as the ordinary +explanation implies. I need not do more than remind you of the +stream of emblem which runs all through Scripture, as confirming +this point. There are the smoking lamp and the blazing furnace in +the early vision granted to Abraham. There is the pillar of fire by +night, that lay over the desert camp of the wandering Israelites. +There is Isaiah's word, 'The light of Israel shall be a flaming +fire.' There is the whole of the New Testament teaching, turning on +the manifestation of God through His Spirit. There are John the +Baptist's words, 'He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with +fire.' There is the day of Pentecost, when the 'tongues of fire sat +upon each of them.' And what is meant by the great word of the +Epistle to the Hebrews, 'Our God is a consuming fire'? + +Not Israel only, but many other lands--it would scarcely be an +exaggeration to say, all other lands--have used the same emblem with +the same meaning. In almost every religion on the face of the earth, +you will find a sacred significance attached to fire. That +significance is not primarily destruction, as we sometimes suppose, +an error which has led to ghastly misunderstandings of some +Scriptures, and of the God whom they reveal. When, for instance, +Isaiah (xxxiii. 14) asks, 'Who among us shall dwell with the +devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' +he has been supposed to be asking what human soul is there that can +endure the terrors of God's consuming and unending wrath. But a +little attention to the words would have shown that 'the devouring +fire' and the 'everlasting burnings' mean God and not hell, and that +the divine nature is by them not represented as too fierce to be +approached, but as the true dwelling-place of men, which indeed only +the holy can inhabit, but which for them is life. Precisely parallel +is the Psalmist's question, 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the +Lord, and who shall stand in His holy place?' + +Fire is the source of warmth, and so, in a sense, of life. It is +full of quick energy, it transmutes all kinds of dead matter into +its own ruddy likeness, sending up the fat of the sacrifices in +wreathes of smoke that aspire heavenward; and changing all the +gross, heavy, earthly dullness into flame, more akin to the heaven +into which it rises. + +Therefore, as cleansing, as the source of life, light, warmth, +change, as glorifying, transmuting, purifying, refining, fire is the +fitting symbol of the mightiest of all creative energy. And the +Bible has consecrated the symbolism, and bade us think of the Lord +Himself as the central fiery Spirit of the whole universe, a spark +from whom irradiates and vitalises everything that lives. + +Nor should we forget, on the other side, that the very felicity of +this emblem is, that along with all these blessed thoughts of life- +giving and purifying, there does come likewise the more solemn +teaching of God's destructive power. 'What maketh heaven, that +maketh hell'; and the same God is the fire to quicken, to sanctify, +to bless; and resisted, rejected, neglected, is the fire that +consumes; the savour of life unto life, or the savour of death unto +death. + +And then, still further, notice that this flame is undying--steady, +unflickering. What does that mean? Adopting the principle which I +have already taken as our guide, that the symbol and the following +oral revelation teach the same truth, there can be no question as to +that answer. 'I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, of +Isaac, and of Jacob. 'I AM THAT I AM.' + +That is to say, the fire that burns and does not burn out, which has +no tendency to destruction in its very energy, and is not consumed +by its own activity, is surely a symbol of the one Being whose being +derives its law and its source from Himself, who only can say--'I AM +THAT I AM'--the law of His nature, the foundation of His being, the +only conditions of His existence being, as it were, enclosed within +the limits of His own nature. You and I have to say, 'I am that +which I have become,' or 'I am that which I was born,' or 'I am that +which circumstances have made me.' He says, 'I AM THAT I AM.' All +other creatures are links; this is the staple from which they all +hang. All other being is derived, and therefore limited and +changeful; this Being is underived, absolute, self-dependent, and +therefore unalterable for evermore. Because we live we die. In +living the process is going on of which death is the end. But God +lives for evermore, a flame that does not burn out; therefore His +resources are inexhaustible, His power unwearied. He needs no rest +for recuperation of wasted energy. His gifts diminish not the store +which He has to bestow. He gives, and is none the poorer; He works, +and is never weary; He operates unspent; He loves, and He loves for +ever; and through the ages the fire burns on, unconsumed and +undecayed. + +O brethren! is not that a revelation--familiar as it sounds to our +ears now, blessed be God!--is not that a revelation of which, when +we apprehend the depth and the preciousness, we may well fix an +unalterable faith upon it, and feel that for us, in our fleeting +days and shadowy moments, the one means to secure blessedness, rest, +strength, life, is to grasp and knit ourselves to Him who lives for +ever, and whose love is lasting as His life? 'The eternal God, the +Lord ... fainteth not, neither is weary. They that wait upon Him +shall renew their strength.' + +The last thought suggested to me by this symbol is this. Regarding +the lowly thorn-bush as an emblem of Israel--which unquestionably it +is, though the fire be the symbol of God--in the fact that the +symbolical manifestation of the divine energy lived in so lowly a +shrine, and flamed in it, and preserved it by its burning, there is +a great and blessed truth. + +It is the same truth which Jesus Christ, with a depth of +interpretation that put to shame the cavilling listeners, found in +the words that accompanied this vision: 'I am the God of Abraham, +the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He said to the sneering +Sadducees, who, like all other sneerers, saw only the surface of +what they were sarcastic about, 'Did not Moses teach you,' in the +section about the bush, 'that the dead rise, when he said: I AM the +God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.' A man, about whom it +can once be said that God is his God, cannot die. Such a bond can +never be broken. The communion of earth, imperfect as it is, is the +prophecy of Heaven and the pledge of immortality. And so from that +relationship which subsisted between the fathers and God, Christ +infers the certainty of their resurrection. It seems a great leap, +but there are intervening steps not stated by our Lord, which +securely bridge the gulf between the premises and the conclusion. +Such communion is, in its very nature, unaffected by the accident of +death, for it cannot be supposed that a man who can say that God is +_His_ God can be reduced to nothingness, and such a bond be +snapped by such a cause. Therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are +still living, 'for all' those whom we call dead, as well as those +whom we call living, 'live unto Him,' and though so many centuries +have passed, God still _is_, not _was_, their God. The relation between +them is eternal and guarantees their immortal life. But immortality +without corporeity is not conceivable as the perfect state, and if the +dead live still, there must come a time when the whole man shall partake +of redemption; and in body, soul, and spirit the glorified and risen +saints shall be 'for ever with the Lord.' + +That is but the fuller working out of the same truth that is taught +us in the symbol 'the bush burned and was not consumed.' God dwelt +in it, therefore it flamed; God dwelt in it, therefore though it +flamed it never flamed out. Or in other words, the Church, the +individual in whom He dwells, partakes of the immortality of the +indwelling God. 'Every one shall be salted with fire,' which shall +be preservative and not destructive; or, as Christ has said, +'Because I live ye shall live also.' + +Humble as was the little, ragged, sapless thorn-bush, springing up +and living its solitary life amidst the sands of the desert, it was +not too humble to hold God; it was not too gross to burst into flame +when He came; it was not too fragile to be gifted with undying +being; like His that abode in it. And for us each the emblem may be +true. If He dwell in us we shall live as long as He lives, and the +fire that He puts in our heart shall be a fountain of fire springing +up into life everlasting. + + + + +THE CALL OF MOSES + + + 'Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, + that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of + Israel, out of Egypt. 11. And Moses said unto God, Who + am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should + bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12. + And He said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this + shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When + thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall + serve God upon this mountain. 13. And Moses said unto + God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, + and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath + sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His + name? what shall I say unto them? 14. And God said unto + Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, thus shalt thou say + unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. + 15. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou + say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your + fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the + God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for + ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. + 16. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and + say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of + Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, + saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which + is done to you in Egypt: 17. And I have said, I will + bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the + land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the + Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the + Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. + 18. And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt + come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of + Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the + Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech + Thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we + may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 19. And I am sure + that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by + a mighty hand. 20. And I will stretch out my hand, and + smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the + midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.' + --EXODUS iii 10-20. + +The 'son of Pharaoh's daughter' had been transformed, by nearly +forty years of desert life, into an Arab shepherd. The influences of +the Egyptian court had faded from him, like colour from cloth +exposed to the weather; nor is it probable that, after the failure +of his early attempt to play the deliverer to Israel, he nourished +further designs of that sort. He appears to have settled down +quietly to be Jethro's son-in-law, and to have lived a modest, still +life of humble toil. He had flung away fair prospects,--and what had +he made of it? The world would say 'Nothing,' as it ever does about +those who despise material advantages and covet higher good. Looking +after sheep in the desert was a sad downcome from the possibility of +sitting on the throne of Egypt. Yes, but it was in the desert that +the vision of the bush burning, and not burning out, came; and it +would not have come if Moses had been in a palace. + +This passage begins in the midst of the divine communication which +followed and interpreted the vision. We note, first, the divine +charge and the human shrinking from the task. It was a startling +transition from verse 9, which declares God's pitying knowledge of +Israel's oppression, to verse 10, which thrusts Moses forward into +the thick of dangers and difficulties, as God's instrument. 'I will +send thee' must have come like a thunder-clap. The commander's +summons which brings a man from the rear rank and sets him in the +van of a storming-party may well make its receiver shrink. It was +not cowardice which prompted Moses' answer, but lowliness. His +former impetuous confidence had all been beaten out of him. Time was +when he was ready to take up the _role_ of deliverer at his own +hand; but these hot days were past, and age and solitude and +communion with God had mellowed him into humility. His recoil was +but one instance of the shrinking which all true, devout men feel +when designated for tasks which may probably make life short, and +will certainly make it hard. All prophets and reformers till to-day +have had the same feeling. Men who can do such work as the +Jeremiahs, Pauls, Luthers, Cromwells, can do, are never forward to +begin it. + +Self-confidence is not the temper which God uses for His +instruments. He works with 'bruised reeds,' and breathes His +strength into them. It is when a man says 'I can do nothing,' that +he is fit for God to employ. 'When I am weak, then I am strong.' +Moses remembered enough of Egypt to know that it was no slight peril +to front Pharaoh, and enough of Israel not to be particularly eager +to have the task of leading them. But mark that there is no refusal +of the charge, though there is profound consciousness of inadequacy. +If we have reason to believe that any duty, great or small, is laid +on us by God, it is wholesome that we should drive home to ourselves +our own weakness, but not that we should try to shuffle out of the +duty because we are weak. Moses' answer was more of a prayer for +help than of a remonstrance, and it was answered accordingly. + +God deals very gently with conscious weakness. 'Certainly I will be +with thee.' Moses' estimate of himself is quite correct, and it is +the condition of his obtaining God's help. If he had been self- +confident, he would have had no longing for, and no promise of, +God's presence. In all our little tasks we may have the same +assurance, and, whenever we feel that they are too great for us, the +strength of that promise may be ours. God sends no man on errands +which He does not give him power to do. So Moses had not to +calculate the difference between his feebleness and the strength of +a kingdom. Such arithmetic left out one element, which made all the +difference in the sum total. 'Pharaoh _versus_ Moses' did not +look a very hopeful cause, but 'Pharaoh _versus_ Moses and +Another'--that other being God--was a very different matter. God and +I are always stronger than any antagonists. It was needless to +discuss whether Moses was able to cope with the king. That was not +the right way of putting the problem. The right way was, Is God able +to do it? + +The sign given to Moses is at first sight singular, inasmuch as it +requires faith, and can only be a confirmation of his mission when +that mission is well accomplished. But there was a help to present +faith even in it, for the very sacredness of the spot hallowed now +by the burning bush was a kind of external sign of the promise. + +One difficulty being solved, Moses raised another, but not in the +spirit of captiousness or reluctance. God is very patient with us +when we tell Him the obstacles which we seem to see to our doing His +work. As long as these are presented in good faith, and with the +wish to have them cleared up, He listens and answers. The second +question asked by Moses was eminently reasonable. He pictures to +himself his addressing the Israelites, and their question, What is +the name of this God who has sent you? Apparently the children of +Israel had lost much of their ancestral faith, and probably had in +many instances fallen into idolatry. We do not know enough to +pronounce with confidence on that point, nor how far the great name +of Jehovah had been used before the time of Moses, or had been +forgotten in Egypt. + +The questions connected with these points and with the history of +the name do not enter into our present purpose. My task is rather to +point out the religious significance of the self-revelation of God +contained in the name, and how it becomes the foundation of Israel's +deliverance, existence, and prerogatives. Whatever opinions are +adopted as to the correct form of the name and other grammatical and +philological questions, there is no doubt that it mainly reveals God +as self-existent and unchangeable. He draws His being from no +external source, nor 'borrows leave to be.' Creatures are what they +are made or grow to be; they are what they were not; they are what +they will some time not any more be. But He is what He is. Lifted +above time and change, self-existing and self-determined, He is the +fountain of life, the same for ever. + +This underived, independent, immutable being is a Person who can +speak to men, and can say 'I am.' Being such, He has entered into +close covenant relations with men, and has permitted Himself to be +called 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' The name Jehovah +lifts Him high above all creatures; the name 'the God of your +fathers' brings Him into tender proximity with men, and, in +combination with the former designation, guarantees that He will +forever be what He has been, even to all generations of children's +children. That mighty name is, indeed, His 'memorial to all +generations,' and is as fresh and full of blessedness to us as to +the patriarchs. Christ has made us understand more of the treasures +for heart and mind and life which are stored in it. 'Our Father +which art in heaven' is the unfolding of its inmost meaning. + +We may note that the bush burning but not consumed expressed in +symbol the same truth which the name reveals. It seems a mistake to +take the bush as the emblem of Israel surviving persecution. Rather +the revelation to the eye says the same thing as that to the ear, as +is generally the case. As the desert shrub flamed, and yet did not +burn away, so that divine nature is not wearied by action nor +exhausted by bestowing, nor has its life any tendency towards ending +or extinction, as all creatural life has. + +The closing verses of this passage (vs. 16-20) are a programme of +Moses' mission, in which one or two points deserve notice. First, +the general course of it is made known from the beginning. Therein +Moses was blessed beyond most of God's servants, who have to risk +much and to labour on, not knowing which shall prosper. If we could +see, as he did, the lie of the country beforehand, our journeys +would be easier. So we often think, but we know enough of what shall +be to enable us to have quiet hearts; and it is best for us not to +see what is to fail and what to succeed. Our ignorance stimulates +effort, and drives to clinging to God's hand. + +Then we may note the full assurances to be given to the 'elders of +Israel.' Apparently some kind of civic organisation had been kept +up, and there were principal people among the slaves who had to be +galvanised first into enthusiasm. So they are to be told two +things,--that Jehovah has appeared to Moses, and that He, not Moses +only, will deliver them and plant them in the land. The enumeration +of the many tribes (v. 17) might discourage, but it is intended to +fire by the thought of the breadth of the land, which is further +described as fertile. The more exalted our conceptions of the +inheritance, the more willing shall we be to enter on the pilgrimage +towards it. The more we realise that Jehovah has promised to lead us +thither, the more willing shall we be to face difficulties and +dangers. + +The directions as to the opening of communications with Pharaoh have +often been made a difficulty, as if there was trickery in the modest +request for permission to go three days' journey into the +wilderness. But that request was to be made, knowing that it would +not be granted. It was to be a test of Pharaoh's willingness to +submit to Jehovah. Its very smallness made it so more effectually. +If he had any disposition to listen to the voice speaking through +Moses, he would yield that small point. It is useless to speculate +on what would have happened if he had done so. But probably the +Israelites would have come back from their sacrificing. + +Of more importance is it to note that the failure of the request was +foreseen, and yet the effort was to be made. Is not that the same +paradox which meets us in all the divine efforts to win over hard- +hearted men to His service? Is it not exactly what our Lord did when +He appealed to Judas, while knowing that all would be vain? + +The expression in verse 19, 'not by a mighty hand,' is very obscure. +It may possibly mean that Pharaoh was so obstinate that no human +power was strong enough to bend his will. Therefore, in contrast to +the 'mighty hand' of man, which was not mighty enough for this work, +God will stretch out His hand, and that will suffice to compel +obedience from the proudest. God can force men by His might to +comply with His will, so far as external acts go; but He does not +regard that as obedience, nor delight in it. We can steel ourselves +against men's power, but God's hand can crush and break the +strongest will. 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the +living God.' It is a blessed thing to put ourselves into them, in +order to be moulded by their loving touch. The alternative is laid +before every soul of man. + + + + +A LAST MERCIFUL WARNING + + + 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one + plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards + he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he + shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. 2. Speak + now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow + of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, + jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. 3. And the Lord + gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. + Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of + Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the + sight of the people. 4. And Moses said, Thus saith the + Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of + Egypt; 5. And all the first-born in the land of Egypt + shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth + upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the + maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the + first-born of beasts. 6. And there shall be a great cry + throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none + like it, nor shall be like it any more. 7. But against + any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his + tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that + the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and + Israel. 8. And all these thy servants shall come down + unto Me, and bow themselves unto Me, saying, Get Thee + out, and all the people that follow Thee: and after that + I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great + anger. 9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall + not hearken unto you; that My wonders may be multiplied + in the land of Egypt. 10. And Moses and Aaron did all + these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened + Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children + of Israel go out of his land.'--EXODUS xi. 1-10. + +The first point to be noted in this passage is that it interposes a +solemn pause between the preceding ineffectual plagues and the last +effectual one. There is an awful lull in the storm before the last +crashing hurricane which lays every obstacle flat. 'There is silence +in heaven' before the final peal of thunder. Verses 1 to 3 seem, at +first sight, out of place, as interrupting the narrative, since +Moses' denunciation and prophecy in verses 4 to 8 must have been +spoken at the interview with Pharaoh which we find going on at the +end of the preceding chapter. But it is legitimate to suppose that, +at the very moment when Pharaoh was blustering and threatening, and +Moses was bearding him, giving back scorn for scorn, the latter +heard with the inward ear the voice which made Pharaoh's words empty +wind, and gave him the assurances and commands contained in verses 1 +to 3, and that thus it was given him in that hour what he should +speak; namely, the prediction that follows in verses 4 to 8. Such a +view of the sequence of the passage makes it much more vivid, +dramatic, and natural, than to suppose that the first verses are +either interpolation or an awkward break referring to a revelation +at some indefinite previous moment. When a Pharaoh or a Herod or an +Agrippa threatens, God speaks to the heart of a Moses or a Paul, and +makes His servant's face 'strong against their faces.' + +The same purpose of parting off the preceding plagues from the past +ones explains the introduction of verses 9 and 10, which stand as a +summary of the whole account of these, and, as it were, draw a line +across the page, before beginning the story of that eventful day and +night of Israel's deliverance. + +Moses' conviction, which he knew to be not his own thought but God's +revelation of His purpose, pointed first to the final blow which was +to finish Pharaoh's resistance. He had been vacillating between +compliance and refusal, like an elastic ball which yields to +compression and starts back to its swelling rotundity as soon as the +pressure is taken off. But at last he will collapse altogether, like +the same ball when a slit is cut in it, and it shrivels into a +shapeless lump. Weak people's obstinate fits end like that. He will +be as extreme in his eagerness to get rid of the Israelites as he +had been in his determination to keep them. The sail that is filled +one moment tumbles in a heap the next, when the halyards are cut. It +is a poor affair when a man's actions are shaped mainly by fear of +consequences. Fright always drives to extremes. 'When he shall let +you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.' Many a +stout, God-opposing will collapses altogether when God's finger +touches it. 'Can thy heart endure in the days that I shall deal with +thee?' + +Verses 2 and 3 appear irrelevant here, but the command to collect +from the Egyptians jewels, which might be bartered for necessaries, +may well have been given to Moses simultaneously with the assurance +that he would lead forth the people after the next plague, and the +particulars of the people's favour and of Moses' influence in the +eyes of the native inhabitants, come in anticipatively to explain +why the request for such contributions was granted when made. + +With the new divine command swelling in his heart, Moses speaks his +last word to Pharaoh, towering above him in righteous wrath, and +dwindling his empty threats into nothingness. What a contrast +between the impotent rage of the despot, with his vain threat, 'Thou +shalt die,' and the unblenching boldness of the man with God at his +back! One cannot but note in Moses' prediction of the last plague +the solemn enlargement on the details of the widespread calamity, +which is not unfeeling gloating over an oppressor's misery, but a +yearning to save from hideous misery by timely and plain depicting +of it. There is a flash of national triumph in the further contrast +between the universal wailing in Egypt and the untouched security of +the children of Israel, but that feeling merges at once into the +higher one of 'the Lord's' gracious action in establishing the +'difference' between them and their oppressors. It is not safe to +dwell on superiority over others, either as to condition or +character, unless we print in very large letters that it is 'the +Lord' who has made it. There is a flash, too, of natural triumph in +the picture of the proud courtiers brought down to prostrate +themselves before the shepherd from Horeb, and to pray him to do +what their master and they had so long fought against his doing. And +there is a most natural assertion of non-dependence on their leave +in that emphatic 'After that _I will_ go out.' He is not +asserting himself against God, but against the cowering courtiers. +'Hot anger' was excusable, but it was not the best mood in which to +leave Pharaoh. Better if he had gone out unmoved, or moved only to +'great heaviness and sorrow of heart' at the sight of men setting +themselves against God, and rushing on the 'thick bosses of the +Almighty's buckler' to their own ruin. Moses' anger we naturally +sympathise with, Christ's meekness we should try to copy. + +The closing verses, as we have already noticed, are a kind of +summing-up of the whole narrative of the plagues and their effects +on Pharaoh. They open two difficult questions, as to how and why it +was that the effect of the successive strokes was so slight and +transient. They give the 'how' very emphatically as being that +'Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart.' Does that not free Pharaoh from +guilt? And does it not suggest an unworthy conception of God? It +must be remembered that the preceding narrative employs not only the +phrase that 'Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart,' but also the +expression that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And it is further to +be noted that the latter expression is employed in the accounts of +the earlier plagues, and that the former one appears only towards +the close of the series. So then, even if we are to suppose that it +means that there was a direct hardening action by God on the man's +heart, such action was not first, but subsequent to obstinate +hardening by himself. God hardens no man's heart who has not first +hardened it himself. But we do not need to conclude that any inward +action on the will is meant. Was not the accumulation of plagues, +intended, as they were, to soften, a cause of hardening? Does not +the Gospel, if rejected, harden, making consciences and wills less +susceptible? Is it not a 'savour of death unto death,' as our +fathers recognised in speaking of 'gospel-hardened sinners'? The +same fire softens wax and hardens clay. Whosoever is not brought +near is driven farther off, by the influences which God brings to +bear on us. + +The 'why' is stated in terms which may suggest difficulties,--'that +my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.' But we have to +remember that the Old Testament writers are not wont to distinguish +so sharply as more logical Westerns do between the actual result of +an event and its purpose. With their deep faith in the all-ruling +power of God, whatever had come to pass was what He had meant to +come to pass. In fact, Pharaoh's obstinacy had not thwarted the +divine purpose, but had been the dark background against which the +blaze of God's irresistible might had shone the brighter. He makes +the wrath of man to praise Him, and turns opposition into the +occasion of more conspicuously putting forth His omnipotence. + + + + +THE PASSOVER: AN EXPIATION AND A FEAST, A MEMORIAL AND A PROPHECY + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land + of Egypt, saying, 2. This month shall be unto you the + beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the + year to you. 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of + Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they + shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the + house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4. And if + the household be too little for the lamb, let him and + his neighbour next unto his house take it according to + the number of the souls; every man according to his + eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5. Your lamb + shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye + shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: + 6. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of + the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation + of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7. And they shall + take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts + and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they + shall eat it. 8. And they shall eat the flesh in that + night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with + bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9. Eat not of it raw, + nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his + head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. + 10. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the + morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning + ye shall burn with fire. 11. And thus shall ye eat it; + with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and + your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: + it is the Lord's passover. 12. For I will pass through + the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the + firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and + against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: + I am the Lord. 13. And the blood shall be to you for a + token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the + blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be + upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. + 14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and + ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your + generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance + for ever.'--EXODUS xii. 1-14. + +The Passover ritual, as appointed here, divides itself into two main +parts--the sprinkling of the sacrificial blood on the door-posts and +lintels, and the feast on the sacrifice. These can best be dealt +with separately. They were separated in the later form of the +ritual; for, when there was a central sanctuary, the lambs were +slain there, and the blood sprinkled, as in other expiatory +sacrifices, on the altar, while the domestic feast remained +unaltered. The former was more especially meant to preserve the +Israelites from the destruction of their first-born; the latter as a +permanent memorial of their deliverance. But both have perpetual +fitness as prophetic of varying aspects of the Christian redemption. + +I. The ritual of the protecting blood. + +In the hurry and agitation of that eventful day, it must have seemed +strange to the excited people that they should be called upon to +observe such a service. But its institution at that crisis is in +accordance with the whole tone of the story of the Exodus, in which +man is nothing and God all. Surely, never was national deliverance +effected so absolutely without effort or blow struck. If we try to +realise the state of mind of the Israelites on that night, we shall +feel how significant of the true nature of their deliverance this +summons to an act of worship, in the midst of their hurry, must have +been. + +The domestic character of the rite is its first marked feature. Of +course, there were neither temple nor priests then; but that does +not wholly account for the provision that every household, unless +too few in number to consume a whole lamb, should have its own +sacrifice, slain by its head. The first purpose of the rite, to +provide for the safety of each house by the sprinkled blood, partly +explains it; but the deepest reason is, no doubt, the witness which +was thereby borne to the universal priesthood of the nation. The +patriarchal order made each man the priest of his house. This rite, +which lay at the foundation of Israel's nationality, proclaimed that +a restricted priestly class was a later expedient. The primitive +formation crops out here, as witness that, even where hid beneath +later deposits, it underlies them all. + +We have called the Passover a sacrifice. That has been disputed, but +unreasonably. No doubt, it was a peculiar kind of sacrifice, unlike +those of the later ritual in many respects, and scarcely capable of +being classified among them. But it is important to keep its +strictly sacrificial character in view; for it is essential to its +meaning and to its typical aspect. The proofs of its sacrificial +nature are abundant. The instructions as to the selection of the +lamb; the method of disposing of the blood, which was sprinkled with +hyssop--a peculiarly sacrificial usage; the treatment of the +remainder after the feast; the very feast itself,--all testify that +it was a sacrifice in the most accurate use of the word. The +designation of it as 'a passover to the Lord,' and in set terms as a +'sacrifice,' in verse 27 and elsewhere, to say nothing of its later +form when it became a regular Temple sacrifice, or of Paul's +distinct language in 1 Corinthians v. 7, or of Peter's quotation of +the very words of verse 5, applied to Christ, 'a lamb without +blemish,' all point in the same direction. + +But if a sacrifice, what kind of sacrifice was it? Clearly, the +first purpose was that the blood might be sprinkled on the door- +posts and lintels, and so the house be safe when the destroying +angel passed through the land. Such is the explanation given in +verse 13, which is the divine declaration of its meaning. This is +the centre of the rite; from it the name was derived. Whether +readers accept the doctrines of substitution and expiation or not, +it ought to be impossible for an honest reader of these verses to +deny that these doctrines or thoughts are there. They may be only +the barbarous notions of a half-savage age and people. But, whatever +they are, there they are. The lamb without blemish carefully chosen +and kept for four days, till it had become as it were part of the +household, and then solemnly slain by the head of the family, was +their representative. When they sprinkled its blood on the posts, +they confessed that they stood in peril of the destroying angel by +reason of their impurity, and they presented the blood as their +expiation. In so far, their act was an act of confession, +deprecation, and faith. It accepted the divinely appointed means of +safety. The consequence was exemption from the fatal stroke, which +fell on all homes from the palace to the slaves' hovel, where that +red streak was not found. If any son of Abraham had despised the +provision for safety, he would have been partaker of the plague. + +All this refers only to exemption from outward punishment, and we +are not obliged to attribute to these terrified bondmen any higher +thoughts. But clearly their obedience to the command implied a +measure of belief in the divine voice; and the command embodied, +though in application to a transient judgment, the broad principles +of sacrificial substitution, of expiation by blood, and of safety by +the individual application of that shed blood. + +In other words, the Passover is a Gospel before the Gospel. We are +sometimes told that in its sacrificial ideas Christianity is still +dressing itself in 'Hebrew old clothes.' We believe, on the +contrary, that the whole sacrificial system of Judaism had for its +highest purpose to shadow forth the coming redemption. Christ is not +spoken of as 'our Passover,' because the Mosaic ritual had happened +to have that ceremonial; but the Mosaic ritual had that ceremonial +mainly because Christ is our Passover, and, by His blood shed on the +Cross and sprinkled on our consciences, does in spiritual reality +that which the Jewish Passover only did in outward form. All other +questions about the Old Testament, however interesting and hotly +contested, are of secondary importance compared with this. Is its +chief purpose to prophesy of Christ, His atoning death, His kingdom +and church, or is it not? The New Testament has no doubt of the +answer. The Evangelist John finds in the singular swiftness of our +Lord's death, which secured the exemption of His sacred body from +the violence inflicted on His fellow-sufferers, a fulfilment of the +paschal injunction that not a bone should be broken; and so, by one +passing allusion, shows that he recognised Christ as the true +Passover. John the Baptist's rapturous exclamation, 'Behold the Lamb +of God!' blends allusions to the Passover, the daily sacrifice, and +Isaiah's great prophecy. The day of the Crucifixion, regarded as +fixed by divine Providence, may be taken as God's own finger +pointing to the Lamb whom He has provided. Paul's language already +referred to attests the same truth. And even the last lofty visions +of the Apocalypse, where the old man in Patmos so touchingly recurs +to the earliest words which brought him to Jesus, echo the same +conviction, and disclose, amidst the glories of the throne, 'a Lamb +as it had been slain.' + +II. The festal meal on the sacrifice. + +After the sprinkling of the blood came the feast. Only when the +house was secure from the destruction which walked in the darkness +of that fateful night, could a delivered household gather round the +board. That which had become their safety now became their food. +Other sacrifices were, at a later period, modelled on the same type; +and in all cases the symbolism is the same, namely, joyful +participation in the sacrifice, and communion with God based upon +expiation. In the Passover, this second stage received for future +ages the further meaning of a memorial. But on that first night it +was only such by anticipation, seeing that it preceded the +deliverance which it was afterwards to commemorate. + +The manner of preparing the feast and the manner of partaking of it +are both significant. The former provided that the lamb should be +roasted, not boiled, apparently in order to secure its being kept +whole; and the same purpose suggested the other prescriptions that +it was to be served up entire, and with bones unbroken. The reason +for this seems to be that thus the unity of the partakers was more +plainly shown. All ate of one undivided whole, and were thus, in a +real sense, one. So the Apostle deduces the unity of the Church from +the oneness of the bread of which they in the Christian Passover +partake. + +It was to be eaten with the accompaniments of bitter herbs, usually +explained as memorials of the bondage, which had made the lives +bitter, and the remembrance of which would sweeten their +deliverance, even as the pungent condiments brought out the savour +of the food. The further accompaniment of unleavened bread seems to +have the same signification as the appointment that they were to eat +with their garments gathered round their loins, their feet shod, and +staves in hand. All these were partly necessities in their urgent +hurry, and partly a dramatic representation for later days of the +very scene of the first Passover. A strange feast indeed, held while +the beat of the pinions of the destroying angel could almost be +heard, devoured in hot haste by anxious men standing ready for a +perilous journey, the end whereof none knew! The gladness would be +strangely dashed with terror and foreboding. Truly, though they +feasted on a sacrifice, they had bitter herbs with it, and, +standing, swallowed their portions, expecting every moment to be +summoned to the march. + +The Passover as a feast is a prophecy of the great Sacrifice, by +virtue of whose sprinkled blood we all may be sheltered from the +sweep of the divine judgment, and on which we all have to feed if +there is to be any life in us. Our propitiation is our food. 'Christ +for us' must become 'Christ in us,' received and appropriated by our +faith as the strength of our lives. The Christian life is meant to +be a joyful feast on the Sacrifice, and communion with God based +upon it. We feast on Christ when the mind feeds on Him as truth, +when the heart is filled and satisfied with His love, when the +conscience clings to Him as its peace, when the will esteems the +'words of His mouth more than' its 'necessary food,' when all +desires, hopes, and inward powers draw their supplies from Him, and +find their object in His sweet sufficiency. + +Nor will the accompaniments of the first Passover be wanting. Here +we feast in the night; the dawn will bring freedom and escape. Here +we eat the glad Bread of God, not unseasoned with bitter herbs of +sorrow and memories of the bondage, whose chains are dropping from +our uplifted hands. Here we should partake of that hidden +nourishment, in such manner that it hinders not our readiness for +outward service. It is not yet time to sit at His table, but to +stand with loins girt, and feet shod, and hands grasping the pilgrim +staff. Here we are to eat for strength, and to blend with our secret +hours of meditation the holy activities of the pilgrim life. + +That feast was, further, appointed with a view to its future use as +a memorial. It was held before the deliverance which it commemorated +had been accomplished. A new era was to be reckoned from it. The +month of the Exodus was thenceforward to be the first of the year. +The memorial purpose of the rite has been accomplished. All over the +world it is still observed, so many hundred years after its +institution, being thus, probably, the oldest religious ceremonial +in existence. Once more aliens in many lands, the Jewish race still, +year by year, celebrate that deliverance, so tragically unlike their +homeless present, and with indomitable hope, at each successive +celebration, repeat the expectation, so long cherished in vain, +'This year, here; next year, in the land of Israel. This year, +slaves; next year, freemen.' There can be few stronger attestations +of historical events than the keeping of days commemorating them, if +traced back to the event they commemorate. So this Passover, like +Guy Fawkes' Day in England, or Thanksgiving Day in America, remains +for a witness even now. + +What an incomprehensible stretch of authority Christ put forth, if +He were no more than a teacher, when He brushed aside the Passover, +and put in its place the Lord's Supper, as commemorating His own +death! Thereby He said, 'Forget that past deliverance; instead, +remember Me.' Surely this was either audacity approaching insanity, +or divine consciousness that He Himself was the true Paschal Lamb, +whose blood shields the world from judgment, and on whom the world +may feast and be satisfied. Christ's deliberate intention to +represent His death as expiation, and to fix the reverential, +grateful gaze of all future ages on His Cross, cannot be eliminated +from His founding of that memorial rite in substitution for the God- +appointed ceremonial, so hoary with age and sacred in its +significance. Like the Passover, the Lord's Supper was established +before the deliverance was accomplished. It remains a witness at +once of the historical fact of the death of Jesus, and of the +meaning and power which Jesus Himself bade us to see in that death. +For us, redeemed by His blood, the past should be filled with His +sacrifice. For us, fed on Himself, all the present should be +communion with Him, based upon His death for us. For us, freed +bondmen, the memorial of deliverance begun by His Cross should be +the prophecy of deliverance to be completed at the side of His +throne, and the hasty meal, eaten with bitter herbs, the adumbration +of the feast when all the pilgrims shall sit with Him at His table +in His kingdom. Past, present, and future should all be to us +saturated with Jesus Christ. Memory should furnish hope with +colours, canvas, and subjects for her fair pictures, and both be +fixed on 'Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us.' + + + + +THOUGHT, DEED, WORD + + + 'It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and + for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law + may be in thy mouth.'--EXODUS xiii. 9. + +The question may be asked, whether this command is to be taken +metaphorically or literally. No doubt the remembrance of the great +deliverance was intrusted to acts. Besides the annual Passover +feasts, inscriptions on the door-posts and fringes on the dress were +appointed for this purpose. And the Jews from a very early period, +certainly before our Lord's time, wore phylacteries fastened, as +this and other places prescribe, on the left arm and on the +forehead, and alleged these words as the commandment which they +therein obeyed. But it seems more probable that the meaning is +metaphorical, and that what is enjoined is rather a constant +remembrance of the great deliverance, and a constant regulation of +the practical life by it. For what is it that is to be 'a sign'? It +is the Passover feast. And the 'therefore' of the next verse seems +to say that keeping this ordinance in its season is the fulfilment +of this precept. Besides, the expression 'for a sign,' 'for a +memorial,' may just as well mean 'it shall serve as,' or 'it shall +be like,' as 'you shall wear.' So I think we must say that this is a +figure, not a fact; the enjoining of an object for thought and a +motive for life, not of a formal observance. And it is very +characteristic of the Jew, and of the universal tendency to harden +and lower religion into outward rites, that a command so wide and +profound was supposed to be kept by fastening little boxes with four +slips of parchment containing extracts from the Pentateuch on arm +and forehead. Jewish rabbis are not the only people who treat God's +law like that. Even if literal, the injunction is for the purpose of +remembering. Taking that meaning, then, the text sets forth +principles that apply quite as much to us. You will observe 'hand,' +'eyes,' 'mouth'; the symbols of practice, knowledge, expression; +work, thought, and word. Observe also that there is a slight change +in construction in the three clauses; the two former are to be done +in order that the latter may come to pass. Then the memorial of the +great deliverance is to be 'on the hand' and 'before the eyes,' in +order that 'the Lord's law' may be 'in the mouth.' Keeping these +points in view-- + +I. God's great deliverance should be constantly before our thoughts. +It is more than an accident that both Judaism and Christianity +should begin with a great act of deliverance; that that act of +deliverance should constitute a community, and that a memorial rite +should be the centre of the ritual of both. The Lord's Supper +historically took the place of the Passover. It was instituted at +the Passover and instead of it. It is precisely the same in design, +a memorial feast appointed to keep up the vivid remembrance of the +historical fact to which redemption is traced; and not only to keep +up its remembrance, but to proclaim the importance of extending that +remembrance through all life. + +Notice the peculiarity of both the Jewish and the Christian rite, +that the centre point of both is a historical fact, a redeeming act. +Judaism and Christianity are the only religions in regard to which +this is true to anything like the same extent or in the same way. +Christianity as a revelation is not so much the utterance in words +of great religious thoughts as the history of a life and a death, a +fact wrought upon the earth, which is at once the means of +revelation and the means of redemption. This is a feature unshared +by other religions. + +This characteristic determines the principal object of our religious +thought. The true object for religious thought is Christ, and His +life and death. + +All religious truth flows from and is wrapped up in that: +_e.g._ theology, or the nature of God; anthropology, or the +nature of man; soteriology, morality, etc. All truth for the +individual and for the race has its source in God's great redeeming +act. Religious emotion is best fed at this source, _e.g._ +thankfulness, wonder, love: all these transcendent feelings which +are melted together in adoration. Here is where they are kindled. +You cannot pump them up, or bring them into existence by willing, or +scourge yourself into them, any more than you can make a seed grow +by pulling at the germ with a pair of pincers, but this gives the +warmth and moisture which make it germinate. + +The clear perception of this truth is valuable, as correcting false +tendencies in religion, _e.g._ the tendency to be much occupied +with the derived truths, and to think of them almost to the +exclusion of the great fact from which they come; the tendency to +substitute melancholy self-inspection for objective facts; the +tendency to run out into mere feeling. + +The command requires of us a habitual occupation of mind with the +great deliverance. + +And the habitual presence of this thought will be best secured by +specific times of occupation with it. Let every Christian practise +the habit of meditation, which in an age of so many books, +newspapers, and the distractions of our busy modern life, is apt to +become obsolete. + +II. The great deliverance is to be ever present in practical life. + +The 'hand' is clearly the seat and home of power and practical +effort. So the remembrance is to be present and to preside over our +practical work. + +How it is fitted to do so. + +_(a)_ It gives the law for all our activity. + +The pattern. The death as well as the life of Christ teaches us what +we ought to be. + +The motive. He died for me! Shall I not serve Him who redeemed me? + +_(b)_ That remembered deliverance arms us against temptations, +and lifts us above sinking into sin. + +How blessed such a life would be! How victorious over the small +motives that rule one's life, the deadening influence of routine, +the duties that are felt to be overwhelmingly great and those that +are felt to be wearisomely and monotonously small! How this unity of +motive would give unity to life and simplify its problems! How it +would free us from many a perplexity! There are so many things that +seem doubtful because we do not bring the test of the highest motive +to bear on them. Complications would fall away when we only wished +to know and be like Christ. Many a tempting amusement, or +occupation, or speculation would start up in its own shape when this +Ithuriel spear touched it. How it would save from distractions! How +strong it would make us, like a belt round the waist bracing the +muscles tighter! 'This one thing I do' is always a strengthening +principle. + +How far is this possible? Not absolutely, but we may approximate +very closely and indefinitely towards it. For there is the +possibility of such thought blending with common motives, like a +finer perfume in the scentless air, or some richer elixir in a cup. +There is the possibility of its doing to other motives what light +does to landscape when a sudden sunbeam gleams across the plain, and +everything leaps into increased depth of colour. Let us try more and +more to rescue life from the slavery of habit and the distractions +of all these smaller forces, and to bring it into the greatness and +power of submission to the dominion of this sovereign, unifying +motive. Our lives would thus be greatened and strengthened, even as +Germany and Italy have been, by being delivered from a rabble of +petty dukes and brought under the sway of one emperor or king. Let +us try to approach nearer and nearer to the fusion of action and +contemplation, and to the blending with all other motives of this +supreme one. + +This command supplies us with an easily applied and effective test. +Is there any place where you cannot take it, any act which you feel +it would be impossible to do for His sake? Avoid such. Where the +safety-lamp burns blue and goes out, is no place for you. + +It is a beautiful thought that Jesus does for us what we are thus +commanded to do for Him. The high priest bore the names of the +tribes on his shoulders and in his heart. 'I have graven thee on the +palms of my hands.' We bear Him in our hands and in our hearts. 'I +bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.' + +III. The great deliverance is to be ever on our lips. + +The three regions here named are the inward thought, the outward +practice, and the testimony of the lips. Note that that testimony is +a consequence of thought and practice. + +1. The purpose of the deliverance is to make 'prophets of His law.' +Such was the divine intention as to Israel. Such is God's purpose as +to all Christians. The very meaning of redemption is there. He has +'opened our lips' that we 'should show forth His praise.' He has +regard to 'His own name.' He desires to make us vocal, for the same +purpose for which a man strings a harp, to bring sweet music out of +it. Words of testimony are a form of love. + +2. The other two are incomplete without this vocal testimony. + +3. The utterance of the lips, to be worth anything, must rest on and +follow the other two. How noble, then, and blessed, how strong and +calm and simple our lives would be, if we had this for the one great +object of our thoughts, of our practical endeavour, of our words, if +all our being was sustained, impelled, made vocal, by one thought, +one love! + +O my brother, see to it that you give yourself to Him. That great +Light will gladden your eyes, will guide your activity, and, like +the sunrise striking Memnon's voiceless, stony lips, will bring +music. Thought will have one boundless home of 'many mansions.' Work +will have one law, one motive, its consecration and strength; and as +in some solemn procession, all our steps and all our movements will +keep time to the music of our praise to 'Him who loved us.' + + + + +A PATH IN THE SEA + + + 'And the angel of God, which went before the camp of + Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of + the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind + them: 20. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians + and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness + to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that + the one came not near the other all the night. 21. And + Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord + caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that + night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were + divided. 22. And the children of Israel went into the + midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters + were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their + left. 23. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after + them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, + his chariots, and his horsemen. 24. And it came to pass, + that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host + of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the + cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25. And + took off their chariot-wheels, that they drave them + heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from + the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them + against the Egyptians. 26. And the Lord said unto Moses, + Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may + come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and + upon their horsemen. 27. And Moses stretched forth his + hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength + when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against + it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of + the sea. 28. And the waters returned, and covered the + chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh + that came into the sea after them; there remained not + so much as one of them. 29. But the children of Israel + walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the + waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and + on their left. 30. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day + out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the + Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore. 31. And Israel saw + that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: + and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, + and His servant Moses.'--EXODUS xiv. 19-31. + +This passage begins at the point where the fierce charge of the +Egyptian chariots and cavalry on the straggling masses of the +fugitives is inexplicably arrested. The weary day's march, which +must have seemed as suicidal to the Israelites as it did to their +pursuers, had ended in bringing them into a position where, as +Luther puts it, they were like a mouse in a trap or a partridge in a +snare. The desert, the sea, the enemy, were their alternatives. And, +as they camped, they saw in the distance the rapid advance of the +dreaded force of chariots, probably the vanguard of an army. No +wonder that they lost heart. Moses alone keeps his head and his +faith. He is rewarded with the fuller promise of deliverance, and +receives the power accompanying the command, to stretch forth his +hand, and part the sea. Then begins the marvellous series of +incidents here recorded. + +I. The first step in the leisurely march of the divine deliverance +is the provision for checking the Egyptian advance and securing the +safe breaking up of the Israelitish camp. The pursuers had been +coming whirling along at full speed, and would soon have been +amongst the disorderly mass, dealing destruction. There was no +possibility of getting the crossing effected unless they were held +at bay. When an army has to ford a river in the face of hostile +forces, the hazardous operation is possible only if a strong +rearguard is left on the enemy's side, to cover the passage. This is +exactly what is done here. The pillar of fire and cloud, the symbol +of the divine presence, passed from the van to the rear. Its +guidance was not needed, when but one path through the sea was +possible. Its defence was needed when the foe was pressing eagerly +on the heels of the host. His people's needs determined then, as +they ever do, the form of the divine presence and help. Long after, +the prophet seized the great lesson of this event, when he broke +into the triumphant anticipation of a yet future deliverance,--which +should repeat in fresh experience the ancient victory, 'The Lord +will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward,' In +the place where the need is sorest, and in the form most required, +there and that will God ever be to those who trust Him. + +We can see here, too, a frequent characteristic of the miraculous +element in Scripture, namely, its reaching its end not by a leap, +but by a process. Once admit miracle, and it appears as if +adaptation of means to ends was unnecessary. It would have been as +easy to have transported the Israelites bodily and instantaneously +to the other side of the sea, as to have taken these precautions and +then cleft the ocean, and made them march through it. Legendary +miracle would have preferred the former way. The Bible miracle +usually adapts methods to aims, and is content to travel to its goal +step by step. + +Nor can we omit to notice the double effect of the one manifestation +of the divine presence. The same pillar was light and darkness. The +side which was cloud was turned to the pursuers; that which was +light, to Israel. The former were paralysed, and hindered from +advancing a step, or from seeing what the latter were doing; these, +on the other hand, had light thrown on their strange path, and were +encouraged and helped to plunge into the mysterious road, by the +ruddy gleam which disclosed it. So every revelation is either light +or darkness to men, according to the use they make of it. The ark, +which slew Philistines, and flung Dagon prone on his own threshold, +brought blessing to the house of Obededom. The Child who was to be +'set for the fall,' was also for 'the rising of many.' The stone +laid in Zion is 'a sure foundation,' and 'a stone of stumbling.' The +Gospel is the savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. The +same fire melts wax and hardens clay. The same Christ is salvation +and destruction. God is to each of us either our joy or our dread. + +II. The sudden march of the Egyptians having thus been arrested, +there is leisure, behind the shelter of the fiery barrier, to take +the next step in the deliverance. The sea is not divided in a +moment. Again, we have a process to note, and that brought about by +two things,--Moses' outstretched rod, and the strong wind which blew +all night. The chronology of that fateful night is difficult to +adjust from our narrative. It would appear, from verse 20, that the +Egyptians were barred advancing until morning; and, from verse 21, +that the wind which ploughed with its strong ploughshare a furrow +through the sea, took all night for its work. But, on the other +hand, the Israelites must have been well across, and the Egyptians +in the very midst of the passage, 'in the morning watch,' and all +was over soon after 'the morning appeared.' Probably the wind +continued all the night, so as to keep up the pressure which dammed +back the waters, but the path was passable some hours before the +gale abated. It must have been a broad way to admit of some two +million frightened people with wives and children effecting a +crossing in the short hours of part of one night. + +But though God used the wind as His besom to sweep a road clear for +His people, the effect produced by ordinary means was extraordinary. +No wind that ever blew would blow water in two opposite directions +at once, as a man might shovel snow to right and left, and heap it +in mounds by the sides of the path that he dug. That was what the +text tells us was done. The miracle is none the less a miracle +because God employed physical agents, just as Christ's miracles were +no less miraculous when He anointed blind eyes with moistened clay, +or sent men to wash in Siloam, than when His bare word raised the +dead or stilled the ocean. Wind or no wind, Moses' rod or no rod, +the true explanation of that broad path cleared through the sea is--'the +waters saw Thee, O God.' The use of natural means may have been +an aid to feeble faith, encouraging it to step down on to the +untrodden and slippery road. The employment of Moses and his rod was +to attest his commission to act as God's mouthpiece. + +III. Then comes the safe passage. It is hard to imagine the scene. +The vivid impression made by our story is all the more remarkable +when we notice how wanting in detail it is. We do not know the time +nor the place. We have no information about how the fugitives got +across, the breadth of the path, or its length. Characteristically +enough, Jewish legends know all about both, and assure us that the +waters were parted into twelve ways, one for each tribe, and that +the length of the road was three hundred miles! But Scripture, with +characteristic reticence, is silent about all but the fact. That is +enough. We gather, from the much later and poetical picture of it in +Psalm lxxvii., that the passage was accomplished in the midst of +crashing thunder and flashing lightnings; though it may be doubted +whether these are meant to be taken as real or ideal. At all events, +we have to think of these two millions of people--women, children, +and followers--plunging into the depths in the night. + +What a scene! The awestruck crowds, the howling wind, perhaps the +thunderstorm, the glow of the pillar glistening on the wet and slimy +way, the full paschal moon shining on the heaped waters! How the awe +and the hope must both have increased with each step deeper in the +abyss, and nearer to safety! The Epistle to the Hebrews takes this +as an instance of 'faith' on the part of the Israelites; and truly +we can feel that it must have taken some trust in God's protecting +hand to venture on such a road, where, at any moment, the walls +might collapse and drown them all. They were driven to venture by +their fear of Pharaoh; but faith, as well as fear, wrought in them. +Our faith, too, is often called upon to venture upon perilous paths. +We may trust Him to hold back the watery walls from falling. The +picture of the crossing carries eternal truth for us all. The way of +safety does not open till we are hemmed in, and Pharaoh's chariots +are almost come up. It often leads into the very thick of what we +deem perils. It often has to be ventured on in the dark, and with +the wind in our faces. But if we tread it in faith, the fluid will +be made solid, and the pathless passable, or any other apparent +impossibility be realised, before our confidence shall be put to +shame, or one real evil reach us. + +IV. The next stage is the hot pursuit and the panic of the +Egyptians. The narrative does not mark the point at which the pillar +lifted and disclosed the escape of the prey. It must have been in +the night. The baffled pursuers dash after them, either not seeing, +or too excited and furious to heed where they were going. The rough +sea bottom was no place for chariots, and they would be hopelessly +distanced by the fugitives on foot. How long they stumbled and +weltered we are not told, but 'in the morning watch,' that is, while +it was yet dark, some awful movement in the fiery pillar awed even +their anger into stillness, and drove home the conviction that they +were fighting against God. There is something very terrible in the +vagueness, if we may call it so, of that phrase 'the Lord looked ... +through the pillar.' It curdles the blood as no minuteness of +narrative would do. And what a thought that His look should be a +trouble! 'The steady whole of the judge's face' is awful, and some +creeping terror laid hold on that host of mad pursuers floundering +in the dark, as that more than natural light flared on their path. +The panic to which all bodies of soldiers in strange circumstances +are exposed, was increased by the growing difficulty of advance, as +the chariot wheels became clogged or the ground more of quicksand. +At last it culminates in a shout of '_Sauve qui peut!_' We may +learn how close together lie daring rebellion against God and abject +terror of Him; and how in a moment, a glance of His face, a turn of +His hand, bring the wildest blasphemer to cower in fear. We may +learn, too, to keep clear of courses which cannot be followed a +moment longer, if once a thought that God sees us comes in. And we +may learn the miserable result of all departure from Him, in making +what ought to be our peace and blessing, our misery and terror, and +turning the brightness of His face into a consuming fire. + +V. Then comes, at last, the awful act of destruction, of which a man +is the agent and an army the victim. We must suppose the Israelites +all safe on the Arabian coast, when the level sunlight streams from +the east on the wild hurry of the fleeing crowd making for the +Egyptian shore. What a solemn sight that young morning looked on! +The wind had dropped, the rod is stretched out, the sea returns to +its strength; and after a few moments' despairing struggle all is +over, and the sun, as it climbs, looks down upon the unbroken +stretch of quiet sea, bearing no trace of the awful work which it +had done, or of the quenched hatred and fury which slept beneath. + +We can understand the stern joy which throbs so vehemently in every +pulse of that great song, the first blossom of Hebrew poetry, which +the ransomed people sang that day. We can sympathise with the many +echoes in psalm and prophecy, which repeated the lessons of faith +and gratitude. But some will be ready to ask, Was that triumphant +song anything more than narrow national feeling, and has +Christianity not taught us another and tenderer thought of God than +that which this lesson carries? We may ask in return, Was it divine +providence that swept the Spanish Armada from the sea, fulfilling, +as the medal struck to commemorate it bore, the very words of Moses' +song, 'Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them'? Was it +God who overwhelmed Napoleon's army in the Russian snows? Were +these, and many like acts in the world's history, causes for +thankfulness to God? Is it not true that, as has been well said, +'The history of the world is the judgment of the world'? And does +Christianity forbid us to rejoice when some mighty and ancient +system of wrong and oppression, with its tools and accomplices, is +cleared from off the face of the earth? 'When the wicked perish, +there is shouting.' Let us not forget that the love and gentleness +of the Gospel are accompanied by the revelation of divine judgment +and righteous retribution. This very incident has for its last echo +in Scripture that wonderful scene in the Apocalypse, where, in the +pause before the seven angels bearing the seven plagues go forth, +the seer beholds a company of choristers, like those who on that +morning stood on the Red Sea shore, standing on the bank of the 'sea +of glass mingled with fire,'--which symbolises the clear and +crystalline depth of the stable divine judgments, shot with fiery +retribution,--and lifting up by anticipation a song of thanksgiving +for the judgments about to be wrought. That song is expressly called +'the song of Moses' and 'of the Lamb,' in token of the essential +unity of the two dispensations, and especially of the harmony of +both in their view of the divine judgments. Its ringing praises are +modelled on the ancient lyric. It, too, triumphs in God's judgments, +regards them as means of making known His name, as done not for +destruction, but that His character may be known and honoured by +men, to whom it is life and peace to know and love Him for what He +is. + +That final victory over 'the beast,' whether he be a person or a +tendency, is to reproduce in higher fashion that old conquest by the +Red Sea. There is hope for the world that its oppressors shall not +always tyrannise; there is hope for each soul that, if we take +Christ for our deliverer and our guide, He will break the chains +from off our wrists, and bring us at last to the eternal shore, +where we may stand, like the ransomed people, and, as the unsetting +morning dawns, see its beams touching with golden light the calm +ocean, beneath which our oppressors lie buried for ever, and lift up +glad thanksgivings to Him who has 'led us through fire and through +water, and brought us out into a wealthy place.' + + + + +'MY STRENGTH AND SONG' + + + 'The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my + salvation....' + EXODUS xv. 2. + +These words occur three times in the Bible: here, in Isaiah xii. 2, +and in Psalm cxviii. 14. + +I. The lessons from the various instances of their occurrence. The +first and second teach that the Mosaic deliverance is a picture- +prophecy of the redemption in Christ. The third (Psalm cxviii. 14), +long after, and the utterance of some private person, teaches that +each age and each soul has the same mighty Hand working for it. 'As +we have heard, so have we seen.' + +II. The lessons from the words themselves. + +_(a)_ True faith appropriates God's universal mercy as a +personal possession. '_My_ Lord and _my_ God!' 'He loved +_me_, and gave Himself for _me_.' + +_(b)_ Each single act of mercy should reveal God more clearly +as 'My strength.' The 'and' in the second clause is substantially +equivalent to 'for.' It assigns the reason for the assurance +expressed in the first. Because of the experienced deliverance and +God's manifestation of Himself in it as the author of 'salvation,' +my faith wins happy increase of confidence that He 'is the strength +of my heart.' Blessed they who bring that treasure out of all the +sorrows of life! + +_(c)_ The end of His deliverances is 'praise.' 'He is my song.' +This is true for earth and for heaven. The 'Song of Moses and the +Lamb.' + + + + +THE SHEPHERD AND THE FOLD + + + '... Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy + holy habitation.' + EXODUS XV. 13. + +What a grand triumphal ode! The picture of Moses and the children of +Israel singing, and Miriam and the women answering: a gush of +national pride and of worship! We belong to a better time, but still +we can feel its grandeur. The deliverance has made the singer look +forward to the end, and his confidence in the issue is confirmed. + +I. The guiding God: or the picture of the leading. The original is +'lead gently.' _Cf._ Isaiah xl. 11, Psalm xxiii. 2. The emblem +of a flock underlies the word. There is not only guidance, but +gentle guidance. The guidance was gentle, though accompanied with so +tremendous and heart-curdling a judgment. The drowned Egyptians were +strange examples of gentle leading. But God's redemptive acts are +like the guiding pillar of fire, in that they have a side that +reveals wrath and evokes terror, and a side that radiates lambent +love and kindles happy trust. + +'In Thy strength.' _Cf._ Isaiah xl. 10, 'with strong hand.' 'He +shall gently lead.' Note the combination with gentleness. That +divine strength is the only power which is able to guide. We are so +weak that it takes all His might to hold us up. It is His strength, +not ours. 'My strength is made perfect in (thy) weakness.' + +'To the resting-place of Thy holiness.' The word is used for +pasture, or resting-places for cattle. Here it meant Canaan; for us +it means Heaven--'the green pastures' of real participation in His +holiness. + +II. The triumphant confidence as to the future based upon the +deliverance of the past. _'Hast,'_ a past tense. It is as good +as done. The believing use of God's great past, and initial mercy, +to make us sure of His future. + +_(a)_ In that He will certainly accomplish it. + +_(b)_ In that even now there is a foretaste--rest in toil. He +guides to the 'waters of resting.' A rest now (Heb. iv. 3); a rest +'that remaineth' (Heb. iv. 3, 9). + +III. The warning against confidence in self. These people who sang +thus perished in the wilderness! They let go hold of God's hand, so +they 'sank like lead.' So He will fulfil begun work (Philippians i. +6). Let us cleave to Him. In Hebrews iii. and iv. lessons are drawn +from the Israelites not 'entering in.' See also Psalm xcv. + + + + +THE ULTIMATE HOPE + + + 'Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain + of Thine inheritance....'--EXODUS xv. 17. + +I. The lesson taught by each present deliverance and kindness is +that we shall be brought to His rest at last. + +_(a)_ Daily mercies are a pledge and a pattern of His +continuous acts. The confidence that we shall be kept is based upon +no hard doctrine of final perseverance, but on the assurance that +God is always the same, like the sunshine which has poured out for +all these millenniums and still rushes on with the same force. +Consider-- + +The inexhaustibleness of the divine resources. + +The steadfastness of the divine purposes. + +The long-suffering of the divine patience. + +_(b)_ Thus daily mercies should lead on our thoughts to +heavenly things. They should not prison us in their own sweetness. +We should see the great Future shining through them as a +transparent, not an opaque medium. + +_(c)_ That ultimate future should be the great object of our +hope. Surely it is chiefly in order that we may have the light of +that great to-morrow brightening and magnifying our dusty to-days, +that we are endowed with the faculty of looking forward and 'calling +things that are not as though they were.' So we should engage and +enlarge our minds with it. + +II. The form which that ultimate future assumes. + +The Israelites thought of Canaan, and in particular of 'Zion,' its +centre-point. + +_(a)_ Perpetual rest. 'Bring in and plant'--a contrast to the +desert nomad life. + +_(b)_ Perpetual safety. 'The sanctuary which Thy hands have +established,' _i.e._ made firm. + +_(c)_ Perpetual dwelling in God. 'Thy dwelling,' 'Thy +mountain,' '_Thy_ holy habitation' (ver. 13), rather than +'_our_ land.' For Israel their communion with Jehovah was +perfected on Zion by the Temple and the sacrifices, including the +revelation of (priestly) national service. + +_(d)_ Perpetual purity. 'Thy sanctuary.' 'Without' holiness 'no +man shall see the Lord.' + + + + +MARAH + + + 'And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of + the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore + the name of it was called Marah. 24. And the people + murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? + 25. And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him + a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the + waters were made sweet....'--EXODUS xv. 23-25. + +I. The time of reaching Marah--just after the Red Sea. The +Israelites were encamped for a few days on the shore to shake +themselves together, and then at this, their very first station, +they began to experience the privations which were to be their lot +for forty years. Their course was like that of a ship that is in the +stormy Channel as soon as it leaves the shelter of the pier at +Dover, not like that of one that glides down the Thames for miles. + +After great moments and high triumphs in life comes Marah. + +Marah was just before Elim--the alternation, how blessed! The shade +of palms and cool water of the wells, one for each tribe and one for +each 'elder.' So we have alternations in life and experience. + +II. The wrong and the right ways of taking the bitter experience. +The people grumbled: Moses cried to the Lord. The quick +forgetfulness of deliverances. The true use of speech is not +complaint, but prayer. + +III. The power that changes bitter to sweet. The manner of the +miracle is singular. God hides Himself behind Moses, and His +miraculous power behind the material agent. Perhaps the manner of +the miracle was intended to suggest a parallel with the first +plague. There the rod made the Nile water undrinkable. There is a +characteristic economy in the miraculous, and outward things are +used, as Christ used the pool and the saliva and the touch, to help +the weak faith of the deaf and dumb man. + +What changes bitter to sweet for us?--the Cross, the remembrance of +Christ's death. 'Consider Him that endured.' The Cross is the true +tree which, when 'cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.' + +Recognition of and yielding to God's will: that is the one thing +which for us changes all. The one secret of peace and of getting +sweetness out of bitterness is loving acceptance of the will of God. + +Discernment of purpose in God's 'bitter' dealings--'for our profit.' +The dry rod 'budded.' The Prophet's roll was first bitter, then +sweet. Affliction 'afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruit.' + + + + +THE BREAD OF GOD + + + 'Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain + bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out + and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove + them, whether they will walk in My law, or no. 5. And + it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall + prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice + as much as they gather daily. 6. And Moses and Aaron said + unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall + know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of + Egypt: 7. And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory + of the Lord; for that He heareth your murmurings against + the Lord: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? + 8. And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give + you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread + to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings + which ye murmur against Him: and what are we? your murmurings + are not against us, but against the Lord, 9. And Moses + spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the + children of Israel, Come near before the Lord: for He + hath heard your murmurings. 10. And it came to pass, as + Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children + of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, + behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. + 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12. I have + heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak + unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in + the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall + know that I am the Lord your God.'--EXODUS xvi. 4-12. + +Unbelief has a short memory. The Red Sea is forgotten in a month. +The Israelites could strike their timbrels and sing their lyric of +praise, but they could not believe that to-day's hunger could be +satisfied. Discontent has a slippery memory. They wish to get back +to the flesh-pots, of which the savour is in their nostrils, and +they have forgotten the bitter sauce of affliction. When they were +in Egypt, they shrieked about their oppression, and were ready to +give up anything for liberty; when they have got it, they are ready +to put their necks in the yoke again, if only they can have their +stomachs filled. Men do not know how happy they are till they cease +to be so. Our present miseries and our past blessings are the themes +on which unbelief harps. Let him that is without similar sin cast +the first stone at these grumbling Israelites. Without following +closely the text of the narrative, we may throw together the lessons +of the manna. + +I. Observe God's purpose in the gift, as distinctly expressed in the +promise of it. + +'That I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law or no.' How +did the manna become a test of this? By means of the law prescribed +for gathering it. There was to be a given quantity daily, and twice +as much on the sixth day. If a man trusted God for to-morrow, he +would be content to stop collecting when he had filled his omer, +tempting as the easily gathered abundance would be. Greed and +unbelief would masquerade then as now, under the guise of prudent +foresight. The old Egyptian parallels to 'make hay while the sun +shines,' and suchlike wise sayings of the philosophy of distrust, +would be solemnly spoken, and listened to as pearls of wisdom. When +experience had taught that, however much a man gathered, he had no +more than his omer full, after all,--and is not that true yet?--then +the next temptation would be to practise economy, and have something +over for to-morrow. Only he who absolutely trusted God to provide +for him would eat up his portion, and lie down at night with a quiet +heart, knowing that He who had fed him would feed. When experience +had taught that what was saved rotted, then laziness would come in +and say, 'What is the use of gathering twice as much on the sixth +day? Don't we know that it will not keep?' So the whole of the gift +was a continual training of, and therefore a continual test for, +faith. God willed to let His gifts come in this hand-to-mouth +fashion, though He could have provided at once what would have +obviously lasted them all their wilderness life, in order that they +might be habituated to cling to Him, and that their daily bread +might be doubly for their nourishment, feeding their bodies and +strengthening that faith which, to them as to us, is the condition +of all blessedness. God lets our blessings, too, trickle to us drop +by drop, instead of pouring them in a flood all at once upon us, for +the same reason. He does so, not because of any good to Him from our +faith, except that the Infinite love loves infinitely to be loved; +but for our sakes, that we may taste the peace and strength of +continual dependence, and the joy of continual receiving. He could +give us the principal down; but He prefers to pay us the interest, +as we need it. + +Christianity does not absolutely forbid laying up money or other +resources for future wants. But the love of accumulating, which is +so strong in many professing Christians, and the habit of amassing +beyond all reasonable future wants, is surely scarcely permitted to +those who profess to believe that incarnate wisdom forbade taking +anxious care for the morrow, and sent its disciples to lilies and +birds to learn the happy immunities of faith. We too get our daily +mercies to prove us. The letter of the law for the manna is not +applicable to us who gain our bread by God's blessing on our labour. +But the spirit is, and the members of great commercial nations have +surely little need to be reminded that still the portion put away is +apt to breed worms. How often it vanishes, or, if it lasts, tortures +its owner, who has more trouble keeping it than he had in getting +it; or fatally corrupts his own character, or ruins his children! +All God's gifts are tests, which--thanks be to Him--is the same as +to say that they are means of increasing faith, and so adding to +joy. + +II. The manna was further a disclosure of the depth of patient long- +suffering in God. + +Very strikingly the 'murmurings' of the children of Israel are four +times referred to in this context, and on each occasion are stated +as the reason for the gift of the manna. It was God's answer to the +peevish complaints of greedy appetites. When they were summoned to +come near to the Lord, with the ominous warning that 'He hath heard +your murmurings,' no doubt many a heart began to quake; and when the +Glory flashed from the Shechinah cloud, it would burn lurid to their +trembling consciences. But the message which comes from it is sweet +in its gentleness, as it promises the manna because they have +murmured, and in order that they may know the Lord. A mother soothes +her crying infant by feeding it from her own bosom. God does not +take the rod to His whimpering children, but rather tries to win +them by patience, and to shame their unbelief by His swift and over- +abundant answers to their complaints. When He must, He punishes; but +when He can, He complies. Faith is the condition of our receiving +His highest gifts; but even unbelief touches His heart with pity, +and what He can give to it, He does, if it may be melted into trust. +The farther men stray from Him, the more tender and penetrating His +recalling voice. We multiply transgressions, He multiplies mercies. + +III. The manna was a revelation in miraculous and transient form of +an eternal truth. + +The God who sent it sends daily bread. The words which Christ quoted +in His wilderness hunger are the explanation of its meaning as a +witness to this truth: 'Man doth not live by bread alone, but by +every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' To a Christian, +the divine power is present and operative in all natural processes +as really as in those which we call miraculous. God is separable +from the universe, but the universe is not separable from God. If it +were separated, it would cease. So far as the reality of the divine +operation is concerned, it matters not whether He works in the +established fashion, through material things, or whether His will +acts directly. The chain which binds a phenomenon to the divine will +may be long or short; the intervening links may be many, or they may +be abolished, and the divine cause and the visible effect may touch +without anything between. But in either case the power is of God. +Bread made out of flour grown on the other side of the world, and +fashioned by the baker, and bought by the fruits of my industry, is +as truly the gift of God as was the manna. For once, He showed these +men His hand at work, that we all might know that it was at work, +when hidden. The lesson of the 'angel's food' eaten in the +wilderness is that men are fed by the power of God's expressed and +active will,--for that is the meaning of 'the word that proceedeth +out of the mouth of God,'--in whatever fashion they get their food. +The gift of it is from Him; its power to nourish is from Him. It is +as true to-day as ever it was: 'Thou openest Thine hand, and +satisfiest the desire of every living thing.' The manna ceased when +the people came near cornfields and settled homes. Miracles end when +means are possible. But the God of the miracle is the God of the +means. + +Commentators make much of what is supposed to be a natural +substratum for the manna, in a certain vegetable product, found in +small quantities in parts of the Arabian peninsula. No doubt, we are +to recognise in the plagues of Egypt, and in the dividing of the Red +Sea, the extraordinary action of ordinary causes; and there is no +objection in principle to doing so here. But that an exudation from +the bark of a shrub, which has no nutritive properties at all, is +found only in one or two places in Arabia, and that only at certain +seasons and in infinitesimal quantity, seems a singularly thin +'substratum' on which to build up the feeding of two millions of +people, more or less exclusively and continuously for forty years, +by means of a substance which has nothing to do with tamarisk-trees, +and is like the natural product in nothing but sweetness and name. +Whether we admit connection between the two, or not, the miraculous +character of the manna of the Israelites is unaffected. It was +miraculous in its origin--'rained from heaven,' in its quantity, in +its observance of times and seasons, in its putrefaction and +preservation,--as rotting when kept for greed, and remaining sweet +when preserved for the Sabbath. It came straight from the creative +will of God, and whether its name means 'What is it?' or 'It is a +gift,' the designation is equally true and appropriate, pointing, in +the one case, to the mystery of its nature; in the other, to the +love of the Giver, and in both referring it directly to the hand of +God. + +IV. The manna was typical of Christ. + +Our Lord Himself has laid His hand upon it, and claimed it as a +faint foreshadowing of what He is. The Jews, not satisfied with the +miracle of the loaves, demand from Him a greater sign, as the +condition of what they are pleased to call 'belief'--which is +nothing but accepting the testimony of sense. They quote Moses as +giving the manna, and imply that Messiah is expected to repeat the +miracle. Christ accepts the challenge, and goes on to claim that He +not only gives, but Himself is, for all men's souls, all and more +than all which the manna had been to the bodies of that dead +generation. Like it, He came--but in how much more profound a +sense!--from heaven. Like it, He was food. But unlike it, He could +still for ever the craving of the else famishing soul; unlike it, He +not only nourished a bodily life already possessed, but communicated +a spiritual life which never dies; and, unlike it, He was meant to +be the food of the whole world. His teaching passed beyond the +symbolism of the manna, when He not only declared Himself to be the +'true bread from heaven which gives life to the world,' but opened a +glimpse into the solemn mystery of His atoning death by the +startling and apparently repulsive paradox that 'His flesh was food +indeed and His blood drink indeed.' The manna does not typically +teach Christ's atonement, but it does set Him forth as the true +sustenance and life-giver, sweet as honey to the soul, sent from +heaven for us each, but needing to be made ours by the act of our +faith. An Israelite would have starved, though the manna lay all +round the camp, if he did not go forth and secure his portion; and +he might no less have starved, if he did not eat what Heaven had +sent. 'Crede et manducasti,' 'Believe, and thou hast eaten,'--as St. +Augustine says. The personal appropriating act of faith is essential +to our having Christ for the food of our souls. The bread that +nourishes our bodies is assimilated to their substance, and so +becomes sustenance. This bread of God, entering into our souls by +faith, transforms them into its substance, and so gives and feeds an +immortal life. The manna was for a generation; this bread is 'the +same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' That was for a handful of +men; this is for the world. Nor is the prophetic value of the manna +exhausted when we recognise its witness to Christ. The food of the +wilderness is the food of the city. The bread that is laid on the +table, 'spread in the presence of the enemy,' is the bread that +makes the feast in the king's palace. The Christ who feeds the +pilgrim soldiers is the Christ on whom the conquerors banquet. 'To +him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.' + + + + +JEHOVAH NISSI + + + 'And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it + Jehovah Nissi [that is, the Lord is my Banner].' + --EXODUS xvii. 15. + +We are all familiar with that picturesque incident of the conflict +between Israel and Amalek, which ended in victory and the erection +of this memorial trophy. Moses, as you remember, went up on the +mount whilst Joshua and the men of war fought in the plain. But I +question whether we usually attach the right meaning to the +symbolism of this event. We ordinarily, I suppose, think of Moses as +interceding on the mountain with God. But there is no word about +prayer in the story, and the attitude of Moses is contrary to the +idea that his occupation was intercession. He sat there, with the +rod of God in his hand, and the rod of God was the symbol and the +vehicle of divine power. When he lifted the rod Amalek fled before +Israel; when the rod dropped Israel fled before Amalek. That is to +say, the uplifted hand was not the hand of intercession, but the +hand which communicated power and victory. And so, when the conflict +is over, Moses builds this memorial of thanksgiving to God, and +piles together these great stones--which, perhaps, still stand in +some of the unexplored valleys of that weird desert land--to teach +Israel the laws of conflict and the conditions of victory. These +laws and conditions are implied in the name which he gave to the +altar that he built--Jehovah Nissi, 'the Lord is my Banner.' + +Now, then, what do these stones, with their significant name, teach +us, as they taught the ancient Israelites? Let me throw these +lessons into three brief exhortations. + +I. First, realise for whose cause you fight. + +The Banner was the symbol of the cause for which an army fought, or +the cognizance of the king or commander whom it followed. So Moses, +by that name given to the altar, would impress upon the minds of the +cowardly mob that he had brought out of Egypt--and who now had +looked into an enemy's eyes for the first time--the elevating and +bracing thought that they were God's soldiers, and that the warfare +which they waged was not for themselves, nor for the conquest of the +country for their own sake, nor for mere outward liberty, but that +they were fighting that the will of God might prevail, and that He +might be the King now of one land--a mere corner of the earth--and +thereby might come to be King of all the earth. That rude altar said +to Israel: 'Remember, when you go into the battle, that the battle +is the Lord's; and that the standard under which you war is the God +for whose cause you contend--none else and none less than Jehovah +Himself. You are consecrated soldiers, set apart to fight for God.' + +Such is the destination of all Christians. They have a battle to +fight, of which they do not think loftily enough, unless they +clearly and constantly recognise that they are fighting on God's +side. + +I need not dwell upon the particulars of this conflict, or run into +details of the way in which it is to be waged. Only let us remember +that the first field upon which we have to fight for God we carry +about within ourselves; and that there will be no victories for us +over other enemies until we have, first of all, subdued the foes +that are within. And then let us remember that the absorbing +importance of inward conflict absolves no Christian man from the +duty of strenuously contending for all things that are 'lovely and +of good report,' and from waging war against every form of sorrow +and sin which his influence can touch. There is no surer way of +securing victory in the warfare within and conquering self than to +throw myself into the service of others, and lose myself in their +sorrows and needs. There is no possibility of my taking my share in +the merciful warfare against sin and sorrow, the tyrants that +oppress my fellows, unless I conquer myself. These two fields of the +Christian warfare are not two in the sense of being separable from +one another, but they are two in the sense of being the inside and +the outside of the same fabric. The warfare is one, though the +fields are two. + +Let us remember, on the other hand, that whilst it is our simple +bounden duty, as Christian men and women, to reckon ourselves as +anointed and called for the purpose of warring against sin and +sorrow, wherever we can assail them, there is nothing more +dangerous, and few things more common, than the hasty identification +of fighting for some whim, or prejudice, or narrow view, or partial +conception of our own, with contending for the establishment of the +will of God. How many wicked things have been done in this world for +God's glory! How many obstinate men, who were really only forcing +their own opinions down people's throats because they were theirs, +have fancied themselves to be pure-minded warriors for God! How easy +it has been, in all generations, to make the sign of the Cross over +what had none of the spirit of the Cross in it; and to say, 'The +cause is God's, and therefore I war for it'; when the reality was, +'The cause is mine, and therefore I take it for granted that it is +God's.' + +Let us beware of the 'wolf in sheep's clothing,' the pretence of +sanctity which is only selfishness with a mask on. And, above all, +let us beware of the uncharitableness and narrowness of view, the +vehemence of temper, the fighting for our own hands, the enforcing +of our own notions and whims and peculiarities, which have often +done duty as being true Christian service for the Master's sake. We +are God's host, but we are not to suppose that every notion that we +take into our heads, and for which we may contend, is part of the +cause of God. + +And then remember what sort of men the soldiers in such an army +ought to be. 'Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.' These +bearers may either be regarded as a solemn procession of priests +carrying the sacrificial vessels; or, as is more probable from the +context of the original, as the armour-bearers of the great King. +They must be pure who bear His weapons, for these are His righteous +love, His loving purity. If our camp is the camp of the Lord, no +violence should be there. What sanctity, what purity, what patience, +what long-suffering, what self-denial, and what enthusiastic +confidence of victory there should be in those who can say, 'We are +the Lord's host, Jehovah is our Banner!' He always wins who sides +with God. And he only worthily takes his place in the ranks of the +sacramental host of the Most High who goes into the warfare knowing +that, because He is God's soldier, he will come out of it, bringing +his victorious shield with him, and ready for the laurels to be +twined round his undinted helmet. That is the first of the thoughts, +then, that are here. + +II. The second of the exhortations which come from the altar and its +name is, Remember whose commands you follow. + +The banner in ancient warfare, even more than in modern, moved in +front of the host, and determined the movements of the army. And so, +by the stones that he piled and the name which he gave them, Moses +taught Israel and us that they and we are under the command of God, +and that it is the movements of His staff that are to be followed. +Absolute obedience is the first duty of the Christian soldier, and +absolute obedience means the entire suppression of my own will, the +holding of it in equilibrium until He puts His finger on the side +that He desires to dip and lets the other rise. They only understand +their place as Christ's servants and soldiers who have learned to +hush their own will until they know their Captain's. In order to be +blessed, to be strong, to be victorious, the indispensable condition +is that our inmost desire shall be, 'Not my will, but Thine be +done.' + +Sometimes, and often, there will be perplexities in our daily lives, +and conflicts very hard to unravel. We shall often be brought to a +point where we cannot see which way the Banner is leading us. What +then? 'It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait' for +the salvation and for the guidance of his God. And we shall +generally find that it is when we are looking too far ahead that we +do not get guidance. You will not get guidance to-day for this day +next week. When this day next week comes, it will bring its own +enlightenment with it. + + 'Lead, kindly Light, ... + ... One step enough for me.' + +Let us take short views both of duty and of hope, and we shall not +so often have to complain that we are left without knowing what the +Commander's orders are. Sometimes we are so left, and that is a +lesson in patience, and is generally God's way of telling us that it +is not His will that we should do anything at all just yet. +Sometimes we are so left in order that we may put our hand out +through the darkness, and hold on by Him, and say, 'I know not what +to do, but mine eyes are towards Thee.' + +And be sure of this, brethren, that He will not desert His own +promise, and that they who in their inmost hearts can say, 'The Lord +is my Banner,' will never have to complain that He led them into a +'pathless wilderness where there was no way.' It is sometimes a very +narrow track, it is often a very rough one, it is sometimes a +dreadfully solitary one; but He always goes before us, and they who +hold His hand will not hold it in vain. 'The Lord is my Banner'; +obey His orders and do not take anybody else's; nor, above all, the +suggestions of that impatient, talkative heart of yours, instead of +His commandments. + +III. Lastly, the third lesson that these grey stones preach to us +is, Recognise by whose power you conquer. + +The banner, I suppose, to us English people, suggests a false idea. +It suggests the notion of a flag, or some bit of flexible drapery +which fluttered and flapped in the wind; but the banner of old-world +armies was a rigid pole, with some solid ornament of bright metal on +the top, so as to catch the light. The banner-staff spoken of in the +text links itself with the preceding incident. I said that Moses +stood on the mountain-top with the rod in his hand. Now that rod was +exactly a miniature banner, and when he lifted it, victory came to +Israel; and when it fell, victory deserted their arms. So by the +altar's name he would say, Do not suppose that it was Moses that won +the battle, nor that it was the rod that Moses carried in his hand +that brought you strength. The true Victor was Jehovah, and it was +He who was Moses' Banner. It was by Him that the lifted rod brought +victory; as for Moses, he had nothing to do with it; and the people +had to look higher than the hill-top where he sat. + +This thought puts stress on the first word of the phrase instead of +on the last, as in my previous remarks. 'The Lord is my Banner,'--no +Moses, no outward symbol, no man or thing, but only He Himself. +Therefore, in all our duties, and in all our difficulties, and in +all our conflicts, and for all our conquests, we are to look away +from creatures, self, externals, and to look only to God. We are all +too apt to trust in rods instead of in Him, in Moses instead of in +Moses' Lord. + +We are all too apt to trust in externals, in organisations, +sacraments, services, committees, outside aids of all sorts, as our +means for doing God's work, and bringing power to us and blessing to +the world. Let us get away from them all, dig deeper down than any +of these, be sure that these are but surface reservoirs, but that +the fountain which fills them with any refreshing liquid which they +may bear lies in God Himself. Why should we trouble ourselves about +reservoirs when we can go to the Fountain? Why should we put such +reliance on churches and services and preaching and sermons and +schemes and institutions and organisations when we have the divine +Lord Himself for our strength? 'Jehovah is my Banner,' and Moses' +rod is only a symbol. At most it is like a lightning-conductor, but +it is not the lightning. The lightning will come without the rod, if +our eyes are to the heaven, for the true power that brings God down +to men is that forsaking of externals and waiting upon Him which He +never refuses to answer. + +In like manner we are too apt to put far too much confidence in +human teachers and human helpers of various kinds. And when God +takes them away we say to ourselves that there is a gap that can +never be filled. Ay! but the great sea can come in and fill any gap, +and make the deepest and the driest of the excavations in the desert +to abound in sweet water. + +So let us turn away from everything external, gather in our souls +and fix our hopes on Him; let us recognise the imperative duty of +the Christian warfare which is laid upon us; let us docilely submit +ourselves to His sweet commands, and trust in His sufficient and +punctual guidance, and not expect from any outward sources that +which no outward sources can ever give, but which He Himself will +give--strength to our fingers to fight, and weapons for the warfare, +and covering for our heads in the day of battle. + +And then, when our lives are done, may the only inscription on the +stone that covers us be 'Jehovah Nissi: the Lord is my banner'! The +trophy that commemorates the Christian's victory should bear no name +but His by whose grace we are more than conquerors. 'Thanks be to +God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' + + + + +GERSHOM AND ELIEZER + + + 'The name of the one [of Moses' sons] was Gershom ... and + the name of the other was Eliezer....'--EXODUS xviii. 3, 4. + +In old times parents often used to give expression to their hopes or +their emotions in the names of their children. Very clearly that was +the case in Moses' naming of his two sons, who seem to have been the +whole of his family. The significance of each name is appended to it +in the text. The explanation of the first is, 'For he said, I have +been an alien in a strange land'; and that of the second, 'For the +God of my fathers, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the +sword of Pharaoh.' These two names give us a pathetic glimpse of the +feelings with which Moses began his exile, and of the better +thoughts into which these gradually cleared. The first child's name +expresses his father's discontent, and suggests the bitter contrast +between Sinai and Egypt; the court and the sheepfold; the gloomy, +verdureless, gaunt peaks of Sinai, blazing in the fierce sunshine, +and the cool, luscious vegetation of Goshen, the land for cattle. +The exile felt himself all out of joint with his surroundings, and +so he called the little child that came to him 'Gershom,' which, +according to one explanation, means 'banishment,' and, according to +another (a kind of punning etymology), means 'a stranger here'; in +the other case expressing the same sense of homelessness and want of +harmony with his surroundings. But as the years went on, Moses began +to acclimatise himself, and to become more reconciled to his +position and to see things more as they really were. So, when the +second child is born, all his murmuring has been hushed, and he +looks beyond circumstances, and lays his hand upon God. 'And the +name of the second was Eliezer, for, he said, the God of my fathers +was my help.' + +Now, there are the two main streams of thought that filled these +forty years; and it was worth while to put Moses into the desert for +all that time, and to break off the purposes and hopes of his life +sharp and short, and to condemn him to comparative idleness, or work +that was all unfitted to bring out his special powers, for that huge +scantling out of his life, one-third of the whole of it, in order +that there might be burnt into him, not either of these two thoughts +separately, but the two of them in their blessed conjunction; 'I am +a stranger here'; 'God is my Help.' And so these are the thoughts +which, in like juxtaposition, ought to be ours; and in higher +fashion with regard to the former of them than was experienced by +Moses. Let me say a word or two about each of these two things. Let +us think of the strangers, and of the divine helper that is with the +strangers. + +I. 'A stranger here.' + +Now, that is true, in the deepest sense, about all men; for the one +thing that makes the difference between the man and the beast is +that the beast is perfectly at home in his surroundings, and gets +all that he needs out of them, and finds in them a field for all +that he can do, and is fully developed to the very highest point of +his capacity by what people nowadays call the 'environment' in which +he is put. But the very opposite is the case in regard to us men. +'Foxes have holes,' and they are quite comfortable there; 'and the +birds of the air have roosting-places,' and tuck their heads under +their wings and go to sleep without a care and without a +consciousness. 'But the Son of man,' the ideal Humanity as well as +the realised ideal in the person of Jesus Christ, 'hath not where to +lay His head.' No; because He is so 'much better than they.' Their +immunity from care is not a prerogative--it is an inferiority. We +are plunged into the midst of a scene of things which obviously does +not match our capacities. There is a great deal more in every man +than can ever find a field of expression, of work, or of +satisfaction in anything beneath the stars. And no man that +understands, even superficially, his own character, his own +requirements, can fail to feel in his sane and quiet moments, when +the rush of temptation and the illusions of this fleeting life have +lost their grip upon him: 'This is not the place that can bring out +all that is in me, or that can yield me all that I desire.' Our +capacities transcend the present, and the experiences of the present +are all unintelligible, unless the true end of every human life is +not here at all, but in another region, for which these experiences +are fitting us. + +But, then, the temptations of life, the strong appeals of flesh and +sense, the duties which in their proper place are lofty and +elevating and refining, and put out of their place, are contemptible +and degrading, all come in to make it hard for any of us to keep +clearly before us what our consciousness tells us when it is +strongly appealed to, that we are strangers and sojourners here and +that this is not 'our rest, because it is polluted.' Therefore it +comes to be the great glory and blessedness of the Christian +Revelation that it obviously shifts the centre for us, and makes +that future, and not this present, the aim for which, and in the +pursuit of which, we are to live. So, Christian people, in a far +higher sense than Moses, who only felt himself 'a stranger there,' +because he did not like Midian as well as Egypt, have to say, 'We +are strangers here'; and the very aim, in one aspect, of our +Christian discipline of ourselves is that we shall keep vivid, in +the face of all the temptations to forget it, this consciousness of +being away from our true home. + +One means of doing that is to think rather oftener than the most of +us do, about our true home. You have heard, I dare say, of half- +reclaimed gipsies, who for a while have been coaxed out of the free +life of the woods and the moors, and have gone into settled homes. +After a while there has come over them a rush of feeling, a +remembrance of how blessed it used to be out in the open and away +from the squalor and filth where men 'sit and hear each other groan' +and they have flung off 'as if they were fetters' the trappings of +'civilisation,' and gone back to liberty. That is what we ought to +do--not going back from the higher to the lower, but smitten with +what the Germans call the _heimweh_, the home-sickness, that +makes us feel that we must get clearer sight of that land to which +we truly belong. + +Do you think about it, do you feel that where Jesus Christ is, is +your home? I have no doubt that most of you have, or have had, dear +ones here on earth about whom you could say that, 'Where my husband, +my wife is; where my beloved is, or my children are, that is my +home, wherever my abode may be.' Are you, Christian people, saying +the same thing about heaven and Jesus Christ? Do you feel that you +are strangers here, not only because you, reflecting upon your +character and capacities and on human life, see that all these +require another life for their explanation and development, but +because your hearts are knit to Him, and 'where your treasure is +there your heart is also'; and where your heart is there you are? We +go home when we come into communion with Jesus Christ. Do you ever, +in the course of the rush of your daily work, think about the calm +city beyond the sea, and about its King, and that you belong to it? +'Our citizenship is in heaven' and here we are strangers. + +II. Now let me say a word about the other child's name. + +'God is Helper.' We do not know what interval of time elapsed +between the birth of these two children. There are some indications +that the second of them was in years very much the junior. Perhaps +the transition from the mood represented in the one name to that +represented in the other, was a long and slow process. But be that +as it may, note the connection between these two names. You can +never say 'We are strangers here' without feeling a little prick of +pain, unless you say too 'God is my Helper.' There is a beautiful +variation of the former word which will occur to many of you, I have +no doubt, in one of the old psalms: 'I am a stranger _with +Thee_, and a sojourner, as were all my fathers.' There is the +secret that takes away all the mourning, all the possible discomfort +and pain, out of the thought: 'Here we have no continuing city,' and +makes it all blessed. It does not matter whether we are in a foreign +land or no, if we have that Companion with us. His presence will +make blessedness in Midian, or in Thebes. It does not matter whether +it is Goshen or the wilderness, if the Lord is by our side. So +sweetness is breathed into the thought, and bitterness is sucked out +of it, when the name of the second child is braided into the name of +the first; and we can contemplate quietly all else of tragic and +limiting and sad that is involved in the thought that we are +sojourners and pilgrims, when we say 'Yes! we are; but the Lord is +my Helper.' + +Then, on the other hand, we shall never say and feel 'the Lord is my +Helper,' as we ought to do, until we have got deep in our hearts, +and settled in our consciousness, the other conviction that we are +strangers here. It is only when we realise that there is no other +permanence for us that we put out our hands and grasp at the +Eternal, in order not to be swept away upon the dark waves of the +rushing stream of Time. It is only when all other props are stricken +from us that we rest our whole weight upon that one strong central +pillar, which can never be moved. Learn that God helps, for that +makes it possible to say 'I am a stranger,' and not to weep. Learn +that you are strangers, for that stimulates to take God for out +help. Just as when the floods are out, men are driven to the highest +ground to save their lives; so when the billows of the waters of +time are seen to be rolling over all creatural things, we take our +flight to the Rock of Ages. Put the two together, and they fit one +another and strengthen us. + +This second conviction was the illuminating light upon a perplexed +and problematic past. Moses, when he fled from Egypt, thought that +his life's work was rent in twain. He had believed that his brethren +would have seen that it was God's purpose to use him as the +deliverer. For the sake of being such, he had surrendered the court +and its delights. But on his young ambition and innocent enthusiasm +there came this _douche_ of cold water, which lasted for forty +years, and sent him away into the wilderness, to be a shepherd under +an Arab sheikh, with nothing to look forward to. At first he said, +'This is not what I was meant for; I am out of my element here.' But +before the forty years were over he said, 'The God of my father was +my help, and He delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.' What had +looked a disaster turned out to be a deliverance, a manifestation of +divine help, and not a hindrance. He had got far enough away from +that past to look at it sanely, that is to say gratefully. So we, +when we get far enough away from our sorrows, can look back at them, +sometimes even here on earth, and say, 'The mercy of the Lord +compassed me about.' Here is the key that unlocks all the +perplexities of providence, 'The Lord was my Helper.' + +And that conviction will steady and uphold a man in a present, +however dark. It was no small exercise of his faith and patience +that the great lawgiver should for so many years have such unworthy +work to do as he had in Midian. But even then he gathered into his +heart this confidence, and brought summer about him into the mid- +winter of his life, and light into the midst of darkness; 'for he +said'--even then, when there was no work for him to do that seemed +much to need a divine help--'the Lord is my Helper.' + +And so, however dark may be our present moment, and however obscure +or repulsive our own tasks, let us fall back upon that old word, +'Thou hast been my Help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of +my salvation.' + +When Moses named his boy, his gratitude was allied with faith in +favours to come; and when he said 'was,' he meant also 'will be.' +And he was right. He dreamt very little of what was coming, but this +confidence that was expressed in his second child's name was +warranted by that great future that lay before him, though he did +not know it. When the pinch came his confidence faltered. It was +easy to say 'The Lord is my Helper,' when there was nothing very +special for which God's help was needed, and nothing harder to do +than to look after a few sheep in the wilderness. But when God said +to him, 'Go and stand before Pharaoh,' Moses for the moment forgot +all about God's being his helper, and was full of all manner of +cowardly excuses, which, like the excuses of a great many more of us +for not doing our plain duty, took the shape of a very engaging +modesty and diffidence as to his capacities. But God said to him, +'Surely I will be with thee.' He gave him back 'Eliezer' in a little +different form. 'You used to say that I was your helper. What has +become of your faith now? Has it all evaporated when the trial +comes? Surely I will be with thee.' If we will set ourselves to our +tasks, not doubting God's help, we shall have occasion in the event +to be sure that God did help us. + +So, brethren, let us cherish these two thoughts, and never keep them +apart, and God will be, as our good old hymn has it-- + + 'Our help while troubles last, + And our eternal home.' + + + + +THE IDEAL STATESMAN +[Footnote: Preached on occasion of Mr. Gladstone's death.] + + 'Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, + such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; + and place such over them.'--EXODUS xviii. 21. + +You will have anticipated my purpose in selecting this text. I +should be doing violence to your feelings and mine if I made no +reference to the event which has united the Empire and the world in +one sentiment. The great tree has fallen, and the crash has for the +moment silenced all the sounds of the forest. Wars abroad and +controversies at home are hushed. All men, of all schools of +opinion, creeds, and parties, see now, in the calm face of the dead, +'the likeness to the great of old'; and it says something, with all +our faults, for the soundness of the heart of English opinion, that +all sorts and conditions of men have brought their sad wreaths to +lay them on that coffin. + +But, whilst much has been said, far more eloquently and +authoritatively than I can say it, about the many aspects of that +many-sided life, surely it becomes us, as Christian people, to look +at it from the distinctively Christian point of view, and to gather +some of the lessons which, so regarded, it teaches us. + +My text is part of the sagacious advice which Jethro, the father-in- +law of Moses, gave him about the sort of men that he should pick out +to be his lieutenants in civic government. Its old-fashioned, simple +phraseology may hide from some of us the elevation and +comprehensiveness of the ideal that it sets forth. But it is a grand +ideal; and amongst the great names of Englishmen who have guided the +destinies of this land, none have approached more nearly to it than +he whose death has taken away the most striking personality from our +public life. + +So let me ask you to look with me, first, at the ideal of a +politician that is set forth here. + +The free life of the desert, far away from the oppressions of +surrounding military despotisms, that remarkable and antique +constitution of the clan, with all its beautiful loyalty, had given +this Arab sheikh a far loftier conception of what a ruler of men was +than he could have found exemplified at Pharaoh's court; or than, +alas! has been common in many so-called Christian countries. The +field upon which he intended that these great qualities should be +exercised was a very limited one, to manage the little affairs of a +handful of fugitives in the desert. But the scale on which we work +has nothing to do with the principles by which we work, and the laws +of perspective and colouring are the same, whether you paint the +minutest miniature or a gigantic fresco. So what was needed for +managing the little concerns of Moses' wanderers in the wilderness +is the ideal of what is needed for the men who direct the public +affairs of world-wide empires. + +Let me run over the details. They must be 'able men,' or, as the +original has it, 'men of strength.' There is the intellectual basis, +and especially the basis of firm, brave, strongly-set will which +will grasp convictions, and, whatever comes, will follow them to +their conclusions. The statesman is not one that puts his ear down +to the ground to hear the tramp of some advancing host, and then +makes up his mind to follow in their paths; he is not sensitive to +the varying winds of public opinion, nor does he trim his sails to +suit them, but he comes to his convictions by first-hand approach +to, and meditation on, the great principles that are to guide, and +then holds to them with a strength that nothing can weaken, and a +courage that nothing can daunt. 'Men of strength' is what +democracies like ours do most need in their leaders; a 'strong man, +in a blatant land,' who knows his own mind, and is faithful to it +for ever. That is a great demand. + +'Such as fear God'--there is the secret of strength, not merely in +reference to the intellectual powers which are not dependent for +their origin, though they may be for the health and vigour of their +work, upon any religious sentiment, but in regard to all true power. +He that would govern others must first be lord of himself, and he +only is lord of himself who is consciously and habitually the +servant of God. So that whatever natural endowment we start with, it +must be heightened, purified, deepened, enlarged, by the presence in +our lives of a deep and vital religious conviction. That is true +about all men, leaders and led, large and small. That is the bottom- +heat in the greenhouse, as it were, that will make riper and sweeter +all the fruits which are the natural result of natural capacities. +That is the amulet and the charm which will keep a man from the +temptations incident to his position and the weaknesses incident to +his character. The fear of God underlies the noblest lives. That is +not to-day's theory. We are familiar with the fact, and familiar +with the doctrine formulated out of it, that there may be men of +strong and noble lives and great leaders in many a department of +human activity without any reference to the Unseen. Yes, there may +be, but they are all fragments, and the complete man comes only when +the fear of the Lord is guide, leader, impulse, polestar, regulator, +corrector, and inspirer of all that he is and all that he does. + +'Men of truth'--that, of course, glances at the crooked ways which +belong not only to Eastern statesmanship, but it does more than +that. He that is to lead men must himself be led by an eager haste +to follow after, and to apprehend, the very truth of things. And +there must be in him clear transparent willingness to render his +utmost allegiance, at any sacrifice, to the dawning convictions that +may grow upon him. It is only fools that do not change. Freshness of +enthusiasm, and fidelity to new convictions opening upon a man, to +the end of his life, are not the least important of the requirements +in him who would persuade and guide individuals or a nation. + +'Hating covetousness'; or, as it might be rendered, 'unjust gain.' +That reference to the 'oiling of the palms' of Eastern judges may be +taken in a loftier signification. If a man is to stand forth as the +leader of a people, he must be clear, as old Samuel said that he +was, from all suspicion of having been following out his career for +any form of personal advantage. 'Clean hands,' and that not only +from the vulgar filth of wealth, but from the more subtle advantages +which may accrue from a lofty position, are demanded of the leader +of men. + +Such is the ideal. The requirements are stern and high, and they +exclude the vermin that infest 'politics,' as they are called, and +cause them to stink in many nostrils. The self-seeking schemer, the +one-eyed partisan, the cynic who disbelieves in ideals of any sort, +the charlatan who assumes virtues that he does not possess, and +mouths noble sentiments that go no deeper than his teeth, are all +shut out by them. The doctrine that a man may do in his public +capacity things which would be disgraceful in private life, and yet +retain his personal honour untarnished, is blown to atoms by this +ideal. It is much to be regretted, and in some senses to be +censured, that so many of our wisest, best, and most influential men +stand apart from public life. Much of that is due to personal bias, +much more of it is due to the pressure of more congenial duties, and +not a little of it is due to the disregard of Jethro's ideal, and to +the degradation of public life which has ensued thereby. But there +have been great men in our history whose lives have helped to lift +up the ideal of a statesman, who have made such a sketch as Jethro +outlined, though they may not have used his words, their polestar; +and amongst the highest of these has been the man whose loss we to- +day lament. + +Let me try to vindicate that expression of opinion in a word or two. +I cannot hope to vie in literary grace, or in completeness, with the +eulogies that have been abundantly poured out; and I should not have +thought it right to divert this hour of worship from its ordinary +themes, if I had had no more to say than has been far better said a +thousand times in these last days. But I cannot help noticing that, +though there has been a consensus of admiration of, and a +practically unanimous pointing to, character as after all the secret +of the spell which Mr. Gladstone has exercised for two generations, +there has not been, as it seems to me, equal and due prominence +given to what was, and what he himself would have said was, the real +root of his character and the productive cause of his achievements. + +And so I venture now to say a word or two about the religion of the +man that to his own consciousness underlay all the rest of him. It +is not for me to speak, and there is no need to speak, about the +marvellous natural endowments and the equally marvellous, many-sided +equipment of attainment which enriched the rich, natural soil. +Intermeddling as he did with all knowledge, he must necessarily have +been but an amateur in many of the subjects into which he rushed +with such generous eagerness. But none the less is the example of +all but omnivorous acquisitiveness of everything that was to be +known, a protest, very needful in these days, against the possible +evils of an excessive specialising which the very progress of +knowledge in all departments seems to make inevitable. I do not need +to speak, either, of the flow, and sometimes the torrent, of +eloquence ever at his command, nor of the lithe and sinewy force of +his extraordinarily nimble, as well as massive, mind; nor need I say +more than one word about the remarkable combination of qualities so +generally held and seen to be incompatible, which put into one +personality a genius for dry arithmetical figures and a genius for +enthusiasm and sympathy with all the oppressed. All these things +have been said far better than I can say them, and I do not repeat +them. + +But I desire to hammer this one conviction into your hearts and my +own, that the inmost secret of that noble life, of all that wealth +of capacity, all that load of learning, which he bore lightly like a +flower, was the fact that the man was, to the very depths of his +nature, a devout Christian. He would have been as capable, as +eloquent, and all the rest of it, if he had been an unbeliever. But +he would never have been nor done what he was and did, and he would +never have left the dint of an impressive and lofty personality upon +a whole nation and a world, if beneath the intellect there had not +been character, and beneath character Christianity. + +He was far removed, in ecclesiastical connections, from us +Nonconformists, and he held opinions in regard to some very +important ecclesiastical questions which cut straight across some of +our deepest convictions. We never had to look for much favour from +his hands, because his intellectual atmosphere removed him far from +sympathy with many of the truths which are dearest to the members of +the Free Evangelical Churches. But none the less we recognise in him +a brother in Jesus Christ, and rejoice that there, on the high +places of a careless and sceptical generation, there stood a +Christian man. + +In this connection I cannot but, though I have no right to do so, +express how profoundly thankful I, for one, was to the present Prime +Minister of England that in his brief eulogium on, I was going to +say, his great rival, he ended all by the emphatic declaration that +Mr. Gladstone was, first and foremost, a great Christian man. Yes; +and there was the secret, as I have already said, not of his merely +political eminence, but of the universal reverence which a nation +expresses to-day. All detraction is silenced, and all calumnies have +dropped away, as filth from the white wings of a swan as it soars, +and with one voice the Empire and the world confess that he was a +great and a good man. + +I need not dwell in detail on the thoughts of how, by reason of this +deep underlying fear of God, the other qualifications which are +sketched in our ideal found their realisation in him; how those who, +all through his career, smiled most at the successive enthusiasms +which monopolised his mind, and sometimes at the contrasts between +these, are now ready to admit that, whether the enthusiasms were +right or wrong, there is something noble in the spectacle of a man +ever keeping his mind, even when its windows were beginning to be +dimmed by the frosts of age, open to the beams of new truth. And the +greatest, as some people think, of his political blunders, as we are +beginning, all of us, to recognise, now that party strife is hushed, +was the direct consequence of that ever fresh and youthful +enthusiasm for new thoughts and new lines of action. Innovators aged +eighty are not too numerous. + +Nor need I say more than one word about the other part of the ideal, +'hating covetousness.' The giver of peerages by the bushel died a +commoner. The man that had everything at his command made no money, +nor anything else, out of his long years of office, except the +satisfaction of having been permitted to render what he believed to +be the highest of service to the nation that he loved so well. Like +our whilom neighbour, the other great commoner, John Bright, he +lived among his own people; and like Samuel, of whom I have already +spoken, he could stretch out his old hands and say, 'They are +clean.' One scarcely feels as if, to such a life, a State funeral in +Westminster Abbey was congruous. One had rather have seen him laid +among the humble villagers who were his friends and companions, and +in the quiet churchyard which his steps had so often traversed. But +at all events the ideal was realised, and we all know what it was. + +Might I say one word more? As this great figure passes out of men's +sight to nobler work, be sure, on widened horizons corresponding to +his tutored and exercised powers, does he leave no lessons behind +for us? He leaves one very plain, homely one, and that is, 'Work +while it is called to-day.' No opulence of endowment tempted this +man to indolence, and no poverty of endowment will excuse us for +sloth. Work is the law of our lives; and the more highly we are +gifted, the more are we bound to serve. + +He leaves us another lesson. Follow convictions as they open before +you, and never think that you have done growing, or have reached +your final stage. + +He leaves another lesson. Do not suppose that the Gospel of Jesus +Christ cannot satisfy the keenest intellect, nor dominate the +strongest will. It has come to be a mark of narrowness and +fossilhood to be a devout believer in Christ and His Cross. Some of +you young men make an easy reputation for cleverness and advanced +thought by the short and simple process of disbelieving what your +mother taught you. Here is a man, probably as great as you are, with +as keen an intellect, and he clung to the Cross of Christ, and had +for his favourite hymn-- + + 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee.' + +He leaves another lesson. If you desire to make your characters all +that it is in them to be made, you must, like him, go to Jesus +Christ, and get your teaching and your inspiration from that great +Lord. We cannot all be great men. Never mind. It is character that +tells; we can all be good men, and we can all be Christian men. And +whether we build cottages or palaces, if we build on one foundation, +and only if we do, they will stand. + +Moses leaves another lesson, as he glides into the past. 'This man, +having served his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and +was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption'; but He 'whom God +hath raised up saw no corruption.' The lamps are quenched, the sun +shines. Moses dies, 'The prophets, do they live for ever?' but when +Moses and Elias faded from the Mount of Transfiguration 'the +apostles saw no man any more, save Jesus only,' and the voice said, +'This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.' + + + + +THE DECALOGUE: I--MAN AND GOD + + + 'And God spake all these words, saying, 2. I am the Lord + thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of + Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3. Thou shalt have + no other gods before me. 4. Thou shalt not make unto + thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing + that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth + beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5. + Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: + for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the + iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third + and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6. And + shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and + keep my commandments. 7. Thou shalt not take the name of + the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him + guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8. Remember the + sabbath-day, to keep it holy. 9. Six days shalt thou + labour, and do all thy work: 10. But the seventh day is + the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do + any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy + man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor + thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11. For in six + days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all + that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore + the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it.' + --EXODUS xx. 1-11. + +An obscure tribe of Egyptian slaves plunges into the desert to hide +from pursuit, and emerges, after forty years, with a code gathered +into 'ten words,' so brief, so complete, so intertwining morality +and religion, so free from local or national peculiarities, so close +fitting to fundamental duties, that it is to-day, after more than +three thousand years, authoritative in the most enlightened peoples. +The voice that spoke from Sinai reverberates in all lands. The Old +World had other lawgivers who professed to formulate their precepts +by divine inspiration: they are all fallen silent. But this voice, +like the trumpet on that day, waxes louder and louder as the years +roll. Whose voice was it? The only answer explaining the supreme +purity of the commandments, and their immortal freshness, is found +in the first sentence of this paragraph, 'God spake all these +words.' + +I. We have first the revelation, which precedes and lays the +foundation for the commandments; 'I am the Lord thy God, which have +brought thee out of the land of Egypt.' God speaks to the nation as +a whole, establishing a special relation between Himself and them, +which is founded on His redeeming act, and is reciprocal, requiring +that they should be His people, as He is their God. The +manifestation in act of His power and of His love precedes the claim +for reverence and obedience. This is a universal truth. God gives +before He asks us to give. He is not a hard taskmaster, 'gathering +where He has not strawn.' Even in that system which is eminently +'the law,' the foundation is a divine act of deliverance, and only +when He has won the people for Himself by redeeming them from +bondage does He call on them for obedience. His rule is built on +benefits. He urges no mere right of the mightier, nor cares for +service which is not the glad answer of gratitude. The flashing +flames which ran as swift heralds before His descending chariot +wheels, the quaking mountain, the long-drawn blasts of the trumpet, +awed the gathered crowd. But the first articulate words made a +tenderer appeal, and sought to found His right to command on His +love, and their duty to obey on their gratitude. The great gospel +principle, that the Redeemer is the lawgiver, and the redeemed are +joyful subjects because their hearts are touched with love, +underlies the apparently sterner system of the Old Testament. God +opens His heart first, and then asks for men's. + +This prelude certainly confines the Decalogue to the people of +Israel. Their deliverance is the ground on which the law is rested, +therefore, plainly, the obligation can be no wider than the benefit. +But though we are not bound to obey any of the Ten Commandments, +because they were given to Israel, they are all, with one exception, +demonstrably, a transcript of laws written on the heart of mankind; +and this fact carries with it a strong presumption that the law of +the Sabbath, which is the exception referred to, should be regarded +as not an exception, but as a statute of the primeval law, witnessed +to by conscience, republished in wondrous precision and completeness +in these venerable precepts. The Ten Commandments are binding on us; +but they are not binding as part, though the fundamental part, of +the Jewish law. + +Two general observations may be made. One is on the negative +character of the commandments as a whole. Law prohibits because men +are sinful. But prohibitions pre-suppose as their foundation +positive commands. We are forbidden to do something because we are +inclined to do it, and because we ought to do the opposite. Every +'thou shalt not' implies a deeper 'thou shalt.' The cold negation +really rests on the converse affirmative command. + +The second remark on the law as a whole is as to the relation which +it establishes between religion and morality, making the latter a +part of the former, but regarding it as secured only by the prior +discharge of the obligations of the former. Morality is the garb of +religion; religion is the animating principle of morality. The +attempts to build up a theory of ethics without reference to our +relations to God, or to secure the practice of righteousness without +such reference, or to substitute, with a late champion of unbelief, +'the service of man' for the worship of God, are all condemned by +the deeper and simpler wisdom of this law. Christians should learn +the lesson, which the most Jewish of the New Testament writers had +drawn from it, that, 'pure and undefiled service' of God is the +service of man, and should beware of putting asunder what God has +joined so closely. + +II. The first commandment bears in its negative form marks of the +condition of the world when it was spoken, and of the strong +temptation to polytheism which the Israelites were to resist. +Everywhere but in that corner among the wild rocks of Sinai, men +believed in 'gods many.' Egypt swarmed with them; and, no doubt, the +purity of Abraham's faith had been sadly tarnished in his sons. We +cannot understand the strange fascination of polytheism. It is a +disease of humanity in an earlier stage than ours. But how strong it +was and is, all history shows. All these many gods were on amicable +terms with one another, and ready to welcome newcomers. But the +monotheism, which was here laid at the very foundation of Israel's +national life, parted it by a deep gulf from all the world, and +determined its history. + +The prohibition has little force for us; but the positive command +which underlies it is of eternal force. We should rather think of it +as a revelation and an invitation than as a mere command. For what +is it but the declaration that at the centre of things is throned, +not a rabble of godlings, nor a stony impersonal somewhat, nor a +hypothetical unknowable entity, nor a shadowy abstraction, but a +living Person, who can say 'Me,' and whom we can call on as 'Thou,' +and be sure that He hears? No accumulation of finite excellences, +however fair, can satisfy the imagination, which feels after one +Being, the personal ideal of all perfectness. The understanding +needs one ultimate Cause on which it can rest amid the dance of +fleeting phenomena; the heart cannot pour out its love to be shared +among many. No string of goodly pearls will ever give the +merchantman assurance that his quest is complete. Only when human +nature finds all in One, and that One a living Person, the Lover and +Friend of all souls, does it fold its wings and rest as a bird after +long flight. + +The first commandment enjoins, or rather blesses us by showing us +that we may cherish, supreme affection, worship, trust, self- +surrender, aspiration, towards one God. After all, our God is that +which we think most precious, for which we are ready to make the +greatest sacrifices, which draws our warmest love; which, lost, +would leave us desolate; which, possessed, makes us blessed. If we +search our hearts with this 'candle of the Lord,' we shall find many +an idol set up in their dark corners, and be startled to discover +how much we need to bring ourselves to be judged and condemned by +this commandment It is the foundation of all human duty. Obedience +to it is the condition of peace and blessedness, light and leading +for mind, heart, will, affections, desires, hopes, fears, and all +the world within, that longs for one living Person even when it +least knows the meaning of its longings and the reason of its +unrest. + +III. The second commandment forbids all representations, whether of +the one God or of false deities. The golden calf, which was a symbol +of Jehovah, is condemned equally with the fair forms that haunted +the Greek Olympus, or the half-bestial shapes of Egyptian mythology. +The reasons for the prohibition may be considered as two,--the +impossibility of setting forth the glory of the Infinite Spirit in +any form, and the certainty that the attempt will sink the +worshipper deeper in the mire of sense. An image degrades God and +damages men. By it religion reverses its nature, and becomes another +clog to keep the soul among the things seen, and an ally of all +fleshly inclinations. We know how idolatry seemed to cast a spell +over the Israelites from Egypt to Babylon, and how their first +relapse into it took place almost before the voice which 'spake all +these words' had ceased. + +In its grosser form, we have no temptation to it. But there are +other ways of breaking the commandment than setting up an image. All +sensuous worship in which the treacherous aid of art is called in to +elevate the soul, comes perilously near to contradicting its spirit, +if not its letter. The attempt to make of the senses a ladder for +the soul to climb to God by, is a great deal more likely to end in +the soul's going down the ladder than up it. The history of public +worship in the Christian Church teaches that the less it has to do +with such slippery help the better. There is a strong current +running in England, at all events, in the direction of bringing in a +more artistic, or, as it is called, a 'less bare,' form of service. +We need to remember that the God who is a Spirit is worshipped 'in +spirit,' and that outward forms may easily choke, and outward aids +hinder, that worship. + +The especial difficulty of obedience to this commandment is marked +by the reason or sanction annexed. That opens a wide field, on which +it would be folly to venture here. There is a glimpse of God's +character, and a statement of a law of His working. He is a +'jealous' God, We need not be afraid of the word. It means nothing +but what is congruous with the loftiest conception of a loving God. +It means that He allows of no rival in our hearts' affection, or in +our submission for love's sake to Him. A half trust in God is no +trust. How can worship be shared, or love be parted out, among a +pantheon? Our poor hearts ask of one another and get from one +another, wherever a man and a woman truly love, just what God +asks,--'All in all, or not at all.' His jealousy is but infinite +love seeking to be known as such, and asking for a whole heart. + +The law of His providence sounds hard, but it is nothing more than +stating in plain words the course of the world's history, which +cannot be otherwise if there is to be any bond of human society at +all. We hear a great deal in modern language about solidarity (and +sometimes it is spelled with a final 'e,' to look more +philosophical) and heredity. The teaching of this commandment is +simply a statement of the same facts, with the addition that the +Lawgiver is visible behind the law. The consequences of conduct do +not die with the doers. 'The evil that men do, lives after them.' +The generations are so knit together, and the full results of deeds +are often so slow-growing, that one generation sows and another +reaps. Who sowed the seed that fruited in misery, and was gathered +in a bitter harvest of horrors and crimes in the French Revolution? +Who planted the tree under which the citizens of the United States +sit? Did not the seedling go over in the _Mayflower_? As long +as the generations of men are more closely connected than those of +sheep or birds, this solemn word must be true. Let us see that we +sow no tares to poison our children when we are in our graves. The +saying had immediate application to the consequences of idolatry in +the history of Israel, and was a forecast of their future. But it is +true evermore and everywhere. + +IV. The third commandment must be so understood as to bring it into +line with the two preceding, as of equal breadth and equally +fundamental. It cannot, therefore, be confined to the use of the +name of God in oaths, whether false or trivial. No doubt, perjury +and profane swearing are included in the sweep of the prohibition; +but it reaches far beyond them. The name of God is the declaration +of His being and character. We take His name 'in vain' when we speak +of Him unworthily. Many a glib and formal prayer, many a mechanical +or self-glorifying sermon, many an erudite controversy, comes under +the lash of this prohibition. Professions of devotion far more +fervid than real, confessions in which the conscience is not +stricken, orthodox teachings with no throb of life in them, +unconscious hypocrisies of worship, and much besides, are gibbeted +here. The most vain of all words are those which have become +traditional stock in trade for religious people, which once +expressed deep convictions, and are now a world too wide for the +shrunk faith which wears them. + +The positive side underlying the negative is the requirement that +our speech of God shall fit our thought of God, and our thought of +Him shall fit His Name; that our words shall mirror our affections, +and our affection be a true reflection of His beauty and sweetness; +that cleansed lips shall reverently utter the Name above every name, +which, after all speech, must remain unspoken; and that we shall +feel it to be not the least wonderful or merciful of His +condescensions that He 'is extolled with our tongues.' + +V. The series of commandments referring to Israel's relations with +God is distinctly progressive from the first to the fourth, which +deals with the Sabbath. The fact that it appears here, side by side +with these absolutely universal and first principles of religion and +worship, clearly shows that the giver of the code regarded it as of +equal comprehensiveness. If we believe that the giver of the code +was God, we seem shut up to the conclusion that, though the Sabbath +is a positive institution, and in so far unlike the preceding +commandments, it is to be taken as not merely a temporary or Jewish +ordinance. The ground on which it is rested here points to the same +conclusion. The version of the Decalogue in Deuteronomy bases it on +the Egyptian deliverance, but this, on the divine rest after +creation. As we have already said, we do not regard the Decalogue as +binding on us because given to Israel; but we do regard it as +containing laws universally binding, which are written by God's +finger, not on tables of stone, but on 'the fleshly tables of the +heart.' All the others are admittedly of this nature. Is not the +Sabbath law likewise? It is not, indeed, inscribed on the +conscience, but is the need for it not stamped on the physical +nature? The human organism requires the seventh-day rest, whether +men toil with hand or brain. Historically, it is not true that the +Sabbath was founded by this legislation. The traces of its +observance in Genesis are few and doubtful; but we know from the +inscriptions that the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty- +eighth days of the moon were set apart by the Assyrians, and +scholars can supply other instances. The 'Remember' of this +commandment can scarcely be urged as establishing this, for it may +quite as naturally be explained to mean 'Remember, as each +successive seventh day comes round, to consecrate it.' But apart +from that, the law written on body, mind, and soul says plainly to +all men, 'Rest on the seventh day.' Body and mind need repose; the +soul needs quiet communion with God. No vigorous physical, +intellectual, or religious life will long be kept up, if that need +be disregarded. The week was meant to be given to work, which is +blessed and right if done after the pattern of God's. The Sabbath +was meant to lift to a share in His rest, to bring eternity into +time, to renew wasted strength 'by a wise passiveness,' and to draw +hearts dissipated by contact with fleeting tasks back into the +stillness where they can find themselves in fellowship with God. + +We have not the Jewish Sabbath, nor is it binding on us. But as men +we ought to rest, and resting, to worship, on one day in the week. +The unwritten law of Christianity, moulding all outward forms by its +own free spirit, gradually, and without premeditation, slid from the +seventh to the first day, as it had clear right to do. It was the +day of Christ's resurrection, probably of His ascension, and of +Pentecost. It is 'the Lord's Day.' In observing it, we unite both +the reasons for the Sabbath given in Exodus and Deuteronomy,--the +completion of a higher creation in the resurrection rest of the Son +of God, and the deliverance from a sorer bondage by a better Moses. +The Christian Sunday and its religious observance are indispensable +to the religious life of individuals and nations. The day of rest is +indispensable to their well-being. Our hard-working millions will +bitterly rue their folly, if they are tempted to cast it away on the +plea of obtaining opportunities for intellectual culture and +enjoyment. It is + + 'The couch of time, care's balm and bay,' + +and we shall be wise if we hold fast by it; not because the Jews +were bid to hallow the seventh day, but because we need it for +repose, and we need it for religion. + + + + +THE DECALOGUE: II.--MAN AND MAN + + + 'Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be + long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. + 13. Thou shalt not kill. 14. Thou shalt not commit + adultery. 15. Thou shalt not steal. 16. Thou shalt not + bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17. Thou + shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not + covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor + his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing + that is thy neighbour's. 18. And all the people saw the + thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the + trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and, when the people + saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19. And they + said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: + but let not God speak with us, lest we die. 20. And Moses + said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove + you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye + sin not. 21. And the people stood afar off: and Moses + drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.' + --EXODUS xx. 12-21. + +I. The broad distinction between the two halves of the Decalogue is +that the former deals with man's relations to God, and the latter +with His relations to men. This double division is recognised in the +New Testament summary of 'all the law,' as found in two +commandments, and is probably implied in the two tables on which it +was inscribed. Commentators have been much exercised, however, about +how to divide the commandments between these two parts. The fifth, +which is the first in this division, belongs in substance to the +second half, but its form connects it with the first table. It is +like the preceding ones in having a reason appended, and in naming +'the Lord thy God'; while the following are all bare, curt +prohibitions. The fact seems to be that it is a transition +commandment, and meant to cast special sacredness round the parental +relationship, by paralleling it, in some sense, with that to God, of +which it is a reflection. Other duties to other men stand on a +different level from duties to parents. 'Honour,' which is to be +theirs, is not remote from the reverence due to God. They are, as it +were, His shadows to the child. The fatherhood of God is dimly +revealed in that parting off the commandment from the second table, +and assimilating it in form to the laws of the first. + +II. The connection of the two halves of the Decalogue teaches some +important truth. Josephus said a wise thing when he remarked that, +'whereas other legislators had made religion a department of virtue, +Moses made virtue a department of religion.' No theory of morals is +built upon the deepest foundation which does not recognise the final +ground of the obligation of duty in the voice of God. Duty is +_debitum_-debt. Who is the creditor? Myself? An impersonal law? +Society? No, God. The practice of morality depends, like its theory, +on religion. In the long-run, and on the wide scale, nations and +periods which have lost the latter will not long keep the former in +any vigour or purity. He who begins by erasing the first commandment +will sooner or later make a clean sweep of all the ten. And, on the +other hand, wherever there is true worship of the one God, there all +fair charities between man and man will flourish and fruit. The two +tables are one law. Duties to God come first, and those to man, who +is made in the image of God, flow from these. + +III. The order of these human duties is significant. We have, next +after the law of parental reverence, three commandments, which, in a +descending series of importance, forbid crimes against life, +marriage, and property. Then the law passes from deeds to the more +subtle, and, as men think, less grave, offences of the tongue. Next +it crosses the boundary which divides human from divine law, and +crimes from sins, to take cognisance of unspoken and unacted +desires. So the order of progress in the first table is exactly the +reverse of that in the second. There we begin with inward devotion, +and travel outwards by deed and word to the sabbatical institution; +here we begin with overt acts, and travel inwards, through words, to +the hidden desire. The end touches the beginning. For that which we +'covet' is our God; and the first commandment is only obeyed when +our hearts hunger after Him, and not after earth. The sequence here +corresponds to the order of progress in our knowledge and practice +of our human duties. The first thing that the rudest state of +society has to do is to establish some kind of security for life and +property and woman's honour. The worst men know that much as their +duty, however foul may be their lips, and hot their passions. Then +the recognition of the sanctity of the great gift of speech, and the +supreme obligations of veracity, grow upon men as they get above the +earlier stage. Most children pass through a phase when they tell +lies as pastime, and most rude societies and half-moralised men have +a similar epoch. Last of all, when actions have been bridled and the +tongue taught the law of truth, comes the full recognition that the +work is not done till the silent longing of a hungry heart is +stilled, and that unselfish love of our neighbour is only perfect +when we can rejoice in his good and wish none of it for ourselves. +The second table is a chart of moral progress. + +IV. The scope of these laws has often been violently stretched so as +to include all human duty; but without tugging at them so as to make +them cover everything, we may note briefly how far they extend. We +are scarcely warranted in taking any of them but the last, as going +deeper than overt acts, for, though our Lord has taught in the +Sermon on the Mount that hatred is murder, and impure desire +adultery, that is His deepening of the commandment. But it is quite +fair to bring out the positive precept which, in each case, +underlies the stern, short prohibition. + +The fifth commandment shares with the fourth the distinction of +being a positive command. It enjoins 'honour,' not 'love,' partly +because, in olden times, the father was a prince in his house in a +sense that has long since ceased to be true, partly because there +was less need to enjoin the affection which is in some degree +instinctive, than the submission and respect which the children are +tempted to withhold, partly in order to suggest the analogy with +reverence to God. A strange change has passed over the relations of +parents and children, even within a generation. There is more, +perhaps, of frank familiar intercourse, which, no doubt, is an +improvement on the old style. But there is a great deal less of what +the commandment enjoins. City life, education, the general impairing +of the idea of authority, which we see everywhere, have told upon +many families; and many a father who, by indulgence or by too much +engrossment in business, lets the children twitch the reins out of +his hands, might lament, as his grown-up children spurn control, 'If +then I be a father, where is mine honour?' There is no one of the +commandments which it is more needful to preach in England than +this. + +The promise attached to it has another side of threatening. It is a +plain fact that when the paternal relation is corrupted, a powerful +solvent has been introduced which rapidly tends to disintegrate +society. The most ancient empire in the world today, China, has, +amid many vices and follies, been preserved mainly by the profound +reverence to ancestors which is largely its real working religion. +The most vigorous power in the old world, Rome, owed its iron might +not only to its early simplicity of life and its iron tenacity, but +to the strength of paternal authority and the willingness of filial +obedience. No more serious damage can be inflicted on society or on +individuals than the weakening of the honour paid to fathers and +mothers. + +'Thou shalt not kill' forbids not only the act of murder, but all +that endangers life. It enjoins all care, diligence, and effort to +preserve it. A man who looks on while another drowns, or who sends a +ship out half manned and overloaded, breaks it as really as a red- +handed murderer. But the commandment was not intended to touch the +questions of capital punishment or of war. These were allowed under +the Jewish code, and cannot therefore be supposed to be prohibited +here. How far either is consistent with the deepest meaning of the +law, as expanded and reconsecrated in Christianity, is another +question. Their defenders have to execute some startling feats of +gymnastics to harmonise either with the New Testament. + + 'Curus kind o' Christian dooty, + This 'ere cuttin' folks's throats.' + +The ground of the commandment is not given, seeing that conscience +is expected to admit its force as soon as stated. But its place at +the head of the second table brings it into connection with the +first commandment, and suggests that man's life is sacred because he +is the image of God. As Christians, we are bound to interpret it on +the lines which Christ has laid down; according to which, hatred is +murder, and love is the fulfilling of this as of all other laws. So +Luther's comprehensive summing up of the duties enjoined may be +accepted: 'Patience, gentleness, kindliness, peaceableness, pity, +and, of all things, a sweet, friendly heart, without any hate, +anger, bitterness, toward any, even enemies.' + +In like manner, the seventh commandment sanctifies wedded life, and is +the first step in that true reverence of woman which marked the Jewish +people through all their history, and was in such contrast to her +position in all other ancient societies. Purity in all the relations +of the sexes, the control of passion, the reverence for marriage, are +subjects difficult to speak of in public. But modern society sorely +needs some plain speaking on these subjects--abundance of bread and +idleness, facilities for divorce, the filth which newspapers lay down +on every breakfast-table, the insidious sensuality of much fiction and +art, the licence of the stage. The opportunities for secret profligacy +in great cities conspire to loosen the bonds of morality. I would +venture to ask public teachers seriously to consider their duty in this +matter, and to seek for opportunities wisely to warn budding youth of +the pitfalls in its path. + +What is 'stealing'? As Luther says, 'It is the smallest part of the +thieves that are hung. If we are to hang them all, where shall we +get rope enough? We must make all our belts and straps into +halters.' + +Theft is the taking or keeping what is not 'mine.' But what do we +mean by 'mine'? Communists tell us that 'property is theft.' But +that is the exaggeration of the scriptural teaching that all +property is trust property, that possessions are 'mine' on +conditions and for purposes, that I cannot 'do what I will with mine +own,' but am a steward, set to dispense it to those who want. The +Christian doctrine of stewardship extends this commandment over much +ground which we seldom think of as affected by it. All sharp +practice in business, the shopkeeper's false weights and the +merchant's equivalents of these, adulterations, pirating trademarks, +imitating a rival's goods, infringing patents, and the like, however +disguised by fine names, are neither more nor less than stealing. +Many a prosperous gentleman says solemnly every Sunday of his life, +'Incline our hearts to keep this law,' who would have to live in a +much more modest fashion if his prayer were, by any unfortunate +accident, answered. + +False witness is not only given in court. The sins of the tongue +against the law of love are more subtle and common than those of +act. 'Come, let us enjoy ourselves, and abuse our neighbours,' is +the real meaning of many an invitation to social intercourse. If +some fairy could treat our newspapers as the Russian censors do, and +erase all the lies about the opposite side, which they report and +coin, how many blank columns there would be! If all the words of +ill-natured calumny, of uncharitable construction of their friends +which people speak, could be made inaudible, what stretches of +silence would open out in much animated talk! 'A man that beareth +false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a +sharp arrow.' + +But deed and word will not be right unless the heart be right; and +the heart will be wrong unless it be purged of the bitter black drop +of covetousness. The desire to make my neighbour's goods mine is the +parent of all breaches of neighbourly duty, even as its converse +'love' is the fulfilling of it all; for such desire implies that I +am ruled by selfishness, and that I would willingly deprive another +of goods, for my own gratification. Such a temper, like a wild boar +among vineyards, will trample down all the rich clusters in order to +slake its own thirst. Find a man who yields to his desires after his +neighbour's goods, and you find a man who will break all +commandments like a hornet in a spider's web. Be he a Napoleon, and +glorified as a conqueror and hero, or be he some poor thief in a +jail, he has let his covetousness get the upper hand, and so all +wrong-doing is possible. Nor is it only the second table which +covetousness dashes to fragments. It serves the first in the same +fashion; for, as St. Paul puts it, the covetous man 'is an +idolater,' and is as incapable of loving God as of loving his +neighbour. This final commandment, overleaping the boundary between +conduct and character, and carrying the light of duty into the dark +places of the heart, where deeds are fashioned, sets the whole flock +of bats and twilight-loving creatures in agitation. It does what is +the main work of the law, in compelling us to search our hearts, and +in convincing of sin. It is the converse of the thought that all the +law is contained in love; for it closes the list of sins with one +which begets them all, and points us away from actions and words +which are its children to selfish desire as in itself the +transgression of all the law, whether it be that which prescribes +our relations to God or that which enjoins our duties to man, + + + + +THE FEAST OF INGATHERING IN THE END OF THE YEAR + + + 'And the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy + labours, which them hast sown In thy field: and the + feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, + when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.' + --EXODUS xxiii. 16. + +The Israelites seem to have had a double beginning of the year--one +in spring, one at the close of harvest; or it may only be that here +the year is regarded from the natural point of view--a farmer's +year. This feast was at the gathering in of the fruits, which was +the natural close of the agricultural year. + +This festival of ingathering was the Feast of Tabernacles. It is +remarkable that the three great sacred festivals, the Passover, +Pentecost, Tabernacles, had all a reference to agriculture, though +two of them also received a reference to national deliverances. This +fact may show that they were in existence before Moses, and that he +simply imposed a new meaning on them. + +Be that as it may, I take these words now simply as a starting-point +for some thoughts naturally suggested by the period at which we +stand. We have come to the end of another year--looked for so long, +passed so swiftly, and now seeming to have so utterly departed! + +I desire to recall to you and to myself the solemn real sense in +which for us too the end of the year is a 'time of ingathering' and +'harvest.' We too begin the new year with the accumulated +consequences of these past days in our 'barns and garners.' + +Now, in dealing with this thought, let me put it in two or three +forms. + +I. Think of the past as still living in and shaping the present. + +It is a mere illusion of sense that the past is gone utterly. 'Thou +carriest them away, as with a flood.' We speak of it as irrevocable, +unalterable, that dreadful past. It is solemnly true that 'ye shall +no more return that way.' + +But there is a deeper truth in the converse thought that the +apparently transient is permanent, that nothing human ever dies, +that the past is present. 'The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,'--yes, +but only its petals drop, and as they fall, the fruit which they +sheltered swells and matures. + +The thought of the present as the harvest from the past brings out +in vivid and picturesque form two solemn truths. + +The first is the passing away of all the external, but of it only. +It has all gone where the winter's cold, the spring rains, the +summer's heats have gone. But just as these live in the fruitful +results that have accrued from them, just as the glowing sunshine of +the departed ardent summer is in the yellow, bending wheat-ear or +glows in the cluster, so, in a very solemn sense, 'that which hath +been is now' in regard to every life. The great law of continuity +makes the present the inheritor of the past. That law operates in +national life, in which national characteristics are largely +precipitates, so to speak, from national history. But it works even +more energetically, and with yet graver consequences, in our +individual lives. 'The child is father of the man.' What we are +depends largely on what we have been, and what we have been +powerfully acts in determining what we shall be. Life is a mystic +chain, not a heap of unconnected links. + +And there is another very solemn way in which the past lives on in +each of us. For not only is our present self the direct descendant +of our past selves, but that past still subsists in that we are +responsible for it, and shall one day have to answer for it. The +writer of Ecclesiastes followed the statement just now quoted as to +the survival of the past, with another, which is impressive in its +very vagueness: 'God seeketh again that which is passed away.' + +So the undying past lives in its results in ourselves, and in our +being answerable for it to God. + +This metaphor is insufficient in one respect. There is not one epoch +for sowing and another for reaping, but the two processes are +simultaneous, and every moment is at once a harvest and a seed-time. + +This fact masks the reality of the reaping here, but it points on to +the great harvest when God shall say, 'Gather the wheat into My +barns!' + +II. Notice some specific forms of this reaping and ingathering. + +(1) Memory. + +It is quite possible that in the future it may embrace all the life. + +'Chambers of imagery.' + +(2) Habits and character. Like the deposit of a flood. 'Habitus' +means clothing, and cloth is woven from single threads. + +(3) Outward consequences, position, reputation, etc. + +III. Make a personal reference to ourselves. + +What sort of harvest are we carrying over from this year? Lay this to +heart as certain, that we enter on no new year--or new day--empty-handed, +but always 'bearing our sheaves with us.' 'Be not deceived! God is not +mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' + +But remember, that while this law remains, there is also the law of +forgiveness, 'Go in peace!' and there may be a new beginning, 'Sin +no more!' + + + + +'THE LOVE OF THINE ESPOUSALS' + + + 'And He said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, + and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders + of Israel; and worship ye afar off. 2. And Moses alone + shall come near the Lord; but they shall not come nigh, + neither shall the people go up with him. 3. And Moses + came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and + all the judgments: and all the people answered with one + voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said + will we do. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, + and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar + under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the + twelve tribes of Israel. 5. And he sent young men of the + children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings, and + sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord. 6. And + Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and + half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7. And he + took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience + of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said + will we do, and be obedient. 8. And Moses took the blood, + and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the + blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you + concerning all these words. 9. Then went up Moses and + Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of + Israel; 10. And they saw the God of Israel: and there + was under His feet as it were a pared work of a sapphire- + stone, and as it were the body of heaven in His clearness. + 11. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid + not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. + 12. And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the + mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of + stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; + that thou mayest teach them,'--EXODUS xxiv. 1-12. + +An effort is needed to feel what a tremendous and unique fact is +narrated in these words. Next to the incarnation, it is the most +wonderful and far-reaching moment in history. It is the birthday of +a nation, which is God's son. It is the foundation stone of all +subsequent revelation. Its issues oppress that ancient people to- +day, and its promises are not yet exhausted. It is history, not +legend, nor the product of later national vanity. Whatever may come +of analysing 'sources' and of discovering 'redactors,' Israel held a +relation to God all its own; and that relation was constituted thus. + +I. Note the preliminaries of the covenant. The chapter begins with +the command to Moses to come up to the mount, with Aaron and other +representatives of the people. But he was already there when the +command was given, and a difficulty has been found (or, shall we +say, made) out of this. The explanation seems reasonable and plain +enough, that the long section extending from Exodus xx. 22, and +containing the fundamental laws as spoken by God, is closed by our +verses 1 and 2, which imply, in the very order to Moses to come up +with his companions, that he must first go down to bring them. God +dismisses him as a king might end an audience with his minister, by +bidding him return with attendants. The singular use of the third +person in reference to Moses in the third verse is not explained by +supposing another writer; for, whoever wrote it, it would be equally +anomalous. + +So he comes down from the stern cloud-encircled peak to that great +plain where the encampment lay, and all eyes watch his descent. The +people gather round him, eager and curious. He recounts 'all the +judgments,' the series of laws, which had been lodged in his mind by +God, and is answered by the many-voiced shout of too swiftly +promised obedience. Glance over the preceding chapters, and you will +see how much was covered by 'all that the Lord hath spoken.' +Remember that every lip which united in that lightly made vow drew +its last breath in the wilderness, because of disobedience, and the +burst of homage becomes a sad witness to human weakness and +changefulness. The glory of God flashed above them on the barren +granite, the awful voice had scarcely died into desert silence, +nerves still tingled with excitement, and wills were bowed before +Jehovah, manifestly so near. For a moment, the people were ennobled, +and obedience seemed easy. They little knew what they were saying in +that brief spasm of devotion. It was high-water then, but the tide +soon turned, and all the ooze and ugliness, covered now, lay bare +and rotting. 'Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that +thou shouldest vow and not pay.' We may take the lesson to +ourselves, and see to it that emotion consolidates into strenuous +persistency, and does not die in the very excitement of the vow. + +The pledge of obedience was needed before the Covenant could be +made, and, as we shall find, was reiterated in the very centre of +the ceremonial ratification. For the present, it warranted Moses in +preparing for the morrow's ritual. His first step was to prepare a +written copy of the laws to which the people had sworn. Here we come +across an old, silenced battery from which a heavy fire used to be +directed against the historical accuracy of the Pentateuch. +Alphabetic writing was of a later date. There could not have been a +written code. The statement was a mere attempt of a later age to +claim antiquity for comparatively modern legislation. It was no more +historical than similar traditions in other countries, Sibylline +books, etc. All that is out of court now. Perhaps some other guns +will be spiked in due time, that make a great noise just at present. +Then comes the erection of a rude altar, surrounded by twelve +standing stones, just as on the east of Jordan we may yet see +dolmens and menhirs. The altar represents the divine presence; and +the encircling stones, Israel gathered around its God. The group is +a memorial and a witness to the people,--and a witness against them, +if disobedient. Thus two permanent records were prepared, the book +and the monument. The one which seemed the more lasting has +perished; the more fragile has endured, and will last to the world's +end. + +II. Note the rite of ratification of the covenant. The ceremonial is +complex and significant. We need not stay on the mere picture, +impressive and, to our eyes, strange as it is, but rather seek to +bring out the meaning of these smoking offerings, and that blood +flung on the altar and on the crowd. First came two sorts of +sacrifices, offered not by priests, but by selected young men, +probably one for each tribe, whose employment in sacrificial +functions shows the priestly character of the whole nation, +according to the great words of Exodus xix. 6. Burnt-offerings and +peace-offerings differed mainly in the use made of the sacrifice, +which was wholly consumed by fire in the former, while it was in +part eaten by the offerer in the latter. The one symbolised entire +consecration; the other, communion with God on the basis of +sacrifice. The sin-offering does not appear here, as being of later +origin, and the product of the law, which deepened the consciousness +of transgression. But these sacrifices, at the threshold of the +covenant, receive an expiatory character by the use made of the +blood, and witness to the separation between God and man, which +renders amity and covenant friendship impossible, without a +sacrifice. + +They must have yielded much blood. It is divided into two parts, +corresponding to the two parties to the covenant, like the cloven +animals in Abraham's covenant. One half is 'sprinkled' on the altar, +or, as the word means, 'swung,'--which suggests a larger quantity +and a more vehement action than 'sprinkling' does. That drenching of +the altar with gore is either a piece of barbarism or a solemn +symbol of the central fact of Christianity no less than of Judaism, +and a token that the only footing on which man can be received into +fellowship with God is through the offering of a pure life, instead +of the sinner, which, accepted by God, covers or expiates sin. There +can be no question that the idea of expiation is at the very +foundation of the Old Testament ritual. It is fashionable to regard +the expiatory element of Christianity as 'Hebrew old clothes,' but +the fact is the other way about. It is not that Christianity has not +been able to rid itself of a rude and false conception, but that +'Judaism' had its sacrifices appointed by God, in order to prepare +the way for the true offering, which takes away sin. + +The expiation by blood having been thus made, the hindrances to the +nation's entering into covenant are removed. Therefore follows in +logical order the next step, their formal (alas! how purely formal +it proved to be) taking on themselves its obligations. The freshly +written 'book' is produced, and read there, to the silent people, +before the bloody altar, beneath the peak of Sinai. Again the chorus +of assent from a thousand throats echoes among the rocks. They +accept the conditions. They had done so last night; but this is the +actual contract on their part, and its place in the whole order of +the ceremony is significant. It follows expiation, without which man +cannot enter into friendship with God, without the acceptance of +which man will not yield himself in obedience. The vows which God +approves are those of men whose sins are covered. + +The final step was the sprinkling of the people with the blood. The +division of the blood into two portions signifies that it had an +office in regard to each party to the covenant. If it had been +possible to pour it all on the altar, and then all on the people, +that would have been done. The separation into two portions was +inevitable; but in reality it is the same blood which, sprinkled on +the altar, expiates, and on the worshipper, consecrates, cleanses, +unites to God, and brings into covenant with Him. Hence Moses +accompanies the sprinkling of the people with the explanation, 'This +is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you, +upon all these conditions' (Rev. Ver. margin). It ratifies the +compact on both sides. God 'hath made' it, in accepting the +sprinkled blood; they have made it, in being sprinkled therewith. +But while the rite sets forth the great gospel truth of expiation, +the Covenant moves within the region of law. It is made 'on the +basis of all these words,' and is voidable by disobedience. It is +the _Magna Charta_ of the nation, and its summing up is 'this +do, and thou shalt live.' Its promises are mainly of outward +guardianship and national blessings. And these are suspended by it, +as they were in fact contingent, on the national observance of the +national vow. The general idea of a covenant is that of a compact +between two parties, each of whom comes under obligations contingent +on the other's discharge of his. Theologians have raised the +question whether God's covenant is of this kind. Surely it is. His +promises to Israel had an 'if,' and the fulfilment of the conditions +necessarily secured the accomplishment of the promises. The ritual +of the first covenant transcends the strictly retributive compact +which it ratified, and shadows a gospel beyond law, even the new +covenant which brings better gifts, and does not turn on 'do,' but +simply on the sprinkling with the blood of Jesus. The words of Moses +were widened to carry a blessing beyond his thoughts, which was +disclosed when, in an upper chamber, a dying man said to the twelve +representatives of the true Israel, 'This is the new covenant in My +blood, drink ye all of it.' The blood which Moses sprinkled gave +ritual cleansing, but it remained outside the man. The blood of +Jesus gives true purification, and passes into our veins to become +our life. The covenant by Moses was 'do and live'; that in Christ is +'believe and live.' Moses brought commandments, and on them his +covenant was built; Christ brings gifts, and His covenant is all +promises, which are ours on the simple condition of taking them. + +III. Note the vision and feast on the basis of the covenant. The +little company that climbed the mountain, venturing within the +fence, represented the whole people. Aaron and his sons were the +destined priests. The elders were probably seventy, because that +number is the product of the two perfect numbers, and perhaps with +allusion to the seventy souls who went down into Egypt with Jacob. +It is emphatically said that they saw 'the God of Israel,' for that +day's covenant had made him so in a new closeness of relationship. +In token of that new access to and possession in Him, which was +henceforth to be the prerogative of the obedient people, some +manifestation of His immediate presence was poured on their +astonished eyes. It is needless to inquire its nature, or to ask how +such a statement is consistent with the spirituality of the divine +nature, or with what this same book of Exodus says, 'There shall no +man see Me, and live.' The plain intention is to assert that there +was a visible manifestation of the divine presence, but no attempt +is made to describe it. Our eyes are stayed at the pavement beneath +His feet, which was blue as sapphire, and bright as the cloudless +sky gleaming above Sinai. It is enough to learn that 'the secret of +the Lord is with them' to whom He shows 'His covenant'; that, by the +power of sacrifice, a true vision of God may be ours, which is 'in a +mirror, darkly,' indeed, but yet is real and all sufficing. Before +the covenant was made, Israel had been warned to keep afar lest He +should break through on them, but now 'He laid not His hand' upon +them; for only blessing can stream from His presence now, and His +hand does not crush, but uphold. + +Nor is this all which we learn of the intercourse with God which is +possible on the ground of His covenant. They 'did eat and drink.' +That may suggest that the common enjoyments of the natural life are +in no way inconsistent with the vision of God; but more probably it +is meant to teach a deeper lesson. We have remarked that the ritual +of the peace-offering included a feast on the sacrifice 'before the +Lord,' by which was signified communion with Him, as at His table, +and this meal has the same meaning. They who stand in covenant +relations with God, feed and feast on a sacrifice, and thereby hold +fellowship with Him, since He too has accepted the sacrifice which +nourishes them. So that strange banquet on Sinai taught a fact which +is ever true, prophesied the deepest joys of Christian experience, +which are realised in the soul that eats the flesh and drinks the +blood of Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant, and dimly +shadowed the yet future festival, when, cleansed and consecrated by +His blood, they who have made a covenant with Him by His sacrifice, +shall be gathered unto Him in the heavenly mount, where He makes a +'feast of fat things and wines on the lees well refined,' and there +shall sit, for ever beholding His glory, and satisfied with the +provisions of His house. + + + + +THE BREAD OF THE PRESENCE + + + 'Thou shalt set upon the table shew-bread before Me + alway.'--EXODUS xxv. 30. + +I suspect that to many readers the term 'shew-bread' conveys little +more meaning than if the Hebrew words had been lifted over into our +version. The original expression, literally rendered, is 'bread of +the face'; or, as the Revised Version has it in the margin, +'presence bread,' and the meaning of that singular designation is +paraphrased and explained in my text: 'Thou shalt set upon the +table, bread of the presence before Me always.' It was bread, then, +which was laid in the presence of God. The directions with regard to +it may be very briefly stated. Every Sabbath the priests laid upon +the table which stood on one side of the Altar of Incense, in the +Inner Court, two piles of loaves, on each of which piles was placed +a pan of incense. They lay there for a week, being replaced by fresh +ones on the coming Sabbath. + +The Altar of Incense in the middle symbolised the thought that the +priestly life, which was the life of the nation, and is the life of +the Christian both individually and collectively, is to be centrally +and essentially a life of prayer. On one side of it stood the great +golden lamp which, in like manner, declared that the activities of +the priestly life, which was the life of Israel, and is the life of +the Christian individually and collectively, is to be, in its +manward aspect, a light for the world. On the other side of the +Altar of Incense stood this table with its loaves. What does it say +about the life of the priest, the Church, and the individual +Christian? That is the question that I wish to try to answer here; +and in doing so let me first ask you to look at the thing itself, +and then to consider its connection with the other two articles in +connection with which it made a threefold oneness. + +I. Let me deal with this singular provision of the ancient ritual by +itself alone. + +Bread is a product at once of God's gift and of man's work. In the +former aspect, He 'leaves not Himself without witness, in that,' in +the yearly miracle of the harvest, 'He gives us bread from Heaven, +and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness'; in +the latter, considered as a product of man's activity, agriculture +is, if not the first, at all events in settled communities the +prime, form of human industry. The farmer and the baker begin the +series of man's industries. So that these loaves were fitly taken as +representatives of all kinds of human industry and their products, +and as such were consecrated to God. That is the broad significance +of this institution, which, as we shall have to see, links itself +with the other two conceptions of the priestly life in its Godward +and in its manward aspect. Now the first thing that is suggested, +therefore, is the plain obligation, which is also a blessed +privilege, for all men who are priests of God by faith in, and union +with, the great High Priest, that they lay all their activities as +an offering before God. The loaves in their very place on that +table, right in front of the veil that parted the Inner Court from +the inmost of all, where the Shekinah shone, and the Cherubim bowed +in worship, tell us that in some sense they, too, were an offering, +and that the table was an altar. Their sacrificial character is +emphasised by the fact that upon the top of each of the piles there +was laid a pan of incense. + +So, then, the whole was an offering of Israel's activities and its +results to God. And we, Christian men and women, have to make an +offering of all our active life, and all its products. That thought +opens up many considerations, one or two of which I ask leave to +touch briefly. First, then, if my active life is to be an offering +to God, that means that I am to surrender myself. And that surrender +means three things: first that in all my daily work I am to set Him +before me as my end; second, that in all my daily work I am to set +Him before me as my law; third, that in all my daily work I am to +set Him before me as my power. As for the first, whatever a man does +for any motive other, and with any end less, than God and His Glory, +that act, beautiful as it may be in other respects, loses its +supreme beauty, and falls short of perfect nobleness, just in the +measure in which other motives, or other ends, than this supreme +one, are permitted to dominate it. I do not contend for such an +impossible suppression of myself as that my own blessedness and the +like shall be in no manner my end, but I do maintain this, that in +good old language, 'Man's chief end is to glorify God,' and that +anything which I do, unless it is motived by this regard to Him as +its 'chief end,' loses its noblest consecration, and is degraded +from its loftiest beauty. The Altar sanctifies, and not only +sanctifies but ennobles, the gift. That which has in it the taint of +self-regard so pronouncedly and dominantly as that God is shut out, +is like some vegetation down in low levels at the bottom of a vale, +which never has the sun to shine upon it. But let it rise as some +tree above the brushwood until its topmost branches are in the +light, and then it is glorified. To live to self is ignoble and +mean; to live for others is higher and nobler. But highest and +noblest of all is to offer the loaves to God, and to make Him the +end of all our activities. + +Again, there is another consideration, bearing on another region in +which the assertive self is only too apt to spoil all work. And that +is, that if our activities are offerings to God, this means that His +supreme Will is to be our law, and that we obey His commands and +accept His appointments in quiet submission. The tranquillity of +heart, the accumulation of power, which come to men when they, from +the depths, say, 'Not my will but Thine be done'; 'Speak, Lord! for +Thy servant heareth,' cannot be too highly stated. There is no such +charm to make life quiet and strong as the submission of the will to +God's providences, and the swift obedience of the will to God's +commandments. And whilst to make self my end mars what else is +beautiful, making self my law mars it even more. + +Further, we offer our activities to God when we fall back upon Him +as our one power, and say, 'Perfect Thy strength in my weakness.' He +that goes out into the world to do his daily work, of whatsoever +sort it is--you in your little sphere, or I in mine--in dependence +upon himself, is sure to be defeated. He that says 'we have no +strength against this great multitude that cometh against us, but +our eyes are unto Thee,' will, sooner or later, be able to go back +with joy, and say, 'the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof +we are glad.' The man that goes into the fight like that foolish +prime minister of France under the Empire, 'with a light heart.' +will very soon find his Sedan, and have shamefully to surrender. +Brethren, these three things, making God the end of my work; making +God's will the law of my work; making God's strength the power of my +work; these are the ways by which we, too, can bring our little pile +of barley bread, and lay it upon that table. + +Again, this consecration of life's activities is to be carried out +by treating their products, as well as themselves, as offerings to +God. The loaves were the results of human activity. They were also +the products of divine gifts elaborated by human effort. And both +things are true about all the bread that you and I have been able to +make for the satisfaction of our desires, or the sustenance of our +strength--it comes ultimately from the gift of God. In regard to +this consecration of the product of our activities, as well as of +our activities themselves, I have but two words to offer, and the +one is, let us see to it that we consecrate our enjoyment of God's +gifts by bringing that enjoyment, as well as the activities which He +has blessed to produce it, into His presence. That table bore the +symbols of the grateful recognition of God's mercies by the people. +And when our hearts are glad, and our 'bosom's lord sits lightly on +his throne,' we have special need to take care that our joy be not +godless, nor our enjoyment of His gifts be without reference to +Himself. 'Ah,' you say, 'that is a threadbare commonplace.' Yes, it +is, dear friends; it is a commonplace just because it is needful at +every turn, if we are to make our lives what they ought to be. + +May I say another thing? and that is, that the loaves that were laid +within the Sanctuary were not intended to be separated from the +others that were eaten in the tents, nor were they meant to be a +kind of purchasing of an indulgence, or of a right, by surrendering +a little, to the godless and selfish enjoyment of the rest of the +batch, or of the rest of the harvest. Let us apply that to our +money, which is one of the products of our activities; and not +fancy, as a great many people do, that what we give as a +subscription to some benevolent or religious institution buys for us +the right to spend all the rest selfishly. That is another +commonplace, very threadbare and very feeble, when we speak it, but +with claws and teeth in it that will lay hold of us, when we try to +put it in practice. The enjoyments and the products of our daily +activities are to be offered to God. + +Still further, this table with its burden has suggestions that as +Christians we are bound to bring all our work to Him for His +judgment upon it. The loaves were laid right in front of the veil, +behind which blazed the light of His presence. And that meant that +they were laid before 'those pure eyes and perfect judgment of all- +judging' God. Whether we bring our activities there or no, of course +in a very real and solemn sense they are there. But what I desire to +insist upon now is how important, for the nobleness and purity of +our daily lives, it is that we should be in the continual habit of +realising to ourselves the thought that whatever we do, we do before +His Face. The Roman Catholics talk about 'the practice of the +presence of God.' One does not like the phrase, but all true +religion will practise what is meant by it. And for us it should be +as joyous to think, 'Thou God seest me,' as it is for a child to +play or work with a quiet heart, because it knows that its mother is +sitting somewhere not very far off and watching that no harm comes +to it. That thought of being in His presence would be for us a +tonic, and a test. How it would pull us up in many a meanness, and +keep our feet from wandering into many forbidden ways, if there came +like a blaze of light into our hearts the thought: 'Thou God seest +me!' There are many of our activities, I am afraid, which we should +not like to put down on that table. Can _you_ think of any in +_your_ lives that you would be rather ashamed to lay there, and +say to Him, 'Judge Thou this'? Then do not do it. That is a brief, +but a very stringent, easily applied, and satisfactory test of a +great many doubtful things. If you cannot take them into the Inner +Court, and lay them down there, and say, 'Look, Lord! this is my +baking,' be sure that they are made, not of wholesome flour, but of +poisoned grain, and that there is death in them. + +Further, this table, with its homely burden of twelve poor loaves, +may suggest to us how the simplest, smallest, most secular of our +activities is a fit offering to Him. The loaves were not out of +place amidst the sanctities of the spot, nor did they seem to be +incongruous with the golden altar and the golden lamp-stand, and yet +they were but twelve loaves. The poorest of our works is fit to be +carried within the shrine, and laid upon His altar. We may be sure +that He delights even in the meanest and humblest of them, if only +we take them to Him and say: 'All things come of Thee, and of Thine +own have we given Thee.' Ah! there are a great many strange things +in Christ's treasury. Mothers will hoard up trifles that belonged to +their children, which everybody else thinks worthless. Jesus Christ +has in His storehouse a 'cup of cold water,' the widows' mites, and +many another thing that the world counts of no value, and He +recognises as precious. There is an old story about some great +emperor making a progress through his dominions, where he had been +receiving precious gifts from cities and nobles, and as the gay +cortege was passing a poor cottage, the peasant-owner came out with +a coarse earthenware cup filled with spring water in his hand, and +offered it to his overlord as the only gift that he could give. The +king accepted it, and ennobled him on the spot. Take your barley +loaves to Christ, and He will lay them up in His storehouse. + +II. Now I need only say a word or two about the other aspect of this +table of shew-bread, taken with the other two articles in +conjunction with which it formed a unity. + +The lamp and the table go together. They are both offshoots from the +altar in the middle. That is to say, your lives will not shine +before men unless your activities are offered to God. The smallest +taint of making self your end, your law, or your strength, mingling +with your lives, and manifest in their actions, will dim the light +which shines from them, and men will be very quick to find out and +say, 'He calls himself a Christian; but he lives for himself.' +Neither the light, which is the radiance of a Christian life +manwards, can be sustained without the offering of the life in its +depths to God, nor can the activities of the life be acceptably +offered to Him, unless the man that offers them 'lets his light +shine before men.' The lamp and the table must go together. + +The lamp and the table must together be offshoots from the altar. If +there be not in the centre of the life aspiration after Him in the +depths of the heart, communion with Him in the silent places of the +soul, then there will be little brightness in the life to ray out +amongst men, and there will be little consecration of the activities +to be laid before God. The reason why the manifold bustle and busy- +ness of the Christian Church today sows so much and reaps so little, +lies mainly here, that they have forgotten to a large extent how the +altar in the centre must give the oil for the lamp to shine, and the +grain to be made into the loaves. And, on the other hand, the altar +in the middle needs both its flanking accompaniments. For the +Christian life is to be no life of cloistered devotion and +heavenward aspiration only or mainly, but is to manifest its still +devotion and its heavenward aspiration by the consecration of its +activities to God, and the raying of them out into a darkened world. +The service of man is the service of God, for lamp and table are +offshoots of the altar. But the service of God is the basis of the +best service of man, for the altar stands between the lamp and the +table. + +So, brethren, let us blend these three aspects into a unity, the +Altar, the Lamp, the Table, and so shall we minister aright, and men +will call us the 'priests of the Most High God,' till we pass within +the veil where, better than the best of us here can do, we shall be +able to unite still communion and active service, and shine as the +sun in the Kingdom of our Father. 'His servants shall serve Him' +with priestly ministrations, 'and shall see His face, and His name +shall be in their foreheads.' + + + + +THE GOLDEN LAMPSTAND + + + 'Thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold....' + --EXODUS xxv. 31. + +If we could have followed the Jewish priest as he passed in his +daily ministrations into the Inner Court, we should have seen that +he first piled the incense on the altar which stood in its centre, +and then turned to trim the lamps of the golden candlestick which +flanked it on one side. Of course it was not a candlestick, as our +versions misleadingly render the word. That was an article of +furniture unknown in those days. It was a lampstand; from a central +upright stem branched off on either side three arms decorated with +what the Book calls 'beaten work,' and what we in modern jewellers' +technicality call _repousse_ work, each of which bore on its +top, like a flower on its stalk, a shallow cup filled with oil, in +which a wick floated. There were thus seven lamps in all, including +that on the central stem. The material was costly, the work adorning +it was artistic, the oil with which it was fed was carefully +prepared, the number of its lamps expressed perfection, it was daily +trimmed by the priest, and there, all through the night, it burned, +the one spot of light in a dark desert. + +Now, this Inner Court of the Tabernacle or Temple was intended, with +its furniture, to be symbolical of the life of Israel, the priestly +nation. The Altar of Incense, which was the main article of +ecclesiastical equipment there, and stood in the central place, +represented the life of Israel in its Godward aspect, as being a +life of continual devotion. The Candlestick on the one hand, and the +Table of Shew-bread on the other, were likewise symbolical of other +aspects of that same life. I have to deal now with the meaning and +lessons of this golden lampstand, and it teaches us-- + +I. The office manwards of the Church and of the individual +Christian. + +Let me just for a moment recall the various instances in which this +symbol reappears in Scripture. We have, in the vision of the prophet +who sustained and animated the spirits of Israel in their Restoration, +the repetition of the emblem, in the great golden candlestick which +Zechariah saw, fed by two 'olive trees,' one on either side of it; and +in the last book of Scripture we have that most significant and +lovely variation of it, the reappearance, not of the _one_ golden +candlestick or lampstand, but of _seven_. The formal unity is at an +end, but the seven constitute a better, more vital unity, because +Christ is in the midst. We may learn the lesson that the Christian +conception of the oneness of the Church towers above the Jewish +conception of the oneness of Israel by all the difference that there is +between a mere mechanical, external unity, and a vital oneness--because +all are partakers of the one Christ. I may recall, also, how our Lord, +in that great programme of the Kingdom which Matthew has gathered +together in what we call 'the Sermon on the Mount,' immediately after +the Beatitudes, goes on to speak of the office of His people under +the two metaphors of 'the salt of the earth' and 'the light of the +world,' and immediately connects with the latter of the two a reference +to a lamp lit and set upon its stand; and clinches the whole by the +exhortation, 'Let your light so shine before men that they may see +your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.' + +A remarkable and beautiful variation of that exhortation is found in +one of the Apostolic writings when Paul, instead of saying, 'Ye are +the light of the world,' says, 'Shine as lights in the world,' and +so gives us the individual, as well as the collective and +ecclesiastical, aspect of these great functions. That is a hint that +is very much needed. Christian people are quite willing to admit +that the Church, the abstraction, the generalisation, is 'the light +of the world.' But they are wofully apt to slip their own necks out +from under the yoke of the obligation, and to forget that the +collective light is only the product of the millions of individual +lights rushing together--just as in some gas-lights you have a whole +series of minute punctures, each of which gives out its own little +jet of radiance, and all run together into one brilliant circle. So +do not let us escape the personal pressure of this office, or lay it +all on the broad shoulders of that generalised abstraction 'the +Church.' But, since the collective light is but the product of the +individual small shinings, let us take the two lessons: first, +contribute our part to the general lustre; second, be content with +having our part lost in the general light. + +But now let me turn for a little while to the more specific meaning +of this symbol. The life which, by the central position of the Altar +of Incense, was symbolised as being centrally, essentially in its +depths and primarily, a life of habitual devotion and communion with +God, in its manward aspect is a life that shines 'to give the light +of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' +That is the solemn obligation, the ideal function, of the Christian +Church and of each individual who professes to belong to it. Now, if +you recur to our Lord's own application of this metaphor, to which I +have already referred, you will see that the first and foremost way +by which Christian communities and individuals discharge this +function is by conduct. 'Let your light so shine before men'--that +they may hear your eloquent proclamation of the Gospel? No! 'Let +your light so shine before men'--that you may convince the +gainsayers by argument, or move the hard-hearted by appeals and +exhortations; that you may preach and talk? No! 'That _they may +see your good works_, and glorify your Father which is in +Heaven.' We may say of the Christian community, and of the Christian +individual, with all reverence, what the Scripture in an infinitely +deeper and more sacred sense says of Jesus Christ Himself, 'the life +was the light.' It is conduct, whereby most effectually, most +universally, and with the least risk of rousing antagonism and +hostile feelings, Christian people may 'shine as lights in the +world.' For we all know how the inconsistencies of a Christian man +block the path of the Gospel far more than a hundred sermons or +talks further it. We all know how there are people, plenty of them, +who, however illogically yet most naturally, compare our lives in +their daily action with oar professed beliefs, and, saying to +themselves, 'I do not see that there is much difference between them +and me,' draw the conclusion that it matters very little whether a +man is a Christian or not, seeing that the conduct of the men who +profess to be so is little more radiant, bright with purity and +knowledge and joy, than is the conduct of others. Dear brethren, you +can do far more to help or hinder the spread of Christ's Kingdom by +the way in which you do common things, side by side with men who are +not partakers of the 'like precious faith' with yourselves, than I +or my fellow-preachers can do by all our words. It is all very well +to lecture about the efficiency of a machine; let us see it at work, +and that will convince people. We preach; but you preach far more +eloquently, and far more effectively, by your lives. 'In all +labour,' says the Book of Proverbs, 'there is profit'--which we may +divert from its original meaning to signify that in all Christian +living there is force to attract--'but the talk of the lips tendeth +only to poverty.' Oh! if the Christian men and women of England +would live their Christianity, they would do more to convert the +unconverted, and to draw in the outcasts, than all of us preachers +can do. 'From you,' said the Apostle once to a church very young, +and just rescued from the evils of heathenism--'from you sounded +out,' as if blown from a trumpet, 'the Word of the Lord, so that we +need not to speak anything.' Live the life, and thereby you diffuse +the light. + +Nor need we forget that this most potent of all weapons is one that +can be wielded by all Christian people. Our gifts differ. Some of us +cannot speak for Jesus; some of us who think we can had often better +hold our tongues. But we can all live like and for Him. And this +most potent and universally diffused possibility is also the weapon +that can be wielded with least risk of failure. There is a certain +assumption, which it is often difficult to swallow, in a Christian +man's addressing another on the understanding that he, the speaker, +possesses something which the other lacks. By words we may often +repel, and often find that the ears that we seek to enter with our +message close themselves against us and are unwilling to hear. But +there is no chance of offending anybody, or of repelling anybody, by +living Christlike. We can all do that, and it is the largest +contribution that any of us can make to the collective light which +shines out from the Christian Church. + +But, brethren, we have to remember that there are dangers attending +the life that reveals its hidden principles as being faith in Christ +and obedience to Him. Did you ever notice how, in the Sermon on the +Mount, there are two sets of precepts which seem diametrically +opposite to one another? There is a whole series of illustrations of +the one commandment, 'Take heed that ye do not your righteousness +before men, to be seen of them,' and then there Is the precept, 'Let +your light so shine before men that they may see your good works.' +So that whilst, on the one hand, there is to be the manifestation in +daily conduct of the inner principles that animate us, on the other +hand, if there comes in the least taint or trace of ostentation, +everything is spoiled, and the light is darkness. The light of the +sun makes all things visible and hides itself. We do not see the +sunbeams, but we see what the sunbeams illuminate. It is the coarser +kinds of light which are themselves separately visible, and they are +so only because they have not power enough to make everything around +them as brilliant as they themselves are. So our light is to be +silent, our light is--if I might use such a phrase--to hide itself +in 'a glorious privacy,' whilst it enables men to see, even through +our imperfect ministration, the face of our Father in Heaven. + +But let me remind you that the same variation by Paul of our Lord's +words to which I have already referred as bringing out the +difference between the collective and the individual function, also +brings out another difference; for Paul says, 'Ye shine as lights in +the world, holding forth the word of life.' He slightly varies the +metaphor. We are no longer regarded as being ourselves illuminants, +but simply as being the stands on which the light is placed. And +that means that whilst the witness by life is the mightiest, the +most universally possible, and the least likely to offend, there +must also be, as occasion shall serve, without cowardice, without +shamefaced reticence, the proclamation of the great Gospel which has +made us 'lights in the world.' And that is a function which every +Christian man can discharge too, though I have just been saying that +they cannot all preach and speak; for every Christian soul has some +other soul to whom its word comes with a force that none other can +have. + +So the one office that is set forth here is the old familiar one, +the obligation of which is fully recognised by us all, and pitifully +ill-discharged by any of us, to shine by our daily life, and to +shine by the actual communication by speech of 'the Name that is +above every name.' That is the ideal; alas for the reality! 'Ye are +the light of the world.' What kind of light do we--the Church of +Christ that gathers here--ray out into the darkness of Manchester? +Socially, intellectually, morally, in the civic life, in the +national life, are Christian people in the van? They ought to be. +There is a church clock in our city which has a glass dial that +professes to be illuminated at night, so that the passer-by may tell +the hour; but it is generally burning so dimly that nobody can see +on its grimy face what o'clock it is. That is like a great many of +our churches, and I ask you to ask yourselves whether it is like you +or not--a dark lantern, a most imperfectly illuminated dial, which +gives no guidance and no information to anybody. + +This golden lampstand teaches us-- + +II. How this office is to be discharged. + +Remember simply these two points. It stood, as I have already said, +on one side of the Altar of Incense which was central to everything. +It was daily tended by the priests, and fed with fresh oil. Hence we +may derive some important practical lessons. + +To begin with, we note that our light is a derived light, and +therefore can only be kept bright when we keep close to the source +from whence it is derived. + +'That was the true Light, which coming into the world lighteth every +man'--there is the source of all illumination, in Jesus Christ +Himself. He alone is _the_ Light, and as for all others we must +say of them what was said of His great forerunner, 'Not that light, +but sent to bear witness of that light'; and again, 'he was a light +kindled,' and therefore 'shining,' and so his shining was but 'for a +season.' But Jesus is for ever the light of the world, and all our +illumination comes from Him. As Paul says, 'Now are ye light in the +Lord,' therefore only in the measure in which we are 'in the Lord,' +shall we be light. Keep near to Him and you will shine; break the +connection with Him, and you are darkness, darkness for yourselves, +and darkness for the world. Switch off, and the light is darkness. + +Change the metaphor, and instead of saying 'derived light' say +'reflected light.' _There_ is a pane of glass in a cottage, +miles away across the moor. It was invisible a moment ago, and +suddenly it gleams like a diamond. Why? The sun has struck it; and +in a moment after it will be invisible again. As long as Jesus +Christ is shining on my heart, so long, and not a moment longer, +shall I give forth the light that will illumine the world. +Astronomers have a contrivance by which they can keep a photographic +film on which they are seeking to get the image of a star, moving +along with the movement of the heavens, so that on the same spot the +star shall always shine. We have to keep ourselves steady beneath +the white beam from Jesus, and then we, too, shall be 'light in the +Lord.' + +Our light is fed light. Daily came the priest, daily the oil that +had been exhausted by shining was replenished. We all know what that +oil means and is; the Divine Spirit which comes into every heart +which is open by faith in Christ, and which abides in every heart +where there are desire, obedience, and the following of Him; which +can be quenched by my sin, by my negligence, by my ceasing to wish +it, by my not using its gifts when I have them; which can be grieved +by my inconsistencies, and by the spots of darkness that so often +take up more of the sphere of my life than the spots of +illumination. But we can have as much of that oil of the Divine +Spirit, the 'unction from the Holy One,' as we desire, and expect, +and use. And unless we have, dear brethren, there is no shining for +us. This generation in its abundant activities tends to a +Christianity which has more spindles than power, which is more +surface than depth, which is so anxious to do service that it +forgets the preliminary of all right service, patient, solitary, +silent communion with God. Suffer the word of exhortation--let +shining be second, let replenishing with the oil be first. First the +Altar of Incense, then the Candlestick. + +III. This golden lampstand tells us of the fatal effect of +neglecting the Church's and the individual's duty. + +Where is the seven-branched candlestick of the second Temple? No one +knows. Possibly, according to one statement, it lies at the bottom +of the Mediterranean. Certainly we know that it is pictured on that +sad panel in the conqueror's arch at Rome, and that it became a +trophy of the insolent victor. It disappeared, and the Israel whom +it vainly endeavoured through the centuries to stir to a +consciousness of its vocation, has never since had a gleam of light +to ray out into the world. Where are the seven candlesticks, which +made a blessed unity because Christ walked in their midst? Where are +the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Thyatira, and the +rest? Where they stood the mosque is reared, and from its minaret +day by day rings out--not the proclamation of the Name, but--'There +is no God but God, and Mahomet is His Prophet.' The Pharos that +ought to have shone out over stormy seas has been seized by +wreckers, and its light is blinded, and false lights lure the +mariner to the shoals and to shipwreck. + +'Take heed lest He also spare not thee.' O brethren! is it not a +bitter irony to call _us_ 'lights of the world'? Let us penitently +recognise the inconsistencies of our lives, and the reticence of our +speech. Let us not lose sight of the high ideal, that we may the more +penitently recognise the miserable falling short of our reality. And +let us be thankful that _the_ Priest is tending the lamps. 'He +will not quench the smoking wick,' but will replenish it with oil, and +fan the dying flame. Only let us not resist His ministrations, which +are always gentle, even when He removes the charred blacknesses that +hinder our being what we should be, and may be, if we will--lights +of the world. 'Arise! shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of +the Lord is risen upon thee.' + + + + +THE NAMES ON AARON'S BREASTPLATE + + + Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord, upon his + two shoulders, for a memorial.... And Aaron shall bear + the names of the Children of Israel in the breastplate + of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the + Holy Place.'--EXODUS xxviii. 12,29. + +Every part of the elaborately prescribed dress of the high priest +was significant. But the significance of the whole was concentrated +in the inscription upon his mitre, 'Holiness to the Lord,' and in +those others upon his breastplate and his shoulder. + +The breastplate was composed of folded cloth, in which were lodged +twelve precious stones, in four rows of three, each stone containing +the name of one of the tribes. It was held in position by the ephod, +which consisted of another piece of cloth, with a back and front +part, which were united into one on the shoulders. On each shoulder +it was clasped by an onyx stone bearing the names of six of the +tribes. Thus twice, on the shoulders, the seat of power, and on the +heart, the organ of thought and of love, Aaron, entering into the +presence of the Most High, bore 'the names of the tribes for a +memorial continually.' + +Now, I think we shall not be indulging in the very dangerous +amusement of unduly spiritualising the externalities of that old law +if we see here, in these two things, some very important lessons. + +I. The first one that I would suggest to you is--here we have the +expression of the great truth of representation of the people by the +priest. + +The names of the tribes laid upon Aaron's heart and on his shoulders +indicated the significance of his office--that he represented Israel +before God, as truly as he represented God to Israel. For the moment +the personality of the official was altogether melted away and +absorbed in the sanctity of his function, and he stood before God as +the individualised nation. Aaron was Israel, and Israel was Aaron, +for the purposes of worship. And that was indicated by the fact that +here, on the shoulders from which, according to an obvious symbol, +all acts of power emanate, and on the heart from which, according to +most natural metaphor, all the outgoings of the personal life +proceed, were written the names of the tribes. That meant, 'This man +standing here is the Israel of God, the concentrated nation.' + +The same thought works the other way. The nation is the diffused +priest, and all its individual components are consecrated to God. +All this was external ceremonial, with no real spiritual fact at the +back of it. But it pointed onwards to something that is not +ceremonial. It pointed to this, that the true priest must, in like +manner, gather up into himself, and in a very profound sense be, the +people for whom he is the priest; and that they, in their turn, by +the action of their own minds and hearts and wills, must consent to +and recognise that representative relation, which comes to the +solemn height of identification in Christ's relation to His people. +'I am the Vine, ye are the branches,' says He, and also, 'That they +all may be one in us as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.' So +Paul says, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' 'The life +which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,' + +So Christ gathers us all, if we will let Him, into Himself; and our +lives may be hid with Him--in a fashion that is more than mere +external and formal representation, or as people have a member of +Parliament to represent them in the councils of the nation--even in +a true union with Him in whom is the life of all of us, if we live +in any real sense. Aaron bore the names of the tribes on shoulder +and heart, and Israel was Aaron, and Aaron was Israel. + +II. Further, we see here, in these eloquent symbols, the true +significance of intercession. + +Now, that is a word and a thought which has been wofully limited and +made shallow and superficial by the unfortunate confining of the +expression, in our ordinary language, to a mere action by speech. +Intercession is supposed to be verbal asking for some good to be +bestowed on, or some evil to be averted from, some one in whom we +are interested. But the Old Testament notion of the priest's +intercession, and the New Testament use of the word which we so +render, go far beyond any verbal utterances, and reach to the very +heart of things. Intercession, in the true sense of the word, means +the doing of any act whatsoever before God for His people by Jesus +Christ. Whensoever, as in the presence of God, He brings to God +anything which is His, that is intercession. He undertakes for them, +not by words only, though His mighty word is, 'I will that they whom +Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am,' but by acts which are +more than even the words of the Incarnate Word. + +If we take these two inscriptions upon which I am now commenting, we +shall get, I think, what covers the whole ground of the intercession +on which Christians are to repose their souls. For, with regard to +the one of them, we read that the high priest's breastplate was +named 'the breastplate of judgment'; and what that means is +explained by the last words of the verse following that from which +my text is taken: 'Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of +Israel upon his heart before the Lord.' Judgment means a judicial +sentence; in this case a judicial sentence of acquittal. And that +Aaron stood before God in the Holy Place, ministering with this +breastplate upon his heart, is explained by the writer of these +regulations to mean that he carried there the visible manifestation +of Israel's acquittal, based upon his own sacrificial function. Now, +put that into plain English, and it is just this--Jesus Christ's +sacrifice ensures, for all those whose names are written on these +gems on His heart, their acquittal in the judgment of Heaven. Or, in +other words, the first step in the intercession of our great High +Priest is the presenting before God for ever and ever that great +fact that He, the Sinless, has died for the love of sinful men, and +thereby has secured that the judgment of Heaven on them shall now be +'no condemnation.' Brethren, there is the root of all our hope in +Christ, and of all that Christ is to individuals and to society--the +assurance that the breastplate of judgment is on His heart, as a +sign that all who trust Him are acquitted by the tribunal of Heaven. + +The other side of this great continual act of intercession is set +forth by the other symbol--the names written on the shoulders, the +seat of power. There is a beautiful parallel, which yet at first +sight does not seem to be one, to the thought that lies here, in the +Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where, addressing the restored and +perfected Israel, he says, speaking in the person of Jehovah: 'I +have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.' That has precisely the +same meaning that I take to be conveyed by this symbol in the text. +The names of the tribes are written on His shoulders; and not until +that arm is wearied or palsied, not till that strong hand forgets +its cunning, will our defence fail. If our names are thus written on +the seat of power, that means that all the divine authority and +omnipotence which Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the Father, +wields in His state of royal glory, are exercised on behalf of, or +at all events on the side of, those whose names He thus bears upon +His shoulders. That is the guarantee for each of us that our hands +shall be made strong, according to the ancient prophetic blessing, +'by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.' Just as a father or a +mother will take their child's little tremulous hand in theirs and +hold it, that it may be strengthened for some small task beyond its +unbacked, uninvigorated power; so Jesus Christ will give us strength +within, and also will order the march of His Providence and send the +gift of His Spirit, for the succour and the strengthening of all +whose names are written on His ephod. He has gone within the veil. +He has left us heavy tasks, but our names are on His shoulders, and +we 'can do all things in Christ who strengthened us.' + +III. Still further, this symbol suggests to us the depth and reality +of Christ's sympathy. + +The heart is, in our language, the seat of love. It is not so in the +Old Testament. Affection is generally allocated to another part of +the frame; but here the heart stands for the organ of care, of +thought, of interest. For, according to the Old Testament view of +the relation between man's body and man's soul, the very seat and +centre of the individual life is in the heart. I suppose that was +because it was known that, somehow or other, the blood came thence. +Be that as it may, the thought is clear throughout all the Old +Testament that the heart is the man, and the man is the heart. And +so, if Jesus bears our names upon His heart, that does not express +merely representation nor merely intercession, but it expresses also +personal regard, individualising knowledge. For Aaron wore not one +great jewel with 'Israel' written on it, but twelve little ones, +with 'Dan,' 'Benjamin,' and 'Ephraim,' and all the rest of them, +each on his own gem. + +So we can say, 'Such a High Priest became us, who could have +compassion upon the ignorant, and upon them that are out of the +way'; and we can fall back on that old-fashioned but inexhaustible +source of consolation and strength: 'In all their affliction He was +afflicted'; and though the noise of the tempests which toss us can +scarcely be supposed to penetrate into the veiled place where He +dwells on high, yet we may be sure--and take all the peace and +consolation and encouragement out of it that it is meant to give us--that +'we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with a +feeling of our infirmities,' but that Himself, having known +miseries, 'is able to succour them that are tempted.' Our names are +on Christ's heart. + +IV. Then, lastly, we have here a suggestion of how precious to Aaron +Israel is. + +Jewels were chosen to symbolise the tribes. Bits of tin, potsherds, +or anything else that one could have scratched letters upon, would +have done quite as well. But 'the precious things of the everlasting +mountains' were chosen to bear the dear names. 'The Lord's portion +is His people'; and precious in the eyes of Christ are the souls for +whom He has given so much. They are not only precious, but lustrous, +flashing back the light in various colours indeed, according to +their various laws of crystallisation, but all receptive of it and +all reflective of it. I said that the names on the breastplate of +judgment expressed the acquittal and acceptance of Israel. But does +Christ's work for us stop with simple acquittal? Oh no! 'Whom He +justified them He also glorified,' And if our souls are 'bound in +the bundle of life,' and our names are written on the heart of the +Christ, be sure that mere forgiveness and acquittal is the least of +the blessings which He intends to give, and that He will not be +satisfied until in all our nature we receive and flash back the +light of His own glory. + +It is very significant in this aspect that the names of the twelve +tribes are described as being written on the precious stones which +make the walls of the New Jerusalem. Thus borne on Christ's heart +whilst He is within the veil and we are in the outer courts, we may +hope to be carried by His sustaining and perfecting hand into the +glories, and be made participant of the glories. Let us see to it +that we write His name on our hearts, on their cares, their thought, +their love, and on our hands, on their toiling and their possessing; +and then, God helping us, and Christ dwelling in us, we shall come +to the blessed state of those who serve Him, and bear His name +flaming conspicuous for ever on their foreheads. + + + + +THREE INSCRIPTIONS WITH ONE MEANING + + + 'Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon + it ... HOLINESS TO THE LORD.'--EXODUS xxviii. 36. + + 'In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, + HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'--ZECH. xiv. 20. + + 'His name shall be in their foreheads.'--REV. xxii. 4. + +You will have perceived my purpose in putting these three widely +separated texts together. They all speak of inscriptions, and they +are all obviously connected with each other. The first of them comes +from the ancient times of the institution of the ceremonial ritual, +and describes a part of the high priest's official dress. In his +mitre was a thin plate of gold on which was written, 'Holiness to +the Lord.' The second of them comes from almost the last portion +recorded of the history of Israel in the Old Testament, and is from +the words of the great Prophet of the Restoration--his ideal +presentation of the Messianic period, in which he recognises as one +feature, that the inscription on the mitre of the high priest shall +be written on 'the bells of the horses.' And the last of them is +from the closing vision of the celestial kingdom, the heavenly and +perfected form of the Christian Church. John, probably remembering +the high priest and his mitre, with its inscription upon the +forehead, says: 'His servants shall do Him priestly service'--for +that is the meaning of the word inadequately translated 'serve Him'--'and +see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.' + +These three things, then--the high priest's mitre, the horses' +bells, the foreheads of the perfected saints--present three aspects +of the Christian thought of holiness. Take them one by one. + +I. The high priest's mitre. + +The high priest was the official representative of the nation. He +stood before God as the embodied and personified Israel. For the +purposes of worship Israel was the high priest, and the high priest +was Israel. And so, on his forehead, not to distinguish him from the +rest of the people, but to include all the people in his +consecration, shone a golden plate with the motto, 'Holiness to the +Lord.' So, at the very beginning of Jewish ritual there stands a +protest against all notions that make 'saint' the designation of any +abnormal or exceptional sanctity, and confine the name to the +members of any selected aristocracy of devoutness and goodness. All +Christian men, _ex officio_, by the very fact of their Christianity, +are saints, in the true sense of the word. And the representative of +the whole of Israel stood there before God, with this inscription +blazing on his forehead, as a witness that, whatsoever holiness may +be, it belongs to every member of the true Israel. + +And what is it? It is a very unfortunate thing--indicating +superficiality of thought--that the modern popular notion of +'holiness' identifies it with purity, righteousness, moral +perfection. Now that idea _is_ in it, but is not the whole of +it. For, not to spend time upon mere remarks on words, the meaning +of the word thus rendered is in Hebrew, as well as in Greek and in +our own English, one and the same. The root-meaning is 'separated,' +'set apart,' and the word expresses primarily, not moral character, +but relation to God. That makes all the difference; and it +incalculably deepens the conception, as well as puts us on the right +track for understanding the only possible means by which there can +ever be realised that moral perfection and excellence which has +unfortunately monopolised the meaning of the word in most people's +minds. The first thought is 'set apart to God.' That is holiness, in +its root and germ. + +And how can we be set apart for God? You may devote a dead thing for +certain uses easily enough. How can a man be separated and laid +aside? + +Well, there is only one way, brethren, and that is by self- +surrender. 'Yield yourselves to God' is but the other side, or, +rather, the practical shape, of the Old and the New Testament +doctrine of holiness. A man becomes God's when he says, 'Lord, take +me and mould me, and fill me and cleanse me, and do with me what +Thou wilt.' In that self-surrender, which is the tap-root of all +holiness, the first and foremost thing to be offered is that most +obstinate of all, the will that is in us. And when we yield our +wills in submission both to commandments and providences, both to +gifts and to withdrawals, both to gains and to losses, both to joys +and to sorrows, then we begin to write upon our foreheads 'Holiness +to the Lord.' And when we go on to yield our hearts to Him, by +enshrining Him sole and sovereign in their innermost chamber, and +turning to Him the whole current of our lives and desires, and hopes +and confidences, which we are so apt to allow to run to waste and be +sucked up in the desert sands of the world, then we write more of +that inscription. And when we fill our minds with joyful submission +to His truth, and occupy our thoughts with His mighty Name and His +great revelation, and carry Him with us in the hidden corners of our +consciousness, even whilst we are busy about daily work, then we add +further letters to it. And when the submissive will, and the devoted +heart, and the occupied thoughts are fully expressed in daily life +and its various external duties, then the writing is complete. +'Holiness to the Lord' is self-surrender of will and heart and mind +and everything. And that surrender is of the very essence of +Christianity. + +What is a saint? Some man or woman that has practised unheard-of +austerities? Somebody that has lived an isolated and self-regarding +life in convent or monastery or desert? No! a man or woman in the +world who, moved by the mercies of God, yields self to God as 'a +living sacrifice.' + +So the New Testament writers never hesitate to speak even of such +very imperfect Christians as were found in abundance in churches +like Corinth and Galatia as being all 'saints,' every man of them. +That is not because the writers were minimising their defects, or +idealising their persons, but because, if they are Christians at +all, they are saints; seeing that no man is a Christian who has not +been drawn by Christ's great sacrifice for him to yield himself a +sacrifice for Christ. + +Of course that intrusive idea which has, in popular apprehension, so +swallowed up the notion of holiness--viz. that of perfection of +moral character or conduct--is included in this other, or rather is +developed from it. For the true way to conquer self is to surrender +self; and the more entire our giving up of ourselves, the more +certainly shall we receive ourselves back again from His hands. 'By +the mercies of God, I beseech you, yield yourselves living +sacrifices.' + +II. I come to my next text--the horses' bells. + +Zechariah has a vision of the ideal Messianic times, and, of course, +as must necessarily be the case, his picture is painted with colours +laid upon his palette by his experience, and he depicts that distant +future in the guise suggested to him by what he saw around him. So +we have to disentangle from his words the sentiment which he +expresses, and to recognise the symbolic way in which he puts it. +His thought is this,--the inscription on the high priest's mitre +will be written on the bells which ornament the harness of the +horses, which in Israel were never used as with us, but only either +for war or for pomp and display, and the use of which was always +regarded with a certain kind of doubt and suspicion. Even these +shall be consecrated in that far-off day. + +And then he goes on with variations on the same air, 'In that day +there shall be upon the bells of the horses, "Holiness unto the +Lord,"' and adds that 'the pots in the Lord's house'--the humble +vessels that were used for the most ordinary parts of the Temple +services--'shall be like the bowls before the altar,' into which the +sacred blood of the offerings was poured. The most external and +secular thing bearing upon religion shall be as sacred as the +sacredest. But that is not all. 'Yea! every pot in Jerusalem and in +Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all they that +sacrifice shall come and take of them,' and put their offerings +therein. That is to say, the coarse pottery vessels that were in +every poverty-stricken house in the city shall be elevated to the +rank of the sacred vessels of the Temple. Domestic life with all its +secularities shall be hallowed. The kitchens of Jerusalem shall be +as truly places of worship as is the inner shrine of the Most High. + +On the whole, the prophet's teaching is that, in the ideal state of +man upon earth, there will be an entire abolition of the distinction +between 'sacred' and 'secular'; a distinction that has wrought +infinite mischief in the world, and in the lives of Christian +people. + +Let me translate these words of our prophet into English +equivalents. Every cup and tumbler in a poor man's kitchen may be as +sacred as the communion chalice that passes from lip to lip with the +'blood of Jesus Christ' in it. Every common piece of service that we +do, down among the vulgarities and the secularities and the +meannesses of daily life, may be lifted up to stand upon precisely +the same level as the sacredest office that we undertake. The bells +of the horses may jingle to the same tune as the trumpets of the +priests sounded within the shrine, and on all, great and small, may +be written, 'Holiness to the Lord.' + +But let us remember that that universally diffused sanctity will +need to have a centre of diffusion, else there will be no diffusion, +and that all life will become sacred when the man that lives it has +'Holiness to the Lord' written on his forehead, and not else. If +that be the inscription on the driver's heart, the horses that he +drives will have it written on their bells, but they will not have +it unless it be. Holy men make all things holy. 'To the pure all +things are pure,' but unto them that are unclean and disobedient +there is nothing pure. Hallow thyself, and all things are clean unto +thee. + +III. And so I come to my third text--the perfected saints' +foreheads. + +The connection between the first and the last of these texts is as +plain and close as between the first and the second. For John in his +closing vision gives emphasis to the priestly idea as designating in +its deepest relations the redeemed and perfected Christian Church. +Therefore he says, as I have already explained, 'His servants shall +do Him _priestly_ service, and His name shall be in their +foreheads.' The old official dress of the high priest comes into his +mind, and he paints the future, just as Zechariah did, under the +forms of the past, and sees before the throne the perfected saints, +each man of them with that inscription clear and conspicuous. + +But there is an advance in his words which I think it is not +fanciful to note. It is only the _name_ that is written in the +perfected saint's forehead. Not the 'Holiness unto the Lord,' but +just the bare name. What does that mean? Well, it means the same as +your writing your name in one of your books does, or as when a man +puts his initials on the back of his oxen, or as the old practice of +branding the master's mark upon the slave did. It means absolute +ownership. + +But it means something more. The name is the manifested personality, +the revealed God, or, as we say in an abstract way, the character of +God. That Name is to be in the foreheads of His perfected people. +How does it come to be there? Read also the clause before the text--'His +servants shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.' +That is to say, the perfected condition is not reached by surrender +only, but by assimilation; and that assimilation comes by contemplation. +The faces that are turned to Him, and behold Him, are smitten with the +light and shine, and those that look upon them see 'as it had been the +face of an angel,' as the Sanhedrim saw that of Stephen, when he beheld + the Son of Man 'standing at the right hand of God.' + +My last text is but a picturesque way of saying what the writer of +it says in plain words when he declares, 'We shall be like Him, for +we shall see Him as He is.' The name is to be 'in their foreheads,' +where every eye can see it. Alas! alas! it is so hard for us to live +out our best selves, and to show to the world what is in us. +Cowardice, sheepishness, and a hundred other reasons prevent it. In +this poor imperfect state no emotion ever takes shape and visibility +without losing more or less of its beauty. But yonder the +obstructions to self-manifestation will be done away; and 'when He +shall be manifested, we also shall be manifested with Him in glory.' + +'Then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun in My heavenly +Father's Kingdom.' But the beginning of it all is 'Holiness to the +Lord' written on our hearts; and the end of that is the vision which +is impossible without holiness, and which leads on to the beholder's +perfect likeness to his Lord. + + + + +THE ALTAR OF INCENSE + + + 'Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon.' + --EXODUS xxx. 1. + +Ceremonies are embodied thoughts. Religious ceremonies are moulded +by, and seek to express, the worshipper's conception of his God, and +his own relation to Him; his aspirations and his need. Of late years +scholars have been busy studying the religions of the more backward +races, and explaining rude and repulsive rites by pointing to the +often profound and sometimes beautiful ideas underlying them. When +that process is applied to Australian and Fijian savages, it is +honoured as a new and important study; when we apply it to the +Mosaic Ritual it is pooh-poohed as 'foolish spiritualising.' Now, no +doubt, there has been a great deal of nonsense talked in regard to +this matter, and a great deal of ingenuity wasted in giving a +Christian meaning--or, may I say, a Christian twist?--to every pin +of the Tabernacle, and every detail of the ritual. Of course, to +exaggerate a truth is the surest way to discredit a truth, but the +truth remains true all the same, and underneath that elaborate +legislation, which makes such wearisome and profitless reading for +the most of us, in the Pentateuch, there lie, if we can only grasp +them, great thoughts and lessons that we shall all be the better for +pondering. + +To one item of these, this altar of incense, I call attention now, +because it is rich in suggestions, and leads us into very sacred +regions of the Christian life which are by no means so familiar to +many of us as they ought to be. Let me just for one moment state the +facts with which I wish to deal. The Jewish Tabernacle, and +subsequently the Temple, were arranged in three compartments: the +outermost court, which was accessible to all the people; the second, +which was trodden by the priests alone; and the third, where the +Shechinah dwelt in solitude, broken only once a year by the foot of +the High Priest. That second court we are concerned with now. There +are three pieces of ecclesiastical furniture in it: an altar in the +centre, flanked on either side by a great lampstand, and a table on +which were piled loaves. It is to that central piece of furniture +that I ask your attention now, and to the thoughts that underlie it, +and the lessons that it teaches. + +I. This altar shows us what prayer is. + +Suppose we had been in that court when in the morning or in the +evening the priest came with the glowing pan of coals from another +altar in the outer court, and laid it on this altar, and heaped upon +it the sticks of incense, we should have seen the curling, fragrant +wreaths ascending till 'the House was filled with smoke,' as a +prophet once saw it. We should not have wanted any interpreter to +tell us what that meant. What could that rising cloud of sweet +odours signify but the ascent of the soul towards God? Put that into +more abstract words, and it is just the old, hackneyed commonplace +which I seek to try to freshen a little now, that incense is the +symbol of prayer. That that is so is plain enough, not only from the +natural propriety of the case, but because you find the +identification distinctly stated in several places in Scripture, of +which I quote but two instances. In one psalm we read, 'Let my +prayer come before Thee as incense.' In the Book of the Apocalypse +we read of 'golden bowls full of odours, which are the prayers of +saints.' And that the symbolism was understood by, and modified the +practice of, the nation, we are taught when we read that whilst +Zechariah the priest was within the court offering incense, as it +was his lot to do, 'the whole multitude of the people were without +praying,' doing that which the priest within the court symbolised by +his offering. So then we come to this, dear friends, that we +fearfully misunderstand and limit the nobleness and the essential +character of prayer when, as we are always tempted to do by our +inherent self-regard, we make petition its main feature and form. Of +course, so long as we are what we shall always be in this world, +needy and sinful creatures; and so long as we are what we shall ever +be in all worlds, creatures absolutely dependent for life and +everything on the will and energy of God, petition must necessarily +be a very large part of prayer. But the more we grow into His +likeness, and the more we understand the large privileges and the +glorious possibilities which lie in prayer, the more will the +relative proportions of its component parts be changed, and petition +will become less, and aspiration will become more. The essence of +prayer, the noblest form of it, is thus typified by the cloud of +sweet odours that went up before God. + +In all true prayer there must be the lowest prostration in reverence +before the Infinite Majesty. But the noblest prayer is that which +lifts 'them that are bowed down' rather than that which prostrates +men before an inaccessible Deity. And so, whilst we lie low at His +feet, that may be the prayer of a mere theist, but when our hearts +go out towards Him, and we are drawn to Himself, that is the prayer +that befits Christian aspiration; the ascent of the soul toward God +is the true essence of prayer. As one of the non-Christian +philosophers--seekers after God, if ever there were such, and who, I +doubt not, found Him whom they sought--has put it, 'the flight of +the lonely soul to the only God'; that is prayer. Is that my prayer? +We come to Him many a time burdened with some very real sorrow, or +weighted with some pressing responsibility, and we should not be +true to ourselves, or to Him, if our prayer did not take the shape +of petition. But, as we pray, the blessing of the transformation of +its character should be realised by us, and that which began with +the cry for help and deliverance should always be, and it always +will be, if the cry for help and deliverance has been of the right +sort, sublimed into 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' The Book of +Ecclesiastes describes death as the 'return of the spirit to God who +gave it.' That is the true description of prayer, a going back to +the fountain's source. Flames aspire; to the place 'whence the +rivers came thither they return again.' The homing pigeon or the +migrating bird goes straight through many degrees of latitude, and +across all sorts of weather, to the place whence it came. Ah! +brethren, let us ask ourselves if our spirits thus aspire and soar. +Do we know what it is to be, if I might so say, like those captive +balloons that are ever yearning upwards, and stretching to the +loftiest point permitted them by the cord that tethers them to +earth? + +Now another thought that this altar of incense may teach us is that +the prayer that soars must be kindled. There is no fragrance in a +stick of incense lying there. No wreaths of ascending smoke come +from it. It has to be kindled before its sweet odour can be set free +and ascend. That is why so much of our prayer is of no delight to +God, and of no benefit to us, because it is not on fire with the +flame of a heart kindled into love and thankfulness by the great +sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The cold vapours lie like a winding-sheet +down in the valleys until the sun smites them, warms them, and draws +them up. And our desires will hover in the low levels, and be dank +and damp, until they are drawn up to the heights by the warmth of +the Sun of righteousness. Oh! brethren, the formality and the +coldness, to say nothing of the inconsecutiveness and the +interruptedness by rambling thoughts that we all know in our +petitions, in our aspirations, are only to be cured in one way:-- + + 'Come! shed abroad a Saviour's love, + And that will kindle ours.' + +It is the stretched string that gives out musical notes; the slack +one is dumb. And if we desire that we may be able to be sure, as our +Master was, when He said, 'I know that Thou hearest me always,' we +must pray as He did, of whom it is recorded that 'He prayed the more +earnestly,' and 'was heard in that He feared.' The word rendered +'the more earnestly' carries in it a metaphor drawn from that very +fact that I have referred to. It means 'with the more stretched-out +extension and intensity.' If our prayers are to be heard as music in +heaven, they must come from a stretched string. + +Once more, this altar of incense teaches us that kindled prayer +delights God. That emblem of the sweet odour is laid hold of with +great boldness by more than one Old and New Testament writer, in +order to express the marvellous thought that there is a mutual joy +in the prayer of faith and love, and that it rises as 'an odour of a +sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.' The +cuneiform inscriptions give that thought with characteristic +vividness and grossness when they speak about the gods being +'gathered like flies round the steam of the sacrifice.' We have the +same thought, freed from all its grossness, when we think that the +curling wreaths going up from a heart aspiring and enflamed, come to +Him as a sweet odour, and delight His soul. People say, 'that is +anthropomorphism--making God too like a man.' Well, man is like God, +at any rate, and surely the teaching of that great name 'Father' +carries with it the assurance that just as fathers of flesh are glad +when they see that their children like best to be with them, so +there is something analogous in that joy before the angels of heaven +which the Father has, not only because of the prodigal who comes +back, but because of the child who has long been with Him, and is +ever seeking to nestle closer to His heart. The Psalmist was lost in +wonder and thankfulness that he was able to say 'He was extolled +with my tongue.' Surely it should be a gracious, encouraging, +strengthening thought to us all, that even our poor aspirations may +minister to the divine gladness. + +Now let us turn to another thought. + +II. This altar shows us where prayer stands in the Christian life. + +There are two or three points in regard to its position which it is +no fanciful spiritualising, but simply grasping the underlying +meaning of the institution, if we emphasise. First, let me remind +you that there was another altar in the outer court, whereon was +offered the daily sacrifice for the sins of the people. That altar +came first, and the sacrifice had to be offered on it first, before +the priest came into the inner court with the coals from that altar, +and the incense kindled by them. What does that say to us? The altar +of incense is not approached until we have been to the altar of +sacrifice. It is no mere arbitrary appointment, nor piece of +evangelical narrowness, which says that there is no real access to +God, in all the fullness and reality of His revealed character for +us sinful men, until our sins have been dealt with, taken away by +the Lamb of God, sacrificed for us. And it is simply the transcript +of experience which declares that there will be little inclination +or desire to come to God with the sacrifice of praise and prayer +until we have been to Christ, the sacrifice of propitiation and +pardon. Brethren, we need to be cleansed, and we can only be +delivered from the unholiness which is the perpetual and necessary +barrier to our vision of God by making our very own, through simple +faith, the energy and the blessedness of that great Sacrifice of +propitiation. Then, and then only, do we properly come to the altar +of incense. Its place in the Christian life is second, not first. +'First be reconciled to thy' Father, 'then lay' the incense 'on the +altar.' + +Again, great and deep lessons are given to us in the place of our +altar in regard to the other articles that stood in that inner +court. I have said that there were three of them. In the centre this +altar of incense; on the one hand the great lampstand; on the other +hand the table with loaves thereon. The one symbolised Israel's +function in the world to be its light, which in our function too, +and the other with loaves thereon symbolised the consecration to God +of Israel's activities, and their results. + +But between the two, central to both, stood the altar of incense. +What does that say as to the place of prayer, defined as I have +defined it, in the Christian life? It says this, that the light will +burn dim and go out, and the loaves, the expression and the +consequences of our activities, will become mouldy and dry, unless +both are hallowed and sustained by prayer. And that lesson is one +which we all need, and which I suppose this generation needs quite +as much as, if not more than, any that has gone before it. For life +has become so swift and rushing, and from all sides, the Church, the +world, society, there come such temptations, and exhortations, and +necessities, for strenuous and continuous work, that the basis of +all wholesome and vigorous work, communion with God, is but too apt +to be put aside and relegated to some inferior position. The carbon +points of the electric arc-light are eaten away with tremendous +rapidity in the very act of giving forth their illumination, and +they need to be continually approximated and to be frequently +renewed. The oil is burned away in the act of shining, and the lamp +needs to be charged again. If we are to do our work in the world as +its lights, and if we are to have any activities fit to be +consecrated to God and laid on the Table before the Veil, it can +only be by our making the altar of incense the centre, and these +others subsidiary. + +One last thought--the place of prayer in the Christian life is +shadowed for us by the position of this altar in reference to 'the +secret place of the Most High,' that mysterious inner court which +was dark but for the Shechinah's light, and lonely but for the +presence of the worshipping cherubim and the worshipped God. It +stood, as we are told a verse or two after my text, 'before the +veil.' A straight line drawn from the altar of sacrifice would have +bisected the altar of incense as it passed into the mercy-seat and +the glory. And that just tells us that the place of prayer in the +Christian lift is that it is the direct way of coming close to God. +Dear brother, we shall never lift the veil, and stand in 'the secret +place of the Most High,' unless we take the altar of incense on our +road. + +There is one more thought here-- + +III. The altar of incense shows us how prayer is to be cultivated. + +Twice a day, morning and evening, came the officiating priest with +his pan of coals and incense, and laid it there; and during all the +intervening hours between the morning and the evening the glow lay +half hidden in the incense, and there was a faint but continual +emission of fragrance from the smouldering mass that had been +renewed in the morning, and again in the evening. And does not that +say something to us? There must be definite times of distinct prayer +if the aroma of devotion is to be diffused through our else +scentless days. I ask for no pedantic adherence, with monastic +mechanicalness, to hours and times, and forms of petitions. These +are needful crutches to many of us. But what I do maintain is that +all that talk which we hear so much of in certain quarters nowadays +as to its not being necessary for us to have special times of +prayer, and as to its being far better to have devotion diffused +through our lives, and of how _laborare est orare_--to labour +is to pray--all that is pernicious nonsense if it is meant to say +that the incense will be fragrant and smoulder unless it is stirred +up and renewed night and morning. There must be definite times of +prayer if there is to be diffused devotion through the day. What +would you think of people that said, 'Run your cars by electricity. +Get it out of the wires; it will come! Never mind putting up any +generating stations'? And not less foolish are they who seek for a +devotion permeating life which is not often concentrated into +definite and specific acts. + +But the other side is as true. It is bad to clot your religion into +lumps, and to leave the rest of the life without it. There must be +the smouldering all day long. 'Rejoice evermore; pray without +ceasing.' You can pray thus. Not set prayer, of course; but a +reference to Him, a thought of Him, like some sweet melody, 'so +sweet we know not we are listening to it,' may breathe its +fragrance, and diffuse its warmth into the commonest and smallest of +our daily activities. It was when Gideon was threshing wheat that +the angel appeared to him. It was when Elisha was ploughing that the +divine inspiration touched him. It was when the disciples were +fishing that they saw the Form on the shore. And when we are in the +way of our common life it is possible that the Lord may meet us, and +that our souls may be aspiring to Him. Then work will be worship; +then burdens will be lightened; then our lamps will burn; then the +fruits of our daily lives will ripen; then our lives will be noble; +then our spirits will rest as well as soar, and find fruition and +aspiration perpetually alternating in stable succession of eternal +progress. + + + + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--I. + + + 'Then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul.' + --EXODUS xxx. 12. + +This remarkable provision had a religious intention. Connect it with +the tax-money which Peter found in the fish's mouth. + +I. Its meaning. Try to realise an Israelite's thoughts at the +census. 'I am enrolled among the people and army of God: am I +worthy? What am I, to serve so holy a God?' The payment was meant-- + +_(a)_ To excite the sense of sin. This should be present in all +approach to God, in all service; accompanying the recognition of our +Christian standing. Our sense of sin is far too slight and weak; +this defect is at the root of much feebleness in popular religion. +The sense of sin must embrace not outward acts only, but inner +spirit also. + +_(b)_ To suggest the possibility of expiation. It was 'ransom' +_i.e._ 'covering,' something paid that guilt might be taken +away and sin regarded as non-existent. This is, of course, +obviously, only a symbol. No tax could satisfy God for sin. The very +smallness of the amount shows that it is symbolical only. 'Not with +corruptible things as silver' is man redeemed. + +II. Its identity for all. Rich or poor, high or low, all men are +equal in sin. There are surface differences and degrees, but a deep +identity beneath. So on the same principle all souls are of the same +value. Here is the true democracy of Christianity. So there is one +ransom for all, for the need of all is identical. + +III. Its use. It was melted down for use in the sanctuary, so as to +be a 'memorial' permanently present to God when His people met with +Him. The greater portion was made into bases for the boards of the +sanctuary. That is, God's dwelling with men and our communion with +Him all rest on the basis of ransom. We are 'brought nigh by the +blood of Christ.' + + + + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--II. + + 'The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not + give less than half a shekel....'--EXODUS xxx. 15. + +This tax was exacted on numbering the people. It was a very small +amount, about fifteen pence, so it was clearly symbolical in its +significance. Notice-- + +I. The broad principle of equality of all souls in the sight of God. +Contrast the reign of caste and class in heathendom with the +democracy of Judaism and of Christianity. + +II. The universal sinfulness. Payment of the tax was a confession +that all were alike in this: not that all were equally sinful, but +all were sinful, whatever variations of degree might exist. + +'There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the +glory of God.' + +III. The one ransom. It was a prophecy of which _we_ know the +meaning. Recall the incident of the 'stater' in the fish's mouth. + +Christ declares His exemption from the tax. Yet He voluntarily comes +under it, and He provides the payment of it for Himself and for +Peter. + +He does so by a miracle. + +The Apostle has to 'take and give it'; so faith is called into +exercise. + +Thus there is but one Sacrifice for all; and the poorest can +exercise faith and the richest can do no more. 'None other name.' + + + + +THE GOLDEN CALF + + + 'And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come + down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves + together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us + gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, + the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, + we wot not what is become of him. 2. And Aaron said + unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in + the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your + daughters, and bring them unto me. 3. And all the people + brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, + and brought them unto Aaron. 4. And he received them at + their hand, and fashioned it with a graving-tool, after + he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be + thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the + land of Egypt. 5. And when Aaron saw it, he built an + altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, + To-morrow is a feast to the Lord. 6. And they rose up + early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and + brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat + and to drink, and rose up to play. 7. And the Lord said + unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which + thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted + themselves: 8. They have turned aside quickly out of the + way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten + calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed + thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which + have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.... 30. And + it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the + people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up + unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement + for your sin. 31. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and + said, Oh! this people have sinned a great sin, and have + made them gods of gold. 32. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive + their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy + book which Thou hast written. 33. And the Lord said unto + Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot + out of My book. 34. Therefore now go, lead the people + unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, + Mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day + when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. 35. And + the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, + which Aaron made.'--EXODUS xxxii. 1-8; 30-35. + +It was not yet six weeks since the people had sworn, 'All that the +Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient.' The blood of the +covenant, sprinkled on them, was scarcely dry when they flung off +allegiance to Jehovah. Such short-lived loyalty to Him can never +have been genuine. That mob of slaves was galvanised by Moses into +obedience; and since their acceptance of Jehovah was in reality only +yielding to the power of one strong will and its earnest faith, of +course it collapsed as soon as Moses disappeared. + +We have to note, first, the people's universal revolt. The language +of verse 1 may easily hide to a careless reader the gravity and +unanimity of the apostasy. 'The people gathered themselves +together.' It was a national rebellion, a flood which swept away +even some faithful, timid hearts. No voices ventured to protest. +What were the elders, who shortly before 'saw the God of Israel,' +doing to be passive at such a crisis? Was there no one to bid the +fickle multitude look up to the summit overhead, where the red +flames glowed, or to remind them of the hosts of Egypt lying stark +and dead on the shore? Was Miriam cowed too, and her song forgotten? + +We need not cast stones at these people; for we also have short +memories for either the terrible or the gracious revelations of God +in our own lives. But we may learn the lesson that God's lovers have +to set themselves sometimes dead against the rush of popular +feeling, and that there are times when silence or compliance is sin. + +It would have been easy for the rebels to have ignored Aaron, and +made gods for themselves. But they desired to involve him in their +apostasy, and to get 'official sanction' for it. He had been left by +Moses as his lieutenant, and so to get him implicated was to stamp +the movement as a regular and entire revolt. + +The demand 'to make gods' (or, more probably, 'a god') flew in the +face of both the first and second commandments. For Jehovah, who had +forbidden the forming of any image, was denied in the act of making +it. To disobey Him was to cast Him off. The ground of the rebellion +was the craving for a visible object of trust and a visible guide, +as is seen by the reason assigned for the demand for an image. Moses +was out of sight; they must have something to look at as their +leader. Moses had disappeared, and, to these people who had only +been heaved up to the height of believing in Jehovah by Moses, +Jehovah had disappeared with him. They sank down again to the level +of other races as soon as that strong lever ceased to lift their +heavy apprehensions. + +How ridiculous the assertion that they did not know what had become +of Moses! They knew that he was up there with Jehovah. The elders +could have told them that. The fire on the mount might have burned +in on all minds the confirmation. Note, too, the black ingratitude +and plain denial of Jehovah in 'the _man_ that brought us up +out of the land of Egypt.' They refuse to recognise God's part. It +was Moses only who had done it; and now that he is gone they must +have a visible god, like other nations. + +Still sadder than their sense-bound wish is Aaron's compliance. He +knew as well as we do what he should have said, but, like many +another man in influential position, when beset by popular cries, he +was frightened, and yielded when he should have 'set his face like a +flint.' His compliance has in essentials been often repeated, +especially by priests and ministers of religion who have lent their +superior abilities or opportunities to carry out the wishes of the +ignorant populace, and debased religion or watered down its +prohibitions, to please and retain hold of them. The Church has +incorporated much from heathenism. Roman Catholic missionaries have +permitted 'converts' to keep their old usages. Protestant teachers +have acquiesced in, and been content to find the brains to carry +out, compromises between sense and soul, God's commands and men's +inclinations. + +We need not discuss the metallurgy of verse 4. But clearly Aaron +asked for the earrings, not, as some would have it, hoping that +vanity and covetousness would hinder their being given, but simply +in order to get gold for the bad work which he was ready to do. The +reason for making the thing in the shape of a calf is probably the +Egyptian worship of Apis in that form, which would be familiar to +the people. + +We must note that it was the people who said, 'These be thy gods, O +Israel!' Aaron seems to keep in the rear, as it were. He makes the +calf, and hands it over, and leaves them to hail it and worship. +Like all cowards, he thought that he was lessening his guilt by thus +keeping in the background. Feeble natures are fond of such +subterfuges, and deceive themselves by them; but they do not shift +their sin off their shoulders. + +Then he comes in again with an impotent attempt to diminish the +gravity of the revolt. 'When he _saw_ this,' he tried to turn +the flood into another channel, and so proclaimed a 'feast to +Jehovah'!--as if He could be worshipped by flagrant defiance of His +commandments, or as if He had not been disavowed by the ascription +to the calf, made that morning out of their own trinkets, of the +deliverance from Egypt. A poor, inconsequential attempt to save +appearances and hallow sin by writing God's name on it! The 'god' +whom the Israelites worshipped under the image of a calf, was no +less another 'god before Me,' though it was called by the name of +Jehovah. If the people had their idol, it mattered nothing to them, +and it mattered as little to Jehovah, what 'name' it bore. The wild +orgies of the morrow were not the worship which He accepts. + +What a contrast between the plain and the mountain! Below, the +shameful feast, with its parody of sacrifice and its sequel of lust- +inflamed dancing; above, the awful colloquy between the all-seeing +righteous Judge and the intercessor! The people had cast off +Jehovah, and Jehovah no more calls them 'My,' but '_thy_ +people.' They had ascribed their Exodus first to Moses, and next to +the calf. Jehovah speaks of it as the work of Moses. + +A terrible separation of Himself from them lies in '_thy_ +people, which _thou_ broughtest up,' and Moses' bold rejoinder +emphasises the relation and act which Jehovah seems to suppress +(verse 11). Observe that the divine voice refuses to give any weight +to Aaron's trick of compromise. These are no worshippers of Jehovah +who are howling and dancing below there. They are 'worshipping +_it_, and sacrificing to it,' not to Him. The cloaks of sin may +partly cover its ugliness here, but they are transparent to His +eyes, and many a piece of worship, which is said to be directed to +Him, is, in His sight, rank idolatry. + +We do not deal with the magnificent courage of Moses, his single- +handed arresting of the wild rebellion, and the severe punishment by +which he trampled out the fire. But we must keep his severity in +mind if we would rightly judge his self-sacrificing devotion, and +his self-sacrificing devotion if we would rightly judge his +severity. + +No words of ours can make more sublime his utter self-abandonment +for the sake of the people among whom he had just been flaming in +wrath, and smiting like a destroying angel. That was a great soul +which had for its poles such justice and such love. The very words +of his prayer, in their abruptness, witness to his deep emotion. 'If +Thou wilt forgive their sin' stands as an incomplete sentence, left +incomplete because the speaker is so profoundly moved. Sometimes +broken words are the best witnesses of our earnestness. The +alternative clause reaches the high-water mark of passionate love, +ready to give up everything for the sake of its objects. The 'book +of life' is often spoken of in Scripture, and it is an interesting +study to bring together the places where the idea occurs (see Ps. +lxix. 28; Dan. xii. 1; Phil. iv. 3; Rev. iii. 5). The allusion is to +the citizens' roll (Ps. lxxxvii. 6). Those whose names are written +there have the privileges of citizenship, and, as it is the 'book of +life' (or '_of the living_'), life in the widest sense is +secured to them. To blot out of it, therefore, is to cut a man off +from fellowship in the city of God, and from participation in life. + +Moses was so absorbed in his vocation that his life was less to him +than the well-being of Israel. How far he saw into the darkness +beyond the grave we cannot say; but, at least, he was content, and +desirous to die on earth, if thereby Israel might continue to be +God's people. And probably he had some gleam of light beyond, which +enhanced the greatness of his offered sacrifice. To die, whatever +loss of communion with God that involved here or hereafter, would be +sweet if thereby he could purchase Israel's restoration to God's +favour. We cannot but think of Paul willing to be separated from +Christ for his brethren's sake. + +We may well think of a greater than Moses or Paul, who did bear the +loss which they were willing to bear, and died that sin might be +forgiven. Moses was a true type of Christ in that act of supreme +self-sacrifice; and all the heroism, the identification of himself +with his people, the love which willingly accepts death, that makes +his prayer one of the greatest deeds on the page of history, are +repeated in infinitely sweeter, more heart-subduing fashion in the +story of the Cross. Let us not omit duly to honour the servant; let +us not neglect to honour and love infinitely more the Lord. 'This +man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses.' Let us see that we +render Him + + 'Thanks never ceasing, + And infinite love.' + + + + +THE SWIFT DECAY OF LOVE + + + 'And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and + the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the + tables were written on both their sides; on the one + side and on the other were they written. 16. And the + tables were the work of God, and the writing was the + writing of God, graven upon the tables. 17. And when + Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, + he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. + 18. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout + for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry + for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do + I hear. 19. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh + unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: + and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out + of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. 20. And + he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in + the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon + the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. + 21. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto + thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? + 22. And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: + thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. + 23. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go + before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought + us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become + of him. 24. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any + gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then + I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. + 25. And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for + Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their + enemies:) 26. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, + and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto + me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together + unto him.'--EXODUS xxxii. 15-26. + +Moses and Joshua are on their way down from the mountain, the former +carrying the tables in his hands and a heavier burden in his heart,--the +thought of the people's swift apostasy. Joshua's soldierly ear +interprets the shouts which are borne up to them as war-cries; 'He +snuffeth the battle afar off, and saith Aha!' But Moses knew that +they meant worse than war, and his knowledge helped his ear to +distinguish a cadence and unison in the noise, unlike the confused +mingling of the victors' yell of triumph and the shriek of the +conquered. If we were dealing with fiction, we should admire the +masterly dramatic instinct which lets the ear anticipate the eye, +and so prepares us for the hideous sight that burst on these two at +some turn in the rocky descent. + +I. Note, then, what they saw. The vivid story puts it all in two +words,--'the calf and the dancing.' There in the midst, perhaps on +some pedestal, was the shameful copy of the Egyptian Apis; and +whirling round it in mad circles, working themselves into frenzy by +rapid motion and frantic shouts, were the people,--men and women, +mingled in the licentious dance, who, six short weeks before, had +sworn to the Covenant. Their bestial deity in the centre, and they +compassing it with wild hymns, were a frightful contradiction of +that grey altar and the twelve encircling stones which they had so +lately reared, and which stood unregarded, a bowshot off, as a +silent witness against them. Note the strange, irresistible +fascination of idolatry. Clearly the personal influence of Moses was +the only barrier against it. The people thought that he had +disappeared, and, if so, Jehovah had disappeared with him. We wonder +at their relapses into idolatry, but we forget that it was then +universal, that Israel was at the beginning of its long training, +that not even a divine revelation could produce harvest in seedtime, +and that to look for a final and complete deliverance from the 'veil +that was spread over all nations,' at this stage, is like expecting +a newly reclaimed bit of the backwoods to grow grass as thick and +velvety as has carpeted some lawn that has been mown and cared for +for a century. Grave condemnation is the due of these short-memoried +rebels, who set up their 'abomination' in sight of the fire on +Sinai; but that should not prevent our recognising the evidence +which their sin affords of the tremendous power of idolatry in that +stage of the world's history. Israel's proneness to fall back to +heathenism makes it certain that a supernatural revelation is needed +to account for their possession of the loftier faith which was so +far above them. + +That howling, leaping crowd tells what sort of religion they would +have 'evolved' if left to themselves. Where did 'Thou shalt have +none other gods beside Me' come from? Note the confusion of thought, +so difficult for us to understand, which characterises idolatry. +What a hopelessly inconsequential cry that was, 'Make us gods, which +shall go before us!' and what a muddle of contradictions it was that +men should say 'These be thy gods,' though they knew that the thing +was made yesterday out of their own earrings! It took more than a +thousand years to teach the nation the force of the very self- +evident argument, as it seems to us, 'the workman made it, therefore +it is not God.' The theory that the idol is only a symbol is not the +actual belief of idolaters. It is a product of the study, but the +worshipper unites in his thought the irreconcilable beliefs that it +was made and is divine. A goldsmith will make and sell a Madonna, +and when it is put in the cathedral, will kneel before it. + +Note what was the sin here. It is generally taken for granted that +it was a breach of the second, not of the first, commandment, and +Aaron's proclamation of 'a feast to the Lord' is taken as proving +this. Aaron was probably trying to make an impossible compromise, +and to find some salve for his conscience; but it does not follow +that the people accepted the half-and-half suggestion. Leaders who +try to control a movement which they disapprove, by seeming to +accept it, play a dangerous game, and usually fail. But whether the +people call the calf 'Jehovah' or 'Apis' matters very little. There +would be as complete apostasy to another god, though the other god +was called by the same name, if all that really makes his 'name' was +left out, and foreign elements were brought in. Such worship as +these wild dances, offered to an image, broke both the commandments, +no matter by what name the image was invoked. + +The roots of idolatry are in all men. The gross form of it is +impossible to us; but the need for aid from sense, the dependence on +art for wings to our devotion, which is a growing danger to-day, is +only the modern form of the same dislike of a purely spiritual +religion which sent these people dancing round their calf. + +II. Mark Moses' blaze of wrath and courageous, prompt action. He +dashes the tables on the rock, as if to break the record of the +useless laws which the people have already broken, and, with his +hands free, flings himself without pause into the midst of the +excited mob. Verses 19 and 20 bear the impression of his rapid, +decisive action in their succession of clauses, each tacked on to +the preceding by a simple 'and.' Stroke followed stroke. His fiery +earnestness swept over all obstacles, the base riot ceased, the +ashamed dancers slunk away. Some true hearts would gather about him, +and carry out his commands; but he did the real work, and, single- +handed, cowed and controlled the mob. No doubt, it took more time +than the brief narrative, at first sight, would suggest. The image +is flung into the fire from which it had come out. The fire made it, +and the fire shall unmake it. We need not find difficulty in +'burning' a golden idol. That does not mean 'calcined,' and the +writer is not guilty of a blunder, nor needed to be taught that you +cannot burn gold. The next clause says that after it was 'burned,' +it was still solid; so that, plainly, all that is meant is, that the +metal was reduced to a shapeless lump. That would take some time. +Then it was broken small; there were plenty of rocks to grind it up +on. That would take some more time, but not a finger was lifted to +prevent it. Then the more or less finely broken up fragments are +flung into the brook, and, with grim irony, the people are bid to +drink. 'You shall have enough of your idol, since you love him so. +Here, down with him! You will have to take the consequences of your +sin. You must drink as you have brewed.' It is at once a +contemptuous demonstration of the idol's impotence, and a picture of +the sure retribution. + +But we may learn two things from this figure of the indignant +lawgiver. One is, that the temper in which to regard idolatry is not +one of equable indifference nor of scientific investigation, but +that some heat of moral indignation is wholesome. We are all +studying comparative mythology now, and getting much good from it; +but we are in some danger of forgetting that these strange ideas and +practices, which we examine at our ease, have spread spiritual +darkness and moral infection over continents and through +generations. Let us understand them, by all means; let us be +thankful to find fragments of truth in, or innocent origins of, +repulsive legends; but do not let the student swallow up the +Christian in us, nor our minds lose their capacity of wholesome +indignation at the systems, blended with Christ-like pity and effort +for the victims. + +We may learn, further, how strong a man is when he is all aflame +with true zeal for God. The suddenness of Moses' reappearance, the +very audacity of his act, the people's habit of obedience, all +helped to carry him through the crisis; but the true secret of his +swift victory was his own self-forgetting faith. There is contagion +in pure religious enthusiasm. It is the strongest of all forces. One +man, with God at his back, is always in the majority. He whose whole +soul glows with the pure fire, will move among men like flame in +stubble. 'All things are possible to him that believeth.' +Consecrated daring, animated by love and fed with truth, is all- +conquering. + +III. Note the weaker nature of Aaron, taking refuge in a transparent +lie. Probably his dialogue with his brother came in before the +process described in the former verses was accomplished. But the +narrative keeps all that referred to the destruction of the idol +together, and goes by subject rather than by time. We do not learn +how Moses had come to know Aaron's share in the sin, but his +question is one of astonishment. Had they bewitched him anyhow? or +what inducement had led him so far astray? The stronger and devouter +soul cannot conceive how the weaker had yielded. Aaron's answer puts +the people's wish forward. 'They said, Make us gods'; that was all +which they had 'done.' A poor excuse, as Aaron feels even while he +is stammering it out. What would Moses have answered if the people +had 'said' so to him? Did he, standing there, with the heat of his +struggle on him yet, look like a man that would acknowledge any +demand of a mob as a reason for a ruler's compliance? It is the +coward's plea. How many ecclesiastics and statesmen since then have +had no better to offer for their acts! Such fear of the Lord as +shrivelled before the breath of popular clamour could have had no +deep roots. One of the first things to learn, whether we are in +prominent or in private positions, is to hold by our religious +convictions in supreme indifference to all surrounding voices, and +to let no threats nor entreaties lead us to take one step beyond or +against conscience. + +Aaron feels the insufficiency of the plea, when he has to put it +into plain words to such a listener, and so he flies to the resource +of timid and weak natures, a lie. For what did he ask the gold, and +put it into the furnace, unless he meant to make a god? Perhaps he +had told the people the same story, as priests in all lands have +been apt to claim a miraculous origin for idols. And he repeats it +now, as if, were it true, he would plead the miracle as a +vindication of the worship as well as his absolution. But the lie is +too transparent to deserve even an answer, and Moses turns silently +from him. + +Aaron's was evidently the inferior nature, and was less deeply +stamped with the print of heaven than his brother's. His feeble +compliance is recorded as a beacon for all persons in places of +influence or authority, warning them against self-interested or +cowardly yielding to a popular demand, at the sacrifice of the +purity of truth and the approval of their own consciences. He was +not the last priest who has allowed the supposed wishes of the +populace to shape his representations of God, and has knowingly +dropped the standard of duty or sullied the clear brightness of +truth in deference to the many-voiced monster. + +IV. Note the rallying of true hearts round Moses. The Revised +Version reads 'broken loose' instead of 'naked,' and the correction +is valuable. It explains the necessity for the separation of those +who yet remained bound by the restraints of God's law, and for the +terrible retribution that followed. The rebellion had not been +stamped out by the destruction of the calf; and though Moses' dash +into their midst had cowed the rebels for a time, things had gone +too far to settle down again at once. The camp was in insurrection. +It was more than a riot, it was a revolution. With the rapid eye of +genius, Moses sees the gravity of the crisis, and, with equally +swift decisiveness, acts so as to meet it. He 'stood in the gate of +the camp,' and made the nucleus for the still faithful. His summons +puts the full seriousness of the moment clearly before the people. +They have come to a fork in the road. They must be either for +Jehovah or against Him. There can be no mixing up of the worship of +Jehovah and the images of Egypt, no tampering with God's service in +obedience to popular clamour. It must be one thing or other. This is +no time for the family of 'Mr. Facing-both-ways'; the question for +each man is, 'Under which King?' Moses' unhesitating confidence that +he is God's soldier, and that to be at his side is to be on God's +side, was warranted in him, but has often been repeated with less +reason by eager contenders, as they believed themselves to be, for +God. No doubt, it becomes us to be modest and cautious in calling +all true friends of God to rank themselves with us. But where the +issue is between foul wrong and plain right, between palpable +idolatry, error, or unbridled lust, and truth, purity, and +righteousness, the Christian combatant for these is entitled to send +round the fiery cross, and proclaim a crusade in God's name. There +will always be plenty of people with cold water to pour on +enthusiasm. We should be all the better for a few more, who would +venture to feel that they are fighting for God, and to summon all +who love Him to come to their and His help. + +Moses' own tribe responded to the summons. And, no doubt, Aaron was +there too, galvanised into a nobler self by the courage and fervour +of his brother, and, let us hope, urged by penitence, to efface the +memory of his faithlessness by his heroism now. + +We do not go on to the dreadful retribution, which must be regarded, +not as massacre, but as legal execution. It is folly to apply to it, +or to other analogous instances, the ideas of this Christian +century. We need not be afraid to admit that there has been a +development of morality. The retributions of a stern age were +necessarily stern. But if we want to understand the heart of Moses, +or of Moses' God, we must not look only at the ruler of a wild +people trampling out a revolt at the sacrifice of many lives, but +listen to him, as the next section of the narrative shows him, +pleading with tears for the rebels, and offering even to let his own +name be blotted out of God's book if their sin might be forgiven. +So, coupling the two parts of his conduct together, we may learn a +little more clearly a lesson, of which this age has much need,--the +harmony of retributive justice and pitying love; and may come to +understand that Moses learned both the one and the other by +fellowship with the God in whom they both dwell in perfection and +concord. + + + + +THE MEDIATOR'S THREEFOLD PRAYER + + + 'And Moses said unto the Lord, See, Thou sayest unto me, + Bring up this people: and Thou hast not let me know whom + Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said, I know thee + by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight. + 13. Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace + in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, + that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that + this nation is Thy people. 14. And He said, My presence + shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15. And + he said unto Him, If Thy presence go not with me, carry + us not up hence. 16. For wherein shall it be known here + that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it + not in that Thou goest with us! So shall we be separated, I + and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the + face of the earth, 17. And the Lord said unto Moses, I + will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou + hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name. + 18. And he said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory. + 19. And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before + thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before + thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, + and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20. And + he said, Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no + man see Me, and live. 21. And the Lord said, Behold, + there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: + 22. And it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth + by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and + will cover thee with My hand while I pass by: 23. And + I will take away Mine hand, and thou shall see My back + parts; but My face shall not be seen.'--EXODUS xxxiii. 12-23. + +The calf worship broke the bond between God and Israel. Instead of +His presence, 'an angel' is to lead them, for His presence could +only be destruction. Mourning spreads through the camp, in token of +which all ornaments are laid aside. The fate of the nation is in +suspense, and the people wait, in sad attire, till God knows 'what +to do unto' them. The Tabernacle is carried beyond the precincts of +the camp, in witness of the breach, and all the future is doubtful. +The preceding context describes (vs. 7-11) not one event, but the +standing order of these dark days, when the camp had to be left if +God was to be found, and when Moses alone received tokens of God's +friendship, and the people stood wistfully and tremblingly gazing +from afar, while the cloudy pillar wavered down to the Tabernacle +door. Duty brought Moses back from such communion; but Joshua did +not need to come near the tents of the evil-doers, and, in the +constancy of devout desire, made his home in the Tabernacle. In one +of these interviews, so close and familiar, the wonderful dialogue +here recorded occurred. It turns round three petitions, to each of +which the Lord answers. + +I. We have the leader's prayer for himself, with the over-abundant +answer of God. In the former chapter, we had the very sublimity of +intercession, in which the stern avenger of idolatry poured out his +self-sacrificing love for the stiff-necked nation whom he had had to +smite, and offered himself a victim for them. Here his first prayer +is mainly for himself, but it is not therefore a selfish prayer. +Rather he prays for gifts to himself, to fit him for his service to +them. We may note separately the prayer, and the pleas on which it +is urged. 'Show me now Thy way (or ways), that I may know Thee.' The +desire immediately refers to the then condition of things. As we +have pointed out, it was a time of suspense. In the strong metaphor +of the context, God was making up His mind on His course, and Israel +was waiting with hushed breath for the _denouement_. It was not +the entrance of the nation into the promised land which was in +doubt, but the manner of their guidance, and the penalties of their +idolatry. These things Moses asked to know, and especially, as verse +12 shows, to receive some more definite communication as to their +leader than the vague 'an angel.' But the specific knowledge of +God's 'way' was yearned for by him, mainly, as leading on to a +deeper and fuller and more blessed knowledge of God Himself, and +that again as leading to a fuller possession of God's favour, which, +as already in some measure possessed, lay at the foundation of the +whole prayer. The connection of thought here goes far beyond the +mere immediate blessing, which Moses needed at the moment. That cry +for insight into the purposes and methods of Him whom the soul +trusts, amid darkness and suspense, is the true voice of sonship. +The more deeply it sees into these, the more does the devout soul +feel the contrast between the spot of light in which it lives and +the encircling obscurity, and the more does it yearn for the further +setting back of the boundaries. Prayer does more than effort, for +satisfying that desire. Nor is it mere curiosity or the desire for +intellectual clearness that moves the longing. For the end of +knowing God's ways is, for the devout man, a deeper, more blessed +knowledge of God Himself, who is best known in His deeds; and the +highest, most blessed issue of the God-given knowledge of God, is +the conscious sunshine of His favour shining ever on His servant. +That is not a selfish religion which, beginning with the assurance +that we have found grace in His sight, seeks to climb, by happy +paths of growing knowledge of Him as manifested in His ways, to a +consciousness of that favour which is made stable and profound by +clear insight into the depths of His purposes and acts. + +The pleas on which this prayer is urged are two: the suppliant's +heavy tasks, and God's great assurances to him. He boldly reminds +God of what He has set him to do, and claims that he should be +furnished with what is needful for discharging his commission. How +can he lead if he is kept in the dark? When we are as sure as Moses +was of God's charge to us, we may be as bold as he in asking the +needful equipment for it. God does not send His servants out to sow +without seed, or to fight without a sword. His command is His +pledge. He smiles approval when His servants' confidence assumes +even bold forms, which sound like remonstrance and a suspicion that +He was forgetting, for He discerns the underlying eagerness to do +His will, and the trust in Him. The second plea is built on God's +assurances of intimate and distinguishing knowledge and favour. He +had said that He knew Moses 'by name,' by all these calls and +familiar interviews which gave him the certainty of his individual +relation to, and his special appointment from, the Lord. Such +prerogative was inconsistent with reserve. The test of friendship is +confidence. So pleads Moses, and God recognises the plea. 'I call +you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; +but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of +my Father I have made known unto you.' + +The plea based upon the relation of the people to God is subordinate +in this first prayer. It is thrown in at the end almost as an +afterthought; it boldly casts responsibility off Moses on to God, +and does so to enforce the prayer that he should be equipped with +all requisites for his work, as if he had said, 'It is more Thy +concern than mine, that I should be able to lead them.' The divine +answer is a promise to go not with the people, but with Moses. It is +therefore not yet a full resolving of the doubtful matter, nor +directly a reply to Moses' prayer. In one aspect it is less, and in +another more, than had been asked. It seals to the man and to the +leader the assurance that for himself he shall have the continual +presence of God, in his soul and in his work, and that, in all the +weary march, he will have rest, and will come to a fuller rest at +its end. Thus God ever answers the true hearts that seek to know +Him, and to be fitted for their tasks. Whether the precise form of +desire be fulfilled or no, the issue of such bold and trustful +pleading is always the inward certainty of God's face shining on us, +and the experience of repose, deep and untroubled in the midst of +toil, so that we may be at once pilgrims towards, and dwellers in, +'the house of the Lord,' + +II. We have the intercessor's prayer for the people, with the answer +(vs. 15-17). If the promise of verse 14 is taken as referring to the +people, there is nothing additional asked in this second stage, and +the words of verse l7, 'this thing also,' are inexplicable. Observe +that 'with me' in verse 15 is a supplement, and that the 'us' of the +next clause, as well as the whole cast of verse 16, suggests that we +should rather supply 'with us,' The substance, then, of the second +petition, is the extension of the promise, already given to Moses +for himself, to the entire nation. Observe how he identifies himself +with them, making them 'partakers' in his grace, and reiterating 'I +and Thy people,' as if he would have no blessing which was not +shared by them. He seeks that the withdrawal of God's presence, +which had been the consequence of Israel's withdrawal from God, +should be reversed, and that not he alone, but all the rebels, might +still possess His presence. + +The plea for this prayer is God's honour, which was concerned in +making it plain even in the remote wilderness, to the wandering +tribes there, that His hand was upon Israel. Moses expands the +argument which he had just touched before. The thought of His own +glory as the motive of God's acts, may easily be so put at to be +repulsive; but at bottom it is the same as to say that His motive is +love--for the glory which He seeks is the communication of true +thoughts concerning His character, that men may be made glad and +like Himself thereby. Moses has learned that God's heart must long +to reveal its depth of mercy, and therefore he pleads that even +sinful Israel should not be left by God, in order that some light +from His face may strike into a dark world. There is wide +benevolence, as well as deep insight into the desires of God, in the +plea. + +The divine answer yields unconditionally to the request, and rests +the reason for so doing wholly on the relation between God and +Moses. The plea which he had urged in lowly boldness as the +foundation of both his prayers is endorsed, and, for his sake, the +divine presence is again granted to the people. + +Can we look at this scene without seeing in it the operation on a +lower field of the same great principle of intercession, which +reaches its unique example in Jesus Christ? It is not arbitrary +forcing of the gospel into the history, but simply the recognition +of the essence of the history, when we see in it a foreshadowing of +our great High-priest. He, too, knits Himself so closely with us, +both by the assumption of our manhood and by the identity of loving +sympathy, that He accepts nothing from the Father's hand for Himself +alone. He, too, presents Himself before God, and says 'I and Thy +people.' The great seal of proof for the world that He is the +beloved of God, lies in the divine guardianship and guidance of His +servants. His prayer for them prevails, and the reason for its +prevalence is God's delight in Him. The very sublime of self- +sacrificing love was in the lawgiver, but the height of his love, +measured against the immeasurable altitude of Christ's, is as a +mole-hill to the Andes. + +III. We have the last soaring desire which rises above the limits of +the present. These three petitions teach the insatiableness, if we +may use the word, of devout desires. Each request granted brings on +a greater. 'The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received.' +Enjoyment increases capacity, and increase of capacity is increase +of desire. God being infinite, and man capable of indefinite growth, +neither the widening capacity nor the infinite supply can have +limits. This is not the least of the blessings of a devout life, +that the appetite grows with what it feeds on, and that, while there +is always satisfaction, there is never satiety. + +Moses' prayer sounds presumptuous, but it was heard unblamed, and +granted in so far as possible. It was a venial error--if error it +may be called--that a soul, touched with the flame of divine love, +should aspire beyond the possibilities of mortality. At all events, +it was a fault in which he has had few imitators. _Our_ desires +keep but too well within the limits of the possible. The precise +meaning of the petition must be left undetermined. Only this is +clear, that it was something far beyond even that face-to-face +intercourse which he had had, as well as beyond that vision granted +to the elders. If we are to take 'glory' in its usual sense, it +would mean the material symbol of God's presence, which shone at the +heart of the pillar, and dwelt afterwards between the cherubim, but +probably we must attach a loftier meaning to it here, and rather +think of what we should call the uncreated and infinite divine +essence. Only do not let us make Moses talk like a metaphysician or +a theological professor. Rather we should hear in his cry the voice +of a soul thrilled through and through with the astounding +consciousness of God's favour, blessed with love-gifts in answered +prayers, and yearning for more of that light which it feels to be +life. + +And if the petition be dark, the answer is yet more obscure 'with +excess of light.' Mark how it begins with granting, not with +refusing. It tells how much the loving desire has power to bring, +before it speaks of what in it must be denied. There is infinite +tenderness in that order of response. It speaks of a heart that does +not love to say 'no,' and grants our wishes up to the very edge of +the possible, and wraps the bitterness of any refusal in the sweet +envelope of granted requests. A broad distinction is drawn between +that in God which can be revealed, and that which cannot. The one is +'glory,' the other 'goodness,' corresponding, we might almost say, +to the distinction between the 'moral' and the 'natural' attributes +of God. But, whatever mysterious revelation under the guise of +vision may be concealed in these words, and in the fulfilment of +them in the next chapter, they belong to the 'things which it is +impossible for a man to utter,' even if he has received them. We are +on more intelligible ground in the next clause of the promise, the +proclamation of 'the Name.' That expression is, in Scripture, always +used as meaning the manifested character of God. It is a revelation +addressed to the spirit, not to the sense. It is the translation, so +far as it is capable of translation, of the vision which it +accompanied; it is the treasure which Moses bore away from Sinai, +and has shared among us all. The reason for his prayer was probably +his desire to have his mediatorial office confirmed and perfected; +and it was so, by that proclamation of the Name. The reason for this +marvellous gift is next set forth as being God's own unconditional +grace and mercy. He is His own motive, His own reason. Just as the +independent and absolute fullness of His being is expressed by the +name 'I am that I am,' so the independent and absolute freeness of +His mercy, whether in granting Moses' prayer or in pardoning the +people, is expressed by 'I will shew mercy on whom I will shew +mercy.' Not till all this exuberance of gracious answer has smoothed +the way does the denial of the impossible request come; and even +then it is so worded as to lay all the emphasis on what is granted, +and to show that the refusal is but another phase of love. The +impossibility of beholding the Face is reiterated, and then the +careful provisions which God will make for the fulfilment of the +possible part of the bold wish are minutely detailed. The +distinction between the revealable and unrevealable, which has been +already expressed by the contrast of 'glory' and 'grace,' now +appears in the distinction between the 'face' which cannot be looked +on, and the 'back' which may be. + +Human language and thought are out of their depth here. We must be +content to see a dim splendour shining through the cloudy words, to +know that there was granted to one man a realisation of God's +presence, and a revelation of His character, so far transcending +ordinary experiences as that it was fitly called sight, but yet as +far beneath the glory of His being as the comparatively imperfect +knowledge of a man's form, when seen only from behind, is beneath +that derived from looking him in the face. + +But whatever was the singular prerogative of the lawgiver, as he +gazed from the cleft of the rock at the receding glory, we see more +than he ever did; and the Christian child, who looks upon the 'glory +of God in the face of Jesus Christ,' has a vision which outshines +the flashing radiance that shone round Moses. It deepened his +convictions, confirmed his faith, added to his assurance of his +divine commission, but only added to his knowledge of God by the +proclamation of the Name, and that Name is more fully proclaimed in +our ears. Sinai, with all its thunders, is silent before Calvary. +And he who has Jesus Christ to declare God's Name to him need not +envy the lawgiver on the mountain, nor even the saints in heaven. + + + + +GOD PROCLAIMING HIS OWN NAME + + + 'The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The + Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, + and abundant in goodness and truth.'--EXODUS xxxiv. 6. + +This great event derives additional significance and grandeur from +the place in which it stands. It follows the hideous act of idolatry +in which the levity and sinfulness of Israel reached their climax. +The trumpet of Sinai had hardly ceased to peal, and there in the +rocky solitudes, in full view of the mount 'that burned with fire,' +while the echoes of the thunder and the Voice still lingered, one +might say, among the cliffs, that mob of abject cowards were bold +enough to shake off their allegiance to God, and, forgetful of all +the past, plunged into idolatry, and wallowed in sensuous delights. +What a contrast between Moses on the mount and Aaron and the people +in the plain! Then comes the wonderful story of the plague and of +Moses' intercession, followed by the high request of Moses, so +strange and yet so natural at such a time, for the vision of God's +'glory.' Into all the depths of that I do not need to plunge. Enough +that he is told that his desire is beyond the possibilities of +creatural life. The mediator and lawgiver cannot rise beyond the +bounds of human limitations. But what _can_ be _shall_ be. +God's 'goodness' will pass before him. Then comes this wonderful +advance in the progress of divine revelation. If we remember the +breach of the Covenant, and then turn to these words, considered as +evoked by the people's sin, they become very remarkable. If we +consider them as the answer to Moses' desire, they are no less so. +Taking these two thoughts with us, let us consider them in-- + +I. The answer to the request for a sensuous manifestation. + +The request is 'show me,' as if some visible manifestation were +desired and expected, or, if not a visible, at least a direct +perception of Jehovah's glory.' Moses desires that he, as mediator +and lawgiver, may have some closer knowledge. The answer to his +request is a word, the articulate proclamation of the 'Name' of the +Lord. It is higher than all manifestation to sense, which was what +Moses had asked. Here there is no symbol as of the Lord in the +'cloud.' The divine manifestation is impossible to sense, and that, +too, not by reason of man's limitations, but by reason of God's +nature. The manifestation to spirit in full immediate perception is +impossible also. It has to be maintained that we know God only 'in +part'; but it does not follow that our knowledge is only +representative, or is not of Him 'as He is.' Though not whole it is +real, so far as it goes. + +But this is not the highest form. Words and propositions can never +reveal so fully, nor with such certitude, as a personal revelation. +But we have Christ's life, 'God manifest': not words about God, but +the manifestation of the very divine nature itself in action. +'Merciful':--and we see Jesus going about 'doing good.' 'Gracious,' +and we see Him welcoming to Himself all the weary, and ever +bestowing of the treasures of His love. 'Longsuffering':--'Father! +forgive them!' God is 'plenteous in mercy and in truth,' forgiving +transgression and sin:--'Thy sins be forgiven thee.' + +How different it all is when we have deeds, a human life, on which +to base our belief! How much more certain, as well as coming closer +to our hearts! Merely verbal statements need proof, they need +warming. In Christ's showing us the Father they are changed as from +a painting to a living being; they are brought out of the region of +abstractions into the concrete. + + 'And so the word had breath, and wrought + With human hands the creed of creeds.' + +'Show us the Father and it sufficeth us.' 'He that hath seen Me, +hath seen the Father.' + +Is there any other form of manifestation possible? Yes; in heaven +there will be a closer vision of Christ--not of God. Our knowledge +of Christ will there be expanded, deepened, made more direct. We +know not how. There will be bodily changes: 'Like unto the body of +His glory.' etc. 'We shall be like Him.' 'Changed from glory to +glory.' + +II. The answer to the desire to see God's glory. + +The 'Glory' was the technical name for the lustrous cloud that hung +over the Mercy-seat, but here it probably means more generally some +visible manifestation of the divine presence. What Moses craved to +see with his eyes was the essential divine light. That vision he did +not receive, but what he did receive was partly a visible +manifestation, though not of the dazzling radiance which no human +eye can see and live, and still more instructive and encouraging, +the communication in words of that shining galaxy of attributes, +'the glories that compose Thy name.' In the name specially so- +called, the name Jehovah, was revealed absolute eternal Being, and +in the accompanying declaration of so-called 'attributes' were +thrown into high relief the two qualities of merciful forgiveness +and retributive justice. The 'attributes' which separate God from +us, and in which vulgar thought finds the marks of divinity, are +conspicuous by their absence. Nothing is said of omniscience, +omnipresence, and the like, but forgiveness and justice, of both of +which men carry analogues in themselves, are proclaimed by the very +voice of God as those by which He desires that He should be chiefly +conceived of by us. + +The true 'glory of God' is His pardoning Love. That is the glowing +heart of the divine brightness. If so, then the very heart of that +heart of brightness, the very glory of the 'Glory of God,' is the +Christ, in whom we behold that which was at once 'the glory as of +the only begotten of the Father' and the 'Glory of the Father.' + +In Jesus these two elements, pardoning love and retributive justice, +wondrously meet, and the mystery of the possibility of their +harmonious co-operation in the divine government is solved, and +becomes the occasion for the rapturous gratitude of man and the +wondering adoration of principalities and powers in heavenly places. +Jesus has manifested the divine mercifulness; Jesus has borne the +burden of sin and the weight of the divine Justice. The lips that +said 'Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee,' also cried, 'Why +hast Thou forsaken Me?' The tenderest manifestation of the God +'plenteous in mercy ... forgiving iniquity,' and the most awe- +kindling manifestation of the God 'that will by no means clear the +guilty,' are fused into one, when we 'behold that Lamb of God that +taketh away the sin of the world.' + +III. The answer to a great sin. + +This Revelation is the immediate issue of Israel's great apostasy. + +Sin evokes His pardoning mercy. This insignificant speck in Creation +has been the scene of the wonder of the Incarnation, not because its +magnitude was great, but because its need was desperate. Men, +because they are sinners, have been subjects of an experience more +precious than the 'angels which excel in strength' and hearken 'to +the voice of His word' have known or can know. The wilder the storm +of human evil roars and rages, the deeper and louder is the voice +that peals across the storm. So for us all Christ is the full and +final revelation of God's grace. The last, because the perfect +embodiment of it; the sole, because the sufficient manifestation of +it. 'See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.' + + + + +SIN AND FORGIVENESS + + + '... Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and + that will by no means clear the guilty....'--EXODUS xxiv. 7. + +The former chapter tells us of the majesty of the divine revelation +as it was made to Moses on 'the mount of God.' Let us notice that, +whatever was the visible pomp of the external Theophany to the +senses, the true revelation lay in the proclamation of the 'Name'; +the revelation to the conscience and the heart; and such a +revelation had never before fallen on mortal ears. It is remarkable +that the very system which was emphatically one of law and +retribution should have been thus heralded by a word which is +perfectly 'evangelical' in its whole tone. That fact should have +prevented many errors as to the relation of Judaism and +Christianity. The very centre of the former was 'God is love,' +'merciful and gracious,' and if there follows the difficult addition +'visiting the iniquities,' etc., the New Testament adds its 'Amen' +to that. True, the harmony of the two and the great revelation of +the _means_ of forgiveness lay far beyond the horizon of Moses +and his people, but none the less was it the message of Judaism that +'there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared.' The law +spoke of retribution, justice, duty, and sin, but side by side with +the law was another institution, the sacrificial worship, which +proclaimed that God was full of love, and that the sinner was +welcomed to His side. And it is the root of many errors to transfer +New Testament language about the law to the whole Old Testament +system. But, passing away from this, I wish to look at two points in +these words. + +I. The characteristics of human sins. + +II. The divine treatment of them. + +I. The characteristics of human sins. + +Observe the threefold form of expression--iniquity and transgression +and sin. + +It seems natural that in the divine proclamation of His own holy +character, the sinful nature of men should be characterised with all +the fervid energy of such words; for the accumulation even of +synonyms would serve a _moral_ purpose, expressive at once of +the divine displeasure against sin, and of the free full pardon for +it in all its possible forms. But the words are very far from all +meaning the same thing. They all designate the same actions, but +from different points of view, and with reference to different +phases and qualities of sin. + +Now these three expressions are inadequately represented by the +English translation. + +'Iniquity' literally means 'twisting,' or 'something twisted,' and +is thus the opposite of 'righteousness,' or rather of what is +'straight.' It is thus like our own 'right' and 'wrong,' or like the +Latin 'in-iquity' (by which it is happily enough rendered in our +version). So looking at this word and the thoughts which connect +themselves with it, we come to this:-- + +(1) All sin of every sort is deviation from a standard to which we +ought to be conformed. + +Note the graphic force of the word as giving the straight line to +which our conduct ought to run parallel, and the contrast between it +and the wavering curves into which our lives meander, like the lines +in a child's copy-book, or a rude attempt at drawing a circle at one +sweep of the pencil. Herbert speaks of + + 'The crooked wandering ways in which we live.' + +There is a path which is 'right' and one which is 'wrong,' whether +we believe so or not. + +There are hedges and limitations for us all. This law extends to the +ordering of all things, whether great or small. If a line be +absolutely straight, and we are running another parallel to it, the +smallest possible wavering is fatal to our copy. And the smallest +deflection, if produced, will run out into an ever-widening distance +from the straight line. + +There is nothing which it is more difficult to get into men's belief +than the sinfulness of little sins; nothing more difficult to cure +ourselves of than the habit of considering quantity rather than +quality in moral questions. What a solemn thought it is, that of a +great absolute law of right rising serene above us, embracing +everything! And this is the first idea that is here in our text--a +grave and deep one. + +But the second of these expressions for sin literally means +'apostasy,' 'rebellion,' not 'transgression,' and this word brings +in a more solemn thought yet, viz.:-- + +(2) Every sin is apostasy from or rebellion against God. + +The former word dealt only with abstract thought of a 'law,' this +with a 'Lawgiver.' + +Our obligations are not merely to a law, but to Him who enacted it. +So it becomes plain that the very centre of all sin is the shaking +off of obedience to God. Living to 'self' is the inmost essence of +every act of evil, and may be as virulently active in the smallest +trifle as in the most awful crime. + +How infinitely deeper and darker this makes sin to be! + +When one thinks of our obligations and of our dependence, of God's +love and care, what an 'evil and a bitter thing' every sin becomes! + +Urge this terrible contrast of a loving Father and a disobedient +child. + +This idea brings out the ingratitude of all sin. + +But the third word here used literally means 'missing an aim,' and +so we come to + +(3) Every sin misses the goal at which we should aim. There may be a +double idea here--that of failing in the great purpose of our being, +which is already partially included in the first of these three +expressions, or that of missing the aim which we proposed to +ourselves in the act. All sin is a failure. + +By it we fall short of the loftiest purpose. Whatever we gain we +lose more. + +Every life which has sin in it is a 'failure.' You may be +prosperous, brilliant, successful, but you are 'a failure.' + +For consider what human life might be: full of God and full of joy. +Consider what the 'fruits' of sin are. 'Apples of Sodom.' How sin +leads to sorrow. This is an inevitable law. Sin fails to secure what +it sought for. All 'wrong' is a mistake, a blunder. 'Thou fool!' + +So this word suggests the futility of sin considered in its +consequences. 'These be thy gods, O Israel!' 'The end of these +things is death.' + +II. The divine treatment of sins. + +'Forgiving,' and yet not suffering them to go unpunished. + +(1) God _forgives_, and yet He does not leave sin unpunished, +for He will 'by no means _clear_ the guilty.' + +The one word refers to His love, His heart; the other to the +retributions which are inseparable from the very course of nature. + +Forgiveness is the flow of God's love to all, and the welcoming back +to His favour of all who come. Forgiveness likewise includes the +escape from the extreme and uttermost consequences of sin in this +life and in the next, the sense of God's displeasure here, and the +final separation from Him, which is eternal death. Forgiveness is +not inconsistent with retribution. There must needs be retribution, +from-- + +_(a)_ The very constitution of our nature. + +Conscience, our spiritual nature, our habits all demand it. + +_(b)_ The constitution of the world. + +In it all things work under God, but only for 'good' to them who +love God. To all others, sooner or later, the Nemesis comes. 'Ye +shall eat of the fruit of your doings.' + +(2) _God_ forgives, and therefore He does not leave sin +unpunished. It is divine mercy that strikes. The end of His +chastisement is to separate us from our sins. + +(3) Divine forgiveness and retributive justice both centre in the +revelation of the Cross. + +To us this message comes. It was the hidden heart of the Mosaic +system. It was the revelation of Sinai. To Israel it was +'proclaimed' in thunder and darkness, and the way of forgiveness and +the harmony of righteousness and mercy were veiled. To us it is +proclaimed from Calvary. There in full light the Lord passes before +us and proclaims, 'I am the Lord, the Lord God merciful and +gracious.' 'Ye are come ... unto Jesus.' 'See that ye refuse not Him +that speaketh.' 'This is my Beloved Son, hear Him !' + + + + +BLESSED AND TRAGIC UNCONSCIOUSNESS + + + '... Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone + while he talked with Him.'--EXODUS xxxiv. 29. + + '... And Samson wist not that the Lord had departed + from him.'--JUDGES xvi. 20. + +The recurrence of the same phrase in two such opposite connections +is very striking. Moses, fresh from the mountain of vision, where he +had gazed on as much of the glory of God as was accessible to man, +caught some gleam of the light which he adoringly beheld; and a +strange radiance sat on his face, unseen by himself, but visible to +all others. So, supreme beauty of character comes from beholding God +and talking with Him; and the bearer of it is unconscious of it. + +Samson, fresh from his coarse debauch, and shorn of the locks which +he had vowed to keep, strides out into the air, and tries his former +feats; but his strength has left him because the Lord has left him; +and the Lord has left him because, in his fleshly animalism, he has +left the Lord. Like, but most unlike, Moses, he knows not his +weakness. So strength, like beauty, is dependent upon contact with +God, and may ebb away when that is broken, and the man may be all +unaware of his weakness till he tries his power, and ignominiously +fails. + +These two contrasted pictures, the one so mysteriously grand and the +other so tragic, may well help to illustrate for us truths that +should be burned into our minds and our memories. + +I. Note, then, the first thought which they both teach us, that +beauty and strength come from communion with God. + +In both the cases with which we are dealing these were of a merely +material sort. The light on Moses' face and the strength in Samson's +arm were, at the highest, but types of something far higher and +nobler than themselves. But still, the presence of the one and the +departure of the other alike teach us the conditions on which we may +possess both in nobler form, and the certainty of losing them if we +lose hold of God. + +Moses' experience teaches us that the loftiest beauty of character +comes from communion with God. That is the use that the Apostle +makes of this remarkable incident in 2 Cor. iii, where he takes the +light that shone from Moses' face as being the symbol of the better +lustre that gleams from all those who 'behold (or reflect) the glory +of the Lord' with unveiled faces, and, by beholding, are 'changed +into the likeness' of that on which they gaze with adoration and +longing. The great law to which, almost exclusively, Christianity +commits the perfecting of individual character is this: Look at Him +till you become like Him, and in beholding, be changed. 'Tell me the +company a man keeps, and I will tell you his character,' says the +old proverb. And what is true on the lower levels of daily life, +that most men become assimilated to the complexion of those around +them, especially if they admire or love them, is the great principle +whereby worship, which is desire and longing and admiration in the +superlative degree, stamps the image of the worshipped upon the +character of the worshipper. 'They followed after vanity, and have +become vain,' says one of the prophets, gathering up into a sentence +the whole philosophy of the degradation of humanity by reason of +idolatry and the worship of false gods. 'They that make them are +like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.' The law +works upwards as well as downwards, for whom we worship we declare +to be infinitely good; whom we worship we long to be like; whom we +worship we shall certainly imitate. + +Thus, brethren, the practical, plain lesson that comes from this +thought is simply this: If you want to be pure and good, noble and +gentle, sweet and tender; if you desire to be delivered from your +own weaknesses and selfish, sinful idiosyncrasies, the way to secure +your desire is, 'Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the +earth.' Contemplation, which is love and longing, is the parent of +all effort that succeeds. Contemplation of God in Christ is the +master-key that opens this door, and makes it possible for the +lowliest and the foulest amongst us to cherish unpresumptuous hopes +of being like Him' if we see Him as He is revealed here, and +perfectly like Him when yonder we see Him 'as He _is_.' + +There have been in the past, and there are today, thousands of +simple souls, shut out by lowliness of position and other +circumstances from all the refining and ennobling influences of +which the world makes so much, who yet in character and bearing, ay, +and sometimes in the very look of their meek faces, are living +witnesses how mighty to transform a nature is the power of loving +gazing upon Jesus Christ. All of us who have had much to do with +Christians of the humbler classes know that. There is no influence +to refine and beautify men like that of living near Jesus Christ, +and walking in the light of that Beauty which is 'the effulgence of +the divine glory and the express image of His Person.' + +And in like manner as beauty so strength comes from communion with +God and laying hold on Him. We can only think of Samson as a 'saint' +in a very modified fashion, and present him as an example in a very +limited degree. His dependence upon divine power was rude, and +divorced from elevation of character and morality, but howsoever +imperfect, fragmentary, and I might almost say to our more trained +eyes, grotesque, it looks, yet there was a reality in it; and when +the man was faithless to his vow, and allowed the crafty harlot's +scissors to shear from his head the token of his consecration, it +was because the reality of the consecration, rude and external as +that consecration was, both in itself and in its consequences, had +passed away from him. + +And so we may learn the lesson, taught at once by the flashing face +of the lawgiver and the enfeebled force of the hero, that the two +poles of perfectness in humanity, so often divorced from one +another--beauty and strength--have one common source, and depend for +their loftiest position upon the same thing. God possesses both in +supremest degree, being the Almighty and the All-fair; and we +possess them in limited, but yet possibly progressive, measure, +through dependence upon Him. The true force of character, and the +true power for work, and every real strength which is not disguised +weakness, 'a lath painted to look like iron,' come on condition of +our keeping close by God. The Fountain is open for you all; see to +it that you resort thither. + +II. And now the second thought of my text is that the bearer of the +radiance is unconscious of it. + +'Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.' In all regions of +life, the consummate apex and crowning charm of excellence is +unconsciousness of excellence. Whenever a man begins to imagine that +he is good, he begins to be bad; and every virtue and beauty of +character is robbed of some portion of its attractive fairness when +the man who bears it knows, or fancies, that he possesses it. The +charm of childhood is its perfect unconsciousness, and the man has +to win back the child's heritage, and become 'as a little child,' if +he would enter into and dwell in the 'Kingdom of Heaven.' And so in +the loftiest region of all, that of the religious life, you may be +sure that the more a man is like Christ, the less he knows it; and +the better he is, the less he suspects it. The reasons why that is +so, point, at the same time, to the ways by which we may attain to +this blessed self-oblivion. So let me put just in a word or two some +simple, practical thoughts. + +Let us, then, try to lose ourselves in Jesus Christ. That way of +self-oblivion is emancipation and blessedness and power. It is safe +for us to leave all thoughts of our miserable selves behind us, if +instead of them we have the thought of that great, sweet, dear Lord, +filling mind and heart. A man walking on a tight-rope will be far +more likely to fall, if he is looking at his toes, than if he is +looking at the point to which he is going. If we fix our eyes on +Jesus, then we can safely look, neither to our feet nor to the +gulfs; but straight at Him gazing, we shall straight to Him advance. +'Looking off' from ourselves 'unto Jesus' is safe; looking off +anywhere else is peril. Seek that self-oblivion which comes from +self being swallowed up in the thought of the Lord. + +And again, I would say, think constantly and longingly of the +unattained. 'Brethren! I count not myself to have apprehended.' +Endless aspiration and a stinging consciousness of present +imperfection are the loftiest states of man here below. The +beholders down in the valley, when they look up, may see our figures +against the skyline, and fancy us at the summit, but our loftier +elevation reveals untrodden heights beyond; and we have only risen +so high in order to discern more clearly how much higher we have to +rise. Dissatisfaction with the present is the condition of +excellence in all pursuits of life, and in the Christian life even +more eminently than in all others, because the goal to be attained +is in its very nature infinite; and therefore ensures the blessed +certainty of continual progress, accompanied here, indeed, with the +sting and bite of a sense of imperfection, but one day to be only +sweetness, as we think of how much there is yet to be won in addition +to the perfection of the present. + +So, dear friends, the best way to keep ourselves unconscious of +present attainments is to set our faces forward, and to make 'all +experience' as 'an arch wherethro' gleams that untraveiled world to +which we move.' 'Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.' + +The third practical suggestion that I would make is, cultivate a +clear sense of your own imperfections. We do not need to try to +learn our goodness. That will suggest itself to us only too clearly; +but what we do need is to have a very clear sense of our +shortcomings and failures, our faults of temper, our faults of +desire, our faults in our relations to our fellows, and all the +other evils that still buzz and sting and poison our blood. Has not +the best of us enough of these to knock all the conceit out of us? A +true man will never be so much ashamed of himself as when he is +praised, for it will always send him to look into the deep places of +his heart, and there will be a swarm of ugly, creeping things under +the stones there, if he will only turn them up and look beneath. So +let us lose ourselves in Christ, let us set our faces to the +unattained future, let us clearly understand our own faults and +sins. + +III. Thirdly, the strong man made weak is unconscious of his +weakness. + +I do not mean here to touch at all upon the general thought that, by +its very nature, all evil tends to make us insensitive to its +presence. Conscience becomes dull by practice of sin and by neglect +of conscience, until that which at first was as sensitive as the +palm of a little child's hand becomes as if it were 'seared with a +hot iron.' The foulness of the atmosphere of a crowded hall is not +perceived by the people in it. It needs a man to come in from the +outer air to detect it. We can accustom ourselves to any mephitic +and poisonous atmosphere, and many of us live in one all our days, +and do not know that there is any need of ventilation or that the +air is not perfectly sweet. The 'deceitfulness' of sin is its great +weapon. + +But what I desire to point out is an even sadder thing than that--namely, +that Christian people may lose their strength because they +let go their hold upon God, and know nothing about it. Spiritual +declension, all unconscious of its own existence, is the very +history of hundreds of nominal Christians amongst us, and, I dare +say, of some of us. The very fact that you do not suppose the +statement to have the least application to yourself is perhaps the +very sign that it does apply. When the lifeblood is pouring out of a +man, he faints before he dies. The swoon of unconsciousness is the +condition of some professing Christians. Frost-bitten limbs are +quite comfortable, and only tingle when circulation is coming back. +I remember a great elm-tree, the pride of an avenue in the south, +that had spread its branches for more years than the oldest man +could count, and stood, leafy and green. Not until a winter storm +came one night and laid it low with a crash did anybody suspect what +everybody saw in the morning--that the heart was eaten out of it, +and nothing left but a shell of bark. Some Christian people are like +that; they manage to grow leaves, and even some fruit, but when the +storm comes they will go down, because the heart has been out of +their religion for years. 'Samson wist not that the Lord was +departed from him.' + +And so, brother, because there are so many things that mask the +ebbing away of a Christian life, and because our own self-love and +habits come in to hide declension, let me earnestly exhort you and +myself to watch ourselves very narrowly. Unconsciousness does not +mean ignorant presumption or presumptuous ignorance. It is difficult +to make an estimate of ourselves by poking into our own sentiments +and supposed feelings and convictions, and the estimate is likely to +be wrong. There is a better way than that. Two things tell what a +man is--one, what he wants, and the other, what he does. As the will +is, the man is. Where do the currents of your desires set? If you +watch their flow, you may be pretty sure whether your religious life +is an ebbing or a rising tide. The other way to ascertain what we +are is rigidly to examine and judge what we do. 'Let us search and +try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.' Actions are the true test +of a man. Conduct is the best revelation of character, especially in +regard to ourselves. So let us 'watch and be sober'--sober in our +estimate of ourselves, and determined to find every lurking evil, +and to drag it forth into the light. + +Again, let me say, let us ask God to help us. 'Search me, O God! and +try me.' We shall never rightly understand what we are, unless we +spread ourselves out before Him and crave that Divine Spirit, who is +'the candle of the Lord,' to be carried ever in our hands into the +secret recesses of our sinful hearts. 'Anoint thine eyes with eye +salve that thou mayest see,' and get the eye salve by communion with +God, who will supply thee a standard by which to try thy poor, +stained, ragged righteousness. The _collyrium_, the eye salve, +may be, will be, painful when it is rubbed into the lids, but it +will clear the sight; and the first work of Him, whose dearest name +is _Comforter_, is to convince of sin. + +And, last of all, let us keep near to Jesus Christ, near enough to +Him to feel His touch, to hear His voice, to see His face, and to +carry down with us into the valley some radiance on our countenances +which may tell even the world, that we have been up where the Light +lives and reigns. + +'Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have +need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and +miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of +Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white +raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy +nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that +thou mayest see,' + + + + +AN OLD SUBSCRIPTION LIST + + + 'And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, + and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they + brought the Lord's offering to the work....' + --EXODUS xxxv. 21. + +This is the beginning of the catalogue of contributions towards the +erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. It emphasises the +purely spontaneous and voluntary character of the gifts. There was +plenty of compulsory work, of statutory contribution, in the Old +Testament system of worship. Sacrifices and tithes and other things +were imperative, but the Tabernacle was constructed by means of +undemanded offerings, and there were parts of the standing ritual +which were left to the promptings of the worshipper's own spirit. +There was always a door through which the impulses of devout hearts +could come in, to animate what else would have become dead, +mechanical compliance with prescribed obligations. That spontaneous +surrender of precious things, not because a man must give them, but +because he delights in letting his love come to the surface and find +utterance in giving which is still more blessed than receiving, had +but a narrow and subordinate sphere of action assigned to it in the +legal system of the Old Covenant, but it fills the whole sphere of +Christianity, and becomes the only kind of offering which +corresponds to its genius and is acceptable to Christ. We may look, +then, not merely at the words of our text, but at the whole section +of which they form the introduction, and find large lessons for +ourselves, not only in regard to the one form of Christian service +which is pecuniary liberality, but in reference to all which we have +to do for Jesus Christ, in the picture which it gives us of that +eager crowd of willing givers, flocking to the presence of the +lawgiver, with hands laden with gifts so various in kind and value, +but all precious because freely and delightedly brought, and all +needed for the structure of God's house. + +I. We have set forth here the true motive of acceptable service. + +'They came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom +his spirit made willing.' There is a striking metaphor in that last +word. Wherever the spirit is touched with the sweet influences of +God's love, and loves and gives back again, that spirit is buoyant, +lifted, raised above the low, flat levels where selfishness feeds +fat and then rots. The spirit is raised by any great and unselfish +emotion. There is buoyancy and glad consciousness of elevation in +all the self-sacrifice of love, which dilates and lifts the spirit +as the light gas smoothes out the limp folds of silk in a balloon, +and sends it heavenwards, a full sphere. Only service or surrender, +which is thus cheerful because it is the natural expression of love, +is true service in God's sight. Whosoever, then, had his spirit +raised and made buoyant by a great glad resolve to give up some +precious thing for God's sanctuary, came with his gift in his hand, +and he and it were accepted. That trusting of men's giving to +spontaneous liberality was exceptional under the law. It is normal +under the Gospel, and has filled the whole field, and driven out the +other principle of statutory and constrained service and sacrifice +altogether. We have its feeble beginnings in this incident. It is +sovereign in Christ's Church. There are no pressed men on board +Christ's ship. None but volunteers make up His army. 'Thy people +shall be willing in the day of Thy might.' He cares nothing for any +service but such as it would be pain to keep back; nothing for any +service which is not given with a smile of glad thankfulness that we +are able to give it. + +And for the true acceptableness of Christian service, that motive of +thankful love must be actually present in each deed. It is not +enough that we should determine on and begin a course of sacrifice +or work under the influence of that great motive, unless we renew it +at each step. We cannot hallow a row of actions in that wholesale +fashion by baptizing the first of them with the cleansing waters of +true consecration, while the rest are done from lower motives. Each +deed must be sanctified by the presence of the true motive, if it is +to be worthy of Christ's acceptance. But there is a constant +tendency in all Christian work to slide off its only right +foundation, and having been begun 'in the spirit,' to be carried on +'in the flesh.' Constant watchfulness is needed to resist this +tendency, which, if yielded to, destroys the worth and power, and +changes the inmost nature, of apparently devoted and earnest +service. + +Not the least subtle and dangerous of these spurious motives which +steal in surreptitiously to mar our work for Christ is habit. +Service done from custom, and representing no present impulse of +thankful devotion, may pass muster with us, but does it do so with +God? No doubt a habit of godly service is, in some aspects, a good, +and it is well to enlist that tremendous power of custom which sways +so much of our lives, on the side of godliness. But it is not good, +but, on the contrary, pure loss, when habit becomes mechanical, and, +instead of making it easier to call up the true motive, excludes +that motive, and makes it easy to do the deed without it. I am +afraid that if such thoughts were applied as a sieve to sift the +abundant so-called Christian work of the present day, there would be +an alarming and, to the workers, astonishing quantity of refuse that +would not pass the meshes. + +Let us, then, try to bring every act of service nominally done for +Christ into conscious relation with the motive which ought to be its +parent; for only the work that is done because our spirits lift us +up, and our hearts are willing, is work that is accepted by Him, and +is blessed to us. + +And how is that to be secured? How is that glad temper of +spontaneous and cheerful consecration to be attained and maintained? +I know of but one way. 'Brethren,' said the Apostle, when he was +talking about a very little matter--some small collection for a +handful of poor people--'ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, +how that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that +we, through His poverty, might become rich.' Let us keep our eyes +fixed upon that great pattern of and motive for surrender; and our +hearts will become willing, touched with the fire that flamed in +His. There is only one method of securing the gladness and +spontaneousness of devotion and of service, and that is, living very +near to Jesus Christ, and drinking in for ourselves, as the very +wine that turns to blood and life in our veins, the spirit of that +dear Master. Every one whose heart is lifted up will have it lifted +up because it holds on by Him who hath ascended up, and who, being +'lifted up, draws all men to Him.' The secret of consecration is +communion with Jesus Christ. + +The appeal to lower motives is often tempting, but always a mistake. +Continual contact with Jesus Christ, and realisation of what He has +done for us, are sure to open the deep fountains of the heart, and +to secure abundant streams. If we can tap these perennial reservoirs +they will yield like artesian wells, and need no creaking machinery +to pump a scanty and intermittent supply. We cannot trust this +deepest motive too much, nor appeal to it too exclusively. + +Let me remind you, too, that Christ's appeal to this motive leaves +no loophole for selfishness or laziness. Responsibility is all the +greater because we are left to assess ourselves. The blank form is +sent to us, and He leaves it to our honour to fill it up. Do not +tamper with the paper, for remember there is a Returning Officer +that will examine your schedule, who knows all about your +possessions. So, when He says, 'Give as you like; and I do not want +anything that you do not like,' remember that 'Give as you like' +ought to mean, 'Give as you, who have received everything from Me, +are bound to give.' + +II. We get here the measure of acceptable work. + +We have a long catalogue, very interesting in many respects, of the +various gifts that the people brought. Such sentences as these occur +over and over again--'And every man with whom was found' so-and-so +'brought it'; 'And all the women did spin with their hands, and +brought that which they had spun'; 'And the rulers brought' so-and- +so. Such statements embody the very plain truism that what we have +settles what we are bound to give. Or, to put it into grander words, +capacity is the measure of duty. Our work is cut out for us by the +faculties and opportunities that God has given us. + +That is a very easy thing to say, but it is an uncommonly hard thing +honestly to apply. For there are plenty of people that are smitten +with very unusual humility whenever you begin to talk to them about +work. 'It is not in my way,' 'I am not capable of that kind of +service,' and so on, and so on. One would believe in the genuineness +of the excuse more readily if there were anything about which such +people said, 'Well, I _can_ do that, at all events'; but such +an all-round modesty, which is mostly observable when service is +called for, is suspicious. It might be well for some of these +retiring and idle Christians to remember the homely wisdom of 'You +never know what you can do till you try.' On the other hand, there +are many Christians who, for want of honest looking into their own +power, for want of what I call sanctified originality, are content +to run in the ruts that other people's vehicles have made, without +asking themselves whether that is the gauge that their wheels are +fit for. Both these sets of people flagrantly neglect the plain law +that what we have settles what we should give. + +The form as well as the measure of our service is determined +thereby. 'She hath done what she could,' said Jesus Christ about +Mary. We often read that, as if it were a kind of apology for a +sentimental and useless gift, because it was the best that she could +bestow. I do not hear that tone in the words at all. I hear, rather, +this, that duty is settled by faculty, and that nobody else has any +business to interfere with that which a Christian soul, all aflame +with the love of God, finds to be the spontaneous and natural +expression of its devotion to the Master. The words are the +vindication of the form of loving service; but let us not forget +that they are also a very stringent requirement as to its measure, +if it is to please Christ. 'What she could'; the engine must be +worked up to the last ounce of pressure that it will stand. All must +be got out of it that can be got out of it. Is that the case about +us? We talk about hard work for Christ. Have any of us ever, worked +up to the edge of our capacity? I am afraid that if the principles +that lie in this catalogue were applied to us, whether about our +gold and silver, or about our more precious spiritual and mental +possessions, _we_ could not say, 'Every man with whom was +found' this, that, and the other, 'brought it for the work.' + +III. Notice, again, how in this list of offerings there comes out +the great thought of the infinite variety of forms of service and +offering, which are all equally needful and equally acceptable. + +The list begins with 'bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and +tablets, all jewels of gold.' And then it goes on to 'blue, and +purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and red skins of rams, and +badgers' skins, and shittim wood.' And then we read that the 'women +did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun'--namely, +the same things as have been already catalogued, 'the blue, +and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.' That looks as if the +richer gave the raw material, and the women gave the labour. Poor +women! they could not give, but they could spin. They had no stores, +but they had ten fingers and a distaff, and if some neighbour found +the stuff, the ten fingers joyfully set the distaff twirling, and +spun the yarn for the weavers. Then there were others who willingly +undertook the rougher work of spinning, not dainty thread for the +rich soft stuffs whose colours were to glow in the sanctuary, but +the coarse black goat's hair which was to be made into the heavy +covering of the roof of the tabernacle. No doubt it was less +pleasant labour than the other, but it got done by willing hands. +And then, at the end of the whole enumeration, there comes, 'And the +rulers brought precious stones, and spices, and oil,' and all the +expensive things that were needed. The large subscriptions are at +the bottom of the list, and the smaller ones are in the place of +honour. All this just teaches us this--what a host of things of all +degrees of preciousness in men's eyes go to make God's great +building! + +So various were the requirements of the work on hand. Each man's +gift was needed, and each in its place was equally necessary. The +jewels on the high-priest's breastplate were no more nor less +essential than the wood that made some peg for a curtain, or than +the cheap goat's-hair yarn that was woven into the coarse cloth +flung over the roof of the Tabernacle to keep the wet out. All had +equal consecration, because all made one whole. All was equally +precious, if all was given with the same spirit. So there is room +for all sorts of work in Christ's great house, where there are not +only 'vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth,' +and all 'unto honour ... meet for the Master's use.' The smallest +deed that co-operates to a great end is great. 'The more feeble are +necessary.' Every one may find a corner where his special possession +will work into the general design. If I have no jewels to give, I +can perhaps find some shittim wood, or, if I cannot manage even +that, I can at least spin some other person's yarn, even though I +have only a distaff, and not a loom to weave it in. Many of us can +do work only when associated with others, and can render best +service by helping some more highly endowed. But all are needed, and +welcomed, and honoured, and rewarded. The owner of all the slaves +sets one to be a water-carrier, and another to be his steward. It is +of little consequence whether the servant be Paul or Timothy, the +Apostle or the Apostle's helper. 'He worketh the work of the Lord, +as I also do,' said the former about the latter. All who are +associated in the same service are on one level. + +I remember once being in the treasury of a royal palace. There was a +long gallery in which the Crown valuables were stored. In one +compartment there was a great display of emeralds, and diamonds, and +rubies, and I know not what, that had been looted from some Indian +rajah or other. And in the next case there lay a common quill pen, +and beside it a little bit of discoloured coarse serge. The pen had +signed some important treaty, and the serge was a fragment of a flag +that had been borne triumphant from a field where a nation's +destinies had been sealed. The two together were worth a farthing at +the outside, but they held their own among the jewels, because they +spoke of brain-work and bloodshed in the service of the king. Many +strangely conjoined things lie side by side in God's jewel-cases. +Things which people vulgarly call large and valuable, and what +people still more vulgarly call small and worthless, have a way of +getting together there. For in that place the arrangement is not +according to what the thing would fetch if it were sold, but what +was the thought in the mind and the emotion in the heart which gave +it. Jewels and camel's hair yarn and gold and silver are all massed +together. Wood is wanted for the Temple quite as much as gold and +silver and precious stones. + +So, whatever we have, let us bring that; and whatever we are, let us +bring that. If we be poor and our work small, and our natures +limited, and our faculties confined, it does not matter. A man is +accepted 'according to that he hath, and not according to that he +hath not.' God does not ask how much we have given or done, if we +have given or done what we could. But He does ask how much we have +kept back, and takes strict account of the unsurrendered +possessions, the unimproved opportunities, the unused powers. He +gives much who gives all, though his all be little; he gives little +who gives a part, though the part be much. The motive sanctifies the +act, and the completeness of the consecration magnifies it. 'Great' +and 'small' are not words for God's Kingdom, in which the standard +is not quantity but quality, and quality is settled by the purity of +the love which prompts the deed, and the consequent thoroughness of +self-surrender which it expresses. Whoever serves God with a whole +heart will render to Him a whole strength, and will thus bring Him +the gifts which He most desires. + + + + +THE COPIES OF THINGS IN THE HEAVENS + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. On the first + day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle + of the tent of the congregation. 3. And thou shalt put + therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with + the vail. 4. And thou shalt bring in the table, and set + in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; + and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the + lamps thereof. 5. And thou shalt set the altar of gold + for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put + the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. 6. And thou + shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the + door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. + 7. And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the + congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein. + 8. And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang + up the hanging at the court gate. 9. And thou shalt take + the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all + that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels + thereof: and it shall be holy. 10. And thou shalt anoint + the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, + and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most + holy. 11. And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, + and sanctify it. 12. And thou shalt bring Aaron and his + sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, + and wash them with water. 13. And thou shalt put upon + Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify + him; that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. + 14. And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with + coats: 15. And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst + anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in + the priest's office; for their anointing shall surely + be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations. + 16. Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord + commanded him, so did he.'--EXODUS xl. 1-16. + +The Exodus began on the night after the fourteenth day of the first +month. The Tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first +month; that is, one year, less a fortnight, after the Exodus. Exodus +xix. 1 shows that the march to Sinai took nearly three months; and +if to this we add the eighty days of Moses' seclusion on the +mountain, we get about six months as occupied in preparing the +materials for the Tabernacle. 'Setting it up' was a short process, +done in a day. The time specified was ample to get ready a wooden +framework of small dimensions, with some curtains and coverings of +woven stuffs. What a glad stir there would be in the camp on that +New Year's day, when the visible token of God's dwelling in its +midst first stood there! Our present purpose is simply to try to +bring out the meaning of the Tabernacle and its furniture. It was +both a symbol and a type; that is, it expressed in material form +certain great religious needs and truths; and, just because it did +so, it pointed onwards to the full expression and satisfaction of +these in Christ Jesus and His gifts. In other words, it was a +parable of the requisites for, and the blessings of, communion with +God. + +Note, then, first, the general lesson of the Tabernacle as a whole. +Its name declares its meaning, 'the tent of meeting' (Rev. Ver.). It +was the meeting-place of God with man, as the name is explained in +Exodus xxix. 42, 'where I will meet with you, to speak there unto +thee.' It is also named simply 'the dwelling'; that is, of God. It +was pitched in the midst of the camp, like the tent of the king with +his subjects clustered round him. Other nations had temples, like +the solemn structures of Egypt; but this slight, movable sanctuary +was a new thing, and spoke of the continual presence of Israel's +God, and of His loving condescension in sharing their wandering +lives, and, like them, dwelling 'within curtains.' It was a visible +representation of a spiritual fact for the then present; it was a +parable of the inmost reality of communion between man and God; and +it was, therefore, a prophecy both of the full realisation of His +presence among men, in the temple of Christ's body, and of the yet +future communion of Heaven, which is set before us by the 'great +voice ... saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.' + +The threefold division into court of the worshippers, holy place for +the priests, and holiest of all, was not peculiar to the Tabernacle. +It signifies the separation which, after all nearness, must still +exist. God is unrevealed after all revelation; afar off, however +near; shrouded in the utter darkness of the inmost shrine, and only +approached by the priestly intercessor with the blood of the +sacrifice. Like all the other arrangements of the Sanctuary, the +division of its parts declares a permanent truth, which has +impressed itself on the worship of all nations; and it reveals God's +way of meeting the need by outward rites for the then present, and +by the mediation of the great High-Priest in the time to come, whose +death rent the veil, and whose life will, one day, make the holiest +place in the heavens patent to our feet. + +The enumeration of the furniture of the Tabernacle starts from the +innermost shrine, and goes outward. It was fit that it should begin +with God's special abode. The 'holy of holies' was a tiny chamber, +closed in from light, the form, dimensions, materials, and furniture +of which were all significant. It measured ten cubits, or fifteen +feet, every way, thereby expressing, in its cubical form and in the +predominance of the number ten, stability and completeness. It will +be remembered that the same cubical form is given to the heavenly +city, in the Apocalypse, for the same reason. There, in the thick +darkness, unseen by mortals except for the one approach of the high- +priest on the day of atonement, dwelt the 'glory' which made light +in the darkness, and flashed on the gold which covered all things in +the small shrine. + +Our lesson does not speak of cherubim or mercy-seat, but specifies +only the ark of the testimony. This was a small chest of acacia +wood, overlaid with gold, and containing the two tables of the law, +which were called the testimony, as bearing witness to Israel of +God's will concerning their duty, and as therein bearing witness, +too, of what He is. Nor must the other part of the witness-bearing +of the law be left out of view,--that it testifies against the +transgressors of itself. The ark was the centre-point of the divine +revelation, the very throne of God; and it is profoundly significant +that its sole contents should be the tables of stone. Egyptian arks +contained symbols of their gods, degrading, bestial, and often +impure; but the true revelation was a revelation, to the moral +sense, of a Being who loves righteousness. Other faiths had their +mysteries, whispered in the inmost shrine, which shunned the light +of the outer courts; but here the revelation within the veil was the +same as that spoken on the house-tops. Our lesson does not refer to +the 'mercy seat,' which covered the ark above, and spoke the need +for, and the provision of, a means whereby the witness of the law +against the worshipper's sins should be, as it were, hid from the +face of the enthroned God. The veil which is referred to in verse 3 +was that which hung between the holy of holies and the holy place. +It did not 'cover the ark,' as the Authorised Version unfortunately +renders, but 'screened' it, as the Revised Version correctly gives +it. It blazed with colour and embroidered figures of cherubim. No +doubt, the colours were symbolical; but it is fancy, rather than +interpretation, which seeks meanings beyond splendour in the blue +and purple and crimson and white which were blended in its gorgeous +folds. What is it which hangs, in ever-shifting hues, between man +and God? The veil of creation, embroidered by His own hand with +beauty and life, which are symbolised in the cherubim, the types of +the animate creation. The two divisions of the Tabernacle, thus +separated by the veil, correspond to earth and heaven; and that +application of the symbol is certainly intended, though not +exclusively. + +We step, then, from the mystery of the inner shrine out to the +comparatively inferior sacredness of the 'holy place,' daily trodden +by the priests. Three articles stand in it: the table for the so- +called shew-bread, the great lampstand, and the golden altar of +incense. Of these, the altar was in the midst, right in the path to +the holiest place; and on the right, looking to the veil, the table +of shew-bread; while on the left was the lampstand. These three +pieces of furniture were intimately connected with each other, and +represented various aspects of the spiritual character of true +worshippers. The holy place was eminently the people's, just as the +most holy place was eminently God's. True, only the priests entered +it; but they did so on behalf of the nation. We may expect, +therefore, to find special reference to the human side of worship in +its equipments; and we do find it. Of the three articles, the altar +of incense was in idea, as in locality, the centre; and we consider +it first, though it stands last in our list, suggesting that, in +coming from the most holy place, the other two would be first +encountered. The full details of its construction and use are found +in Exodus xxx. Twice a day sweet incense was burned on it, and no +other kind of sacrifice was permitted; but once a year it was +sprinkled, by the high priest, with expiatory blood. The meaning is +obvious. The symbolism of incense as representing prayer in frequent +in Scripture, and most natural. What could more beautifully express +the upward aspirations of the soul, or the delight of God in these, +than the incense sending up its wreaths of fragrant smoke? Incense +gives no fragrance nor smoke till it is kindled; and the censer has +to be constantly swung to keep up the glow, without which there will +be no 'odour of a sweet smell.' So cold prayers are no prayers, but +are scentless, and unapt to rise. The heart must be as a coal of +fire, if the prayer is to come up before God with acceptance. Twice +a day the incense was kindled; and all day long, no doubt, it +smouldered, 'a perpetual incense before the Lord.' So, in the life +of true communion, there should be daily seasons of special +devotion, and a continual glow. The position of the altar of incense +was right in the line between the altar of burnt offering, in the +outer court, and the entrance to the holiest place; by which we are +taught that acceptable prayer follows on reconciliation by +sacrifice, and leads into 'the secret place of the Most High.' The +yearly atonement for the altar taught that evil imperfection cleaves +to all our devotion, which needs and receives the sprinkling of the +blood of the great sacrifice. + +The great seven-branched candlestick, or lampstand, stood on the +right of the altar, as the priest looked to the most holy place. Its +meaning is plain. It is an emblem of the Church as recipient and +communicative of light, in all the applications of that metaphor, to +a dark world. As the sacred lamps streamed out their hospitable rays +into the desert all the night, so God's servants are lights in the +world. The lamps burned with derived light, which had to be fed as +well as kindled. So we are lighted by the touch of the great Aaron, +and His gentle hand tends the smoking wick, and nourishes it to a +flame. We need the oil of the Spirit to sustain the light. The lamp +was a clustered light, representing in its metal oneness the formal +and external unity of Israel. The New Testament unity is of a better +kind. The seven candlesticks are made one because He walks in the +midst, not because they are welded on to one stem. + +Consistency of symbolism requires that the table of shew-bread +should, like the altar and the candlestick, express some phase of +true worship. Its interpretation is less obvious than that of the +other two. The name means literally 'bread of the face'; that is, +bread presented to, and ever lying before, God. There are two +explanations of the meaning. One sees in the offering only a devout +recognition of God as the author of material blessing, and a +rendering to Him of His gifts of outward nourishment. In this case, +the shew-bread would be anomalous, a literality thrust into the +midst of symbolism. The other explanation keeps up the congruity, by +taking the material bread, which is the result of God's blessing on +man's toil, as a symbol of the spiritual results of God's blessing +on man's spiritual toil, or, in other words, of practical +righteousness or good works, and conceives that these are offered to +God, by a strong metaphor, as acceptable food. It is a bold +representation, but we may quote 'I will sup with him' as proof that +it is not inadmissible; and it is not more bold than the declaration +that our obedience is 'an odour of a sweet smell.' So the three +pieces of furniture in the holy place spoke of the true Israel, when +cleansed by sacrifice and in communion with God, as instant in +prayer, continually raying out the light derived from Him, and +zealous of good works, well-pleasing to God. + +We pass outwards, through another veil, and stand in the court, +which was always open to the people. There, before the door of the +Tabernacle, was the altar of burnt offering. The order of our +chapter brings us to it last, but the order of worship brought the +worshipper to it first. Its distinctive character was that on it the +blood of the slain sacrifices was offered. It was the place where +sinful men could begin to meet with God, the foundation of all the +communion of the inner sanctuary. We need not discuss mere details +of form and the like. The great lesson taught by the altar and its +place, is that reconciliation is needed, and is only possible by +sacrifice. As a symbol it taught every Israelite what his own +conscience, once awakened, endorsed, that sin must be expiated +before the sinner and God can walk in concord. As prophecy, it +assured those whose hearts were touched with longing, that God would +Himself 'provide the lamb for the burnt offering,' in some way as +yet unknown. For us it is an intended prefiguration of the great +work of Jesus Christ. 'We have an altar.' We need that altar at the +beginning of our fellowship with God, as much as Israel did. A +Christianity which does not start from the altar of burnt offering +will never get far into the holy place, nor ever reach that +innermost shrine where the soul lives and adores, silent before the +manifest God between the cherubim. + +The laver, or basin, was intended for the priests' use, in washing +hands and feet before ministering at the altar or entering the +tabernacle. It teaches the necessity for purity, in order to +priestly service. + +Thus these three divisions of the Tabernacle and its court set forth +the stages in the approach of the soul to God, beginning with the +reconciling sacrifice and cleansing water, advancing to closer +communion by prayer, impartation of light received, and offering of +good works to God, and so entering within the veil into secret +sweetnesses of union with God, which attains its completeness only +when we pass from the holy place on earth to the most holy in the +heavens. + +The remainder of the text can only be glanced at in a sentence or +two. It consists of two parts: the consecration of the Tabernacle +and its vessels by the anointing oil which, when applied to +inanimate objects, simply devoted them to sacred uses, and the +consecration of Aaron and his sons. A fuller account is given in +Leviticus viii., from which we learn that it was postponed to a +later period, and accompanied with a more elaborate ritual than that +prescribed here. That consists of three parts: washing, as +emblematic of communicated purity; robing, and anointing,--the last +act signifying, when applied to men, their endowment with so much of +the divine Spirit as fitted them for their theocratic functions. +These three things made the 'sanctifying,' or setting apart for +God's service, of Aaron and his sons. He is consecrated alone, in +order that his primacy may be clearly indicated. He is consecrated +by Moses as the higher; then the sons are consecrated with the same +ceremonial, to indicate the hereditary priesthood, and the equality +of Aaron's successors with himself. 'They truly were many priests, +because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death,' and +provision for their brief tenure of office was embodied in the +consecration of the sons by the side of the father. Their priesthood +was only 'everlasting' by continual succession of short-lived +holders of the office. But the prediction which closes the text has +had a fulfilment beyond these fleeting, shadowy priests, in Him +whose priesthood is 'everlasting' and 'throughout all generations.' +because 'He ever liveth to make intercession' (Heb. vii. 25). + + + + +THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS + + +THE BURNT OFFERING A PICTURE AND A PROPHECY + + 'And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out + of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, 2. Speak + unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any + man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall + bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and + of the flock. 3. If his offering be a burnt-sacrifice of + the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall + offer it of his own voluntary will, at the door of the + tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. 4. And he + shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; + and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for + him. 5. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord: + and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, + and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that + is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. + 6. And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into + his pieces. 7. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put + fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the + fire: 8. And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the + parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that + is on the fire which is upon the altar: 9. But his inwards + and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall + burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an + offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.' + --LEV. i. 1-9. + +In considering the Jewish sacrificial system, it is important to +distinguish the symbolical from the typical value of the sacrifices. +The former could scarcely be quite unnoticed by the offerers; but +the latter was only gradually made plain, was probably never very +generally seen, and is a great deal clearer to us, in the light of +Christ, the Antitype, than it could ever have been before His +coming. As symbols, the sacrifices expressed great eternal truths as +to spiritual worship and communion, its hindrances, requisites, +manner, and blessings. They were God's picture-book for these +children in religious development. As types, they shadowed the work +of Jesus Christ and its results. + +The value of the sacrifices in either aspect is independent of +modern questions as to their Mosaic origin; for at whatever period +the Priest's Code was promulgated, it equally bears witness to the +ruling ideas of the offerings, and, in any case, it was long before +Christ came, and therefore its prophecy of Him is as supernatural, +whether Moses or Ezra were its author. I make this remark, not as +implying that the new theory is not revolutionary, but simply as +absolving a student of the religious significance of the sacrificial +system from entering here on questions of date. + +The 'burnt offering' stands first in Leviticus for several reasons. +It was derived from patriarchal times; it was offered twice daily, +besides frequently on other occasions; and in its significance it +expressed the complete consecration which should be the habitual +state of the true worshipper. Its name literally means 'that which +ascends,' and refers, no doubt, to the ascent of the transformed +substance of the sacrifice in fire and smoke, as to God. The central +idea of this sacrifice, then, as gathered from its name and +confirmed by its manner, is that of the yielding of the whole being +in self-surrender, and borne up by the flame of intense consecration +to God. Very beautiful is the variety of material which was +permitted. The poor man's pair of pigeons went up with as sweet an +odour as the rich man's young bull. God delights in the consecration +to Him of ourselves and our powers, no matter whether they be great +or small, if only the consecration be thorough, and the whole being +be wrapped in the transforming blaze. + +It is worth while to try to realise the strange and to our eyes +repulsive spectacle of the burnt offering, which is veiled from us +by its sacred associations. The worshipper leads up his animal by +some rude halter, and possibly resisting, to the front of the +Tabernacle, the courts of which he dared not tread, but which was to +him the dwelling-place of God. There by the altar he stands, and, +first pressing his hand with force on the victim's head, he then, +with one swift cut, kills it, and as the warm blood spouts from the +mangled throat, the attendant priest catches it in a basin, and, +standing at the two diagonally opposite corners of the altar in +turn, dashes, with one dexterous twist, half of the contents against +each, so as to wet two sides of the altar with one throw, and the +other two with the other. The offerer then flays the reeking +carcase, tossing the gory hide to the priest as his perquisite, and +cuts up the sacrifice according to a fixed method. His part of the +work is done, and he stands by with bloody hands while the priests +arrange the pieces on the pile on the altar; and soon the odour of +burning flesh and the thick smoke hanging over the altar tell that +the rite is complete. What a scene it must have been when, as on +some great occasions, hundreds of burnt offerings were offered in +succession! The place and the attendants would look to us liker +shambles and butchers than God's house and worshippers. + +Now, if we inquire into the significance of the offering, it turns on +two points--expiation and burning. The former it has in common with +other bloody sacrifices, though it presents features of its own, even +in regard to expiation. But the latter is peculiar to it, and must +therefore be taken to be its special teaching. The stages in the whole +process are five: the presentation, laying on of hands, slaughter, +sprinkling of blood, and burning of the whole carcase. The first three +are alike in this and other sacrifices, the fourth is modified here, +and the last is found here only. Each has its lesson. The offerer has +himself to bring the animal to the door of the Tabernacle, that he may +show his willing surrender of a valuable thing. As he stands there with +his offering, his thoughts would pass into the inner shrine, where God +dwelt; and he would, if he were a true worshipper, feel that while God, +on His part, already dwelt in the midst of the people, he, on the other +hand, can only enter into the enjoyment of His presence by sacrifice. +The offering was to be 'a male without blemish'; for bodily defect +symbolising moral flaw could not be tolerated in the offerings to a +holy God, who requires purity, and will not be put off with less than +a man's best, be it ox or pigeon. 'The torn and the lame and the sick,' +which Malachi charged his generation with bringing, are neither worthy +of God to receive nor of us to offer. When he pressed his hand on the +head of the sacrifice, what was the worshipper meant to think? In all +other instances where hands are laid on, some transference or +communication of gifts or qualities is implied; and it is natural to +suppose that the same meaning attaches to the act here, with such +modifications as the case requires. We find that it was done in +other bloody sacrifices, accompanied with confession. Nothing is +said of confession here; but we cannot dismiss the idea that the +offerer laid his sins on the victim by that striking act, especially +as the very next clause says 'it shall be accepted for him to make +atonement for him.' The atonement was made, as we shall see, by the +application of the blood to the altar; but the possibility of the +victim's blood atoning for the offerer depended on his having laid +his hands on its head. We may perhaps go farther than 'transference +of sins.' Might we not widen the expression, and say 'identification,' +or, to use a word which has become so worn by religious controversy +that it slips through our fingers unnoticed, 'substitution'? Did not the +offerer say in effect, by that act, 'This is I? This animal life shall +die, as I ought to die. It shall go up as a sweet savour to Jehovah, +as my being should.' + +The animal invested with this representative character is next to be +slain by the offerer, not by the priest, who only performed that +part of the ritual in the case of national or public sacrifices. +That was distinctly a vicarious death; and, as inflicted by the hand +of the person represented by the animal, he thereby acknowledged +that its death was the wages of his sin, and allowed the justice of +his condemnation, while he presented this innocent life--innocent +because not that of a moral being--as his substitute. So far the +worshipper's part goes. But now, when the act of expiation is to be +symbolically represented, and, so far as outward sacrifice could, is +to be accomplished, another actor appears. The priest comes forward +as mediator between God and man, and applies the blood to the altar. +The difference between the sprinkling of the blood, in the burnt +offerings and in the other sacrifices, which had expiation for their +principal object, in some of which it was smeared on the horns of +the altar, and, in the most solemn of all, was carried into the +holiest place, and sprinkled on the mercy-seat, suggests that the +essential character of the burnt offering was not expiatory, though +expiation was the foundation on which alone the essential character +could be reared. The application of the blood was the formal act by +which atonement was made. The word rendered 'to make atonement' +means 'to cover'; and the idea conveyed is that the blood, which is +the life of the sacrifice, covers the sins of the offerer, so as to +make them powerless to dam back the love or to precipitate the wrath +of God. + +With this act the expiatory portion of the ritual ends, and we may +here pause to look back for a moment on it as a whole. We have +pointed out the double bearings of the Mosaic ritual as symbolical +and as typical or prophetic. In the former aspect, the emphatic +teaching of this rite is that 'the wages of sin is death,' that +'without shedding of blood there is no remission,' that God has +appointed sacrifice as the means of entering into fellowship with +Him, and that substitution and vicarious penalty are facts in His +government. We may like or dislike these thoughts; we may call them +gross, barbarous, immoral, and the like, but, at all events, we +ought not to deny that they are ingrained in the Mosaic sacrificial +system, which becomes unmeaning elaboration of empty and often +repulsive ceremonies, if they are not recognised as its very centre. +Of course, the meaning of the sacrifices was hidden from many a +worshipper. They became opaque instead of transparent, and hid the +great truth which they were meant to reveal. All forms labour under +that disadvantage; but that they were significant in design, and +largely so to devout hearts in effect, admits of no reasonable +doubt. That which they signified was chiefly the putting away of sin +by the sacrifice of innocent life, which stood in the place of the +guilty. Of course, too, their benefit was symbolical, and the blood +of bulls and goats could never put away sin; but, under the shelter +of the outward forms, a more spiritual insight gradually grew up, +such as breathes in many a psalm, and such as, we cannot doubt, +filled the heart of many a worshipper, as he stood by the bleeding +sacrifice on which his own hands had laid the burden that had +weighed so heavy on himself. How far the prophetic aspect of the +sacrifices was discerned, is a more difficult question. But this at +least we know--that the highest level of evangelical prophecy, in +Isaiah's wonderful fifty-third chapter, is reached from this +vantage-ground. It is the flower of which these ordinances are the +root. We need not enlarge upon the prophetic aspect of the +sacrifice. The mere negative sinlessness of the victim points to the +'Lamb without blemish and without spot,' on whom, as Isaiah says, in +language dyed through and through with sacrificial references, 'the +Lord hath made to meet the iniquity of us all,' and who Himself +makes 'His soul an offering for sin.' The modern tendency to bring +down the sacrificial system to a late date surely sins against the +sacred and all-explaining law of evolution, in the name of which it +is attempted, inasmuch as it is an unheard-of thing for the earlier +stages of a religion to be less clogged with ceremonial than the +later. Psalmist and prophet first, and priest afterwards, is not the +order of development. + +The remaining part of the ritual was, as we have pointed out, +peculiar to the burnt offering. In it alone the whole of the +sacrifice was consumed on the altar, with the exceptions of the +skin, which was given to the priest, and of the contents of the +intestines. Hence it was sometimes called 'a whole burnt offering.' +The meaning of this provision may be apprehended if we note that the +word rendered 'burn,' in verse 9, is not that which simply implies +destruction by fire, but is a peculiar word, reserved for +sacrificial burnings, and meaning 'to cause to ascend in smoke or +vapour.' The gross flesh was, as it were, refined into vapour and +odour, and went up to God as 'a sweet savour.' It expressed, +therefore, the transformation of the sinful human nature of the +worshipper, by the refining power of the fire of God, into something +more ethereal and kindred with the heaven to which it rose. Or, to +put the thought in plainer words, on the basis of expiation, the +glad surrender of the whole being is possible and will ensue; and +when a man yields himself in joyful self-surrender to the God who +has forgiven his sins, then the fire of the divine Spirit is shed +abroad in his heart, and kindles a flame which lays hold on all the +gross, earthly elements of his being, and changes them into fire, +kindred with itself, which aspires, in ruddy tongues of upward- +leaping light, to the God to whom the heart has been surrendered, +and to whom the whole being tends. + +This is the purpose of expiation; this is the summit of all +religion. One man has realised to the full, in his life, what the +burnt offering taught as the goal for all worshippers. Jesus has +lived in the constant exercise of perfect self-surrender, and in the +constant unmeasured possession of 'the Spirit of burning,' with +which He has come to baptize us all. If we look to Him as our +expiation, we should also find in Him the power to yield ourselves +'living sacrifices,' and draw from Him the sacred and refining fire, +which shall transform our grossness into His likeness, and make even +us 'acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ.' + + + + +STRANGE FIRE + + + 'And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of + them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense + thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which + He commanded them not. 2. And there went out fire from + the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the + Lord. 3. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that + the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them + that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be + glorified. And Aaron held his peace. 4. And Moses called + Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of + Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren + from before the sanctuary out of the camp. 5. So they went + near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp; as + Moses had said. 6. And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto + Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons. Uncover not your + heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest + wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, + the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the + Lord hath kindled. 7. And ye shall not go out from the + door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: + for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they + did according to the word of Moses. 8. And the Lord + spake unto Aaron, saying, 9. Do not drink wine nor strong + drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the + tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be + a statute for ever throughout your generations; 10. And + that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and + between unclean and clean; 11. And that ye may teach the + children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath + spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.'--LEV. x. 1-11. + +This solemn story of sin and punishment is connected with the +preceding chapter by a simple 'and.' Probably, therefore, Nadab and +Abihu 'offered strange fire,' immediately after the fire from +Jehovah had consumed the appointed sacrifice. Their sin was +aggravated by the time of its being committed. But a week had passed +since the consecration of their father and themselves as priests. +The first sacrifices had just been offered, and here, in the very +blossoming time, came a vile canker. If such licence in setting +aside the prescriptions of the newly established sacrificial order +asserted itself then, to what lengths might it not run when the +first impression of sanctity and of God's commandment had been worn +by time and custom? The sin was further aggravated by the sinners +being priests, who were doubly obliged to punctilious adherence to +the instituted ritual. If they set the example of contempt, would +not the people better (or, rather, worsen) their instruction? + +Unquestionably, their punishment was awfully severe. But we shall +entirely misconceive their sin if we judge it by our standards. We +are not dependent on forms as Israel was, but the spiritual religion +of Christianity was only made possible by the externalism of the +older system. The sweet kernel would not have softened and become +juicy without the shelter of the hard shell. Scaffolding is needed +to erect a building; and he is not a wise man who either despises or +would keep permanently standing the scaffold poles. + +We draw a broad distinction between positive commandments and moral +or religious obligations. But in the Mosaic legislation that +distinction does not exist. There, all precepts are God's uttered +will, and all disobedience is rebellion against Him. Nor could it be +otherwise at the stage of development which Israel had reached. + +What, then, was the crime of these two rash sons of Aaron? That +involves two questions: What did they do? and What was the sin of +doing it? The former question may be answered in various ways. +Certainly the designation of 'strange fire' seems best explained by +the usual supposition that it means fire not taken from the altar. +The other explanations, which make the sin to have been offering at +an unauthorised time, or offering incense not compounded according +to the prescription, give an unnatural meaning to the phrase. It was +the 'fire' which was wrong,--that is, it was 'fire which they had +kindled,' caught up from some common culinary hearth, or created by +themselves in some way. + +What was their sin in thus offering it? Plainly, the narrative +points to the essence of the crime in calling it 'fire which He had +not commanded.' So this was their crime, that they were tampering +with the appointed order which but a week before they had been +consecrated to conserve and administer; that they were thus +thrusting in self-will and personal caprice, as of equal authority +with the divine commandment; that they were arrogating the right to +cut and carve God's appointments, as the whim or excitement of the +moment dictated; and that they were doing their best to obliterate +the distinction on the preservation of which religion, morality, and +the national existence depended; namely, the distinction between +holy and common, clean and unclean. To plough that distinction deep +into the national consciousness was no small part of the purpose of +the law; and here were two of its appointed witnesses disregarding +it, and flying in its face. The flash of holy fire consuming the +sacrifices had scarcely faded off their eyeballs when they thus +sinned. + +They have had many successors, not only in Israel, while a ritual +demanding punctilious conformity lasted, but in Christendom since. +Alas! our censers are often flaming with 'strange fire.' How much +so-called Christian worship glows with self-will or with partisan +zeal! When we seek to worship God for what we can get, when we rush +into His presence with hot, eager desires which we have not +subordinated to His will, we are burning 'strange fire which He has +not commanded.' The only fire which should kindle the incense in our +censers, and send it up to heaven in fragrant wreaths, is fire +caught from the altar of sacrifice. God must kindle the flame in our +hearts if we are to render these else cold hearts to Him. + + 'The prayers I bring will then be sweet indeed + If Thou the Spirit give, by which I pray.' + +The swift, terrible punishment does indeed bear marks of the +severity of that earlier stage of revelation. But it was not +disproportioned to the offence, and it was not the cruelty of a +martinet who avenged ceremonial lapses with penalties which should +have been kept for moral offences. The surface of the sin was +ceremonial impropriety: the heart of it was flouting Jehovah and His +law. It was better that two men should die, and the whole nation +perish not, as it would have done if their example had been +followed. It is mercy to trample out the first sparks beside a +powder-barrel. + +There is a very striking parallel between verse 2 and the last verse +of the preceding chapter. In both the same expression is used, +'There came forth fire from before the Lord, and consumed' (the word +rendered _devoured_ in verse 2 is the same in Hebrew as _consumed_). So, +then, the same divine fire, which had graciously signified God's +acceptance of the appointed sacrifice, now flashed out with lightning-like +power of destruction, and killed the two rebel priests. There is dormant +potency of destruction in the God who reveals Himself as gracious. The +'wrath of the Lamb' is as real as His gentleness. The Gospel is 'the +savour of life unto life' and 'of death unto death.' + +Moses' word to the stunned father is of a piece with the severity of +the whole incident. No voice of condolence or sympathy comes from +him. The brother is swallowed up in the lawgiver. He puts into words +the meaning of the terrible stroke, and expects Aaron to acquiesce, +though his heart bleeds. What was his interpretation? He saw in it +God's purpose to be 'sanctified in them that come nigh Him.' The +priests were these. Nadab and Abihu had been consecrated for the +purpose of enforcing the truth of God's holiness. They had done the +very opposite, by breaking down the distinction between sacred and +common. + +But their nearness to God brought with it not only corresponding +obligations, but corresponding criminality and penalty, if these +obligations were not discharged. If God is not 'sanctified' +_by_ His servants, He will sanctify Himself _on_ them. If His people +do not set forth His infinite separation from all evil and elevation +above all creatures, He will proclaim these truths in lightning that +kills and thunder that roars. It is a universal law which Moses sternly +spoke to Aaron instead of comfort, bidding him recognise the necessity +of the fearful blow to his paternal heart. 'You only have I known of all +the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your +iniquities.' + +The prohibition to Aaron and his sons to show signs of mourning is +as stern as the rest of the story, and serves to insist upon the +true point of view from which to regard it. For the official +representatives of the divine order of worship to mourn the deaths +of its assailants would have seemed to indicate their murmuring at +God's judgments, and might have led them to participate in the sin +while they lamented its punishment. It is hard to mourn and not to +repine. Affection blinds to the ill-desert of its objects. Nadab's +and Abihu's stark corpses lying in the forecourt of the sanctuary, +and Aaron's dry eyes and undisturbed attire, proclaim the same +truths,--the gravity of the dead men's sin, and the righteous +judgment of God. But the people might sorrow, for _their_ +mourning would help to imprint on them more deeply the lessons of +the dread event. + +While the victims' cousins carried their bodies to their graves in +the sand, their father and brothers had to remain in the Tabernacle, +because 'the anointing oil of Jehovah is upon you.' That oil, as the +symbol of the Spirit, separates those on whom it is poured from all +contact with death, from participation in sin, from the weight of +sorrow. What have immortality, righteousness, joy in the Holy Ghost, +to do with these dark shadows? Those whom God has called to His +immediate service must hold themselves apart from earthly passions, +and must control natural affection, if indulging it imperils their +clear witness to God's righteous will. + +The prohibition (verses 8-11) of wine and strong drink during the +discharge of the priestly functions seems to suggest that Nadab and +Abihu had committed their sin while in some degree intoxicated. Be +that as it may, the prohibition is rested upon the necessity of +preserving, in all its depth and breadth, the distinction between +common and holy which Nadab and Abihu had broken down. That +distinction was to be very present to the priest in his work, and +how could he have the clearness of mind, the collectedness and +composure, the sense of the sanctity of his office, and +ministrations which it requires and gives, if he was under the +influence of strong drink? + +Nothing has more power to blur the sharpness of moral and religious +insight than even a small amount of alcohol. God must be worshipped +with clear brain and naturally beating heart. Not the fumes of wine, +in which there lurks almost necessarily the tendency to 'excess,' +but the being 'filled with the Spirit' supplies the only legitimate +stimulus to devotion. Besides the personal reason for abstinence, +there was another,--namely, that only so could the priests teach the +people 'the statutes' of Jehovah. Lips stained from the wine-cup +would not be fit to speak holy words. Words spoken by such would +carry no power. + +God's servants can never impress on the sluggish conscience of +society their solemn messages from God, unless they are +conspicuously free from self-indulgence, and show by their example +the gulf, wide as between heaven and hell, which parts cleanness +from uncleanness. Our lives must witness to the eternal distinction +between good and evil, if we are to draw men to 'abhor that which is +evil, and cleave to that which is good.' + + + + +THE FIRST STAGE IN THE LEPER'S CLEANSING + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. This shall be + the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He + shall be brought unto the priest: 3. And the priest + shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall + look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed + in the leper; 4. Then shall the priest command to take + for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, + and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 5. And the + priest shall command that one of the birds be killed + in an earthen vessel over running water: 6. As for the + living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar-wood, and + the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the + living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over + the running water: 7. And he shall sprinkle upon him that + is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall + pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose + into the open field.'--LEV. xiv. 1-7. + +The whole treatment of leprosy is parabolic. Leprosy itself is a +'parable of death.' The horrible loathsomeness, the contagiousness, +the non-curableness, etc. So the man was shut out from camp and from +sanctuary. There was a double process in the cleansing rite, +restoring to each. + +I. Sketch the ceremonial. Two birds, one slain over a vessel of +water so that its blood drained in. Then the living bird was to be +dipped into this water and blood, along with cedar, scarlet, and +hyssop, and the man sprinkled seven times and the living bird set +loose. + +II. The significance. This elaborate symbolism was partly +intelligible even then. Two birds, like the two goats on the +Atonement Day. Did both in some sense symbolise the man? The first +one was not exactly a sacrifice. Its death points to the physical +death which was the end of the disease, but also in some sense its +death symbolised the death by which cleansing was secured. + +_(a)_ The purifying water is made by blood added to it, i.e. +cleansing by sacrifice. + +'By water and by blood.' + +_(b)_ The sevenfold sprinkling. The cedar, symbol of +incorruptibility; the scarlet, of full vital energy; the hyssop, of +purifying. So the thought was suggested of the communication of +cleansing, full health and incorruption, undecaying strength; all +physical contrasts to leprosy sevenfold. + +_(c)_ The free, glad activity. The freed bird. The restored +leper. + + + + +THE DAY OF ATONEMENT + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the + two sons of Aaron when they offered before the Lord, + and died; 2. And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto + Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into + the holy place within the vail before the mercy-seat, + which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear + in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. 3. Thus shall Aaron + come into the holy place; with a young bullock for a sin + offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. 4. He shall + put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen + breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen + girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: + these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his + flesh in water, and so put them on. 5. And he shall take + of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids + of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt + offering. 6. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the + sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement + for himself, and for his house. 7. And he shall take the + two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door + of the tabernacle of the congregation. 8. And Aaron + shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the + Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9. And Aaron + shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and + offer him for a sin offering: 10. But the goat, on which + the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented + alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with Him, + and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. + 11. And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering + which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for + himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock + of the sin offering which is for himself. 12. And he + shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from + off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of + sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: + 13. And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the + Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the + mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: + 14. And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and + sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward; + and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood + with his finger seven times. 15. Then shall he kill the + goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and + bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood + as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it + upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat. 16. And + he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because + of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because + of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall + he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that + remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness. + 17. And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the + congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in + the holy place, until he come out, and have made an + atonement for himself, and for his household, and for + all the congregation of Israel. 18. And he shall go out + unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an + atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the + bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon + the horns of the altar round about. 19. And he shall + sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven + times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness + of the children of Israel.'--LEV. xvi. 1-19. + +The Talmudical treatise on the ritual of the day of atonement is +entitled 'Yoma,' _the_ day, which sufficiently expresses its +importance in the series of sacrificial observances. It was the +confession of the incompleteness of them all, a ceremonial +proclamation that ceremonies do not avail to take away sin; and it +was also a declaration that the true end of worship is not reached +till the worshipper has free access to the holy place of the Most +High. Thus the prophetic element is the very life-breath of this +supreme institution of the old covenant, which therein acknowledges +its own defects, and feeds the hopes of a future better thing. We do +not here consider the singular part of the ritual of the Day of +Atonement which is concerned with the treatment of the so-called +'scapegoat' but confine ourselves to the consideration of that part +of it which was observed in the Tabernacle and was intended to +expiate the sins of the priesthood and of the people. The chapter +connects the rites of the Day of Atonement with the tragic death of +the sons of Aaron, which witnessed to the sanctity of the inner +shrine, as not to be trodden but with the appointed offerings by the +appointed priest; and so makes the whole a divinely given +instruction as to the means by which, and the objects for which, +Aaron may enter within the veil. + +I. In verses 3-10 we have the preliminaries of the sacrifices and a +summary of the rites. First, Aaron was to bathe, and then to robe +himself in pure white. The dress is in singular contrast to the +splendour of his usual official costume, in which he stood before +men as representing God, and evidently signifies the purity which +alone fits for entrance into the awful presence. Thus vested, he +brings the whole of the animals to be sacrificed to the altar,--namely, +for himself and his order, a bullock and a ram; for the people, two +goats and a ram. The goats are then taken by him to the door of the +tent,--and it is to be observed that they are spoken of as both +constituting one sin offering (v. 5). They therefore both belong to +the Lord, and are, in some important sense, one, as was recognised by +the later Rabbinical prescription that they should be alike in colour, +size, and value. The appeal to the lot was an appeal to God to decide +the parts they were respectively to sustain in a transaction which, +in both parts, was really one. The consideration of the meaning of +the ritual for the one which was led away may be postponed for the +present. The preliminaries end with the casting of the lots, and in +later times, with tying the ominous red fillet on the head of the dumb +creature for which so weird a fate was in store. + +II. The first part of the ritual proper (vs. 11-14) is the expiation +for the sins of Aaron and the priesthood, and his entrance into the +most holy place. The bullock was slain in the usual manner of the +sin offering, but its blood was destined for a more solemn use. The +white-robed priest took a censer of burning embers from the altar +before the tent-door, and two hands full of incense, and, thus +laden, passed into the Tabernacle. How the silent crowd in the outer +court would watch the last flutter of the white robe as it was lost +in the gloom within! He passed through the holy place, which, on +every day but this, was the limit of his approach; but, on this one +day, he lifted the curtain, and entered the dark chamber, where the +glory flashed from the golden walls and rested above the ark. Would +not his heart beat faster as he laid his hand on the heavy veil, and +caught the first gleam of the calm light from the Shechinah? As soon +as he entered, he was to cast the incense into the censer, that the +fragrant cloud might cover the mercy-seat. Incense is the symbol of +prayer, and that curling cloud is a picture of the truth that the +purest of men, even the anointed priest, robed in white, who has +offered sacrifices daily all the year round, and today has anxiously +obeyed all the commands of ceremonial cleanliness, can yet only draw +near to God as a suppliant, not entering there as having a right of +access, but beseeching entrance as undeserved mercy. The incense did +not cover 'the glory' that Aaron might not gaze upon it, but it +covered him that Jehovah might not look on his sin. It would appear +that, between verse 13 and verse 14, Aaron's leaving the most holy +place to bring the blood of the sacrifice must be understood. If so, +we can fancy the long-drawn sigh of relief with which the waiting +worshippers saw him return, and carry back into the shrine the +expiating blood. The 'most holy place' would still be filled and its +atmosphere thick with the incense fumes when he returned to perform +the solemn expiation for himself and the whole priestly order. Once +the blood was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, and seven times, +apparently, on the ground in front of it. The former act was +intended, as seems probable, to make atonement for the sins of the +priesthood; the latter, to cleanse the sanctuary from the ideal +defilements arising from their defective and sinful ministrations. + +This completed the part of the ceremonial which belonged immediately +to Aaron and the priests. It carries important lessons. Could there +be a more striking exhibition of their imperfect realisation of the +idea of the priestly office? Observe the anomaly inherent in the +very necessity of the case. Aaron was dressed in the white robes +emblematic of purity; he had partaken in the benefit of, and had +himself offered, sacrifices all the year round. So far as ritual +could go, he was pure, and yet so stained with sin that he dared not +enter into the divine presence without that double safeguard of the +incense and the blood. The priest who cleanses others is himself +unclean, and he and his fellows have tainted the sanctuary by the +very services which were meant to atone and to purify. That solemn +ritual is intended to teach priest and people alike, that every +priest 'taken from among men' fails in his office, and pollutes the +temple instead of purifying the worshipper. But the office was God's +appointment, and therefore would not always be filled by men too +small and sinful for its requirements. There must somewhere and +somewhen be a priest who will be one indeed, fulfilling the divine +ideal of the functions, and answering the deep human longings which +have expressed themselves in all lands, for one, pure with no +ceremonial but a real purity, to bring us to God and God to us, to +offer sacrifice which shall need no after atonement to expiate its +defects, and to stand without incense or blood of sprinkling for +himself in the presence of God for us. The imperfections of the +human holders of the Old Testament offices, whether priest, prophet, +or king, were no less prophecies than their positive qualifications +were. Therefore, when we see Aaron passing into the holy place, we +see the dim shadow of Christ, who 'needeth not to make atonement' +for His own sins, and is our priest 'for ever.' + +III. The ritual for the atonement of the sins of the people follows. +The two goats had been, during all this time, standing at the door +of the Tabernacle. We have already pointed out that they are to be +considered as one sacrifice. There are two of them, for the same +reason, as has been often remarked, as there were two birds in the +ritual of cleansing the leper; namely, because one animal could not +represent the two parts of the one whole truth which they are meant +to set forth. The one was sacrificed as a sin offering, and the +other led away into a solitary land. Here we consider the meaning of +the former only, which presents no difficulty. It is a sin offering +for the people, exactly corresponding to that just offered for the +priests. The same use is made of the blood, which is once sprinkled +by Aaron on the mercy-seat and seven times on the ground before it, +as in the former case. It is not, however, all employed there, but +part of it is carried out into the other divisions of the +Tabernacle; and first, the holy place, which the priests daily +entered and which is called in verse 16 'the tent of meeting,' and +next, the altar of burnt offering in the outer court, are in like +manner sprinkled seven times with the blood, to 'hallow' them 'from +the uncleanness of the children of Israel' (verse 19). The teaching +of this rite, in its bearing upon the people, is similar to that of +the previous priestly expiation. The insufficiency of sacrificial +cleansing is set forth by this annual atonement for sins which had +all been already atoned for. The defects of a ritual worship are +proclaimed by the ritual which cleanses the holy places from the +uncleanness contracted by them from the worshippers. If the altar, +the seat of expiation, itself needed expiation, how imperfect its +worth must be! If the cleansing fountain is foul, how shall it be +cleansed, or how shall it cleanse the offerers? The bearing of the +blood of expiation into the most holy place, where no Israelite ever +entered, save the high priest, taught that the true expiation could +only be effected by one who should pass into the presence of God, +and leave the door wide open for all to enter. For surely the +distance between the worshippers and the mercy-seat was a confession +of imperfection; and the entrance there of the representative of the +sinful people was the holding out of a dim hope that in some +fashion, yet unknown, the veil would be rent, and true communion be +possible for the humble soul. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us +where we are to look for the realities of which these ceremonies +were the foreshadowings. The veil was rent at the crucifixion. +Christ has gone into 'the secret place of the Most High,' and if we +love Him, our hearts have gone with Him, and our lives are 'hid with +Him, in God.' + + + + +'THE SCAPEGOAT' + + + 'And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities + unto a land not inhabited....'-LEV. xvi. 22. + +The import of the remarkable treatment of this goat does not depend +on the interpretation of the obscure phrase rendered in the +Authorised Version 'for the scapegoat.' Leaving that out of sight +for the moment, we observe that the two animals were one sacrifice, +and that the transaction with the living one was the completion of +that with the slain. The sins of the congregation, which had been +already expiated by the sacrifice, were laid by the high priest on +the head of the goat, which was then sent away into the wilderness +that he might 'bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not +inhabited' (v. 22). Nothing depends on the fate of the goat, though, +in after times, it was forced over a precipice and so killed. The +carrying away of expiated sin, and not the destruction of unexpiated +sinners, is the meaning of the impressive rite, and, had it been +possible, the same goat that was sacrificed would have been sent +into the desert. As that could not be done, an ideal unity was +established between the two: the one sacrificed represented the fact +of expiation, the one driven away represented the consequences of +expiation in the complete removal of sin. The expiation was made +'within the veil'; but a visible token of its completeness was given +to help feeble faith, in the blessed mystery of the unseen +propitiation. What was divided in the symbol between the twin goats +is all done by the one Sacrifice, who has entered into the holiest +of all, at once Priest and Sacrifice, and with His own blood made +expiation for sin, and has likewise carried away the sin of the +world into a land of forgetfulness, whence it never can return. + +The clear meaning of the rite is thus obtained, whatever be the +force of the difficult phrase already referred to. 'Scapegoat' is +certainly wrong. But it may be questioned whether the Revised +Version is right in retaining the Hebrew word untranslated, and, by +putting a capital letter to it, marking it as a proper name ('for +Azazel'). The word occurs only here, so that we have no help from +other passages. It seems to come from a root meaning 'to drive +away,' and those who take it to be a proper name, generally suppose +it to refer to some malignant spirit, or to Satan, and interpret it +as meaning 'a fiend whom one drives away,' or, sometimes, 'who +drives away.' The vindication of such an interpretation is supposed +to lie in the necessity of finding a complete antithesis in the +phrase to the 'for Jehovah' of the previous clause in verse 8. But +it is surely sacrificing a good deal to rhetorical propriety to drag +in an idea so foreign to the Pentateuch, and so opposed to the plain +fact, that both goats were one sin offering (v. 5), in order to get +a pedantically correct antithesis. In the absence of any guidance +from usage, certainty as to the meaning of the word is unattainable. +But there seems no reason, other than that of the said antithesis, +against taking it to mean removal or dismissal, rather than 'a +remover.' The Septuagint translates it in both ways: as a person in +verse 8, and as 'sending away' in verse 10. If the latter meaning be +adopted, then the word just defines the same purpose as is given +more at length in verse 22, namely, the carrying away of the sins of +the congregation. The logical imperfection of the opposition in +verse 8 would then be simply enough solved by the fact that while +both goats were 'for the Lord,' one was destined to be actually +offered in sacrifice, and the other to be 'for dismissal.' The +incomplete contrast testifies to the substantial unity of the two, +and needs no introduction, into the most sacred rite of the old +covenant, of a ceremony which looks liker demon-worship than a +parable of the great expiation for a world's sins. + +The question for us is, What spiritual ideas are contained in this +Levitical symbolism? There is signified, surely, the condition of +approach to God. Remember how the Israelites had impressed on their +minds the awful sanctity of 'within the veil.' The inmost shrine was +trodden once a year only by the high priest, and only after anxious +lustrations and when clothed in pure garments, he entered 'with +sacrifice and incense lest he die.' This ritual was for a gross and +untutored age, but the men of that age were essentially like +ourselves, and we have the same sins and spiritual necessities as +they had. + +The two goats are regarded as _one_ sacrifice. They are a 'sin +offering.' Hence, to show how unimportant and non-essential is the +distinction between them, the 'lot' is employed; also, while the one +is being slain, the other stands before the 'door of the +Tabernacle.' This shows that both are parts of one whole, and it is +only from the impossibility of presenting both halves of the truth +to be symbolised in one that two are taken. The one which is slain +represents the sacrifice for sin. The other represents the effects +of that sacrifice. It is never heard of more. 'The Lamb of God +taketh away the sins of the world.' 'As far as the east is from the +west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.' + +I. The perfect removal of all sin is thus symbolised. + +Notice (1) the vivid consciousness of sin which marked Judaism. + +Was it exaggerated or right? + +The same consciousness is part of all of us, but how overlaid! how +stifled! + +That consciousness once awakened has in it these elements--a bitter +sense of sin as mine, involving guilt; despair as to whether I can +ever overcome it; and fearful thoughts of my relation to God which +conscience itself brings. + +(2) The futility of all attempts to remove these fears. + +False religions have next to nothing to say about forgiveness. +Sacrifices and lustrations they have, but no assurance of +absolution. Systems of philosophy and morals have nothing to say but +that the universe goes crashing on, and if you have broken its laws +you must suffer. That is all, or only the poor cheer of 'Well! you +have fallen, get up and go on again!' So men often drug themselves +into forgetfulness. They turn away from the unwelcome subject, and +forget it at the price of all moral earnestness and often of all +happiness; a lethargic sleep or a gaiety, as little real as that of +the Girondins singing in their prison the night before being led out +to the guillotine. + +It is only God's authoritative revelation that can ensure the cure, +only He can assure us of pardon, and of the removal of all barriers +between ourselves and His love. Only His word can ensure, and His +power can effect, the removal of the consequences of our sins. Only +His word can ensure, and His power effect, the removal of the power +of evil on our characters. + +(3) Still the question, Can guilt ever be cancelled? often assumes a +fearful significance. Doubtless much seems to say that it cannot be. + +_(a)_ The irrevocableness of the past. + +_(b)_ The rigid law of consequences in this world. + +_(c)_ The indissoluble unity of an individual life and moral +nature, confirmed by the experience of failure in all attempts at +reformation of self. + +_(d)_ The consciousness of disturbed relations with God, and +the prophecy of judgment. All this that ancient symbol suggested. +The picture of the goat going away, and away, and away, a lessening +speck on the horizon, and never heard of more is the divine symbol +of the great fact that there is full, free, everlasting forgiveness, +and on God's part, utter forgetfulness. 'Though your sins be as +scarlet, they shall be white as snow.' 'I will remember them no more +at all for ever.' + +II. The bearing away of sin is indissolubly connected with +sacrifice. Two goats were provided, of which one was offered for a +sin offering, indicating that sacrifice came first; then the removal +of sin was symbolised by the sending away of the second goat. There +is an evident reference to this sequence in the words 'without +shedding of blood there is no remission.' The two goats represent +Christ's work; the one in its essence, the other in its effect. + +The one teaches that sacrifice is a necessary condition of pardon. +Forgiveness was not given because the offerer confessed his guilt or +because 'God was merciful,' but because the goat had been slain as a +sin offering. There is deep spiritual truth for us in this +symbolism. We do not need to enter on the philosophy of atonement, +but simply to rest on the fact--that the only authority on which we +can be sure of forgiveness at all indissolubly associates the two +things, sacrifice and pardon. We have no reason to believe in +forgiveness except from the Bible record and assurance. + +Was the Mosaic ritual a divinely appointed thing? If so, its +testimony is conclusive. But even if it were only the embodiment of +human aspirations and wants, it would be a strong evidence of the +necessity of some such thing as forgiveness. + +The shallow dream that God's forgiveness can be extended without a +sacrifice having been offered does not exalt but detracts from the +divine character. It invariably leads to an emasculated abhorrence +of evil, and detracts from the holiness of God, as well as +introduces low thoughts of the greatness of forgiveness and of the +infinite love of God. + +III. The bearing away of sin is associated with man's laying of his +sins on the sacrifice appointed by God. + +We have seen that the two goats must be regarded as together making +one whole. The one which was slain made 'atonement ... because of +the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their +transgressions, even all their sins,' but that expiation was not +actually effective till Aaron had 'laid his hands on the head of the +live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children +of Israel, ... and put them on the head of the live goat, and sent +him away into the wilderness.' The sacrifice of the slain goat did +not accomplish the pardon or removal of the people's sins, but made +it possible that their sins should be pardoned and removed. + +Then the method by which that possibility is realised is the laying +hands on the scapegoat and confessing the sins upon it. The sins +which are actually forgiven, by virtue of the atonement made for all +sins, are those which it bears away to the wilderness. + +This answers, point for point, to repentance and faith. By these the +possibility is turned into an actuality for as many as believe on +Christ. + +Christ has died for sin. Christ has made atonement by which all sin +may be forgiven; whether any shall actually be forgiven depends on +something else. It is conceivable that though Christ died, no sin +might be pardoned, if no man believed. His blood would not, even +then, have been shed in vain, for the purpose of it would have been +fully effected in providing a way by which any and all sin could be +forgiven. So that the whole question whether any man's sin is +pardoned turns on this, Has he laid his hand on Christ? Faith is +only a condition of forgiveness, not a cause, or in itself a power. +There was no healing in the mere laying of the hand on the head of +the goat. + +It was not faith which was the reason for forgiveness, but God's +love which had provided the sacrifice. + +God's will is not a bare will to pardon, nor a bare will to pardon +for Christ's sake, but for Christ's sake to pardon them who believe. +'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.' +'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' 'Through this Man is preached +the remission of sins.' + + + + +THE CONSECRATION OF JOY + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 34. Speak unto + the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of + this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for + seven days unto the Lord. 35. On the first day shall be + an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. + 36. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire + unto the Lord; on the eighth day shall be an holy + convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made + by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye + shall do no servile work therein. 37. These are the + feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy + convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the + Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, + and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: 38. Beside + the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and + beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill + offerings, which ye give unto the Lord. 39. Also in the + fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered + in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto + the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, + and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 40. And ye + shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly + trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick + trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice + before the Lord your God seven days. 41. And ye shall + keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. + It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye + shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42. Ye shall + dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born + shall dwell in booths: 43. That your generations may + know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in + booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: + I am the Lord your God. 44. And Moses declared unto + the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.' + --LEV. xxiii. 33-44. + +These directions for the observance of the great festival at the +close of harvest are singularly arranged. Verses 33-36 give part of +the instructions for the Feast, verses 37 and 38 interrupt these +with a summary of the contents of the chapter, and verses 39 to the +end pick up the broken thread, and finish the regulations for the +feast. Naturally, this apparent afterthought has been pointed out as +clear evidence of diversity of authorship. But a reasonable +explanation may be given on the hypothesis of the unity of the +section, by observing that verses 33-36 deal only with the +sacrificial side of the feast, as worship proper, and thus come into +line with the previous part of the chapter, which is occupied with +an enumeration of the annual 'feasts of the Lord' (v. 4). It was +natural, therefore, that, when the list had been completed by the +sacrificial prescriptions for the last of the series, the close of +the catalogue should be marked, in verses 37, 38, and that then the +other parts of the observances connected with this feast, which are +not sacrificial, nor, properly speaking, worship, should be added. +There is no need to invoke the supposition of two authors, and a +subsequent stitching together, in order to explain the arrangement. +The unity is all the more probable because, otherwise, the first +half would give the name of the feast as that of 'tabernacles,' and +would not contain a word to account for the name. + +We need not, then, include the separating wedge, in verses 37, 38, +in our present consideration. The ritual of the feast is broadly +divided by it, and we may consider the two portions separately. The +first half prescribes the duration of the feast as seven days (the +perfect number), with an eighth, which is named, like the first, 'an +holy convocation,' on which no work was to be done, but is also +called 'a solemn assembly,' or rather, as the Revised Version reads, +in margin, 'a closing festival,' inasmuch as it closed, not only +that particular feast, but the whole series for the year. The +observances enjoined, then, are the public assembly on the first and +eighth days, with cessation from labour, and a daily offering. We +learn more about the offering from Numbers xxix. 12 _et seq._, +which appoints a very peculiar arrangement. On each day there was to +be, as on other feast days, one goat for a sin offering; but the +number of rams and lambs for the burnt offering was doubled, and, +during the seven days of the feast, seventy bullocks were offered, +arranged in a singular diminishing scale,--thirteen on the first +day, and falling off by one a day till the seventh day, when seven +were sacrificed. The eighth day was marked as no part of the feast +proper, by the number of sacrifices offered on it, dropping to one +bullock, one ram, and seven lambs. No satisfactory account of this +regulation has been suggested. It may possibly have meant no more +than to mark the first day as the chief, and to let the worshippers +down gradually from the extraordinary to the ordinary. + +The other half of the regulations deals with the more domestic +aspect of the festival. Observe, as significant of the different +point of view taken in it, that the first and eighth days are there +described, not as 'holy convocations,' but as 'sabbaths,' or, as the +Revised Version gives it better, 'a solemn rest.' Observe, also, +that these verses connect the feast with the ingathering of the +harvest, as does Exodus xxiii. 16. It is quite possible that Moses +grafted the more commemorative aspect of the feast on an older +'harvest home'; but that is purely conjectural, however confidently +affirmed as certain. To tumble down cartloads of quotations about +all sorts of nations that ran up booths and feasted in them at +vintage-time does not help us much. The 'joy of harvest' was +unquestionably blended with the joy of remembered national +deliverance, but that the latter idea was superadded to the former +at a later time is, to say the least, not proven. Would it matter +very much if it were? Three kinds of trees are specified from which +'the fruit,' that is branches with fruit on them, if the tree bore +fruit, were to be taken: palms, 'thick trees,' that is thick +foliaged, which could give leafy shade, and willows of the brook, +which the Rabbis say were used for binding the others together. +Verse 40 does not tell what is to be done with these branches, but +the later usage was to carry some of them in the hand as well as to +use them for booths. The keynote of the whole feast is struck in +verse 40: 'Ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God.' The leafy +spoils come into view here as tokens of jubilation, which certainly +suggests their being borne in the hand; but they were also meant to +be used in building the booths in which the whole nation was to live +during the seven days, in commemoration of God's having made them +'dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.' +This is all that is enjoined by Moses. Later additions to the +ceremonial do not concern us here, however interesting some of these +are. The true intention of the feast is best learned from the +original simple form. What, then, was its intention? It was the +commemoration of the wilderness life as the ground of rejoicing +'before the Lord.' But we must not forget that, according to +Leviticus, it was appointed while the wilderness life was still +present, and so was not to be observed then. Was it, then, a dead +letter, or had the appointment a message of joy even to the weary +wanderers who lived in the veritable booths, which after generations +were to make a feast of mimicking? How firm the confidence of +entering the land must have been, which promulgated such a law! It +would tend to hearten the fainting courage of the pilgrims. A +divinely guaranteed future is as certain as the past, and the +wanderers whom He guides may be sure of coming to the settled home. +All words which He speaks beforehand concerning that rest and the +joyful worship there are pledges that it shall one day be theirs. +The present use of the prospective law was to feed faith and hearten +hope; and, when Canaan was reached, its use was to feed memory and +brighten godly gladness. + +The feast of tabernacles was the consecration of joy. Other +religions have had their festivals, in which wild tumult and foul +orgies have debased the worshippers to the level of their gods. How +different the pure gladness of this feast 'before the Lord'! No +coarse and sensuous delights of passion could live before the 'pure +eyes and perfect witness' of God. In His 'presence' must be purity +as well as 'fullness of joy.' If this festival teaches us, on the +one hand, that they wofully misapprehend the spirit of godliness who +do not find it full of gladsomeness, it teaches us no less, on the +other, that they wofully misapprehend the spirit of joy, who look +for it anywhere but 'before the Lord.' The ritual of the feast +commanded gladness. Joy is a duty to God's children. There were +mourners in Israel each year, as the feast came round, who would +rather have shrunk into a corner, and let the bright stream of +merriment flow past them; but they, too, had to open their heavy +hearts, and to feel that, in spite of their private sorrows, they +had a share in the national blessings. No grief should unfit us for +feeling thankful joy for the great common gift of 'a common +salvation.' The sources of religious joy, open to all Christians, +are deeper than the fountains of individual sorrow, deep as life +though these sometimes seem. + +The wilderness life came into view in the feast as a wandering life +of privation and change. The booths reminded of frail and shifting +dwellings, and so made the contrast with present settled homes the +sweeter. They were built, not of such miserable scrub as grew in the +desert, and could scarcely throw shade enough to screen a lizard, +but of the well-foliaged branches of trees grown by the rivers of +water, and so indicated present abundance. The remembrance of +privations and trials past, of which the meaning is understood, and +the happy results in some degree possessed, is joy. Prosperous men +like to talk of their early struggles and poverty. This feast +teaches that such remembrance ought always to trace the better +present to God, and that memory of conquered sorrows and trials is +wholesome only when it is devout, and that the joy of present ease +is bracing, not when it is self-sufficient, but when it is thankful. +The past, rightly looked at, will yield for us all materials for a +feast of tabernacles; and it is rightly looked at only when it is +all seen as God's work, and as tending to settled peace and +abundance. Therefore the regulations end with that emphatic seal of +all His commands, to impress which on our hearts is the purpose of +all His dealings with us as with Israel, 'I am the Lord your God.' + +III. We may note our Lord's allusions to the feast. There are +probably two, both referring to later additions to the ceremonies. +One is in John vii. 37. We learn from the Talmud that on each of the +seven days (and according to one Rabbi on the eighth also) a priest +went down to Siloam and drew water in a golden pitcher, which he +brought back amid the blare of trumpets to the altar, and poured +into a silver basin while the joyous worshippers chanted the 'Great +Hallel' (Psa. cxiii.-cxviii.), and thrice waved their palm branches +as they sang. We may venture to suppose that this had been done for +the last time; that the shout of song had scarcely died away when a +stir in the crowd was seen, and a Galilean peasant stood forth, and +there, before the priests with their empty vessels, and the hushed +multitude, lifted up His voice, so as to be heard by all, and cried, +saying: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.' What +increased force is given to the extraordinary self-assertion of such +words, if we picture this as the occasion of their utterance! +Leviticus gives no preeminence to any one day, but John's +expression, 'that great day of the feast,' may well have been +warranted by later developments. + +The other allusion is less certain, though it is probable. It is +found in the saying at John viii. 12: 'I am the Light of the world,' +etc. The Talmud gives a detailed account of the illuminations +accompanying the feast. Four great golden lamps were set up in the +court, each tended by four young priests. 'There was not a court in +Jerusalem that was not lit up by the lights of the water-drawing.' +Bands of grave men with flashing torches danced before the people, +while Levites 'accompanied them with harps, psalteries, cymbals, and +numberless musical instruments,' and another band of Levites +standing on the fifteen steps which led to the women's court, +chanted the fifteen so-called 'songs of degrees,' and yet others +marched through the courts blowing their trumpets as they went. It +must have been a wild scene, dangerously approximating to the +excitement of heathen nocturnal festivals, and our Lord may well +have sought to divert the spectators to higher thoughts. But the +existence of the allusion is doubtful. + +We have one more allusion to the feast, considered as a prophecy of +the true rest and joy in the true Canaan. The same John, who has +preserved Christ's references, gives one of his own in Revelation +vii. 9, when he shows us the great multitude out of every nation +'with palms in their hands.' These are not the Gentile emblems of +victory, as they are often taken to be. There are no heathen emblems +in the Apocalypse, but all moved within the circle of Jewish types +and figures. So we are to think of that crowd of 'happy palmers' as +joyously celebrating the true feast of tabernacles in the settled +home above, and remembering, with eyes made clear by heaven, the +struggles and fleeting sorrows of the wilderness. The emblem sets +forth heaven as a festal assembly, as the ingathering of the results +of the toils of earth, as settled life after weary pilgrimage, as +glad retrospect of the meaning and triumphant possession of the +issues of God's patient guidance and wise discipline. Here we dwell +in 'the earthly house of this tabernacle'; there, in a 'building of +God ... eternal.' Here we are agitated by change, and wearied by the +long road; there, changeless but increasing joy will be ours, and +the backward look of thankful wonder will enhance the sweetness of +the blessed present, and confirm the calm and sure hope of an ever- +growing glory stretching shoreless and bright before us. + + + + +SOJOURNERS WITH GOD + + + 'The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is + Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.' + --LEV. xxv. 23. + +The singular institution of the Jubilee year had more than one +purpose. As a social and economical arrangement it tended to prevent +the extremes of wealth and poverty. Every fiftieth year the land was +to revert to its original owners, the lineal descendants of those +who had 'come in with the conqueror,' Joshua. Debts were to be +remitted, slaves emancipated, and so the mountains of wealth and the +valleys of poverty were to be somewhat levelled, and the nation +carried back to its original framework of a simple agricultural +community of small owners, each 'sitting under his own vine and fig- +tree' and, like Naboth, sturdily holding the paternal acres. + +As a ceremonial institution it was the completion of the law of the +Sabbath. The seventh day proclaimed the need for weekly rest from +labour, and as was the sabbath in the week, so was the seventh year +among the years--a time of quiet, when the land lay fallow and much +of the ordinary labour was suspended. Nor were these all; when seven +weeks of years had passed, came the great Jubilee year, charged with +the same blessed message of Rest, and doubtless showing dimly to +many wearied and tearful eyes some gleams of a better repose beyond. + +Besides these purposes, it was appointed to enforce, and to make the +whole fabric of the national wealth consciously rest upon, this +thought contained in our text. The reason why the land was not to +pass out of the hauls of the representatives of those to whom God +had originally given it, was that He had not really given it to them +at all. It was not theirs to sell--they had only a beneficiary +occupation. While they held it, it was still His, and neither they, +nor any one to whom they might sell the use of it for a time, were +anything more than tenants at will. The land was His, and they were +only like a band of wanderers, squatting for a while by permission +of the owner, on his estate. Their camp-fires were here today, but +to-morrow they would be gone. They were 'strangers and sojourners.' +That may sound sad, but all the sadness goes when we read on--'with +Me.' They are God's guests, so though they do not own a foot of +soil, they need not fear want. + +All this is as true for us. We can have no better New Year's +thoughts than those which were taught by the blast of the silver +trumpets that proclaimed liberty to the slaves, and restored to the +landless pauper his alienated heritage. + +I. Here is the lesson of God's proprietorship and our stewardship. + +'The land is Mine' was of course true in a special sense of the +territory which God gave by promise and miracle, which was kept by +obedience, and lost by rebellion. But it is as really true about our +possessions, and that not only because of our transient stay here. +It would be as true if we were to live in this world for ever. It +will be as true in heaven. Length of time makes no difference in +this tenure. Undisturbed possession for ever so long does not +constitute ownership here. God is possessor of all, by virtue of His +very nature, by His creation and preservation of us and of all +things. So that when we talk about 'mine' and 'thine,' we are only +speaking a half truth. There is a great sovereign 'His' behind both. +So then let us take that thought with us for use, as we pass into +another year. What lessons does it give? + +It should nurture constant thankfulness. To-day looking back over +whatever dark, dreary, sunless days, we all have bright ones too. +Does any thought of God as the Fountain of all our joys and goods +rise in our souls? Have we learned to associate a divine hand and a +Father's will with them? Do we congratulate ourselves on our own +cleverness, tact, and skill, saying, 'mine hand hath done it,' or do +we hug ourselves on our own good fortune, and burn incense to chance +and 'circumstances'?--or, sadder still, are we generously grateful +to every human friend that helps us, and unthankful only to God--or +does the glad thought come, to gild the finest gold of our +possessions with new brilliance and worth, and to paint and perfume +the whitest lily of our joys with new delightsomeness, 'All things +come of Thee'; 'Thou makest us drink of the river of Thy pleasures'? +Blessed are they who, by the magic glass of a thankful heart, see +all things in God, and God in all things. To them life is tenfold +brighter, as a light plunged in oxygen flames more intensely than in +common air. The darkest night is filled with light, and the +loneliest place blazes with angel faces, and the stoniest pillar is +soft, to him who sees everywhere the ladder that knits earth with +heaven, and to whom all His blessings are as the messengers that +descend by it on errands of mercy, whose long shining ranks lead up +the eye and the heart to the loving God from whom they come. + +Here too is the ground for constant thankful submission. 'The Lord +gave, and the Lord hath taken away.' We have no right to murmur, +however we may regret, if the Landowner takes back a bit of the land +which He has let us occupy. It was the condition of our occupation +that He should be at liberty to do so whenever He saw that it would +be best for us. He does not give us our little patches for His +advantage, but for ours, nor does He take them away at His own whim, +but 'for our profit.' We get more than full value for all the work +and capital we have expended, and His only reason for ever +disturbing us is that we may be driven to claim a better inheritance +in Himself than we can find even in the best of His gifts. So He +sometimes gives, that we may be led by our possessions to think +lovingly of Him; and He sometimes takes, that we may be led, in the +hour of emptiness and loss, to recognise whose hand it was that +pulled up the props round which our poor tendrils clung. But the +opposite actions have the same purpose, and like the up-and-down +stroke of a piston, or the contrary motion of two cogged wheels that +play into each other, are meant to impel us in one direction, even +to the heart of God who is our home. A landowner stops up a private +road one day in a year, in order to assert his right, and to remind +the neighbourhood that he could stop it altogether if he liked. So +God reminds us by our losses and sorrows, of what we are so apt to +forget, and what it is such a joy to us to remember--His possession +of them all. Blessed be God! He teaches us in that fashion far +seldomer than in the other. Let joy teach us the lesson, and we +shall the less need 'the sternest' teacher 'and the best,' even +sorrow. Better to learn it by gladness than by tears; better to see +it written in 'laughing flowers' than in desolate gardens and +killing frost. + +So, too, there should be a constant sense of responsibility in the +use of all which we have. All is His, and He has given all to us, +for a purpose. So, plainly, we are but stewards, or trustees, and +are bound to employ everything, not according to our own inclination +or notion of what is right, but according to what, in the exercise +of our best and most impartial judgment, we believe to be the +owner's will. Trusteeship means that we take directions as to the +employment of the property from its owner. It means too that we +employ it not for our own satisfaction and well-being alone, though +that is included, and is a part of His purpose who 'delights in the +prosperity of His servants.' Thoughts of others, thoughts of the +owner's claims, and of bringing back to Him all that He has given to +us, increased by our diligence, must be uppermost in our minds, if +we are to live nobly or happily here. 'It is required in stewards +that a man be found faithful.' And this applies to all we have in +mind, body, and estate. A thoughtful expenditure and use of all His +gifts, on principles drawn from our knowledge of His will, and for +objects not terminating with self, is the duty that corresponds to +the great fact of God's ownership of all. If we use His gifts to +minister to our own vanity or frivolity, or love of ease, or +display; if an 'intolerable deal' of all we have is used for +ourselves, and a poor ha'porth' for others; if our gifts are +grudging; if we possess without sense of responsibility, and enjoy +without thankfulness, and lose with murmuring; if our hearts are +more set on material prosperity than on love and peace, knowledge +and purity, noble lives and a Father God; if higher desires and +hopes are dying out as we 'get on' in the world, and religious +occupations which used to be pleasant are stale; then for all our +outward Christianity the stern old woe applies, 'Your riches are +corrupted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you,' and +we need the shrill note of the trumpet of Jubilee to be blown in our +ears, 'The land is Mine.' + +II. We have the teaching of the transiency of our stay here. + +'Ye are strangers and sojourners'--pilgrims who make a brief halt in +a foreign country. The image has in it an allusion to the nomad life +of Abraham and his son and grandson, as well as to the desert- +wanderings of the people, and suggests the thought, 'You are +homeless wanderers, not having where to lay your heads, as truly +when you have been settled for generations on your ancestral lands, +as when you plodded wearily in the wilderness.' It is a universal +truth, ever acknowledged and forgotten, wholesome though sometimes +sad to feel, and preached to even frivolous natures by the change in +our calendar which a New Year brings. + +How vividly this word of our text brings out the contrast between +the permanence of the external world and our brief stay in it! + +In Israel there would be few vineyards or olive-grounds held by the +same man at two, and none at three, successive jubilees. The hoary +twisted olives yielded their black berries, say, to Simeon, the son +of Joseph, to-day, as they did fifty years ago to Joseph, the son of +Reuben, and as they will do fifty years hence to Judas, the son of +Simeon. So is it with us all. There is nothing more pathetic than +the thought of how generations come and go, and empires rise and +fall, while the scene on which they play their brief parts remains +the same. + + 'The mountains look on Marathon, + And Marathon looks on the sea.' + +to-day as they did more than two millenniums ago, only the grass was +for a while a little ranker on the plain. Olivet lifts the same +outline against the pale morning twilight as when David went up its +slope a weeping exile. The pebble that we kick out of our path had +thousands of years of existence ere we were born, and may lie there +unaltered to all appearance for centuries after we are dead. 'One +generation cometh and another goeth, but the earth abideth for +ever.' + +And how much more lasting our possessions are than their possessors! +Where are the strong hands that clutched the rude weapons that lie +now quietly ticketed in our museums? How dim and dark the bright +brave eyes that once flashed through the bars of these helmets, +hanging just a little rusted, over the tombs in Westminster Abbey! +Other men will live in our houses, read our books, own our mills, +use our furniture, preach in our pulpits, sit in our pews: we are +but lodgers in this abiding nature, 'like a wayfaring man that +turneth aside to tarry for a night,' and to-morrow morning vacates +his rooms for a new arrival, and goes away unregretted and is +forgotten in an hour. + +The constant change and progression of life are enforced, too, in +this metaphor. + +The old threadbare emblem of a journey which is implied in the text +suggests how, moment by moment, we hurry on and how everything is +slipping past us, as fields and towns do to a traveller in a train. +Only our journey is smooth and noiseless, like the old-fashioned +canal boat travelling, where, if you shut your eyes, you could not +tell that you were moving. We glide on and never know it, and so +gradually and silently is the scene 'changed by still degrees,' that +it is only now and then that men have any vivid consciousness that +the 'fashion of this world is' ever 'in the act of passing,' like +the canvas of a panorama ever winding and unwinding on its twin +rollers with slow, equable motion. It needs an effort of attention +and will to discern the movement, and it is worth while to make the +effort, for that clear and poignant sense of the constant flux and +mutation of all things around us, and of the ebbing away of our own +lives, is fundamental to all elevation of thought, to all nobleness +of deed, to all worthy conception of duty and of joy. Everything +that is, stands poised, like Fortune, on a rolling ball. The solid +earth is a movable sphere, for ever spinning on its axis and rushing +on its path among the stars. Ever some star is sinking in mist, or +dipping below the horizon; ever new constellations are climbing to +the zenith. A long, patient discipline is needed to keep fresh in +our hearts the sense of this transiency. Let us set ourselves +consciously to deepen our convictions of it, and amidst all the +illusions of these solid-seeming shows of things, keep firm hold of +the assurance that they are but fleeting shadows that sweep across +the solemn mountain's side, and that only God and the doing of His +will lasts. So shall our life pierce down with its seeking roots to +the abiding ground of all Being, and, looking to the 'things that +are eternal,' we shall be able to make what is but for a moment +contribute to the everlasting ennobling of our character and +enrichment of our life yonder. + +Surely these words, too, tell of the true home. + +'Ye are strangers'--because your native land is elsewhere. It is not +merely the physical facts of death and change that make us strangers +here, but the direction of our desires, and the true affinities of +our nature. If by these we belong to heaven and God, then here we +shall feel that we have not where to lay our heads, and shall 'dwell +in tabernacles' because 'we look for the city.' + +What a contrast between the perishable tents of the wilderness and +the rock-built mansions of that city. And how short this phase of +being must look when seen from above! You remember how long a year, +a week, seemed to you when a child--what do the first ten years of +your life look to you now? What must the earthly life of Abel, the +first who died, look to him even now, when he contrasts its short +twenty or thirty years with the thousands since? and, after +thousands and thousands more, how it will dwindle! So to us, if we +reach that safe shore, and look back upon the sea that brought us +thither, as it stretches to the horizon, miles of billows once so +terrible will seem shrunken to a line of white foam. + +Cherish, then, constant consciousness of that solemn eternity, and +let your eyes be ever directed to it, like a man who sees some great +flush of light on the horizon, and is ever turning from his work to +look. Use the transient as preparation for the eternal, the fleeting +days as those which determine the undying 'Day' and its character. +Keep your cares and interests in the present rigidly limited to +necessary things. Why should travellers burden themselves? The less +luggage, the easier marching. The accommodation and equipment in the +desert do not matter much. The wise man will say, 'Oh, it will do. I +shall soon be home.' 'Ye are strangers and sojourners.' + +III. We have here also the teaching of trust. + +Some of us think that such thoughts as the preceding are sad. Why +should they be so? They need not be. Our text adds a little word +which takes all the sadness out of them. 'With Me'; that gives the +true notion of our earthly life. We are strangers indeed, passing +through a country which is not ours, but whilst we are sojourners, +we are 'sojourners' with the king of the land. In the antique +hospitable times, the chief of the tribe would take the travellers +to his own tent, and charge himself with their safety and comfort. +So we are God's guests on our travels. He will take care of us. The +visitor has no need to trouble himself about the housekeeping, he +may safely leave that with the master of the house. If the king has +taken us in charge, we may be quite sure that no harm will come to +us in his country. So for ourselves and for those we love, and for +all the wide interests of church and world, there are peace and +strength in the thought that we are the guests of God here, +'strangers and sojourners with _Him_.' Will He invite us to His +table and let us hunger? Will He call us to be His guests, and then, +like some traitorous Arab sheikh, break the laws of hospitality and +harm His too-confiding guests? Impossible for evermore. So we are +safe, and our bread shall be given us, for we are sojourners with +God. + +True, we are strangers, and in our constant movement we lose many of +the companions of our march, and the track of the caravan may be +traced by the graves on either side. But, since we are 'with Him,' +we have companionship even when most solitary, and even in a strange +land shall not be lonely. Seek then to cultivate as a joy and +strength that consciousness that the Lord of all the land is ever +with you, Whoever goes, He abides. Whatever rushes past us like a +phantasmagoria, He passes not. Whatever and whoever change, He +changes never. Where thou goest, He will go. He will be 'thy shield +at thy right hand,' and thy 'keeper from all evil.' So, looking +forward to the unknown days of another New Year, we may be of good +cheer. + +So will it be while we live; and if this year we should die--well, +the King of this land, where we are strangers, is the King of the +other land beyond the sea, where we are at home. So we shall only be +the nearer to Him for the change. Death the separator shall but +unite us to the King, whose presence indeed fills this subject- +province of His empire with all its good, but who dwells in more +resplendent 'beauty,' and is felt in greater nearness in the other +'land that is very far off.' Whether here or there, we may have God +with us, if we will. With Him for our Host and companion, let us +peacefully go on our road, while the life of strangers and +sojourners shall last. It will bring us to the fatherland where we +shall be at home with the King, and find in Him our 'sure dwelling, +and quiet resting-place, and peaceful habitation for ever.' + + + + +GOD'S SLAVES + + + 'For they are My servants, which I brought forth out + of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen.' + --LEV. xxv. 42. + +This is the basis of the Mosaic legislation as to slavery. It did +not suppress but regulated that accursed system. Certainly Hebrew +slavery was a very different thing from that of other nations. In +the first place, no Jew was to be a slave. To that broad principle +there were exceptions, such as the case of the man who voluntarily +gave himself up to his creditor. But even he was not to be treated +as a slave, but as a 'hired servant,' and at the jubilee was to be +set free. There were also other regulations of various kinds in +other circumstances on which we do not need to dwell. The slaves of +alien blood were owned and used, but under great mitigations and +restrictions. + +Of course we have here an instance of the incompleteness of the +Mosaic law,--or rather we may more truly say of its completeness, +regard being had to the state of the world at the time. All social +change hangs together. Institutions cannot be altered at a blow, +without altering the stage of civilisation, of which they are the +expression. 'Raw haste' is 'half-sister to delay.' What is good and +necessary for one era is out of place in another. So God works +slowly, and lets bad things die out, by changing the atmosphere in +which they flourish. + +All servitude to men was an infraction of God's rights over Israel. +God was the Israelites' 'Master'; they were His 'slaves.' He was so, +because He had 'broken the bands of their yoke, and set them free.' +There is, then, here-- + +I. The ground of God's rights. 'I brought you forth.' + +II. Our servitude because of our redemption. 'Ye are My servants.' + +III. Our consequent freedom from all other masters. 'Ye shall not be +sold as bondmen.' + + + + +THE KINSMAN REDEEMER + + + 'After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of + his brethren may redeem him.'--LEV. xxv. 48. + +There are several of the institutions and precepts of the Mosaic +legislation which, though not prophetic, nor typical, have yet +remarkable correspondences with lofty Christian truth. They may be +used as symbols, if only we remember that we are diverting them from +their original purpose. + +How singularly these words lend themselves to the statement of the +very central truths of Christianity--a slavery which is not +necessarily perpetual and a redemption effected by a kinsman! + +That institution of the 'Goel' is of a very remarkable kind, and +throws great light on Christian verities. I wish, in dealing with +it, to guard against any idea that it was meant to be prophetic or +typical. + +I. The kinsman redeemer under the old law. + +The strength of the family tie in the Israelitish polity was great. +The family was the unit--hence there were certain duties devolving +on the nearest male relative. These, so far as we are at present +concerned, were three. + +_(a)_ The redemption of a slave. The Mosaic legislation about +slavery was very remarkable. It did not nominally prohibit it, but +it fenced it round and modified it, so as to make it another thing. + +Israelites were allowed to hold Gentile slaves, but under careful +restrictions. Israelites were allowed to sell themselves as slaves. +If the sale was to Israelites, the slavery was ended in six years or +at the jubilee, whichever period came first--unless the slave had +his ear bored to the doorpost to intimate his contentment in service +(Exod. xxi. 5,6). This is not slavery in our sense of the word, but +only a six years' engagement. If sold to a heathen in Israel, then +the Goel had to redeem him; and the reason for this was that all +Israelites belonged to God. + +_(b)_ The redemption of an inheritance. + +This was the task of the kinsman-goel. The land belonged to the +tribe. Pauperism was thus kept off. There could be no 'submerged +tenth.' The theocratic reason was, 'the land shall not be sold at +all for ever for it is Mine!' + +_(c)_ The avenging of murder. Blood feuds were thus checked, +though not abolished. The remarkable institution of 'cities of +refuge' gave opportunity for deliberate investigation into each +case. If wilful murder was proved, the murderer was given up to the +Goel for retribution; if death had been by misadventure, the slayer +was kept in the city of refuge till the high-priest's decease. + +This is the germ of the figure of the Redeemer-Kinsman in later +Scripture. Notice how higher ideas began to gather round the office. +The prophets felt that in some way God was their 'Goel.' In Isaiah +the application of the name to Him is frequent and, we might almost +say, habitual. So in Psalm xlix. 7, 'None can be Goel to his +brother'; verse 15, 'God will be Goel to my soul from the power of +the grave.' + +Job xix. 25, 'I know that my Goel liveth....' + +II. Our Kinsman-Redeemer. + +The New Testament metaphor of 'Redemption' or buying back with a +ransom is distinctly drawn from the Hebrew Goel's office. + +Christ is the Kinsman. The brotherhood of Christ with us was +voluntarily assumed, and was for the purpose of redeeming His +brethren. + +He is the Kinsman-Redeemer from slavery,--a slavery which is +voluntary. The soul is self-delivered to evil and sin; but blessed +be God! this slavery is terminable. The kinship of Christ was +needful for our redemption. 'It behoved Him to be made like unto His +brethren.' He thus gave His life a 'ransom' for many. Note the +objective value of His atonement, and its subjective power as +setting us free. + +He is the Kinsman-Redeemer of our inheritance. God is the +inheritance here. The manhood of Jesus brings God back to us for +our--(1) Knowledge; (2) Love; (3) Possession. Heaven is our +inheritance hereafter. His manhood secures it for us. 'I go to +prepare a place for you.' 'An inheritance incorruptible.' 'The +redemption of the purchased possession.' + +The Kinsman-Avenger of blood. It is only in a modified sense that we +can transfer this part of the Goel's office to Jesus. The old +Kinsman-Avenger of blood avenged it by shedding the shedder's blood +in retribution. But that was not the kind of vindication (for Goel +means also Vindicator) for which Job looked when he used the +expression. Resurrection to the vision of God was to come to him 'at +the last,' by the standing of his Goel on the earth, and that was to +be the true avenging of his death, and his vindication. The great +murderer Death is to die, and his victims are to be wrested from +him, and their death be proved to be the means of their fuller life. +'Precious shall their blood be in His sight,' and when their slayer +is slain they will live for ever, partakers of their Kinsman- +Redeemer's glory, because they had been partakers of His death, and +His blood had been precious in their sight. Let us cling to our +Kinsman-Redeemer in all our life that He may give us freedom and an +inheritance among His brethren, and, closing our eyes in death, we +may commend our spirits to the 'Angel that redeemed us from all +evil,' and be sure that He will 'redeem' our 'souls from the power +of the grave.' + + + + +THE OLD STORE AN THE NEW + + + 'Ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because + of the new.' + LEV. xxvi. 10. + +This is one of the blessings promised to obedience. No doubt it, +like the other elements of that 'prosperity' which 'is the blessing +of the Old Testament,' presupposes a supernatural order of things, +in which material well-being was connected with moral good far more +closely and certainly than we see to be the case. But the spirit and +heart of the promise remain, however the form of it may have passed +away. It is a picturesque way of saying that the harvest shall be +more than enough for the people's wants. All through the winter, and +the spring, and the ripening summer, their granaries shall yield +supplies. There will be no season of scarcity such as often occurs +in countries whose communications are imperfect, just before +harvest, when the last year's crop is exhausted, and it is hard to +get anything to live on till this year's is ready. But when the new +wheat comes in they will have still much of the old, and will have +to 'bring it forth' to empty their barns, to make room for the fresh +supplies which the blessing of God has sent before they were needed. +The same idea of superabundant yield from the fields is given under +another form in a previous verse of this chapter (ver. 5): 'Your +threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach +unto the sowing time, and ye shall eat your bread to the full': +which reminds one of the striking prophecy of Amos: 'Behold, the +days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the +reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.' So rapid +the growth, and so large the fruitfulness, that the gatherer shall +follow close on the heels of the sower, and will not have +accomplished his task before it is again time to sow. The prophet +clearly has in his mind the old promise of the law, and applies it +to higher matters, even to the fields white to harvest, where 'he +that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together.' In the same +way we may take these words, and gather from them better promises +and larger thoughts than they originally carried. + +There is in them a promise as to the fullness of the divine gifts, +which has a far wider reach and nobler application than to the +harvests and granaries of old Palestine. + +We may take the words in that aspect, first, as containing God's +pledge that these outward gifts shall come in unbroken continuity. +And have they not so come to us all, for all these long years? Has +there ever been a gap left yawning? has there ever been a break in +the chain of mercies and supplies? has it not rather been that 'one +post ran to meet another,' that before one of the messengers had +unladed all his budget, another's arrival has antiquated and put +aside his store? True, we are often brought very low; there may not +be much in the barn but sweepings, and a few stray grains scattered +over the floor. We may have but a handful of meal in the barrel, and +be ready to dress it 'that we may eat it, and die.' But it never +really comes to that. The new ever comes before the old is all eaten +up; or if it be delayed even beyond that time, it comes before the +hunger reaches inanition. It may be good that we should have to +trust Him, even when the storehouse is empty; it may be good for us +to know something of want, but that discipline comes seldom, and is +never carried very far. For the most part He anticipates wants by +gifts, and His good gifts overlap each other in our outward lives as +slates on a roof, or scales on a fish. + +We wonder at the smooth working of the machinery for feeding a great +city; and how, day by day, the provisions come at the right time, +and are parted out among hundreds of thousands of homes. But we +seldom think of the punctual love, the perfect knowledge, the +profound wisdom which cares for us all, and is always in time with +its gifts. It was that quality of punctuality extended over a whole +universe which seemed so wonderful to the Psalmist: 'The eyes of all +wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season.' +God's machinery for distribution is perfect, and its very +perfection, with the constancy of the resulting blessings, robs Him +of His praise, and hinders our gratitude. By assiduity He loses +admiration. + +'Things grown common lose their dear delight.' 'If in His gifts and +benefits He were more sparing and close-handed,' said Luther, 'we +should learn to be thankful.' But let us learn it by the continuity +of our joys, that we may not need to be taught it by their +interruption; and let us still all tremulous anticipation of +possible failure or certain loss by the happy confidence which we +have a right to cherish, that His mercies will meet our needs, +continuous as they are, and be strung so close together on the poor +thread of our lives that no gap will be discernible in the jewelled +circle. + +May we not apply that same thought of the unbroken continuity of +God's gifts to the higher region of our spiritual experience? His +supplies of wisdom, love, joy, peace, power, to our souls are always +enough and more than enough for our wants. If ever men complain of +languishing vitality in their religious emotions, or of a stinted +supply of food for their truest self, it is their own fault, not +His. He means that there should be no parentheses of famine in our +Christian life. It is not His doing if times of torpor alternate +with seasons of quick energy and joyful fullness of life. So far as +He is concerned the flow is uninterrupted, and if it come to us in +jets and spurts as from an intermittent well, it is because our own +fault has put some obstacle to choke the channel and dam out His +Spirit from our spirits. We cannot too firmly hold, or too +profoundly feel, that an unbroken continuity of supplies of His +grace--unbroken and bright as a sunbeam reaching in one golden shaft +all the way from the sun to the earth--is His purpose concerning us. +Here, in this highest region, the thought of our text is most +absolutely true; for He who gives is ever pouring forth His own self +for us to take, and there is no limit to our reception but our +capacity and our desire; nor any reason for a moment's break in our +possession of love, righteousness, peace, but our withdrawal of our +souls from beneath the Niagara of His grace. As long as we keep our +poor vessels below that constant downpour they will be full. It is +all our own blame if they are empty. Why should Christian people +have these dismal times of deadness, these parentheses of paralysis? +as if their growth must be like that of a tree with its alternations +of winter sleep and summer waking? In regard to outward blessings we +are, as it were, put upon rations, and 'that He gives' us we +'gather.' There He sometimes does, in love and wisdom, put us on +very short allowance, and even now and then causes 'the fields to +yield no meat.' But never is it so in the higher region. There He +puts the key of the storehouse into our own hands, and we may take +as much as we will, and have as much as we take. There the bread of +God is given for evermore, and He wills that in uninterrupted +abundance 'the meek shall eat and be satisfied.' + +The source is full to overflowing, and there are no limits to the +supply. The only limit is our capacity, which again is largely +determined by our desire. So after all His gifts there is more yet +unreceived to possess. After all His Self-revelation there is more +yet unspoken to declare. Great as is the goodness which He has +'wrought before the sons of men for them that trust in Him,' there +are far greater treasures of goodness 'laid up' in the deep mines of +God 'for them that fear Him.' Bars of uncoined treasure and ingots +of massy gold lie in His storehouses, to be put into circulation as +soon as we need, and can use, them. Hence we have the right to look +for an endless increase in our possession of God; and from the +consideration of an Infinite Spirit that imparts Himself, and of +finite but indefinitely expansible spirits that receive, the +certainty arises of an endless life for us of growing glory; a +heaven of ceaseless advance, where in constant alternation desire +shall widen capacity, and capacity increase fruition, and fruition +lead in, not satiety, but quickened appetite and deeper longing. + +But we may also see in this text the prescription of a duty as well +as the announcement of a promise. There is direction here as to our +manner of receiving God's gifts, as well as large assurance as to +His manner of bestowing them. It is His to substitute the new for +the old. It is ours gladly to accept the exchange, a task not always +easy or pleasant. + +No doubt there is a natural love of change deep in us all, but that +is held in check by its opposite, and all poetry and human life +itself are full of the sadness born of mutation. Our Lord laid bare +a deep tendency, when He said, 'No man having tasted old wine, +straightway desireth new; because he saith the old is better.' We +cling to what is familiar, in the very furniture of our houses; and +yet we are ever being forced to accept what is strange and new, and, +like some fresh article in a room, is out of harmony with the well- +worn things that we have seen standing in their corners for years. +It takes some time for the raw look to wear off, and for us to 'get +used to it,' as we say. So is it, though often for deeper reasons, +in far more important things. A man, for instance, has been engaged +in some kind of business for years, and at last God shows him, by +clear indications, that he must turn to something else. How slow he +is to see it, how reluctant to do it! How he cleaves to the 'old +store'! How he shrinks from clearing out the barn, to bring in the +new! Or a household has been going on for many days unbroken, and at +last a time comes when some of its members have to pass out into new +circumstances; a son to push his way in the world, a daughter to +brighten another fireside. It is hard for the parents to enter fully +into the high hopes of their children, and to accept the new +condition, without many vain longings for the old days that can +never come back any more. So, all through our lives, wisdom and +faith say, 'Bring forth the old because of the new.' Accept +cheerfully the law of constant change under which God's love has set +us. Do not let the pleasant bonds of habit tie down your hearts so +tightly to the familiar possessions that you shrink from the +introduction of fresh elements. Be sure that the new comes from the +same loving hand which sent the old in its season, and that change +is meant to be progress. Do not confine yourselves within any mill- +horse round of associations and occupations. Front the vicissitudes +of life, not merely with brave patience, but with happy confidence, +for they all come from Him whose love is older than your oldest +blessings, and whose mercies, new every morning, express themselves +afresh through every change. Welcome the new, treasure the old, and +in both see the purpose of that loving Father who, Himself +unchanged, changeth all things, and + + '... fulfils Himself in many ways, + Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.' + +In higher matters than these our text may give us counsel as to our +duty. 'God hath more light yet to break forth from His holy word.' +We are bound to welcome new truth, so soon as to our apprehensions +it has made good its title, and not to refuse it lodgment in our +minds because it needs the displacement of their old contents. In +the regions of our knowledge and of our Christian life, most +chiefly, are we under solemn obligations to 'bring forth the old +store because of the new'; if we would not be unfaithful to God's +great educational process that goes on through all our lives. It is +often difficult to adjust the relations of our last lesson with our +previous possessions. There is always a temptation to make too much +of a new truth, and to fancy that it will produce more change in our +whole mental furniture than it really will do. No man is less likely +to come to the knowledge of the truth than he who is always deep in +love with some new thought, 'the Cynthia of the minute,' and ever +ready to barter 'old lamps for new ones.' But all these things +admitted, still it remains true that we are here to learn, that our +education is to go on all our days, and that here on earth it can +only be carried out by our parting with the old store, which may +have become musty by long lying in the granaries, to make room for +the new, just gathered in the ripened field. The great central +truths of God in Christ are to be kept for ever; but we shall come +to grasp them in their fullness only by joyfully welcoming every +fresh access of clearer light which falls upon them; and gladly +laying aside our inadequate thoughts of God's permanent revelation +of Himself in Jesus Christ, to house and garner in heart and spirit +the fuller knowledge which it may please Him to impart. + +So the law for life is thankful enjoyment of the old store, and +openness of mind and freedom of heart which permit its unreluctant +surrender when newer harvests ripen. And the highest form of the +promise of our text will be when we pass into another world, and its +rich abundance is poured out into our laps. Blessed are they who can +willingly put away the familiar blessings of earth, and stretch out, +willingly emptied, expectant hands to meet the 'new store' of +Heaven! + + + + +EMANCIPATED SLAVES + + + 'I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of + the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; + and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you + go upright.'--LEV. xxvi. 13. + +The history of Israel is a parable and a prophecy as well as a +history. + +The great central word of the New Testament has been drawn from it, +viz. 'redemption,' _i.e._ a buying out of bondage. + +The Hebrew slaves in Egypt were 'delivered.' The deliverance made +them a nation. God acquired them for Himself, and they became His +servants. + +The great truths of the gospel are all there. + +Henceforth the fact of their deliverance became the basis of all His +appeals to them; the ground of His law; the reason for their +obedience. In the previous context it has shaped the institution of +slavery. Here it is the foundation of a general exhortation to +obedience. The emphatic picture of the men stooping beneath the +yoke, and then straightening themselves up, erect, illustrates the +joyful freedom which Christ gives. That freedom is our subject. + +I. Jesus gives freedom from the slavery of sin. + +Freedom consists in power to follow unhindered the law of our being. +So sin is slavery because it is contrary to that law. + +When Jesus promised freedom through the truth, the Jews indignantly +spurned the offer with the proud boast, which the presence of a +Roman garrison in Jerusalem should have made to stick in their +throats: 'We were never in bondage to any man.' A like hardy +shutting of eyes to plain facts characterises the attitude of +multitudes to the Christian view of man's condition. Jesus answered +the Jews by the deep saying: 'He that committeth sin is the servant +of sin.' A man fancies himself showing off his freedom by throwing +off the restraints of morality or law, and by 'doing as he likes,' +but he is really showing his servitude. Self-will looks like +liberty, but it is serfdom. The libertine is a slave. That slavery +under sin takes two forms. The man who sins is a slave to the power +of sin. Will and conscience are meant to guide and impel us, and we +never sin without first coercing or silencing them and subjecting +them to the upstart tyranny of desires and senses which should obey +and not command. The 'beggars' are on horseback, and the 'princes' +walking. There is a servile revolt, and we know what horrors +accompany that. + +But that slavery under sin is shown also by the terrible force with +which any sin, if once committed, appeals to the doer to repeat it. +It is not only in regard to sensual sins that the awful insistence +of habit grips the doer, and makes it the rarest thing that evil +once done is done only once. + +But he who sins is also a slave to the guilt of sin. True, that +sense of guilt is for the most part and in most men dormant, but the +snake is but hibernating, and often wakes and stings at most +unexpected moments. 'The deceitfulness of sin' lies to the sinner, +so that for the most part he 'wipes his mouth, saying I have done no +harm,' but some chance incident may at any time, and certainly +something will at some time, dissipate the illusion, as a stray +sunbeam might scatter a wisp of mist and show startled eyes the grim +fact that had always been there. And even while not consciously +felt, guilt hampers the soul's insight into divine realities, clips +its wings so that it cannot soar, paralyses its efforts after noble +aims, and inclines it to ignoble grovelling as far away from +thoughts of God and goodness as may be. + +Christ makes the man bound and tied by the cords of his sins lift +himself up and stand erect. By His death He brings forgiveness which +removes guilt and the consciousness of it. By His inbreathed life He +gives a new nature akin to His own, and brings into force a new +motive, even transforming love, which is stronger than the death +with which sin has cursed its doers. 'The law of the Spirit of Life +in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.' + +II. Jesus gives freedom from a slavish relation to God. + +Apart from Him, God, if recognised at all, is for the most part +thought of as 'austere, reaping where He did not sow,' and His +commandments as grievous. Men may sullenly recognise that they +cannot resist, but they do not submit. They may obey in act, but +there is no obedience in their wills, nor any cheerfulness in their +hearts. The elder brother in the parable could say, 'Neither +transgressed I at any time thy commandment,' but his service had +been joyless, and he never remembered having received gifts that +made him 'merry with his friends.' + +But from all such slavish, and therefore worthless, obedience, and +all such reluctant, and therefore unreal, submission, Jesus +liberates those who believe on Him and abide in His word. He +declares God as our loving Father, and through Him we have authority +to become sons of God. He 'sends forth the Spirit of His Son into +our hearts,' and that makes us to be no more slaves but sons. Sullen +obedience becomes glad choice, and it is the inmost desire, and the +deepest delight, of the loving child to do always the things that +please the loving Father. 'I ought' and 'I will' coalesce, and so +there is no slavery, but perfect freedom, in recognising and bowing +to the great 'I must' which sweetly rules the life. + +III. Christ gives deliverance from servility to men. + +We need not touch on the historical connection, plain as that is, +between modern conceptions of individual freedom and the influence +of Christ's teaching. Modern democracy is rooted in Christ, though +it is often unaware of its genesis, and blindly attacks the force to +which it owes its existence. + +Because all men are redeemed by Christ, because by that redemption +all stand in the same relation to Him, because all have equal access +to Him, and are taught and guided by His Spirit, because 'we must +all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,' therefore class +prerogatives and subject classes fade away, and there is 'neither +bond nor free,' but 'all are one in Christ Jesus.' + +But there are other ways in which men tyrannise over men and in +which Christ's redemption sets us free. + +There is the undue authority of favourite teachers and examples. + +There is the tyranny of public opinion. + +There is undue regard to human approbation. + +There is the sway of priestcraft. + +How does Christianity deliver from these? It makes Christ's law our +unconditional duty. It makes His approbation our highest joy. It +gives legitimate scope to the instinct of loyalty, submission, and +imitation, and of subjection to authority. It reduces to +insignificance men's judgment, and all their loud voices to a babble +of nothings. 'With me it is a very small matter to be judged of +man's judgment.' It brings the soul into direct communion with God, +and sweeps away all intermediaries. + +'Not for that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of +your joy; for by faith ye stand.' + +So personal independence and individuality of character are the +result of Christianity. 'I have made you go upright. + +IV. Christ gives us freedom from the power of circumstances. + +Most men are made by these. We need not here enter on questions of +the influence of their environment on all men's development. + +But Christ gives us-- + +_(a)_ A great aim for our lives high above these. + +_(b)_ A foothold in Him outside of them. We are not the slaves +of our circumstances, but their masters. + +_(c)_ The power to utilise them. + +So Christians are 'free' in all senses of the word. + +The great Act of Emancipation has been passed for us all. Only +Christ has rule over us, and we have our perfect freedom in His +service. We have been sitting in the prison-house, and He has come +and declared 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to proclaim liberty +to the captives.' + + + + +THE BOOK OF NUMBERS + + + + +THE WARFARE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE + + + 'All that enter in to perform the service, to do the + work in the tabernacle.' + NUM. iv. 23. + +These words occur in the series of regulations as to the functions +of the Levites in the Tabernacle worship. The words 'to perform the +service' are, as the margin tells us, literally, to 'war the +warfare.' Although it may be difficult to say why such very prosaic +and homely work as carrying the materials of the Tabernacle and the +sacrificial vessels was designated by such a term, the underlying +suggestion is what I desire to fix upon now--viz., that work for +God, of whatever kind it be, which Christian people are bound to do, +and which is mainly service for men for God's sake, will never be +rightly done until we understand that it is a _warfare_, as +well as a work. + +The phrase on which I am commenting occurs again and again in the +regulations as to the Levitical service, and is applied, not only as +in my text to those who were told off to bear the burdens on the +march, but also to the whole body of Levites, who did the inferior +services in connection with the ritual worship. They were not, as it +would appear, sacrificing priests, but they belonged to the same +tribe as these, and they had sacred functions to discharge. So we +come to this principle, that Christian service is to be looked at as +warfare. + +Now, that is a principle which ought to be applied to all +Christians. For there is no such thing as designating a portion of +Christ's Church to service which others have not to perform. The +distinction of 'priest' and 'layman' existed in the Old Testament; +it does not exist under the New Covenant, and there is no obligation +upon any one Christian man to devote himself for Christ's sake to +Christ's service and man's help (which is Christ's service), that +does not lie equally upon all Christian people. The function is the +same for all; the methods of discharging it may be widely different. +Within the limits of the priestly tribe there may still be those +whose office it is to carry the vessels, and those whose office it +is to act more especially as ministering priests; but they are all +'of the tribe of Levi.' We, if we are Christian people at all, are +all bound to do this work of 'the tabernacle,' and war this warfare. + +It is important that we Christian people should elevate our thoughts +of our duties in the world to the height of this great metaphor. The +metaphor of the Christian life as being a 'warfare' is familiar +enough, but that is not exactly the point which I wish to dwell upon +now. When we speak about 'fighting the good fight of faith,' we +generally mean our wrestle and struggle with our own evils and with +the things that hinder us from developing a Christlike character, +and 'growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour +Jesus Christ.' But it is another sort of warfare about which I am +now speaking, the warfare which every Christian man has to wage who +flings himself into the work of diminishing the world's miseries and +sins, and tries to make people better, and happier because they are +better. That is a fight, and will always be so, if it is rightly +done. + +I. Think of the foes. + +Speaking generally, society is constituted upon a non-Christian +basis. We talk about 'Christian' nations. There is not one on the +face of the earth. There is not a nation whose institutions and +maxims and politics and the practices of its individual members are +ruled and moulded predominantly by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So +every man that has come into personal touch with that Lord, and has +felt that His commandments are the supreme authority in his own +individual life, when he goes out into society, comes full tilt +against a whole host of things that are in pronounced antagonism, or +in real though unacknowledged contradiction, to the principles by +which a Christian has to live for himself, and to commend to his +brethren. So we have to fight. There are two things to be done--the +imparting of good which will increase the sum of the world's +happiness, and the destruction of evil, which will subtract some of +the world's sorrows. The latter is always a conflict, for there are +arrayed in defence of the evil vested interests, and the influence +of habit, and the lowered vitality and sensitiveness of conscience +which has come from breathing the polluted atmosphere which evil has +vitiated. So that if we set ourselves, in humble, quiet, out-and-out +dependence on Jesus Christ and submission to His will, to lead other +people to submit to His will, there is nothing in the world more +certain than that we shall find against us, starting up, as it were, +out of the mist and taking form suddenly, a whole host of enemies. +So we Christian men, as individuals, as members of a community and +able to bring some influence to bear upon the conscience of society, +have to fight against popular social evils, and to war for +righteousness' sake. + +There is another foe. There is nothing that men dislike more than +being lifted up into a clearer atmosphere and made to see truths +which they do not see or care for. When we first become Christians +we are all hot to go and teach and preach; and we fancy that we have +only to stand up, with a Bible in our hand, and read two or three +texts, and our fellows will grasp them as gladly as we have done. +But soon we find out that it is not so easy to draw men to Christ as +we thought it would be. We have to fight against gravitation and +unwillingness, when we would lift a poor brother into the liberty +and the light that we are in. We have to struggle with the men that +we are trying to help. We have to war, in order to bring 'the peace +of God which passes understanding' into their hearts. + +But the worst of all our foes, in doing Christian service, is our +own miserable selves, with our laziness, and our vanity, and our +wondering what A, B, and C will think about us, and the mingling of +impure motives with nobler ones, and our being angry with people +because they are so insensible, not so much to Christ's love as to +our words and pleadings. Unless we can purge all that devil's leaven +out of ourselves, we have little chance of working 'the work of the +tabernacle,' or warring the warfare of God. Ah! brethren, to do +anything for this world of unbelief and sin, of which we ourselves +are part, is a struggle. And I know of no work that needs more +continual putting a firm heel upon self, in all its subtle +manifestations, than the various forms of Christian service. Not +only we preachers, but Sunday-school teachers, mothers in their +nurseries, teaching their children, and all of us, if we are trying +to do anything for men, for Christ's sake, must feel, if we are +honest with ourselves and about our work, that the first condition +of success in it is to fight down self, and that only then, being +emptied of ourselves, are we ready to be filled with the Spirit, by +which we are made mighty to pull down the strongholds of sin. + +II. The weapons of this warfare. + +There are two great passages in the New Testament, both of which +deal with the Christian life under this metaphor of warfare. One of +these is the detailed description of the Christian armour in the +Epistle to the Ephesians. There we have described the equipment for +that phase of the fight of the Christian life which has to do mainly +with the perfecting of the individual character. But somewhat +different is the armour which is to be worn, when the Christian man +goes out into the world to labour and to wage war there for Jesus +Christ. We may turn, then, rather to the other of the two passages +in question for the descriptions of the equipment, armour, and +weapons of the Christian in his warfare for the spread of truth and +goodness in the world. The passage to which I refer is in 2 Cor. vi. +What are the weapons that Paul specifies in that place? I venture to +alter their order, because he seems to have put them down just as +they came into his mind, and we can put some kind of logical +sequence into them. 'By the Word of God'--that is the first one. 'By +the Holy Ghost,' which is otherwise given as 'by the power of God,' +is the next. Get your minds and hearts filled with the truth of the +Gospel, and dwell in fellowship with God, baptized with His Holy +Spirit; and then you will be clothed 'as with a vesture down to your +heels' with the power of God. These are the divine side, the weapons +given us from above--'the Word of God' which is 'the sword of the +Spirit,' and the indwelling Holy Ghost manifesting Himself in power. +Then follow a series of human qualities which, though they are 'the +fruit of the Spirit,' are yet not produced in us without our own co- +operation. We have to forge and sharpen these weapons, though the +fire in which they are forged is from above, and the metal of which +they are made is given from heaven, like meteoric iron. These are +'kindness, long-suffering, love unfeigned.' We have to dismiss from +our minds the ordinary characteristics of warfare in thinking of +that which Christians are to wage. Like the old Knights Templars, we +must carry a sword which has a cross for its hilt, and must be clad +in gentleness, and long-suffering, and unfeigned love. 'The wrath of +men worketh not the righteousness of God.' You cannot bully people +into Christianity, you cannot scold them into goodness. There must +be sweetness in order to attract, and he imperfectly echoes the +music of the voice that came from 'the lips into which grace was +poured,' whose words are harsh and rough, and who preaches the +Gospel as if he were thundering damnation into people's ears. + +Brethren, whatever be our warfare against sin, we must never lose +our tempers. Harsh words break no bones indeed, but neither do they +break hearts. A character like Jesus Christ--that is the victorious +weapon. Let a man go and live in the world with these weapons that I +have been naming, the truth of God in his heart, the Holy Spirit in +his spirit, the power that comes therefrom animating his deadness +and strengthening his weakness, and himself an emblem and an +embodiment of the redeeming love of Christ--and though he spoke no +word he would be sure to preach Christ; and though he struck no blow +he would be a formidable antagonist to the hosts of evil, and the +icebergs of sin and godlessness would run down into water before his +silent and omnipotent shining. These are the weapons. + +III. Note the temper, or disposition, of the Christian warrior- +servant. + +Courage goes without saying. If a man expects to be beaten, and to +do nothing by his Christian witness but clear his conscience, he +deserves nothing else than what he will get--viz. that his +expectation will be fulfilled and he _will_ do nothing else +_but_ clear his conscience, and that imperfectly. That is why +so many preachers and Sunday-school teachers never see any +conversions in their congregation or classes--because they do not +expect any; because they go to their work without the enthusiastic +boldness which would give power to their utterances. + +I suppose concentration, too, goes without saying. When a man is on +the battlefield with the swords whirling about his head, and the +bayonets an inch from his breast, he does not go dreaming of scenes +a hundred miles off, or think anything else than the one thing, how +to keep a whole skin and wound an enemy. If Christian men will do +their work in the dawdling, half-interested, and half-indifferent +way in which so many of us promenade through our Christian service +as if it was a review and not a fight, they are not likely to bring +back many trophies of victory. You must put your whole selves into +the battle. I said we must subdue ourselves ere we begin to fight. +That is no contradiction to what I am saying now, for, as we all +know, there is a distinction between the two selves in us--the self- +centred self, which is to be crucified, and the God-centred self, +which is to be nourished. You must put your whole selves into the +battle. + +There must, too, be discipline. One difference between a mob and an +army is that the mob has as many wills as there are heads in it, and +the army has only one will, that of the commander. He says to one +man 'Go!' and he goes, and gets shot; and to another one 'Come!' and +he comes; and to a third one 'Do this!' and, no matter what it is, +straightway he goes and does it. So if we are soldiers we have to +take orders from headquarters, and to be sure that we pay no +attention to any other commands. Suppose a man is set at a certain +post by his captain, and a corporal comes and says, 'You go and do +this other thing; never mind your post, I will look after that,' to +obey that is mutiny. If Jesus Christ tells you to do anything, and +any others say 'Do not do it just yet!' neglect them, and obey Him. +If your own heart says, 'Stop a little while and try something other +and easier before you tackle that task,' be sure of the Captain's +voice, and then, whatever happens, obey, and obey at once. Warfare +is a diabolical thing, but there is a divine beauty in one aspect of +it-- + + Their's not to make reply, + Their's not to reason why, + Their's but to do-- + +even if it mean 'to die.' Thus let us wage warfare. + +IV. The Relieving Guard. + +This metaphor of warfare is used in the Book of Job, in a passage +where our English Version does not show it. So I venture to +substitute the right translation for the one in the Authorised +Version, 'All the days of my warfare will I wait till my change +comes.' The guard will be relieved some day, and the private that +has been tramping up and down in the dark or the snow, perhaps +within rifle's length of the enemy, will shoulder his gun and go +into the comfortable guardhouse, and hang up his knapsack, and fling +off his dirty boots, and sit down by the fire, and make himself +comfortable. There is a 'heavenly manner of relieving guard.' Soon +it will be the end of the sentry's time, and then, as one of those +that had done a good day's work, and a long one, said with a sigh of +relief, 'I have fought a good fight.' Henceforth the helmet is put +off, which is 'the hope of salvation,' and the crown is put on, +which is salvation in its fullness. 'All the days of my warfare will +I wait'--till my Captain relieves the guard. + + + + +THE GUIDING PILLAR + + + 'So it was alway: the cloud covered [the tabernacle] by + day, and the appearance of fire by night.'--Num. ix. 16. + +The children of Israel in the wilderness, surrounded by miracle, had +nothing which we do not possess. They had some things in an inferior +form; their sustenance came by manna, ours comes by God's blessing +on our daily work, which is better. Their guidance came by this +supernatural pillar; ours comes by the reality of which that pillar +was nothing but a picture. And so, instead of fancying that men thus +led were in advance of us, we should learn that these, the +supernatural manifestations, visible and palpable, of God's presence +and guidance were the beggarly elements: 'God having provided some +better thing for us that they without us should not be made +perfect.' + +With this explanation of the relation between the miracle and symbol +of the Old, and the reality and standing miracle of the New, +Covenants, let us look at the eternal truths, which are set before +us in a transitory form, in this cloud by day and fiery pillar by +night. + +I. Note, first, the double form of the guiding pillar. + +The fire was the centre, the cloud was wrapped around it. The former +was the symbol, making visible to a generation who had to be taught +through their senses, the inaccessible holiness and flashing +brightness and purity of the divine nature; the latter tempered and +veiled the too great brightness for feeble eyes. + +The same double element is found in all God's manifestations of +Himself to men. In every form of revelation are present both the +heart and core of light, which no eye can look upon, and the +merciful veil which, because it veils, unveils; because it hides, +reveals; makes visible because it conceals; and shows God because it +is 'the hiding of His power.' So, through all the history of His +dealings with men, there has ever been what is called in Scripture +language the 'face,' or the 'name of God'; the aspect of the divine +nature on which the eye can look; and manifested through it, there +has always been the depth and inaccessible abyss of that Infinite +Being. We have to be thankful that in the cloud is the fire, and +that round the fire is the cloud. For only so can our eyes behold +and our hands grasp the else invisible and remote central Sun of the +universe. God hides to make better known the glories of His +character. His revelation is the flashing of the uncreated and +intolerable light of His infinite Being through the encircling +clouds of human conceptions and words, or of deeds which each show +forth, in forms fitted to our apprehension, some fragment of His +lustre. After all revelation, He remains unrevealed. After ages of +showing forth His glory, He is still 'the King invisible, whom no +man hath seen at any time nor can see.' The revelation which He +makes of Himself is 'truth and is no lie.' The recognition of the +presence in it of both the fire and the cloud does not cast any +doubt on the reality of our imperfect knowledge, or of the authentic +participation in the nature of the central light, of the sparkles of +it which reach us. We know with a real knowledge what we know of +Him. What He shows us is Himself, though not His whole self. + +This double aspect of all possible revelation of God, which was +symbolised in comparatively gross external form in the pillar that +led Israel on its march, and lay stretched out and quiescent, a +guarding covering above the Tabernacle when the weary march was +still, recurs all through the history of Old Testament revelation by +type and prophecy and ceremony, in which the encompassing cloud was +comparatively dense, and the light which pierced it relatively +faint. It reappears in both elements in Christ, but combined in new +proportions, so as that 'the veil, that is to say, His flesh,' is +thinned to transparency and all aglow with the indwelling lustre of +manifest Deity. So a light, set in some fair alabaster vase, shines +through its translucent walls, bringing out every delicate tint and +meandering vein of colour, while itself diffused and softened by the +enwrapping medium which it beautifies by passing through its purity. +Both are made visible and attractive to dull eyes by the +conjunction. 'He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father,' and he +that hath seen the Father in Christ hath seen the man Christ, as +none see Him who are blind to the incarnate deity which illuminates +the manhood in which it dwells. + +But we have to note also the varying appearance of the pillar +according to need. There was a double change in the pillar according +to the hour, and according as the congregation was on the march or +encamped. By day it was a cloud, by night it glowed in the darkness. +On the march it moved before them, an upright pillar, as gathered +together for energetic movement; when the camp rested it 'returned +to the many thousands of Israel' and lay quietly stretched above the +Tabernacle like one of the long-drawn, motionless clouds above the +setting summer sun, glowing through all its substance with +unflashing radiance reflected from unseen light, and 'on all the +glory' (shrined in the Holy Place beneath) was 'a defence.' + +Both these changes of aspect symbolise for us the reality of the +Protean capacity of change according to our ever-varying needs, +which for our blessing we may find in that ever-changing, +unchanging, divine Presence which will be our companion, if we will. + +It was not only by a natural process that, as daylight declined, +what had seemed but a column of smoke in the fervid desert sunlight, +brightened into a column of fire, blazing amid the clear stars. But +we may well believe in an actual admeasurement of the degree of +light, correspondent to the darkness and to the need for certitude +and cheering sense of God's protection, which the defenceless camp +would feel as they lay down to rest. + +When the deceitful brightness of earth glistens and dazzles around +us, our vision of Him may be 'a cloudy screen to temper the +deceitful ray'; and when 'there stoops on our path, in storm and +shade, the frequent night,' as earth grows darker, and life becomes +greyer and more sombre, and verges to its eventide, the pillar +blazes brighter before the weeping eye, and draws nearer to the +lonely heart. We have a God who manifests Himself in the pillar of +cloud by day, and in flaming fire by night. + +II. Note the guidance of the pillar. + +When it lifts the camp marches; when it glides down and lies +motionless the march is stopped, and the tents are pitched. The main +point which is dwelt upon in this description of the God-guided +pilgrimage of the wandering people is the absolute uncertainty in +which they were kept as to the duration of their encampment, and as +to the time and circumstances of their march. Sometimes the cloud +tarried upon the Tabernacle many days; sometimes for a night only; +sometimes it lifted in the night. 'Whether it was by day or by night +that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two +days, or a month, or a year that the cloud tarried upon the +Tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their +tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up they journeyed.' +So never, from moment to moment, did they know when the moving cloud +might settle, or the resting cloud might soar. Therefore, absolute +uncertainty as to the next stage was visibly represented before them +by that hovering guide which determined everything, and concerning +whose next movement they knew absolutely nothing. + +Is not that all true about us? We have no guiding cloud like this. +So much the better. Have we not a more real guide? God guides us by +circumstances, God guides us by His word, God guides us by His +Spirit, speaking through our common-sense and in our understandings, +and, most of all, God guides us by that dear Son of His, in whom is +the fire and round whom is the cloud. And perhaps we may even +suppose that our Lord implies some allusion to this very symbol in +His own great words, 'I am the Light of the world. He that followeth +Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' +For the conception of 'following' the light seems to make it plain +that our Lord's image is not that of the sun in the heavens, or any +such supernal light, but that of some light which comes near enough +to a man to move before him, and behind which he can march. So, I +think, that Christ Himself laid His hand upon this ancient symbol, +and in these great words said in effect, 'I am that which it only +shadowed and foretold.' At all events, whether in them He was +pointing to our text or no, we must feel that He is the reality +which was expressed by this outward symbol. And no man who can say, +'Jesus Christ is the Captain of my salvation, and after His pattern +I march; at the pointing of His guiding finger I move; and in His +footsteps, He being my helper, I try to tread,' need feel or fancy +that any possible pillar, floating before the dullest eye, was a +better, surer, or diviner guide than he possesses. They whom Christ +guides want none other for leader, pattern, counsellor, companion, +reward. This Christ is our Christ 'for ever and ever, He will be our +guide even unto death' and beyond it. The pillar that we follow, +which will glow with the ruddy flame of love in the darkest hours of +life--blessed be His name!--will glide in front of us through the +'valley of the shadow of death,' brightest then when the murky +midnight is blackest. Nor will the pillar which guides us cease to +blaze, as did the guide of the desert march, when Jordan has been +crossed. It will still move before us on paths of continuous and +ever-increasing approach to infinite perfection. They who here +follow Christ afar off and with faltering steps shall there 'follow +the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.' + +In like manner, the same absolute uncertainty which was intended to +keep the Israelites (though it failed often to do so) in the +attitude of constant dependence, is the condition in which we all +have to live, though we mask it from ourselves. That we do not know +what lies before us is a commonplace. The same long tracts of +monotonous continuance in the same place and doing the same duties +befall us that befell these men. Years pass, and the pillar spreads +itself out, a defence above the unmoving sanctuary. And then, all in +a flash, when we are least thinking of change, it gathers itself +together, is a pillar again, shoots upwards, and moves forwards; and +it is for us to go after it. And so our lives are shuttlecocked +between uniform sameness which may become mechanical monotony, and +agitation by change which may make us lose our hold of fixed +principles and calm faith, unless we recognise that the continuance +and the change are alike the will of the guiding God, whose will is +signified by the stationary or moving pillar. + +III. That leads me to the last thing that I would note--viz. the +docile following of the Guide. + +In the context, the writer does not seem to be able to get away from +the thought that whatever the pillar indicated, immediate prompt +obedience followed. He says so over and over and over again. 'As +long as the cloud abode they rested, and when the cloud tarried long +they journeyed not'; and 'when the cloud was a few days on the +Tabernacle they abode'; and 'according to the commandment they +journeyed'; and 'when the cloud abode until the morning they +journeyed'; and 'whether it were two days, or a month, or a year +that the cloud tarried they journeyed not, but abode in their +tents.' So, after he has reiterated the thing half a dozen times or +more, he finishes by putting it all again in one verse, as the last +impression which he would leave from the whole narrative--'at the +commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the +commandment of the Lord they journeyed.' Obedience was prompt; +whensoever and for whatsoever the signal was given, the men were +ready. In the night, after they had had their tents pitched for a +long period, when only the watchers' eyes were open, the pillar +lifts, and in an instant the alarm is given, and all the camp is in +a bustle. That is what we have to set before us as the type of our +lives. We are to be as ready for every indication of God's will as +they were. The peace and blessedness of our lives largely depend on +our being eager to obey, and therefore quick to perceive, the +slightest sign of motion in the resting, or of rest in the moving, +pillar which regulates our march and our encamping. + +What do we need in order to cultivate and keep such a disposition? +We need perpetual watchfulness lest the pillar should lift +unnoticed. When Nelson was second in command at Copenhagen, the +admiral in command of the fleet hoisted the signal for recall, and +Nelson put his telescope to his blind eye and said, 'I do not see +it.' That is very like what we are tempted to do. When the signal +for unpleasant duties that we would gladly get out of is hoisted, we +are very apt to put the telescope to the blind eye, and pretend to +ourselves that we do not see the fluttering flags. We need still +more to keep our wills in absolute suspense, if His will has not +declared itself. Do not let us be in a hurry to run before God. When +the Israelites were crossing the Jordan, they were told to leave a +great space between themselves and the guiding ark, that they might +know how to go, because they had 'not passed that way heretofore.' +Impatient hurrying at God's heels is apt to lead us astray. Let Him +get well in front, that you may be quite sure which way He desires +you to go, before you go. And if you are not sure which way He +desires you to go, be sure that He does not at that moment desire +you to go anywhere. + +We need to hold the present with a slack hand, so as to be ready to +fold our tents and take to the road, if God will. We must not reckon +on continuance, nor strike our roots so deep that it needs a +hurricane to remove us. To those who set their gaze on Christ, no +present, from which He wishes them to remove, can be so good for +them as the new conditions into which He would have them pass. It is +hard to leave the spot, though it be in the desert, where we have so +long encamped that it has come to feel like home. We may look with +regret on the circle of black ashes on the sand where our little +fire glinted cheerily, and our feet may ache, and our hearts ache +more, as we begin our tramp once again, but we must set ourselves to +meet the God-appointed change cheerfully, in the confidence that +nothing will be left behind which it is not good to lose, nor +anything met which does not bring a blessing, however its first +aspect may be harsh or sad. + +We need, too, to cultivate the habit of prompt obedience. It is +usually reluctance which puts the drag on. Slow obedience is often +the germ of incipient disobedience. In matters of prudence and of +intellect, second thoughts are better than first, and third +thoughts, which often come back to first ones, better than second; +but in matters of duty, first thoughts are generally best. They are +the instinctive response of conscience to the voice of God, while +second thoughts are too often the objections of disinclination, or +sloth, or cowardice. It is easiest to do our duty when we are at +first sure of it. It then comes with an impelling power which +carries us over obstacles as on the crest of a wave, while +hesitation and delay leave us stranded in shoal water. If we would +follow the pillar, we must follow it at once. + +A heart that waits and watches for God's direction, that uses +common-sense as well as faith to unravel small and great +perplexities, and is willing to sit loose to the present, however +pleasant, in order that it may not miss the indications which say, +'Arise, this is not your rest,' fulfils the conditions on which, if +we keep them, we may be sure that He will guide us by the right way, +and bring us at last to 'the city of habitation.' + + + + +HOBAB + + + 'And Moses said unto Hobab ... Come thou with us, and + we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good + concerning Israel.'--NUM. x. 29. + +There is some doubt with regard to the identity of this Hobab. +Probably he was a man of about the same age as Moses, his brother- +in-law, and a son of Jethro, a wily Kenite, a Bedouin Arab. Moses +begs him to join himself to his motley company, and to be to him in +the wilderness 'instead of eyes.' What did Moses want a man for, +when he had the cloud? What do we want common-sense for, when we +have God's Spirit? What do we want experience and counsel for, when +we have divine guidance promised to us? The two things work in +together. The cloud led the march, but it was very well to have a +man that knew all about the oases and the wells, the situation of +which was known only to the desert-born tribes, and who could teach +the helpless slaves from Goshen the secrets of camp life. So Moses +pressed Hobab to change his position, to break with his past, and to +launch himself into an altogether new and untried sort of life. + +And what does he plead with him as the reason? 'We will do thee +good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.' Probably +Hobab looked rather shy at the security, for I suppose he was no +worshipper of Jehovah, and he said, 'No; I had rather go home to my +own people and my own kindred and my father's house where I fit in, +and keep to my own ways, and have something a little more definite +to lay hold of than your promise, or the promise of your Jehovah +that lies behind it. These are not solid, and I am going back to my +tribe.' But Moses pressed and he at last consented, and the +following verses suggest that the arrangement was made +satisfactorily, and that the journeyings began prosperously. In the +Book of Judges we find traces of the presence of Hobab's descendants +as incorporated among the people of Israel. One of them came to be +somebody, the Jael who struck the tent-peg through the temples of +the sleeping Sisera, for she is called 'the wife of Heber the +_Kenite_.' Probably, then, in some sense Hobab must have become +a worshipper of Jehovah, and have cast in his lot with his brother- +in-law and his people. I do not set Hobab up as a shining example. +We do not know much about his religion. But it seems to me that this +little glimpse into a long-forgotten and unimportant life may teach +us two or three things about the venture of faith, the life of +faith, and the reward of faith. + +I. The venture of faith. + +I have already said that Hobab had nothing in the world to trust to +except Moses' word, and Moses' report of God's Word. 'We will do you +good; God has said that He will do good to us, and you shall have +your share in it.' It was a grave thing, and, in many circumstances, +would have been a supremely foolish thing, credulous to the verge of +insanity, to risk all upon the mere promise of one in Moses' +position, who had so little in his own power with which to fulfil +the promise; and who referred him to an unseen divinity, somewhere +or other; and so drew bills upon heaven and futurity, and did not +feel himself at all bound to pay them when they fell due, unless God +should give him the cash to do it with. But Hobab took the plunge, +he ventured all upon these two promises--Moses' word, and God's word +that underlay it. + +Now that is just what we have to do. For, after all talking about +reasons for belief, and evidences of religion, and all the rest of +it, it all comes to this at last--will you risk everything on Jesus +Christ's bare word? There are plenty of reasons for doing so, but +what I wish to bring out is this, that the living heart and root of +true Christianity is neither more nor less than the absolute and +utter reliance upon nothing else but Christ, and therefore on His +word. He did not even condescend to give reasons for that reliance, +for His most solemn assurance was just this, 'Verily, verily, I say +unto you.' That is as much as to say, 'If you do not see in Me, +without any more argument, reason enough for believing Me, you do +not see Me at all.' + +Christ did not argue--He asserted, and in default of all other +proof, if I might venture to say so, He put His own personality into +the scales and said, 'There, that will outweigh everything.' So no +wonder that 'they were astonished at His doctrine,'--not so much at +the substance of it as at the tone of it, 'for He taught them +_with authority_.' + +But what right had He to teach them with authority? What right has +He to present Himself there in front of us and proclaim, 'I say unto +you, and there is an end of it'? The heart and essence of Christian +faith is doing, in a far sublimer fashion, precisely what this wild +Arab did, when he uprooted himself from the conditions in which his +life had grown up, and flung himself into an unknown future, on bare +trust in a bare word. Jesus Christ asks us to do the same by Him. +Whether His word comes to us revealing, or commanding, or promising, +it is absolute, and, for His true followers, ends all controversy, +all hesitation, all reluctance. When He commands it is ours to obey +and live. And when He promises it is for us to twine all the +tendrils of our expectations round that faithful word, and by faith +to make 'the anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast.' The venture of +faith takes a _word_ for the most solid thing in the universe, +and the Incarnate Word of God for the basis of all our hope, the +authority for all our conduct, 'the Master-light of all our seeing.' + +II. Hobab suggests to us, secondly-- + +The sort of life that follows the venture of faith. The hindrances +to his joining Moses were plainly put by himself. He said in effect, +'I will not come; I will depart to mine own land and to my kindred. +Why should I attach myself to a horde of strangers, and go wandering +about the desert for the rest of my life, looking out for +encampments for them, when I can return to where I have been all my +days; and be surrounded by the familiar atmosphere of friends and +relatives?' But he bethought himself that there was a nobler life to +live than that, and because he was stirred by the impulse of +reliance on Moses and his promise, and perhaps by some germ of +reliance on Moses' God, he finally said, 'The die is cast. I choose +my side. I will break with the past. I turn my back on kindred and +home. Here I draw a broad line across the page, and begin over again +in an altogether new kind of life. I identify myself with these +wanderers; sharing their fortunes, hoping to share their prosperity, +and taking their God for my God.' He had perhaps not been a nomad +before, for there still are permanent settlements as well as nomad +encampments in Arabia, as there were in those days, and he and his +relatives, from the few facts that we know of them, seem to have had +a fixed home, with a very narrow zone of wandering round it. So +Hobab, an old man probably, if he was anything like the age of his +connection by marriage, Moses, who was eighty at this time, makes up +his mind to begin a new career. + +Now that is what we have to do. If we have faith in Christ and His +promise, we shall not say, 'I am going back to my kindred and to my +home.' We shall be prepared to accept the conditions of a wanderer's +life. We shall recognise and feel, far more than we ever have done, +that we are indeed 'pilgrims and sojourners' here. Dear Christian +friends, we have no business to call ourselves Christ's men, unless +the very characteristic of our lives is that we are drawn ever +forward by the prospect of future good, and unless that future is a +great deal more solid and more operative upon us, and tells more on +our lives, than this intrusive, solid-seeming present that thrusts +itself between us and our true home. That is a sure saying. The +Christian obligation to live a life of detachment, even while +diligent in duty, is not to be brushed aside as pulpit rhetoric and +exaggeration, but it is the plainest teaching of the New Testament. +I wish it was a little more exemplified in the daily life of the +people who call themselves Christians. + +If I am not living for the unseen and the future, what right have I +to say that I am Christ's at all? If the shadows are more than the +substance to me; if this condensed vapour and fog that we call +reality has not been to our apprehension thinned away into the +unsubstantial mist that it is, what have the principles of +Christianity done for us, and what worth is Christ's word to us? If +I believe Him, the world is--I do not say, as the sentimental poet +put it, 'but a fleeting show, for man's illusion given';--but as +Paul puts it, a glass which may either reveal or obscure the +realities beyond; and according as we look at, or look through, 'the +things seen and temporal,' do we see, or miss, 'the things unseen +and eternal.' So, then, the life of faith has for its essential +characteristic--because it is a life of reliance on Christ's bare +word--that future good is consciously its supreme aim. That will +detach us, as it did Hobab, from home and kindred, and make us feel +that we are 'pilgrims and sojourners.' + +III. Lastly, our story suggests to us-- + +The rewards of faith. + +'Come with us,' says Moses; 'we are journeying unto the place of +which the Lord said, I will give it you. Come thou with us, and we +will do thee what goodness the Lord shall do unto us.' He went, and +neither he nor Moses ever saw the land, or at least never set their +feet on it. Moses saw it from Pisgah, but probably Hobab did not +even get so much as that. + +So he had all his tramping through the wilderness, and all his work, +for nothing, had he? Had he not better have gone back to Midian, and +made use of the present reality, than followed a will-of-the-wisp +that led him into a bog, if he got none of the good that he set out +expecting to get? Then, did he make a mistake? Would he have been a +wiser man if he had stuck to his first refusal? Surely not. It seems +to me that the very fact of this great promise being given to this +old--dare I call Hobab a 'saint'?--to this old saint, and never +being fulfilled at all in this world, compels us to believe that +there was some gleam of hope, and of certainty, of a future life, +even in these earliest days of dim and partial revelation. + +To me it is very illuminative, and very beautiful, that the dying +Jacob bursts in his song into a sudden exclamation, 'I have waited +for Thy salvation, O Lord!' It is as if he had felt that all his +life long he had been looking for what had never come, and that it +could not be that God was going to let him go down to the grave and +never grasp the good that he had been waiting for all his days. We +may apply substantially the same thoughts to Hobab, and to all his +like, and may turn them to our own use, and argue that the +imperfections of the consequences of our faith here on earth are +themselves evidences of a future, where all that Christ has said +shall be more than fulfilled, and no man will be able to say, 'Thou +didst send me out, deluding me with promises which have all gone to +water and have failed.' + +Hobab dying there in the desert had made the right choice, and if we +will trust ourselves to Christ and His faithful word, and, trusting +to Him, will feel that we are detached from the present and that it +is but as the shadow of a cloud, whatever there may be wanting in +the results of our faith here on earth, there will be nothing +wanting in its results at the last. Hobab did not regret his +venture, and no man ever ventures his faith on Christ and is +disappointed. 'He that believeth shall not be confounded.' + + + + +THE HALLOWING OF WORK AND OF REST + + + 'And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that + Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be + scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee. + 36. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, unto + the many thousands of Israel.'--Num. x. 35, 36. + +The picture suggested by this text is a very striking and vivid one. +We see the bustle of the morning's breaking up of the encampment of +Israel. The pillar of cloud, which had lain diffused and motionless +over the Tabernacle, gathers itself together into an upright shaft, +and moves, a dark blot against the glittering blue sky, the sunshine +masking its central fire, to the front of the encampment. Then the +priests take up the ark, the symbol of the divine Presence, and fall +into place behind the guiding pillar. Then come the stir of the +ordering of the ranks, and a moment's pause, during which the leader +lifts his voice--'Rise, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered, +and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee.' Then, with braced +resolve and confident hearts, the tribes set forward on the day's +march. + +Long after those desert days a psalmist laid hold of the old prayer +and offered it, as not antiquated yet by the thousand years that had +intervened. 'Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered,' +prayed one of the later psalmists; 'let them that hate Him flee +before Him.' We, too, in circumstances so different, may take up the +immortal though ancient words, on which no dimming rust of antiquity +has encrusted itself, and may, at the beginnings and the endings of +all our efforts and of each of our days, and at the beginning and +ending of life itself, offer this old prayer--the prayer which asked +for a divine presence in the incipiency of our efforts, and the +prayer which asked for a divine presence in the completion of our +work and in the rest that remaineth. + +I. So, then, if we put these two petitions together, I think we +shall see in them first, a pattern of that realisation of, and +aspiration after, the divine Presence, which ought to fill all our +lives. + +'Rise, Lord, let Thine enemies be scattered.' + +But was not that moving pillar the token that God had risen? And was +not the psalmist who reiterated Moses' prayer asking for what had +been done before he asked it? Was not the ark the symbol of the +divine Presence, and was not its movement after the pillar a pledge +to the whole host of Israel that the petition which they were +offering, through their leader's lips, was granted ere it was +offered? Yes. And yet the present God would not manifest His +Presence except in response to the desire of His servants; and just +because the ark was the symbol, and that moving column was the +guarantee of God's being with the host as their defence, therefore +there rose up with confidence this prayer, 'Rise, Lord, and let +Thine enemies be scattered.' + +That twofold attitude, the realisation of, and therefore the +aspiration after, the divine gifts, which are given before they are +desired, but are not appropriated and brought into operation in our +lives unless they are desired, is precisely the paradox of the +Christian life. Having, we long for, and longing, we have, and +because we possess God we pray, 'Oh! that we might possess Thee.' +The more we long, the more we receive. But unless He gave Himself in +anticipation of our longing, there would be neither longing nor +reception. Only on condition of our desiring to have Him does He +flow into our lives, victorious and strength-giving, and the more we +experience that omnipotent might and calming, guiding nearness, the +more assuredly we shall long for it. + +Let us then, dear brethren, blend these two things together, for +indeed they are inseparable one from the other, and there can be no +real experience in any depth of the one of them without the other. +Blessed be God! there need be no long interval of waiting between +sowing the seed of supplication and reaping the harvest of fruition. +That process of growth and reaping goes on with instantaneous +rapidity. 'Before they call I will answer,' for pillar and ark were +there ere Moses opened his lips; and 'while they are yet speaking I +will hear,' for, in response to the cry, the host moved +triumphantly, guarded through the wilderness. So it may be, and +ought to be, with each of us. + +In like manner, coupling these two petitions together, and taking +them as unitedly covering the whole field of life in their great +antitheses of work and rest, effort and accomplishment, beginning +and ending, morning and evening, we may say that here is an example, +to be appropriated in our own lives, of that continuous longing and +realisation which will encircle all life as with a golden ring, and +make every part of it uniform and blessed. To begin, continue, and +end with God is the secret of joyful beginning, of patient +continuance, and of triumphant ending. There is no reason in heaven, +though there are hosts of excuses on earth, why there should not be, +in the case of each of us, an absolutely continuous and +uninterrupted sense of being with God. O brethren! that is a stage +of Christian experience high above the one on which most of us +stand. But that is our fault, and not the necessity of our +condition. Let us lay this to heart, that it is possible to have the +pillar always guiding our march, and possible to have it stretching, +calm and motionless, over all our hours of rest. + +II. Now, if, turning from the lessons to be drawn from these two +petitions, taken in conjunction, we look at them separately, we may +say that we have here an example of the spirit in which we should +set ourselves, day by day, and at each new epoch and beginning, be +it greater or smaller, to every task. + +There are truths that underlie that first prayer, 'Rise up, Lord, +and let Thine enemies be scattered,' which are of perennial +validity, and apply to us as truly as to these warriors of God in +the wilderness long centuries ago. The first of them is that the +divine Presence is the source of all energy, and of successful +endeavour after, and accomplishment of, any duty. The second of them +is that that presence is, as I have been saying, granted, in its +operative power, only on condition of its being sought. And the +third of them is that I have a right to identify my enemies with +God's only on condition that I have made His cause mine. When Moses +prayed, 'Let Thine enemies be scattered,' he meant by these the +hostile nomad tribes that might ring Israel round, and come down +like a sandstorm upon them at any moment. What right had he to +suppose that the people whose lances and swords threatened the +motley host that he was leading through the wilderness were God's +enemies? Only this right, that his host had consented to be God's +soldiers, and that they having thus made His enemies theirs, He, on +His part, was sure to make their enemies His. We are often tempted +to identify our foes with God's, without having taken the +preliminary step of having so yielded ourselves to be His servants +and instruments for carrying forward His will, as that our own wills +have become a vanishing quantity, or rather have been ennobled and +greatened in proportion as they have been moulded in submission to +His. We must take God's cause for ours, in all the various aspects +of that phrase. And that means, first of all, that we make our own +perfecting into the likeness of Jesus Christ the main aim of our own +lives and efforts. It means, further, the putting ourselves bravely +and manfully on the side of right and truth and justice, in all +their forms. Above all, it means that we give ourselves to be God's +instruments in carrying on His great purposes for the salvation of +the world through Jesus Christ. If we do these things, whatever +obstacles may arise in our paths, we may be sure that these are +God's antagonists, because they are antagonists to God's work in and +by us. + +Only in so far as they are such, can you pray, 'Let them flee before +Thee!' Many of the things that we call our enemies come to us +disguised, and are mistaken by our superficial sight, and we do not +know that they are friends. 'All things work together for good to +them that love God.' And, when we desire His Presence, the +hindrances to doing His will--which are the only real enemies that +we have to fight--will melt away before His power, 'as wax melteth' +before the ardours of the fire; and, for the rest, the distresses, +the difficulties, the sorrows, and all the other things that we so +often think are our foes, we shall find out to have been our +friends. Make God's cause yours, and He will make your cause His. + +That applies to the great things of life, and to the little things. +I begin my day's work some morning, perhaps wearied, perhaps annoyed +with a multiplicity of trifles which seem too small to bring great +principles to bear upon them. But do you not think there would be a +strange change wrought in the petty annoyances of every day, and in +the small trifles of which all our lives, of whatever texture they +are, must largely be composed, if we began each day and each task +with that old prayer, 'Rise, Lord, and let Thine enemies be +scattered'? Do you not think there would come a quiet into our +hearts, and a victorious peace to which we are too much strangers? +If we carried the assurance that there is One that fights for us, +into the trifles as well as into the sore struggles of our lives, we +should have peace and victory. Most of us will not have many large +occasions of trial and conflict in our career; and, if God's +fighting for us is not available in regard to the small annoyances +of home and daily life, I know not for what it is available. 'Many +littles make a mickle,' and there are more deaths in skirmishes than +in the field of a pitched battle. More Christian people lose their +hold of God, their sense of His presence, and are beaten +accordingly, by reason of the little enemies that come down on them, +like a cloud of gnats in a summer evening, than are defeated by the +shock of a great assault or a great temptation, which calls out +their strength, and sends them to their knees to ask for help from +God. + +So we may learn from this prayer the spirit of expectance of victory +which is not presumption, and of consecration, which alone will +enable us to pass through life victorious. 'Be of good cheer,' said +the Master, as if in answer to this prayer in its Christian form--'I +have overcome the world.' We turn to the helmed and sworded Figure +that stands mysteriously beside us whilst we are all unaware of His +coming, and the swift question that Joshua put rises to our lips, +'Art Thou for us or for our adversaries?' The reply comes, 'Nay! but +as Captain of the Lord's host am I come up.' That is Christ's answer +to the prayer, 'Rise, Lord, let Thine enemies be scattered.' + +III. Lastly, we have here a pattern of the temper for hours of +repose. + +'When the ark rested, he said, "Return, O Lord, unto the many +thousands of Israel."' As I said at the beginning of these remarks, +the pillar of cloud seems to have taken two forms, braced together +upright when it moved, diffused and stretched as a shelter and a +covering over the host of Israel when it and they were at rest. In +like manner, that divine Presence is Protean in its forms, and takes +all shapes, according to the moment's necessities of the Christian +trusting heart. When we are to brace ourselves for the march it +condenses itself into an upright and moving guide. When we lay +ourselves down with relaxed muscles for repose, it softly expands +itself and 'covers our head' in the hours of rest, 'as in the day of +battle.' + +Ah! brother, we have more need of God in times of repose than in +times of effort. It is harder to realise His Presence in the brief +hours of relaxation than even in the many hours of strenuous toil. +Every one who goes for a holiday knows that. You have only to look +at the sort of amusements that most people fly to when they have not +anything to do, to see that there is quite as much, if not more, +peril to communion of soul with God in times when the whole nature +is somewhat relaxed, and the strings are loosened, like those of a +violin screwed down a turn or two of the peg, than there is in times +of work. + +So let us take special care of our hours of repose, and be quite +sure that they are so spent as that we can ask when the day's work +is done, and we have come to slippered ease, in preparation for +nightly rest, 'Return, O Lord, unto Thy waiting servant.' Work +without God unfits for rest with Him. Rest without God unfits for +work for Him. + +We may take these two petitions as tests of the allowableness of any +occupation, or of any relaxation. Dare I ask Him to come with me +into that field of work? If I dare not, it is no place for me. Dare +I ask Him to come with me into this other chamber of rest? If I dare +not, I had better never cross its threshold. Take these two prayers, +and where you cannot pray them, do not risk yourself. + +But the highest form of the contrast between the two waits still to +be realised. For life as a whole is a fight, and beyond it there is +the 'rest that remaineth,' where there will be not merely God's +'return unto the thousands of Israel,' but the realisation of His +fuller presence, and of deeper rest, which shall be wondrously +associated with more intense work, though in that work there will be +no conflict. The two petitions will flow together then, for whilst +we labour we shall rest; and whilst we rest we shall labour, +according to the great sayings, 'they rest from their labours,' and +yet 'they rest not day nor night.' + + + + +MOSES DESPONDENT + + + 'I am not able to bear all this people alone, because + it is too heavy for me.' + NUM. xi. 14. + +Detail the circumstances. + +The leader speaks the truth in his despondency. He is pressed with +the feeling of his incapacity for his work. We may take his words +here as teaching us what men need in him who is to be their guide, +and how impossible it is to find what they need in mere men. + +I. What men need in their guide. + +These Israelites were wandering in the wilderness; they were without +natural supplies for their daily necessities; they had a long hard +journey before them, an unknown road, at the terminus of which was a +land where they should rest. We have precisely the same necessities +as those which Moses despairingly said that they had. + +Like them, we wander hungry, and need a Leader who can satisfy our +desires and evermore give us bread for our souls even more than for +our bodies. We need One to whom we can 'weep,' as the Israelites did +to Moses, and not weep in vain. We need One who can do for us what +Moses felt that the Israelites needed, and that he could not give +them, when he almost indignantly put to God the despairing question, +'Can I carry them in my bosom as a nursing father beareth the +sucking child?' Our weakness, our ignorance, our heart-hunger, cry +out for One who can 'bear all this people alone.' who in his single +Self has resources of strength, wisdom, and sufficiency to meet not +only the wants of one soul but those of the world. For He who can +satisfy the poorest single soul must be able to satisfy all men. + +II. The impossibility of finding this in men. + +Moses' experience here is that of all leaders and great men. He is +overwhelmed with the work; feels his own utter impotence; has +himself to be strengthened; loathes his work; longs for release from +it. See how he confesses + + His human dependence. + His incapacity to do and be what is needed. + His impatience with the people. + His longing to be rid of it all. + +That is a true picture of the experience of the best of men--a true +picture of the limitations of the noblest leaders. + +But it is not only the leaders who confess their inadequacy, but the +followers feel it, for even the most enthusiastic of them come +sooner or later to find that their Oracle had not learned all +wisdom, nor was fit to be taken as sole guide, much less as sole +defence or satisfaction. He who looks to find all that he needs in +men must take many men to find it, and no multiplicity of men will +bring him what he seeks. The Milky Way is no substitute for the sun. +Our hearts cry out for One great light, for One spacious home. +Endless strings of pearls do not reach the preciousness of One pearl +of price. + +III. The failures of human leaders prophesy the true Leader. + +Moses was prophetic of Christ by his failures as by his successes. +He could not do what the people clamoured to have done, and what he +in the mood of despair in which the text shows him, sadly owned that +he could not. In that very confession he becomes an unconscious +prophet. For that he should have so vividly set forth the +qualifications of a leader of men, as defined by the people's cries, +and should have so bitterly felt his incapacity to supply them, is a +witness, if there is a God at all, that somewhere the needed Ideal +will be realised in 'a Leader and Commander of the people,' God-sent +and 'worthy of more glory than Moses.' + +The best service that all human leaders, helpers or lovers, can do +us, is to confess their own insufficiency, and to point us to Jesus. + +All that men need is found in Him and in Him alone. All that men +have failed, and must always fail, to be, He is. Those eyes are +blessed that 'see no man any more save Jesus only.' We need One who +can satisfy our desires and fill our hungry souls, and Jesus speaks +a promise, confirmed by the experience of all who have tested it +when He declares: 'He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger.' We +need One who will dry our tears, and Jesus, when He says 'Weep not,' +wipes them away and stanches their sources, giving 'the oil of joy +for mourning.' We need One who can hold us up in our journey, and +minister strength to fainting hearts and vigour to weary feet, and +Jesus 'strengthens us with might in the inner man.' We need One who +will bring us to the promised land of rest, and Jesus brings many +sons to glory, and wills that they be 'with Him where He is.' So let +us turn away from the multiplicity of human insufficiencies to Him +who is our one only help and hope, because He is all-sufficient and +eternal. + + + + +AFRAID OF GIANTS + + + 'And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and + said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go + up into the mountain; 18. And see the land, what it is; + and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be + strong or weak, few or many; 19. And what the land is + that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what + cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or + in strong holds; 20. And what the land is, whether it + be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. + And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the + land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes. + 21. So they went up, and searched the land from the + wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. + 22. And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; + where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, + were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in + Egypt.) 23. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and + cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, + and they bare it between two upon staff; and they brought + of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24. The place was + called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes + which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 25. And + they returned from searching of the land after forty days. + 26. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to + all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the + wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word + unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them + the fruit of the land. 27. And they told him, and said, + We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely + it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit + of it. 28. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell + in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: + and, moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. 29. + The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the + Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell + in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, + and by the coast of Jordan. 30. And Caleb stilled the + people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, + and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. + 31. But the men that went up with him said, We be not + able to go up against the people; for they are stronger + than we. 32. And they brought up an evil report of the + land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, + saying, The land, through which we have gone to search + it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; + and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great + stature. 33. And there we saw the giants, the sons of + Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own + sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.' + --NUM. xiii. 17-33. + +We stand here on the edge of the Promised Land. The discussion of +the true site of Kadesh need not concern us now. Wherever it was, +the wanderers had the end of their desert journey within sight; one +bold push forward, and their feet would tread on their inheritance. +But, as is so often the case, courage oozed out at the decisive +moment, and cowardice, disguised as prudence, called for 'further +information,'--that cuckoo-cry of the faint-hearted. There are +three steps in this narrative: the despatch of the explorers, their +expedition, and the two reports brought back. + +I. We have the despatch and instructions of the explorers. A +comparison with Deuteronomy i. shows that the project of sending the +spies originated in the people's terror at the near prospect of the +fighting which they had known to be impending ever since they left +Egypt. Faith finds that nearness diminishes dangers, but sense sees +them grow as they approach. The people answered Moses' brave words +summoning them to the struggle with this feeble petition for an +investigation. They did not honestly say that they were alarmed, but +defined the scope of the exploring party's mission as simply to +'bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the +cities into which we shall come.' Had they not the pillar blazing +there above them to tell them that? The request was not fathomed in +its true faithlessness by Moses, who thought it reasonable and +yielded. So far Deuteronomy goes; but this narrative puts another +colour on the mission, representing it as the consequence of God's +command. The most eager discoverer of discrepancies in the component +parts of the Pentateuch need not press this one into his service, +for both sides may be true: the one representing the human +feebleness which originated the wish; the other, the divine +compliance with the desire, in order to disclose the unbelief which +unfitted the people for the impending struggle, and to educate them +by letting them have their foolish way, and taste its bitter +results. Putting the two accounts together, we get, not a +contradiction, but a complete view, which teaches a large truth as +to God's dealings; namely, that He often lovingly lets us have our +own way to show us by the issues that His is better, and that +daring, which is obedience, is the true prudence. + +The instructions given to the explorers turn on two points: the +eligibility of the country for settlement, and the military strength +of its inhabitants. They alternate in a very graphic way from the +one of these to the other, beginning, in verse 18, with the land, +and immediately going on to the numbers and power of the +inhabitants; then harking back again, in verse 19, to the fertility +of the land, and passing again to the capacity of the cities to +resist attack; and finishing up, in verse 20, with the land once +more, both arable and forest. The same double thought colours the +parting exhortation to 'be bold,' and to 'bring of the produce of +the land.' Now the people knew already both points which the spies +were despatched to find out. Over and over again, in Egypt, in the +march, and at Sinai, they had been told that the land was 'flowing +with milk and honey,' and had been assured of its conquest. What +more did they want? Nothing, if they had believed God. Nothing, if +they had been all saints,--which they were not. Their fears were +very natural. A great deal might be said in favour of their wish to +have accurate information. But it is a bad sign when faith, or +rather unbelief, sends out sense to be its scout, and when we think +to verify God's words by men's confirmation. Not to believe Him +unless a jury of twelve of ourselves says the same thing, is surely +much the same as not believing Him at all; for it is not He, but +they, whom we believe after all. + +There is no need to be too hard on the people. They were a mob of +slaves, whose manhood had been eaten out by four centuries of +sluggish comfort, and latterly crushed by oppression. So far as we +know, Abraham's midnight surprise of the Eastern kings was the +solitary bit of fighting in the national history thus far; and it is +not wonderful that, with such a past, they should have shrunk from +the prospect of bloodshed, and caught at any excuse for delay at +least, even if not for escape. 'We have all of us one human heart,' +and these cowards were no monsters, but average men, who did very +much what average men, professing to be Christians, do every day, +and for doing get praised for prudence by other average professing +Christians. How many of us, when brought right up to some task +involving difficulty or danger, but unmistakably laid on us by God, +shelter our distrustful fears under the fair pretext of 'knowing a +little more about it first,' and shake wise heads over rashness +which takes God at His word, and thinks that it knows enough when it +knows what He wills? + +II. We have the exploration (verses 21-25). The account of it is +arranged on a plan common in the Old Testament narratives, the +observation of which would, in many places, remove difficulties +which have led to extraordinary hypotheses. Verse 21 gives a general +summary of what is then taken up, and told in more detail. It +indicates the completeness of the exploration by giving its extreme +southern and northern points, the desert of Zin being probably the +present depression called the Arabah, and 'Rehob as men come to +Hamath' being probably near the northern Dan, on the way to Hamath, +which lay in the valley between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon. +The account then begins over again, and tells how the spies went up +into 'the South.' The Revised Version has done wisely in printing +this word with a capital, and thereby showing that it is not merely +the name of a cardinal point, but of a district. It literally means +'the dry,' and is applied to the arid stretch of land between the +more cultivated southern parts of Canaan and the northern portion of +the desert which runs down to Sinai. It is a great chalky plateau, +and might almost be called a steppe or prairie. Passing through +this, the explorers next would come to Hebron, the first town of +importance, beside which Abraham had lived, and where the graves of +their ancestors were. But they were in no mood for remembering such +old stories. Living Anaks were much more real to them than dead +patriarchs. So the only thing mentioned, besides the antiquity of +the city, is the presence in it of these giants. They were probably +the relics of the aboriginal inhabitants, and some strain of their +blood survived till late days. They seem to have expelled the +Hittites, who held Mamre, or Hebron, in Abraham's time. Their name +is said to mean 'long-necked,' and the three names in our lesson are +probably tribal, and not personal, names. The whole march northward +and back again comes in between verses 22 and 23; for Eshcol was +close to Hebron, and the spies would not encumber themselves with +the bunch of grapes on their northward march. The details of the +exploration are given more fully in the spies' report, which shows +that they had gone up north from Hebron, through the hills, and +possibly came back by the valley of the Jordan. At any rate, they +made good speed, and must have done some bold and hard marching, to +cover the ground out and back in six weeks. So they returned with +their pomegranates and figs, and a great bunch of the grapes for +which the valley identified with Eshcol is still famous, swinging on +a pole,--the easiest way of carrying it without injury. + +III. We have next the two reports. The explorers are received in a +full assembly of the people, and begin their story with an object- +lesson, producing the great grape cluster and the other spoils. But +while honesty compelled the acknowledgment of the fertility of the +land, cowardice slurred that over as lightly as might be, and went +on to dilate on the terrors of the giants and the strength of the +cities, and the crowded population that held every corner of the +country. Truly, the eye sees what it brings with it. They really had +gone to look for dangers, and of course they found them. Whatever +Moses might lay down in his instructions, they had been sent by the +people to bring back reasons for not attempting the conquest, and so +they curtly and coldly admit the fertility of the soil, and fling +down the fruit for inspection as undeniably grown there, but they +tell their real mind with a great 'nevertheless.' Their report is, +no doubt, quite accurate. The cities were, no doubt, some of them +walled, and to eyes accustomed to the desert, very great; and there +were, no doubt, Anaks at Hebron, at any rate, and the 'spies' had +got the names of the various races and their territories correctly. +As to these, we need only notice that the Hittites were an outlying +branch of the great nation, which recent research has discovered, as +we might say, the importance and extent of which we scarcely yet +know; that the Jebusites held Jerusalem till David's time; that the +'Amorites,' or 'Highlanders,' occupied the central block of +mountainous country in conjunction with the two preceding tribes; +and that the 'Canaanites,' or 'Lowlanders,' held the lowlands east +and west of that hilly nucleus, namely, the deep gorge of the +Jordan, and the strip of maritime plain. A very accurate report may +be very one-sided. The spies were not the last people who, being +sent out to bring home facts, managed to convey very decided +opinions without expressing any. A grudging and short admission to +begin with, the force of which is immediately broken by sombre and +minute painting of difficulty and danger, is more powerful as a +deterrent than any dissuasive. It sounds such an unbiassed appeal to +common-sense, as if the reporter said, 'There are the facts; we +leave you to draw the conclusions.' An 'unvarnished account of the +real state of the case,' in which there is not a single misstatement +nor exaggeration, may be utterly false by reason of wrong +perspective and omission, and, however true, is sure to act as a +shower-bath to courage, if it is unaccompanied with a word of cheer. +To begin a perilous enterprise without fairly facing its risks and +difficulties is folly. To look at _them_ only is no less folly, +and is the sure precursor of defeat. But when on the one side is +God's command, and on the other such doleful discouragements, they +are more than folly, they are sin. + +It is bracing to turn from the creeping prudence which leaves God +out of the account, to the cheery ring of Caleb's sturdy confidence. +His was 'a minority report,' signed by only two of the 'Commission.' +These two had seen all that the others had, but everything depends +on the eyes which look. The others had measured themselves against +the trained soldiers and giants, and were in despair. These two +measured Amalekites and Anaks against God, and were jubilant. They +do not dispute the facts, but they reverse the implied conclusion, +because they add the governing fact of God's help. How differently +the same facts strike a man who lives by faith, and one who lives by +calculation! Israel might be a row of ciphers, but with God at the +head they meant something. Caleb's confidence that 'we are well able +to overcome' was religious trust, as is plain from God's eulogium on +him in the next chapter (Num. xiv. 24). The lessons from it are that +faith is the parent of wise courage; that where duty, which is God's +voice, points, difficulties must not deter; that when we have God's +assurance of support, they are nothing. Caleb was wise to counsel +going up to the assault 'at once,' for there is no better cure for +fear than action. Old soldiers tell us that the trying time is when +waiting to begin the fight. 'The native hue of resolution' gets +'sicklied o'er' with the paleness that comes from hesitation. Am I +sure that anything is God's will? Then the sooner I go to work at +doing it, the better for myself and for the vigour of my work. + +This headstrong rashness, as they thought it, brings up the other +'spies' once more. Notice how the gloomy views are the only ones in +their second statement. There is nothing about the fertility of the +land, but, instead, we have that enigmatical expression about its +'eating up its inhabitants.' No very satisfactory explanation of +this is forthcoming. It evidently means that in some way the land +was destructive of its inhabitants, which seems to contradict their +former reluctant admission of its fertility. Perhaps in their +eagerness to paint it black enough, they did contradict themselves, +and try to make out that it was a barren soil, not worth conquering. +Fear is not very careful of consistency. Note, too, the +exaggerations of terror. 'All the people' are sons of Anak now. The +size as well as the number of the giants has grown; 'we were in our +own sight as grasshoppers.' No doubt they were gigantic, but fear +performed the miracle of adding a cubit to their stature. When the +coward hears that 'there is a lion without,'--that is, in the open +country,--he immediately concludes, 'I shall be slain in the +streets,' where it is not usual for lions to disport themselves. + +Thus exaggerated and one-sided is distrust of God's promises. Such a +temper is fatal to all noble life or work, and brings about the +disasters which it foresees. If these cravens had gone up to fight +with men before whom they felt like grasshoppers, of course they +would have been beaten; and it was much better that their fears +should come out at Kadesh than when committed to the struggle. +Therefore God lovingly permitted the mission of the spies, and so +brought lurking unbelief to the surface, where it could be dealt +with. Let us beware of the one-eyed 'prudence' which sees only the +perils in the path of duty and enterprise for God, and is blind to +the all-sufficient presence which makes us more than conquerors, +when we lean all our weight on it. It is well to see the Anakim in +their full formidableness, and to feel that we are 'as grasshoppers +in our own sight' and in theirs, if the sight drives us to lift our +eyes to Him who 'sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the +inhabitants thereof,' however huge and strong, 'are as +grasshoppers.' + + + + +WEIGHED, AND FOUND WANTING + + + 'And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and + cried; and the people wept that night. 2. And all the + children of Israel murmured against Moses and against + Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would + God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God + we had died in this wilderness! 3. And wherefore hath + the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, + that our wives and our children should be a prey? were + it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4. And they + said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us + return into Egypt 5. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their + faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the + children of Israel. 6. And Joshua the son of Nun, and + Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that + searched the land, rent their clothes. 7. And they spake + unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, + The land, which we passed through to search it, is an + exceeding good land. 8. If the Lord delight in us, then + He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land + which floweth with milk and honey. 9. Only rebel not ye + against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; + for they are bread for us: their defence is departed + from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. + 10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. + And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of + the congregation before all the children of Israel.' + --NUM. xiv. 1-10. + +Terror is more contagious than courage, for a mob is always more +prone to base than to noble instincts. The gloomy report of the +spies jumped with the humour of the people, and was at once +accepted. Its effect was to throw the whole assembly into a paroxysm +of panic, which was expressed in the passionate Eastern manner by +wild, ungoverned shrieking and tears. What a picture of a frenzied +crowd the first verse of this chapter gives! That is not the stuff +of which heroes can be made. Weeping endured for a night, but to +such weeping there came no morning of joy. When day dawned, the +tempest of emotion settled down into sullen determination to give up +the prize which hung within reach of a bold hand, ripe and ready to +drop. It was one of the moments which come once at least in the +lives of nations as of individuals, when a supreme resolve is called +for, and when to fall beneath the stern requirement, and refuse a +great attempt because of danger, is to pronounce sentence of +unworthiness and exclusion on themselves. Not courage only, but +belief in God, was tested in this crucial moment, which made a +turning-point in the nation's history. Our text brings before us +with dramatic vividness and sharpness of contrast, three parties in +this decisive hour--the faithless cowards, the faithful four, and +the All-seeing presence. + +I. Note the faithless cowards. The gravity of the revolt here is +partly in its universality, which is emphasised in the narrative at +every turn: '_all_ the congregation' (v. 1), '_all_ the children of +Israel,' the _whole_ congregation' (v. 2), '_all_ the assembly of the +congregation' (which implies a solemn formal convocation), '_all_ the +company' (v, 7), '_all_ the congregation,' '_all_ the children of Israel' +(v. 10). It was no sectional discontent, but full-blown and universal +rebellion. The narrative draws a distinction between the language +addressed to Moses, and the whisperings to one another. Publicly, the +unanimous voice suggested the return to Egypt as an alternative for +discussion, and put it before Moses; to one another they muttered the +proposal, which no man had yet courage to speak out, of choosing a +new leader, and going back, whatever became of Moses. That could only +mean murder as well as mutiny. The whispers would soon be loud enough. + +In the murmurs to Moses, observe the distinct and conscious apostacy +from Jehovah. They recognise that God 'has brought' them there, and +they slander Him by the assertion that His malignant, deliberate +purpose was to kill them all, and make slaves of their wives and +children. That was how they read the past, and thought of Him! He +had enticed them into His trap, as a hunter might some foolish +animal, by dainties strewed along the path, and now they were in the +toils, and their only chance of life was to break through. Often, +already, had they raised that mad cry--'back to Egypt!' but there +had never been such a ring of resolve in it, nor had it come from so +many throats, nor had any serious purpose to depose Moses been +entertained. If we add the fact that they were now on the very +frontier of Canaan, and that the decision now taken was necessarily +final, we get the full significance of the incident from the mere +secular historian's point of view. But its bearing on the people's +relation to Jehovah gives a darker colouring to it. It is not merely +faint-hearted shrinking from a great opportunity, but it is wilful +and deliberate rejection of His rule, based upon utter distrust of +His word. So Scripture treats this event as the typical example of +unbelief (Psa. xcv.; Heb. iii. and iv.). So regarded, it presents, +as in a mirror, some of the salient characteristics of that master +sin. Bad as it is, it is not out of the range of possibility that it +should be repeated, and we need the warning to 'take heed lest any +of us should fall after the same example of unbelief.' + +We may learn from it the essentials of faith and its opposite. The +trust which these cowards failed to exercise was reliance on +Jehovah, a personal relation to a Person. In externals and contents, +their trust was very unlike the New Testament faith, but in object +and essence it was identical. They had to trust in Jehovah; we, in +'God manifest in the flesh.' Their creed was much less clear and +blessed than ours, but their faith, if they had had it, would have +been the same. Faith is not the belief of a creed, whether man-made +or God-revealed, but the cleaving to the Person whom the creed makes +known. He may be made known more or less perfectly; but the act of +the soul, by which we grasp Him, does not vary with the completeness +of the revelation. That act was one for 'the world's grey fathers' +and for us. In like manner, unbelief is the same black and fatal +sin, whatever be the degree of light against which it turns. To +depart from the living God is its essence, and that is always +rebellion and death. + +Note the short memory and churlish unthankfulness of unbelief. It +has been often objected to the story of the Exodus, that such +extremity of folly as is ascribed to the Israelites is inconceivable +in such circumstances. How could men, with all these miracles in +mind, and manna falling daily, and the pillar blazing every night, +and the roll of Sinai's thunders scarcely out of their ears, behave +thus? But any one who has honestly studied his own heart, and known +its capacity for neglecting the plainest indications of God's +presence, and forgetting the gifts of His love, will believe the +story, and see brethren in these Israelites. Miracles were less +wonderful to them, because they knew less about nature and its laws. +Any miracles constantly renewed become commonplace. Habit takes the +wonder out of everything. The heart that does not 'like to retain +God in its knowledge' will find easy ways of forgetting Him, and +revolting from Him, though the path be strewed with blessings, and +tokens of His presence flame on every side. True, it is strange that +all the wonders and mercies of the past two years had made no deeper +impression on these people's hearts; but if they had not done so, it +is not unnatural that they had made so slight an impression on their +wills. Their ingratitude and forgetfulness are inexplicable, as all +sin is, for its very essence is that it has no sufficient reason. +But neither is inconceivable, and both are repeated by us every day. + +Note the credulity of unbelief. The word of Jehovah had told them +that the land 'flowed with milk and honey,' and that they were sure +to conquer it. They would not believe Him unless they had +verification of His promises. And when they got their own fears +reflected in the multiplying mirror of the spies' report, they took +men's words for gospel, and gave to them a credence without +examination or qualification, which they had never given to God. I +think that I have heard of people who inveigh against Christians for +their slavish acceptance of the absolute authority of Jesus Christ, +and who pin their faith to some man's teaching with a credulity +quite as great as and much less warrantable than ours. + +Note the bad bargain which unbelief is ready to make. They +contemplated a risky alternative to the brave dash against Canaan. +There would be quite as much peril in going back as forward. The +march from Egypt had not been so easy; but what would it be when +there were no Moses, no Jethro, no manna, no pillar? And what sort +of reception would wait them in Egypt, and what fate befall them +there? In front, there were perils; but God would be with them. They +would have to fight their way, but with the joyous feeling that +victory was sure, and that every blow struck, and every step +marched, brought them nearer triumphant peace. If they turned, every +step would carry them farther from their hopes, and nearer the +dreary putting on of the old yoke, which 'neither they nor their +fathers were able to bear.' They would buy slavery at as dear a +price as they would have to pay for freedom and wealth. Yet they +elected the baser course, and thought themselves prudent and careful +of themselves in doing so. Is the breed of such miscalculators +extinct? Far greater hardships and pains are met on the road of +departure from God, than any which befall His servants. To follow +Him involves a conflict, but to shirk the battle does not bring +immunity from strife. The alternatives are not warfare or peace, +God's service or liberty. The most prudent self-love would coincide +with the most self-sacrificing heroic consecration, and no man can +worse consult his own well-being than in seeking escape from the +dangers and toil of enlisting in God's army, by running back through +the desert to put his neck in chains in Egypt. As Moses said: +'Because then servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and +with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore +thou shalt serve thine enemies, in hunger, and in thirst, and in +want of all things.' + +II. The faithful four. Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua, are the +only Abdiels in that crowd of unbelieving dastards. Their own peril +does not move them; their only thought is to dissuade from the fatal +refusal to advance. The leader had no armed force with which to put +down revolt, and stood wholly undefended and powerless. It was a +cruel position for him to see the work of his life crumbling to +pieces, and every hope for his people dashed by their craven fears. +Is there anywhere a nobler piece of self-abnegation than his +prostrating himself before them in the eagerness of his pleading +with them for their own good? If anything could have kindled a spark +of generous enthusiasm, that passionate gesture of entreaty would +have done it. It is like: 'We beseech you, in His stead, be ye +reconciled to God.' Men need to be importuned not to destroy +themselves, and he will have most success in such God-like work who, +as Moses, is so sure of the fatal issues, and so oblivious of all +but saving men from self-inflicted ruin, that he sues as for a boon +with tears in his voice, and dignity thrown to the winds. + +Caleb and Joshua had a different task,--to make one more attempt to +hearten the people by repeating their testimony and their +confidence. Tearing their dresses, in sign of mourning, they bravely +ring out once more the cheery note of assured faith. They first +emphatically reiterate that the land is fertile,--or, as the words +literally run, 'good exceedingly, exceedingly.' It is right to +stimulate for God's warfare by setting forth the blessedness of the +inheritance. 'The recompense of the reward' is not the motive for +doing His will, but it is legitimately used as encouragement, in +spite of the overstrained objection that virtue for the sake of +heaven is spurious virtue. If 'for the sake of heaven,' it is +spurious; but it is not spurious because it is heartened by the hope +of heaven. In Caleb's former report there was no reason given for +his confidence that 'we are well able to overcome.' Thus far all the +discussion had been about comparative strength, as any heathen +soldier would have reckoned it. But the two heroes speak out the +great Name at last, which ought to scatter all fears like morning +mist. The rebels had said that Jehovah had 'brought us into this +land to fall by the sword.' The two give them back their words with +a new turn: 'He will bring us into this land, and give it us.' That +is the only antidote to fear. Calculations of comparative force are +worse than useless, and their results depend on the temper of the +calculator; but, if once God is brought into the account, the sum is +ended. When His sword is flung into the scale, whatever is in the +other goes up. So Caleb and Joshua brush aside the terrors of the +Anaks and all the other bugbears. 'They are bread for us,' we can +swallow them at a mouthful; and this was no swaggering boast, but +calm, reasonable confidence, because it rested on this, 'the Lord is +with us.' True, there was an 'if,' but not an 'if' of doubt, but a +condition which they could comply with, and so make it a certainty, +'only rebel not against the Lord, and fear not the people of the +land.' Loyalty to Him would give courage, and courage with His +presence would be sure of victory. Obedience turns God's 'ifs' into +'verilys.' There, then, we have an outline picture of the work of +faith pleading with the rebellious, heartening them and itself by +thoughts of the fair inheritance, grasping the assurance of God's +omnipotent help, and in the strength thereof wisely despising the +strongest foes, and settling itself immovable in the posture of +obedience. + +III. The sudden appearance of the all-seeing Lord. The bold +remonstrance worked the people into a fury, and fidelity was about +to reap the reward which the crowd ever gives to those who try to +save it from its own base passions. Nothing is more hateful to +resolute sinners than good counsel which is undeniably true. But +just as the stones were beginning to fly, the 'glory of the Lord,' +that wondrous light which dwelt above the ark in the inmost shrine, +came forth before all the awestruck crowd. The stones would be +dropped fast enough, and a hush of dread would follow the howling +rage of the angry crowd. Our text does not go on to the awful +judgment which was proclaimed; but we may venture beyond its bounds +to point out that the sentence of exclusion from the land was but +the necessary consequence of the temper and character which the +refusal to advance had betrayed. Such people were not fit for the +fight. A new generation, braced by the keen air and scant fare of +the desert, with firmer muscles and hearts than these enervated +slaves had, was needed for the conquest. The sentence was mercy as +well as judgment; it was better that they should live in the +wilderness, and die there by natural process, after having had more +education in God's loving care, than that they should be driven +unwillingly to a conflict which, in their state of mind, would have +been but their butchery. None the less, it is an awful condemnation +for a man to be brought by God's providence face to face with a +great possibility of service and of blessing, and then to show +himself such that God has to put him aside, and look for other +instruments. The Israelites were excluded from Canaan by no +arbitrary decree, but by their own faithless fears, which made their +victory impossible. 'They could not enter in because of unbelief.' +In like manner our unbelief shuts us out from salvation, because we +can only enter in by faith; and the 'rest that remains' is of such a +nature that it is impossible for even His love to give it to the +unbelieving. 'Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest, +lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.' + + + + +MOSES THE INTERCESSOR + + + 'Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people + according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou + hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.' + --NUM. xiv. 19. + +See how in this story a divine threat is averted and a divine +promise is broken, thus revealing a standing law that these in +Scripture are conditional. + +This striking incident of Moses' intercession suggests to us some +thoughts as to + +I. The ground of the divine forgiveness. + +The appeal is not based on anything in the people. God is not asked +to forgive because of their repentance or their faith. True, these +are the conditions on which His pardon is received by us, but they +are not the reasons why it is given by Him. Nor does Moses appeal to +any sacrifices that had been offered and were conceived to placate +God. But he goes deeper than all such pleas, and lays hold, with +sublime confidence, on God's own nature as his all-powerful plea. +'The greatness of Thy mercy' is the ground of the divine +forgiveness, and the mightiest plea that human lips can urge. It +suggests that His very nature is pardoning love; that 'mercy' is +proper to Him, that it is the motive and impulse of His acts. He +forgives because He is mercy. That is the foundation truth. It is +the deep spring from which by inherent impulse all the streams of +forgiveness well up. + +What was true when Moses prayed for the rebels is true to-day. +Christ's work is the consequence, not the cause, of God's pardoning +love. It is the channel through which the waters reach us, but the +waters made the channel for themselves. + +II. The persistency of the divine pardon. + +'As thou hast forgiven ... even until now.' + +His past is the guarantee of His future. This is true of every one +of His attributes. There is no limitation to the divine forgiveness; +you cannot exhaust it. + +Sometimes there may be long tracts of almost utter godlessness, or +times of apathy. Sometimes there may be bursts of great and +unsanctified evil after many professions of fidelity, as in David's +case. Sometimes there may be but a daily experience in which there +is little apparent progress, little consciousness of growing mastery +over sin, little of deepening holiness and spiritual power. Be it so! +To all such, and to every other form of Christian unfaithfulness, +this blessed thought applies. + +We are apt to think as if our many pardons in the past made future +pardons less likely, whereas the truth is that we have received +forgiveness so often in the past that we may be quite sure that it +will never fail us in the future. God has established a precedent in +His dealings with us. He binds Himself by His past. + +As in His creative energy, the forces that flung the whole universe +forth were not exhausted by the act, but subsist continually to +sustain it, as 'He fainteth not, neither is weary,' so in the works +of His providence, and more especially of His grace, there is +nothing in the exercise of any of His attributes to exhaust +_that_ attribute, nothing in the constant appeal which we make +to His forgiving grace to weary out that grace. And thus we may +learn, even from the unfading glories of the heavens and the +undimmed splendours of His creative works, the lesson that, in the +holier region of His love, and His pardoning mercy, there is no +exhaustion, and that all the past instances of His pardoning grace +only make the broader, firmer ground of certainty as to His +continuous present and future forgiveness for all our iniquity. He +who has proposed to us the 'seventy times seven' as the number of +our forgivenesses will not let His own fall short of that tale. Our +iniquities may be 'more than the hairs of our heads,' but as the +psalmist who found his to be so comforted himself with thinking, +God's 'thoughts which are to usward' were 'more than can be +numbered.' There would be a pardoning thought for every sin, and +after all sins had been forgiven, there would be 'multitudes of +redemptions' still available for penitent souls. + +There is but one thing that limits the divine pardon, and that is +continuous rejection of it. + +Whoever seeks to be pardoned _is_ pardoned. + +III. The manner of the divine forgiveness. + +He pardoned, but He also inflicted punishment, and in both He loves +equally. The worst, that is the spiritual, consequences (which are +the punishments) of sin, namely separation and alienation from God, +He removes in the very act of forgiveness, but His pardon does not +affect the natural consequences. 'Thou wast a God that forgavest +them and tookest vengeance of their inventions,' says a psalmist in +reference to this very incident. Thank God that He loves us too +wisely and well not to let us by experience 'know that it is a +bitter thing to forsake the Lord.' + +It is a blessing that He does so, and a sign that we are pardoned, +if we rightly use it. + +IV. The vehicle of the divine forgiveness. + +The Mediator. Moses here may be taken as a dim shadow of Christ. + +'Moses was faithful in all his house' but Jesus is the true +Mediator, whose intercession consists in presenting the constant +efficacy of His sacrifice, and to whom God ever says, 'I have +pardoned according to Thy word.' + +Trust utterly to Him. You cannot weary out the forgiving love of +God. 'Christ ever liveth to make intercession'; with God is +'plenteous redemption.' 'He shall redeem Israel out of _all_ +his iniquities.' + + + + +SERVICE A GIFT + + + '... I have given your priest's office unto you as a + service of gift.'--NUM. xviii. 7. + +All Christians are priests--to offer sacrifices, alms, especially +prayers; to make God known to men. + +I. Our priesthood is a gift of God's love. + +We are apt to think of our duties as burdensome. They are an honour +and a mark of God's grace. + +1. They are His gift-- + +_(a)_ The power to do. All capacities and possessions from Him. + +_(b)_ The wish to do. 'Worketh in you to will.' + +_(c)_ The right to do, through Christ. + +2. They are a blessing. + +_(a)_ Note the good effects on ourselves--the increase of +fellowship with Him, the strengthening of all holy desires. + +_(b)_ The future benefits. Apply this to prayer and to effort +on behalf of our fellow-men. + +II. Our priesthood is to be done as a service--under a sense of +obligation to a master, with diligence (an [Greek: ergon], not a +[Greek: parergon]). + +III. Our priesthood is to be done as a gift to God--to be done +joyfully, giving ourselves back to Him: 'Yield yourselves unto + God'--'your reasonable service.' + +Then only do we really possess ourselves, and 'all things are ours, +for we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' + + + + +THE WATERS OF MERIBAH + + + 'Then came the children of Israel, even the whole + congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first + month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died + there, and was buried there. 2. And there was no water + for the congregation: and they gathered themselves + together against Moses and against Aaron. 3. And the + people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God + that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! + 4. And why have ye brought up the congregation of the + Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should + die there? 5. And wherefore have ye made us to come up out + of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no + place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; + neither is there any water to drink. 6. And Moses and + Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the + door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell + upon their faces: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto + them. 7. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 8. Take + the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, + and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before + their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou + shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou + shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. + 9. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He + commanded him. 10. And Moses and Aaron gathered the + congregation together before the rock, and he said unto + them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out + of this rock? 11. And Moses lifted up his hand, and with + his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out + abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts + also. 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, + Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes + of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring + this congregation into the land which I have given them. + 13. This is the water of Meribah; because the children + of Israel strove with the Lord, and He was sanctified + in them.'--NUM. xx. 1-13. + +Kadesh had witnessed the final trial and failure of the generation +that came out of Egypt; now we see the first trial and failure of +the new generation, thirty-seven years after, on the same spot. Deep +silence shrouds the history of these dreary years; but, probably, +the congregation was broken up, and small parties roamed over the +country, without purpose or hope, while Moses and a few of the +leaders kept by the tabernacle. There is a certain emphasis in the +phrase of the first verse of this chapter, 'the children of Israel, +even the _whole_ congregation,' which suggests that this was +the first reassembling of the scattered units since the last act of +the 'whole congregation.' 'The first month' was, then, the first of +the fortieth year, and the gathering was either in obedience to the +summons of Moses, who knew that the fixed time had now come, or was +the result of common knowledge of the fact. In any case, we have +here the first act of a new epoch, and the question to be tried is +whether the new men are any better than the old. It is this which +gives importance to the event, and explains the bitterness of Moses +at finding the old spirit living in the children. It was his trial +as well as theirs. He resumed the functions which had substantially +been in abeyance for a generation, and by his conduct showed that he +had become unfit for the new form which the leadership must take +with the invasion of Canaan. + +I. We note the old murmurings on the lips of the new generation. The +lament of a later prophet fits these hereditary grumblers,--'In vain +have I smitten your children; they received no correction.' The +place where they reassembled might have taught them the sin of +unbelief; their parents' graves should have enforced the lesson. But +the long years of wandering, and two millions of deaths, had been +useless. The weather-beaten but sturdy strength of the four old men, +the only survivors, might have preached the wisdom of trust in the +God in whose 'favour is life.' But the people 'had learned nothing and +forgotten nothing.' The old cuckoo-cry, which had become so +monotonous from their fathers, is repeated, with differences, not in +their favour. They do not, indeed, murmur directly against God, +because they regard Moses and Aaron as responsible. 'Why,' say they, +'have _ye_ brought up the congregation of the Lord?' They seem to use +that name with a touch of pride in their relation to God, while +destitute of any real obedience, and so they show the first traces of +the later spirit of the nation. They have acquired cattle while living +in the oases of the wilderness, and they are anxious about them. +They acknowledge the continuity of national life in their question, +'Wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt?' though most of +them had been born in the wilderness. The fear that moved their fathers +to unbelief was more reasonable and less contemptible than this +murmuring, which ignores God all but utterly, and is ready to throw +up everything at the first taste of privation. + +It is a signal instance of the solemn law by which the fathers' sins +are inherited by the children who prove themselves heirs to their +ancestors by repeating their deeds. It is fashionable now to deny +original sin, and equally fashionable to affirm 'heredity,' which is +the same thing, put into scientific language. There is such a thing +as national character persistent through generations, each unit of +which adds something to the force of the tendencies which he +receives and transmits, but which never are so omnipotent as to +destroy individual guilt, however they may lighten it. + +Note, too, the awful power of resistance to God's educating +possessed by our wills. The whole purpose of these men's lives, thus +far, had been to fit them for being God's instruments, and for the +reception of His blessing. The desert was His school for body and +mind, where muscles and wills were to be braced, and solitude and +expectation might be nurses of lofty thoughts, and in the silence +God's voice might sound. What better preparation of a hardy race of +God-trusting heroes could there have been, and what came of it all? +Failure all but complete! The instrument tempered with so much care +has its edge turned at the first stroke. The old sore breaks out at +the old spot. Man's will has an awful power to thwart God's +training; and of all the sad mysteries of this sad mysterious world, +this is the saddest and most mysterious, and is the root of all +other sadness and mystery,--that a man can set his pin-point of a +will against that great Will which gives him all his power, and when +God beckons can say, 'I will not,' and can render His most sedulous +discipline ineffectual. + +Note, too, that trivial things are large enough to hide plain duties +and bright possibilities. These men knew that they had come to +Kadesh for the final assault, which was to recompense all their +hardships. Their desert training should have made them less +resourceless and desperate when water failed; but the hopes of +conquest and the duty of trust cannot hold their own against present +material inconvenience. They even seem to make bitter mockery of the +promises, when they complain that Kadesh is 'no place of seed, or of +figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates,' which were the fruits +brought by the spies,--as if they had said, 'So this stretch of +waterless sand is the fertile land you talked of, is it? This is all +that we have got by reassembling here.' Do we not often feel that +the drought of Kadesh is more real than the grapes of Eshcol? Are we +not sometimes tempted to bitter comparisons of the fair promises +with the gloomy realities? Does our courage never flag, nor our +faith falter, nor swirling clouds of doubt hide the inheritance from +our weary and tear-filled eyes? He that is without sin may cast the +first stone at these men; but whoever knows his own weak heart will +confess that, if he had been among that thirsty crowd, he would, +most likely, have made one of the murmurers. + +II. Note God's repetition of His old gift to the new generation. +Moses makes no attempt to argue with the people, but casts himself +in entreaty before the door of the Tabernacle, as if crushed and +helpless in face of this heart-breaking proof of the persistent +obstinacy of the old faults. God's answer recalls the former miracle +at Rephidim (Exodus xvii. 1-7) in the early days of the march, when +the same cries had come from lips now silent, and the rock, smitten +at God's command by the rod which had parted the sea, yielded water. +The only differences are that here Moses is bid to speak, not to +smite; and that the miracle is to be done before all the +congregation, instead of before the elders only. Both variations +seem to have the common purpose of enhancing the wonder, and +confirming the authority of Moses, to a generation to whom the old +deliverances were only hearsay, and many of whom were in contact +with the leader for the first time. The fact that we have here the +beginning of a new epoch, and a new set of people, goes far to +explain the resemblance of the two incidents, without the need of +supposing, with many critics, that they are but different versions +of one 'legend.' The repetition of scarcity of water is not +wonderful; the recurrence of the murmurings is the sad proof of the +unchanged temper of the people, and the repetition of the miracle is +the merciful witness of the patience of God. His charity 'is not +easily provoked, is not soon angry,' but stoops to renew gifts which +had been so little appreciated that the remembrance of them failed +to cure distrust. Unbelief is obstinate, but His loving purpose is +more persistent still. Rephidim should have made the murmuring at +Kadesh impossible; but, if it does not, then He will renew the +mercy, though it had been once wasted, and will so shape the second +gift that it shall recall the first, if haply both may effect what +one had failed to do. When need is repeated, the supply is +forthcoming, even when it is demanded by sullen and forgetful +distrust. We can wear out men's patience, but God's is +inexhaustible. The same long-suffering Hand that poured water from +the rock for two generations of distrustful murmurers still lavishes +its misused gifts on us, to win us to late repentance, 'and +upbraideth not' for our slowness to learn the lessons of His +mercies. + +III. Note the breaking down at last of the long-tried leader's +patience. It is in striking contrast with the patience of God. Psalm +cvi. 32, 33, describes the sin of Moses as twofold; namely, anger +and speaking 'unadvisedly.' His harsh words, so unlike his pleadings +on the former occasion of rebellion at Kadesh, have a worse thing +than an outburst of temper in them. 'Must _we_ fetch you water +out of the rock?' arrogates to himself the power of working +miracles. He forgets that he was as much an instrument, and as +little a force, as his own rod. His angry scolding betrays wounded +personal importance, and annoyance at rebellion against his own +authority, rather than grief at the people's distrust of God, and +also a distinct clouding over of his own consciousness of dependence +for all his power on God, and an impure mingling of thoughts of +self. The same turbid blending of anger and self-regard impelled his +arm to the passionately repeated strokes, which, in his heat, he +substituted for the quiet words that he was bidden to speak. The +Palestinian Tar gum says very significantly, that at the first +stroke the rock dropped blood, thereby indicating the tragic +sinfulness of the angry blow. How unworthy a representative of the +long-suffering God was this angry man! 'The servant of the Lord must +not strive,' nor give the water with which he is entrusted, with +contempt or anger in his heart. That gift requires meek compassion +in its stewards. + +But the failure of Moses' patience was only too natural. The whole +incident has to be studied as the first of a new era, in which both +leader and led were on their trial. During the thirty-seven years of +waiting, Moses had had but little exercise of that part of his +functions, and little experience of the people's temper. He must +have looked forward anxiously to the result of the desert hardening; +he must have felt more remote from and above the children than he +did to their parents, his contemporaries who had come with him from +Egypt, and so his disappointment must have been proportionately +keen, when the first difficulty that rose revealed the old spirit in +undiminished force. For forty years he had been patient, and ready +to swallow mortifications and ignore rebellion against himself, and +to offer himself for his people; but now, when men whom he had seen +in their swaddling-clothes showed the same stiff-necked distrust as +had killed their fathers, the breaking-point of his patience was +reached. That burst of anger is a grave symptom of lessened love for +the sinful murmurers; and lessened love always means lessened power +to guide and help. The people are not changed, but Moses is. He has +no longer the invincible patience, the utter self-oblivion, the +readiness for self-sacrifice, which had borne him up of old, and so +he fails. We may learn from his failure that the prime requisite for +doing God's work is love, which cannot be moved to anger nor stirred +to self-assertion, but meets and conquers murmuring and rebellion by +patient holding forth of God's gift, and is, in some faint degree, +an echo of His endless long-suffering. He who would serve men must, +sleeping or waking, carry them in his heart, and pity their sin. +They who would represent God to men, and win men for God, must be +'imitators of God ... and walk in love.' If the bearer of the water +of life offers it with 'Hear, ye rebels,' it will flow untasted. + +IV. Note the sentence on the leader, and the sad memorial name. +Moses is blamed for not believing nor sanctifying God. His self- +assertion in his unadvised speech came from unbelief, or +forgetfulness of his dependence. He who claims power to himself, +denies it to God. Moses put himself between God and the people, not +to show but to hide God; and, instead of exalting God's holiness +before them by declaring Him to be the giver, he intercepted the +thanks and diverted them to himself. But was his momentary failure +not far too severely punished? To answer that question, we must +recur to the thought of the importance of this event as beginning a +new chapter, and as a test for both Moses and Israel. His failure +was a comparatively small matter in itself; and if the sentence is +regarded merely as the punishment of a sin, it appears sternly +disproportionate to the offence. Were eighty years of faithful +service not sufficient to procure the condonation of one moment's +impatience? Is not that harsh treatment? But a tiny blade above- +ground may indicate the presence of a poisonous root, needing +drastic measures for its extirpation; and the sentence was not only +punishment for sin, but kind, though punitive, relief from an office +for which Moses had no longer, in full measure, his old +qualifications. The subsequent history does not show any withdrawal +of God's favour from him, and certainly it would be no very sore +sorrow to be freed from the heavy load, carried so long. There is +disapprobation, no doubt, in the sentence; but it treats the conduct +of Moses rather as a symptom of lessened fitness for his heavy +responsibility than as sin; and there is as much kindness as +condemnation in saying to the wearied veteran, who has stood at his +post so long and has taken up arms once more, 'You have done enough. +You are not what you were. Other hands must hold the leader's staff. +Enter into rest.' + +Note that Moses was condemned for doing what Jesus always did, +asserting his power to work miracles. What was unbelief and a sinful +obtrusion of himself in God's place when the great lawgiver did it, +was right and endorsed by God when the Carpenter of Nazareth did it. +Why the difference? A greater than Moses is here, when He says to +us, 'What will ye that I should do unto you?' + +The name of Meribah-Kadesh is given to suggest the parallel and +difference with the other miraculous flow of water. The two +incidents are thus brought into connection, and yet individualised. +'Meribah,' which means 'strife,' brands the murmuring as sinful +antagonism to God: 'Kadesh,' which means 'holy,' brings both the +miracle and the sentence under the common category of acts by which +God manifested His holiness to the new generation; and so the double +name is a reminder of sin that they may be humble, and of mingled +mercy and judgment that they may 'trust and obey.' + + + + +THE POISON AND THE ANTIDOTE + + + 'And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the + Red Sea, to compare the land of Edom: and the soul of + the people was much discouraged because of the way. + 5. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, + Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in + the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there + any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6. And + the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they + bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7. Therefore + the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for + we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray + unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. + And Moses prayed for the people. 8. And the Lord said + unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon + a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that + is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9. And + Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, + and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any + man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.' + --NUM. xxi. 4-9. + +The mutinous discontent of the Israelites had some excuse when they +had to wheel round once more and go southwards in consequence of the +refusal of passage through Edom. The valley which stretches from the +Dead Sea to the head of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, down which +they had to plod in order to turn the southern end of the mountains +on its east side, and then resume their northern march outside the +territory of Edom, is described as a 'horrible desert.' Certainly it +yielded neither bread nor water. So the faithless pilgrims broke +into their only too familiar murmurings, utterly ignoring their +thirty-eight years of preservation. 'There is no bread.' No; but the +manna had fallen day by day. 'Our soul loatheth this light bread.' +Yes; but it was bread all the same. Thus coarse tastes prefer garlic +and onions to Heaven's food, and complain of being starved while it +is provided. 'There is no water.' No; but the 'rock that followed +them' gushed out abundance, and there was no thirst. + +Murmuring brought punishment, which was meant for amendment. 'The +Lord sent fiery serpents.' That statement does not necessarily imply +a miracle. Scripture traces natural phenomena directly to God's +will, and often overleaps intervening material links between the +cause which is God and the effect which is a physical fact. The +neighbourhood of Elath at the head of the gulf is still infested +with venomous serpents, 'marked with fiery red spots,' from which, +or possibly from the inflammation caused by their poison, they are +here called 'fiery.' God made the serpents, though they were hatched +by eggs laid by mothers; He brought Israel to the place; He willed +the poisonous stings. If we would bring ordinary events into +immediate connection with the Divine hand, and would see in all +calamities fatherly chastisement 'for our profit,' we should +understand life better than we often do. + +The swift stroke had fallen without warning or voice to interpret +it, but the people knew in their hearts whence and why it had come. +Their quick recognition of its source and purpose, and their swift +repentance, are to be put to their credit. It is well for us when we +interpret for ourselves God's judgments, and need no Moses to urge +us to humble ourselves before Him. Conscious guilt is conscious of +unworthiness to approach God, though it dares to speak to offended +men. The request for Moses' intercession witnesses to the instinct +of conscience, requiring a mediator,--an instinct which has led to +much superstition and been terribly misguided, but which is deeply +true, and is met once for all in Jesus Christ, our Advocate before +the throne. The request shows that the petitioners were sure of +Moses' forgiveness for their distrust of him, and thus it witnesses +to his 'meekness.' His pardon was a kind of pledge of God's. Was the +servant likely to be more gracious than the Master? A good man's +readiness to forgive helps bad men to believe in a pardoning God. It +reflects some beam of Heaven's mercy. + +Moses had often prayed for the people when they had sinned, and +before they had repented. It was not likely that he would be slow to +do so when they asked him, for the asking was accompanied with ample +confession. The serpents had done their work, and the prayer that +the chastisement should cease would be based on the fact that the +sin had been forsaken. But the narrative seems to anticipate that, +after the prayer had been offered and answered, Israelites would +still be bitten. If they were, that confirms the presumption that +the sending of the serpents was not miraculous. It also brings the +whole facts into line with the standing methods of Providence, for +the outward consequences of sin remain to be reaped after the sin +has been forsaken; but they change their character and are no longer +destructive, but only disciplinary. 'Serpents' still 'bite' if we +have 'broken down hedges,' but there is an antidote. + +The command to make a brazen or copper serpent, and set it on some +conspicuous place, that to look on it might stay the effect of the +poison, is remarkable, not only as sanctioning the forming of an +image, but as associating healing power with a material object. Two +questions must be considered separately,--What did the method of +cure say to the men who turned their bloodshot, languid eyes to it? +and What does it mean for us, who see it by the light of our Lord's +great words about it? As to the former question, we have not to take +into account the Old Testament symbolism which makes the serpent the +emblem of Satan or of sin. Serpents had bitten the wounded. Here was +one like them, but without poison, hanging harmless on the pole. +Surely that would declare that God had rendered innocuous the else +fatal creatures. The elevation of the serpent was simply intended to +make it visible from afar; but it could not have been set so high as +to be seen from all parts of the camp, and we must suppose that the +wounded were in many cases carried from the distant parts of the +wide-spreading encampment to places whence they could catch a +glimpse of it glittering in the sunshine. We are not told that trust +in God was an essential part of the look, but that is taken for +granted. Why else should a half-dead man lift his heavy eyelids to +look? Such a one knew that God had commanded the image to be made, +and had promised healing for a look. His gaze was fixed on it, in +obedience to the command involved in the promise, and was, in some +measure, a manifestation of faith. No doubt the faith was very +imperfect, and the desire was only for physical healing; but none +the less it had in it the essence of faith. It would have been too +hard a requirement for men through whose veins the swift poison was +burning its way, and who, at the best, were so little capable of +rising above sense, to have asked from them, as the condition of +their cure, a trust which had no external symbol to help it. The +singularity of the method adopted witnesses to the graciousness of +God, who gave their feebleness a thing that they could look at, to +aid them in grasping the unseen power which really effected the +cure. 'He that turned himself to it,' says the Book of Wisdom, 'was +not saved by the thing which he saw, but by Thee, that art the +Saviour of all.' + +Our Lord has given us the deepest meaning of the brazen serpent. +Taught by Him, we are to see in it a type of Himself, the +significance of which could not be apprehended till Calvary had +given the key. Three distinct points of parallel are suggested by +His use of the incident in His conversation with Nicodemus. First, +He takes the serpent as an emblem of Himself. Now it is clear that +it is so, not in regard to the saving power that dwells in Him, but +in regard to His sinless manhood, which was made 'in the likeness of +sinful flesh,' yet 'without sin.' The symbolism which takes the +serpent as the material type of sin comes into view now, and is +essential to the full comprehension of the typical significance of +the incident. + +Secondly, Jesus laid stress on the 'lifting up' of the serpent. That +'lifting up' has two meanings. It primarily refers to the +Crucifixion, wherein, just as the death-dealing power was manifestly +triumphed over in the elevation of the brazen serpent, the power of +sin is exhibited as defeated, as Paul says, 'triumphing over them +in it' (Col. ii. 14,15). But that lifting up on the Cross draws +after it the elevation to the throne, and to that, or, rather, to +both considered as inseparably united, our Lord refers when He +says,' I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto +Me.' + +Thirdly, the condition of healing is paralleled. 'When he looked +unto the serpent of brass, he lived.' 'That whosoever believeth may +in Him have eternal life.' From the serpent no healing power flowed; +but our eternal life is '_in_ Him,' and _from_ Him it flows into our +poisoned, dying nature. The sole condition of receiving into ourselves +that new life which is free from all taint of sin, and is mighty enough +to arrest the venom that is diffused through every drop of blood, is +faith in Jesus lifted on the Cross to slay the sin that is slaying +mankind, and raised to the throne to bestow His own immortal and +perfect life on all who look to Him. The bitten Israelite might be all +but dead. The poison wrought swiftly; but if he from afar lifted his +glazing eyeballs to the serpent on the pole, a swifter healing overtook +the death that was all but conqueror, and cast it out, and he who was +borne half unconscious to the foot of the standard went away a sound +man, 'walking, and leaping, and praising God.' So it may be with any +man, however deeply tainted with sin, if he will trust himself to Jesus, +and from 'the ends of the earth' 'look unto' Him 'and be saved,' His +power knows no hopeless cases. He _can_ cure all. He _will_ cure our +most ingrained sin, and calm the hottest fever of our poisoned blood, +if we will let Him. The only thing that we have to do is to gaze, with +our hearts in our eyes and faith in our hearts, on Him, as He is lifted +on the Cross and the throne. But we must so gaze, or we die, for none +but He can cast out the coursing venom. None but He can arrest the +swift-footed death that is intertwined with our very natures. + + + + +BALAAM + + 'He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of + Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of + the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold + there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they + cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against + me.'--NUM. xxii. 6. + +Give a general outline of the history. See Bishop Butler's great +sermon. + +I. How much knowledge and love of good there may be in a bad man. + +Balaam was a prophet: + +_(a)_ He knew something of the divine character, + +_(b)_ He knew what righteousness was (Micah v. 8). + +_(c)_ He knew of a future state, and longed for 'the last end +of the righteous.' + +He would not break the law of God, and curse by word of mouth: + +But yet for all that he wanted to curse. He wanted to do the wrong +thing, and that made him bad. And when he durst not do it in one +way, he did it in another. + +So he is a picture of the universal blending and mixture that there +is even in bad men. + +It is not knowledge that makes a man good. + +It is not aspirations after righteousness. These dwell more or less +in all souls. + +It is not desire 'to go to heaven'--everybody has that desire. + +Perfectly vicious men are devils. There is always the blending. + +Many of us are trusting to these vagrant wishes, but my friends, it +is not what a man would sometimes like, but what the whole set and +tenor of his life tends towards, that makes him. There may be plenty +of backwater eddies and cross-currents in the sea, but the tide goes +on all the same. + + 'All these fancies and their whole array + One cunning bosom sin blows quite away,' + +'Let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous.' + +Do not trust your convictions; they are powerless in the fight. + +II. How men may deceive themselves about their condition, or the +self-illusions and compromises of sin. + +These convictions will never, by themselves, keep a man from evil, +but they may lead men to try to compromise, just as Balaam did. He +would go, but he would not, for the life of him, curse; and he +evidently thought that he was a hero in firmness and a martyr to +duty. + +He would not curse in words, but he did it in another way--by means +of Baal-peor. + +So we find men making compromises between duty and inclination; +keeping the letter and breaking the spirit; obeying in some respects +and indemnifying themselves for their obedience by their +disobedience in others; very devout, attentive to all religious +observances, and yet sinning on. And we find such men playing tricks +upon themselves, and really deluding themselves into the idea that +they are very good men! + +This is the great characteristic of sin, its deceitfulness. It +always comes as an 'angel of light,' like some of those weird +stories in which we read about a strange guest at a banquet who +discloses a skeleton below the wedding garment! + +'Father of lies.' '_Nihil imbecillius denudato diabolo._' The +more one sins, the less capable he becomes of discerning evil. +Conscience becomes sophisticated, and it is always possible to +refine away its judgments. + +'By reason of use have their senses exercised to discern.' 'Take +heed lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' + +III. The absurdity and unreasonableness of unrighteousness. + +We look at Balaam, and think, how could a man purpose anything so +foolish as to go on seeking for an opportunity to break a law which +he knew to be irrevocable! + +Yet what did he do but what every sinner does? + +All sin is the breach of law which at the very moment of breaking is +known to be imperative. + +All sin is thus the overbearing of conscience, or the sophistication +of conscience, and all sin is the incurring voluntarily of +consequences which at the moment are or might be known to be +certain, and far overbalancing any fancied 'wages of unrighteousness.' + +Thus all sin is the overbearing of reason or the sophisticating of +reason by passion. Men know the absurdity of sin, and yet men will +go on sinning. 'A rogue is a roundabout fool.' All wrongdoing is a +mighty blunder. It is only righteousness which is congruous with a +man's reason, with a man's conscience, with a man's highest +happiness. 'The fear of the Lord,' that is wisdom. + +IV. The wages of unrighteousness. + +How Balaam's experiment ended--his death. He tried to make the 'best +of both worlds,' so he ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds, +and this was how it ended, as it always does, as it always will. How +death ends all the illusions, sternly breaks down all the +compromises, reveals all the absurdities! + +Men are one thing or the other. Learn, then, the lesson that no +gifts, no talents, no convictions, no aspirations will avail. + +Let this sad figure which looks out upon us with grey streaming hair +and uplifted hands from beside the altar on Pisgah speak to us. + +How near the haven it is possible to be cast away! Like Bunyan's way +to hell from near the gate of the celestial city. + +Balaam said, 'Let me die the death of the righteous!' and his death +was thus:--'Balaam they slew with the sword,' and his epitaph is +'Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,' +got them, and perished! + + + + +AN UNFULFILLED DESIRE + + + '... Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my + last end be like his!'--NUM. xxiii. 10. + + '... Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the + sword.'--NUM. xiii. 8. + +Ponder these two pictures. Take the first scene. A prophet, who +knows God and His will, is standing on the mountain top, and as he +looks down over the valley beneath him, with its acacia-trees and +swift river, there spread the tents of Israel. He sees them, and +knows that they are 'a people whom the Lord hath blessed.' Brought +there to curse, 'he blesses them altogether'; and as he gazes upon +their ordered ranks and sees somewhat of the wondrous future that +lay before them, his mind is filled with the thought of all the +blessedness of that righteous nation, and the sigh of longing comes +to his lips, 'May I be with them in life and death; may I have no +higher honour, no calmer end, than to lie down and die as one of the +chosen people, with memories of a divine hand that has protected me +all through the past, and quiet hopes of the same hand holding me up +in the great darkness!' A devout aspiration, a worthy desire! + +Look at the other picture. Midian has seduced Israel to idolatry and +its constant companion, sensual sin. The old lawgiver has for his +last achievement to punish the idolater. 'Avenge the children of +Israel of the Midianites, afterwards thou shalt be gathered to thy +people.' So each tribe gives its contingent to the fight, and under +the fierce and prompt Phinehas, whose javelin had already smitten +one of the chief offenders, they go forth. Fire and sword, +devastation and victory, mark their track. The princes of Midian +fall before the swift rush of the desert-born invaders. And--sad, +strange company!--among them is the 'man who saw the vision of the +Almighty, and knew the knowledge of the Most High'! he who had +taught Moab the purest lessons of morality, and Midian, alas! the +practice of the vilest profligacy; he who saw from afar 'the sceptre +arise out of Israel and the Star from Jacob'; he who longed to 'die +the death of the righteous'! The onset of the avenging host, with +the 'shout of a king' in their midst; the terror of the flight, the +riot of havoc and bloodshed, and, finally, the quick thrust of the +sharp Israelite sword in some strong hand, and the grey hairs all +dabbled with his blood--these were what the man came to who had once +breathed the honest desire, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, +and let my last end be like his'! + +I. There is surely a solemn lesson for us all here--as touching the +danger of mere vague religious desires and convictions which we do +not allow to determine our conduct. + +Balaam had evidently much knowledge. Look at these points-- + +_(a)_ His knowledge of the covenant-name of God. + +_(b)_ His knowledge of a pure morality and a spiritual worship +far beyond sacrificial notions, and in some respects higher than the +then Old Testament standpoint. + +_(c)_ The knowledge (which is implied in the text) of a future +state, which had gone far into the background, even if it had not +been altogether lost, among the Israelites. Is it not remarkable +that the religious ideas of this man were in advance of Israel's at +this time; that there seems to have lingered among these 'outsiders' +more of a pure faith than in Israel itself? + +What a lesson here as to the souls led by God and enlightened by Him +beyond the pale of Judaism! + +But all this knowledge, of what use was it to Balaam? He knows about +God: does he seek to serve Him? He preaches morality to Moab, and he +teaches Midian to 'teach the children of Israel to commit +fornication.' He knows something of the blessedness of a 'righteous +man's' death, and perhaps sees faintly the shining gates beyond--but +how does it all end? What a gulf between _knowledge_ and +_life_! + +What is the use of correct ideas about God? They may be the +foundations of holy thoughts, and they are meant to be so. I am not +setting up emotion above principle, or fancying that there can be +religion without theology; but for what are all our thoughts about +God given us? + +_(a)_ That they may influence our hearts. + +_(b)_ That they may subdue our wills. + +_(c)_ That they may mould our practical life. + +If they do not do that--then _what_ do they do? + +They constitute a positive hindrance--like the dead lava-blocks that +choke the mouth of a crater, or the two deposits on the bottom of a +boiler, soot outside and crust inside, which keep the fire from +getting at the water. They have lost their power because they are so +familiar. They are weakened by not being practised. The very organs +of intelligence are, as it were, ossified. Self-complacency lays +hold on the possession of these ideas and shields itself against all +appeals with the fact of possessing them. Many a man mistakes, in +his own case, the knowledge of the truth for obedience to the truth. +All this is seen in everyday life, and with reference to all manner +of convictions, but it is most apparent and most fatal about +Christian truth. I appeal to the many who hear and know all about +'the word,' What more is needed? That you should do what you know +('Be not hearers only'); that you should yield your whole being to +Christ, the living Word. + +II. Balaam is an example of convictions which remain inefficacious. + +It was not without some sense of his own character, and some +forebodings of what was possibly brooding over him, that he uttered +these words of the text. But they were transitory emotions, and they +passed away. + +I suppose that every man who hears the gospel proclaimed is, at some +time or other, conscious of dawning thoughts which, if followed, +would lead him to decision for Christ. I suppose that every man +among us is conscious of thoughts visiting him many a time when he +least expects them, which, if honestly obeyed, would work an entire +revolution in his life. + +I do not wish to speak as if unbelieving men were the only people +who were unfaithful to their consciences, but rather to deal with +what is a besetting sin of us all, though it reaches its highest +aggravation in reference to the gospel. + +Such stings of conviction come to us all, but how are they deadened? + +_(a)_ By simple neglect. Pay no attention to them; do not do +anything in consequence, and they will gradually disappear. The +voice unheard will cease to speak. Non-obedience to conscience will +in the end almost throttle conscience. + +_(b)_ By angry rejection. + +_(c)_ By busy occupation with the outer world. + +_(d)_ By sinful occupation with it. + +Then consider that such dealing with our convictions leaves us far +worse men than before, and if continued will end in utter +insensibility. + +What should we do with such convictions? Reverently follow them. And +in so doing they will grow and increase, and lead us at last to God +and peace. + +Special application of all this to our attitude towards Christian +truth. + +III. Balaam is an instance of wishes that are never fulfilled. + +He wished to die 'as the righteous.' How did he die? miserably; and +why? + +(1) Because his wish was deficient in character. + +It was _one_ among a great many, feeble and not predominant, +occasioned by circumstances, and so fading when these disappeared. +Like many men's relation to the gospel who would _like_ to be +Christians, and are not. These vagrant wishes are nothing; mere +'catspaws' of wind, not a breeze. They are not real, even while they +last, and so they come to nothing. + +(2) Because it was partially wrong in its object. + +He was willing to die the death, but not to live the life, of the +righteous; like many men who would be very glad to 'go to heaven +when they die,' but who will not be Christians while they live. + +Now, God forbid that I should say that his wish was wrong! But only +it was not enough. Such a wish led to no action. + +Now, God hears the faintest wish; He does not require that we should +will strongly, but He does require that we should desire, and that +we should act according to our desires. + +Let the close be a brief picture of a righteous death. And oh! if +you feel that it is blessed, then let that desire lead you to +Christ, and all will be well. Remember that Bunyan saw a byway to +hell at the door of the celestial city. Remember how Balaam ended, +and stands gibbeted in the New Testament as an evil man, and the +type of false teachers. Finally, beware of knowledge which is not +operative in conduct, of convictions which are neglected and pass +away, of vague desires which come to nought. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture +by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named 7gens10.txt or 7gens10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7gens11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7gens10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture + Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7069] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 5, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +GENESIS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE VISION OF CREATION (Genesis i. 26--ii. 3) + +HOW SIN CAME IN (Genesis iii. 1-15) + +EDEN LOST AND RESTORED (Genesis iii. 24; Revelation xxii. 14) + +THE GROWTH AND POWER OF SIN (Genesis iv. 3-16) + +WHAT CROUCHES AT THE DOOR (Genesis iv. 7, R.V.) + +WITH, BEFORE, AFTER (Genesis v. 22; Genesis xvii. 1; +Deuteronomy xiii. 4) + +THE COURSE AND CROWN OF A DEVOUT LIFE (Genesis v. 24) + +THE SAINT AMONG SINNERS (Genesis vi. 9-22) + +'CLEAR SHINING AFTER RAIN' (Genesis viii. 1-22) + +THE SIGN FOR MAN AND THE REMEMBRANCER FOR GOD (Genesis ix. 8-17) + +AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH (Genesis xii. 1-9) + +ABRAM AND THE LIFE OF FAITH + +GOING FORTH (Genesis xii. 5) + +COMING IN + +THE MAN OF FAITH (Genesis xii. 6, 7) + +LIFE IN CANAAN (Genesis xii. 8) + +THE IMPORTANCE OF A CHOICE (Genesis xiii. 1-13) + +ABBAM THE HEBREW (Genesis xiv. 13) + +GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM (Genesis xv. 5-18) + +THE WORD THAT SCATTERS FEAR (Genesis xv. 1) + +FAITH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS (Genesis xv. 6) + +WAITING FAITH REWARDED AND STRENGTHENED BY NEW REVELATIONS +(Genesis xvii. 1-9) + +A PETULANT WISH (Genesis xvii. 18) + +'BECAUSE OF HIS IMPORTUNITY' (Genesis xviii. l6-33) + +THE INTERCOURSE OF GOD AND HIS FRIEND + +THE SWIFT DESTROYER (Genesis xix. 15-26) + +FAITH TESTED AND CROWNED (Genesis xxii. 1-14) + +THE CROWNING TEST AND TRIUMPH OF FAITH + +JEHOVAH-JIREH (Genesis xxii. 14) + +GUIDANCE IN THE WAY (Genesis xxiv. 27) + +THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM (Genesis xxv. 8) + +A BAD BARGAIN (Genesis xxv. 27-34) + +POTTAGE _versus_ BIRTHRIGHT (Genesis xxv. 34) + +THE FIRST APOSTLE OF PEACE AT ANY PRICE (Genesis xxvi. 12-25) + +THE HEAVENLY PATHWAY AND THE EARTHLY HEART (Genesis xxviii. 10-22) + +MAHANAIM: THE TWO CAMPS (Genesis xxxii. 1, 2) + +THE TWOFOLD WRESTLE--GOD'S WITH JACOB AND JACOB'S WITH GOD +(Genesis xxxii. 9-12) + +A FORGOTTEN VOW (Genesis xxxv. 1) + +THE TRIALS AND VISIONS OF DEVOUT YOUTH (Genesis xxxvii. 1-11) + +MAN'S PASSIONS AND GOD'S PURPOSE (Genesis xxxvii. 23-36) + +GOODNESS IN A DUNGEON (Genesis xl. 1-15) + +JOSEPH, THE PRIME MINISTER (Genesis xli. 38-48) + +RECOGNITION AND RECONCILIATION (Genesis xlv. 1-15) + +JOSEPH, THE PARDONER AND PRESERVER + +GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING (Genesis xlvii. 1-12) + +TWO RETROSPECTS OF ONE LIFE (Genesis xlvii. 9; Genesis xlviii. 15, 16) + +'THE HANDS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF JACOB' (Genesis xlix. 23, 24) + +THE SHEPHERD, THE STONE OF ISRAEL (Genesis xlix. 24) + +A CALM EVENING, PROMISING A BRIGHT MORNING (Genesis l. 14-26) + +JOSEPH'S FAITH (Genesis l. 25) + +A COFFIN IN EGYPT (Genesis l. 26) + + + + + THE VISION OF CREATION + + + 'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our + likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of + the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the + cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping + thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man + in His own image: in the image of God created He him; + male and female created He them. And God blessed them: + and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and + replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion + over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, + and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. + And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing + seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every + tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; + to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the + earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing + that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I + have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And + God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it + was very good. And the evening and the morning were the + sixth day. + + 'Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all + the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His + work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day + from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the + seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He + had rested from all His work which God created and made.' + --GENESIS i. 26-ii. 3. + +We are not to look to Genesis for a scientific cosmogony, and are +not to be disturbed by physicists' criticisms on it as such. Its +purpose is quite another, and far more important; namely, to imprint +deep and ineffaceable the conviction that the one God created all +things. Nor must it be forgotten that this vision of creation was +given to people ignorant of natural science, and prone to fall back +into surrounding idolatry. The comparison of the creation narratives +in Genesis with the cuneiform tablets, with which they evidently are +most closely connected, has for its most important result the +demonstration of the infinite elevation above their monstrosities +and puerilities, of this solemn, steadfast attribution of the +creative act to the one God. Here we can only draw out in brief the +main points which the narrative brings into prominence. + +1. The revelation which it gives is the truth, obscured to all other +men when it was given, that one God 'in the beginning created the +heaven and the earth.' That solemn utterance is the keynote of the +whole. The rest but expands it. It was a challenge and a denial for +all the beliefs of the nations, the truth of which Israel was the +champion and missionary. It swept the heavens and earth clear of the +crowd of gods, and showed the One enthroned above, and operative in, +all things. We can scarcely estimate the grandeur, the emancipating +power, the all-uniting force, of that utterance. It is a worn +commonplace to us. It was a strange, thrilling novelty when it was +written at the head of this narrative. _Then_ it was in sharp +opposition to beliefs that have long been dead to us; but it is +still a protest against some living errors. Physical science has not +spoken the final word when it has shown us how things came to be as +they are. There remains the deeper question, What, or who, +originated and guided the processes? And the only answer is the +ancient declaration, 'In the beginning God created the heaven and +the earth.' + +2. The record is as emphatic and as unique in its teaching as to the +mode of creation: 'God said ... and it was so.' That lifts us above +all the poor childish myths of the nations, some of them disgusting, +many of them absurd, all of them unworthy. There was no other agency +than the putting forth of the divine will. The speech of God is but +a symbol of the flashing forth of His will. To us Christians the +antique phrase suggests a fulness of meaning not inherent in it, for +we have learned to believe that 'all things were made by Him' whose +name is 'The Word of God'; but, apart from that, the representation +here is sublime. 'He spake, and it was done'; that is the sign- +manual of Deity. + +3. The completeness of creation is emphasised. We note, not only the +recurrent 'and it was so,' which declares the perfect correspondence +of the result with the divine intention, but also the recurring 'God +saw that it was good.' His ideals are always realised. The divine +artist never finds that the embodiment of His thought falls short of +His thought. + + 'What act is all its thought had been? + What will but felt the fleshly screen? + +But He has no hindrances nor incompletenesses in His creative work, +and the very sabbath rest with which the narrative closes +symbolises, not His need of repose, but His perfect accomplishment +of His purpose. God ceases from His works because 'the works were +finished,' and He saw that all was very good. + +4. The progressiveness of the creative process is brought into +strong relief. The work of the first four days is the preparation of +the dwelling-place for the living creatures who are afterwards +created to inhabit it. How far the details of these days' work +coincide with the order as science has made it out, we are not +careful to ask here. The primeval chaos, the separation of the +waters above from the waters beneath, the emergence of the land, the +beginning of vegetation there, the shining out of the sun as the +dense mists cleared, all find confirmation even in modern theories +of evolution. But the intention of the whole is much rather to teach +that, though the simple utterance of the divine will was the agent +of creation, the manner of it was not a sudden calling of the world, +as men know it, into being, but majestic, slow advance by stages, +each of which rested on the preceding. To apply the old distinction +between justification and sanctification, creation was a work, not +an act. The Divine Workman, who is always patient, worked slowly +then as He does now. Not at a leap, but by deliberate steps, the +divine ideal attains realisation. + +5. The creation of living creatures on the fourth and fifth days is +so arranged as to lead up to the creation of man as the climax. On +the fifth day sea and air are peopled, and their denizens 'blessed,' +for the equal divine love holds every living thing to its heart. On +the sixth day the earth is replenished with living creatures. Then, +last of all, comes man, the apex of creation. Obviously the purpose +of the whole is to concentrate the light on man; and it is a matter +of no importance whether the narrative is correct according to +zoology, or not. What it says is that God made all the universe, +that He prepared the earth for the delight of living creatures, that +the happy birds that soar and sing, and the dumb creatures that move +through the paths of the seas, and the beasts of the earth, are all +His creating, and that man is linked to them, being made on the same +day as the latter, and by the same word, but that between man and +them all there is a gulf, since he is made in the divine image. That +image implies personality, the consciousness of self, the power to +say 'I,' as well as purity. The transition from the work of the +first four days to that of creating living things must have had a +break. No theory has been able to bridge the chasm without admitting +a divine act introducing the new element of life, and none has been +able to bridge the gulf between the animal and human consciousness +without admitting a divine act introducing 'the image of God' into +the nature common to animal and man. Three facts as to humanity are +thrown up into prominence: its possession of the image of God, the +equality and eternal interdependence of the sexes, and the lordship +over all creatures. Mark especially the remarkable wording of verse 27: +'created He _him_ male and female created He _them_.' So 'neither is +the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman.' Each is +maimed apart from the other. Both stand side by side, on one level +before God. The germ of the most 'advanced' doctrines of the relations +of the sexes is hidden here. + + + + +HOW SIN CAME IN + + + 'Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the + field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the + woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree + of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We + may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of + the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the + garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither + shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said + unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth + know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes + shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good + and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good + for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a + tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the + fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also unto her + husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them + both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; + and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves + aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking + in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his + wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God + amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called + unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he + said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, + because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who + told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the + tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not + eat And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be + with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the + Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast + done? and the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I + did eat. And the Lord God said onto the serpent. Because + thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, + and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt + thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy + life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, + and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy + head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'--GENESIS iii 1-15. + +It is no part of my purpose to enter on the critical questions +connected with the story of 'the fall.' Whether it is a legend, +purified and elevated, or not, is of less consequence than what is +its moral and religious significance, and that significance is +unaffected by the answer to the former question. The story +presupposes that primitive man was in a state of ignorant innocence, +not of intellectual or moral perfection, and it tells how that +ignorant innocence came to pass into conscious sin. What are the +stages of the transition? + +1. There is the presentation of inducement to evil. The law to which +Adam is to be obedient is in the simplest form. There is +restriction. 'Thou shalt not' is the first form of law, and it is a +form congruous with the undeveloped, though as yet innocent, nature +ascribed to him. The conception of duty is present, though in a very +rudimentary shape. An innocent being may be aware of limitations, +though as yet not 'knowing good and evil.' With deep truth the story +represents the first suggestion of disobedience as presented from +without. No doubt, it might have by degrees arisen from within, but +the thought that it was imported from another sphere of being +suggests that it is alien to true manhood, and that, if brought in +from without, it may be cast out again. And the temptation had a +personal source. There are beings who desire to draw men away from +God. The serpent, by its poison and its loathly form, is the natural +symbol of such an enemy of man. The insinuating slyness of the +suggestions of evil is like the sinuous gliding of the snake, and +truly represents the process by which temptation found its way into +the hearts of the first pair, and of all their descendants. For it +begins with casting a doubt on the reality of the prohibition. 'Hath +God said?' is the first parallel opened by the besieger. The +fascinations of the forbidden fruit are not dangled at first before +Eve, but an apparently innocent doubt is filtered into her ear. And +is not that the way in which we are still snared? The reality of +moral distinctions, the essential wrongness of the sin, is obscured +by a mist of sophistication. 'There is no harm in it' steals into +some young man's or woman's mind about things that were forbidden at +home, and they are half conquered before they know that they have +been attacked. Then comes the next besieger's trench, much nearer +the wall--namely, denial of the fatal consequences of the sin: 'Ye +shall not surely die,' and a base hint that the prohibition was +meant, not as a parapet to keep from falling headlong into the +abyss, but as a barrier to keep from rising to a great good; 'for +God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall +be opened, and ye shall be as gods.' These are still the two lies +which wile us to sin: 'It will do you no harm,' and 'You are +cheating yourselves out of good by not doing it.' + +2. Then comes the yielding to the tempter. As long as the +prohibition was undoubted, and the fatal results certain, the +fascinations of the forbidden thing were not felt. But as soon as +these were tampered with, Eve saw 'that the tree was good for food, +and that it was a delight to the eyes.' So it is still. Weaken the +awe-inspiring sense of God's command, and of the ruin that follows +the breach of it, and the heart of man is like a city without walls, +into which any enemy can march unhindered. So long as God's 'Thou +shalt not, lest thou die' rings in the ears, the eyes see little +beauty in the sirens that sing and beckon. But once that awful voice +is deadened, they charm, and allure to dally with them. + +In the undeveloped condition of primitive man temptation could only +assail him through the senses and appetites, and its assault would +be the more irresistible because reflection and experience were not +yet his. But the act of yielding was, as sin ever is, a deliberate +choice to please self and disobey God. The woman's more emotional, +sensitive, compliant nature made her the first victim, and her +greatest glory, her craving to share her good with him whom she +loves, and her power to sway his will and acts, made her his +temptress. 'As the husband is, the wife is,' says Tennyson; but the +converse is even truer: As the wife is, the man is. + +3. The fatal consequences came with a rush. There is a gulf between +being tempted and sinning, but the results of the sin are closely +knit to it. They come automatically, as surely as a stream from a +fountain. The promise of knowing good and evil was indeed kept, but +instead of its making the sinners 'like gods,' it showed them that +they were like beasts, and brought the first sense of shame. To know +evil was, no doubt, a forward step intellectually; but to know it by +experience, and as part of themselves, necessarily changed their +ignorant innocence into bitter knowledge, and conscience awoke to +rebuke them. The first thing that their opened eyes saw was +themselves, and the immediate result of the sight was the first +blush of shame. Before, they had walked in innocent unconsciousness, +like angels or infants; now they had knowledge of good and evil, +because their sin had made evil a part of themselves, and the +knowledge was bitter. + +The second consequence of the fall is the disturbed relation with +God, which is presented in the highly symbolical form fitting for +early ages, and as true and impressive for the twentieth century as +for them. Sin broke familiar communion with God, turned Him into a +'fear and a dread,' and sent the guilty pair into ambush. Is not +that deeply and perpetually true? The sun seen through mists becomes +a lurid ball of scowling fire. The impulse is to hide from God, or +to get rid of thoughts of Him. And when He _is_ felt to be +near, it is as a questioner, bringing sin to mind. The shuffling +excuses, which venture even to throw the blame of sin on God ('the +woman whom _Thou_ gavest me'), or which try to palliate it as a +mistake ('the serpent beguiled me'), have to come at last, however +reluctantly, to confess that 'I' did the sin. Each has to say, 'I +did eat.' So shall we all have to do. We may throw the blame on +circumstances, weakness of judgment, and the like, while here, but +at God's bar we shall have to say, '_Mea_ culpa, _mea_ culpa.' + +The curse pronounced on the serpent takes its habit and form as an +emblem of the degradation of the personal tempter, and of the +perennial antagonism between him and mankind, while even at that +first hour of sin and retribution a gleam of hope, like the stray +beam that steals through a gap in a thundercloud, promises that the +conquered shall one day be the conqueror, and that the woman's seed, +though wounded in the struggle, shall one day crush the poison- +bearing, flat head in the dust, and end forever his power to harm. +'Known unto God are all his works from the beginning,' and the +Christ was promised ere the gates of Eden were shut on the exiles. + + + + +EDEN LOST AND RESTORED + + + 'So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of + the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which + turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.' + --GENESIS iii. 24. + + 'Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they + may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in + through the gates into the city.' + REVELATION xxii. 14. + +Better is the end of a thing than the beginning.' Eden was fair, but +the heavenly city shall be fairer. The Paradise regained is an +advance on the Paradise that was lost. These are the two ends of the +history of man, separated by who knows how many millenniums. Heaven +lay about him in his infancy, but as he journeyed westwards its +morning blush faded into the light of common day--and only at +eventide shall the sky glow again with glory and colour, and the +western heaven at last outshine the eastern, with a light that shall +never die. A fall, and a rise--a rise that reverses the fall, a rise +that transcends the glory from which he fell,--that is the Bible's +notion of the history of the world, and I, for my part, believe it +to be true, and feel it to be the one satisfactory explanation of +what I see round about me and am conscious of within me. + +1. _Man had an Eden and lost it._ + +I take the Fall to be a historical fact. To all who accept the +authority of Scripture, no words are needed beyond the simple +statement before us, but we may just gather up the signs that there +are on the wide field of the world's history, and in the narrower +experience of individuals, that such a fall has been. + +Look at the condition of the world: its degradation, its savagery-all +its pining myriads, all its untold millions who sit in darkness +and the shadow of death. Will any man try to bring before him the +actual state of the heathen world, and, retaining his belief in a +God, profess that these men are what God meant men to be? It seems +to me that the present condition of the world is not congruous with +the idea that men are in their primitive state, and if this is what +God meant men for, then I see not how the dark clouds which rest on +His wisdom and His love are to be lifted off. + +Then, again--if the world has not a Fall in its history, then we +must take the lowest condition as the one from which all have come; +and is that idea capable of defence? Do we see anywhere signs of an +upward process going on now? Have we any experience of a tribe +raising itself? Can you catch anywhere a race in the act of +struggling up, outside of the pale of Christianity? Is not the +history of all a history of decadence, except only where the Gospel +has come in to reverse the process? + +But passing from this: What mean the experiences of the individual-these +longings; this hard toil; these sorrows? + +How comes it that man alone on earth, manifestly meant to be leader, +lord, etc., seems but cursed with a higher nature that he may know +greater sorrows, and raised above the beasts in capacity that he may +sink below them in woe, this capacity only leading to a more +exquisite susceptibility, to a more various as well as more poignant +misery? + +Whence come the contrarieties and discordance in his nature? + +It seems to me that all this is best explained as the Bible explains +it by saying: (1) Sin has done it; (2) Sin is not part of God's +original design, but man has fallen; (3) Sin had a personal +beginning. There have been men who were pure, able to stand but free +to fall. + +It seems to me that that explanation is more in harmony with the +facts of the case, finds more response in the unsophisticated +instinct of man, than any other. It seems to me that, though it +leaves many dark and sorrowful mysteries all unsolved, yet that it +alleviates the blackest of them, and flings some rays of hope on +them all. It seems to me that it relieves the character and +administration of God from the darkest dishonour; that it delivers +man's position and destiny from the most hopeless despair; that +though it leaves the mystery of the origin of evil, it brings out +into clearest relief the central truths that evil is evil, and sin +and sorrow are not God's will; that it vindicates as something +better than fond imaginings the vague aspirations of the soul for a +fair and holy state; that it establishes, as nothing else will, at +once the love of God and the dignity of man; that it leaves open the +possibility of the final overthrow of that Sin which it treats as an +intrusion and stigmatises as a fall; that it therefore braces for +more vigorous, hopeful conflict against it, and that while but for +it the answer to the despairing question, Hast Thou made all men in +vain? must be either the wailing echo 'In vain,' or the denial that +He has made them at all, there is hope and there is power, and there +is brightness thrown on the character of God and on the fate of man, +by the old belief that God made man upright, and that man made +himself a sinner. + +2. _Heaven restores the lost Eden_. + +'God is not ashamed to be called their God, _for_ He hath +prepared them a _city_.' + +The highest conception we can form of heaven is the reversal of all +the evil of earth, and the completion of its incomplete good: the +sinless purity--the blessed presence of God--the fulfilment of all +desires--the service which is _blessed_, not toil--the changelessness +which is progress, not stagnation. + +3. _Heaven surpasses the lost Eden_. + +(1) Garden--City. + +The perfection of association--the _nations_ of the saved. Here +'we mortal millions live alone,' even when united with dearest. Like +Egyptian monks of old, each dwelling in his own cave, though all +were a community. + +(2) The richer experience. + +The memory of past sorrows which are understood at last. + +Heaven's bliss in contrast with earthly joys. + +Sinlessness of those who have been sinners will be more intensely +lustrous for its dark background in the past. Redeemed men will be +brighter than angels. + +The impossibility of a fall. + +Death behind us. + +The former things shall no more come to mind, being lost in blaze of +present transcendent experience, but yet shall be remembered as +having led to that perfect state. + +Christ not only repairs the 'tabernacle which was fallen,' but +builds a fairer temple. He brings 'a statelier Eden,' and makes us +dwell for ever in a Garden City. + + + + +THE GROWTH AND POWER OF SIN + + + 'And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought + of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And + Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and + of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, + and to his offering: But unto Cain, and to his offering, + he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his + countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art + thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou + doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest + not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be + his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked + with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they + were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his + brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, + Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am + I my brother's keeper? And He said, What hast thou done? + the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the + ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which + hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from + thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not + henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and + a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto + the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. + Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day from the face + of the earth; and from Thy face shall I be hid; and I + shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth: and it + shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall + slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever + slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. + And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him + should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of + the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of + Eden.' + GENESIS iv. 3-16. + +Many lessons crowd on us from this section. Its general purport is +to show the growth of sin, and its power to part man from man even +as it has parted man from God. We may call the whole 'The beginning +of the fatal operations of sin on human society.' + +1. The first recorded act of worship occasions the first murder. Is +not that only too correct a forecast of the oceans of blood which +have been shed in the name of religion, and a striking proof of the +subtle power of sin to corrupt even the best, and out of it to make +the worst? What a lesson against the bitter hatred which has too +often sprung up on so-called religious grounds! No malice is so +venomous, no hate so fierce, no cruelty so fiendish, as those which +are fed and fanned by religion. Here is the first triumph of sin, +that it poisons the very springs of worship, and makes what should +be the great uniter of men in sweet and holy bonds their great +separator. + +2. Sin here appears as having power to bar men's way to God. Much +ingenuity has been spent on the question why Abel's offering was +accepted and Cain's rejected. But the narrative itself shows in the +words of Jehovah, 'If thou doest well, is there not acceptance?' +that the reason lay in Cain's evil deeds. So, in 1 John iii. 12, the +fratricide is put down to the fact that 'his works were evil, and +his brother's righteous'; and Hebrews xi. 4 differs from this view +only in making the ground of righteousness prominent, when it +ascribes the acceptableness of Abel's offering to faith. Both these +passages are founded on the narrative, and we need not seek farther +for the reason of the different reception of the two offerings. +Character, then, or, more truly, faith, which is the foundation of a +righteous character, determines the acceptableness of worship. +Cain's offering had no sense of dependence, no outgoing of love and +trust, no adoration,--though it may have had fear,--and no moral +element. So it had no sweet odour for God. Abel's was sprinkled with +some drops of the incense of lowly trust, and came from a heart +which fain would be pure; therefore it was a joy to God. So we are +taught at the very beginning, that, as is the man, so is his +sacrifice; that the prayer of the wicked is an abomination. Plenty +of worship nowadays is Cain worship. Many reputable professing +Christians bring just such sacrifices. The prayers of such never +reach higher than the church ceiling. Of course, the lesson of the +story is not that a man must be pure before his sacrifice is +accepted. Of course, the faintest cry of trust is heard, and a +contrite heart, however sinful, is always welcome. But we are taught +that our acts of worship must have our hearts in them, and that it +is vain to pray and to love evil. Sin has the awful power of +blocking our way to God. + +3. Note in one word that we have here at the beginning of human +history the solemn distinction which runs through it all. These two, +so near in blood, so separate in spirit, head the two classes into +which Scripture decisively parts men, especially men who have heard +the gospel. It is unfashionable now to draw that broad line between +the righteous and the wicked, believers and unbelievers. Sheep and +goats are all one. Modern liberal sentiment--so-called--will not +consent to such narrowness as the old-fashioned classification. +There are none of us black, and none white; we are all different +shades of grey. But facts do not quite bear out such amiable views. +Perhaps it is not less charitable, and a great deal truer, to draw +the line broad and plain, on one side of which is peace and safety, +and on the other trouble and death, if only we make it plain that no +man need stop one minute on the dark side. + +4. The solemn divine voice reads the lesson of the power of sin, +when once done, over the sinner. Like a wild beast, it crouches in +ambush at his door, ready to spring and devour. The evil deed once +committed takes shape, as it were, and waits to seize the doer. +Remorse, inward disturbance, and above all, the fatal inclination to +repeat sin till it becomes a habit, are set forth with terrible +force in these grim figures. What a menagerie of ravenous beasts +some of us have at the doors of our hearts! With what murderous +longing they glare at us, seeking to fascinate us, and make us their +prey! When we sin, we cannot escape the issues; and every wrong +thing we do has a kind of horrible life given it, and sits +henceforth there, beside us, ready to rend us. The tempting, +seducing power of our own evils was never put in more startling and +solemnly true words, on which the bitter experience of many a poor +victim of his own past is a commentary. The eternal duty of +resistance is farther taught by the words. Hope of victory, +encouragement to struggle, the assurance that even these savage +beasts may be subdued, and the lion and adder (the hidden and the +glaring evils--those which wound unseen, and which spring with a +roar) may be overcome, led in a silken leash or charmed into +harmlessness, are given in the command, which is also a promise, +'Rule thou over it.' + +5. The deadly fruit of hate is taught us in the brief account of the +actual murder. Notice the impressive plainness and fewness of the +words. 'Cain rose up against his brother, and slew him.' A kind of +horror-struck awe of the crime is audible. Observe the emphasis with +which 'his brother' is repeated in the verse and throughout. +Observe, also, the vivid light thrown by the story on the rise and +progress of the sin. It begins with envy and jealousy. Cain was not +wroth because his offering was rejected. What did he care for that? +But what angered him was that his brother had what he had not. So +selfishness was at the bottom, and that led on to envy, and that to +hatred. Then comes a pause, in which God speaks remonstrances,--as +God's voice--conscience--does now to us all,--between the +imagination and the act of evil. A real or a feigned reconciliation +is effected. The brothers go in apparent harmony to the field. No +new provocation appears, but the old feelings, kept down for a time, +come in again with a rush, and Cain is swept away by them. Hatred +left to work means murder. The heart is the source of all evil. +Selfishness is the mother tincture out of which all sorts of sin can +be made. Guard the thoughts, and keep down self, and the deeds will +take care of themselves. + +6. Mark how close on the heels of sin God's question treads! How God +spoke, we know not. Doubtless in some fashion suited to the needs of +Cain. But He speaks to us as really as to him, and no sooner is the +rush of passion over, and the bad deed done, than a revulsion comes. +What we call conscience asks the question in stern tones, which make +a man's flesh creep. Our sin is like touching the electric bells +which people sometimes put on their windows to give notice of +thieves. As soon as we step beyond the line of duty we set the alarm +going, and it wakens the sleeping conscience. Some of us go so far +as to have silenced the voice within; but, for the most part, it +speaks immediately after we have gratified our inclinations wrongly. + +7. Cain's defiant answer teaches us how a man hardens himself +against God's voice. It also shows us how intensely selfish all sin +is, and how weakly foolish its excuses are. It is sin which has rent +men apart from men, and made them deny the very idea that they have +duties to all men. The first sin was only against God; the second +was against God and man. The first sin did not break, though it +saddened, human love; the second kindled the flames of infernal +hatred, and caused the first drops to flow of the torrents of blood +which have soaked the earth. When men break away from God, they will +soon murder one another. + +Cain was his brother's keeper. His question answered itself. If Abel +was his brother, then he was bound to look after him. His self- +condemning excuse is but a specimen of the shallow pleas by which +the forgetfulness of duties we owe to all mankind, and all sins, are +defended. + +8. The stern sentence is next pronounced. First we have the grand +figure of the innocent blood having a voice which pierces the +heavens. That teaches in the most forcible way the truth that God +knows the crimes done by 'man's inhumanity to man,' even when the +meek sufferers are silent. According to the fine old legend of the +cranes of Ibycus, a bird of the air will carry the matter. It +speaks, too, of God's tender regard for His saints, whose blood is +precious in His sight; and it teaches that He will surely requite. +We cannot but think of the innocent blood shed on Calvary, of the +Brother of us all, whose sacrifice was accepted of God. His blood, +too, crieth from the ground, has a voice which speaks in the ear of +God, but not to plead for vengeance, but pardon. + + 'Jesus' blood through earth and skies, + Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries.' + +Then follows the sentence which falls into two parts--the curse of +bitter, unrequited toil, and the doom of homeless wandering. The +blood which has been poured out on the battlefield fertilises the +soil; but Abel's blasted the earth. It was a supernatural +infliction, to teach that bloodshed polluted the earth, and so to +shed a nameless horror over the deed. We see an analogous feeling in +the common belief that places where some foul sin has been committed +are cursed. We see a weak natural correspondence in the devastating +effect of war, as expressed in the old saying that no grass would +grow where the hoof of the Turk's horse had stamped. + +The doom of wandering, which would be compulsory by reason of the +earth's barrenness, is a parable. The murderer is hunted from place +to place, as the Greek fable has it, by the furies, who suffer him +not to rest. Conscience drives a man 'through dry places, seeking +rest, and finding none.' All sin makes us homeless wanderers. There +is but one home for the heart, one place of repose for a man, +namely, in the heart of God, the secret place of the Most High; and +he who, for his sin, durst not enter there, is driven forth into 'a +salt land and not inhabited,' and has to wander wearily there. The +legend of the wandering Jew, and that other of the sailor, condemned +for ever to fly before the gale through stormy seas, have in them a +deep truth. The earthly punishment of departing from God is that we +have not where to lay our heads. Every sinner is a fugitive and a +vagabond. But if we love God we are still wanderers indeed, but we +are 'pilgrims and sojourners with Thee.' + +9. Cain's remonstrance completes the tragic picture. We see in it +despair without penitence. He has no word of confession. If he had +accepted his chastisement, and learned by it his sin, all the +bitterness would have passed away. But he only writhes in agony, and +adds, to the sentence pronounced, terrors of his own devising. God +had not forbidden him to come into His presence. But he feels that +he dare not venture thither. And he was right; for, whether we +suppose that some sensible manifestation of the divine presence is +meant by 'Thy face' or no, a man who had unrepented sin on his +conscience, and murmurings in his heart, could not hold intercourse +with God; nor would he wish to do so. Thus we learn again the lesson +that sin separates from our Father, and that chastisements, not +accepted as signs of His love, build up a black wall between God and +us. + +Nor had Cain been told that his life was in danger. But his +conscience made a coward of him, as of us all, and told him what he +deserved. There were, no doubt, many other children of Adam, who +would be ready to avenge Abel's death. The wild justice of revenge +is deep in the heart of men; and the natural impulse would be to +hunt down the murderer like a wolf. It is a dreadful picture of the +defiant and despairing sinner, tortured by well-founded fears, shut +out from the presence of God, but not able to shut out thoughts of +Him, and seeing an avenger in every man. + +We need not ask how God set a mark on Cain. Enough that His doing so +was a merciful alleviation of his lot, and teaches us how God's +long-suffering spares life, and tempers judgment, that there may +still be space for repentance. If even Cain has gracious protection +and mercy blended with his chastisement, who can be beyond the pale +of God's compassion, and with whom will not His loving providence +and patient pity labour? No man is so scorched by the fire of +retribution, but many a dewy drop from God's tenderness falls on +him. No doubt, the story of the preservation of Cain was meant to +restrain the blood-feuds so common and ruinous in early times; and +we need the lesson yet, to keep us from vengeance under the mask of +justice. But the deepest lesson and truest pathos of it lies in the +picture of the watchful kindness of God lingering round the wretched +man, like gracious sunshine playing on some scarred and black rock, +to win him back by goodness to penitence, and through penitence to +peace. + + + + +WHAT CROUCHES AT THE DOOR + + + 'If thou doest not well, sin croucheth at the door: and + unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over + him.'--GENESIS iv. 7 (R. V.). + +These early narratives clothe great moral and spiritual truths in +picturesque forms, through which it is difficult for us to pierce. +In the world's childhood God spoke to men as to children, because +there were no words then framed which would express what we call +abstract conceptions. They had to be shown by pictures. But these +early men, simple and childlike as they were, had consciences; and +one abstraction they did understand, and that was sin. They knew the +difference between good and evil. + +So we have here God speaking to Cain, who was wroth because of the +rejection of his sacrifice; and in dim, enigmatical words setting +forth the reason of that rejection. 'If thou doest well, shalt thou +not be accepted?' Then clearly his sacrifice was rejected because it +was the sacrifice of an evil-doer. His description as such is given +in the words of my text, which are hard for us to translate into our +modern, less vivid and picturesque language. 'If thou doest not +well, sin lieth at the door; and unto thee shall be his desire, and +thou shalt rule over him.' Strange as the words sound, if I mistake +not, they convey some very solemn lessons, and if well considered, +become pregnant with meaning. + +The key to the whole interpretation of them is to remember that they +describe what happens after, and because of, wrong-doing. They are +all suspended on 'If thou doest not well.' Then, in that case, for +the first thing--'sin lieth at the door.' Now the word translated +here 'lieth' is employed only to express the _crouching_ of an +animal, and frequently of a wild animal. The picture, then, is of +the wrong-doer's sin lying at his door there like a crouching tiger +ready to spring, and if it springs, fatal. 'If thou doest not well, +a wild beast crouches at thy door.' + +Then there follow, with a singular swift transition of the metaphor, +other words still harder to interpret, and which have been, as a +matter of fact, interpreted in very diverse fashions. 'And unto thee +shall be _its'_ (I make that slight alteration upon our version) +'desire, and thou shalt rule over it.' Where did we hear these words +before? They were spoken to Eve, in the declaration of her punishment. +They contain the blessing that was embedded in the curse. 'Thy desire +shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.' The longing of +the pure womanly heart to the husband of her love, and the authority +of the husband over the loving wife--the source of the deepest joy +and purity of earth, is transferred, by a singularly bold metaphor, +to this other relationship, and, in horrible parody of the wedded +union and love, we have the picture of the sin, that was thought of +as crouching at the sinner's door like a wild beast, now, as it were, +wedded to him. He is mated to it now, and it has a kind of tigerish, +murderous desire after him, while he on his part is to subdue and +control it. + +The reference of these clauses to the sin which has just been spoken +of involves, no doubt, a very bold figure, which has seemed to many +readers too bold to be admissible, and the words have therefore been +supposed to refer to Abel, who, as the younger brother, would be +subordinate to Cain. But such a reference breaks the connection of +the sentence, introduces a thought which is not a consequence of +Cain's not doing well, has no moral bearing to warrant its +appearance here, and compels us to travel an inconveniently long +distance back in the context to find an antecedent to the 'his' and +'him' of our text. It seems to be more in consonance, therefore, +with the archaic style of the whole narrative, and to yield a +profounder and worthier meaning, if we recognise the boldness of the +metaphor, and take 'sin' as the subject of the whole. Now all this +puts in concrete, metaphorical shape, suited to the stature of the +bearers, great and solemn truths. Let us try to translate them into +more modern speech. + +1. First think, then, of that wild beast which we tether to our +doors by our wrong-doing. + +We talk about 'responsibility' and 'guilt,' and 'consequences that +never can be effaced,' and the like. And all these abstract and +quasi-philosophical terms are implied in the grim, tremendous +metaphor of my text 'If thou doest not well, a tiger, a wild beast, +is crouching at thy door.' We are all apt to be deceived by the +imagination that when an evil deed is done, it passes away and +leaves no permanent results. The lesson taught the childlike +primitive man here, at the beginning, before experience had +accumulated instances which might demonstrate the solemn truth, was +that every human deed is immortal, and that the transitory evil +thought, or word, or act, which seems to fleet by like a cloud, has +a permanent being, and hereafter haunts the life of the doer, as a +real presence. If thou doest not well, thou dost create a horrible +something which nestles beside thee henceforward. The momentary act +is incarnated, as it were, and sits there at the doer's doorpost +waiting for him; which being turned into less forcible but more +modern language, is just this: every sin that a man does has +perennial consequences, which abide with the doer for evermore. + +I need not dwell upon illustrations of that to any length. Let me +just run over two or three ways in which it is true. First of all, +there is that solemn fact which we put into a long word that comes +glibly off people's lips, and impresses them very little--the solemn +fact of responsibility. We speak in common talk of such and such a +thing lying at some one's door. Whether the phrase has come from +this text I do not know. But it helps to illustrate the force of +these words, and to suggest that they mean this, among other things, +that we have to answer for every deed, however evanescent, however +long forgotten. Its guilt is on our heads. Its consequences have to +be experienced by us. We drink as we have brewed. As we make our +beds, so we lie on them. There is no escape from the law of +consequences. 'If 'twere done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it +were done quickly.' But seeing that it is not done when 'tis done, +then perhaps it would be better that it were not done at all. Your +deed of a moment, forgotten almost as soon as done, lies there at +your door; or to take a more modern and commercial figure, it is +debited to your account, and stands inscribed against you for ever. + +Think how you would like it, if all your deeds from your childhood, +all your follies, your vices, your evil thoughts, your evil +impulses, and your evil actions, were all made visible and embodied +there before you. They are there, though you do not see them yet. +All round your door they sit, ready to meet you and to bay out +condemnation as you go forth. They are there, and one day you will +find out that they are. For this is the law, certain as the +revolution of the stars and fixed as the pillars of the firmament: +'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap' There is no seed +which does not sprout in the harvest of the moral life. Every deed +germinates according to its kind. For all that a man does he has to +carry the consequences, and every one shall bear his own burden. 'If +thou doest not well,' it is not, as we fondly conceive it sometimes +to be, a mere passing deflection from the rule of right, which is +done and done with, but we have created, as out of our very own +substance, a witness against ourselves whose voice can never be +stifled. 'If thou doest not well' thy sin takes permanent form and +is fastened to thy door. + +And then let me remind you, too, how the metaphor of our text is +confirmed by other obvious facts, on which I need but briefly dwell. +Putting aside all the remoter bearings of that thought of +responsibility, I suppose we all admit that we have consciences; I +suppose that we all know that we have memories; I suppose we all of +us have seen, in the cases of others, and have experienced for +ourselves, how deeds long done and long forgotten have an awful +power of rising again after many long years. + +Be sure that your memory has in it everything that you ever did. A +landscape may be hidden by mists, but a puff of wind will clear them +away, and it will all lie there, visible to the furthest horizon. +There is no fact more certain than the extraordinary swiftness and +completeness with which, in certain circumstances of life, and often +very near the close of it, the whole panorama of the past may rise +again before a man, as if one lightning flash showed all the dreary +desolation that lay behind him. There have been men recovered from +drowning and the like, who have told us that, as in an instant, +there seemed unrolled before their startled eyes the whole scroll of +their earthly career. + +The records of memory are like those pages on which you write with +sympathetic ink, which disappears when dry, and seems to leave the +page blank. You have only to hold it before the fire, or subject it +to the proper chemical process, and at once it stands out legible. +You are writing your biography upon the fleshly tables of your +heart, my brother; and one day it will all be spread out before you, +and you will be bid to read it, and to say what you think of it. The +stings of a nettle will burn for days, if they are touched with +water. The sting and inflammation of your evil deeds, though it has +died down, is capable of being resuscitated, and it will be. + +What an awful menagerie of unclean beasts some of us have at our +doors! What sort of creatures have you tethered at yours? Crawling +serpents, ugly and venomous; wild creatures, fierce and bloody, +obscene and foul; tigers and bears; lustful and mischievous apes and +monkeys? or such as are lovely and of good report,--doves and lambs, +creatures pure and peaceable, patient to serve and gentle of spirit? +Remember, remember, that what a man soweth--be it hemlock or be it +wheat--that, and nothing else, 'shall he reap.' + +2. Now, let us look for a moment at the next thought that is here; +which is put into a strong, and, to our modern notions, somewhat +violent metaphor;--the horrible longing, as it were, of sin toward +the sinner: 'Unto thee shall be its desire.' + +As I explained, these words are drawn from the previous chapter, +where they refer to the holy union of heart and affection in husband +and wife. Here they are transferred with tremendous force, to set +forth that which is a kind of horrible parody of that conjugal +relation. A man is married to his wickedness, is mated to his evil, +and it has, as it were, a tigerish longing for him, unhallowed and +murderous. That is to say--our sins act towards us as if they +desired to draw our love to themselves. This is just another form of +the statement, that when once a man has done a wrong thing, it has +an awful power of attracting him and making him hunger to do it +again. Every evil that I do may, indeed, for a moment create in me a +revulsion of conscience; but it also exercises a fascination over me +which it is hard to resist. It is a great deal easier to find a man +who has never done a wrong thing than to find a man who has only +done it once. If the wall of the dyke is sound it will keep the +water out, but if there is the tiniest hole in it, the flood will +come in. So the evil that you do asserts its power over you, or, in +the vigorous metaphor of my text, it has a fierce, longing desire +after you, and it gets you into its clutches. + +'The foolish woman sitteth in the high places of the city, and +saith, Whoso is simple let him turn in hither.' And foolish men go +after her, and--'know not that her guests are in the depth of hell.' +Ah! my brother! beware of that siren voice that draws you away from +all the sweet and simple and pure food which Wisdom spreads upon her +table, to tempt the beast that is in you with the words, 'Stolen +waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.' Beware of +the first step, for as sure as you are living, the first step taken +will make the second seem to become necessary. The first drop will +be followed by a bigger second, and the second, at a shorter +interval, by a more copious third, until the drops become a shower, +and the shower becomes a deluge. The river of evil is ever wider and +deeper, and more tumultuous. The little sins get in at the window, +and open the front door for the full-grown house-breakers. One +smooths the path for the other. All sin has an awful power of +perpetuating and increasing itself. As the prophet says in his +vision of the doleful creatures that make their sport in the +desolate city, 'None of them shall want her mate. The wild beasts of +the desert shall meet with the wild beasts of the island.' Every sin +tells upon character, and makes the repetition of itself more and +more easy. 'None is barren among them.' And all sin is linked +together in a slimy tangle, like a field of seaweed, so that the man +once caught in its oozy fingers is almost sure to be drowned. + +3. And now, lastly, one word about the command, which is also a +promise: 'To thee shall be its desire, and thou shalt rule over it.' + +Man's primitive charter, according to the earlier chapters of +Genesis, was to have dominion over the beasts of the field. Cain +knew what it was to war against the wild creatures which contested +the possession of the earth with man, and to tame some of them for +his uses. And, says the divine voice, just as you war against the +beasts of prey, just as you subdue to your purposes and yoke to your +implements the tamable animals over which you have dominion, so rule +over _this_ wild beast that is threatening you. It is needful +for all men, if they do not mean to be torn to pieces, to master the +animal that is in them, and the wild thing that has been created out +of them. It is bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. It is your +own evil that is thus incarnated there, as it were, before you; and +you have to subdue it, if it is not to tyrannise over you. We all +admit that in theory, but how terribly hard the practice! The words +of our text seem to carry but little hope or comfort in them, to the +man who has tried--as, no doubt, many of us have tried--to flee the +lusts that war against the soul, and to bridle the animal that is in +him. Those who have done so most honestly know best how hard it is, +and may fairly ask, Is this useless repetition of the threadbare +injunction all that you have to say to us? If so, you may as well +hold your tongue. A wild beast sits at my door, you say, and then +you bid me, 'Rule thou over it!' Tell me to tame the tiger! 'Canst +thou draw out Leviathan with a hook? Wilt thou take him a servant +for ever?' + +I do not undervalue the earnest and sometimes partially successful +efforts at moral reformation which some men of more than usual force +of character are able to make, emancipating themselves from the +outward practice of gross sin, and achieving for themselves much +that is admirable. But if we rightly understand what sin is--namely, +the taking self for our law and centre instead of God--and how deep +its working and all-pervading its poison, we shall learn the tragic +significance of the prophets question, 'Can the leopard change his +spots?' Then may a man cast out sin from his nature by his own +resolve, when the body can eliminate poison from the veins by its +own energy. If there is nothing more to be said to the world than +this message, 'Sin lieth at thy door--rule thou over it,' we have no +gospel to preach, and sin's dominion is secure. For there is nothing +in all this world of empty, windy words, more empty and windy than +to come to a poor soul that is all bespattered and stained with sin, +and say to him: 'Get up, and make thyself clean, and keep thyself +so!' It cannot be done. + +So my text, though it keeps itself within the limits of the law and +only proclaims duty, must have hidden, in its very hardness, a sweet +kernel of promise. For what God commands God enables us to do. + +Therefore these words, 'Rule thou over it,' do really point onwards +through all the ages to that one fact in which every man's sin is +conquered and neutralised, and every man's struggles may be made +hopeful and successful, the great fact that Jesus Christ, God's own +Son, came down from heaven, like an athlete descending into the +arena, to fight with and to overcome the grim wild beasts, our +passions and our sins, and to lead them, transformed, in the silken +leash of His love. + +My brother! your sin is mightier than you. The old word of the Psalm +is true about every one of us, 'Our iniquities are stronger than +we.' And, blessed be His name! the hope of the Psalmist is the +experience of the Christian: 'As for my transgressions, Thou wilt +purge them away.' Christ will strengthen you, to conquer; Christ +will take away your guilt; Christ will bear, has borne your burden; +Christ will cleanse your memory; Christ will purge your conscience. +Trusting to Him, and by His power and life within us, we may conquer +our evil. Trusting to Him, and for the sake of His blood shed for us +all upon the cross, we are delivered from the burden, guilt, and +power of our sins and of our sin. With thy hand in His, and thy will +submitted to Him, 'thou shalt tread on the lion and the adder; the +young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under foot.' + + + + +WITH, BEFORE, AFTER + + + 'Enoch walked with God,'--GENESIS v. 22. + + 'Walk before Me.'--GENESIS xvii. 1. + + 'Ye shall walk after the Lord your God.'--DEUTERONOMY xiii. 4. + +You will have anticipated, I suppose, my purpose in doing what I +very seldom do--cutting little snippets out of different verses and +putting them together. You see that these three fragments, in their +resemblances and in their differences, are equally significant and +instructive. They concur in regarding life as a walk--a metaphor +which expresses continuity, so that every man's life is a whole, +which expresses progress, which expresses change, and which implies +a goal. They agree in saying that God must he brought into a life +somehow, and in some aspect, if that life is to be anything else but +an aimless wandering, if it is to tend to the point to which every +human life should attain. But then they diverge, and, if we put them +together, they say to us that there are three different ways in +which we ought to bring God into our life. We should 'walk +_with_ Him,' like Enoch; we should 'walk _before_' Him, as +Abraham was bade to do; and we should 'walk _after_' Him, as +the command to do was given to all Israel. And these three +prepositions, _with_, _before_, _after_, attached to the general idea +of life as a walk, give us a triple aspect--which yet is, of course, +fundamentally, one--of the way in which life may be ennobled, dignified, +calmed, hallowed, focussed, and concentrated by the various relations +into which we enter with Him. So I take the three of them. + +1. 'Enoch walked _with_ God.' + +That is a sweet, simple, easily intelligible, and yet lofty way of +putting the notion which we bring into a more abstract and less +impressive shape when we talk about communion with God. Two men +travelling along a road keep each other company. 'How can two walk +together except they be agreed?' The companion is at our side all +the same, though the mists may have come down and we cannot see Him. +We can hear His voice, we can grasp His hand, we can catch the +echoes of His steps. We know He is there, and that is enough. Enoch +and God walked together, by the simple exercise of the faith that +fills the Invisible with one great, loving Face. By a continuous, +definite effort, as we are going through the bustle of daily life, +and amid all the pettiness and perplexities and monotonies that make +up our often weary and always heavy days, we can realise to +ourselves that He is of a truth at our sides, and by purity of life +and heart we can bring Him nearer, and can make ourselves more +conscious of His nearness. For, brethren, the one thing that parts a +man from God, and makes it impossible for a heart to expatiate in +the thought of His presence, is the contrariety to His will in our +conduct. The slightest invisible film of mist that comes across the +blue abyss of the mighty sky will blot out the brightest of the +stars, and we may sometimes not be able to see the mist, and only +know that it is there because we do not see the planet. So +unconscious sin may steal in between us and God, and we shall no +longer be able to say, 'I walk with Him.' + +The Roman Catholics talk, in their mechanical way, of bringing down +all the spiritual into the material and formal, about the 'practice +of the presence of God.' It is an ugly phrase, but it means a great +thing, that Christian people ought, very much more than they do, to +aim, day by day, and amidst their daily duties, at realising that +most elementary thought which, like a great many other elementary +thoughts, is impotent because we believe it so utterly, that +wherever we are, we may have Him with us. It is the secret of +blessedness, of tranquillity, of power, of everything good and +noble. + +'I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers +were,' said the Psalmist of old. If he had left out these two little +words, 'with Thee,' he would have been uttering a tragic complaint; +but when they come in, all that is painful, all that is solitary, +all that is transient, bitterly transient, in the long succession of +the generations that have passed across earth's scene, and have not +been kindred to it, is cleared away and changed into gladness. Never +mind, though you are a stranger, if you have that companion. Never +mind, though you are only a sojourner; if you have Him with you, +whatever passes He will not pass; and though we dwell here in a +system to which we do not belong, and its transiency and our +transiency bring with them many sorrows, when we can say, 'Lord! +Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations,' we are at +home, and that eternal home will never pass. + +Enoch 'walked with God,' and, of course, 'God took him,' There was +nothing else for it, and there could be no other end, for a life of +communion with God here has in it the prophecy and the pledge of a +life of eternal union hereafter. So, then, 'practise the presence of +God.' An old mystic says: 'If I can tell how many times to-day I +have thought about God, I have not thought about Him often enough.' +Walk with Him by faith, by effort, by purity. + +2. And now take the other aspect suggested by the other word God +spoke to Abraham: 'I am the Almighty God, walk _before_ Me and +be thou perfect.' + +That suggests, as I suppose I do not need to point out, the idea not +only of communion, which the former phrase brought to our minds, but +that of the inspection of our conduct. 'As ever in the great +Taskmaster's eye,' says the stern Puritan poet, and although one may +object to that word 'Taskmaster,' yet the idea conveyed is the +correct expansion of the commandment given to Abraham. Observe how +'walk before Me' is dovetailed, as it were, between the revelation +'I am the Almighty God' and the injunction 'Be thou perfect.' The +realisation of that presence of the Almighty which is implied in the +expression 'Walk before Me,' the assurance that we are in His sight, +will lead straight to the fulfilment of the injunction that bears +upon the moral conduct. The same connection of thought underlies +Peter's injunction, 'Like as He ... is holy, so be ye holy in all +manner of conversation,' followed immediately as it is by, 'If ye +call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth'--as a +present estimate--'according to every mail's work, pass the time of +your sojourning here in fear'--that reverential awe which will lead +you to be 'holy even as I am holy.' + +This thought that we are in that divine presence, and that there is +silently, but most really, a divine opinion being formed of us, +consolidated, as it were, moment by moment through our lives, is +only tolerable if we have been walking with God. If we are sure, by +the power of our communion with Him, of His loving heart as well as +of His righteous judgment, then we can spread ourselves out before +Him, as a woman will lay out her webs of cloth on the green grass +for the sun to blaze down upon them, and bleach the ingrained filth +out of them. We must first walk 'with God' before the consciousness +that we are walking 'before' Him becomes one that we can entertain +and not go mad. When we are sure of the 'with' we can bear the +'before.' + +Did you ever see how on a review day, as each successive battalion +and company nears the saluting-point where the General inspecting +sits, they straighten themselves up and dress their ranks, and pull +themselves together as they pass beneath his critical eye. A +master's eye makes diligent servants. If we, in the strength of God, +would only realise, day by day and act by act of our lives, that we +are before Him, what a revolution could be effected on our +characters and what a transformation on all our conduct! + +'Walk before Me' and you will be perfect. For the Hebrew words on +which I am now commenting may be read, in accordance with the usage +of the language, as being not only a commandment but a promise, or, +rather, not as two commandments, but a commandment with an appended +promise, and so as equivalent to 'If you will walk before Me you +will be perfect.' And if we realise that we are under 'the pure eyes +and perfect judgment of' God, we shall thereby be strongly urged and +mightily helped to be perfect as He is perfect. + +3. Lastly, take the other relation, which is suggested by the third +of my texts, where Israel as a whole is commanded to 'walk +_after_ the Lord' their God. + +In harmony with the very frequent expression of the Old Testament +about 'going after idols' so Israel here is to 'go after God.' What +does that mean? Communion, the consciousness of being judged by God, +will lead on to aspiration and loving, longing effort to get nearer +and nearer to Him. 'My soul followeth hard after Thee,' said the +Psalmist, 'Thy right hand upholdeth me.' That element of yearning +aspiration, of eager desire to be closer and closer, and liker and +liker, to God must be in all true religion. And unless we have it in +some measure, it is useless to talk about being Christian people. To +press onwards, not as though we had already attained, but following +after, if that we may apprehend that for which also we are +apprehended, is the attitude of every true follower of Christ. The +very crown of the excellence of the Christian life is that it never +can reach its goal, and therefore an immortal youth of aspiration +and growth is guaranteed to it. Christian people, are you following +after God? Are you any nearer to Him than you were ten years ago? +'Walk with Me, walk before Me, walk after Me.' + +I need not do more than remind you of another meaning involved in +this same expression. If I walk after God, then I let Him go before +me and show me my road. Do you remember how, when the ark was to +cross Jordan, the commandment was given to the Israelites to let it +go well on in front, so that there should be no mistake about the +course, 'for ye have not passed this way heretofore.' Do not be in +too great a hurry to press upon the heels of God, if I may so say. +Do not let your decisions outrun His providence. Keep back the +impatience that would hurry on, and wait for His ripening purposes +to ripen and His counsels to develop themselves. Walk after God, and +be sure you do not go in front of your Guide, or you will lose both +your way and your Guide. + +I need not say more than a word about the highest aspect which this +third of our commandments takes, 'His sheep follow Him'--'leaving us +an example that we should follow in His steps,' that is the +culmination of the walking 'with,' and 'before,' and 'after' God +which these Old Testament saints were partially practising. All is +gathered into the one great word, 'He that saith he abideth in Him +ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.' + + + + +THE COURSE AND CROWN OF A DEVOUT LIFE + + + 'And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took + him.' + GENESIS v. 24. + +This notice of Enoch occurs in the course of a catalogue of the +descendants of Adam, from the Creation to the Deluge. It is +evidently a very ancient document, and is constructed on a +remarkable plan. The formula for each man is the same. So-and-so +lived, begat his heir, the next in the series, lived on after that +so many years, having anonymous children, lived altogether so long, +and then died. The chief thing about each life is the birth of the +successor, and each man's career is in broad outline the same. A +dreary monotony runs through the ages. How brief and uniform may be +the records of lives of striving and tears and smiles and love that +stretched through centuries! Nine hundred years shrink into less +than as many lines. + +The solemn monotony is broken in the case of Enoch. This paragraph +begins as usual--he 'lived'; but afterwards, instead of that word, +we read that he 'walked with God'--happy they for whom such a phrase +is equivalent to 'live'--and, instead of 'died,' it is said of him +that 'he _was not_.' That seems to imply that he, as it were, +slipped out of sight or suddenly disappeared; as one of the psalms +says, 'I looked, and lo! he was not.' He was there a moment ago--now +he is gone; and my text tells how that sudden withdrawal came about. +God, with whom he walked, put out His hand and took him to Himself. +Of course. What other end could there be to a life that was all +passed in communion with God except that apotheosis and crown of it +all, the lifting of the man into closer communion with his Father +and his Friend? + +So, then, there are just these two things here--the noblest life and +its crown. + +1. The noblest life. + +'He walked with God.' That is all. There is no need to tell what he +did or tried to do, how he sorrowed or joyed, what were his +circumstances. These may all fade from men's knowledge as they have +somewhat faded from his memory up yonder. It is enough that he +walked with God. + +Of course, we have here, underlying the phrase, the familiar +comparison of life to a journey, with all its suggestions of +constant change and constant effort, and with the suggestion, too, +that each life should be a progress directly tending to one clearly +recognised goal. But passing from that, let us just think for a +moment of the characteristics which must go to make up a life of +which we can say that it is walking with God. The first of these +clearly is the one that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews +puts his finger upon, when he makes faith the spring of Enoch's +career. The first requisite to true communion with God is vigorous +exercise of that faculty by which we realise the fact of His +presence with us; and that not as a jealous-eyed inspector, from +whose scrutiny we would fain escape, but as a companion and friend +to whom we can cleave. 'He that cometh to God,' and walks with God, +must first of all 'believe that He _is_'; and passing by all +the fascinations of things seen, and rising above all the +temptations of things temporal, his realising eye must fix upon the +divine Father and see Him nearer and more clearly than these. You +cannot walk with God unless you are emancipated from the dominion of +sense and time, and are living by the power of that great faculty, +which lays hold of the things that are unseen as the realities, and +smiles at the false and forged pretensions of material things to be +the real. We have to invert the teaching of the world and of our +senses. My fingers and my eyes and my ears tell me that this gross, +material universe about me is the real, and that all beyond it is +shadowy and (sometimes we think) doubtful, or, at any rate, dim and +far off. But that is false, and the truth is precisely the other +way. The Unseen is the Real, and the Material is the merely +Apparent. Behind all visible objects, and giving them all their +reality, lies the unchangeable God. + +Cultivate the faculty and habit of vigorous faith, if you would walk +with God. For the world will put its bandages over your eyes, and +try to tempt you to believe that these poor, shabby illusions are +the precious things; and we have to shake ourselves free from its +harlot kisses and its glozing lies, by very vigorous and continual +efforts of the will and of the understanding, if we are to make real +to ourselves that which is real, the presence of our God. + +Besides this vigorous exercise of the faculty of faith, there is +another requisite for a walk with God, closely connected with it, +and yet capable of being looked at separately, and that is, that we +shall keep up the habit of continual occupation of thought with Him. +That is very much an affair of habit with Christian people, and I am +afraid that the neglect of it is the habitual practice of the bulk +of professing Christians nowadays. It is hard, amidst all our work +and thought and joys and sorrows, to keep fresh our consciousness of +His presence, and to talk with Him in the midst of the rush of +business. But what do we do about our dear ones when we are away +from them? The measure of our love of them is accurately represented +by the frequency of our remembrances of them. The mother parted from +her child, the husband and the wife separated from one another, the +lover and the friend, think of each other a thousand times a day. +Whenever the spring is taken off, then the natural bent of the +inclination and heart assert themselves, and the mind goes back +again, as into a sanctuary, into the sweet thought. Is that how we +do with God? Do we so walk with Him, as that thought, when released, +instinctively sets in that direction? When I take off the break, +does my spirit turn to God? If there is no hand at the helm, does +the bow always point that way? When the magnet is withdrawn for a +moment, does the needle tremble back and settle itself northwards? +If we are walking with God, we shall, more times a day than we can +count when the evening comes on, have had the thought of Him coming +into our hearts 'like some sweet beguiling melody, so sweet we know +not we are listening to it.' Thus we shall 'walk with God.' + +Then there is another requisite. 'How can two walk together except +they be agreed?' 'He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also +so to walk even as He walked.' There is no union with God in such +communion possible, unless there be a union with Him by conformity +of will and submission of effort and aim to His commandments. Well, +then, is that life possible for us? Look at this instance before us. +We know very little about how much knowledge of God these people in +old days had, but, at all events, it was a great deal less than you +and I have. Their theology was very different from ours; their +religion was absolutely identical with ours. Their faith, which +grasped the God revealed in their creed, was the same as our faith, +though the creed which their faith grasped was only an outline +sketch of yours and mine. But at all times and in all generations, +the element and essence of the religious life has been the same-that +is, the realising sense of the living divine presence, the +effort and aspiration after communion with Him, and the quiet +obedience and conformity of the practical life to His will. And so +we can reach out our hands across all the centuries to this pre- +Noachian, antediluvian patriarch, dim amongst the mists, and feel +that he too is our brother. + +And he has set us the example that in all conditions of life, and +under the most unfavourable circumstances, it is possible to live in +this close touch with God. For in his time, not only was there, as I +have said, an incomplete and rudimentary knowledge of God, but in +his time the earth was filled with violence, and gigantic forms of +evil are represented as having dominated mankind. Amidst it all, the +Titanic pride, the godlessness, the scorn, the rudeness, and the +violence, amidst it all, this one 'white flower of a blameless life' +managed to find nutriment upon the dunghill, and to blossom fresh +and fair there. You and I cannot, whatever may be our hindrances in +living a consistent Christian life, have anything like the +difficulties that this man had and surmounted. For us all, whatever +our conditions, such a life is possible. + +And then there is another lesson that he teaches us, viz. that such +a life is consistent with the completest discharge of all common +duties. The outline, as far as appearance was concerned, of this +man's life was the same as the outline of those of his ancestors and +successors. They are all described in the same terms. The formula is +the same. Enoch lived, Mahalaleel, and all the rest of the half- +unpronounceable names, they lived, they begat their heirs, and sons +and daughters, and then they died. And the same formula is used +about this man. He walked with God, but it was while treading the +common path of secular life that he did so. + +He found it possible to live in communion with God, and yet to do +all the common things that men did then. Anybody's house may be a +Bethel--a house of God--and anybody's work may be worship; and +wherever we are and whatever we do, it is possible therein to serve +God, and there to walk with Him. + +2. And now a word about the crown of this life of communion. 'He was +not, for God took him' + +What wonderful reticence in describing, or rather hinting at, the +stupendous miracle that is here in question! Is that like a book +that came from the legend-loving and legend-making brains of men; or +does it sound like the speech of God, to whom nothing is +extraordinary and nothing needs to have a mark of admiration after +it? It was the same to Him whether Enoch died or whether He simply +took him to Himself. If one wants to know what men would have made +of such a thing, if _they_ had had to tell it, let them read +those wretched Rabbinical fables that have been stitched on to this +verse. There they will see how men describe miracles; and here they +will see how God does so. + +'_He was not_.' As I have said, he disappeared; that was what +the world knew. 'God took him'; that was what God tells the world. + +Thus this strange exception to the law of death stood, as I suppose, +to the ancient world as doing somewhat the same office for them that +the translation of Elijah afterwards partially did for Israel, and +that the resurrection of Jesus Christ does completely for us, viz. +it brought the future life into the realm of fact, and took it out +of the dim region of speculation altogether. He establishes a truth +who proves it, and he proves a fact that shows it. A doctrine of a +future state is not worth much, but the fact of a future state, +which was established by this incident then, and is certified for us +all now, by the Christ risen from the dead, is all-important. Our +gospel is all built upon facts, and this is the earliest fact in +man's history which made man's subsistence in other conditions than +that of earthly life a certainty. + +And then, again, this wonderful exception shows to us, as it did to +that ancient world, that the natural end of a religious life is +union with God hereafter. It seems to me that the real proofs of a +future life are two: one, the fact of Christ's resurrection, and the +other, the fact of our religious experience. For anything looks to +me more likely, and less incredible, than that a man who could walk +with God should only have a poor earthly life to do it in, and that +all these aspirations, these emotions, should be bounded and ended +by a trivial thing, that touches only the physical frame. Surely, +surely, there is nothing so absurd as to believe that he who can say +'Thou art my God,' and who has said it, should ever by anything be +brought to cease to say it. Death cannot kill love to God; and the +only end of the religious life of earth is its perfecting in heaven. +The experiences that we have here, in their loftiness and in their +incompleteness, equally witness for us, of the rest and the +perfectness that remain for the children of God. + +Then, again, this man in his unique experience was, and is, a +witness of the fact that death is an excrescence, and results from +sin. I suppose that he trod the road which the divine intention had +destined to be trodden by all the children of men, if they had not +sinned; and that his experience, unique as it is, is a survival, so +to speak, of what was meant to be the law for humanity, unless there +had intervened the terrible fact of sin and its wages, death. The +road had been made, and this one man was allowed to travel along it +that we might all learn, by the example of the exception, that the +rule under which we live was not the rule that God originally meant +for us, and that death has resulted from the fact of transgression. +No doubt Enoch had in him the seeds of it, no doubt there were the +possibilities of disease and the necessity of death in his physical +frame, but God has shown us in that one instance, and in the other +of the great prophet's, how _He_ is not subject to the law that +men shall die, although men are subject to it, and that if He will, +He can take them all to Himself, as He did take these two, and will +take them who, at last, shall not die but be changed. + +Let me remind you that this unique and exceptional end of a life of +communion may, in its deepest, essential character, be experienced +by each of us. There are two passages in the book of Psalms, both of +which I regard as allusions to this incident. The one of them is in +the forty-ninth Psalm and reads thus: 'He will deliver my soul from +the power of the grave, for He will take me.' Our version conceals +the allusion, by its unfortunate and non-literal rendering +'receive.' The same word is employed there as here. Can we fail to +see the reference? The Psalmist expects his soul to be 'delivered +from the power of the grave,' because God _takes_ it. + +And again, in the great seventy-third Psalm, which marks perhaps the +highwater mark of pre-Christian anticipations of a future state, we +read: 'Thou wilt guide me by Thy counsel, and afterwards _take_ +me' (again the same word) 'to glory.' Here, again, the Psalmist +looks back to the unique and exceptional instance, and in the +rapture and ecstasy of the faith that has grasped the living God as +his portion, says to himself: 'Though the externals of Enoch's end +and of mine may differ, their substance will be the same, and I, +too, shall cease to be seen of men, because God takes me into the +secret of His pavilion, by the loving clasp of His lifting hand.' + +Enoch was led, if I may say so, round the top of the valley, beyond +the head waters of the dark river, and was kept on the high level +until he got to the other side. You and I have to go down the hill, +out of the sunshine, in among the dank weeds, to stumble over the +black rocks, and wade through the deep water; but we shall get over +to the same place where he stands, and He that took him round by the +top will 'take' us through the river; and so shall we 'ever be with +the Lord' + +'Enoch walked with God and he was not; for God took him.' This verse +is like some little spring with trees and flowers on a cliff. The +dry genealogical table--and here this bit of human life in it! How +unlike the others--they _lived_ and they _died_; this man's life was +walking with God and his departure was a fading away, a ceasing to be +found here. It is remarkable in how calm a tone the Bible speaks of +its supernatural events. We should not have known this to be a miracle +but for the Epistle to the Hebrews. + +The dim past of these early chapters carries us over many centuries. +We know next to nothing about the men, where they lived, how they +lived, what thoughts they had, what tongue they spoke. Some people +would say that they never lived at all. I believe, and most of you, +I suppose, believe that they did. But how little personality we give +them! Little as we know of environment and circumstances, we know +the main thing, the fact of their having been. Then we are sure that +they had sorrow and joy, strife and love, toil and rest, like the +rest of us, that whether their days were longer or shorter they were +filled much as ours are, that whatever was the pattern into which +the quiet threads of their life was woven it was, warp and weft, the +same yarn as ours. In broad features every human life is much the +same. Widely different as the clothing of these grey fathers in +their tents, with their simple contrivances and brief records, is +from that of cultivated busy Englishmen to-day, the same human form +is beneath both. And further, we know but little as to their +religious ideas, how far they were surrounded with miracles, what +they knew of God and of His purposes, how they received their +knowledge, what served them for a Bible. Of what positive +institutions of religion they had we know nothing; whether for them +there was sacrifice and a sabbath day, how far the original gospel +to Adam was known or remembered or understood by them. All that is +perfectly dark to us. But this we know, that those of them who were +godly men lived by the same power by which godly men live nowadays. +Whatever their creed, their religion was ours. Religion, the bond +that unites again the soul to God, has always been the same. + + + + +THE SAINT AMONG SINNERS + + + 'These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man + and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with + God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. + The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was + filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, + and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted + His way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end + of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled + with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy + them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; + rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it + within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion + which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall + be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, + and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou + make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it + above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the + side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt + thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of + waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is + the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing + that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I + establish My covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, + thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives + with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two + of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them + alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls + after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of + every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of + every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. + And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and + thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food + for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all + that God commanded him, so did he.'--GENESIS vi. 9-22. + +1. Notice here, first, the solitary saint. Noah stands alone 'in his +generations' like some single tree, green and erect, in a forest of +blasted and fallen pines. 'Among the faithless, faithful only he.' +His character is described, so to speak, from the outside inwards. +He is 'righteous,' or discharging all the obligations of law and of +his various relationships. He is 'perfect.' His whole nature is +developed, and all in due symmetry and proportion; no beauty +wanting, no grace cultivated at the expense of others. He is a full +man; not a one-sided and therefore a distorted one. Of course we do +not take these words to imply sinlessness. They express a relative, +not an absolute, completeness. Hence we may learn both a lesson of +stimulus and of hope. We are not to rest satisfied with partial +goodness, but to seek to attain an all-round perfectness, even in +regard to the graces least natural to our dispositions. And we can +rejoice to believe that God is generous in His acceptance and +praise. He does not grudge commendation, but takes account of the +deepest desires and main tendencies of a life, and sees the germ as +a full-blown flower, and the bud as a fruit. + +Learn, too, that solitary goodness is possible. Noah stood +uninfected by the universal contagion; and, as is always the case, +the evil around, which he did not share, drove him to a more rigid +abstinence from it. A Christian who is alone 'in his generations,' +like a lily among nettles, has to be, and usually is, a more earnest +Christian than if he were among like-minded men. The saints in +'Caesar's household' needed to be very unmistakable saints, if they +were not to be swept away by the torrent of godlessness. It is hard, +but it is possible, for a boy at school, or a young man in an +office, or a soldier in a barrack, to stand alone, and be +Christlike; but only on condition that he yields to no temptation to +drop his conduct to the level around him, and is never guilty of +compromise. Once yield, and all is over. Flowers grow on a dunghill, +and the very reeking rottenness may make the bloom finer. + +Learn, too, that the true place for the saint is 'in his +generations.' If the mass is corrupt, so much the more need to rub +the salt well in. Disgust and cowardice, and the love of congenial +society, keep Christian people from mixing with the world, which +they must do if they are to do Christ's work in it. There is a great +deal too much union with the world, and a great deal too much +separation from it, nowadays, and both are of the wrong sort. We +cannot keep too far away from it, by abstinence from living by its +maxims, and tampering with its pleasures. We cannot mix too much +with it if we take our Christianity with us, and remember our +vocation to be its light. + +Notice, again, the companion of the solitary saint. What beauty +there is in that description of the isolated man, passing lonely +amid his contemporaries, like a stream of pure water flowing through +some foul liquid, and untouched by it, and yet not alone in his +loneliness, because 'he walked with God!' The less he found +congenial companionship on earth, the more he realised God as by his +side. The remarkable phrase, used only of Enoch and of Noah, implies +a closer relation than the other expression, 'To walk before God.' +Communion, the habitual occupation of mind and heart with God, the +happy sense of His presence making every wilderness and solitary +place glad because of Him. the child's clasping the father's hand +with his tiny fingers, and so being held up and lifted over many a +rough place, are all implied. Are we lonely in outward reality? Here +is our unfailing companion. Have we to stand single among +companions, who laugh at us and our religion? One man, with God to +back him, is always in the majority. Though surrounded by friends, +have we found that, after all, we live and suffer, and must die +alone? Here is the all-sufficient Friend, if we have fellowship with +whom our hearts will be lonely no more. + +Observe that this communion is the foundation of all righteousness +in conduct. Because Noah walked with God, he was 'just' and +'perfect.' If we live habitually in the holy of holies, our faces +will shine when we come forth. If we desire to be good and pure, we +must dwell with God, and His Spirit will pass into our hearts, and +we shall bear the fragrance of his presence wherever we go. Learn, +also, that communion with God is not possible unless we are fighting +against our sin, and have some measure of holiness. We begin +communion with Him, indeed, not by holiness, but by faith. But it is +not kept up without the cultivation of purity. Sin makes fellowship +with God impossible. 'Can two walk together, except they be agreed?' +'What communion hath light with darkness?' The delicate bond which +unites us in happy communion with God shrivels up, as if scorched, +at the touch of sin. 'If we say that we have fellowship with Him, +and walk in darkness, we lie.' + +2. Notice the universal apostasy. Two points are brought out in the +sombre description. The first is moral corruption; the second, +violence. Bad men are cruel men. When the bonds which knit society +to God are relaxed, selfishness soon becomes furious, and forcibly +seizes what it lusts after, regardless of others' rights. Sin saps +the very foundations of social life, and makes men into tigers, more +destructive to each other than wild beasts. All our grand modern +schemes for the reformation of society will fail unless they begin +with the reformation of the individual. To walk with God is the true +way to make men gentle and pitying. + +Learn from this dark outline that God gazes in silence on the evil. +That is a grand, solemn expression, 'Corrupt before God.' All this +mad riot of pollution and violence is holding its carnival of lust +and blood under the very eye of God, and He says never a word. So is +it ever. Like some band of conspirators in a dark corner, bad men do +deeds of darkness, and fancy they are unseen, and that God forgets +_them_, because they forget God; and all the while His eye is +fixed on them, and the darkness is light about them. Then comes a +further expression of the same thought: 'God looked upon the earth.' +As a sudden beam of sunshine out of a thunder-cloud, His eye flashes +down, not as if He then began to know, but that His knowledge then +began, as it were, to act. + +3. What does the stern sentence on the rotten world teach us? A very +profound truth, not only of the certain divine retribution, but of +the indissoluble connection of sin with destruction. The same word +is thrice employed in verses 11 and 12 to express 'corruption' and +in verse 13 to express 'destruction.' A similar usage is found in 1 +Corinthians iii. 17, where the same Greek word is translated +'defile' and 'destroy.' This teaches us that, in deepest reality, +corruption is destruction, that sin is death, that every sinner is a +suicide. God's act in punishment corresponds to, and is the +inevitable outcome of, our act in transgression. So fatal is all +evil, that one word serves to describe both the poison-secreting +root and the poisoned fruit. Sin is death in the making; death is +sin finished. + +The promise of deliverance, which comes side by side with the stern +sentence, illustrates the blessed truth that God's darkest +threatenings are accompanied with a revelation of the way of escape. +The ark is always shown along with the flood. Zoar is pointed out +when God foretells Sodom's ruin. We are no sooner warned of the +penalties of sin, than we are bid to hear the message of mercy in +Christ. The brazen serpent is ever reared where the venomous snakes +bite and burn. + +4. We pass by the details of the construction of the ark to draw the +final lesson from the exact obedience of Noah. We have the statement +twice over, He did 'according to all that God commanded him.' It was +no easy thing for him to build the ark, amidst the scoffing of his +generations. Smart witticisms fell around him like hail. All the +'practical men' thought him a dreamy fool, wasting his time, while +they prospered and made something of life. The Epistle to the +Hebrews tells us the secret of his obedience: 'By faith, Noah,' etc. +He realised the distant unseen, because he believed Him who warned +him of it. The immediate object of his faith was 'the things not +seen as yet'; but the real, deepest object was God, whose word +showed him these. So faith is always trust in a divine Person, +whether it lays hold of the past sacrifice, the present indwelling +Spirit, or the future heaven. + +Noah's example teaches us the practical effects of faith. 'Moved +with godly fear,' says Hebrews; by which is meant, not a mere dread +of personal evil, for Noah was assured of safety--but that godly +reverence and happy fear which dwells with faith, and secures +precise obedience. Learn that a faith which does not work on the +feelings is a very poor thing. Some Christian people have a great +horror of emotional religion. Unemotional religion is a great deal +worse. The road by which faith gets at the hands is through the +heart. And he who believes but feels nothing, will do exactly as +much as he feels, and probably does not really believe much more. + +So after Noah's emotion followed his action. He was bid to prepare +his ark, we have only to take refuge in the ark which God has +prepared in Christ; but the principle of Noah's obedience applies to +us all. He realised so perfectly that future, with its double +prospect of destruction and deliverance, that his whole life was +moulded by the conduct which should lead to his escape. The far-off +flood was more real to him than the shows of life around him. +Therefore he could stand all the gibes, and gave himself to a course +of life which was sheer folly unless that future was real. Perhaps a +hundred and twenty years passed between the warning and the flood; +and for all that time he held on his way, nor faltered in his faith. +Does our faith realise that which lies before us with anything like +similar clearness? Do we see that future shining through all the +trivial, fleeting present? Does it possess weight and solidity +enough to shape our lives? Noah's creed was much shorter than ours; +but I fear his faith was as much stronger. + +5. We may think, finally, of the vindication of his faith. For a +hundred and twenty years the wits laughed, and the 'common-sense' +people wondered, and the patient saint went on hammering and +pitching at his ark. But one morning it began to rain; and by +degrees, somehow, Noah did not seem quite such a fool. The jests +would look rather different when the water was up to the knees of +the jesters; and their sarcasms would stick in their throats as they +drowned. So is it always. So it will be at the last great day. The +men who lived for the future, by faith in Christ, will be found out +to have been the wise men when the future has become the present, +and the present has become the past, and is gone for ever; while +they who had no aims beyond the things of time, which are now sunk +beneath the dreary horizon, will awake too late to the conviction +that they are outside the ark of safety, and that their truest +epitaph is 'Thou fool!' + + + + +'CLEAR SHINING AFTER RAIN' + + + 'And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all + the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a + wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; + The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven + were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; + And the waters returned from off the earth continually: + and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the + waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh + month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the + mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually + until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first + day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. + And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah + opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he + sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until + the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent + forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated + from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no + rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him + into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the + whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, + and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed + yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove + out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the + evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt + off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off + the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent + forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any + more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first + year, in the first month, the first day of the month, + the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah + removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, + the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, + on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the + earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth + of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy + sons wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living + thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, + and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth + upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the + earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. + And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and + his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping + thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the + earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. + And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of + every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered + burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a + sweet savour; and the Lord said in His heart, I will + not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for + the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; + neither will I again smite any more every thing living, + as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and + harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and + day and night shall not cease,'--GENESIS viii. 1-22. + +The universal tradition of a deluge is most naturally accounted for +by admitting that there was a 'universal deluge.' But 'universal' +does not apply to the extent as embracing the whole earth, but as +affecting the small area then inhabited--an area which was probably +not greater than the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris. The story +in Genesis is the Hebrew version of the universal tradition, and its +plain affinity to the cuneiform narratives is to be frankly +accepted. But the relationship of these two is not certain. Are they +mother and daughter, or are they sisters? The theory that the +narrative in Genesis is derived from the Babylonian, and is a +purified, elevated rendering of it, is not so likely as that both +are renderings of a more primitive account, to which the Hebrew +narrative has kept true, while the other has tainted it with +polytheistic ideas. In this passage the cessation of the flood is +the theme, and it brings out both the love of the God who sent the +awful punishment, and the patient godliness of the man who was +spared from it. So it completes the teaching of the flood, and +proclaims that God 'in wrath remembers mercy.' + +1. 'God remembered Noah.' That is a strong 'anthropomorphism,' like +many other things in Genesis--very natural when these records were +written, and bearing a true meaning for all times. It might seem as +if, in the wild rush of the waters from beneath and from above, the +little handful in the ark were forgotten. Had the Judge of all the +earth, while executing 'terrible things in righteousness,' leisure +to think of them who were 'afar off upon the sea'? Was it a blind +wrath that had been let loose? No; in all the severity there was +tender regard for those worthy of it. Judgment was discriminating. +The sunshine of love broke through even the rain-clouds of the +flood. + +So the blessed lesson is taught that, in the widest sweep of the +most stormy judgments, there are those who abide safely, fearing no +evil. Though the waters are out, there is a rock on which we may +stand safe, above their highest wave. And why did God 'remember +Noah'? It was not favouritism, arbitrary and immoral. Noah was bid +to build the ark, because he was 'righteous' in a world of evil- +doers; he was 'remembered' in the ark, because he had believed God's +warning, obeyed God's command as seeing the judgment 'not seen as +yet,' and so 'became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.' +They who trust God, and, trusting Him, realise as if present the +future judgment, and, 'moved with fear,' take refuge in the ark, are +never forgot by Him, even while the world is drowned. They live in +His heart, and in due time He will show that He remembers them. + +2. The gradual subsidence of the flood is told with singular +exactitude of dates, which are certainly peculiar if they are not +historical. The slow decrease negatives the explanation of the story +as being the exaggerated remembrance of some tidal-wave caused by +earthquake and the like. Precisely five months after the flood +began, the ark grounded, and the two sources, the rain from above +and the 'fountains of the deep' (that is, probably, the sea), were +'restrained,' and a high wind set in. That date marked the end of +the increase of the waters, and consequently the beginning of their +decrease. Seven months and ten days elapsed between it and the +complete restoration of the earth to its previous condition. That +time was divided into stages. Two months and a half passed before +the highest land emerged; two months more and the surface was all +visible; a month and twenty-seven days more before 'the earth was +dry.' The frequent recurrence of the sacred numbers, seven and ten, +is noticeable. The length of time required for the restorative +process witnesses to the magnitude of the catastrophe, impresses the +imagination, and suggests the majestic slowness of the divine +working, and how He uses natural processes for His purposes of moral +government, and rules the wildest outbursts of physical agents. The +Lord as king 'sitteth upon the flood,' and opens or seals the +fountains of the great deep as He will. Scripture does not tell of +the links between the First Cause and the physical effect. It brings +the latter close up to the former. The last link touches the fixed +staple, and all between may be ignored. + +But the patient expectance of Noah comes out strongly in the story, +as well as the gradualness of God's working. Not till 'forty days'--a +round number--after the land appeared, did He do anything. He +waited quietly till the path was plain. Eager impatience does not +become those who trust in God. It is not said that the raven was +sent out to see if the waters were abated. No purpose is named, nor +is it said that it returned at all. 'To and fro' may mean over the +waste of waters, not back and forward to and from the ark. The +raven, from its blackness, its habit of feeding on carrion, its +fierceness, was a bird of ill-omen, and sending it forth has a grim +suggestion that it would find food enough, and 'rest for the sole of +its foot,' among the swollen corpses floating on the dark waters. +The dove, on the other hand, is the emblem of gentleness, purity, +and tenderness. She went forth, the very embodiment of meek hope +that wings its way over dark and desolate scenes of calamity and +judgment, and, though disappointed at first, patiently waits till +the waters sink further, discerns the earliest signs of their drying +up, and comes back to the sender with a report which is a prophecy: +'Your peace shall return to you again.' Happy they who send forth, +not the raven, but the dove, from their patient hearts. Their gentle +wishes come back with confirmation of their hopes, 'as doves to +their windows.' + +3. But Noah did not leave the ark, though 'the earth was dry.' God +had 'shut him in,' and it must be God who brings him out. We have to +take heed of precipitate departure from the place where He has fixed +us. Like Israel in the desert, it must be 'at the commandment of the +Lord' that we pitch the camp, and at the commandment of the Lord +that we journey. Till He speaks we must remain, and as soon as He +speaks we must remove. 'God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth ... +and Noah went forth.' Thus prompt must be our obedience. A sacrifice +of gratitude is the fit close of each epoch in our lives, and the +fit beginning of each new one. Before he thought of anything else, +Noah built his altar. All our deeds should be set in a golden ring +of thankfulness. So the past is hallowed, and the future secure of +God's protection. It is no unworthy conception of God which +underlies the strongly human expression that he 'smelled the sweet +savour.' He delights in our offerings, and our trustful, grateful +love is 'an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable' to Him. +The pledge that He will not any more curse the ground for man's sake +is occasioned by the sacrifice, but is grounded on what seems, at +first sight, a reason for the very opposite conclusion. Man's evil +heart the reason for God's forbearance? Yes, because it is _'evil +from his youth_.' He deals with men as knowing our frame, the +corruption of our nature, and the need that the tree should be made +good before it can bring forth good fruit. Therefore He will not +smite, but rather seek to draw to repentance by His goodness, and by +the faithful continuance of His beneficence in the steadfast +covenant of revolving seasons, 'filling our hearts with food and +gladness.' + + + + +THE SIGN FOR MAN AND THE REMEMBRANCER FOR GOD + + + 'And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, + saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, + and with your seed after you; And with every living + creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, + and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that + go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I + will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all + flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; + neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the + earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant + which I make between Me and you and every living creature + that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My + bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a + covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come to + pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow + shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember My + covenant, which is between Me and you and every living + creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more + become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall + be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may + remember the everlasting covenant between God and every + living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And + God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, + which I have established between Me and all flesh that + is upon the earth. + GENESIS ix. 8-17. + +The previous verses of this chapter lay down the outlines of the new +order which followed the flood. The blessing and the command to be +fruitful are repeated. The dominion over animals is confirmed, but +enlarged by the permission to use them as food, and by the laying on +them of 'the terror of you and the dread of you.' The sanctity of +human life is laid down with great emphasis. Violence and bloodshed +had brought about the flood. The appalling destruction effected by +it might lead to the mistaken notion that God held man's life cheap. +Therefore the cornerstone of future society is laid in that +declaration that life is inviolable. These blessings and commands +are followed by this remarkable section, which deals with God's +covenant with Noah, and its token in the rainbow. + +1. The covenant is stated, and the parties concerned in it +enumerated in verses 3-11. When Noah came forth from the ark, after +the stupendous act of divine justice, he must have felt that the +first thing he needed was some assurance as to the footing on which +he and the new world round him stood with God. The flood had swept +away the old order. It had revealed terrible possibilities of +destruction in nature, and terrible possibilities of wrath in God. +Was any knowledge of His intentions and ways possible? Could +continuance of the new order be counted on? The answer to such +questions was--God's covenant. Now, as then, when any great +convulsions shake what seems permanent, and bring home to men the +thinness of the crust of use and wont roofing an infinite depth of +unknown possibilities of change, on which we walk, the heart cries +out for some assurance of perpetuity, and some revelation of God's +mind. We can have such, as truly as Noah had, if we use the +Revelation given us in Jesus. + +In God's covenant with Noah, the fact of the covenant may first be +noted. What is a covenant? The term usually implies a reciprocal +bond, both parties to which come under obligations by it, each to +the other. But, in this case, there are no obligations on the part +of man or of the creatures. This covenant is God's only. It is +contingent on nothing done by the recipients. He binds Himself, +whatever be the conduct of men. This covenant is the self-motived +promise of an unconditional mercy. May we not say that the 'New +Covenant' in Jesus Christ is after the pattern of this, rather than +after the manner of compacts which require both parties to do their +several parts? + +But note the great thought, that God limits His freedom of action by +this definite promise. Noah was not left to grope in dread among the +terrible possibilities opened by the flood. God marked out the line +on which He would move, and marked off a course which He would not +pursue. It is like a king giving his subjects a constitution. Men +can reckon on God. He has let them know much of the principles and +methods of His government. He has buoyed out His course, as it were, +on the ocean, or pricked it down upon a chart. We have not to do +with arbitrary power, with inscrutable will. Our God is not one who +'giveth no account of any of His matters.' To use a common saying, +'We know where to have Him.' + +The substance of this covenant is noteworthy. It is concerned solely +with physical nature. There is nothing spiritual or 'religious' +about it. There are to be no more universal deluges. That is all +which it guarantees. But consider how important such an assurance +was in two aspects. Note the solemn light which it threw on the +past. It taught that the flood was an exception in the divine +government, which should stand unrepeated for ever, in its dread +pre-eminence testifying how awful it was as a judicial act, and how +outrageous had been the guilt which it drowned out of existence and +sight. A wholesome terror at the unexampled act of judgment would +fill the hearts of the little group which now represented mankind. + +Consider the effect of the covenant in encouraging hope. We have +said that the one thing needful for Noah was some assurance that the +new order would last. He was like a man who has just been rescued +from an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. The ground seems to reel +beneath him. Old habitudes have been curled up like leaves in the +fire. Is there to be any fixity, any ground for continuous action, +or for labour for a moment beyond the present? Is it worth while to +plant or sow? Men who have lived through national tempests or +domestic crashes know how much they need to be steadied afterwards +by some reasonable assurance of comparative continuity. And these +men, in the childhood of the race, would need it much. So they were +sent out to till the earth, and to begin again strenuous lives, with +this covenant to keep them from falling into a hand-to-mouth style +of life, which would have brought them down to barbarism. We all +need the same kind of assurance; and then, when we get it, such is +the weakness of humanity, we are tempted to think that continuity +means eternity, and that, because probably to-morrow shall be as +this day, there will never come a to-morrow which shall be quite +unlike to-day. The crust of cooled earth, on which we walk, is thick +enough to bear man and all his works, but there comes a time when it +will crack. The world will not be flooded again, but we forget, what +Noah did not know, that it will be burned. + +The parties to the covenant must be noticed. Note how frequently the +share in it, which all living creatures have, is referred to in the +context. In verse 10 the language becomes strained (in the +original), in order to express the universal participation of all +living creatures; and in verse l3 'the earth' itself is spoken of as +one party. God recognises obligations to all living things, and even +to the dumb, non-sentient earth. He will not causelessly quench one +bright, innocent life, nor harm one clod. Surely this is, at least, +an incipient revelation of a God whose 'tender mercies are over all +his works.' He 'doth take care for oxen'; and man, with all the +creatures that are with him, and all the wild ones that 'come not +near' him, and all the solid structure of the world, are held in one +covenant of protecting and sustaining providence and power. + +2. The sign of the covenant is described at great length in verses +12-17. Note that verses 12, 13 state the general idea of a token or +sign, that verses 14-16 deepen this by stating that the token to man +is a reminder to God, and that verse 17 sums up the whole with +emphatic repetition of the main points. The narrative does not +imply, as has often been supposed, that the rainbow was visible for +the first time after the deluge. To suppose that, is to read more +into the story than is there, or than common sense tolerates. If +there were showers and sunshine, there must have been rainbows. But +the fair vision strode across the sky with no articulate promise in +its loveliness, though it must always have kindled wonder, and +sometimes stirred deeper thoughts. Now, for the first time, it was +made 'a sign,' the visible pledge of God's promise. + +Mark the emphasis with which God's agency is declared and His +ownership asserted. '_I_ do set _My_ bow.' Neither Noah nor the writer +knew anything about refraction or the prismatic spectrum. But perhaps +they knew more about the rainbow than people do who know all about +how it comes, except that God sets it in the cloud, and that it is His. +Let us have the facts which science labels as such, by all means, and +the more the better; but do not let us forget that there are other facts +in nature which science has no means of attaining, but which are as +solid and a great deal deeper than those which it supplies. + +The natural adaptation of the rainbow for this office of a token is +too plain to need dwelling on. It 'fills the sky when storms prepare +to part,' and hence is a natural token that the downpour is being +stayed. Somewhere there must be a bit of blue through which the sun +can pierce; and the small gap, which is large enough to let it out, +will grow till all the sky is one azure dome. It springs into sight +in front of the cloud, without which it could not be, so it typifies +the light which may glorify judgments, and is born of sorrows borne +in the presence of God. It comes from the sunshine smiting the +cloud; so it preaches the blending of love with divine judgment. It +unites earth and heaven; so it proclaims that heavenly love is ready +to transform earthly sorrows. It stretches across the land; so it +speaks of an all-embracing care, which enfolds the earth and all its +creatures. + +It is not only a 'sign to men.' It is also, in the strong +anthropomorphism of the narrative, a remembrancer to God. Of course +this is accommodation of the representation of His nature to the +limitations of ours. And the danger of attaching unworthy ideas to +it is lessened by noticing that He is said to set His bow in the +cloud, before it acts as His remembrancer. Therefore, He had +remembered before it appeared. The truth, conveyed in the childlike +language, is that God has His covenant ever before Him, and that He +responds to and honours the appeal made to Him, by that which He has +Himself appointed for a sign to men. The expectant eyes of the +trustful man and the eye of God meet, as it were, in looking on the +sign. On earth it nourishes faith; in heaven it moves to love and +blessing. God can be reminded of what He always remembers. The +rainbow reminds Him of His covenant by its calm light. Jesus Christ +reminds Him of His grace by His intercession before the throne. We +remind Him of His plighted faithfulness by our prayers. 'Ye that are +the Lord's remembrancers, keep not silence.' + + + + +AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH + + + 'Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy + country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's + house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will + make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and + make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And + I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that + curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth + be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken + unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy + and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And + Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, + and all their substance that they had gathered, and the + souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth + to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of + Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto + the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the + Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared + unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this + land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who + appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a + mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, + having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and + there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon + the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on + still toward the south.' + GENESIS xii. 1-9. + + +I + + +We stand here at the well-head of a great river--a narrow channel, +across which a child can step, but which is to open out a broad +bosom that will reflect the sky and refresh continents. The call of +Abram is the most important event in the Old Testament, but it is +also an eminent example of individual faith. For both reasons he is +called 'the Father of the Faithful.' We look at the incident here +mainly from the latter point of view. It falls into three parts. + +1. The divine voice of command and promise.--God's servants have to +be separated from home and kindred, and all surroundings. The +command to Abram was no mere arbitrary test of obedience. God could +not have done what He meant with him, unless He had got him by +himself. So Isaiah (li. 2) put his finger on the essential when he +says, 'I called him alone.' God's communications are made to +solitary souls, and His voice to us always summons us to forsake +friends and companions, and to go apart with God. No man gets speech +of God in a crowd. If you desired to fill a person with electricity, +you used to put him on a stool with glass legs, to keep him from +earthly contact. If the quickening impulse from the great magnet is +to charge the soul, that soul must be isolated. 'He that loveth +father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.' + +The vagueness of the command is significant. Abram did not know +'whither he went.' He is not told that Canaan is the land, till he +has reached Canaan. A true obedience is content to have orders +enough for present duty. Ships are sometimes sent out with sealed +instructions, to be opened when they reach latitude and longitude +so-and-so. That is how we are all sent out. Our knowledge goes no +farther ahead than is needful to guide our next step. If we 'go out' +as He bids us, He will show us what to do next. + + 'I do not ask to see + The distant scene; one step enough for me.' + +Observe the promise. We may notice that it needed a soul raised +above the merely temporal to care much for such promises. They would +have been but thin diet for earthly appetites. 'A great nation'; a +divine blessing; to be a source of blessing to the whole world, and +a touchstone by their conduct to which men would be blessed or +cursed;--what was there in these to fascinate a man, unless he had +faith to teach him the relative importance of the earthly and the +heavenly, the present and the future? Notice that the whole promise +appeals to unselfish desires. It is always, in some measure, +elevating to live for a future, rather than a present, good; but if +it be only the same kind of good as the present would yield, it is a +poor affair. The only really ennobling faith is one which sets +before itself a future full of divine blessing, and of diffusion of +that blessing through us, and which therefore scorns delights, and +for such gifts is content to be solitary and a wanderer. + +2. The obedience of faith.--We have here a wonderful example of +prompt, unquestioning obedience to a bare word. We do not know how +the divine command was conveyed to Abram. We simply read, 'The Lord +said'; and if we contrast this with verse 7, 'The Lord appeared ... +and said,' it will seem probable that there was no outward sign of +the divine will. The patriarch knew that he was following a divine +command, and not his own purpose; but there seems to have been no +appeal to sense to authenticate the inward voice. He stands, then, +on a high level, setting the example of faith as unconditional +acceptance of, and obedience to, God's bare word. + +Observe that faith, which is the reliance on a person, and therefore +trust in his word, passes into both forms of confidence in that word +as promise, and obedience to that word as command. We cannot cut +faith in halves, and exercise the one aspect without the other. Some +people's faith says that it delights in God's promises, but it does +not delight in His commandments. That is no faith at all. Whoever +takes God at His word, will take all His words. There is no faith +without obedience; there is no obedience without faith. + +We have already said enough about the separation which was effected +by Abram's journey; but we may just notice that the departure from +his father's house was but the necessary result of the gulf between +them and him, which had been opened by his faith. They were +idolaters; he worshipped one God. That drove them farther apart than +the distance between Sichem and Haran. When sympathy in religion was +at an end, the breach of all other ties was best. So to-day, whether +there be outward separation or no, depends on circumstances; but +every true Christian is parted from the dearest who is not a +Christian, by an abyss wider than any outward distance can make. The +law for us is Abram's law, 'Get thee out.' Either our faith will +separate us from the world, or the world will separate us from our +faith and our God. + +The companionship of Lot, who attaches himself to Abram, teaches +that religion, in its true possessors, exercises an attractive +influence over even common natures, and may win them to a loftier +life. Some weak eyes may discern more glory in the sunshine tinting +a poor bit of mist into ruddy light than in the beam which is too +bright to look at. A faithful Abram will draw Lot after him. + +'They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of +Canaan they came.' Compare this singular expression with chapter xi. +31, where we have Terah's emigration from Ur described in the same +terms, with the all-important difference in the end, 'They came' not +into Canaan, but 'unto Haran, and dwelt there.' Many begin the +course; one finishes it. Terah's journeying was only in search of +pasture and an abode. So he dropped his wider scheme when the +narrower served his purpose. It was an easy matter to go from Ur to +Haran. Both were on the same bank of the Euphrates. But to cross the +broad, deep, rapid river was a different thing, and meant an +irrevocable cutting loose from the past life. Only the man of faith +did that. There are plenty of half-and-half Christians, who go along +merrily from Ur to Haran; but when they see the wide stream in +front, and realise how completely the other side is separated from +all that is familiar, they take another thought, and conclude they +have come far enough, and Haran will serve their turn. + +Again, the phrase teaches us the certain issue of patient pilgrimage +and persistent purpose. There is no mystery in getting to the +journey's end. 'One foot up, and the other foot down,' continued +long enough, will bring to the goal of the longest march. It looks a +weary journey, and we wonder if we shall ever get thither. But the +magic of 'one step at a time' does it. The guide is also the +upholder of our way. 'Every one of them appeareth before God in +Zion.' + +3. The life in the land.--The first characteristic of it is its +continual wandering. This is the feature which the Epistle to the +Hebrews marks as significant. There was no reason but his own choice +why Abram should continue to journey, and prefer to pitch his tent +now under the terebinth tree of Moreh, now by Hebron, rather than to +enter some of the cities of the land. He dwelt in tents because he +looked for the city. The clear vision of the future detached him, as +it will always detach men, from close participation in the present. +It is not because we are mortal, and death is near at the furthest, +that the Christian is to sit loose to this world, but because he +lives by the hope of the inheritance. He must choose to be a +pilgrim, and keep himself apart in feeling and aims from this +present. The great lesson from the wandering life of Abram is, 'Set +your affection on things above.' Cultivate the sense of belonging to +another polity than that in the midst of which you dwell. The +Canaanites christened Abram 'The Hebrew' (Genesis xiv. 13), which +may be translated 'The man from the other side.' That is the name +which all true Christians should deserve. They should bear their +foreign extraction in their faces, and never be naturalised subjects +here. Life is wholesomer in the tent under the spreading tree, with +the fresh air blowing about us and clear sky above, than in the +Canaanite city. + +Observe, too, that Abram's life was permeated with worship. Wherever +he pitches his tent, he builds an altar. So he fed his faith, and +kept up his communion with God. The only condition on which the +pilgrim life is possible, and the temptations of the world cease to +draw our hearts, is that all life shall be filled with the +consciousness of the divine presence, our homes altars, and +ourselves joyful thankofferings. Then every abode is blessed. The +undefended tent is a safe fortress, in which dwelling we need not +envy those who dwell in palaces. Common tasks will then be fresh, +full of interest, because we see God in them, and offer them up to +Him. The wandering life will be a life of walking with God, and +progressive knowledge of Him; and over all the roughnesses and the +sorrows and the trivialities of it will be spread 'the light that +never was on sea or land, the consecration' of God's presence, and +the peacefulness of communion with Him. + +Again, we may notice that the life of obedience was followed by +fuller manifestations of God, and of His will. God 'appeared' when +Abram was in the land. Is it not always true that obedience is +blessed by closer vision and more knowledge? To him that hath shall +be given; and he who has followed the unseen Guide through dimly +discerned paths to an invisible goal, will be gladdened when he +reaches the true Canaan, by the sight of Him whom, having not seen, +he loved. Even here on earth obedience is the path to fuller +knowledge; and when the pilgrims who have left all and followed the +Captain of salvation through a deeper, darker stream than Abram +crossed, have touched the other side, God will appear to them, and +say, as the enraptured eye gazes amazed on the goodly land, 'Arise, +walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; +for I will give it unto thee.' + + + + +ABRAM AND THE LIFE OF FAITH + + +II + + +A great act of renunciation at the divine call lies at the +foundation of Israel's history, as it does at the foundation of +every life that blesses the world or is worth living. The divine +Word to Abram first gives the command in all its authoritativeness +and plain setting forth of how much had to be surrendered, and then +in its exuberant setting forth of how much was to be won by +obedience. God does not hide the sacrifices that have to be made if +we will be true to His command. He will enlist no recruits on false +pretences. All ties of country, kindred, and father's house have to +be loosened, and, if need be, to be cut, for His command is to be +supreme, and clinging hands that would hold back the pilgrim have to +be disengaged. If a man realises God's hold on him, he feels all +others relaxed. The magnetism of the divine command overcomes +gravitation, and lifts him high above earth. The life of faith ever +begins as that of 'the Father of the Faithful' began, with the +solemn recognition of a divine will which separates. Further, Abram +saw plainly what he had to leave, but not what he was to win. He had +to make a venture of faith, for 'the land that I will shew thee' was +undefined. Certainly it was somewhere, but where was it? He had to +fling away substance for what seemed shadow to all but the eye of +faith, as we all have to do. The familiar, undeniable good of the +present has to be waived in favour of what 'common sense' calls a +misty possibility in the future. To part with solid acres and get +nothing but hopes of an inheritance in the skies looks like +insanity, and is the only true wisdom. 'Get thee out' is plain; 'the +land that I will shew thee' looks like the doubtful outlines seen +from afar at sea, which may be but clouds. + +But Abram had a great hope blazing in front, none the less bright or +guiding because it all rested on the bare promise of God. It is the +prerogative of faith to give solidity and reality to what the world +thinks has neither. The wanderer who had left his country was to +receive a land for his own; the solitary who had left his kindred +was to become the founder of a nation; the unknown stranger was to +win a great name,--and how wonderfully that has come true! Not only +was he to be blessed, but also to be a blessing, for from him was to +flow that which should bless all the earth,--and how transcendently +that has come true! The attitude of men to him (and to the universal +blessing that should descend from him) was to determine their +position in reference to God and 'blessings' or 'cursings' from him. +So the migration of Abram was a turning-point in universal history. + +Obedience followed the command, immediate as the thunder on the +flash, and complete. 'So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto +him,'--blessed they of whose lives that may be the summing-up! Happy +the life which has God's command at the back of every deed, and no +command of His unobeyed! If our acts are closely parallel with God's +speech to us, they will prosper, and we shall be peaceful wherever +we may have to wander. Success followed obedience in Abram's case, +as in deepest truth it always does. That is a pregnant expression: +'They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of +Canaan they came.' A strange itinerary of a journey, which omits all +but the start and the finish! And yet are these not the most +important points in any journey or life,--whither it was directed +and where it arrived? How little will the weary tramps in the desert +be remembered when the goal has been reached! Dangers and privations +soon pass from memory, and we shall think little of sorrows, cares, +and pains, when we arrive at home. The life of faith is the only one +which is always sure of getting to the place to which it seeks to +journey. Others miss their aim, or drop dead on the road, like the +early emigrants out West; Christian lives get to the city. + +Once in the land, Abram was still a stranger and pilgrim. He first +planted himself in its heart by Sichem, but outside the city, under +the terebinth tree of Moreh. The reason for his position is given in +the significant statement that 'the Canaanite was then in the land.' +So he had to live in the midst of an alien civilisation, and yet +keep apart from it. As Hebrews says, he was 'dwelling in +tabernacles,' because he 'looked for a city.' The hope of the +permanent future made him keep clear of the passing present; and we +are to feel ourselves pilgrims and sojourners, not so much because +earth is fleeting and we are mortal, as because our true affinities +are with the unseen and eternal. But the presence of 'the Canaanite' +is connected also with the following words, which tell that 'the +Lord appeared unto Abram,' and now after his obedience told him that +this was the land that was to be his. He unfolds His purposes to +those who keep His commandments; obedience is the mother of insight. +The revelation put a further strain on faith, for the present +occupiers of the land were many and strong; but it matters not how +formidably and firmly rooted the Canaanite is, God's children can be +sure that the promise will be fulfilled. We can calmly look on his +power and reckon on its decay, if the Lord appears to us, as to +Abram--and He surely will if we have followed His separating voice, +and dwell as strangers here, because our hearts are with Him. + +After the appearance of God and the promise, we have an outline of +the pilgrim's life, as seen in Abram. He signalised God's further +opening of His purposes, by building an altar on the place where He +had been seen by him. Thankful recognition and commemoration of the +times in our lives when He has most plainly drawn near and shown us +glimpses of His will, are no less blessed than due, and they who +thus rear altars to Him will wonder, when they come to count up how +many they have had to build. But the life of faith is ever a pilgrim +life, and Bethel has soon to be the home instead of Shechem. There, +too, Abram keeps outside the city, and pitches his tent. There, too, +the altar rises by the side of the tent. The transitory provision +for housing the pilgrim contrasts with the solid structure for +offering sacrifices. The tent is 'pitched,' and may be struck and +carried away to-morrow, but the altar is 'builded.' That part of our +lives which is concerned with the material and corporeal is, after +all, short in duration and small in importance; that which has to do +with God, His revelations, and His worship and service, lasts. What +is left in ancient historic lands, like Egypt or Greece, is the +temples of the gods, while the huts of the people have perished long +centuries ago. What we build for God lasts; what we pitch for +ourselves is transient as we are. + + + + +GOING FORTH + + + 'They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into + the land of Canaan they came.'--GENESIS xii. 5. + + +I + + +The reference of these words is to Abram's act of faith in leaving +Haran and setting out on his pilgrimage. It is a strange narrative +of a journey, which omits the journey altogether, with its weary +marches, privations, and perils, and notes but its beginning and its +end. Are not these the main points in every life, its direction and +its attainment? There are-- + + 'Two points in the adventure of the diver, + One--when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge, + One--when, a prince, he rises with his pearl.' + +Abram and his company had a clear aim. But does not the Epistle to +the Hebrews magnify him precisely because he 'went out, not knowing +whither he went'? Both statements are true, for Abram had the same +combination of knowledge and ignorance as we all have. He knew that +he was to go to a land that he should afterwards inherit, and he +knew that, in the first place, Canaan was to be his 'objective +point,' but he did not know, till long after he had crossed the +Euphrates and pitched his tent by Bethel, that it was the land. The +ultimate goal was clear, and the first step towards it was plain, +but how that first step was related to the goal was not plain, and +all the steps between were unknown. He went forth with sealed +orders, to go to a certain place, where he would have further +instructions. He knew that he was to go to Canaan, and beyond that +point all was dark, except for the sparkle of the great hope that +gleamed on the horizon in front, as a sunlit summit rises above a +sea of mist between it and the traveller. Like such a traveller, +Abram could not accurately tell how far off the shining peak was, +nor where, in the intervening gorges full of mist, the path lay; but +he plunged into the darkness with a good heart, because he had +caught a glimpse of his journey's end. So with us. We may have clear +before us the ultimate aim and goal of our lives, and also the step +which we have to take now, in pressing towards it, while between +these two there stretches a valley full of mist, the breadth of +which may be measured by years or by hours, for all that we know, +and the rough places and green pastures of which are equally hidden +from us. We have to be sure that the mountain peak far ahead, with +the sunshine bathing it, is not delusive cloud but solid reality, +and we have to make sure that God has bid us step out on the yard of +path which we _can_ see, and, having secured these two certainties, +we are to cast ourselves into the obscurity before us, and to bear in +our hearts the vision of the end, to cheer us amid the difficulties +of the road. + +Life is strenuous, fruitful, and noble, in the measure in which its +ultimate aim is kept clearly visible throughout it all. Nearer aims, +prescribed by physical necessities, tastes, circumstances, and the +like, are clear enough, but a melancholy multitude of us have never +reflected on the further question: 'What then?' Suppose I have made +my fortune, or won my wife, or established my position, or achieved +a reputation, behind all these successes lies the larger question. +These are not ends but means, and it is fatal to treat them as being +the goal of our efforts or the chief end of our being. There would +be fewer wrecked lives, and fewer bitter and disappointed old men, +if there were more young ones who, at starting, put clearly before +themselves the question: 'What am I living for? and what am I going +to do when I have secured the nearer aims necessarily prescribed to +me?' + +What that aim should be is not doubtful. The only worthy end +befitting creatures with hearts, minds, consciences, and wills like +ours is God Himself. Abram's 'Canaan' is usually regarded as an +emblem of heaven, and that is correct, but the land of our +inheritance is not wholly beyond the river, for God is the portion +of our hearts. He _is_ heaven. To dwell with Him, to have all +the current of our being running towards Him, to set Him before us +in the strenuous hours of effort and in the quiet moments of repose, +in the bright and in the dark days, are the conditions of +blessedness, strength, and peace. + +That aim clearly apprehended and persistently pursued gives +continuity to life, such as nothing else can do. How many of the +things that drew us to themselves, and were for a while the objects +of desire and effort, have sunk below the horizon! The lives that +are not directed to God as their chief end are like the voyages of +old-time sailors, who had to creep from one headland to another, and +steer for points which, one after another, were reached, left +behind, and forgotten. There is only one aim so great, so far in +advance that we can never reach, and therefore can never pass and +drop it. Life then becomes a chain, not a heap of unrelated +fragments. That aim made ours, stimulates effort to its highest +point, and therefore secures blessedness. It emancipates from many +bonds, and takes the poison out of the mosquito bites of small +annoyances, and the stings of great sorrows. It gleams ever before a +man, sufficiently attained to make him at rest, sufficiently +unattained to give the joy of progress. The pilgrims who had but one +single aim, 'to go to the land of Canaan,' were delivered from the +miseries of conflicting desires, and with simplicity of aim came +concentration of force and calm of spirit. + + + + +COMING IN + + +II + + +If life has a clear, definite aim, and especially if its aim is the +highest, there will be detachment from, and abandonment of, many +lower ones. Nothing worth doing is done, and nothing worth being is +realised in ourselves, except on condition of resolutely ignoring +much that attracts. 'They went forth'; Haran must be given up if +Canaan is to be reached. Artists are content to pay the price for +mastery in their art, students think it no hardship to remain +ignorant of much in order to know their own subject thoroughly; men +of business feel it no sacrifice to give up culture, leisure, and +sometimes still higher things, such as love and purity, to win +wealth. And we shall not be Christians after Christ's heart unless +we practise similar restrictions. The stream that is to flow with +impetus sufficient to scour its bed clear of obstructions must not +be allowed to meander in side branches, but be banked up in one +channel. Sometimes there must be actual surrender and outward +withdrawal from lower aims which, by our weakness, have become rival +aims; always there must be subordination and detachment in heart and +mind. The compass in an iron ship is disturbed by the iron, unless +it has been adjusted; the golden apples arrest the runner, and there +are clogs and weights in every life, which have to be laid aside if +the race is to be won. The old pilgrim fashion is still the only +way. We must do as Abram did: leave Haran and its idols behind us, +and go forth, ready to dwell, if need be, in deserts, and as +sojourners even when among cities, or we shall not reach the 'land +that is very far off.' It is near us if we forsake self and the +'things seen and temporal,' but it recedes when we turn our hearts +to these. + +'Into the land of Canaan they came.' No man honestly and rightly +seeks God and fails to find Him. No man has less goodness and +Christ-likeness than he truly desires and earnestly pursues. Nearer +aims are often missed, and it is well that they should be. We should +thank God for disappointments, for hopes unfulfilled, or proving +still greater disappointments when fulfilled. It is mercy that often +makes the harvest from our sowing a scanty one, for so we are being +taught to turn from the quest in which searching has no assurance of +finding, to that in which to seek is to find. 'I have never said to +any of the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.' We may not reach +other lands which seem to us to be lands of promise, or when we do, +may find that the land is 'evil and naughty,' but this land we shall +reach, if we desire it, and if, desiring it, we go forth from this +vain world. The Christian life is the only one which has no +failures, no balked efforts, no frustrated aims, no brave settings +out and defeated returnings. The literal meaning of one of the Old +Testament words for _sin_ is missing the mark, and that embodies the +truth that no man wins what he seeks who seeks satisfaction elsewhere +than in God. Like the rivers in Asiatic deserts, which are lost in +the sand and never reach the sea, all lives which flow towards anything +but God are dissipated and vain. + +But the supreme realisation of an experience like Abram's is +reserved for another life. No pilgrim Zion-ward perishes in the +wilderness, or loses his way or fails to come to 'the city of +habitation.' 'They go from strength to strength, every one of them +in Zion appeareth before God.' And when they appear there, they will +think no more, just as this narrative says nothing, of the sandy, +salt, waterless wildernesses, or the wearinesses, dangers, and toils +of the road. The experience of the happy travellers, who have found +all which they sought and are at home for ever in the fatherland +towards which they journeyed, will all be summed up in this, that +'they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of +Canaan they came.' + + + + +THE MAN OF FAITH + + + 'And Abram passed through the land unto the place of + Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was + then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and + said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there + builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto + him.'--GENESIS xii. 6, 7. + +Great epoch and man. Steps of Abram's training. First he was simply +called to go--no promise of inheritance--obeyed--came to Canaan-found +a thickly peopled land with advanced social order, and received no +divine vision till he was face to face with the Canaanite. + +1. _God's bit-by-bit leading of us._ + +How slowly the divine purpose was revealed--the trial before the +promise--did not know where, nor that Canaan was land, but only told +enough for his first march. + +So with us--our ignorance of future is meant to have the effect of +keeping us near God and training us to live a day at a time. + +God's finger on the page points to a word at a time. Each day's +route is given morning by morning in the order for the day. + +2. _Obedience often brings us into very difficult places._ + +Abram was ready to say, no doubt, 'This cannot be the land for me, +peopled as it is with all these Canaanites.' We are ever ready to +think that, if we find obstacles, we must have misunderstood God's +directions, but 'many adversaries' often indicate an 'open door.' + +3. _The presence of enemies brings the presence of God._ + +This is the first time we read that God _appeared_ to men. + +As the darkness thickens, the pillar of fire brightens. But not only +does God appear more clearly, but our spirits are more eager and +therefore able to see Him. We are mercifully left to feel the +enemies before we see Him present in His strength. + +4. _The victory for us lies in the vision of God and of His loving +purpose._ + +How superb the confidence of 'Unto thy seed will I give _this_ +land.' + +That vision is our true strength. And it will make us feel as +pilgrims, which is in itself more than half the battle. + + + + +LIFE IN CANAAN + + + 'And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east + of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the + west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar + unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.' + GENESIS xii. 3. + +These are the two first acts of Abram in the land of Canaan. + +1. _All life should blend earthly and heavenly._ + +They are not to be separated. Religion should run through everything +and take the whole of life for its field. Where we cannot carry it +is no place for us. It is a shame that heathenism should be more +penetrated by its religion than Christendom is. + +2. _The family should be a church._ + +Domestic religion. New Testament households. Abram a priest. The +decay of family religion, worship, and instruction. + +3. _The service to God should be more costly than to +ourselves._ + +Pitching a tent cheaper than building an altar. Give God the best. +We build ourselves ceiled houses and the ark dwells in curtains. +Pagans build elaborate temples, but their houses are hovels. Too +many Christians do the opposite. + +4. _Building for God lasts, for selves perishes._ + +A tent is stricken, and no trace remains but embers. The stones of +Jacob's altar may be standing yet. The Parthenon of Athens remains: +where are the hovels of the people? 'He that doeth the will of God +abideth for ever.' Permanent results of transitory deeds. + + + + +THE IMPORTANCE OF A CHOICE + + + 'And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and + all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And + Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold. + And he went on his journeys from the south even to Beth-el, + unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, + between Beth-el and Hal; Unto the place of the altar, + which he had made there at the first: and there Abram + called on the name of the Lord. And Lot also, which went + with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the + land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell + together: for their substance was great, so that they + could not dwell together. And there was a strife between + the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's + cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then + in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no + strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my + herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the + whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, + from me: if thou wilt lake the left hand, then I will + go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, + then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, + and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well + watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and + Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land + of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him + all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and + they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram + dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the + cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. + But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the + Lord exceedingly.'--GENESIS xiii. 1-13. + +The main lesson of this section is the wisdom of seeking spiritual +rather than temporal good. That is illustrated on both sides. +Prosperity attends Abram and Lot while they think more of obeying +God than of flocks and herds. Lot makes a mistake, as far as this +world is concerned, when he chooses his place of abode for the sake +of its material advantages. But the introductory verses (vv. 1-4) +suggest a question, and seem to teach an important lesson. Was Abram +right in so soon leaving the land to which God had led him, and +going down to Egypt? Was that not taking the bit between his teeth? +He had been commanded to go to Canaan; should he not have stopped +there--famine or no famine--till the same authority commanded him to +leave the land? If God had put him there, should he not have trusted +God to keep him alive in famine? The narrative seems to imply that +his going to Egypt was a failure of faith. It gives no hint of a +divine voice leading him thither. We do not hear that he builded any +altar beside his tent there, as he had done in the happier days of +life by trust. His stay resulted in peril and in something very like +lying, for which he had to bear the disgrace of being rebuked by an +idolater, and having no word of excuse to offer. The great lesson of +the whole section, and indeed of Abram's whole life, receives fresh +illustration from the story thus understood, which preaches loudly +that trust is safety and wellbeing, and that it is always sin and +always folly to leave Canaan, where God has put us, even if there be +a famine, and to go down into Egypt, even if its harvests be +abundant. + +But another lesson is also taught. After the interruption of the +Egyptian journey, Abram had to begin all his Canaan life over again. +Very emphatically the narrative puts it, that he went to 'the place +where his tent had been at the beginning,' to the altar which he had +made at the first. Yes! that is the only place for a man who has +faltered and gone aside from the course of obedience. He must begin +over again. The backsliding Christian has to resort anew to the +place of the penitent, and to come to Christ, as he did at first for +pardon. It is a solemn thought that years of obedience and heroisms +of self-surrender, may be so annihilated by some act of self-seeking +distrust that the whole career has, as it were, to be begun anew +from the very starting-point. It is a blessed thought that, however +far and long we may have wandered, we can always return to the place +where we were at the beginning, and there call on the name of the +Lord. + +Note how we are taught here the great truth for the Old Testament, +that outward prosperity follows most surely those who do not seek +for it. Abram's wealth has increased, and his companion, Lot, has +shared in the prosperity. It is because he 'went with Abram' that he +'had flocks, and herds, and tents.' Of course, the connection +between despising the world and possessing it is not thus close in +New Testament times. But even now, one often sees that the men who +_will_ be rich fall into a pit of poverty, and that a heart set +on higher things, which counts earthly advantages second and not +first, wins a sufficiency of these most surely. Foxlike cunning, and +wolf-like rapacity, and Devil-like selfishness, which make up a +large portion of what the world calls 'great business capacity,' do +not always secure the prize. But the real possession of earth and +all its wealth depends to-day, as much as ever it did in Abram's +times, on seeking 'first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.' +Only when we are Christ's are all things ours. They are ours, not by +the vulgar way of what the world calls ownership, but in proportion +as we use them to the highest ends of helping us to grow in wisdom +and Christ-likeness, in the measure in which we subordinate them to +heavenly good, in the degree in which we employ them as means of +serving Christ. We can see the Pleiades best by not looking directly +at, but somewhat away from, them; and just as pleasure, if made the +direct object of life, ceases to be pleasure, so the world's goods, +if taken for our chief aim, cease to yield even the imperfect good +which they can bestow. + +But now we have to look at the two dim figures which the remainder +of this story presents to us, and which shine there, in that far-off +past, types and instances of the two great classes into which men +are divided,--Abram, the man of faith; Lot, the man of sense. + +Mark the conduct of the man of faith. Why should he, who has God's +promise that all the land is his, squabble with his kinsman about +pasture and wells? The herdsmen naturally would come to high words +and blows, especially as the available land was diminished by the +claims of the 'Canaanite and Perizzite.' But the direct effect of +Abram's faith was to make him feel that the matter in dispute was +too small to warrant a quarrel. A soul truly living in the +contemplation of the future, and filled with God's promises, will +never be eager to insist on its rights, or to stand on its dignity, +and will take too accurate a measure of the worth of things temporal +to get into a heat about them. The clash of conflicting interests, +and the bad blood bred by them, seem infinitely small, when we are +up on the height of communion with God. An acre or two more or less +of grass land does not look all-important, when our vision of the +city which hath foundations is clear. So an elevated calm and 'sweet +reasonableness' will mark the man who truly lives by faith, and he +will seek after the things that make for peace. Abram could fight, +as Old Testament morality permitted, when occasion arose, as Lot +found out to his advantage before long. But he would not strive +about such trifles. + +May we not venture to apply his words to churches and sects? They +too, if they have faith strong and dominant, will not easily fall +out with one another about intrusions on each other's territory, +especially in the presence, as at this day, of the common foe. When +the Canaanite and the Perizzite are in the land, and Unbelief in +militant forms is arrayed against us, it is more than folly, it is +sin, for brethren to be turning their weapons against each other. +The common foe should make them stand shoulder to shoulder. Abram's +faith led, too, to the noble generosity of his proposal. The elder +and superior gives the younger and inferior the right of option, and +is quite willing to take Lot's leavings. Right or left--it mattered +not to him; God would be with him, whichever way he went; and the +glorious Beyond, for which he lived, blazed too bright before his +inward sight to let him be very solicitous where he was. 'I have +learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.' It does +not matter much what accommodation we have on ship-board, when the +voyage is so short. If our thoughts are stretching across the sea to +the landing at home, and the welcome there, we shall not fight with +our fellow-passengers about our cabins or places at the table. And +notice what rest comes when faith thus dwindles the worth of the +momentary arrangements here. The less of our energies are consumed +in asserting ourselves, and scrambling for our rights, and cutting +in before other people, so as to get the best places for ourselves, +the more we shall have to spare for better things; and the more we +live in the future, and leave God to order our ways, the more shall +our souls be wrapped in perfect peace. Mark the conduct of the man +of sense. We can fancy the two standing on the barren hills by +Bethel, from one of which, as travellers tell us, there is precisely +the view which Lot saw. He lifted up his greedy eyes, and there, at +his feet, lay that strange Jordan valley with its almost tropical +richness, its dark lines of foliage telling of abundant water, the +palm-trees of Jericho perhaps, and the glittering cities. Up there +among the hills there was little to tempt,--rocks and scanty +herbage; down below, it was like the lost Eden, or the Egypt from +which they had but lately come. + +What need for hesitation? True, the men of the plain were 'wicked +and sinners before the Lord exceedingly,' as the chapter says with +grim emphasis. But Lot evidently never thought about that. He knew +it, though, and ought to have thought about it. It was his sin that +he was guided in his choice only by considerations of temporal +advantage. Put his action into words, and it says, 'Grass for my +sheep is more to me than fellowship with God, and a good conscience.' +No doubt he would have had salves enough. 'I do not need to become +like them, though I live among them.' 'A man must look after his own +interests.' 'I can serve God down there as well as up here.' Perhaps +he even thought that he might be a missionary among these sinners. +But at bottom he did not seek first the kingdom of God, but the other +things. + +We have seldom the choice put before us so dramatically and sharply; +but it is as really presented to each. There is the shameless +cynicism of the men who avowedly only ask the question, 'Will it +pay?' But there are subtler forms which affect us all. It is the +standing temptation of Englishmen to apply a money standard to +everything, to adopt courses of action of which the only +recommendation is that they promote getting on in the world. Men who +call themselves Christians select schools for their children, or +professions for their boys, or marriages for their daughters, down +in Sodom, because it will give them a lift in life which they would +not get up in the starved pastures at Bethel, with nobody but Abram +and his like to associate with. If the earnestness with which men +pursue an end is to be taken as any measure of its importance in +their eyes, it certainly does not look much as if modern average +Christians did believe that it was of more moment to be united to +God, and to be growing like Him, than to secure a good large share +of earthly possessions. Tried by the test of conduct, their faith in +getting on is a great deal deeper than their faith in getting up. +But if our religion does not make us put the world beneath our feet, +and count all things but loss that we may win Christ, we had better +ask ourselves whether our religion is any better than Lot's, which +was second-hand, and was much more imitation of Abram than obedience +to God. + +Lot teaches us that material good may tempt and conquer, even after +it has once been overcome. His early life had been heroic; in his +young enthusiasm, he had thrown in his portion with Abram in his +great venture. He had not been thinking of his flocks when he left +Haran. Probably, as I have just said, he was a good deal galvanised +into imitation; but still, he had chosen the better part. But now he +has tired of a pilgrim's life. There are men who cut down the +thorns, and in whom the seed is sown; but thorns are tenacious of +life, and quick growing, and so they spread over the field and choke +the seed. It is easier to take some one bold step than to keep true +through life to its spirit. Youth contemns, but too often middle-age +worships, worldly success. The world tightens its grasp as we grow +older, and Lot and Demas teach us that it is hard to keep for a +lifetime on the heights. Faith, strong and ever renewed by +communion, can do it; nothing else can. + +Lot's history teaches what comes of setting the world first, and +God's kingdom second. For one thing, the association with it is sure +to get closer. Lot began with choosing the plain; then he crept a +little nearer, and pitched his tent 'towards' Sodom; next time we +hear of him, he is living in the city, and mixed up inextricably +with its people. The first false step leads on to connections +unforeseen, from which the man would have shrunk in horror, if he +had been told that he would make them. Once on the incline, time and +gravity will settle how far down we go. We shall see, in subsequent +sections, how far Lot's own moral character suffered from his +choice. But we may so far anticipate the future narrative as to +point out that it affords a plain instance of the great truth that +the sure way to lose the world as well as our own souls, is to make +it our first object. He would have been safe if he had stopped up +among the hills. The shadowy Eastern kings who swooped down on the +plain would never have ventured up there. But when we choose the +world for our portion, we lay ourselves open to the full weight of +all the blows which change and fortune can inflict, and come +voluntarily down from an impregnable fastness to the undefended +open. + +Nor is this all; but at the last, when the fiery rain bursts on the +doomed city, Lot has to leave all the wealth for which he has +sacrificed conscience and peace, and escapes with bare life; he +suffers loss even if he himself is 'saved as dragged through the +fire.' The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that +doeth the will of God abideth for ever. The riches which wax not +old, and need not to be left when we leave all things besides, are +surely the treasures which the calmest reason dictates should be our +chief aim. God is the true portion of the soul; if we have Him, we +have all. So, let us seek Him first, and, with Him, all else is +ours. + + + + +ABRAM THE HEBREW + + + 'And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the + Hebrew.' + GENESIS xiv. 13. + +This is a singular designation of Abram as 'The Hebrew.' Probably we +have in its use here a trace of the customary epithet which he bore +among the inhabitants of Canaan, and perhaps the presence of the +name in this narrative may indicate the influence of some older +account, traditional or written, which owed its authorship to some +of them. At all events, this is the first appearance of the name in +Scripture. As we all know, it has become that of the nation, but a +Jew did not call himself a 'Hebrew' except in intercourse with +foreigners. As in many other cases, the national name used by other +nations was not that by which the people called themselves. Here, +obviously, it is not a national name, for the very good reason that +there was no nation then. It is a personal epithet, or, in plain +English, a nickname, and it means, probably, as the ancient Greek +translation of Genesis gives it, neither more nor less than 'The man +from the other side,' the man that had come across the water. Just +as a mediaeval prince bore the _sobriquet_ Outremere-the 'man +from beyond the sea'--so Abram, to the aboriginal, or, at least, +long-settled, inhabitants of the country, was known simply as the +foreigner, the 'man from the other side' (of the Jordan, or more +probably of the great river Euphrates), the man from across the +water. + +Now that name may suggest, with a permissible, and, I hope, not +misleading play of fancy, just two things, which I seek now to press +upon our hearts and consciences. The one is as to how men become +Christians, and the other is as to how they look to other people +when they are. + +1. Men become Christians by a great emigration. + +'Get thee out from thy father's house, and from thy country, and +from thy kindred,' was the command to Abram. And he became the heir +to God's promises and the father of the faithful, because he did not +hesitate a moment to make the plunge and to leave behind him all his +past, his associations, his loves, much of his possessions, and, in +a very profound sense, his old self, and put a great impassable gulf +between him and them all. + +Now I am not going to say anything so narrow or foolish as that the +Christian life must always begin with a conscious and sudden change; +but this I am quite sure of, that in the vast majority of cases of +thoroughly and out-and-out religious men, there must be a conscious +change, whether it has been diffused through months or years, or +concentrated in one burning moment. There has been a beginning; +whether it has been like the dawn, or whether it has been like the +kindling of a candle, the beginning of the flashing of the divine +light into the heart; and the men that are most really under the +influence of religious truth can, as a rule, looking back upon their +past experience, see that it divides itself into two halves, +separated from each other by a profound gulf--the time on the other +side, and that on this side, of the great river. We must take heed +lest by insisting on any one way of entrance into the kingdom we +seem to narrow God's mercy, or sadden true hearts, or make the +method of approach a test of the fact of entrance. God's city has +more than twelve gates; they open to all the thirty-two points of +the compass, yet there is, in the religious experience of the truest +saints, always something analogous to this change. And what I desire +to press upon you is, that unless you are only religious people +after the popular superficial fashion of the day, there will be +something like it in your lives. + +There will be a change in a man's deepest self, so that he will be a +'new creature,' with new tastes, new motives stirring to action, new +desires pressing for satisfaction, new loves sweetly filling his +heart, new insight into the meanings and true good of life and time +guiding his conduct, new aversions withdrawing him from old delights +which have become hateful now, new hopes pluming their growing +wings, and new powers bearing him along a new road. There will be a +change in his relations to God and to God's will. God in Christ will +have become his centre, instead of self, which was so before. He +lives in a new world, being himself a new man. + +Our Lord uses this very illustration when He says, 'He that heareth +My Word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and +cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life.' +That is a great migration, is it not, from the condition of a corpse +to that of a living man? Paul, too, gives the same idea with a +somewhat different turn of the illustration, when he gives 'thanks +to the Father who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and +translated us into the kingdom of,'--not, as we might expect to +complete the antithesis, 'the light,' but--the 'kingdom of the Son +of His love,' which is the same thing as the light. The illustration +is probably drawn from the practice of the ancient conquering +monarchs, who, when they subjugated a country, were wont to lead +away captive long files of its inhabitants as compulsory colonists, +and set them down in another land. Thus the conquering Christ comes, +and those whom He conquers by His love, He shifts by a great +emigration out of the dominion of that darkness which is at once +tyranny and anarchy, and leads them into the happy kingdom of the +light. + +Thus, then, all Christian men become such, because they turn their +backs upon their old selves, and crucify their affections and lusts; +and paste down the leaf, as it were, on which their blotted past is +writ, and turn over a new and a fairer one. And my question to you, +dear brethren, is, Are you men from the other side, who were not +born where you live now, and who have passed out of the native +Chaldea into the foreign--and yet to the new self home--land of +union with God? + +2. This designation may be taken as teaching that a Christian should +be known as a foreigner, a man from across the water. + +Everybody in Canaan that knew Abram at all knew him as not one of +themselves. The Hebrew was the name he went by, because his +unlikeness to the others was the most conspicuous thing about him, +even to the shallowest eye. Abram found himself, when he had +migrated into Canaan, in no barbarous country, but plunged at once +into the midst of an organised and compact civilisation, that walled +its cities, and had the comforts and conveniences and regularities +of a settled order; and in the midst of it all, what did he do? He +elected to live in a tent. 'He dwelt in tabernacles, as the Epistle +to the Hebrews comments upon his history, 'because he looked for a +city.' The more his expectations were fixed upon a permanent abode, +the more transitory did he make his abode here. If there had been no +other city to fill his eyes, he would have gone and lived in some of +those that were in the land. If there had been no other order to +which he felt himself to belong, he would have had no objection to +cast in his lot with the order and the people with whom he lived on +friendly terms. But although he bought and sold with them, and +fought for them and by their sides, and acquired from them land in +which to bury his dead, he was not one of them, but said, 'No! I am +not going into your city. I stay in my tent under this terebinth +tree; for I am here as a stranger and a sojourner.' No doubt there +were differences of language, dress, and a hundred other little +things which helped the impression made on the men of the land by +this strange visitor who lived in amity but in separation, and they +are all crystallised in the name which the popular voice gave him, +'The man from the other side.' + +That is the impression which Christian people ought to make in the +world. They should be recognised, by even unobservant eyes who know +nothing of the inner secret of their lives, as plainly belonging to +another order. If we seek to keep fresh in our own minds the +consciousness that we do so, it will make itself manifest in all our +bearing and actions. So that exhortation to cultivate the continual +sense that our true city--the mother city of our hearts and hopes--is +in heaven is ever to be reiterated, and as constantly obeyed, as the +necessary condition of a life worthy of our true affinities and of +our glorious hopes. + +Nor less needful is the other exhortation--live by the laws of your +own land, not by those of the foreign country where you are for a +time. If you do that thoroughly, you will not need to say, 'I am +from another country.' Your conduct will say it for you. An English +ship is a bit of England, in whatever latitude it may be, and +however far beyond the three-mile limit of the King's authority upon +the seas it may float. And so, wherever there is a Christian man, +there is a bit of God's kingdom, and over that little speck in the +midst of the ocean of the world the flag with the Cross on it should +fly, and the laws of the Christ should be the only laws that have +currency. If it could be said of us as Haman said to his king about +the Jews, that we were a people with laws 'diverse from those of all +people,' we should be doing more than, alas! most of us do, to +honour Him whom we profess to serve. Follow Christ, and people will +be quick enough to say of you 'The man from the other side,' 'He +does not belong to our city.' There is no need for ostentation, nor +for saying, 'Come and see my zeal for the Lord,' nor for blowing +trumpets before us at street corners or elsewhere. The less of all +that the better. The more we try to do the common things done by the +folk round us, but from another motive, the more powerful will be +our witness for our Master. + +For instance, when John Knox was in the French galleys, he was +fastened to the same oar with some criminal, perhaps a murderer. The +two men sat on the same bench, did the same work, tugged at the same +heavy sweep, were fed with the same food, suffered the same sorrows. +Do you think there was any doubt as to the infinite gulf between +them? We may be working side by side, at the very same tasks, and +under similar circumstances, with men that have no share in our +faith, and no sympathy with our hopes and aspirations, and yet, +though doing the same thing, it will _not_ be the same thing. +And if we keep Christ before us, and follow His steps who has left +us an example, depend upon it people will very soon find out that we +are men 'from across the water.' + +Notice, further, how this dissimilarity and obvious aloofness from +the order of things in which we dwell is still perfectly compatible +with all sorts of helpful associations. The context shows us that. +There had come a flood of invasion, under kings with strange and +barbarous names, from the far East. They had swept down upon the +fertile valley of Siddim, and there had inflicted devastation. +Amongst the captives had been Lot, Abram's relative, and all his +goods had been taken. One fugitive, as it appears, had escaped, and +the first thing he did was to go straight to 'the man from the other +side,' and tell him about it, as if sure of sympathy and help. No +doubt the relationship between Abram and Lot was the main reason why +the panting survivor made his way to the hills where Abram's tent +was pitched, but there was also confidence in his willingness to +help the Sodomites who had lost their goods. So it was not to the +sons of Heth in Mamre that the fugitive turned in his extremity, but +he 'told Abram the Hebrew.' + +I need not narrate over again the familiar story of how, for once in +his peaceful life, the 'friend of God' girds on his sword and +develops military instincts in his prompt and well-planned pursuit, +which show that if he did not try to conquer some part of the land +which he knew to be his by the will of God, it was not for want of +ability, but because he 'believed God,' and could wait. We all know +how he armed his slaves, and made a swift march to the northern +extremity of the land, and then, by a nocturnal surprise, came down +upon the marauders and scattered them like chaff, before his onset, +and recovered Lot and all the spoil. + +Let us learn that, if Christian men will live well apart from the +world, they will be able to sympathise with and help the world; and +that our religion should fit us for the prompt and heroic +undertaking, as it certainly does for the successful accomplishment, +of all deeds of brotherly kindness and sympathy, bringing help and +solace to the weak and the wearied, liberty to the captives, and +hope to the despairing. + +I do not believe that Christian men have any business to draw swords +now. Abram is in that respect the Old Testament type of a God- +fearing hero, with the actual sword in his hands. The New Testament +type of a Christian warrior without a sword is not one jot less, but +more, heroic. The form of sympathy, help, and 'public spirit' which +the 'man from the other side' displayed is worse than an anachronism +now in the light of Christ's law. It is a contradiction. But the +spirit which breathed through Abram's conduct should be ours. We are +bound to 'seek the peace of the city' where we dwell as strangers +and pilgrims, avoiding no duty of sympathy and help, but by prompt, +heroic, self-forgetting service to all the needy, sorrowful, and +oppressed, building up such characters for ourselves that fugitives +and desperate men shall instinctively turn to men from the other +side for that help which, they know full well, the men of the +country are too selfish or cowardly to give. + +May I venture to suggest yet another and very different application +of this name? To the aboriginal inhabitants of heaven, the angels +that kept their first estate, redeemed men are possessors of a +unique experience; and are the 'men from the other side.' They who +entered on their pilgrimage through the Red Sea of conversion, pass +out of it through the Jordan of death. They who become Christ's, by +the great change of yielding their hearts to Him, and who live here +as pilgrims and sojourners, pass dryshod through the stream into His +presence. And there they who have always dwelt in the sunny +highlands of the true Canaan, gather round them, and call them, not +unenvying, perhaps, their experience, 'The men that have crossed.' +The 'Hebrews of the Hebrews' in the heavens are those who have known +what it is to be pilgrims and sojourners, and to whom the promise +has been fulfilled in the last hour of their journey, 'When thou +passest through the river, I will be with thee.' _They_ teach +the angels a new song who sing, 'Thou hast led us through fire and +through water, and brought us into a wealthy place.' + + + + +GOD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAM + + + 'And He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now + toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to + number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. + And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him + for righteousness. And He said unto him, I am the Lord + that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give + thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, + whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And He + said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and + a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years + old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took + unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and + laid each piece one against another: but the birds + divided he not. And when the fowls came down upon the + carcases, Abram drove them away. And when the sun was + going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an + horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto + Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger + in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and + they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also + that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and + afterward shall they come out with great substance. And + thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be + buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation + they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the + Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, + when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking + furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those + pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with + Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, + from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river + Euphrates.'--GENESIS xv. 5-18. + +1. Abram had exposed himself to dangerous reprisals by his victory +over the confederate Eastern raiders. In the reaction following the +excitement of battle, dread and despondency seem to have shadowed +his soul. Therefore the assurance with which this chapter opens came +to him. It was new, and came in a new form. He is cast into a state +of spiritual ecstasy, and a mighty 'word' sounds, audible to his +inward ear. The form which it takes--'I am thy shield'--suggests +the thought that God shapes His revelation according to the moment's +need. The unwarlike Abram might well dread the return of the +marauders in force, to avenge their defeat. Therefore God speaks to +his fears and present want. Just as to Jacob the angels appeared as +a heavenly camp guarding his undefended tents and helpless women; +so, here and always, God is to us what we most need at the moment, +whether it be comfort, or wisdom, or guidance, or strength. The +manna tasted to each man, as the rabbis say, what he most desired. +God's gifts take the shape of man's necessity. + +Abram had just exercised singular generosity in absolutely refusing +to enrich himself from the spoil. God reveals Himself as 'his +exceeding great reward.' He gives Himself as recompense for all +sacrifices. Whatever is given up at His bidding, 'the Lord is able +to give thee much more than this.' Not outward things, nor even an +outward heaven, is the guerdon of the soul; but a larger possession +of Him who alone fills the heart, and fills the heart alone. Other +riches may be counted, but this is 'exceeding great,' passing +comprehension, and ever unexhausted, and having something over after +all experience. Both these aspects of God's preciousness are true +for earth; but we need a shield only while exposed to attack. In the +land of peace, He is only our reward. + +2. Mark the triumphant faith which wings to meet the divine promise. +The first effect of that great assurance is to deepen Abram's +consciousness of the strange contradiction to it apparently given by +his childlessness. It is not distrust that answers the promise with +a question, but it is eagerness to accept the assurance and +ingenuous utterance of difficulties in the hope of their removal. +God is too wise a father not to know the difference between the +tones of confidence and unbelief, however alike they may sound; and +He is too patient to be angry if we cannot take in all His promise +at once. He breaks it into bits not too large for our lips, as He +does here. The frequent reiterations of the same promises in Abram's +life are not vain. They are a specimen of the unwearied repetition +of our lessons, 'Here a little, there a little,' which our teacher +gives His slow scholars. So, once more, Abram gets the promise of +posterity in still more glorious form. Before, it was likened to the +dust of the earth; now it is as the innumerable stars shining in the +clear Eastern heaven. As he gazes up into the solemn depths, the +immensity and peace of the steadfast sky seems to help him to rise +above the narrow limits and changefulness of earth, and a great +trust floods his soul. Abram had lived by faith ever since he left +Haran; but the historian, usually so silent about the thoughts of +his characters, breaks through his usual manner of narrative to +insert the all-important words which mark an epoch in revelation, +and are, in some aspects, the most significant in the Old Testament. +Abram 'believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for +righteousness.' + +Observe the teaching as to the nature and object of faith in that +first clause. The word rendered 'believed' literally means to steady +oneself by leaning on something. So it gives in a vivid picture more +instructive than many a long treatise what faith is, and what it +does for us. As a man leans his trembling hand on a staff, so we lay +our weak and changeful selves on God's strength; and as the most +mutable thing is steadied by being fastened to a fixed point, so we, +though in ourselves light as thistledown, may be steadfast as rock, +if we are bound to the rock of ages by the living band of faith. The +metaphor makes it plain that faith cannot be merely an intellectual +act of assent, but must include a moral act, that of confidence. +Belief as credence is mainly an affair of the head, but belief as +trust is an act of the will and the affections. + +The object of faith is set in sunlight clearness by these words,--the +first in which Scripture speaks of faith. Abram leaned on 'the Lord.' +It was not the promise, but the promiser, that was truly the object +of Abram's trust. He believed the former, because he trusted Him who +made it. Many confusions in Christian teaching would have been avoided +if it had been always seen that faith grasps a person, not a doctrine, +and that even when the person is revealed by doctrine, it is him, and +not only it, which faith lays hold of. Whether God speaks promises, +teachings of truth, or commandments, faith accepts them, because it +trusts Him. Christ is revealed to us for our faith by the doctrinal +statements of the New Testament. But we must grasp Himself, as so +revealed, if we are to have faith which saves the soul. This same +thought of the true object of faith as personal helps us to understand +the substantial identity of faith in all ages and stages of revelation, +however different the substance of the creeds. Abram knew very little +of God, as compared with our knowledge. But it was the same God whom +Abram trusted, and whom we trust as made known in His Son. Hence we +can stretch out our hands across the ages, and clasp his as partaker +of 'like precious faith.' We walk in the light of the same sun,--he +in its morning beams, we in its noonday glory. There has never been +but one road to God, and that is the road which Abram trod, when 'he +believed in the Lord.' + +3. Mark the full-orbed gospel truth as to the righteousness of faith +which is embedded in this record of early revelation, 'He counted it +to him for righteousness.' A geologist would be astonished if he +came on remains in some of the primary strata which indicated the +existence, in these remote epochs, of species supposed to be of much +more recent date. So here we are startled at finding the peculiarly +New Testament teaching away back in this dim distance. No wonder +that Paul fastened on this verse, which so remarkably breaks the +flow of the narrative, as proof that his great principle of +justification by faith was really the one only law by which, in all +ages, men had found acceptance with God. Long before law or +circumcision, faith had been counted for righteousness. The whole +Mosaic system was a parenthesis; and even in it, whoever had been +accepted had been so because of his trust, not because of his works. +The whole of the subsequent divine dealings with Israel rested on +this act of faith, and on the relation to God into which, through +it, Abram entered. He was not a perfectly righteous man, as some +passages of his life show; but he rose here to the height of loving +and yearning trust in God, and God took that trust in lieu of +perfect conformity to His will. He treated and regarded him as +righteous, as is proved by the covenant which follows. The gospel +takes up this principle, gives us a fuller revelation, presents the +perfect righteousness of Christ as capable of becoming ours by +faith, and so unveils the ground on which Abram and the latest +generations are equally 'accepted in the beloved.' This reckoning of +righteousness to the unrighteous, on condition of their faith, is +not because of any merit in faith. It does not come about in reward +of, but by means of, their faith, which is nothing in itself, but is +the channel only of the blessing. Nor is it a mere arbitrary act of +God's, or an unreal imputing of what is not. But faith unites with +Christ; and 'he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,' so as +that 'in Him we have redemption.' His righteousness becomes ours. +Faith grafts us into the living Vine, and we are no longer regarded +in our poor sinful individual personality, but as members of Christ. +Faith builds us into the rock; but He is a living Stone, and we are +living stones, and the life of the foundation rises up through all +the courses of the great temple. Faith unites sinful men to God in +Christ; therefore it makes them partakers of the 'blessedness of the +man, ... to whom the Lord will not impute sin,' and of the +blessedness of the man to whom the Lord reckons his faith for +righteousness. That same faith which thus clothes us with the white +robe of Christ's righteousness, in lieu of our own tattered raiment, +also is the condition of our becoming righteous by the actual +working out in our character of all things lovely and of good +report. It opens the heart to the entrance of that divine Christ, +who is first made _for_ us, and then, by daily appropriation of +the law of the spirit of life, is made _in_ us, 'righteousness +and sanctification, and redemption.' May all who read these lines +'be found in Him,' having 'that which is through the faith of +Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith!' + +4. Consider the covenant which is the consequence of Abram's faith, +and the proof of his acceptance. + +It is important to observe that the whole remainder of this chapter +is regarded by the writer as the result of Abram's believing God. +The way in which verse 7 and the rest are bolted on, as it were, to +verse 6, clearly shows this. The nearer lesson from this fact is, +that all the Old Testament revelation from this point onward rests +on the foundation of faith. The further lesson, for all times, is +that faith is ever rewarded by more intimate and loving +manifestations of God's friendship, and by fuller disclosure of His +purposes. The covenant is not only God's binding Himself anew by +solemn acts to fulfil His promises already made, but it is His +entering into far sweeter and nearer alliance with Abram than even +He had hitherto had. That name, 'the friend of God,' by which he is +still known over all the Mohammedan world, contains the very essence +of the covenant. In old days men were wont to conclude a bond of +closest amity by cutting their flesh and interchanging the flowing +blood. Henceforth they had, as it were, one life. We have not here +the shedding of Abram's blood, as in the covenant of circumcision. +Still, the slain animals represent the parties to the covenant, and +the notion of a resulting unity of the closest order as between God +and Abram is the very heart of the whole incident. + +The particulars as to the rite by which the covenant was established +are profoundly illuminative. The significant division of the animals +into two shows that they were regarded as representing the +contracting parties, and the passing between them symbolised the +taking up of the obligations of the covenant. This strange rite, +which was widely spread, derives importance from the use of it +probably made in Hebrews ix 16, 17. The new covenant, bringing still +closer friendship and higher blessings, is sealed by the blood of +Christ. He represents both God and man. In His death, may we not say +that the manhood and the Godhead are parted, and we, standing as it +were between them, encompassed by that awful sacrifice, and enclosed +in its mysterious depths, enter into covenant with God, and become +His friends? + +We need not to dwell upon the detailed promises, of which the +covenant was the seal. They are simply the fuller expansion of those +already made, but now confirmed by more solemn guarantees. The new +relation of familiar friendship, established by the covenant itself, +is the main thing. It was fitting that God's friend should be in the +secret of His purposes. 'The servant knoweth not what his lord +doeth,' but the friend does. And so we have here the assurance that +faith will pierce to the discernment of much of the mind of God, +which is hid from sense and the wisdom of this world. If we would +know, we must believe. We may be 'men of God's counsel,' and see +deeply into the realities of the present, and far ahead into what +will then become the certainties of the future, if only we live by +faith in the secret place of the Most High, and, like John, lean so +close on the Master's bosom that we can hear His lowest whisper. + +Notice, too, the lessons of the smoking furnace and the blazing +torch. They are like the pillar of fire and cloud. Darkness and +light; a heart of fire and a wrapping of darkness,--these are not +symbols of Israel and its checkered fate, as Dean Stanley thinks, +but of the divine presence: they proclaim the double aspect of all +divine manifestations, the double element in the divine nature. He +can never be completely known; He is never completely hid. Ever does +the lamp flame; ever around it the smoke wreathes. In all His self- +revelation is 'the hiding of His power'; after all revelation He +dwelleth 'in the thick darkness.' Only the smoke is itself fire, but +not illumined to our vision. The darkness is light inaccessible. +Much that was 'smoke' to Abram has caught fire, and is 'light' to +us. But these two elements will ever remain; and throughout eternity +God will be unknown, and yet well known, pouring Himself in ever- +growing radiance on our eyes, and yet 'the King invisible.' + +Nor is this all the teaching of the symbol. It speaks of that +twofold aspect of the divine nature, by which to hearts that love He +is gladsome light, and to unloving ones He is threatening darkness. +As to the Israelites the pillar was light, and to the Egyptians +darkness and terror; so the same God is joy to some, and dread to +others. 'What maketh heaven, that maketh hell.' Light itself can +become the source of pain the most exquisite, if the eye is +diseased. God Himself cannot but be a torment to men who love +darkness rather than light. Love and wrath, life and death, a God +who pities and who cannot but judge, are solemnly proclaimed by that +ancient symbol, and are plainly declared to us in the perfect +revelation in Christ Jesus. + +Observe, too, the manner of the ratification of the covenant. The +symbol of the Divine presence passed between the pieces. No mention +is made of Abram's doing so. Why this one-sided covenant? Because +God's gracious dealings with men are one-sided. He seeks no oaths +from us; He does not exchange blessings for our gifts. His covenant +is the free result of His unmotived love, and is ratified by a +solemn sacrifice, which we do not offer. We have nothing to do but +to take what He gives. All ideas of barter and bargain are far from +Him. Our part is but to embrace His covenant, which is complete and +ratified whether we embrace it or not. What a wonderful thought that +is of a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God! We do not hear +so much of it as our fathers did. The more is the pity. It means +that God has, as it were, buoyed out across the boundless ocean of +His possible modes of action a plain course, which He binds Himself +to keep; that He has frankly let us into the very secret of His +doings; that He has stooped to use human forms of assurance to make +it easier to trust Him; that He has confirmed His promise by a +mighty sacrifice. Therefore we may enter into closest friendship +with Him, and take for our own the exultant swan-song of Abram's +royal son: 'Although my house be not so with God [although my life +be stained, and my righteousness unfit to be offered to His pure +eyes]; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in +all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my +desire.' + + + + +THE WORD THAT SCATTERS FEAR + + + 'Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding + great reward.' + GENESIS XV. 1. + + +I + + +Abram was now apparently about eighty-five years old. He had been +fourteen years in Palestine, and had, for the only time in his life, +quite recently been driven to have recourse to arms against a +formidable league of northern kings, whom, after a swift forced +march from the extreme south to the extreme north of the land, he +had defeated. He might well fear attack from their overwhelmingly +superior forces. So this vision, like all God's words, fits closely +to moments needs, but is also for all time and all men. + +1. The call to conquer fear. + +Fear not.--(_a_) There is abundant reason for fear in facts of +life. There are so many certain evils, and so many possible evils, +that any man who is not a feather-brained fool must sometimes quail. + +(_b_) Reasons for fear in our relations to divine law. + +(_c_) The only rational way of conquering fears is by showing +them to be unfounded. It is waste of breath to say, Don't be afraid, +and to do nothing to remove the occasions of fear. It is childish to +try to get rid of fears by shutting the eyes tight and refusing to +look formidable facts in the face. + +(_d_) The revelation of God is the true antidote to fear. + +(_e_) 'Fear not' is the characteristic word of divine +revelation. It is of frequent occurrence from Abraham till John in +Patmos. + +2. The ground of the call in the Revelation of God as Shield. + + (_a_) As to outward evils, His protection assures us, not of +absolute exemption, but of His entire control of them, so that men +and circumstances are His instruments, and His will only is +powerful. Chedorlaomer and all the allied kings are nothing; 'a +noise,' as the prophet said of a later conqueror. All the bitterness +and terror is taken out of evil. If any fiery dart pass through the +shield, all its poison is wiped off in passage. So there remains no +reason for fear, since all things work together for good. Behind +that shield we are safe as diver in his bell, though seas rave and +sea-monsters swim around. + +(_b_) As to inward evils, our Shield assures us of absolute +exemption. 'Shield of faith.' Faith is shield because it takes hold +of God's strength. + +3. The ground of the call in the Revelation of God as Reward. +Abraham had refused all share in booty, a large sacrifice, and here +he is promised, A Reward in God, _i.e._ He gives Himself in +recompense for all sacrifices in path of duty. 'The Lord is able to +give thee much more than these.' This promise opens out to general +truth that God Himself is the true reward of a devout life. There +are many recompenses for all sacrifices for God, some of them +outward and material, some of them inward and spiritual, but the reward +which surpasses all others is that by such sacrifices we attain to +greater capacity for God, and therefore possess more of Him. This is +the only Reward worth thinking of--God only satisfies the soul. With +Him we are rich; without Him poor; 'exceeding great'--'riches in +glory,' transcending all measure. The revelations of God as Shield +and Reward are both given in reference to the present life, but the +former applies only to earth, where 'without are fighters, within are +fears'; while 'the latter is mainly true for heaven, where those +who have fought, having God for their Shield, will possess Him for +their Reward, in a measure and manner which will make all earthly +experiences seem poor. Here the 'heirs of God' get subsistence money, +which is a small instalment of their inheritance; there they enter +into possession of it all. + + +II + + +Many years have passed since Abram was called to go forth from his +father's house, assured that God would make of him a great nation. +They had been years of growing power. He has been dwelling at Mamre, +as a prince among the people of the land, a power. There sweeps down +on Southern Palestine the earliest of those invasions from the vast +plains of the North which afterwards for generations were the +standing dread of Abram's descendants. Like the storm pillars in +their own deserts, are these wild marauders with the wild names that +never appear again in the history. Down on the rich valleys and +peaceful pasture lands they swoop for booty, not for conquest. Like +some sea-bird, they snatch their prey and away. They carry with them +among the long train of captives Abram's ungenerous brother-in-law, +Lot. Then the friend of God, the father of the faithful, musters his +men, like an Arab sheikh as he was, and swiftly follows the track of +the marauders over the hills of Samaria, and across the plain of +Jezreel. The night falls, and down he swoops upon them and scatters +them. Coming back he had interviews with the King of Sodom, when he +refuses to take any of the spoil, and with Melchizedek. Abram is +back at Mamre. How natural that fear and depression should seize +him: the reaction from high excitement; the dread that from the +swarming East vengeance would come for his success in that night +surprise; the thought that if it did, he was a wandering stranger in +a strange land and could not count on allies. Then there would come, +perhaps, the remembrance of how long God had delayed the very +beginnings of the fulfilment, 'Seeing I go childless.' + +To this mood of mind the divine vision is addressed. 'Fear not--I am +thy shield' whatever force comes against thee, 'and thine exceeding +great reward,'--perhaps in reference to his refusal to take +anything from the spoil. But God says this to us all. In these +antique words the very loftiest and purest principles of spiritual +religion are set forth. + +He that loves and trusts God possesses God. + +He that possesses God has enough for earth. + +He that possesses God has enough for heaven. + +1. It is possible for a man to have God for his. 'I am thy Reward,'--not +merely Rewarder, but Reward. + +How can one spiritual Being belong to another?--plainly, By mutual +love. + +The Gospel assures us of God's love, and makes it possible for ours +to be fixed on Him. + +Faith gives us God for ours. + +The highest view of the blessings of the Gospel is that God Himself +becomes our reward. + +How sad the insanity of men appears, in the ordinary aims of their +life, its rewards and its objects of desire! How they chase after +variety! + +How much loftier and truer a conception of the blessing of religion +this is than notions of mere escape and the like! + +2. The possession of God is enough for earth. + +God the all-sufficient object for our spirits, His love, the +communication of Himself, the sense of His presence, the depths of +His infinite character, of His wondrous ways, of His revealed Truth +as an object for thought: of His authoritative will as imperative +for will and conscience: aspiration towards Him. + +God the Eternal Object. + +To find Him in everything, and everything in Him, is to be at rest. + +This is what He promises-- + +Not a life of outward success and ease--much nobler than if He did. + +Take Abram's as a type. + +In war He will be our Defence. + +In absence of other joys He will be Enough. + +Sphered and included in Him is all sweetness. He sustains all +relations, and does for us what these other joys and goods partially +do. + +The possession of His love should put away all fear, since having +Him we are not at the mercy of externals. + +What, then, is Life as men ordinarily make it?--what a blunder! + +3. To possess God is enough for heaven. + +Such a relationship is the great proof of immortality. + +Christ and Sadducees. + +The true glory of heaven is in fuller possession of God: no doubt +other things, but these subsidiary. + +The Reward is God. + +The idea of recompense ample and full for all sorrow. + +More than adequate wages for all work. + +That final reward will show how wise the wanderer was, who left his +father's house and 'looked for a city.' God is not ashamed to be +called their God. + +Christ comes to us--offers Himself. + +Think of how rich with Him, and oh, think of how poor without Him! + +Which will you have on earth? + +Which will you have in another world? + + + + +FAITH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS + + + 'And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him + for righteousness.' + GENESIS XV. 6. + +It is remarkable to find this anticipation of New Testament teaching +so far back. It is like finding one full-blown flower in a garden +where all else is but swelling into bud. No wonder that Paul +fastened on it to prove that justification by faith was older than +Moses, than law or circumcision, that his teaching was the real +original, and that faith lay at the foundation of the Old Testament +religion. + +1. The Nature of Faith.--The metaphor in the Hebrew word is that of +a man leaning all his weight on some strong stay. Surely that +metaphor says more than many definitions. It teaches that the +essence of faith is absolute reliance, and that unites us with Him +on whom we rely. Its result will be steadfastness. We are weak, +mobile, apt to be driven hither and thither, but light things lashed +to fixed things become fixed. So 'reeds shaken with wind' are +changed into iron pillars. + +2. The Object of Faith.--'Lord.' It is a Person, not the promise but +the Promiser. Of course, reliance on the Person results in +acceptance of His word, and here it is God's word as to the future. +Our faith has to do with the future, but also with the past. Its +object is Christ, the historic Christ, the living Christ, the Christ +who will come again. How clear the nature of faith becomes when its +object is clear! It cannot be mere assent, but trust. How clear +becomes its identity in all ages! The creeds may be different in +completeness, but the object of faith is the same, and the emotion +is the same. + +3. The effect of Faith.--Righteous is conformity to the will of God. +Abram was not righteous, but he yielded himself to God and trusted +Him, and God accepted that as the equivalent of righteousness. The +acceptance was shown by the Covenant, and by the fulfilment of the +promises. + +So here is the great truth that faith is accepted for righteous. It +is rightly regarded and treated as righteous, by the estimate of +God, who estimates things as they really are. It _is_ righteousness, +for-- + +(_a_) Faith is itself a supreme act of righteousness, as being +accordant with God's supreme desire for man. + +(_b_) Faith unites with Christ the righteous. + +(_c_) Faith will blossom out into all righteousness. + + + + +WAITING FAITH REWARDED AND STRENGTHENED BY NEW REVELATIONS + + + 'And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord + appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty + God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect. And I will + make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply + thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God + talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant + is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. + Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy + name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have + I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and + I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of + thee. And I will establish My covenant between Me and + thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an + everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy + seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy + seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, + all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; + and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, Thou + shalt keep My covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed + after thee In their generations.' + GENESIS xvii. 1-9. + +Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He was ninety- +nine when God appeared to him, as recorded in this chapter. There +had been three divine communications in these twenty-five years--one +at Bethel on entering the land, one after the hiving off of Lot, and +one after the battle with the Eastern kings. The last-named vision +had taken place before Ishmael's birth, and therefore more than +thirteen years prior to the date of the lesson. + +We are apt to think of Abraham's life as being crowded with +supernatural revelations. We forget the foreshortening necessary in +so brief a sketch of so long a career, which brings distant points +close together. Revelations were really but thinly sown in Abram's +life. For something over thirteen years he had been left to walk by +faith, and, no doubt, had felt the pressure of things seen, silently +pushing the unseen out of his life. + +Especially would this be the case as Ishmael grew up, and his +father's heart began to cling to him. The promise was beginning to +grow dimmer, as years passed without the birth of the promised heir. +As verse 18 of this chapter shows, Abram's thoughts were turning to +Ishmael as a possible substitute. His wavering confidence was +steadied and quickened by this new revelation. We, too, are often +tempted to think that, in the highest matters, 'a bird in the hand +is worth two in the bush,' and to wish that God would be content +with our Ishmaels, which satisfy us, and would not withdraw us from +possessed good, to make us live by hope of good unseen. We need to +reflect on this vision when we are thus tempted. + +1. Note the revelation of God's character, and of our consequent +duty, which preceded the repetition of the covenant. 'I am the +Almighty God.' The aspect of the divine nature, made prominent in +each revelation of Himself, stands in close connection with the +circumstances or mental state of the recipient. So when God appeared +to Abram after the slaughter of the kings, He revealed Himself as +'thy Shield' with reference to the danger of renewed attack from the +formidable powers which He had bearded and beaten. In the present +case the stress is laid on God's omnipotence, which points to doubts +whispering in Abram's heart, by reason of God's delay in fulfilling +His word, and of his own advancing years and failing strength. Paul +brings out the meaning of the revelation when he glorifies the faith +which it kindled anew in Abram, 'being fully assured that, what He +had promised, He was able also to perform' (Rom. iv. 21). Whenever +our 'faith has fallen asleep' and we are ready to let go our hold of +God's ideal and settle down on the low levels of the actual, or to +be somewhat ashamed of our aspirations after what seems so slow of +realisation, or to elevate prudent calculations of probability above +the daring enthusiasms of Christian hope, the ancient word, that +breathed itself into Abram's hushed heart, should speak new vigour +into ours. 'I am the Almighty God--take My power into all thy +calculations, and reckon certainties with it for the chief factor. +The one impossibility is that any word of Mine should fail. The one +imprudence is to doubt My word.' + +What follows in regard to our duty from that revelation? 'Walk +before Me, and be thou perfect.' Enoch walked _with_ God; that +is, his whole active life was passed in communion with Him. The idea +conveyed by 'walking _before_ God' is not precisely the same. +It is rather that of an active life, spent in continual +consciousness of being 'naked and opened before the eyes of Him to +whom we have to give account.' That thrilling consciousness will not +paralyse nor terrify, if we feel that we are not only 'ever in the +great Task-Master's eye,' but that God's omniscience is all-knowing +love, and is brought closer to our hearts and clothed in gracious +tenderness in Christ whose 'eyes were as a flame of fire,' but whose +love is more ardent still, who knows us altogether, and pities and +loves as perfectly as He knows. + +What sort of life will spring from the double realisation of God's +almightiness, and of our being ever before Him? 'Be thou perfect.' +Nothing short of immaculate conformity with His will can satisfy His +gaze. His desire for us should be our aim and desire for ourselves. +The standard of aspiration and effort cannot be lowered to meet +weakness. This is nobility of life--to aim at the unattainable, and +to be ever approximating towards our aim. It is more blessed to be +smitten with the longing to win the unwon than to stagnate in +ignoble contentment with partial attainments. Better to climb, with +faces turned upwards to the inaccessible peak, than to lie at ease +in the fat valleys! It is the salt of life to have our aims set +fixedly towards ideal perfection, and to say, 'I count not myself to +have apprehended: but ... I press toward the mark.' _Toward_ +that mark is better than _to_ any lower. Our moral perfection +is, as it were, the reflection in humanity of the divine +almightiness. + +The wide landscape may be mirrored in an inch of glass. Infinity may +be, in some manner, presented in miniature in finite natures. Our +power cannot represent God's omnipotence, but our moral perfection +may, especially since that omnipotence is pledged to make us perfect +if we will walk before Him. + +2. Note the sign of the renewed covenant. Compliance with these +injunctions is clearly laid down as the human condition of the +divine fulfilment of it. 'Be thou perfect' comes first; 'My covenant +is with thee' follows. There was contingency recognised from the +beginning. If Israel broke the covenant, God was not unfaithful if +He should not adhere to it. But the present point is that a new +confirmation is given before the terms are repeated. The main +purpose, then, of this revelation, did not lie in that repetition, +but in the seal given to Abram by the change of name. + +Another sign was also given, which had a wider reference. The change +of name was God's seal to His part. Circumcision was the seal of the +other party, by which Abram, his family, and afterwards the nation, +took on themselves the obligations of the compact. + +The name bestowed is taken to mean 'Father of a Multitude.' It was +the condensation into a word, of the divine promise. What a trial of +Abram's faith it was to bid him take a name which would sound in +men's ears liker irony than promise! He, close on a hundred years +old, with but one child, who was known not to be the heir, to be +called the father of many! How often Canaanites and his own +household would smile as they used it! What a piece of senile +presumption it would seem to them! How often Abram himself would be +tempted to think his new name a farce rather than a sign! But he +took it humbly from God, and he wore it, whether it brought ridicule +from others or assurance in his own heart. It takes some courage for +any of us to call ourselves by names which rest on God's promise and +seem to have little vindication in present facts. The world is fond +of laughing at 'saints,' but Christians should familiarise +themselves with the lofty designations which God gives His children, +and see in them not only a summons to life corresponding, but a +pledge and prophecy of the final possession of all which these +imply. God calls 'things that are not, as though they were'; and it +is wisdom, faith, and humility--not presumption--which accepts the +names as omens of what shall one day be. + +The substance of the covenant is mainly identical with previous +revelations. The land is to belong to Abram's seed. That seed is to +be very numerous. But there is new emphasis placed on God's relation +to Abram's descendants. God promises to be 'a God unto thee, and to +thy seed after thee,' and, again, 'I will be their God' (verses 7, +8). That article of the old covenant is repeated in the new (Jer. +xxxi. 33), with the addition, 'And they shall be My people,' which +is really involved in it. We do not read later more spiritual ideas +into the words, when we find in them here, at the very beginning of +Hebrew monotheism, an insight into the deep truth of the reciprocal +possession of God by us, and of us by God. What a glimpse into the +depths of that divine heart is given, when we see that we are His +possession, precious to Him above all the riches of earth and the +magnificences of heaven! What a lesson as to the inmost blessedness +of religion, when we learn that it takes God for its very own, and +is rich in possessing Him, whatever else may be owned or lacking! + +To possess God is only possible on condition of yielding ourselves +to Him. When we give ourselves up, in heart, mind, and will, to be +His, He is ours. When we cease to be our own, we get God for ours. +The self-centred man is poor; he neither owns himself nor anything +besides, in any deep sense. When we lose ourselves in God, we find +ourselves, and being content to have nothing, and not even to be our +own masters or owners, we possess ourselves more truly than ever, +and have God for our portion, and in Him 'all things are ours.' + + + + +A PETULANT WISH + + + 'And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live + before Thee! + GENESIS xvii. 18. + +These words sound very devout, and they have often been used by +Christian parents yearning for the best interests of their children, +and sometimes of their wayward and prodigal children. But +consecrated as they are by that usage, I am afraid that their +meaning, as they were uttered, was nothing so devout and good as +that which is often attached to them. + +1. Note the temper in which Abraham speaks here. The very existence +of Ishmael was a memorial of Abraham's failure in faith and +patience. For he thought that the promised heir was long in coming, +and so he thought that he would help God. For thirteen years the +child had been living beside him, winding a son's way into a +father's heart, with much in his character, as was afterwards seen, +that would make a frank, daring boy his old father's darling. Then +all at once comes the divine message, 'This is not the son of the +Covenant; this is not the heir of the Promise. Sarah shall have a +child, and from him shall come the blessings that have been +foretold.' And what does Abraham do? Fall down in thankfulness +before God? leap up in heart at the conviction that now at last the +long-looked-for fulfilment of the oath of God was impending? Not he. +'O that _Ishmael_ might live before Thee. Why cannot _he_ do? Why may +he not be the chosen child, the heir of the Promise? Take him, O God!' + +That is to say, he thinks he knows better than God. He is petulant, +he resists his blessing, he fancies that his own plan is quite as +good as the divine plan. He does not want to draw away his heart +from the child that it has twined round. So he loses the blessing of +the revelation that is being made to him; because he does not bow +his will, and accept God's way instead of his own. Now, do you not +think that that is what we do? When God sends us Isaac, do we not +often say, 'Take Ishmael; he is my own making. I have set all my +hopes on him. Why should I have to wrench them all away?' In our +individual lives we want to prescribe to God, far too often, not +only the _ends_, but the _way_ in which we shall get to the ends; and +we think to ourselves, 'That road of my own engineering that I have +got all staked out, that is the true way for God's providence to take.' +And when His path does not coincide with ours, then we are discontented, +and instead of submitting we go with our pet schemes to Him; and if +not in so many words, at least in spirit and temper, we try to force +our way upon God, and when He is speaking about Isaac insist on pressing +Ishmael on His notice. + +It is often so in regard to our individual lives; and it is so in +regard to the united action of Christian people very often. A great +deal of what calls itself earnest contending for 'the faith once +delivered to the saints' is nothing more nor less than insisting +that methods of men's devising shall be continued, when God seems to +be substituting for them methods of His own sending; and so fighting +about externals and church polity, and determining that the world +has got to be saved in my own special fashion, and in no other, +though God Himself seems to be suggesting the new thing to me. That +is a very frequent phenomenon in the experience of Christian +communities and churches. Ishmael is so very dear. He is not the +child of promise, but he is the child that we have thought it +advisable to help God with. It is hard for us to part with him. + +Dear brethren, sometimes, too, God comes to us in various +providences, and not only reduces into chaos and a heap of confusion +our nicely built-up little houses, but He sometimes comes to us, and +lifts us out of some lower kind of good, which is perfectly +satisfactory to us, or all but perfectly satisfactory, in order to +give to us something nobler and higher. And we resist that too; and +do not see why Ishmael should not serve God's turn as he has served +ours; or think that there is no need at all for Isaac to come into +our lives. God never takes away from us a lower, unless for the +purpose of bestowing upon us a higher blessing. Therefore not to +submit is the foolishest thing that men can do. + +But if that be anything like an account of the temper expressed by +this saying, is it not strange that murmuring against God takes the +shape of praying? Ah! there is a great deal of 'prayer' as it calls +itself, which is just moulded upon this petulant word of Abraham's +momentarily failing faith and submission. How many people think that +to pray means to bring their wishes to God, and try to coax Him to +make them His wishes! Why, half the shallow sceptical talk of this +generation about the worthlessness of prayer goes upon that +fundamental fallacy that the notion of prayer is to dictate terms to +God; and that unless a man gets his wishes answered he has no right +to suppose that his prayers are answered. But it is not so. Prayer +is not after the type of 'O that Ishmael might live before Thee!' +That is a poor kind of prayer of which the inmost spirit is +resistance to a clear dictate of the divine will; but the true +prayer is, 'O that I may be willing to take what Thou art willing, +in Thy mercy and love, to send!' + +I believe in importunate prayer, but I believe also that a great deal +of what calls itself importunate prayer is nothing more than an obstinate +determination not to be satisfied with what satisfies God. If a man +has been bringing his wishes--and he cannot but have such--continuously +to God, with regard to any outward things, and these have not been +answered, he needs to look very carefully into his own temper and heart +in order to make sure that what seems to be waiting upon God in +importunate petition is not pestering Him with refused desires. To make +a prayer out of my rebellion against His will is surely the greatest +abuse of prayer that can be conceived. And when Abraham said, 'O that +Ishmael might live before Thee!' if he said it in the spirit in which I +think he did, he was not praying, but he was grumbling. + +2. And then notice, still further, how such a temper and such a +prayer have the effect of hiding joy and blessing from us. + +This was the crisis of Abraham's whole life. It was the moment at +which his hundred years nearly of patient waiting were about to be +rewarded. The message which he had just received was the most lovely +and gracious word that ever had come to him from the heavens, +although many such words had come. And what does he do with it? +Instead of falling down before God, and letting his whole heart go +out in jubilant gratitude, he has nothing to say but 'I would rather +that Thou didst it in another way. It is all very well to speak +about sending this heir of promise. I have no pleasure in that, +because it means that my Ishmael is to be passed by and shelved.' So +the proffered joy is turned to ashes, and Abraham gets no good, for +the moment, out of God's greatest blessing to him; but all the sky +is darkened by mists that come up from his own heart. + +Brethren, if you want to be miserable, perk up your own will against +God's. If you want to be blessed, acquiesce in all that He does +send, in all that He has sent, and, by anticipation, in all that He +will send. For, depend upon it, the secret of finding sunbeams in +everything is simply letting God have His own way, and making your +will the sounding-board and echo of His. If Abraham had done as he +ought to have done, that would have been the gladdest moment of his +life. You and I can make out of our deepest sorrows the occasions of +pure, though it is quiet, gladness, if only we have learned to say, +'Not my will, but Thy will be done.' That is the talisman that turns +everything into gold, and makes sorrow forget its nature, and almost +approximate to solemn joy. + +3. My last word is this: God loves us all too well to listen to such +a prayer. + +Abraham's passionate cry was so much empty wind, and was like a +straw laid across the course of an express train, in so far as its +power to modify the gracious purpose of God already declared was +concerned. And would it not be a miserable thing if we could deflect +the solemn, loving march of the divine Providence by these hot, +foolish, purblind wishes of ours, that see only the nearer end of +things, and have no notion of where their further end may go, or +what it may be? + +Is it not better that we should fall back upon this thought, though, +at first sight, it seems so to limit the power of petition, 'We know +that if we ask anything according to His will He heareth us'? There +is nothing that would more wreck our lives than if what some people +want were to be the case--that God should let us have our own way, +and give us serpents because we asked for them and fancied they were +eggs; or let us break our teeth upon bestowed stones because, like +whimpering children crying for the moon, we had asked for them under +the delusion that they were bread. + +Leave all that in His hands; and be sure of this, that the true way +to peace, to rest, to gladness, and to wringing the last drop of +possible sweetness out of gifts and losses, disappointments and +fruitions, is to have no will but God's will enthroned above and in +our own wills. If Abraham had acquiesced and submitted, Ishmael and +Isaac would have been a pair to bless his life, as they stood +together over his grave. And if you and I will leave God to order +all our ways, and not try to interfere with His purposes by our +short-sighted dictation, 'all things will work together for good to +us, because we love God,' and lovingly accept His will and His law. + + + + +'BECAUSE OF HIS IMPORTUNITY' + + + 'And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward + Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the + way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that + thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become + a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the + earth shall be blessed in him! For I know him, that he + will command his children and his household after him, + and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice + and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that + which He hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because + the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because + their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see + whether they have done altogether according to the cry + of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know. + And the men turned their faces from thence, and went + toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the Lord. + And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt Thou also destroy + the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be + fifty righteous within the city: wilt Thou also destroy + and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that + are therein? That be far from Thee to do after this + manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that + the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from + Thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? + And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous + within the city, then I will spare all the place for + their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, + I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am + but dust and ashes: Peradventure there shall lack five + of the fifty righteous: wilt Thou destroy all the city + for lack of five? And He said, If I find there forty + and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto Him + yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty + found there. And He said, I will not do it for forty's + sake. And he said unto Him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, + and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be + found there. And He said, I will not do it, if I find + thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon + me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be + twenty found there. And He said, I will not destroy it + for twenty's sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be + angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure + ten shall be found there. And He said, I will not destroy + it for ten's sake. And the Lord went His way, as soon as + He had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned + unto his place.'--GENESIS xviii. 16-33. + + +I + + +The first verse of this chapter says that 'the Lord appeared' unto +Abraham, and then proceeds to tell that 'three men stood over +against him,' thus indicating that these were, collectively, the +manifestation of Jehovah. Two of the three subsequently 'went toward +Sodom,' and are called 'angels' in chapter xix. 1. One remained with +Abraham, and is addressed by him as 'Lord,' but the three are +similarly addressed in verse 3. The inference is that Jehovah +appeared, not only in the one 'man' who spake with Abraham, but also +in the two who went to Sodom. + +In this incident we have, first, God's communication of His purpose +to Abraham. He was called the friend of God, and friends confide in +each other. 'The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,' and +it is ever true that they who live in amity and communion with God +thereby acquire insight into His purposes. Even in regard to public +or so-called 'political' events, a man who believes in God and His +moral government will often be endowed with a 'terrible sagacity,' +which forecasts consequences more surely than do godless +politicians. In regard to one's own history, it is still more +evidently true that the one way to apprehend God's purposes in it is +to keep in close friendship with Him. Then we shall see the meaning +of the else bewildering whirl of events, and be able to say, 'He +that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God.' But the reason +assigned for intrusting Abraham with the knowledge of God's purpose +is to be noted. It was because of his place as the medium of +blessing to the nations, and as the lawgiver to his descendants. God +had 'known him,'--that is, had lovingly brought him into close +relations with Himself, not for his own sake only, but, much more, +that he might be a channel of grace to Israel and the world. His +'commandment' to his descendants was to lead to their worship of +Jehovah and their upright living, and these again to their +possession of the blessings promised to Abraham. That purpose would +be aided by the knowledge of the judgment on Sodom, its source, and +its cause, and therefore Abraham was admitted into the council- +chamber of Jehovah. The insight given to God's friends is given that +they may more fully benefit men by leading them into paths of +righteousness, on which alone they can be met by God's blessings. + +The strongly figurative representation in verses 20, 21, according +to which Jehovah goes down to ascertain whether the facts of Sodom's +sin correspond to the report of it, belongs to the early stage of +revelation, and need not surprise us, but should impress on us the +gradual character of the divine Revelation, which would have been +useless unless it had been accommodated to the mental and spiritual +stature of its recipients. Nor should it hide from us the lofty +conception of God's long-suffering justice, which is presented in so +childlike a form. He does 'not judge after ... the hearing of His +ears,' nor smite without full knowledge of the sin. A later stage of +revelation puts the same thought in language less strange to us, +when it teaches that 'the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him +actions are weighed,' and in His balances many a false estimate, +both of virtuous and vicious acts, is corrected, and retribution is +always exactly adjusted to the deed. + +But the main importance of the incident is in the wonderful picture +of Abraham's intercession, which, in like manner, veils, under a +strangely sensuous representation, lofty truths for all ages. It is +to be noted that the divine purpose expressed in 'I will go down +now, and see,' is fulfilled in the going of the two (men or angels) +towards Sodom; therefore Jehovah was in them. But He was also in the +One before whom Abraham stood. The first great truth enshrined in +this part of the story is that the friend of God is compassionate +even of the sinful and degraded. Abraham did not intercede for Lot, +but for the sinners in Sodom. He had perilled his life in warfare +for them; he now pleads with God for them. Where had he learned this +brave pity? Where but from the God with whom he lived by faith? How +much more surely will real communion with Jesus lead _us_ to +look on all men, and especially on the vicious and outcast, with His +eyes who saw the multitudes as sheep without a shepherd, torn, +panting, scattered, and lying exhausted and defenceless! +Indifference to the miseries and impending dangers of Christless men +is impossible for any whom He calls 'not servants, but friends.' + +Again, we are taught the boldness of pleading which is permitted to +the friend of God, and is compatible with deepest reverence. Abraham +is keenly conscious of his audacity, and yet, though he knows +himself to be but dust and ashes, that does not stifle his +petitions. His was the holy 'importunity' which Jesus sent forth for +our imitation. The word so rendered in Luke xi. 8, which is found in +the New Testament there only, literally means 'shamelessness,' and +is exactly the disposition which Abraham showed here. Not only was +he persistent, but he increased his expectations with each partial +granting of his prayer. The more God gives, the more does the true +suppliant expect and crave; and rightly so, for the gift to be given +is infinite, and each degree of possession enlarges capacity so as +to fit to receive more, and widens desire. What contented us to-day +should not content us to-morrow. + +Again, Abraham is bold in appealing to a law to which God is bound +to conform. 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?' is +often quoted with an application foreign to its true meaning. +Abraham was not preaching to men trust that the most perplexing acts +of God would be capable of full vindication if we knew all, but he +was pleading with God that His acts should be plainly accordant with +the idea of justice planted by Him in us. The phrase is often used +to strengthen the struggling faith that + + 'All is right which seems most wrong, + If it be His sweet will.' + +But it means not 'Such and such a thing must be right because God +has done it,' but 'Such and such a thing is right, therefore God +must do it.' Of course, our conceptions of right are not the +absolute measure of the divine acts, and the very fact which Abraham +thought contrary to justice is continually exemplified in +Providence, that 'the righteous should be as the wicked' in regard +to earthly calamities affecting communities. So far Abraham was +wrong, but the spirit of his remonstrance was wholly right. + +Again, we learn the precious lesson that prayer for others is a real +power, and does bring down blessings and avert evils. Abraham did +not here pray for Lot, but yet 'God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot +out of the midst of the overthrow'(chap. xix. 29), so that there had +been unrecorded intercession for him too. The unselfish desires for +others, that exhale from human hearts under the influence of the +love which Christ plants in us, do come down in blessings on others, +as the moisture drawn up by the sun may descend in fructifying rain +on far-off pastures of the wilderness. We help one another when we +pray for one another. + +The last lesson taught is that 'righteous' men are indeed the 'salt +of the earth' not only preserving cities and nations from further +corruption, but procuring for them further existence and probation. +God holds back His judgments so long as hope of amendment survives, +and 'will not destroy for the ten's sake.' + + + + +THE INTERCOURSE OF GOD AND HIS FRIEND + + +II + + +We have seen that the fruit of Abraham's faith was God's entrance +into close covenant relations with him; or, as James puts it, 'It +was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the +friend of God.' This incident shows us the intercourse of the divine +and human friends in its familiarity, mutual confidence, and power. +It is a forecast of Christ's own profound teachings in His parting +words in the upper chamber, concerning the sweet and wondrous +intercourse between the believing soul and the indwelling God. + +1. The friend of God catches a gleam of divine pity and tenderness. +Abraham has no relations with the men of Sodom. Their evil ways +would repel him; and he would be a stranger among them still more +than among the Canaanites, whose iniquity was 'not yet full.' But +though he has no special bonds with them, he cannot but melt with +tender compassion when he hears their doom. Communion with the very +Source of all gentle love has softened his heart, and he yearns over +the wicked and fated city. Where else than from his heavenly Friend +could he have learned this sympathy? It wells up in this chapter +like some sudden spring among solemn solitudes--the first instance +of that divine charity which is the best sign that we have been with +God, and have learned of Him. All that the New Testament teaches of +love to God, as necessarily issuing in love to man, and of the true +love to man as overleaping all narrow bounds of kindred, country, +race, and ignoring all questions of character, and gushing forth in +fullest energy towards the sinners in danger of just punishment, is +here in germ. The friend of God must be the friend of men; and if +they be wicked, and he sees the frightful doom which they do not +see, these make his pity the deeper. Abraham does not contest the +justice of the doom. He lives too near his friend not to know that +sin must mean death. The effect of friendship with God is not to +make men wish that there were no judgments for evil-doers, but to +touch their hearts with pity, and to stir them to intercession and +to effort for their deliverance. + +2. The friend of God has absolute trust in the rectitude of His +acts. Abraham's remonstrance, if we may call it so, embodies some +thoughts about the government of God in the world which should be +pondered. + +His first abrupt question, flung out without any reverential +preface, assumes that the character of God requires that the fate of +the righteous should be distinguished from that of the wicked. The +very brusqueness of the question shows that he supposed himself to +be appealing to an elementary and indubitable law of God's dealings. +The teachings of the Fall and of the Flood had graven deep on his +conscience the truth that the same loving Friend must needs deal out +rewards to the good and chastisement to the bad. That was the simple +faith of an early time, when problems like those which tortured the +writers of the seventy-third Psalm, or of Job and Ecclesiastes, had +not yet disturbed the childlike trust of the friend of God, because +no facts in his experience had forced them on him. But the belief +which was axiomatic to him, and true for his supernaturally shaped +life with its special miracles and visible divine guard, is not the +ultimate and irrefragable principle which he thought it. In +widespread calamities the righteous are blended with the wicked in +one bloody ruin; and it is the very misery of such judgments that +often the sufferers are not the wrongdoers, but that the fathers eat +the sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. The +whirlwind of temporal judgments makes no distinctions between the +dwellings of the righteous and the wicked, but levels them both. No +doubt, the fact that the impending destruction was to be a direct +Divine interposition of a punitive kind made it more necessary that +it should be confined to the actual culprits. No doubt, too, +Abraham's zeal for the honour of God's government was right. But his +first plea belongs to the stage of revelation at which he stood, not +to that of the New Testament, which teaches that the eighteen on +whom the tower in Siloam fell were not sinners above all men in +Jerusalem. Abraham's confidence in God's justice, not Abraham's +conceptions of what that justice required, is to be imitated. A +friend of God will hold fast by the faith that 'His way is perfect,' +and will cherish it even in the presence of facts more perplexing +than any which met Abraham's eyes. + +Another assumption in his prayer is that the righteous are sources +of blessing and shields for the wicked. Has he there laid hold of a +true principle? Certainly, it is indeed the law that 'every man +shall bear his own burden,' but that law is modified by the +operation of this other, of which God's providence is full. Many a +drop of blessing trickles from the wet fleece to the dry ground. +Many a stroke of judgment is carried off harmlessly by the lightning +conductor. Where God's friends are inextricably mixed up with evil- +doers, it is not rare to see diffused blessings which are destined +indeed primarily for the former, but find their way to the latter. +Christians are the 'salt of the earth' in this sense too, that they +save corrupt communities from swift destruction, and for their sakes +the angels delay their blow. In the final resort, each soul must +reap its own harvest from its own deeds; but the individualism of +Christianity is not isolation. We are bound together in mysterious +community, and a good man is a fountain of far-flowing good. The +truest 'saviours of society' are the servants of God. + +A third principle is embodied in the solemn question, 'Shall not the +Judge of all the earth do right?' This is not meant in its bearing +here, as we so often hear it quoted, to silence man's questionings +as to mysterious divine acts, or to warn us from applying our +measures of right and wrong to these. The very opposite thought is +conveyed; namely, the confidence that what God does must approve +itself as just to men. He is Judge of all the earth, and therefore +bound by His very nature, as by His relations to men, to do nothing +that cannot be pointed to as inflexibly right. If Abraham had meant, +'What God does, must needs be right, therefore crush down all +questions of how it accords with thy sense of justice,' he would +have been condemning his own prayer as presumptuous, and the thought +would have been entirely out of place. But the appeal to God to +vindicate His own character by doing what shall be in manifest +accord with His name, is bold language indeed, but not too bold, +because it is prompted by absolute confidence in Him. God's +punishments must be obviously righteous to have moral effect, or to +be worthy of Him. + +But true as the principle is, it needs to be guarded. Abraham +himself is an instance that men's conceptions of right do not +completely correspond to the reality. His notion of 'right' was, in +some particulars, as his life shows, imperfect, rudimentary, and far +beneath New Testament ideas. Conscience needs education. The best +men's conceptions of what befits divine justice are relative, +progressive; and a shifting standard is no standard. It becomes us +to be very cautious before we say to God, 'This is the way. Walk +Thou in it,' or dismiss any doctrine as untrue on the ground of its +contradicting our instincts of justice. + +3. The friend of God has power with God. 'Shall I hide from Abraham +that thing which I do?' The divine Friend recognises the obligation +of confidence. True friendship is frank, and cannot bear to hide its +purposes. That one sentence in its bold attribution of a like +feeling to God leads us deep into the Divine heart, and the sweet +reality of his amity. Insight into His will ever belongs to those +who live near Him. It is the beginning of the long series of +disclosures of 'the secret of the Lord' to 'them that fear Him,' +which is crowned by 'henceforth I call you not servants; but ... +friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made +known unto you.' So much for the divine side of the communion. + +On the human side, we are here taught the great truth, that God's +friends are intercessors, whose voice has a mysterious but most real +power with God. If it be true, that, in general terms, the righteous +are shields and sources of blessing to the unholy, it is still more +distinctly true that they have access to God's secret place with +petitions for others as well as for themselves. The desires which go +up to God, like the vapours exhaled to heaven, fall in refreshing +rain on spots far away from that whence they rose. In these days we +need to keep fast hold of our belief in the efficacy of prayer for +others and for ourselves. God knows Himself and the laws of His +government a great deal better than any one besides does; and He has +abundantly shown us in His Word, and by many experiences, that +breath spent in intercession is not wasted. In these old times, when +worship was mainly sacrificial, this wonderful instance of pure +intercession meets us, an anticipation of later times. And from +thence onwards there has never failed proof to those who will look +for it, that God's friends are true priests, and help their brethren +by their prayers. Our voices should 'rise like a fountain night and +day' for men. But there is a secret distrust of the power, and a +flagrantly plain neglect of the duty, of intercession nowadays, +which need sorely the lesson that God 'remembered Abraham' and +delivered Lot. Luther, in his rough, strong way, says: 'If I have a +Christian who prays to God for me, I will be of good courage, and be +afraid of nothing. If I have one who prays against me, I had rather +have the Grand Turk for my enemy.' + +The tone of Abraham's intercession may teach us how familiar the +intercourse with the Heavenly Friend may be. The boldest words from +a loving heart, jealous of God's honour, are not irreverent in His +eyes. This prayer is abrupt, almost rough. It sounds like +remonstrance quite as much as prayer. Abraham appeals to God to take +care of His name and honour, as if he had said, If Thou doest this, +what will the world say of Thee, but that Thou art unmerciful? But +the grand confidence in God's character, the eager desire that it +should be vindicated before the world, the dread that the least film +should veil the silvery whiteness or the golden lustre of His name, +the sensitiveness for His honour--these are the effects of communion +with Him; and for these God accepts the bold prayer as truer +reverence than is found in many more guarded and lowly sounding +words. Many conventional proprieties of worship may be broken just +because the worship is real. 'The frequent sputter shows that the +soul's depths boil in earnest.' We may learn, too, that the most +loving familiarity never forgets the fathomless gulf between God and +it. Abraham remembers that he is 'dust and ashes'; he knows that he +is venturing much in speaking to God. His pertinacious prayers have +a recurring burden of lowly recognition of his place. Twice he +heralds them with 'I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord'; +twice with 'Oh let not the Lord be angry.' Perfect love casts out +fear and deepens reverence. We may come with free hearts, from which +every weight of trembling and every cloud of doubt has been lifted. +But the less the dread, the lower we shall bow before the Loftiness +which we love. We do not pray aright until we tell God everything. +The 'boldness' which we as Christians ought to have, means literally +a frank speaking out of all that is in our hearts. Such 'boldness +and access with confidence' will often make short work of so-called +seemly reverence, but it will never transgress by so much as a +hair's-breadth the limits of lowly, trustful love. + +Abraham's persistency may teach us a lesson. If one might so say, he +hangs on God's skirt like a burr. Each petition granted only +encourages him to another. Six times he pleads, and God waits till +he has done before He goes away; He cannot leave His friend till +that friend has said all his say. What a contrast the fiery fervour +and unwearying pertinacity of Abraham's prayers make to the stiff +formalism of the intercessions one is familiar with! The former are +like the successive pulses of a volcano driving a hot lava stream +before it; the latter, like the slow flow of a glacier, cold and +sluggish. Is any part of our public or private worship more +hopelessly formal than our prayers for others? This picture from the +old world may well shame our languid petitions, and stir us up to a +holy boldness and persistence in prayer. Our Saviour Himself teaches +that 'men ought always to pray, and not to faint,' and Himself +recommends to us a holy importunity, which He teaches us to believe +is, in mysterious fashion, a power with God. He gives room for such +patient continuance in prayer by sometimes delaying the apparent +answer, not because He needs to be won over to bless, but because it +is good for us to draw near, and to keep near, the Lord. He is ever +at the door, ready to open, and if sometimes, like Rhoda to Peter, +He does not open immediately, and we have to keep knocking, it is +that our desires may increase by delay, and so He may be able to +give a blessing, which will be the greater and sweeter for the +tarrying. + +So the friendship is manifested on both sides: on God's, by +disclosure of His purpose and compliance with His friend's request; +on Abraham's, by speech which is saved from irreverence by love, and +by prayer which is acceptable to God by its very importunity. Jesus +Christ has promised us the highest form of such friendship, when He +has said, 'I have called you friends: for all things that I have +heard of My Father I have made known unto you'; and again, 'If ye +abide in Me, ... ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done +unto you.' + + + + +THE SWIFT DESTROYER + + + 'And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened + Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, + which are here; lest them be consumed in the iniquity of + the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon + his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the + hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto + him: and they brought him forth, and set him without + the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought + them forth abroad, that He said, Escape for thy life; + look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; + escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot + said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, Thy + servant hath found grace in Thy sight, and Thou hast + magnified Thy mercy, which Thou hast shewed unto me in + saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest + some evil take me, and I die: Behold now, this city is + near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me + escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul + shall live. And He said unto him, See, I have accepted + thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow + this city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, + escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be + come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called + Zoar. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered + into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon + Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; + And He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and + all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew + upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind + him, and she became a pillar of salt.'--GENESIS xix. 15-26. + +The religious significance of this solemn page of revelation is but +little affected by any of the interesting questions which criticism +raises concerning it, so that I am free to look at the whole +narrative for the purpose of deducing its perennial lessons. There +are four clearly marked stages in the story: the lingering of Lot in +the doomed city, and the friendly force which dragged him from it; +the prayer of abject fear, and the wonderful answer; the awful +catastrophe; and the fate of the wretched woman who looked back. + +1. Lot's lingering and rescue by force. Second thoughts are not +always best. When great resolves have to be made, and when a clear +divine command has to be obeyed, the first thought is usually the +nobler; and the second, which pulls it back, and damps its ardour, +is usually of the earth, earthy. So was it with Lot. Overnight, in +the excitement of the terrible scene enacted before his door, Lot +had been not only resolved himself to flee, but his voice had urged +his sons-in-law to escape from the doom which he then felt to be +imminent. But with the cold grey light of morning his mood has +changed. The ties which held him in Sodom reassert their power. +Perhaps daylight made his fears seem less real. There was no sign in +the chill Eastern twilight that this day was to be unlike the other +days. Perhaps the angels' summons roused him from sleep, and their +'arise' is literally meant. It might have given wings to his flight. +Urgent, and resonant, like the morning bugle, it bids him be +stirring lest he be swept away 'in the punishment of the city.' +Observe that the same word means 'sin' and 'punishment,'--a +testimony to the profound truth that at bottom they are one, sin +being pain in the root, pain being sin in the flower. So our own +word 'evil' covers all the ground, and means both sin and sorrow. +But even that pealing note does not shatter his hesitation. He still +lingers. What kept him? That which had first taken him there--material +advantages. He had struck root in Sodom. The tent life which he had +kept to at first has been long given up; we find him sitting in the +gate of the city, the place for gossip and friendly intercourse. He +has either formed, or is going to form, marriage alliances for his +daughters with men of the city who are as black as the rest. Perhaps +his wife, whom the story will not name, for pity or for horror, was a +Sodomite. To escape meant to leave all this and his wealth behind. If +he goes out, he goes out a pauper. So his heart, which is where his +treasure is, makes his movements slow. What insanity his lingering +must have seemed to the angels! I wonder if we, who cling so desperately +to the world, and who are so slow to go where God would have us to be +for our own safety, if thereby we shall lose anything of this world's +wealth, seem very much wiser to eyes made clear-sighted with the wisdom +of heaven. This poor hesitating lingerer, too much at home in the city +of destruction to get out of it even to save his life, has plenty of +brothers to-day. Every man who lets the world hold him by the skirts +when Christ is calling him to salvation, and every man who is reluctant +to obey any clear call to sacrifice and separation from godless men, +may see his own face in this glass, and perhaps get a glimpse of its +ugliness. + +What a homely picture, full of weighty truth, the story gives us, of +the angels each taking two of the reluctant four by the hand, and +dragging them with some degree of kindly force from destruction into +safety! So, in a great fire, domestic animals and horses seem to +find a strange fascination in the flames, and have to be carried out +of certain death by main force. They 'set him'--or we might read, +'made him rest'--outside the city. It was but a little distance, for +these 'cities' were tiny places, and the walls were soon reached. +But it was far enough to change Lot's whole feelings. He passes to +feeble despair and abject fear, as we shall see. That forlorn group, +homeless, friendless, stripped of everything, shivering outside the +gate in the cold morning air, may teach us how wise and prudent the +man is who seeks the kingdom of God second, and the other things +first. + +2. There was a pause outside the city. A new voice speaks now to +Lot. 'They' brought him forth; but 'He' said 'escape.' The same +'Lord' to whom Abraham had prayed, has now rejoined the mysterious +pair whom He had sent to Sodom. And Lot's entreaty is addressed to +Him whom he calls 'my Lord.' He uses singular pronouns throughout, +although the narrator says that he 'said unto _them_.' There +seems to be here the same idea as is embodied in the word 'Elohim'; +namely, that the divine powers are regarded as in some sense +separable, and yet all inhering in a personal unity. At all events, +we have here a distinct representation of an intercourse between God +and man, in which thoughts are conveyed to the human spirit direct +from the divine, and desires pass from the human to the divine. The +manner of the intercourse we do not know, but the possibility of the +fact can scarcely be denied by any believer in a God; and, however +we may call this miraculous or abnormal, the essence of the event +can be repeated in the experience of each of us. God still speaks to +men, and men may still plead with God. Unless our religion is +communion, it is nothing. + +The divine voice reiterates the angels' urgent command in still more +stringent words: 'Escape for thy life.' There is to be no more +angel-leading, but Lot's feet are to be made as hinds' feet by the +thought of the flaming death that is pursuing. His lingering looks +are sternly forbidden, since they would delay his flight and divide +his heart. The direction of his flight is for the first time pointed +out. The fertile plain, which had lured him down from the safe +hills, is prohibited. Only on the mountain-side, probably the +eastern mountains, where the morning red was beginning to blush, is +there safety. + +Lot's answer shows a complete change of feeling. He is too fully +alarmed now. His fright is so desperate that it has killed faith and +common sense. The natural conclusion from God's mercy, which he +acknowledges, would have been trust and obedience. 'Therefore I can +escape,' not 'but I cannot escape,' would have been the logic of +faith. The latter is the irrationality of fear. When a man who has +been cleaving to this fleeting life of earthly good wakes up to +believe his danger, he is ever apt to plunge into an abyss of +terror, in which God's commands seem impossible, and His will to +save becomes dim. The world first lies to us by 'You are quite safe +where you are. Don't be in a hurry to go.' Then it lies, 'You never +can get away now.' Reverse Lot's whimpering fears, and we get the +truth. Are not God's directions how to escape, promises that we +shall escape? Will He begin to build, and not be able to finish? +Will the judgments of His hand overrun their commission, like a +bloodhound which, in its master's absence, may rend his friend? 'We +have all of us one human heart,' and this swift leap from +unreasoning carelessness to as unreasoning dread, this failure to +draw the true conclusion from God's past mercy, and this despairing +recoil from the path pointed for us, and craving for easier ways, +belongs to us. 'A strange servant of God was this,' say we. Yes, and +we are often quite as strange. How many people awakened to see their +danger are so absorbed by the sight that they cannot see the cross, +or think they can never reach it! + +God answered the cry, whatever its fault, and that may well make us +pause in our condemnation. He hears even a very imperfect petition, +and can see the tiniest germ of faith buried under thick clods of +doubt and fear. This stooping readiness to meet Lot's weakness comes +in wonderful contrast with the terrible revelation of judgment which +follows. What a conception of God, which had room for this more than +human patience with weakness, and also for the flashing, lurid +glories of destructive retribution! Zoar is spared, not for the +unworthy reason which Lot suggested--because its minuteness might +buy impunity, as some noxious insect too small to be worth crushing--but +in accordance with the principle which was illustrated in Abraham's +intercession, and even in Lot's safety; namely, that the righteous are +shields for others, as Paul had the lives of all that sailed with him +given to him. + +God's 'cannot' answers Lot's 'cannot.' His power is limited by His +own solemn purpose to save His faltering servant. The latter had +feared that, before he could reach the mountain, 'the evil' would +overtake him. God shows him that his safety was a condition +precedent to its outburst. Lot barred the way. God could not 'let +slip the dogs of' judgment, but held them in the leash until Lot was +in Zoar. Very awful is the command to make haste, based on this +impossibility, as if God were weary of delay, and more than ready to +smite. However we may find anthropomorphism in these early +narratives, let us not forget that, when the world has long been +groaning under some giant evil, and the bitter seed is grown up into +a waving forest of poison, there is something in the passionless +righteousness of God which brooks no longer delay, but seeks to make +'a short work' on the earth. + +3. So we are brought face to face with the grim story of the +destruction. There is a world of tragic meaning in the simple note +of time given. 'The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered +into Zoar.' The low-lying cities of the plain would lie in shadow +for some time before the sun topped the eastern hills. What a dawn! +At that joyous hour, just when the sunshine struck down on the +smiling plain, and lake and river gleamed like silver, and all +things woke to new hopes and fresh life, then the sky darkened, and +the earth sank, and horrible rain of fiery bitumen fell from the +black pall, salt mud poured in streams, and over all hung a column +of fat, oily smoke. It is not my province to discuss the physical +cause of the destruction; but I may refer to the suggestions of Sir +J. W. Dawson, in his _Egypt and Syria_, and in _The Expositor_ for +May 1886, in which he shows that great beds of bituminous limestone +extend below the Jordan valley and much of the Dead Sea, and that the +escape of inflammable gag from these through the opening of a fissure +along a great 'line of fault,' is capable of producing all the effects +described. The 'brimstone' of the Authorised Version is probably +rather some form of bituminous matter which would be carried into the +air by such an escape of gas, and a thick saline mud would accompany +the eruption, encrusting anything it reached. Subsidence would follow +the ejection of quantities of such matter; and hence the word 'overthrew,' +which seems inappropriate to a mere conflagration, would be explained. + +But, however this may be, we have to recognise a supernatural +element in the starting of the train of natural causes, as well as +in the timing of the catastrophe, and a divine purpose of +retribution, which turns the catastrophe, however effected, into a +judgment. + +So regarded, the event has a double meaning. In the first place, it +is a revelation of an element in the divine character and of a +feature in the divine government. To the men of that time, it might +be a warning. To Abraham, and through him to his descendants, and +through them to us, it preaches a truth very unwelcome to many in +this day: that there is in God that which constrains Him to hate, +fight against, and punish, evil. The temper of this generation turns +away from such thoughts, and, in the name of the truth that 'God is +love,' would fain obliterate the truth that He does and will punish. +But if the punitive element be suppressed, and that in God which +makes it necessary ignored or weakened, the result will be a God who +has not force enough to love, but only weakly to indulge. If He does +not hate and punish, He does not pardon. For the sake of the love of +God, we must hold firm by the belief in the judgments of God. The +God who destroyed Sodom is not merely the God of an earlier +antiquated creed. 'Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of +the Gentiles? Yea, of the Gentiles also.' + +Again, this event is a prophecy. So our Lord has employed it; and +much of the imagery in which the last judgment is represented is +directly drawn from this narrative. So far from this story showing +to us only the superstitions of a form of belief which we have long +outgrown, its deepest meaning lies far ahead, and closes the history +of man on the earth. We know from the lips which cannot lie, that +the appalling suddenness of that destruction foreshadows the +swiftness of the coming of that last 'day of the Lord.' We know that +in literality some of the physical features shall be reproduced; for +the fire which shall burn up the world and all its works is no +figure, nor is it proclaimed only by such non-authoritative voices +as those of Jesus and His apostles, but also by the modern +possessors of infallible certitude, the men of science. We know that +that day shall be a day of retribution. We know, too, that the crime +of Sodom, foul and unnatural as it was, is not the darkest, but that +its inhabitants (who have to face that judgment too) will find their +doom more tolerable, and their sins lighter, than some who have had +high places in the Church, than the Pharisees and wise men who have +not taken Christ for their Saviour. + +4. The fate of the loiterer. Her backward look must have been more +than momentary, for the destruction of the cities did not begin till +Lot was safe in Zoar. She must have lingered far behind, and been +overtaken by the eruption of liquid saline mud, which, as Sir J. W. +Dawson has shown, would attend or follow the outburst of bituminous +matter, so that her fate was the natural consequence of her heart +being still in Sodom. As to the 'pillar of salt' which has excited +cavils on the one hand and foolish legends on the other, probably we +are to think rather of a heap than of a pillar. The word does not +occur in either meaning elsewhere, but its derivation implies +something raised above the level of the ground; and a heap, such as +would be formed by a human body encrusted with salt mud, would suit +the requirements of the expression. Like a man who falls in a +snowstorm, or, still more accurately, just as some of the victims at +Pompeii stumbled in their flight, and were buried under the ashes, +which still keep the outline of their figures, so Lot's wife was +covered with the half-liquid slimy mud. Granted the delay in her +flight, the rest is perfectly simple and natural. She was buried in +a horrible tomb; and, in pity to her memory, no name has been +written upon it. She remains to all generations, in a far truer +sense than superstition dreamed of when it pointed to an upright +salt rock as her prison and her monument, a warning of the danger of +the backward look, which betrays the true home of the heart, and may +leave us unsheltered in the open plain when the fiery storm bursts. +'Remember Lot's wife.' + +When the angels awoke Lot, the day was breaking. By the time that +Abraham had risen 'early in the morning,' and reached the place by +his tent from which he had yesterday looked on the smiling plain, +all was over, and the heavy smoke cloud wrapped the dead with its +pall-like folds. So swift and sudden is to be the coming of the Son +of man,--as the lightning which rushes in one fierce blinding flash +from one side of heaven to the other. Wherefore, God calls to each +of us: 'Escape for thy life; look not behind thee.' + + + + +FAITH TESTED AND CROWNED + + + 'And it came to pass after these things, that God did + tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, + Behold, here I am. And He said, Take now thy son, thine + only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the + land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering + upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And + Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his + ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac + his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and + rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told + him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, + and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his + young men, 'Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the + lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. + And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid + it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, + and a knife; and they went both of them together. And + Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: + and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the + fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt + offering! And Abraham said, My son, God will provide + Himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both + of them together. And they came to the place which God + had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and + laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and + laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched + forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And + the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, + and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And + He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do + thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest + God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only + son from Me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, + and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his + horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered + him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. + And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: + as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it + shall be seen.'--GENESIS xxii. 1-14. + + +I + + +A life of faith and self-denial has usually its sharpest trials at +or near its beginning. A stormy day has generally a calm close. But +Abraham's sorest discipline came all sudden, like a bolt from blue +sky. Near the end, and after many years of peaceful, uneventful +life, he had to take a yet higher degree in the school of faith. +Sharp trial means increased possession of God. So his last terrible +experience turned to his crowning mercy. + +1. The very first words of this solemn narrative raise many +questions. We have God appointing the awful trial. The Revised +Version properly replaces 'tempt' by 'prove.' The former word +conveys the idea of appealing to the worse part of a man, with the +wish that he may yield and do the wrong. The latter means an appeal +to the better part of a man, with the desire that he should stand. +Temptation says: 'Do this pleasant thing; do not be hindered by the +fact that it is wrong.' Trial, or proving, says: 'Do this right and +noble thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is painful.' The +one is 'a sweet, beguiling melody,' breathing soft indulgence and +relaxation over the soul; the other is a pealing trumpet-call to +high achievements. + +God's proving does not mean that He stands by, watching how His +child will behave. He helps us to sustain the trial to which He +subjects us. Life is all probation; and because it is so, it is all +the field for the divine aid. The motive of His proving men is that +they may be strengthened. He puts us into His gymnasium to improve +our physique. If we stand the trial, our faith is increased; if we +fall, we learn self-distrust and closer clinging to Him. No +objection can be raised to the representation of this passage as to +God's proving Abraham, which does not equally apply to the whole +structure of life as a place of probation that it may be a place of +blessing. But the manner of the trial here presents a difficulty. +How could God command a father to kill his son? Is that in +accordance with His character? Well, two considerations deserve +attention. First, the final issue; namely, Isaac's deliverance, was +an integral part of the divine purpose from the beginning of the +trial; so that the question really is, Was it accordant with the +divine character to require readiness to sacrifice even a son at His +command? Second, that in Abraham's time, a father's right over his +child's life was unquestioned, and that therefore this command, +though it lacerated Abraham's heart, did not wound his conscience as +it would do were it heard to-day. It is impossible to conceive of a +divine injunction such as this being addressed to us. We have +learned the inalienable sacredness of every life, and the awful +prerogative and burden of individuality. God's command cannot +enforce sin. But it was not wrong in Abraham's eyes for a father to +slay his son; and God might shape His message to the form of the +existing morality without derogation from His character, especially +when the result of the message would be, among other things, to +teach His abhorrence of human sacrifices, and so to lift the +existing morality to a higher level. + +2. The great body of the history sets before us Abraham standing the +terrible test. What unsurpassable beauty is in the simple story! It +is remarkable, even among the scriptural narratives, for the entire +absence of anything but the visible facts. There is not a syllable +about the feelings of father or of son. The silence is more pathetic +than many words. We look as into a magic crystal, and see the very +event before our eyes, and our own imaginations tell us more of the +world of struggle and sorrow raging under that calm outside than the +highest art could do. The pathos of reticence was never more +perfectly illustrated. Observe, too, the minute, prolonged details +of the slow progress to the dread instant of sacrifice. Each step is +told in precisely the same manner, and the series of short clauses, +coupled together by an artless 'and,' are like the single strokes of +a passing bell, or the slow drops of blood heard falling from a +fatal wound. The homely preparations for the journey are made by +Abraham himself. He makes no confidante of Sarah; only God and +himself knew what that bundle of wood meant. What thoughts must have +torn his soul throughout these weary days! How hard to keep his +voice round and full while he spoke to Isaac! How much the long +protracted tension of the march increased the sharpness of the test! +It is easier to reach the height of obedient self-sacrifice in some +moment of enthusiasm, than to keep up there through the commonplace +details of slowly passing days. Many a faith, which could even have +slain its dearest, would have broken down long before the last step +of that sad journey was taken. + +The elements of the trial were two: first, Abraham's soul was torn +asunder by the conflict of fatherly love and obedience to God. The +narrative intimates this struggle by continually insisting on the +relationship between the two. The command dwells with emphasis on +it: 'thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.' He takes with +him 'Isaac his son'; lays the wood on 'Isaac his son.' Isaac 'spake +unto Abraham his father'; Abraham answers, 'Here am I, my son'; and +again, 'My son, God will provide.' He bound 'Isaac his son'; he +'took the knife to slay his son'; and lastly, in the glad surprise +at the end, he offers the ram 'in the stead of his son.' Thus, at +every turn, the tender bond is forced on our notice, that we may +feel how terrible was the task laid on him--to cut it asunder with +his own hand. The friend of God must hold all other love as less +than His, and must be ready to yield up the dearest at His bidding. +Cruel as the necessity seems to flesh and blood, and specially +poignant as his pain was, in essence Abraham's trial only required +of him what all true religion requires of us. Some of us have been +called by God's providence to give up the light of our eyes, the joy +of our homes, to Him. Some of us have had to make the choice between +earthly and heavenly love. All of us have to throne God in our +hearts, and to let not the dearest usurp His place. In our weakness +we may well shrink from such a test. But let us not forget that the +trial of Abraham was not imposed by his own mistaken conceptions of +duty, nor by a sterner God than the New Testament reveals, but is +distinctly set before every Christian in essence, though not in +form, by the gentle lips from which flowed the law of love more +stringent and exclusive in its claims than any other: 'He that +loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.' + +The conflict in Abraham's soul had a still more painful aspect in +that it seemed to rend his very religion into two. Faith in the +promise on which he had been living all his life drew one way; faith +in the later command, another. God seemed to be against God, faith +against faith, promise against command. If he obeys now, what is to +become of the hopes that had shone for years before him? His whole +career will be rendered nugatory, and with his own hand he will +crush to powder his life's work. That wonderful short dialogue which +broke the stern silence of the journey seems to throw light on his +mood. There is nothing in literature sacred or secular, fact or +fiction, poetry or prose, more touching than the innocent curiosity +of Isaac's boyish question, and the yearning self-restraint of the +father's desperate and yet calm answer. But its value is not only in +its pathos. It seems to show that, though he knew not how, still he +held by the hope that somehow God would not forget His promise. Out +of his very despair, his faith struck, out of the flint of the hard +command, a little spark which served to give some flicker of light +amid the darkness. His answer to his boy does not make his sacrifice +less, but his faith more. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews +gives a somewhat different turn to his hopes, when he tells us that +he offered up the heir of the promises, 'accounting that God was +able to raise him from the dead.' Both ways of clinging to the early +promise, even while obeying the later command, seem to have passed +through his mind. The wavering from the one to the other is natural. +He is sure that God had not lied before, and means what He commands +now. He is sure that there is some point of reconciliation--perhaps +this, perhaps that, but certainly somewhat. So he goes straight on +the road marked for him, quite sure that it will not end in a blind +alley, from which there is no exit. That is the very climax of +faith--to trust God so absolutely, even when His ways seem +contradictory, as to be more willing to believe apparent +impossibilities than to doubt Him, and to be therefore ready for the +hardest trial of obedience. We, too, have sometimes to take courses +which seem to annihilate the hope and aims of a life. The lesson for +us is to go straight on the path of clear duty wherever it leads. If +it seem to bring us up to inaccessible cliffs, we may be sure that +when we get there we shall find some ledge, though it may be no +broader than a chamois could tread, which will suffice for a path. +If it seem to bring us to a deep and bridgeless stream, we shall +find a ford when we get to the water's edge. If the mountains seem +to draw together and bar a passage, we shall find, when we reach +them, that they open out; though it may be no wider than a canon, +still the stream can get through, and our boat with it. + +3. So we have the climax of the story--faith rewarded. The first +great lesson which the interposition of the Divine voice teaches us, +is that obedience is complete when the inward surrender is complete. +The outward act was needless. Abraham would have done no more if the +flashing knife had buried itself in Isaac's heart. Here is the first +great proclamation of the truth which revolutionises morality and +religion, the beginnings of the teaching which culminates in the +ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, and in the gospel of salvation, +not by deeds, but through faith. The will is the man, the true +action is the submission of the will. The outward deed is only the +coarse medium through which it is made visible for men: God looks on +purpose as performance. + +Again, faith is rewarded by God's acceptance and approval. 'I know +that thou fearest God,' not meaning that He learned the heart by the +conduct, but that, on occasion of the conduct, He breathes into the +obedient heart that calm consciousness of its service as recognised +and accepted by Him, which is the highest reward that His friend can +know. 'To be well pleasing to Him' is our noblest aim, which, +cherished, makes sacrifice sweet, and all difficult things easy. +'Nor know we anything more fair Than is the smile upon Thy face.' + +Again, faith is rewarded by a deeper insight into God's will. Much +has been said about the sacrifice of Isaac in its bearing upon the +custom of human sacrifice. We do not believe that Abraham was led to +his act by a mistaken idea, borrowed from surrounding idolatries. +His position as the sole monotheist amid these, the absence of +evidence that human sacrifice was practised then among his +neighbours, and, above all, the fact of the divine approval of his +intention, forbid our acceptance of that theory. Nor can we regard +the condemnation of such sacrifices as the main object of the +incident. But no doubt an incidental result, and, we may perhaps +say, a subsidiary purpose of it, was to stamp all such hideous +usages with the brand of God's displeasure. The mode of thought +which led to them was deeply rooted in the consciousness of the Old +World, and corresponded to a true conception of the needs of +humanity. The dark sense of sin, the conviction that it required +expiation, and that procurable only by death, drove men to these +horrid rites. And that ram, caught in the thicket, thorn-crowned and +substituted for the human victim, taught Abraham and his sons that +God appointed and provided a lamb for an offering. It was a lesson +won by faith. Nor need we hesitate to see some dim forecast of the +great Substitute whom God provided, who bears the sins of the world. + +Again, faith is rewarded by receiving back the surrendered blessing, +made more precious because it has been laid on the altar. How +strange and solemn must have been the joy with which these two +looked in each other's faces! What thankful wonder must have filled +Abraham's heart as he loosed the cord that had bound his son! It +would be many days before the thrill of gratitude died away, and the +possession of his son seemed to Abraham, or that of life seemed to +Isaac, a common thing. He was doubly now a child of wonder, born by +miracle, delivered by miracle. So is it ever. God gives us back our +sacrifices, tinged with a new beauty, and purified from earthly +alloy. + +We never know how sweet our blessings are till we have yielded them +to Him. 'There is no man that hath left' anything or any person for +Christ's sake and the gospel's who will not 'receive a hundred-fold +more in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting.' + +Lastly, Abraham was rewarded by being made a faint adumbration, for +all time, of the yet more wondrous and awful love of the divine +Father, who, for our sakes, has surrendered His only-begotten Son, +whom He loved. Paul quotes the very words of this chapter when he +says: 'He that _spared_ not His _own Son_, but delivered Him up for us +all.' Such thoughts carry us into dim regions, in which, perhaps, +silence is best. Did some shadow of loss and pain pass over the divine +all-sufficiency and joy, when He sent His Son? Was the unresisting +innocence of the son a far-off likeness of the willing eagerness of +the sinless Sufferer who chose to die? Was the resolved surrender of +the father a faint prelude of the deep divine love which gave His +only Son for us? Shall we not say, 'Now I know that Thou lovest me, +because Thou hast not withheld Thy Son, Thine only Son, from me'? +Shall we not recognise this as the crown of Abraham's reward, that +his act of surrender of his dearest to God, his Friend, has been +glorified by being made the mirror of God's unspeakable gift of His +Son to us, His enemies? + + + + +THE CROWNING TEST AND TRIUMPH OF FAITH + + +II + + +The first words of this lesson give the keynote for its meaning. +'God did prove Abraham'; the strange command was a test of his +faith. In recent times the incident has been regarded chiefly as +embodying a protest against child-sacrifices, and no doubt that is +part of its intention, and their condemnation was part of its +effect, but the other is the principal thing. Abraham, as the +'Father of the Faithful,' has his faith tested by a series of events +from his setting out from Haran, and they culminate in this sharpest +of all, the command to slay his son. The life of faith is ever a +life of testing, and very often the fire that tries increases in +heat as life advances. The worst conflicts are not always at the +beginning of the war. + +Our best way of knowing ourselves is to observe our own conduct, +especially when it is hard to do nobly. We may easily cheat +ourselves about what is the basis and ruling motive of our lives, +but our actions will show it us. God does not 'test' us as if He did +not know what was gold and what base metal, but the proving is meant +to make clear to others and ourselves what is the worth and strength +of our religion. The test is also a means of increasing the faith +which it demonstrates, so that the exhortation to 'count it all joy' +to have faith tried is no overstrained counsel of perfection. + +The narrative plainly declares that the command to sacrifice his son +was to Abraham unmistakably divine. The explanation that Abraham, +living beside peoples who practised child-sacrifice, heard but the +voice of his own conscience asking, 'Canst thou do for Jehovah what +these do for Moloch?' does not correspond to the record. No doubt +God does speak through conscience; but what sent Abraham on his +terrible journey was a command which he knew did not spring up +within, but came to him from above. We may believe or disbelieve the +possibility or the actuality of such direct and distinguishable +commands from God, but we do not face the facts of this narrative +unless we recognise that it asserts that God made His will known to +Abraham, and that Abraham knew that it was God's will, not his own +thought. + +But is it conceivable that God should ever bid a man commit a crime? +To the question put in that bald way, of course there can be but one +answer, No. But several conditions have to be taken into account. +First, it is conceivable that God should test a man's willingness to +surrender what is most precious to him, and what all his hopes are +fixed on; and this command was given with the purpose that it should +not be obeyed in fact, if the willingness to obey it was proved. +Again, the stage of development of the moral sense at which Abraham +stood has to be remembered. The child-sacrifices around him were not +regarded as crimes, but as worship, and, while his affections were +the same as ours, and his father's heart was wrung, to slay Isaac +did not present itself to him as a crime in the way in which it does +so to us. God deals with men on the moral and spiritual level to +which they have attained, and, by descending to it, raises them +higher. + +The purpose of the command was to test faith, even more than to test +whether earthly love or heavenly obedience were the stronger. There +is a beautiful and instructive climax in the designations of Isaac +in verse 2, where four times he is referred to, 'thy son, thine only +son,' in whom all the hopes of fulfilment of the divine promise were +concentrated, so that, if this fruit from the aged tree were cut +off, no other could ever grow; 'whom thou lovest,'--there the sharp +point pierces the father's heart; 'even Isaac,' in which name all +the ties that knit him to Abraham are gathered up. Each word +heightens the greatness of the sacrifice demanded, and is a fresh +thrust of the dagger into Abraham's very life. Each suggests a +reason for not slaying Isaac, which sense might plead. God does not +hide the painfulness of surrender from us. The more precious the +treasure is, the more are we bound to lay it on the altar. But it +was Abraham's faith even more than his love that was tested. The +Epistle to the Hebrews lays hold on this as the main element in the +trial, that he who 'had received the promises' was called to do what +seemed to blast all hope of their being fulfilled. What a cruel +position to have God's command and God's promise apparently in +diametrical opposition! But faith loosened even that seemingly +inextricable tangle of contradiction, and felt that to obey was for +man, and to keep His promise was for God. If we do our duty, He will +see to the consequences. 'Tis mine to obey; 'tis His to provide.' + +Nothing in literature is more tenderly touched or more truly +imagined than that long, torturing journey--Abraham silent, Isaac +silently wondering, the servants silently following. And, like a +flash, at last 'the place' was seen afar off. How calmly Abraham +speaks to the two followers, mastering his heart's throbbing even +then! 'We will worship, and come again to you'--was that a 'pious +fraud' or did it not rather indicate that a ray of hope, like pale +light from a shrouded sun, shone for him? He 'accounted that God was +able to raise him up even from the dead.' Somehow, he knew not how, +Isaac slain was still to live and inherit the promises. Anything was +possible, but that God's word should fail was impossible. That +picture of the father and son alone, the one bearing the wood, the +other the fire and the knife, exchanging no word but once, when the +innocent wonder of Isaac's question must have shaken Abraham's +steadfastness, and made it hard for him to steady his voice to +answer, touches the deepest springs of pity and pathetic sublimity. +But the answer is in the same spirit as that to the servants, and +indicates the same hope. 'God will provide Himself a lamb, my son.' +He does not know definitely what he expects; he is ready to slay +Isaac, but his faith is not quenched, though the end seems so +inevitable and near. Faith was never more sharply tested, and never +more triumphantly stood the test. + +The divine solution of the riddle was kept back till the last +moment, as it usually is. The place is slowly reached, the hill +slowly climbed, the altar built, the unresisting Isaac bound (with +what deep thoughts in each, who can tell?), the steady hand holding +the glittering knife lifted--a moment more and it will be red with +heart's blood, and not till then does God speak. It is ever so. The +trial has 'its perfect work.' Faith is led to the edge of the +precipice, one step farther and all is over. Then God speaks, all +but just too late, and yet 'right early.' The willingness to make +the sacrifice is tested to the utmost, and being proved, the +sacrifice is not required. + +Abraham had said to Isaac, 'God will provide a lamb,' and the word +'provide' is that which appears in the name he gave to the +place--Jehovah-_jireh_. The name, then, commemorated, not the +servant's faith but the Lord's mercy, and the spirit of it was embodied +in what became a popular saying, 'In the mount of the Lord it shall +be provided.' If faith dwells there, its surrenders will be richly +rewarded. How much more dear was Isaac to Abraham as they journeyed +back to Beersheba! And whatever we lay on God's altar comes back a +'hundred-fold more in this life,' and brings in the world to come life +everlasting. + + + + +JEHOVAH-JIREH + + + 'And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; + (that is, The Lord will provide).'-GENESIS xxii. 14. + +As these two, Abraham and Isaac, were travelling up the hill, the +son bearing the wood, and the father with the sad burden of the fire +and the knife, the boy said: 'Where is the lamb?' and Abraham, +thrusting down his emotion and steadying his voice, said: 'My son, +God will provide Himself a lamb.' When the wonderful issue of the +trial was plain before him, and he looked back upon it, the one +thought that rose in his mind was of how, beyond his meaning, his +words had been true. So he named that place by a name that spoke +nothing of his trial, but everything of God's provision--'The Lord +will see,' or 'The Lord will provide.' + +1. The words have become proverbial and threadbare as a commonplace +of Christian feeling. But it may be worth our while to ask for a +moment what it was exactly that Abraham expected the Lord to +provide. We generally use the expression in reference to outward +things, and see in it the assurance that we shall not be left +without the supply of the necessities for which, because God has +made us to feel them, He has bound Himself to make provision. And +most blessedly true is that application of them, and many a +Christian heart in days of famine has been satisfied with the +promise, when the bread that was given has been scant. + +But there is a meaning deeper than that in the words. It is true, +thank God! that we may cast all our anxiety about all outward things +upon Him, in the assurance that He who feeds the ravens will feed +us, and that if lilies can blossom into beauty without care, we +shall be held by our Father of more value than these. But there is a +deeper meaning in the provision spoken of here. What was it that God +provided for Abraham? What is it that God provides for us? A way to +discharge the arduous duties which, when they are commanded, seem +all but impossible for us, and which, the nearer we come to them, +look the more dreadful and seem the more impossible. And yet, when +the heart has yielded itself in obedience, and we are ready to do +the thing that is enjoined, there opens up before us a possibility +provided by God, and strength comes to us equal to our day, and some +unexpected gift is put into our hand, which enables us to do the +thing of which Nature said: 'My heart will break before I can do +it'; and in regard to which even Grace doubted whether it was +possible for us to carry it through. If our hearts are set in +obedience to the command, the farther we go on the path of +obedience, the easier the command will appear, and to try to do it +is to ensure that God will help us to do it. + +This is the main provision that God makes, and it is the highest +provision that He can make. For there is nothing in this life that +we need so much as to do the will of our Father in heaven. All +outward wants are poor compared with that. The one thing worth +living for, the one thing which being secured we are blessed, and +being missed we are miserable, is compliance in heart with the +commandment of our Father; and that compliance wrought out in life. +So, of all gifts that He bestows upon us, and of all the abundant +provision out of His rich storehouses, is not this the best, that we +are made ready for any required service? When we get to the place we +shall find some lamb 'caught in the thicket by its horns'; and +heaven itself will supply what is needful for our burnt offering. + +And then there is another thought here which, though we cannot +certainly say it was in the speaker's mind, is distinctly in the +historian's intention, 'The Lord will provide.' Provide what? The +lamb for the burnt offering which He has commanded. It seems +probable that that bare mountain-top which Abraham saw from afar, +and named Jehovah-jireh, was the mountain-top on which afterwards +the Temple was built. And perhaps the wood was piled for the altar, +on which Abraham was called to lay his only son, on that very piece +of primitive rock which still stands visible, though Temple and +altar have long since gone; and which for many a day was the place +of the altar on which the sacrifices of Israel were offered. It is +no mere forcing of Christian meanings on to old stories, but the +discerning of that prophetic and spiritual element which God has +impressed upon these histories of the past, especially in all their +climaxes and crises, when we see in the fact that God provided the +ram which became the appointed sacrifice, through which Isaac's life +was preserved, a dim adumbration of the great truth that the only +Sacrifice which God accepts for the world's sin is the Sacrifice +which He Himself has provided. + +This is the deepest meaning of all the sacrificial worship, as of +Israel so of heathen nations--God Himself will provide a Lamb. The +world had built altars, and Israel, by divine appointment, had its +altar too. All these express the want which none of them can +satisfy. They show that man needed a Sacrifice; and that Sacrifice +God has provided. He asked from Abraham less than He gives to us. +Abraham's devotion was sealed and certified because he did not +withhold his son, his only son, from God. And God's love is sealed +because He hath not withheld His only-begotten Son from us. + +So this name that came from Abraham's grateful and wondering lips +contains a truth which holds true in all regions of our wants. On +the lowest level, the outward supply of outward needs; on a higher, +the means of discharging hard duties and a path through sharp +trials; and, on the highest of all, the spotless sacrifice which +alone avails for the world's sins--these are the things which God +provides. + +2. So, note again on what conditions He provides them. + +The incident and the name became the occasion of a proverb, as the +historian tells us, which survived down to the period of his +writing, and probably long after, when men were accustomed to say, +'In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.' The provision of +all sorts that we need has certain conditions as to the when and the +where of the persons to whom it shall be granted. 'In the mount of +the Lord it shall be provided.' If we wish to have our outward needs +supplied, our outward weaknesses strengthened, power and energy +sufficient for duty, wisdom for perplexity, a share in the Sacrifice +which taketh away the sins of the world, we receive them all on the +condition that we are found in the place where all God's provision +is treasured. If a man chooses to sit outside the baker's shop, he +may starve on its threshold. If a man will not go into the bank, his +pockets will be empty, though there may be bursting coffers there to +which he has a right. And if we will not ascend to the hill of the +Lord, and stand in His holy place by simple faith, and by true +communion of heart and life, God's amplest provision is nought to +us; and we are empty in the midst of affluence. Get near to God if +you would partake of what He has prepared. Live in fellowship with +Him by simple love, and often meditate on Him, if you would drink in +of His fulness. And be sure of this, that howsoever within His house +the stores are heaped and the treasury full, you will have neither +part nor lot in the matter, unless you are children of the house. +'In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.' And round it there +is a waste wilderness of famine and of death. + +Further, note _when_ the provision is realised. + +When the man is standing with the knife in his hand, and next minute +it will be red with the son's blood--then the call comes: 'Abraham!' +and then he sees the ram caught in the thicket. There had been a +long weary journey from their home away down in the dry, sunny +south, a long tramp over the rough hills, a toilsome climb, with a +breaking heart in the father's bosom, and a dim foreboding gradually +stealing on the child's spirit. But there was no sign of respite or +of deliverance. Slowly he piles together the wood, and yet no sign. +Slowly he binds his boy, and lays him on it, and still no sign. +Slowly, reluctantly, and yet resolvedly, he unsheathes the knife, +and yet no sign. He lifts his hand, and then it comes. + +That is God's way always. Up to the very edge we are driven, before +His hand is put out to help us. Such is the law, not only because +the next moment is always necessarily dark, nor because God will +deal with us in any arbitrary fashion, and play with our fears, but +because it is best for us that we should be forced to desperation, +and out of desperation should 'pluck the flower, safety.' It is best +for us that we should be brought to say, 'My foot slippeth!' and +then, just as our toes are sliding upon the glacier, the help comes +and 'Thy mercy held me up.' 'The Lord is her helper, and that right +early.' When He delays, it is not to trifle with us, but to do us +good by the sense of need, as well as by the experience of +deliverance. At the last moment, never before it, never until we +have found out how much we need it, and never too late, comes the +Helper. + +So 'it is provided' for the people that quietly and persistently +tread the path of duty, and go wherever His hand leads them, without +asking anything about where it does lead. The condition of the +provision is our obedience of heart and will. To Abraham doing what +he was commanded, though his heart was breaking as he did it, the +help was granted--as it always will be. + +3. And so, lastly, note what we are to do with the provision when we +get it. + +Abraham christened the anonymous mountain-top, not by a name that +reminded him or others of his trial, but by a name that proclaimed +God's deliverance. He did not say anything about his agony or about +his obedience. God spoke about that, not Abraham. He did not want +these to be remembered, but what he desired to hand on to later +generations was what God had done for him. Oh! dear friends, is that +the way in which we look back upon life? Many a bare, bald mountain- +top in your career and mine we have got our names for. Are they +names that commemorate our sufferings or God's blessings? When we +look back on the past what do we see? Times of trial or times of +deliverance? Which side of the wave do we choose to look at, the one +that is smitten by the sunshine or the one that is all black and +purple in the shadow? The sea looked at from the one side will be +all a sunny path, and from the other dark as chaos. Let us name the +heights that lie behind us, visible to memory, by names that +commemorate, not the troubles that we had on them, but the +deliverances that on them we received from God. + +This name enshrines the duty of commemoration--ay! and the duty of +expectation. 'The Lord will provide.' How do you know that, Abraham? +and his answer is, 'Because the Lord did provide.' That is a shaky +kind of argument if we use it about one another. Our resources may +give out, our patience may weary. If it is a storehouse that we have +to go to, all the corn that is treasured in it will be eaten up some +day; but if it is to some boundless plain that grows it that we go, +then we can be sure that there will be a harvest next year as there +has been a harvest last. And so we have to think of God, not as a +storehouse, but as the soil from which there comes forth, year by +year and generation after generation, the same crop of rich +blessings for the needs and the hungers of every soul. If we have to +draw from reservoirs we cannot say, 'I have gone with my pitcher to +the well six times, and I shall get it filled at the seventh.' It is +more probable that we shall have to say, 'I have gone so often that +I durst not go any more'; but if we have to go, not to a well, but +to a fountain, then the oftener we go, the surer we become that its +crystal cool waters will always be ready for us. 'Thou hast been +with me in six troubles; and in seven thou wilt not forsake me,' is +a bad conclusion to draw about one another; but it is the right +conclusion to draw about God. + +And so, as we look back upon our past lives, and see many a peak +gleaming in the magic light of memory, let us name them all by names +that will throw a radiance of hope on the unknown and un-climbed +difficulties before us, and say, as the patriarch did when he went +down from the mount of his trial and deliverance, 'The Lord will +provide.' + + + + +GUIDANCE IN THE WAY + + + 'I being in the way, the Lord led me.'--GENESIS xxiv. 27. + +So said Abraham's anonymous servant when telling how he had found +Rebekah at the well, and known her to be the destined bride of his +master's servant. There is no more beautiful page, even amongst the +many lovely ones in these ancient stories, than this domestic idyll +of the mission of the faithful servant from far Canaan across the +desert. The homely test by which he would determine that the maiden +should be pointed out to him, the glimpse of old-world ways at the +well, the gracious courtesy of the fair damsel, and the simple +devoutness of the speaker, who recognises in what to others were +trivial commonplaces God's guidance to the end which He had +appointed, his recognition of the divine hand moving beneath all the +nothings and littlenesses of daily life--may teach us much. + +1. The first thing that these words seem to me to suggest is the +conditions under which we may be sure that God leads--'I being in +the way.' + +Now, of course, some of you may know that the words of our text are, +by the Revised Version and others, rendered so as to obliterate the +clause telling where the speaker was when the Lord led him, and to +make the whole a continuous expression of the one fact--'As for me, +the Lord hath led me in the way to the house of my master's +brethren.' The literal rendering is, 'I in the way, Jehovah led me.' +No doubt the Hebrew idiom admits of the 'I' being thus emphatically +premised, and then repeated as 'me' after the verb, and possibly no +more is to be made of the words than that. But the fuller and more +impressive meaning is possible, and I venture to retain it, and to +see in it the expression of the truth that it is when we are 'in the +way' that God will certainly lead us. + +So that suggests, first, how the people that have any right to +expect any kind of guidance from God are those who have their feet +upon a path which conscience approves. Many men run into all manner +of perplexities by their own folly and self-will, and never ask +whether their acts are right or wrong, wise or foolish, until they +begin to taste the bitter consequences. Then they cry to God to help +them, and think themselves very religious because they do. That is +not the way to get God's help. Such folk are like Italian brigands +who had an image of the Virgin in their hats, and sometimes had the +Pope's commission in their pockets, and therefore went out to murder +and ravish, in sure and certain hope of God's favour and protection. + +But when we are 'in the way,' and know that we are doing what we +ought to do, and conscience says, 'Go on; never mind what stands +against you,' it is then, and only then, that we have a right to be +sure that the Lord will lead us. Otherwise, the best thing that can +happen to us is that the Lord should thwart us when we are on the +wrong road. Resistance, indeed, may be guidance; and it is often +God's manner of setting our feet in the way of His steps. We have no +claim on Him for guidance, indeed, unless we have submitted +ourselves to His commandments; yet His mercies go beyond our claims. +Just as the obedient child gets guidance, so the petulant and +disobedient child gets resistance, which is guidance too. The angel +of the Lord stands in front of Balaam, amongst the vines, though the +seer sometimes does not see, and blocks the path for him, and hedges +up the way with his flaming sword. Only, if we would have the sweet, +gracious, companionable guidance of our Lord, let us be sure, to +begin with, that we are 'in the way,' and not in any of the bypaths +into which arrogance and self-will and fleshly desires and the like +are only too apt to divert our feet. + +Another consideration suggested by these words, 'I being in the +way,' is that if we expect guidance we must diligently do present +duty. We are led, thank God, by one step at a time. He does with His +child, whom He is teaching to read His will, as we sometimes do with +our children, when we are occupied in teaching them their first +book-learning: we cover the page up, all but the line that we want +them to concentrate their eyes upon; and then, when they have got to +the end of that, slip the hand down, low enough to allow the next +line to come into view. So often God does with us. One thing at a +time is enough for the little brains. And this is the condition of +mortal life, for the most part--though there do come rare +exceptions. Not that we have to look a long way ahead, and forecast +what we shall do this time ten years off, or to make decisions that +involve a distant future--except once or twice in a lifetime--but +that we have to settle what is to be done in this flying minute, and +in the one adjacent to it. 'Do the duty that lies nearest thee,' and +the remoter duty will become clearer. There is nothing that has more +power to make a man's path plain before his feet than that he should +concentrate his better self on the manful and complete discharge of +the present moment's service. And, on the other hand, there is +nothing that will so fill our sky with mists, and blur the marks of +the faint track through the moor, as present negligence, or still +more, present sin. Iron in a ship's hull makes the magnet tremble, +and point away from its true source. He that has complied with evil +to-day is the less capable of discerning duty to-morrow; and he that +does all the duty that he knows will thereby increase the +probability that he will know all that he needs. 'If any man wills +to do His will, he shall know of the teaching'--enough, at any rate, +to direct his steps. + +But there is another lesson still in the words; and that is that, if +we are to be guided, we must see to it that we expect and obey the +guidance. + +This servant of Abraham's, with a very imperfect knowledge of the +divine will, had, when he set out on his road, prayed very earnestly +that God would lead him. He had ventured to prescribe a certain +token, naïve in its simplicity: 'If the girl drops her pitcher, and +gives us drink gladly, and does not grudge to fill the troughs for +the cattle, that will show that she is of a good sort, and will make +the right wife for Isaac.' He had prayed thus, and he was ready to +accept whomsoever God so designated. He had not made up his mind, +'Bethuel's daughter is a relation of my master's, and so she will be +a suitable wife for his son.' He left it all with God, and then he +went straight on his road, and was perfectly sure that he would get +the guidance that he had sought. And when it came the good man bowed +and obeyed. + +Now there is a picture for us all. There are many people that say, +'O Lord! guide me.' when all the while they mean, 'Let me guide +Thee.' They are perfectly willing to accept the faintest and moat +questionable indications that may seem to point down the road where +their inclination drives them, and like Lord Nelson at Copenhagen, +will put the telescope to the blind eye when the flag is flying at +the admiral's peak, signalling 'Come out of action,' because they +are determined to stay where they are. + +Do not let us forget that the first condition of securing real +guidance in our daily life is to ask it, and that the next is to +look for it, and that a third is to be quite willing to accept it, +whether the finger points down the broad road that we would like to +go upon, or through some tangled path amongst the brushwood that we +would fain avoid. And if you and I, dear brethren, in the +littlenesses of our daily life, do fulfil these conditions, the +heavens will crumble, and earth will melt, before God will leave His +child untaught in the way in which he should go. + +Only, let us be patient. Do you remember what Joshua said to the +Israelites? 'Let there be a good space of vacant ground between you +and the guiding ark, that you may know by which way you ought to +go.' When men precipitately press on the heels of half-disclosed +providences, they are uncommonly apt to mistake the road. We must +wait till we are sure of God's will before we try to do it. If we +are not sure of what He would have us do, then, for the present, He +would have us do nothing until He speaks. 'I being in the way, the +Lord led me.' + +2. Now a word about the manner of the guidance. + +There was no miracle, no supernatural voice, no pillar of cloud or +fire, no hovering glory round the head of the village maiden. All +the indications were perfectly natural and trivial. A thousand girls +had gone to the wells that day all about Haran and done the very +same things that Rebekah did. But the devout man who had prayed for +guidance, and was sure that he was getting it, was guided by her +most simple, commonplace act; and that is how we are usually to be +guided. God leaves a great deal to our common sense. His way of +speaking to common sense is by very common things. If any of us +fancy that some glow at the heart, some sudden flash as of +inspiration, is the test of a divine commandment, we have yet to +learn the full meaning of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. For that +Incarnation, amongst all its other mighty influences, hallowed the +commonest things of life and turned them into ministers of God's +purposes. So remember, God's guidance may come to you through so +insignificant a girl as Rebekah. It may come to you through as +commonplace an incident as tipping the water of a spring out of an +earthen pot into a stone trough. None the less is it God's guidance; +and what we want is the eye to see it. He will guide us by very +common indications of His providence. + +3. And now, the last thing that I would say a word about is the +realisation in daily life of this guidance as a plain actual fact. + +This anonymous trusted servant of Abraham's, whose name we should +like to have known, had a mere segment of the full orb of the +knowledge of God that shines upon our path. With true Oriental +freedom to speak about the deepest matters, he was not afraid nor +ashamed to stand before Bethuel and Laban, and all these other +strangers that crowded round the doorway, and say, 'The Lord led +me.' There is a pattern for some of us tongue-tied, shamefaced +Christians. Whatever may be the truth about the degradations of +which heathen religion is full, there is a great deal in heathen +religion that ought to teach, and does teach, Christendom a lesson, +as to willingness to recognise and to confess God's working in daily +life. It may be very superficial; it may be very little connected +with high morality; but so far as it goes it is a thousand-fold +better than the dumb religion that characterises such hosts of +Christian people. + +A realisation of the divine guidance is the talisman that makes +crooked things straight and rough places plain; that brings peace +and calmness into our hearts, amid all changes, losses, and sorrows. +If we hold fast by that faith, it will interpret for us the +mysterious in the providences concerning our own lives, and will +help us to feel that, as I said, resistance to our progress may be +true guidance, and thwarting our wills may be our highest good. For +the road which we travel should, in all its turnings, lead us to +God; and whatsoever guides us to Him is only and always blessed. + +May I, for one moment, turn these words in another direction, and +remind you, dear friends, of how the sublimest application of them +is still to be realised? As a climber on a mountain-peak may look +down the vale up which he had painfully toiled for many days and see +the dusty path lying, like a sinuous snake, down all along it, so, +when we get up yonder, 'Thou shalt remember all the way by which the +Lord thy God hath led thee these many years in the wilderness,' and +shalt see the green pastures and the still waters, valleys of the +shadow of death, and burning roads with sharp flints, which have all +brought thee hither at last. We shall know then what we believe now, +that the Lord does indeed go before them who desire to follow Him, +and that the God of Israel is their reward. Then we shall say with +deepened thankfulness, deepened by complete understanding of life +here, seen in the light of its attained end, 'I being in the way, +the Lord led me,' and 'I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for +ever.' + + + + +THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM + + + 'Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old + age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered + to his people.'--GENESIS xxv. 8. + +'Full of years' does not seem to me to be a mere synonym for +longevity. That would be an intolerable tautology, for we should +then have the same thing said three times over--'an old man,' 'in a +good old age,' 'full of years.' There must be some other idea than +that in the words. If you notice that the expression is by no means +a usual one, that it is only applied to one or two of the Old +Testament characters, and those selected characters, I think you +will see that there must be some other significance in it than +merely to point to length of days. + +It may be well to note the instances. In addition to our text, we +find it employed, first, in reference to Isaac, in Genesis xxxv. 29, +where the words are repeated almost _verbatim_. That calm, +contemplative life, so unlike the active, varied career of his +father, also attained to this blessing at its close. Then we find +that the stormy and adventurous course of the great king David, with +its wonderful alternations both of moral character and of fortune, +is represented as being closed at last with this tranquil evening +glory: 'He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and +honour.' Once more we read of the great high priest Jehoiada, whose +history had been crowded with peril, change, brave resistance, and +strenuous effort, that with all the storms behind him he died at +last, 'full of days.' The only other instance of the occurrence of +the phrase is at the close of the book of Job, the typical record of +the good man suffering, and of the abundant compensations given by a +loving God. The fair picture of returning prosperity and family joy, +like the calm morning sunshine after a night of storm and wreck, +with which that wonderful book ends, has this for its last touch, +evidently intended to deepen the impression of peace which is +breathed over it all: 'So Job died, being old and full of days.' +These are all the instances of the occurrence of this phrase, and I +think we may fairly say that in all it is meant to suggest not +merely length of days, but some characteristic of the long life over +and above its mere length. We shall, I think, understand its meaning +a little better if we make a very slight and entirely warranted +change, and instead of reading '_full_ of years,' read '_satisfied_ +with years.' The men were satisfied with life; having exhausted its +possibilities, having drunk a full draught, having nothing more left +to wish for. The words point to a calm close, with all desires +gratified, with hot wishes stilled, with no desperate clinging to +life, but a willingness to let it go, because all which it could give +had been attained. + +So much for one of the remarkable expressions in this verse. There +is another, 'He was gathered to his people,' of which we shall have +more to say presently. Enough for the present to note the +peculiarity, and to suggest that it seems to contain some dim hint +of a future life, and some glimmer of some of the profoundest +thoughts about it. + +We have two main things to consider. + +1. The tranquil close of a life. + +It is possible, then, at the end of life to feel that it has +satisfied one's wishes. Whether it does or no will depend mostly on +ourselves, and very slightly on our circumstances. Length of days, +competence, health, and friends are important; but neither these nor +any other externals will make the difference between a life which, +in the retrospect, will seem to have been sufficient for our +desires, and one which leaves a hunger in the heart. It is possible +for us to make our lives of such a sort, that whether they run on to +the apparent maturity of old age, or whether they are cut short in +the midst of our days, we may rise from the table feeling that it +has satisfied our desires, met our anticipation, and been all very +good. + +Possibly, that is not the way in which most of us look at life. That +is not the way in which a great many of us seem to think that it is +an eminent part of Christian and religious character to look at +life. But it is the way in which the highest type of devotion and +the truest goodness always look at it. There are people, old and +young, who, whenever they look back, whether it be over a long tract +of years or over a short one, have nothing to say about it except: +'Vanity of vanities! all is vanity and vexation of spirit'; a +retrospect of weary disappointments and thwarted plans. + +How different with some of us the forward and the backward look! Are +there not some listening to me, whose past is so dark that it flings +black shadows over their future, and who can only cherish hopes for +to-morrow, by giving the lie to and forgetting the whole of their +yesterdays? It is hard to paint the regions before us like 'the +Garden of the Lord,' when we know that the locusts of our own +godless desires have made all the land behind us desolate. If your +past has been a selfish past, a godless past, in which passion, +inclination, whim, anything but conscience and Christ have ruled, +your remembrances can scarcely be tranquil; nor your hopes bright. +If you have only 'prospects drear,' when you 'backward cast your +eye,' it is not wonderful if 'forwards though you cannot see,' you +will 'guess and fear.' Such lives, when they come towards an end, +are wont to be full of querulous discontent and bitterness. We have +all seen godless old men cynical and sour, pleased with nothing, +grumbling, or feebly complaining, about everything, dissatisfied +with all which life has thus far yielded them, and yet clinging +desperately to it, and afraid to go. + +Put by the side of such an end this calm picture of the old man +going down into his grave, and looking back over all those long days +since he came away from his father's house, and became a pilgrim and +a stranger. How all the hot anxieties, desires, occupations, of +youth have quieted themselves down! How far away now seem the +warlike days when he fought the invading kings! How far away the +heaviness of heart when he journeyed to Mount Moriah with his boy, +and whetted the knife to slay his son! His love had all been buried +in Sarah's grave. He has been a lonely man for many years; and yet +he looks back, as God looked back over His creative week, and feels +that all has been good. 'It was all for the best; the great +procession of my life has been ordered from the beginning to its +end, by the Hand that shapes beauty everywhere, and has made all +things blessed and sweet. I have drunk a full draught; I have had +enough; I bless the Giver of the feast, and push my chair back; and +get up and go away.' He died an old man, and satisfied with his +life. + +Ay! And what a contrast that makes, dear friends, to another set of +people. There is nothing more miserable than to see a man, as his +years go by, gripping harder and tighter at this poor, fleeting +world that is slipping away from him; nothing sadder than to see +how, as opportunities and capacities for the enjoyment of life +dwindle, and dwindle, and dwindle, people become almost fierce in +the desire to keep it. Why, you can see on the face of many an old +man and woman a hungry discontent, that has not come from the mere +wrinkles of old age or care; an eager acquisitiveness looking out of +the dim old eyes, tragical and awful. It is sad to see a man, as the +world goes from him, grasping at its skirts as a beggar does at the +retreating passer-by that refuses him an alms. Are there not some of +us who feel that this is our case, that the less we have before us +of life here on earth, the more eagerly we grasp at the little which +still remains; trying to get some last drops out of the broken +cistern which we know can hold no water? How different this blessed +acquiescence in the fleeting away of the fleeting; and this +contented satisfaction with the portion that has been given him, +which this man had who died willingly, being satisfied with life! + +Sometimes, too, there is satiety--weariness of life which is not +satisfaction, though it looks like it. Its language is: 'Man +delights me not; nor woman neither. I am tired of it all.' Those who +feel thus sit at the table without an appetite. They think that they +have seen to the bottom of everything, and they have found +everything a cheat. They expect nothing new under the sun; that +which is to be hath already been, and it is all vanity and striving +after the wind. They are at once satiated and dissatisfied. Nothing +keeps the power to charm. + +How different from all this is the temper expressed in this text, +rightly understood! Abraham had had a richly varied life. It had +brought him all he wished. He has drunk a full draught, and needs no +more. He is satisfied, but that does not mean loss of interest in +present duties, occupations, or enjoyments. It is possible to keep +ourselves fully alive to all these till the end, and to preserve +something of the keen edge of youth even in old age, by the magic of +communion with God, purity of conduct, and a habitual contemplation +of all events as sent by our Father. When Paul felt himself very +near his end, he yet had interest enough in common things to tell +Timothy all about their mutual friends' occupations, and to wish to +have his books and parchments. + +So, calmly, satisfied and yet not sickened, keenly appreciating all +the good and pleasantness of life, and yet quite willing to let it +go, Abraham died. So may it be with us too, if we will, no matter +what the duration or the externals of our life. If we too are his +children by faith, we shall be 'blessed with faithful Abraham.' And +I beseech you to ask yourselves whether the course of your life is +such as that, if at this moment God's great knife were to come down +and cut it in two, you would be able to say, 'Well! I have had +enough, and now contentedly I go.' + +Again, it is possible at the end of life to feel that it is +complete, because the days have accomplished for us the highest +purpose of life. Scaffoldings are for buildings, and the moments and +days and years of our earthly lives are scaffolding. What are you +building inside the scaffolding, brother? What kind of a structure +will be disclosed when the scaffolding is knocked away? What is the +end for which days and years are given? That they may give us what +eternity cannot take away--a character built upon the love of God in +Christ, and moulded into His likeness. 'Man's chief end is to +glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.' Has your life helped you to +do that? If it has, though you be but a child, you are full of +years; if it has not, though your hair be whitened with the snows of +the nineties, you are yet incomplete and immature. The great end of +life is to make us like Christ, and pleasing to Christ. If life has +done that for us, we have got the best out of it, and our life is +completed, whatever may be the number of the days. Quality, not +quantity, is the thing that determines the perfectness of a life. +And like as in northern lands, where there is only a week or two +from the melting of the snow to the cutting of the hay, the whole +harvest of a life may be gathered in a very little space, and all be +done which is needed to make the life complete. Has your life this +completeness? Can you be 'satisfied' with it, because the river of +the flowing hours has borne down some grains of gold amidst the mass +of mud, and, notwithstanding many sins and failures, you have thus +far fulfilled the end of your being, that you are in some measure +trusting and serving the Lord Jesus Christ? + +Again, it is possible, at the end of life, to be _willing_ to +go as satisfied. + +Most men cling to life in grim desperation, like a climber to a +cliff giving way, or a drowning man clutching at any straw. How +beautiful the contrast of the placid, tranquil acquiescence +expressed in that phrase of our text! No doubt there will always be +the shrinking of the bodily nature from death. But that may be +overcome. There is no passion so weak but in some case it has 'mated +and mastered the fear of death,' and it is possible for us all to +come to that temper in which we shall be ready for either fortune, +to live and serve Him here, or to die and enjoy Him yonder. Or, to +return to an earlier illustration, it is possible to be like a man +sitting at table, who has had his meal, and is quite contented to +stay on there, restful and cheerful, but is not unwilling to put +back his chair, to get up and to go away, thanking the Giver for +what he has received. + +Ah! that is the way to face the end, dear brethren, and how is it to +be done? Such a temper need not be the exclusive possession of the +old. It may belong to us at all stages of life. How is it won? By a +life of devout communion with God. The secret of it lies in obeying +the commandment and realising the truth which Abraham realised and +obeyed: 'I am the Almighty God, walk before Me, and be thou +perfect.' 'Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thine exceeding +great reward.' That is to say, a simple communion with God, +realising His presence and feeling that He is near, will sweeten +disappointment, will draw from it its hidden blessedness, will make +us victors over its pains and its woes. Such a faith will make it +possible to look back and see only blessing; to look forward and see +a great light of hope burning in the darkness. Such a faith will +check weariness, avert satiety, promote satisfaction, and will help +us to feel that life and the great hereafter are but the outer and +inner mansions of the Father's house, and death the short though +dark corridor between. So we shall be ready for life or for death. + +2. Now I must turn to consider more briefly the glimpse of the +joyful society beyond, which is given us in that other remarkable +expression of our text: 'He was gathered to his people' + +That phrase is only used in the earlier Old Testament books, and +there only in reference to a few persons. It is used of Abraham, +Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron, and once (Judges ii. 10) of +a whole generation. If you will weigh the words, I think you will +see that there is in them a dim intimation of something beyond this +present life. + +'He was gathered to his people' is not the same thing as 'He died,' +for, in the earlier part of the verse, we read, 'Abraham gave up the +ghost and died ... and was gathered to his people.' It is not the +same thing as being buried. For we read in the following verse: 'And +his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in +the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before +Mamre.' It is then the equivalent neither of death nor of burial. It +conveys dimly and veiledly that Abraham was buried, and yet that was +not all that happened to him. He was buried, but also 'he was +gathered to his people.' Why! his own 'people' were buried in +Mesopotamia, and his grave was far away from theirs. What is the +meaning of the expression? Who were the people he was gathered to? +In death or in burial, 'the dust returns to the earth as it was.' +What was it that was gathered to his people? + +Dimly, vaguely, veiledly, but unmistakably, as it seems to me, is +here expressed at least a premonition and feeling after the thought +of an immortal self in Abraham that was not there in what 'his sons +Isaac and Ishmael laid in the cave at Machpelah,' but was somewhere +else and was for ever. That is the first thing hinted at here--the +continuance of the personal being after death. + +Is there anything more? I think there is. Now, remember, Abraham's +whole life was shaped by that commandment, 'Get thee out from thy +father's house, and from thy kindred, and from thy country.' He +never dwelt with his kindred; all his days he was a pilgrim and a +sojourner, a stranger in a strange land. And though he was living in +the midst of a civilisation which possessed great cities whose walls +reached to heaven, he pitched his tent beneath the terebinth tree at +Mamre, and would have nothing to do with the order of things around +him, but remained an exotic, a waif, an outcast in the midst of +Canaan all his life. Why? Because he 'looked for the city which hath +the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.' And now he has +gone to it, he is gathered to his people. The life of isolation is +over, the true social life is begun. He is no longer separated from +those around him, or flung amidst those that are uncongenial to him. +'He is gathered to his people'; he dwells with his own tribe; he is +at home; he is in the city. + +And so, brethren, life for every Christian man must be lonely. After +all communion we dwell as upon islands dotted over a great +archipelago, each upon his little rock, with the sea dashing between +us; but the time comes when, if our hearts are set upon that great +Lord, whose presence makes us one, there shall be no more sea, and +all the isolated rocks shall be parts of a great continent. Death +sets the solitary in families. We are here like travellers plodding +lonely through the night and the storm, but soon to cross the +threshold into the lighted hall, full of friends. + +If we cultivate that sense of detachment from the present, and of +having our true affinities in the unseen, if we dwell here as +strangers because our citizenship is in heaven, then death will not +drag us away from our associates, nor hunt us into a lonely land, +but will bring us where closer bonds shall knit the 'sweet +societies' together, and the sheep shall couch close by one another, +because all are gathered round the one shepherd. Then many a broken +tie shall be rewoven, and the solitary wanderer meet again the dear +ones whom he had 'loved long since, and lost awhile.' + +Further, the expressions suggest that in the future men shall be +associated according to affinity and character. 'He was gathered to +his people,' whom he was like and who were like him; the people with +whom he had sympathy, the people whose lives were shaped after the +fashion of his own. + +Men will be sorted there. Gravitation will come into play +undisturbed; and the pebbles will be ranged according to their +weights on the great shore where the sea has cast them up, as they +are upon Chesil beach, down there in the English Channel, and many +another coast besides; all the big ones together and sized off to +the smaller ones, regularly and steadily laid out. Like draws to +like. Our spiritual affinities, our religious and moral character, +will settle where we shall be, and who our companions will be when +we get yonder. Some of us would not altogether like to live with the +people that are like ourselves, and some of us would not find the +result of this sorting to be very delightful. Men in the Dantesque +circles were only made more miserable because all around them were +of the same sort as, and some of them worse than, themselves. And an +ordered hell, with no company for the liar but liars, and none for +the thief but thieves, and none for impure men but the impure, and +none for the godless but the godless, would be a hell indeed. + +'He was gathered to his people,' and you and I will be gathered +likewise. What is the conclusion of the whole matter? Let us follow +with our thoughts, and in our lives, those who have gone into the +light, and cultivate in heart and character those graces and +excellences which are congruous with the inheritance of the saints +in light. Above all, let us give our hearts to Christ, by simple +faith in Him, to be shaped and sanctified by Him. Then our country +will be where He is, and our people will be the people in whom His +love abides, and the tribe to which we belong will be the tribe of +which He is Chieftain. So when our turn comes, we may rise +thankfully from the table in the wilderness, which He has spread for +us, having eaten as much as we desired, and quietly follow the dark- +robed messenger whom His love sends to bring us to the happy +multitudes that throng the streets of the city. There we shall find +our true home, our kindred, our King. 'So shall _we_ ever be +with the Lord.' + + + + +A BAD BARGAIN + + + 'And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a + man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling + in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of + his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod + pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: + And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that + same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name + called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy + birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to + die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? + And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto + him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob + gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat + and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau + despised his birthright.' + GENESIS xxv. 27-34. + +Isaac's small household represented a great variety of types of +character. He himself lacked energy, and seems in later life to have +been very much of a tool in the hands of others. Rebekah had the +stronger nature, was persistent, energetic, and managed her husband +to her heart's content. The twin brothers were strongly opposed in +character; and, naturally enough, each parent loved best the child +that was most unlike him or her: Isaac rejoicing in the very +wildness of the adventurous, dashing Esau; and Rebekah finding an +outlet for her womanly tenderness in an undue partiality for the +quiet lad that was always at hand to help her and be petted by her. + +One's sympathy goes out to Esau. He was 'a man of the field,'--by +which is meant, not cultivated ground, but open country, which we +might call prairie. He was a 'backwoodsman,'--liked the wild +hunter's life better than sticking at home looking after sheep. He +had the attractive characteristics of that kind of men, as well as +their faults. He was frank, impulsive, generous, incapable of +persevering work or of looking ahead, passionate. His descendants +prefer cattle-ranching and gold-prospecting to keeping shops or +sitting with their lungs squeezed against a desk. + +Jacob had neither the high spirits nor the animal courage of his +brother. He was 'a plain man.' The word is literally 'perfect,' but +cannot be used in its deepest sense; for Jacob was very far indeed +from being that, but seems to have a lower sense, which might +perhaps be represented by 'steady-going,' or 'respectable,' in +modern phraseology. He went quietly about his ordinary work, in +contrast with his daring brother's escapades and unsettledness. + +The two types are intensified by civilisation, and the antagonism +between them increased. City life tends to produce Jacobs, and its +Esaus escape from it as soon as they can. But Jacob had the vices as +well as the virtues of his qualities. He was orderly and domestic, +but he was tricky, and keenly alive to his own interest. He was +persevering and almost dogged in his tenacity of purpose, but he was +not above taking mean advantages and getting at his ends by miry +roads. He had little love for his brother, in whom he saw an +obstacle to his ambition. He had the virtues and vices of the +commercial spirit. + +But we judge the two men wrongly if we let ourselves be fascinated, +as Isaac was, by Esau, and forget that the superficial attractions +of his character cover a core worthy of disapprobation. They are +crude judges of character who prefer the type of man who spurns the +restraints of patient industry and order; and popular authors, who +make their heroes out of such, err in taste no less than in morals. +There is a very unwholesome kind of literature, which is devoted to +glorifying the Esaus as fine fellows, with spirit, generosity, and +noble carelessness, whereas at bottom they are governed by animal +impulses, and incapable of estimating any good which does not appeal +to sense, and that at once. + +The great lesson of this story lies on its surface. It is the folly +and sin of buying present gratification of appetite or sense at the +price of giving up far greater future good. The details are +picturesquely told. Esau's eagerness, stimulated by the smell of the +mess of lentils, is strikingly expressed in the Hebrew: 'Let me +devour, I pray thee, of that red, that red there.' It is no sin to +be hungry, but to let appetite speak so clamorously indicates feeble +self-control. Jacob's coolness is an unpleasant foil to Esau's +impatience, and his cautious bargaining, before he will sell what a +brother would have given, shows a mean soul, without generous love +to his own flesh and blood. Esau lets one ravenous desire hide +everything else from him. He wants the pottage which smokes there, +and that one poor dish is for the moment more to him than birthright +and any future good. Jacob knows the changeableness of Esau's +character, and is well aware that a hungry man will promise +anything, and, when fed, will break his promise as easily as he made +it. So he makes Esau swear; and Esau will do that, or anything +asked. He gets his meal. The story graphically describes the greedy +relish with which he ate, the short duration of his enjoyment, and +the dark meaning of the seemingly insignificant event, by that +accumulation of verbs, 'He did eat and drink, and rose up and went +his way: so Esau despised his birthright.' + +Now we may learn, first, how profound an influence small +temptations, yielded to, may exert on a life. + +Many scoffs have been directed against this story, as if it were +unworthy of credence that eating a dish of lentils should have +shaped the life of a man and of his descendants. But is it not +always the case that trifles turn out to be determining points? +Hinges are very small, compared with the doors which move on them. +Most lives are moulded by insignificant events. No temptation is +small, for no sin is small; and if the occasion of yielding to sense +and the present is insignificant, the yielding is not so. + +But the main lesson is, as already noted, the madness of flinging +away greater future good for present gratifications of sense. One +cannot suppose that the spiritual side of 'the birthright' was in +the thoughts of either brother. Esau and Jacob alike regarded it +only as giving the headship of the family. It was merely the right +of succession, with certain material accompanying advantages, which +Jacob coveted and Esau parted with. But even in regard to merely +worldly objects, the man who lives for only the present moment is +distinctly beneath him who lives for a future good, however material +it may be. Whoever subordinates the present, and is able steadily to +set before himself a remote object, for which he is strong enough to +subdue the desire of immediate gratifications of any sort, is, in so +far, better than the man who, like a savage or an animal, lives only +for the instant. + +The highest form of that nobility is when time is clearly seen to be +the 'lackey to eternity,' and life's aims are determined with +supreme reference to the future beyond the grave. But how many of us +are every day doing exactly as Esau did--flinging away a great +future for a small present! A man who lives only for such ends as +may be attained on this side of the grave is as 'profane' a person +as Esau, and despises his birthright as truly. He knew that he was +hungry, and that lentil porridge was good, 'What good shall the +birthright do me?' He failed to make the effort of mind and +imagination needed in order to realise how much of the kind of +'good' that he could appreciate it would do to him. The smell of the +smoking food was more to him than far greater good which he could +only appreciate by an effort. A sixpence held close to the eye can +shut out the sun. Resolute effort is needed to prevent the small, +intrusive present from blotting out the transcendent greatness of +the final future. And for lack of such effort men by the thousand +fling themselves away. + +To sell a birthright for a bowl of lentils was plain folly. But is +it wiser to sell the blessedness and peace of communion with God +here and of heaven hereafter for anything that earth can yield to +sense or to soul? How many shrewd 'men of the highest commercial +standing' are making as bad a bargain as Esau's! The 'pottage' is +hot and comforting, but it is soon eaten; and when the bowl is +empty, and the sense of hunger comes back in an hour or two, the +transaction does not look quite as advantageous as it did. Esau had +many a minute of rueful meditation on his bad bargain before he in +vain besought his father's blessing. And suspicions of the folly of +their choice are apt to haunt men who prefer the present to the +future, even before the future becomes the present, and the folly is +manifest. 'What doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and +forfeit his life?' + +So a character like Esau's, though it has many fine possibilities +about it, and attracts liking, is really of a low type, and may very +easily slide into depths of degrading sensualism, and be dead to all +nobleness. Enterprise, love of stirring life, impatience of dull +plodding, are natural to young lives. Unregulated, impulsive +characters, who live for the moment, and are very sensitive to all +material delights, have often an air of generosity and joviality +which hides their essential baseness; for it _is_ base to live +for flesh, either in more refined or more frankly coarse forms. It +is base to be incapable of seeing an inch beyond the present. It is +base to despise any good that cannot minister to fleeting lusts or +fleshly pleasures, and to say of high thought, of ideal aims of any +sort, and most of all to say of religion, 'What good will it do me?' +To estimate such precious things by the standard of gross utility is +like weighing diamonds in grocers' scales. They will do very well +for sugar, but not for precious stones. The sacred things of life +are not those which do what the Esaus recognise as 'good.' They have +another purpose, and are valuable for other ends. Let us take heed, +then, that we estimate things according to their true relative +worth; that we live, not for to-day, but for eternity; and that we +suppress all greedy cravings. If we do not, we shall be 'profane' +persons like Esau, 'who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.' + + + + +POTTAGE VERSUS BIRTHRIGHT + + + 'Esau despised his birthright'--GENESIS xxv. 34. + +Broad lessons unmistakable, but points strange and difficult to +throw oneself back to so different a set of ideas. So + +I. Deal with the narrative. + +Not to tell it over again, but bring out the following points:-- + +(_a_) Birthright.--What? + +None of them any notion of sacred, spiritual aspect of it. + +To all, merely material advantages: headship of the clan. All the +loftier aspects gone from Isaac, who thought he could give it for +venison, from Esau, and from the scheming Rebekah and the crafty +Jacob. + +(_b_) The Bargain. + +It is not clear whether the transaction was seriously meant, or +whether it only shows Jacob's wish to possess the birthright and +Esau's indifference to it. + +At any rate, the barter was not supposed to complete Jacob's title, +as is shown by a subsequent piece of trickery. + +Isaac's blessing was conceived to confer it; that blessing, if once +given, could not be revoked, even if procured by fraud and given in +error. + +The belief would fulfil itself, as far as the chieftainship was +concerned. + +It is significant of the purely 'secular' tone of all the parties +concerned that only temporal blessings are included in Isaac's +words. + +(_c_) The Scripture judgment on all parties concerned. + +Great mistakes are made by forgetting that the Bible is a +passionless narrator of its heroes' acts, and seldom pauses to +censure or praise--so people have thought that Scripture gave its +vote for Jacob as against Esau. + +The character of the two men. + +Esau--frank, impulsive, generous, chivalrous, careless, and +sensuous. + +Jacob--meditative, reflective, pastoral, timid, crafty, selfish. +Each has the defects of his qualities. + +But the subsequent history of Jacob shows what heaven thought of +him. + +This dirty transaction marred his life, sent him a terrified exile +from Isaac's tent, and shook his soul long years after with guilty +apprehensions when he had to meet Esau. + +All subsequent career to beat his crafty selfishness out of him and +to lift him to higher level. + +II. Broad General Lessons. + +1. The Choice.--Birthright _versus_ Pottage. + +(_a_) The Present _versus_ The Future. + +Suppose it true that to both brothers the birthright seemed to +secure merely material advantage, yet even so the better part would +have been to sacrifice material present for material future. Even on +plane of worldly things, to live for to-morrow ennobles a man, and +he is the higher style of man who 'spurns delights and lives +laborious days' for some issue to be realised in the far future. + +The very same principle extended leads to the conviction that the +highest wisdom is his who lives for the furthest, which is also the +most certain, Future. + +(_b_) The Seen _versus_ The Unseen. + +However material the advantages of the birthright were supposed to +be, they _then_ appealed to imagination, not sense. _There_ was the +pottage in the pan: 'I can see that and smell it. This birthright, can +I eat _it_? Let me get the solid realities, and let who will +have the imaginary.' + +So the unseen good things, such as intellectual culture, fair +reputation, and the like, are better than the gross satisfactions +that can be handled, or tasted, or seen. + +And, on the very same principle, high above the seeker after these--as +high as he is above the drunkard--is the Christian, whose life is +shaped by the loftiest Unseen, even 'Him who is invisible.' + +2. The grim absurdity of the choice. + +The story seems to have a certain undertone of sarcasm, and a keen +perception of the immense stupidity of the man. + +Pottage and a full belly to-day--that was all he got for such a +sacrifice. + +'This their way is their folly.' + +3. How well the bargain worked at first, and what came of it at +last. + +No doubt Esau had his meal, and, no doubt, when a man sells his soul +to the devil (the mediaeval form of the story), he generally gets +the price for which he bargained, more or less, and oftentimes with +a dash of vinegar in the porridge, which makes it less palatable. + +What comes of it at last. Put side by side the pictures of Esau's +animal contentment at the moment when he had eaten up his mess, and +of his despair when he wailed, 'Hast thou not one blessing?' + +He finds out his mistake. A sense of the preciousness of the +despised thing wakes in him. + +And it is too late. There _are_ irrevocable consequences of +every false choice. Youth is gone: cannot alter that. Opportunities +gone: cannot alter that. Strength gone: cannot alter that. Habits +formed, associations, reputation, position, character, are all +determined. + +But there is a blessed _contrast_ between Esau's experience and +what may be ours. The desire to have the birthright is sure to bring +it to us. No matter how late the desire is of springing, nor how +long and insultingly we have suppressed it, we never go to our +Father in vain with the cry, 'Bless me, even me also.' + +'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his +own soul?' + + + + +THE FIRST APOSTLE OF PEACE AT ANY PRICE + + + 'Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same + year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. And the + man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he + became very great: For he had possession of flocks, and + possession of herds, and great store of servants: and + the Philistines envied him. For all the wells which his + father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his + father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them + with earth. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; + for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed + thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and + dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water, + which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; + for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of + Abraham: and he called their names after the names by + which his father had called them. And Isaac's servants + digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing + water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's + herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the + name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. And + they digged another well, and strove for that also: and + he called the name of it Sitnah. And he removed from + thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove + not: and be called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, + For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be + fruitful in the land. And he went up from thence to + Beer-sheba. And the Lord appeared unto him the same + night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: + fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and + multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he + builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the + Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's + servants digged a well.'--GENESIS xxvi. 12-25. + +The salient feature of Isaac's life is that it has no salient +features. He lived out his hundred and eighty years in quiet, with +little to make history. Few details of his story are given, and some +of these are not very creditable. He seems never to have wandered +far from the neighbourhood of Beersheba. These quiet, rolling +stretches of thinly peopled land contented him, and gave pasture for +his flocks, as well as fields for his cultivation. Like many of the +tribes of that district still, he had passed from the purely nomad +and pastoral life, such as Abraham led, and had begun to 'sow in +that land.' That marks a stage in progress. His father's life had +been like a midsummer day, with bursts of splendour and heavy +thunder-clouds; his was liker a calm day in autumn, windless and +unchanging from morning till serene evening. The world thinks little +of such lives, but they are fruitful. + +Our text begins with a sweet little picture of peaceful industry, +blessed by God, and therefore prospering. Travellers tell us that +the land where Isaac dwelt is still marvellously fertile, even to +rude farming. But to be merely a successful farmer and sheep-owner +might have seemed poor work to the heir of such glowing promises, +and the prospect of a high destiny often disgusts its possessor with +lowly duties. 'But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we +with patience wait for it,' and the best way to fit ourselves for +great things in the future is to bend our backs and wills to humble +toil in the present. Peter expected every day to see the risen Lord, +when he said, 'I go a-fishing.' + +The Philistines' envy was very natural, since Isaac was an alien, +and, in some sense, an intruder. Their stopping of the wells was a +common act of hostility, and an effectual one in that land, where +everything lives where water comes, and dies if it is cut off. +Abimelech's reason for 'extraditing' Isaac might have provoked a +more pugnacious person to stay and defy the Philistines to expel +him. 'Thou art much mightier than we,' and so he could have said, +'Try to put me out, then,' and the result might have been that +Abimelech and his Philistines would have been the ones to go. But +the same spirit was in the man as had been in the lad, when he let +his father bind him and lay him on the altar without a struggle or a +word, and he quietly went, leaving his fields and pastures. 'Very +poor-spirited,' says the world; what does Christ say? + +Isaac was not 'original.' He cleaned out the wells which his father +had digged, and with filial piety gave them again the old names +'which his father had called them.' Some of us nowadays get credit +for being 'advanced and liberal thinkers,' because we regard our +fathers' wells as much too choked with rubbish to be worth clearing +out, and the last thing we should dream of would be to revive the +old names. But the old wells were not enough for the new time, and +so fresh ones were added. Isaac and his servants did not say, 'We +will have no water but what is drawn from Abraham's wells. What was +enough for him is enough for us.' So, like all wise men, they were +conservatively progressive and progressively conservative. The Gerar +shepherds were sharp lawyers. They took strong ground in saying, +'The _water_ is ours; you have dug wells, but we are ground- +owners, and what is below the surface, as well as what is on it, is +our property.' Again Isaac fielded, moved on a little way, and tried +again. A second well was claimed, and given up, and all that Isaac +did was to name the two 'Contention' and 'Enmity,' as a gentle +rebuke and memorial. Then, as is generally the result, gentleness +wearied violence out, and the Philistines tired of annoying before +Isaac tired of yielding. So he came into a quiet harbour at last, +and traced his repose to God, naming his last well 'Broad Places,' +because the Lord had made room for him. + +Such a quiet spirit, strong in non-resistance, and ready to yield +rather than quarrel, was strangely out of place in these wild days +and lands. He obeyed the Sermon on the Mount millenniums before it +was spoken. Whether from temperament or from faith, he is the first +instance of the Christian type of excellence in the Old Testament. +For there ought to be no question that the spirit of meekness, which +will not meet violence by violence, is the Christian spirit. +Christian morals alter the perspective of moral excellences, and +exalt meekness above the 'heroic virtues' admired by the world. The +violets and lilies in Christ's garden outshine voluptuous roses and +flaunting sunflowers. In this day, when there is a recrudescence of +militarism, and we are tempted to canonise the soldier, we need more +than ever to insist that the highest type is 'the Lamb of God,' who +was 'as a sheep before her shearers.' To fight for my rights is not +the Christian ideal, nor is it the best way to secure them. Isaac +will generally weary out the Philistines, and get his well at last, +and will have escaped much friction and many evil passions. + + 'Tis safer being meek than fierce.' + +Isaac won the friendship of his opponents by his patience, as the +verses after the text tell. Their consciences and hearts were +touched, and they 'saw plainly that the Lord was with him,' and sued +him for alliance. It is better to turn enemies into friends than to +beat them and have them as enemies still. 'I'll knock you down +unless you love me' does not sound a very hopeful way of cementing +peaceful relations. But 'when a man's ways please the Lord, he +maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.' But Isaac won more +than the Philistines' favour by his meek peacefulness, for 'the Lord +appeared unto him,' and assured him that, undefended and unresisting +as he was, he had a strong defence, and need not be afraid: 'Fear +not, for I am with thee.' The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit +is, in the sight of God, of great price, and that not only for 'a +woman'; and it brings visions of God, and assurances of tranquil +safety to him who cherishes it. The Spirit of God comes down in the +likeness of a dove, and that bird of peace sits 'brooding "only" on +the charmed wave' of a heart stilled from strife and wrath, like a +quiet summer's sea. + +Isaac's new home at Beersheba, having been thus hallowed by the +appearance of the Lord, was consecrated by the building of an altar. +We should hallow by grateful remembrance the spots where God has +made Himself known to us. The best beginning of a new undertaking is +to rear an altar. It is well when new settlers begin their work by +calling on the name of the Lord. Beersheba and Plymouth Rock are a +pair. First comes the altar, then the tent can be trustfully +pitched, but 'except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain +that build it.' And if the house is built in faith, a well will not +be lacking; for they who 'seek first the kingdom of God' will have +all needful 'things added unto them.' + + + + +THE HEAVENLY PATHWAY AND THE EARTHLY HEART + + + 'And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward + Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried + there all night, because the sun was set; and he took + of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, + and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and + behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it + reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending + and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above + it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, + and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to + thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall + be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad + to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to + the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the + families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with + thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou + goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I + will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have + spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, + and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I + knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful + is this place! this is none other but the house of God, + and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early + in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for + his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil + upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place + Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the + first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with + me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give + me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come + again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord + be my God; And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, + shall be God's house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I + will surely give the tenth unto Thee.'--GENESIS xxviii. 10-22. + +From Abraham to Jacob is a great descent. The former embodies the +nobler side of the Jewish character,--its capacity for religious +ideas; its elevation above, and separation from, the nations; its +consciousness of, and peaceful satisfaction in, a divine Friend; its +consequent vocation in the world. These all were deep in the founder +of the race, and flowed to it from him. Jacob, on the other hand, +has in him the more ignoble qualities, which Christian treatment of +the Jew has fostered, and which have become indissolubly attached to +the name in popular usage. He is a crafty schemer, selfish, over- +reaching, with a keen eye to the main chance. Whoever deals with him +has to look sharply after his own interests. Self-advantage in its +most earthly form is uppermost in him; and, like all timid, selfish +men, shifty ways and evasions are his natural weapons. The great +interest of his history lies in the slow process by which the +patient God purified him, and out of this 'stone raised up a worthy +child to Abraham.' We see in this context the first step in his +education, and the very imperfect degree in which he profited by it. + +1. Consider the vision and its accompanying promise. Jacob has fled +from home on account of his nobler brother's fierce wrath at the +trick which their scheming mother and he had contrived. It was an +ugly, heartless fraud, a crime against a doting father, as against +Esau. Rebekah gets alarmed for her favourite; and her fertile brain +hits upon another device to blind Isaac and get Jacob out of harm's +way, in the excuse that she cannot bear his marriage with a Hittite +woman. Her exaggerated expressions of passionate dislike to 'the +daughters of Heth' have no religious basis. They are partly feigned +and partly petulance. So the poor old blind father is beguiled once +more, and sends his son away. Starting under such auspices, and +coming from such an atmosphere, and journeying back to Haran, the +hole of the pit whence Abraham had been digged, and turning his back +on the land where God had been with his house, the wanderer was not +likely to be cherishing any lofty thoughts. His life was in danger; +he was alone, a dim future was before him, perhaps his conscience +was not very comfortable. These things would be in his mind as he +lay down and gazed into the violet sky so far above him, burning +with all its stars. Weary, and with a head full of sordid cares, +plans, and possibly fears, he slept; and then there flamed on 'that +inward eye, which is the bliss of solitude' to the pure, and its +terror to the evil, this vision, which speaks indeed to his then +need, as he discerned it, but reveals to him and to us the truth +which ennobles all life, burns up the dross of earthward-turned +aims, and selfish, crafty ways. + +We are to conceive of the form of the vision as a broad stair or +sloping ascent, rather than a ladder, reaching right from the +sleeper's side to the far-off heaven, its pathway peopled with +messengers, and its summit touching the place where a glory shone +that paled even the lustrous constellations of that pure sky. Jacob +had thought himself alone; the vision peoples the wilderness. He had +felt himself defenceless; the vision musters armies for his safety. +He had been grovelling on earth, with no thoughts beyond its +fleeting goods; the vision lifts his eyes from the low level on +which they had been gazing. He had been conscious of but little +connection with heaven; the vision shows him a path from his very +side right into its depths. He had probably thought that he was +leaving the presence of his father's God when he left his father's +tent; the vision burns into his astonished heart the consciousness +of God as there, in the solitude and the night. + +The divine promise is the best commentary on the meaning of the +vision. The familiar ancestral promise is repeated to him, and the +blessing and the birthright thus confirmed. In addition, special +assurances, the translation of the vision into word and adapted to +his then wants, are given,--God's presence in his wanderings, his +protection, Jacob's return to the land, and the promise of God's +persistent presence, working through all paradoxes of providence and +sins of His servant, and incapable of staying its operations, or +satisfying God's heart, or vindicating His faithfulness, at any +point short of complete accomplishment of His plighted word. + +We pass from the lone desert and the mysterious twilight of Genesis +to the beaten ways between Galilee and Jordan, and to the clear +historic daylight of the gospel, and we hear Christ renewing the +promise to the crafty Jacob, to one whom He called a son of Jacob in +his after better days, 'an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' +The very heart of Christ's work was unveiled in the terms of this +vision: From henceforth 'ye shall see the heaven opened, and the +angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.' So, +then, the fleeting vision was a transient revelation of a permanent +reality, and a faint foreshadowing of the true communication between +heaven and earth. Jesus Christ is the ladder between God and man. On +Him all divine gifts descend; by Him all the angels of human +devotion, consecration, and aspiration go up. This flat earth is not +so far from the topmost heaven as sense thinks. The despairing +question of Jewish wisdom, 'Who hath ascended up into heaven, or +descended? ... What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou +canst tell?'--which has likewise been the question of every age that +has not been altogether sunk in sensual delights--is answered once +for all in the incarnate and crucified and ascended Lord, by and in +whom all heaven has stooped to earth, that earth might be lifted to +heaven. Every child of man, though lonely and earthly, has the +ladder-foot by his side,--like the sunbeam, which comes straight +into the eyes of every gazer, wherever he stands. It becomes +increasingly evident, in the controversies of these days, that there +will remain for modern thought only the alternative,--either Jesus +Christ is the means of communication between God and man, or there +is no communication. Deism and theism are compromises, and cannot +live. The cultivated world in both hemispheres is being more and +more shut up to either accepting Christ as revealer, by whom alone +we know, and as medium by whom alone we love and approach, God; or +sinking into abysses of negations where choke-damp will stifle +enthusiasm and poetry, as well as devotion and immortal hope. + +Jacob's vision was meant to teach him, and is meant to teach us, the +nearness of God, and the swift directness of communication, whereby +His help comes to us and our desires rise to Him. These and their +kindred truths were to be to him, and should be to us, the parents +of much nobleness. Here is the secret of elevation of aim and +thought above the mean things of sense. We all, and especially the +young, in whose veins the blood dances, and to whom life is in all +its glory and freshness, are tempted to think of it as all. It does +us good to have this vision of the eternal realities blazing in upon +us, even if it seems to glare at us, rather than to shine with +lambent light. The seen is but a thin veil of the unseen. Earth, +which we are too apt to make a workshop, or a mere garden of +pleasure, is a Bethel,--a house of God. Everywhere the ladder +stands; everywhere the angels go up and down; everywhere the Face +looks from the top. Nothing will save life from becoming, sooner or +later, trivial, monotonous, and infinitely wearisome, but the +continual vision of the present God, and the continual experience of +the swift ascent and descent of our aspirations and His blessings. + +It is the secret of purity too. How could Jacob indulge in his +craft, and foul his conscience with sin, as long as he carried the +memory of what he had seen in the solitary night on the uplands of +Bethel? The direct result of the vision is the same command as +Abraham received, 'Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.' Realise My +presence, and let that kill the motions of sin, and quicken to +service. + +It is also the secret of peace. Hopes and fears, and dim uncertainty +of the future, no doubt agitated the sleeper's mind as he laid him +down. His independent life was beginning. He had just left his +father's tents for the first time; and, though not a youth in years, +he was in the position which youth holds with us. So to him, and to +all young persons, here is shown the charm which will keep the heart +calm, and preserve us from being 'over exquisite to cast the fashion +of uncertain evils,' or too eagerly longing for possible good. 'I am +with thee' should be enough to steady our souls; and the confidence +that God will not leave us till He has accomplished His own purpose +for us, should make us willing to let Him do as He will with ours. + +2. Notice the imperfect reception of the divine teaching. Jacob's +startled exclamation on awakening from his dream indicates a very +low level both of religious knowledge and feeling. Nor is there any +reason for taking the words in any but their most natural sense; for +it is a mistake to ascribe to him the knowledge of God due to later +revelation, or, at this stage of his life, any depth of religious +emotion. He is alarmed at the thought that God is near. Probably he +had been accustomed to think of God's presence as in some special +way associated with his father's encampment, and had not risen to +the belief of His omnipresence. There seems no joyous leaping up of +his heart at the thought that God is here. Dread, not unmingled with +the superstitious fear that he had profaned a holy place by laying +himself down in it, is his prevailing feeling, and he pleads +ignorance as the excuse for his sacrilege. He does not draw the +conclusion from the vision that all the earth is hallowed by a near +God, but only that he has unwittingly stumbled on His house; and he +does not learn that from every place there is an open door for the +loving heart into the calm depths where God is throned, but only +that _here_ he unwittingly stands at the gate of heaven. So he +misses the very inner purpose of the vision, and rather shrinks from +it than welcomes it. Was that spasm of fear all that passed through +his mind that night? Did he sleep again when the glory died out of +the heaven? So the story would appear to suggest. But, in any case, +we see here the effect of the sudden blazing in upon a heart not yet +familiar with the Divine Friend, of the conviction that He is really +near. Gracious as God's promise was, it did not dissipate the +creeping awe at His presence. It is an eloquent testimony of man's +consciousness of sin, that whensoever a present God becomes a +reality to a worldly man, he trembles. 'This place' would not be +'dreadful,' but blessed, if it were not for the sense of discord +between God and me. + +The morning light brought other thoughts, when it filled the silent +heavens, and where the ladder had stretched, there was but empty +blue. The lesson is sinking into his mind. He lifts the rude stone +and pours oil on it, as a symbol of consecration, as nameless races +have done all over the world. His vow shows that he had but begun to +learn in God's school. He hedges about his promise with a +punctilious repetition of God's undertaking, as if resolved that +there should be no mistake. Clause by clause he goes over it all, +and puts an 'if' to it. God's word should have kindled something +liker faith than that. What a fall from 'Abram believed in the Lord, +and He counted it to him for righteousness'! Jacob barely believed, +and will wait to see whether all will turn out as it has been +promised. That is not the glad, swift response of a loving, trusting +heart. Nor is he contented with repeating to God the terms of his +engagement, but he adds a couple of clauses which strike him as +being important, and as having been omitted. There was nothing about +'bread to eat, and raiment to put on,' nor about coming back again +'in peace,' so he adds these. A true 'Jew,'--great at a bargain, and +determined to get all he can, and to have no mistake about what he +must get before he gives anything! Was Jesus thinking at all of the +ancestor when He warned the descendants, in words which sound +curiously like an echo of Jacob's, not to be anxious 'what ye shall +eat,' nor 'what ye shall put on'? As the vow stands in the +Authorised Version, it is farther open to the charge of suspending +his worship of God upon the fulfilment of these conditions; but it +is better to adopt the marginal rendering of the Revised Version, +according to which the clause 'then shall the Lord be my God' is a +part of the conditions, not of the vow, and is to be read 'And [if] +the Lord will be ... then this stone ... shall be,' etc. If this +rendering be adopted, as I think it should be, the vow proper is +simply of outward service,--he will rear an altar, and he will tithe +his substance. Not a very munificent pledge! And where in it is the +surrender of the heart? Where is the outgoing of love and gratitude? +Where the clasping of the hand of his heavenly Friend with calm +rapture of thankful self-yielding, and steadfastness of implicit +trust? God did not want Jacob's altar, nor his tenths; He wanted +Jacob. But many a weary year and many a sore sorrow have to leave +their marks on him before the evil strain is pressed out of his +blood; and by the unwearied long-suffering of his patient Friend and +Teacher in heaven, the crafty, earthly-minded Jacob 'the supplanter' +is turned into 'Israel, the prince with God, in whom is no guile.' +The slower the scholar, the more wonderful the forbearance of the +Teacher; and the more may we, who are slow scholars too, take heart +to believe that He will not be soon angry with us, nor leave us +until He has done that which He has spoken to us of. + + + + +MAHANAIM: THE TWO CAMPS + + + 'And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met + him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's + host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim' + (_i.e._ Two camps).--GENESIS xxxii. 1, 2. + +This vision came at a crisis in Jacob's life. He has just left the +house of Laban, his father-in-law, where he had lived for many +years, and in company with a long caravan, consisting of wives, +children, servants, and all his wealth turned into cattle, is +journeying back again to Palestine. His road leads him close by the +country of Esau. Jacob was no soldier, and he is naturally terrified +to meet his justly incensed brother. And so, as he plods along with +his defenceless company trailing behind him, as you may see the Arab +caravans streaming over the same uplands to-day, all at once, in the +middle of his march, a bright-harnessed army of angels meets him. +Whether visible to the eye of sense, or, as would appear, only to +the eye of faith, they _are_ visible to this troubled man; and, +in a glow of confident joy, he calls the name of that place +'Mahanaim,' two camps. One camp was the little one of his down here, +with the helpless women and children and his own frightened and +defenceless self, and the other was the great one up there, or +rather in shadowy but most real spiritual presence around about him, +as a bodyguard making an impregnable wall between him and every foe. +We may take some very plain and everlastingly true lessons out of +this story. + +1. First, the angels of God meet us on the dusty road of common +life. 'Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.' + +As he was tramping along there, over the lonely fields of Edom, with +many a thought on his mind and many a fear at his heart, but feeling +'There is the path that I have to walk on,' all at once the air was +filled with the soft rustle of angel wings, and the brightness from +the flashing armour of the heavenly hosts flamed across his +unexpecting eye. And so is it evermore. The true place for us to +receive visions of God is in the path of the homely, prosaic duties +which He lays upon us. The dusty road is far more likely to be +trodden by angel feet than the remote summits of the mountain, where +we sometimes would fain go; and many an hour consecrated to devotion +has less of the manifest presence of God than is granted to some +weary heart in its commonplace struggle with the little troubles and +trials of daily life. These make the doors, as it were, by which the +visitants draw near to us. + +It is the common duties, 'the narrow round, the daily task,' that +not only give us 'all we ought to ask,' but are the selected means +and channels by which, ever, God's visitants draw near to us. The +man that has never seen an angel standing beside him, and driving +his loom for him, or helping him at his counter and his desk, and +the woman that has never seen an angel, according to the bold +realism and homely vision of the old German picture, working with +her in the kitchen and preparing the meal for the household, have +little chance of meeting such visitants at any other point of their +experience or event of their lives. + +If the week be empty of the angels, you will never catch sight of a +feather of their wings on the Sunday. And if we do not recognise +their presence in the midst of all the prose, and the commonplace, +and the vulgarity, and the triviality, and the monotony, the dust of +the small duties, we shall go up to the summit of Sinai itself and +see nothing there but cold grey stone and everlasting snows. 'Jacob +went on his way, and the angels of God met him.' The true field for +religion is the field of common life. + +And then another side of the same thought is this, that it is in the +path where God has bade us walk that we shall find the angels round +us. We may meet them, indeed, on paths of our own choosing, but it +will be the sort of angel that Balaam met, with a sword in his hand, +mighty and beautiful, but wrathful too; and we had better not front +him! But the friendly helpers, the emissaries of God's love, the +apostles of His grace, do not haunt the roads that we make for +ourselves. They confine themselves rigidly to 'the paths in which +God has before ordained that we should walk in them.' A man has no +right to expect, and he will not get, blessing and help and divine +gifts when, self-willedly, he has taken the bit between his teeth, +and is choosing his own road in the world. But if he will say, +'Lord! here I am; put me where Thou wilt, and do with me what Thou +wilt,' then he may be sure that that path, though it may be solitary +of human companionship, and leading up amongst barren rocks and over +bare moorlands, where the sun beats down fiercely, will not be +unvisited by a better presence, so that in sweet consciousness of +sufficiency of rich grace, he will be able to say, 'I, being in the +way, the Lord met me.' + +2. Still further, we may draw from this incident the lesson that +God's angels meet us punctually at the hour of need. + +Jacob is drawing nearer and nearer to his fear every step. He is now +just on the borders of Esau's country, and close upon opening +communications with his brother. At that critical moment, just +before the finger of the clock has reached the point on the dial at +which the bell would strike, the needed help comes, the angel guards +draw near and camp beside him. It is always so. 'The Lord shall help +her, and that right early.' His hosts come no sooner and no later +than we need. If they appeared before we had realised our danger and +our defencelessness, our hearts would not leap up at their coming, +as men in a beleaguered town do when the guns of the relieving force +are heard booming from afar. Often God's delays seem to us +inexplicable, and our prayers to have no more effect than if they +were spoken to a sleeping Baal. But such delays are merciful. They +help us to the consciousness of our need. They let us feel the +presence of the sorrow. They give opportunity of proving the +weakness of all other supports. They test and increase desire for +His help. They throw us more unreservedly into His arms. They afford +room for the sorrow or the burden to work its peaceable fruits. So, +and in many other ways, delay of succour fits us to receive succour, +and our God makes no tarrying but for our sakes. + +It is His way to let us come almost to the edge of the precipice, +and then, in the very nick of time, when another minute and we are +over, to stretch out His strong right hand and save us. So Peter is +left in prison, though prayer is going up unceasingly for him--and +no answer comes. The days of the Passover feast slip away, and still +he is in prison, and prayer does nothing for him. The last day of +his life, according to Herod's purpose, dawns, and all the day the +Church lifts up its voice--but apparently there is no answer, nor +any that regarded. The night comes, and still the vain cry goes up, +and Heaven seems deaf or apathetic. The night wears on, and still no +help comes. But in the last watch of that last night, when day is +almost dawning, at nearly the last minute when escape would have +been possible, the angel touches the sleeping Apostle, and with +leisurely calmness, as sure that he had ample time, leads him out to +freedom and safety. It was precisely because Jesus loved the +Household at Bethany that, after receiving the sisters' message, He +abode still for two days in the same place where He was. However our +impatience may wonder, and our faithlessness venture sometimes +almost to rebuke Him when He comes, with words like Mary's and +Martha's--'Lord, if Thou hadst been here, such and such sorrows +would not have happened, and Thou couldst so easily have been here'--we +should learn the lesson that even if He has delayed so long that the +dreaded blow has fallen, He has come soon enough to make it the +occasion for a still more glorious communication of His power. 'Rest +in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He shall give thee the +desires of thine heart.' + +3. Again, we learn from this incident that the angels of God come in +the shape which we need. + +Jacob's want at the moment was protection. Therefore the angels +appear in warlike guise, and present before the defenceless man +another camp, in which he and his unwieldy caravan of women and +children and cattle may find security. If his special want had been +of some blessing of another kind, no doubt another form of +appearance, suited with precision to his need, would have been +imposed upon these angel helpers. For God's gifts to us change their +character; as the Rabbis fabled that the manna tasted to each man +what each most desired. The same pure heavenly bread has the varying +savour that commends it to varying palates. God's grace is Protean. +It takes all the forms that man's necessities require. As water +assumes the shape of any vessel into which it is put, so this great +blessing comes to each of us, moulded according to the pressure and +taking the form of our circumstances and necessities. His fulness is +all-sufficient. It is the same blood that, passing to all the +members, ministers to each according to the needs and fashion of +each. And it is the same grace which, passing to our souls, in each +man is shaped according to his present condition and ministers to +his present wants. + +So, dear brethren, in that great fulness each of us may have the +thing that we need. The angel who to one man is protection, to +another shall be teaching and inspiration; to another shall appear +with chariots of fire and horses of fire to sweep the rapt soul +heavenward; to another shall draw near as a deliverer from his +fetters, at whose touch the bonds shall fall from off him; to +another shall appear as the instructor in duty and the appointer of +a path of service, like that vision that shone in the castle to the +Apostle Paul, and said, 'Thou must bear witness for me at Rome'; to +another shall appear as opening the door of heaven and letting a +flood of light come down upon his darkened heart, as to the +Apocalyptic seer in his rocky Patmos. And 'all this worketh that one +and the self-same' Lord of angels 'dividing to every man severally +as He will,' and as the man needs. The defenceless Jacob has the +manifestation of the divine presence in the guise of armed warriors +that guard his unwarlike camp. + +I add one last word. Long centuries after Jacob's experience at +Mahanaim, another trembling fugitive found himself there, fearful, +like Jacob, of the vengeance and anger of one who was knit to him by +blood. When poor King David was flying from the face of Absalom his +son, the first place where he made a stand, and where he remained +during the whole of the rebellion, was this town of Mahanaim, away +on the eastern side of the Jordan. Do you not think that to the +kingly exile, in his feebleness and his fear, the very name of his +resting-place would be an omen? Would he not recall the old story, +and bethink himself of how round that other frightened man + + 'Bright-harnessed angels stood in order serviceable' + +and would he not, as he looked on his little band of friends, +faithful among the faithless, have his eyesight cleared to behold +the other camp? Such a vision, no doubt, inspired the calm +confidence of the psalm which evidently belongs to that dark hour of +his life, and made it possible for the hunted king, with his feeble +band, to sing even then, 'I will both lay me down in peace and +sleep, for Thou, Lord, makest me dwell in safety, solitary though I +am.' + +Nor is the vision emptied of its power to stay and make brave by all +the ages that have passed. The vision was for a moment; the fact is +for ever. The sun's ray was flashed back from celestial armour, 'the +next all unreflected shone' on the lonely wastes of the desert--but +the host of God was there still. The transitory appearance of the +permanent realities is a revelation to us as truly as to the +patriarch; and though no angel wings may winnow the air around our +road, nor any sworded seraphim be seen on our commonplace march, we +too have all the armies of heaven with us, if we tread the path +which God has marked out, and in our weakness and trembling commit +ourselves to Him. The heavenly warriors die not, and hover around us +to-day, excelling in the strength of their immortal youth, and as +ready to succour us as they were all these centuries ago to guard +the solitary Jacob. + +Better still, the 'Captain of the Lord's host' is 'come up' to be +our defence, and our faith has not only to behold the many +ministering spirits sent forth to minister to us, but One mightier +than they, whose commands they all obey, and who Himself is the +companion of our solitude and the shield of our defencelessness. It +was blessed that Jacob should be met by the many angels of God. It +is infinitely more blessed that '_the_ Angel of the Lord'--the +One who is more than the many--'encampeth round about them that fear +Him, and delivereth them.' + +The postscript of the last letter which Gordon sent from Khartoum +closed with the words, 'The hosts are with me--Mahanaim.' Were they +not, even though death was near? Was that sublime faith a mistake--the +vision an optical delusion? No, for their ranks are arrayed around +God's children to keep them from all evil while He wills that they +should live, and their chariots of fire and horses of fire are sent +to bear them to heaven when He wills that they should die. + + + + +THE TWOFOLD WRESTLE--GOD'S WITH JACOB AND JACOB'S WITH GOD + + + 'And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of + my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return + unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal + well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the + mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed + unto Thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this + Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I + pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand + of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, + and the mother with the children. And Thou saidst, I + will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand + of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.' + --GENESIS xxxii. 9-12. + +Jacob's subtlety and craft were, as is often the case, the weapons +of a timid as well as selfish nature. No wonder, then, that the +prospect of meeting his wronged and strong brother threw him into a +panic, notwithstanding the vision of the camp of angels by the side +of his defenceless caravan of women and children. Esau had received +his abject message of propitiation in grim silence, sent no welcome +back, but with ominous haste and ambiguous purpose began his march +towards him with a strong force. A few hours will decide whether he +means revenge. Jacob's fright does not rob him of his ready wit; he +goes to work at once to divide his party, so as to ensure safety for +half of it. He schemes first, and prays second. The order might have +been inverted with advantage, but is like the man--in the lowest +phase of his character. His prayer shows that he is beginning to +profit by the long years of schooling. Though its burden is only +deliverance from Esau, it pleads with God on the grounds of His own +command and promise, of Jacob's unworthiness of God's past mercies, +and of His firm covenant. A breath of a higher life is stirring in +the shifty schemer who has all his life been living by his wits. Now +he has come to a point where he knows that his own power can do +nothing. With Laban, a man of craft like himself, it was diamond cut +diamond; and Jacob was equal to the position. But the wild Bedouin +brother, with his four hundred men, is not to be managed so; and +Jacob is driven to God by his conscious helplessness. It is the +germ, but only the germ, and needs much tending and growth before it +matures. The process by which this faint dawning of a better life is +broadened into day is begun in the mysterious struggle which forms +the main part of this lesson, and is God's answer to his prayer. + +1. We have, first, the twofold wrestling. The silent night-long +wrestle with the 'traveller unknown' is generally regarded as +meaning essentially the same thing as the wonderful colloquy which +follows. But I venture to take a somewhat different point of view, +and to suggest that there are here two well-marked stages. In the +first, which is represented as transacted in unbroken silence, 'a +man' wrestles with Jacob, and does not prevail; in the second, which +is represented as an interchange of speech, Jacob strives with the +'man,' and does prevail. Taken together, the two are a complete +mirror, not only of the manner of the transformation of Jacob into +Israel, but of universal eternal truths as to God's dealings with +us, and our power with Him. + +As to the former stage, the language of the narrative is to be +noted, 'There wrestled a man with him.' The attack, so to speak, +begins with his mysterious antagonist, not with the patriarch. The +'man' seeks to overcome Jacob, not Jacob the man. There, beneath the +deep heavens, in the solemn silence of night, which hides earth and +reveals heaven, that strange struggle with an unknown Presence is +carried on. We have no material for pronouncing on the manner of it, +whether ecstasy, vision, or an objective and bodily fact. The body +was implicated in the consequences, at all events, and the +impression which the story leaves is of an outward struggle. But the +purpose of the incident is the same, however the question as to its +form be answered. Nor can we pronounce, as some have done, on the +other question, of the personality of the silent wrestler. Angel, or +'the angel of the covenant,' who is a transient, and possibly only +apparent, manifestation in human form of Him who afterwards became +flesh and dwelt among us, or some other supernatural embodiment, for +that one purpose, of the divine presence,--any of these hypotheses +is consistent with the intentionally reticent text. What it leaves +unspoken, we shall wisely leave undetermined. God acts and speaks +through 'the man.' That is all we can know or need. + +What, then, was the meaning of this struggle? Was it not a +revelation to Jacob of what God had been doing with him all his +life, and was still doing? Was not that merciful striving of God +with him the inmost meaning of all that had befallen him since the +far-off day when he had left his father's tents, and had seen the +opened heavens, and the ladder, which he had so often forgotten? +Were not his disappointments, his successes, and all the swift +changes of life, God's attempts to lead him to yield himself up, and +bow his will? And was not God striving with him now, in the +anxieties which gnawed at his heart, and in his dread of the morrow? +Was He not trying to teach him how crime always comes home to roost, +with a brood of pains running behind it? Was not the weird duel in +the brooding stillness a disclosure, which would more and more +possess his soul as the night passed on, of a Presence which in +silence strove with him, and only desired to overcome that He might +bless? The conception of a Divine manifestation wrestling all night +long with a man has been declared 'crude,' 'puerile,' and I know not +how many other disparaging adjectives have been applied to it. But +is it more unworthy of Him, or derogatory to His nature, than the +lifelong pleading and striving with each of us, which He undoubtedly +carries on? The idea of a man contending with God has been similarly +stigmatised; but is it more mysterious than that awful power which +the human will does possess of setting at naught His counsels and +resisting His merciful strivings? + +The close of the first stage of the twofold wrestle is marked by the +laming of Jacob. The paradox that He, who could not overcome, could +yet lame by a touch, is part of the lesson. If His finger could do +that, what would the grip of His hand do, if He chose to put out His +power? It is not for want of strength that He has not crushed the +antagonist, as Jacob would feel, with deepening wonder and awe. What +a new light would be thus thrown on all the previous struggle! It +was the striving of a power which cared not for a mere outward +victory, nor put forth its whole force, lest it should crush him +whom it desired to conquer only by his own yielding. As Job says, +'Will He plead against me with His great power?' No; God mercifully +restrains His hand, in His merciful striving with men. Desiring to +overcome them, He desires not to do so by mere superior power, but +by their willing yielding to Him. + +That laming of Jacob's thigh represents the weakening of all the +life of nature and self which had hitherto been his. He had trusted +to his own cunning and quick-wittedness; he had been shrewd, not +over-scrupulous, and successful. But he had to learn that 'by +strength shall no man prevail,' and to forsake his former weapons. +Wrestling with his hands and limbs is not the way to prevail either +with God or man. Fighting with God in his own strength, he is only +able to thwart God's merciful purpose towards him, but is powerless +as a reed in a giant's grasp if God chooses to summon His +destructive powers into exercise. So this failure of natural power +is the turning-point in the twofold wrestle, and marks as well as +symbolises the transition in Jacob's life and character from +reliance upon self and craft to reliance upon his divine Antagonist +become his Friend. It is the path by which we must all travel if we +are to become princes with God. The life of nature and of dependence +on self must be broken and lamed in order that, in the very moment +of discovered impotence, we may grasp the hand that smites, and find +immortal power flowing into our weakness from it. + +2. So we come to the second stage, in which Jacob strives with God +and does prevail. 'Let me go, for the day breaketh.' Then did the +stranger wish to go; and if he did, why could not he, who had lamed +his antagonist, loose himself from his grasp? The same explanation +applies here which is required in reference to Christ's action to +the two disciples at Emmaus: 'He made as though He would have gone +further.' In like manner, when He came to them on the water, He +appeared as though He 'would have passed by.' In all three cases the +principle is the same. God desires to go, if we do not desire Him to +stay. He will go, unless we keep Him. Then, at last, Jacob betakes +himself to his true weapons. Then, at last, he strangely wishes to +keep his apparent foe. He has learned, in some dim fashion, whom he +has been resisting, and the blessedness of having Him for friend and +companion. So here comes in the account of the whole scene which +Hosea gives (Hos. xii. 4): 'He wept, and made supplication unto +Him.' That does not describe the earlier portion, but is the true +rendering of the later stage, of which our narrative gives a more +summary account. The desire to retain God binds Him to us. All His +struggling with us has been aimed at evoking it, and all His fulness +responds to it when evoked. Prayer is power. It conquers God. We +overcome Him when we yield. When we are vanquished, we are victors. +When the life of nature is broken within us, then from conscious +weakness springs the longing which God cannot but satisfy. 'When I +am weak, then am I strong.' As Charles Wesley puts it, in his grand +hymn on this incident:-- + + 'Yield to me now, for I am weak, + But confident in self-despair.' + +And God prevails when we prevail. His aim in all the process of His +mercy has been but to overcome our heavy earthliness and +selfishness, which resists His pleading love. His victory is our +yielding, and, in that yielding, obtaining power with Him. He +delights to be held by the hand of faith, and ever gladly yields to +the heart's cry, 'Abide with me.' I will not let Thee go, except +Thou bless me,' is music to His ear; and our saying so, in earnest, +persistent clinging to Him, is His victory as well as ours. + +3. We have, next, the new name, which is the prize of Jacob's +victory, and the sign of a transformation in his character. Before +this time he had been Jacob, the worker with wiles, who supplanted +his brother, and met his foes with duplicity and astuteness like +their own. He had been mainly of the earth, earthy. But that solemn +hour had led him into the presence-chamber, the old craft had been +mortally wounded, he had seen some glimpse of God as his friend, +whose presence was not 'awful,' as he had thought it long ago, nor +enigmatical and threatening, as he had at first deemed it that +night, but the fountain of blessing and the one thing needful. A man +who has once learned that lesson, though imperfectly, has passed +into a purer region, and left behind him his old crookedness. He has +learned to pray, not as before, prayers for mere deliverance from +Esau and the like, but his whole being has gone out in yearning for +the continual nearness of his mysterious antagonist-friend. So, +though still the old nature remains, its power is broken, and he is +a new creature. Therefore he needs a new name, and gets it from Him +who can name men, because He sees the heart's depths, and because He +has the right over them. To impose a name is the sign of authority, +possession, insight into character. The change of name indicates a +new epoch in a life, or a transformation of the inner man. The +meaning of 'Israel' is 'He (who) strives with God'; and the reason +for its being conferred is more accurately given by the Revised +Version, which translates, 'For thou hast striven with God and with +men,' than in the Authorised rendering. His victory with God +involved the certainty of his power with men. All his life he had +been trying to get the advantage of them, and to conquer them, not +by spear and sword, but by his brains. But now the true way to true +sway among men is opened to him. All men are the servants of the +servant and the friend of God. He who has the ear of the emperor is +master of many men. + +Jacob is not always called Israel in his subsequent history. His new +name was a name of character and of spiritual standing, and that +might fluctuate, and the old self resume its power; so he is still +called by the former appellation, just as, at certain points in his +life, the apostle forfeits the right to be 'Peter,' and has to hear +from Christ's lips the old name, the use of which is more poignant +than many reproachful words; 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath +desired to have you.' But in the last death-bed scene, when the +patriarch lifted himself in his bed, and with prophetic dignity +pronounced his parting benediction on Joseph's sons, the new name +reappears with solemn pathos. + +That name was transmitted to his descendants, and has passed over to +the company of believing men, who have been overcome by God, and +have prevailed with God. It is a charter and a promise. It is a +stringent reminder of duty and a lofty ideal. A true Christian is an +'Israel.' His office is to wrestle with God. Nor can we forget how +this mysterious scene was repeated in yet more solemn fashion, +beneath the gnarled olives of Gethsemane, glistening in the light of +the paschal full moon, when the true Israel prayed with such sore +crying and tears that His body partook of the struggle, and 'His +sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the +ground.' The word which describes Christ's agony is that which is +often rendered 'wrestling,' and perhaps is selected with intentional +allusion to this incident. At all events, when we think of Jacob by +the brook Jabbok, and of a 'greater than our father Jacob' by the +brook Kedron, we may well learn what persistence, what earnestness +and effort of the whole nature, go to make up the ideal of prayer, +and may well blush for the miserable indifference and torpor of what +we venture to call our prayers. These are our patterns, 'as many as +walk according to this rule,' and are thereby shown to be 'the +Israel of God,'--upon them shall be peace. + +4. We have, as the end of all, a deepened desire after closer +knowledge of God, and the answer to it. Some expositors (as, for +instance, Robertson of Brighton, in his impressive sermon on this +section) take the closing petition, 'Tell me, I pray thee, Thy +name,' as if it were the centre point of the whole incident. But +this is obviously a partial view. The desire to know that name does +not come to Jacob, as we might have expected, when he was struggling +with his unknown foe in the dark there. It is the end, and, in some +sense, the issue, of all that has gone before. Not that he was in +any doubt as to the person to whom he spoke; it is just because he +knows that he is speaking with God, who alone can bless, that he +longs to have some deeper, clearer knowledge still of Him. He is not +asking for a word by which he may call Him; the name is the +expression of the nature, and his parting request is for something +far more intimate and deep than syllables which could be spoken by +any lips. The certain sequel of the discovery of God as striving in +mercy with a man, and of yielding to him, is the thirst for deeper +acquaintance with Him, and for a fuller, more satisfying knowledge +of His inmost heart. If the season of mysterious intercourse must +cease, and day hide more than it discloses, and Jacob go to face +Esau, and we come down from the mount to sordid cares and mean +tasks, at least we long to bear with us as a love-token some whisper +in our inmost hearts that may cheer us with the peaceful truth about +Him and be a hidden sweetness. The presence of such a desire is a +sure consequence, and therefore a good test, of real prayer. + +The Divine answer, which sounds at first like refusal, is anything +but that. Why dost thou ask after My name? surely I need not to give +thee more revelation of My character. Thou hast enough of light; +what thou needest is insight into what thou hast already. We have in +what God has made known of Himself already to us--both in His +outward revelation, which is so much larger and sweeter to us than +it was to Jacob, but also in His providences, and in the inward +communion which we have with Him if we have let Him overcome us, and +have gained power to prevail with Him--sources of certain knowledge +of Him so abundant and precious that we need nothing but the loving +eye which shall take in all their beauty and completeness, to have +our most eager desires after His name more than satisfied. We need +not ask for more sunshine, but take care to spread ourselves out in +the full sunshine which we have, and let it drench our eyes and fire +our hearts. 'And He blessed him there.' Not till now was he capable +of receiving the full blessing. He needed to have self beaten out of +him; he needed to recognise God as lovingly striving with Him; he +needed to yield himself up to Him; he needed to have his heart thus +cleansed and softened, and then opened wide by panting desire for +the presence and benediction of God; he needed to be made conscious +of his new standing, and of the higher life budding within him; he +needed to experience the yearning for a closer vision of the face, a +deeper knowledge of the name,--and then it was possible to pour into +his heart a tenderness and fulness of blessing which before there +had been no room to receive, and which now answered in sweetest +fashion the else unanswered desire, 'Tell me, I pray thee, Thy +name.' + +In like manner we may each be blessed with the presence and +benediction of Him whose merciful strivings, when we knew Him not, +came to us in the darkness; and to whom, if we yield, there will be +peace and power in our hearts, and upon us, too, the sun will rise +as we pass from the place where our foe became our friend, and by +faith we saw Him face to face, and drank in life by the gaze. + + + + +A FORGOTTEN VOW + + + 'Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make + there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when + thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother,' + GENESIS XXXV. 1. + +Thirty years at least had passed since Jacob's vow; ten or twenty +since his return. He is in no haste to fulfil it, but has settled +down at Shechem and bought land there, and seems to have forgotten +all about Bethel. + +1. _The lesson of possible negligence_. + +(_a_) We are apt to forget vows when God has fulfilled His side +of them. Resolutions made in time of trouble are soon forgotten. We +pray and think about God more then than when things go well with us. +Religion is in many men's judgment for stormy weather only. + +(_b_) We are often more resolved to make sacrifices in the +beginning of our Christian course than afterwards. + +Many a brilliant morning is followed by cloudy day. + +Youth is often full of enthusiasms which after-days forget. + +2._ The reasons for the negligence_. + +Jacob felt a gradual fading away of impressions of need. He was +comfortably settled at Shechem. He was surrounded by a wild, godless +household who cherished their idols, and he knew that if he went to +Bethel idolatry must be given up. + +3. _The essentials to communion and service_. + +Surrender. Purity. Must bury idols under oak. + +4._The reward of sacrifice and of duty discharged_. + +The renewed appearance of God. The confirmation of name Israel. +Enlarged promises. So the old man's vision may be better than the +youth's, if he lives up to his youthful vows. + + + + +THE TRIALS AND VISIONS OF DEVOUT YOUTH + + + 'And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a + stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations + of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding + the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the + sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's + wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil + report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, + because he was the son of his old age: and he made him + a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that + their father loved him more than all his brethren, they + hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And + Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and + they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, + I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, + we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf + arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves + stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And + his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over + us? or shalt thou Indeed have dominion over us? And they + hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. + And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, + and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and behold, + the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance + to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: + and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is + this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother + and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to + thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his + father observed the saying.'--GENESIS xxxvii. 1-11. + +'The generations of Jacob' are mainly occupied with the history of +Joseph, because through him mainly was the divine purpose carried +on. Jacob is now the head of the chosen family, since Isaac's death +(Gen. xxxv. 29), and therefore the narrative is continued under that +new heading. There may possibly be intended a contrast in 'dwelt' +and 'sojourned' in verse 1, the former implying a more complete +settling down. + +There are two principal points in this narrative,--the sad insight +that it gives into the state of the household in which so much of +the world's history and hopes was wrapped up, and the preludings of +Joseph's future in his dreams. + +As to the former, the account of it is introduced by the statement +that Joseph, at seventeen years of age, was set to work, according +to the wholesome Eastern usage, and so was thrown into the company +of the sons of the two slave-women, Bilhah and Zilpah. Delitzsch +understands 'lad' in verse 2 in the sense in which we use 'boy,' as +meaning an attendant. Joseph was, then, told off to be subordinate +to these two sets of his rough brothers. The relationship was enough +to rouse hatred in such coarse souls. And, indeed, the history of +Jacob's household strikingly illustrates the miserable evils of +polygamy, which makes families within the family, and turns brothers +into enemies. Bilhah's and Zilpah's sons reflected in their hatred +of Rachel's their mothers' envy of the true wife of Jacob's heart. +The sons of the bondwoman were sure to hate the sons of the free. + +If Joseph had been like his brothers, they would have forgiven him +his mother. But he was horrified at his first glimpse of +unrestrained young passions, and, in the excitement of disgust and +surprise, 'told their evil report.' No doubt, his brothers had been +unwilling enough to be embarrassed by his presence, for there is +nothing that wild young men dislike more than the constraint put on +them by the presence of an innocent youth; and when they found out +that this 'milk-sop' of a brother was a spy and a telltale, their +wrath blazed up. So Joseph had early experience of the shock which +meets all young men who have been brought up in godly households +when they come into contact with sin in fellow-clerks, servants, +students, or the like. It is a sharp test of what a young man is +made of, to come forth from the shelter of a father's care and a +mother's love, and to be forced into witnessing and hearing such +things as go on wherever a number of young men are thrown together. +Be not 'partaker of other men's sins.' And the trial is doubly great +when the tempters are elder brothers, and the only way to escape +their unkindness is to do as they do. Joseph had an early experience +of the need of resistance; and, as long as the world is a world, +love to God will mean hatred from its worst elements. If we are +'sons of the day,' we cannot but rebuke the darkness. + +It is an invidious office to tell other people's evil-doing, and he +who brings evil reports of others generally and deservedly gets one +for himself. But there are circumstances in which to do so is plain +duty, and only a mistaken sense of honour keeps silence. But there +must be no exaggeration, malice, or personal ends in the informer. +Classmates in school or college, fellow-servants, employees in great +businesses, and the like, have not only a duty of loyalty to one +another, but of loyalty to their superior. We are sometimes bound to +be blind to, and dumb about, our associates' evil deeds, but +sometimes silence makes us accomplices. + +Jacob had a right to know, and Joseph would have been wrong if he +had not told him, the truth about his brothers. Their hatred shows +that his purity had made their doing wrong more difficult. It is a +grand thing when a young man's presence deprives the Devil of elbow- +room for his tricks. How much restraining influence such a one may +exert! + +Jacob's somewhat foolish love, and still more foolish way of showing +it, made matters worse. There were many excuses for him. He +naturally clung to the son of his lost but never-forgotten first +love, and as naturally found, in Joseph's freedom from the vices of +his other sons, a solace and joy. It has been suggested that the +'long garment with sleeves,' in which he decked the lad, indicated +an intention of transferring the rights of the first-born to him, +but in any case it meant distinguishing affection; and the father or +mother who is weak enough to show partiality in the treatment of +children need not wonder if their unwise love creates bitter heart- +burnings. Perhaps, if Bilhah's and Zilpah's sons had had a little +more sunshine of a father's love, they would have borne brighter +flowers and sweeter fruit. It is fatal when a child begins to +suspect that a parent is not fair. + +So these surly brothers, who could not even say 'Peace be to thee!' +(the common salutation) when they came across Joseph, had a good +deal to say for themselves. It is a sad picture of the internal +feuds of the house from which all nations were to be blessed. The +Bible does not idealise its characters, but lets us see the seamy +side of the tapestry, that we may the more plainly recognise the +Mercy which forgives, and the mighty Providence which works through, +such imperfect men. But the great lesson for all young people from +the picture of Joseph's early days, when his whiteness rebuked the +soiled lives of his brothers, as new-fallen snow the grimy cake, +hardened and soiled on the streets, is, 'My son, if sinners entice +thee, consent thou not.' Never mind a world's hatred, if you have a +father's love. There is one Father who can draw His obedient +children into the deepest secrets of His heart without withholding +their portion from the most prodigal. + +Joseph's dreams are the other principal point in the narrative. The +chief incidents of his life turn on dreams,--his own, his fellow- +prisoners', Pharaoh's. The narrative recognises them as divinely +sent, and no higher form of divine communication appears to have +been made to Joseph, He received no new revelations of religious +truth. His mission was, not to bring fresh messages from heaven, but +to effect the transference of the nation to Egypt. Hence the lower +form of the communications made to him. + +The meaning of both dreams is the same, but the second goes beyond +the first in the grandeur of the emblems, and in the inclusion of +the parents in the act of obeisance. Both sets of symbols were drawn +from familiar sights. The homeliness of the 'sheaves' is in striking +contrast with the grandeur of the 'sun, moon, and stars.' The +interpretation of the first is ready to hand, because the sheaves +were 'your sheaves' and 'my sheaf.' There was no similar key +included in the second, and his brothers do not appear to have +caught its meaning. It was Jacob who read it. Probably Rachel was +dead when the dream came, but that need not make a difficulty. + +Note that Joseph did not tell his dreams with elation, or with a +notion that they meant anything particular. It is plainly the +singularity of them that makes him repeat them, as is clearly +indicated by the repeated 'behold' in his two reports. With perfect +innocence of intention, and as he would have told any other strange +dream, the lad repeats them. The commentary was the work of his +brothers, who were ready to find proofs of his being put above them, +and of his wish to humiliate them, in anything he said or did. They +were wiser than he was. Perhaps they suspected that Jacob meant to +set him at the head of the clan on his decease, and that the dreams +were trumped up and told to them to prepare them for the decision +which the special costume may have already hinted. + +At all events, hatred is very suspicious, and ready to prick up its +ears at every syllable that seems to speak of the advancement of its +object. + +There is a world of contempt, rage, and fear in the questions, +'Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion +over us?' The conviction that Joseph was marked out by God for a +high position seems to have entered these rough souls, and to have +been fuel to fire. Hatred and envy make a perilous mixture. Any sin +can come from a heart drenched with these. Jacob seems to have been +wise enough to make light of the dreams to the lad, though much of +them in his heart. Youthful visions of coming greatness are often +best discouraged. The surest way to secure their fulfilment is to +fill the present with strenuous, humble work. 'Do the duty that is +nearest thee.' 'The true apprenticeship for a ruler is to serve.' +'Act, act, in the living present.' The sheaves may come to bow down +some day, but 'my sheaf' has to be cut and bound first, and the +sooner the sickle is among the corn, the better. + +But yet, on the other hand, let young hearts be true to their early +visions, whether they say much about them or not. Probably it will +be wisest to keep silence. But there shine out to many young men and +women, at their start in life, bright possibilities of no ignoble +sort, and rising higher than personal ambition, which it is the +misery and sin of many to see 'fade away into the light of common +day,' or into the darkness of night. Be not 'disobedient to the +heavenly vision'; for the dreams of youth are often the prophecies +of what God means and makes it possible for the dreamer to be, if he +wakes to work towards that fair thing which shone on him from afar. + + + + +MAN'S PASSIONS AND GOD'S PURPOSE + + + 'And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his + brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his + coat of many colours that was on him; And they took him, + and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there + was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread: and + they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a + company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their + camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to + carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, + What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal + his blood! Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, + and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother + and our flesh. And his brethren were content. Then there + passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and + lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the + Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought + Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, + behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his + clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, + The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? And they + took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and + dipped the coat in the blood; And they sent the coat of + many colours, and they brought it to their father; and + said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy + son's coat or no. And he knew it, and said, It is my + son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is + without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, + and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his + son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters + rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; + and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my + son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. And the + Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer + of Pharaoh's and captain of the guard.'--GENESIS xxxvii. 23-36. + +We have left the serene and lofty atmosphere of communion and +saintship far above us. This narrative takes us down into foul +depths. It is a hideous story of vulgar hatred and cruelty. God's +name is never mentioned in it; and he is as far from the actors' +thoughts as from the writer's words. The crime of the brothers is +the subject, and the picture is painted in dark tones to teach large +truths about sin. + +1. The broad teaching of the whole story, which is ever being +reiterated in Old Testament incidents, is that God works out His +great purposes through even the crimes of unconscious men. There is +an irony, if we may so say, in making the hatred of these men the +very means of their brother's advancement, and the occasion of +blessing to themselves. As coral insects work, not knowing the plan +of their reef, still less the fair vegetation and smiling homes +which it will one day carry, but blindly building from the material +supplied by the ocean a barrier against it; so even evil-doers are +carrying on God's plan, and sin is made to counterwork itself, and +be the black channel through which the flashing water of life pours. +Joseph's words (Gen. 1. 20) give the point of view for the whole +story: 'Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good ... +to save much people alive.' We can scarcely forget the still more +wonderful example of the same thing, in the crime of crimes, when +his brethren slew the Son of God--like Joseph, the victim of envy--and, +by their crime, God's counsel of mercy for them and for all was +fulfilled. + +2. Following the narrative, verses 23, 24, and 25 show us the +poisonous fruit of brotherly hatred. The family, not the nation, is +the social unit in Genesis. From the beginning, we find the field on +which sin works is the family relation. Cain and Abel, Ishmael and +Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and now the other children of Jacob and +Joseph, attest the power of sin when it enters there, and illustrate +the principle that the corruption of the best is the worst. The +children of Rachel could not but be hated by the children of other +mothers. Jacob's undisguised partiality for Joseph was a fault too, +which wrought like yeast on the passions of his wild sons. The long- +sleeved garment which he gave to the lad probably meant to indicate +his purpose to bestow on him the right of the first-born forfeited +by Reuben, and so the violent rage which it excited was not +altogether baseless. The whole miserable household strife teaches +the rottenness of the polygamous relation on which it rested, and +the folly of paternal favouritism. So it carries teaching especially +needed then, but not out of date now. + +The swift passage of the purely inward sin of jealous envy into the +murderous act, as soon as opportunity offered, teaches the short +path which connects the inmost passions with the grossest outward +deeds. Like Jonah's gourd, the smallest seed of hate needs but an +hour or two of favouring weather to become a great tree, with all +obscene and blood-seeking birds croaking in its branches. 'Whosoever +hateth his brother is a murderer,' Therefore the solemn need for +guarding the heart from the beginnings of envy, and for walking in +love. + +The clumsy contrivance for murder without criminality, which Reuben +suggested, is an instance of the shallow pretexts with which the +sophistry of sin fools men before they have done the wrong thing. +Sin's mask is generally dropped very soon after. The bait is useless +when the hook is well in the fish's gills. 'Don't let us kill him. +Let us put him into a cistern. He cannot climb up its bottle-shaped, +smooth sides. But that is not our fault. Nobody will ever hear his +muffled cries from its depths. But there will be no blood on our +hands.' It was not the first time, nor is it the last, that men have +tried to blink their responsibility for the consequences which they +hoped would come of their crimes. Such excuses seem sound when we +are being tempted; but, as soon as the rush of passion is past, they +are found to be worthless. Like some cheap castings, they are only +meant to be seen in front, where they are rounded and burnished. Get +behind them, and you find them hollow. + +'They sat down to eat bread,' Thomas Fuller pithily says: 'With what +heart could they say grace, either before or after meat?' What a +grim meal! And what an indication of their rude natures, seared +consciences, and deadened affections! + +This picture of the moral condition of the fathers of the Jewish +tribes is surely a strong argument for the historical accuracy of +the narrative. It would be strange if the legends of a race, instead +of glorifying, should blacken, the characters of its founders. No +motive can be alleged which would explain such a picture; its only +explanation is its truth. The ugly story, too, throws vivid light on +that thought, which prophets ever reiterated, 'not for your sakes, +but for My name's sake.' The divine choice of Israel was grounded, +not on merit, but on sovereign purpose. And the undisguised +plainness of the narrative of their sins is but of a piece with the +tone of Scripture throughout. It never palliates the faults even of +its best men. It tells its story without comment. It never indulges +in condemnation any more than in praise. It is a perfect mirror; its +office is to record, not to criticise. Many misconceptions of Old +Testament morality would have been avoided by keeping that simple +fact in view. + +3. The ill-omened meal is interrupted by the sudden appearance, so +picturesquely described, of the caravan of Ishmaelites with their +loaded camels. Dothan was on or near the great trade route to Egypt, +where luxury, and especially the custom of embalming, opened a +profitable market for spices. The traders would probably not be +particular as to the sort of merchandise they picked up on their +road, and such an 'unconsidered trifle' as a slave or two would be +neither here nor there. This opportune advent of the caravan sets a +thought buzzing in Judah's brain, which brings out a new phase of +the crime. Hatred darkening to murder is bad enough; but hatred +which has also an eye to business, and makes a profit out of a +brother, is a shade or two blacker, because it means cold-blooded +calculation and selfish advantage instead of raging passion. Judah's +cynical question avows the real motive of his intervention. He +prefers the paltry gain from selling Joseph to the unprofitable +luxury of killing him. It brings in regard to brotherly ties at the +end, as a kind of homage paid to propriety, as if the obligations +they involved were not broken as really by his proposal as by +murder. Certainly it is strange logic which can say in one breath, +'Let us sell him; ... for he is our brother,' and finds the clause +between buffer enough to keep these two contradictories from +collision. + +If any touch of conscience made the brothers prefer the less cruel +alternative, one can only see here another illustration of the +strange power which men have of limiting the working of conscience, +and of the fact that when a greater sin has been resolved on, a +smaller one gets to look almost like a virtue. Perhaps Judah and the +rest actually thought themselves very kind and brotherly when they +put their brother into strangers' power, and so went back to their +meal with renewed cheerfulness, both because they had gained their +end without bloodshed, and because they had got the money. They did +not think that every tear and pang which Joseph would shed and feel +would be laid at their door. + +We do not suppose that Joseph was meant to be, in the accurate sense +of the word, a type of Christ. But the coincidence is not to be +passed by, that these same powerful motives of envy and of greed +were combined in His case too, and that there again a Judah (Judas) +appears as the agent of the perfidy. + +We may note that the appearance of the traders in the nick of time, +suggesting the sale of Joseph, points the familiar lesson that the +opportunity to do ill deeds often makes ill deeds done. The path for +entering on evil is made fatally easy at first; that gate always +stands wide. The Devil knows how to time his approaches. A weak +nature, with an evil bias in it, finds everywhere occasions and +suggestions to do wrong. But it is the evil nature which makes +innocent things opportunities for evil. Therefore we have to be on +our guard, as knowing that if we fall it is not circumstances, but +ourselves, that made stumbling-blocks out of what might have been +stepping-stones. + +4. Leaving Joseph to pursue his sad journey, our narrative +introduces for the first time Reuben, whose counsel, as the verses +before the text tell us, it had been to cast the poor lad into the +cistern. His motive had been altogether good; he wished to save +life, and as soon as the others were out of the way, to bring Joseph +up again and get him safely back to Jacob. In chapter xlii. 22, +Reuben himself reminds his brothers of what had passed. There he +says that he had besought them not to 'sin against the child,' which +naturally implies that he had wished them to do nothing to him, and +that they 'would not hear.' In the verses before the text he +proposes the compromise of the pit, and the others 'hear.' So there +seem to have been two efforts made by him--first, to shield Joseph +from any harm, and then that half-and-half measure which was +adopted. He is absent, while they carry out the plan, and from the +cruel merriment of the feast--perhaps watching his opportunity to +rescue, perhaps in sickness of heart and protest against the deed. +Well meant and kindly motived as his action was--and self- +sacrificing too, if, as is probable, Joseph was meant by Jacob as +his successor in the forfeited birthright--his scheme breaks down, +as attempts to mitigate evil by compliance and to make compromises +with sinners usually do. The only one of the whole family who had +some virtue in him, was too timid to take up a position of +uncompromising condemnation. He thought it more polite to go part of +the way, and to trust to being able to prevent the worst. That is +always a dangerous experiment. It is often tried still; it never +answers. Let a man stand to his guns, and speak out the condemnation +that is in his heart; otherwise, he will be sure to go farther than +he meant, he will lose all right of remonstrance, and will generally +find that the more daring sinners have made his well-meant schemes +to avert the mischief impossible. + +5. The cruel trick by which Jacob was deceived is perhaps the most +heartless bit of the whole heartless crime. It came as near an +insult as possible. It was maliciously meant. The snarl about the +coat, the studied use of 'thy son' as if the brothers disowned the +brotherhood, the unfeeling harshness of choosing such a way of +telling their lie--all were meant to give the maximum of pain, and +betray their savage hatred of father and son, and its causes. Was +Reuben's mouth shut all this time? Evidently. From his language in +chapter xlii., 'His blood is required,' he seems to have believed +until then that Joseph had been killed in his absence. But he dared +not speak. Had he told what he did know, the brothers had but to +add, 'And he proposed it himself,' and his protestations of his good +intentions would have been unheeded. He believed his brother dead, +and perhaps thought it better that Jacob should think him slain by +wild beasts than by brothers' hands, as Reuben supposed him to be. +But his shut mouth teaches again how dangerous his policy had been, +and how the only road, which it is safe, in view of the +uncertainties of the future, to take, is the plain road of +resistance to evil and non-fellowship with its doers. + +6. And what of the poor old father? His grief is unworthy of God's +wrestler. It is not the part of a devout believer in God's +providence to refuse to be comforted. There was no religious +submission in his passionate sorrow. How unlike the quiet +resignation which should have marked the recognition that the God +who had been his guide was working here too! No doubt the +hypocritical condolences of his children were as vinegar upon nitre. +No doubt the loss of Joseph had taken away the one gentle and true +son on whom his loneliness rested since his Rachel's death, while he +found no solace in the wild, passionate men who called him 'father' +and brought him no 'honour.' But still his grief is beyond the +measure which a true faith in God would have warranted; and we +cannot but see that the dark picture which we have just been looking +at gets no lighter or brighter tints from the demeanour of Jacob. + +There are few bitterer sorrows than for a parent to see the children +of his own sin in the sins of his children. Jacob might have felt +that bitterness, as he looked round on the lovelessness and dark, +passionate selfishness of his children, and remembered his own early +crimes against Esau. He might have seen that his unwise fondness for +the son of his Rachel had led to the brothers' hatred, though he did +not know that that hatred had plunged the arrow into his soul. +Whether he knew it or not, his own conduct had feathered the arrow. +He was drinking as he had brewed; and the heart-broken grief which +darkened his later years had sprung from seed of his own sowing. So +it is always. 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' + +It is a miserable story of ignoble jealousy and cruel hate; and yet, +over all this foaming torrent, God's steadfast bow of peace shines. +These crimes and this 'affliction of Joseph' were the direct path to +the fulfilment of His purposes. As blind instruments, even in their +rebellion and sin, men work out His designs. The lesson of Joseph's +bondage will one day be the summing up of the world's history. 'Thou +makest the wrath of man to praise Thee: and with the remainder +thereof Thou girdest Thyself.' + + + + +GOODNESS IN A DUNGEON + + + 'And Joseph's master took him, and put him into the + prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: + and he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with + Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in + the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper + of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the + prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they + did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the + prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; + because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, + the Lord made it to prosper.'--GENESIS xxxix. 20-23. + +'And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the +king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of +Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against +the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers. +And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, +into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. And the +captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served +them: and they continued a season in ward. And they dreamed a +dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man +according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the +baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And +Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, +and, behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that +were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore +look ye so sadly to day? And they said unto him, We have dreamed +a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto +them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray +you. And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to +him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me; And in the vine +were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her +blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe +grapes: And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand: and I took the grapes, +and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into +Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation +of it: The three branches are three days: Yet within three days shall +Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou +shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner +when thou wast his butler. But think on me when it shall be well with +thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of +me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: For indeed I was +stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done +nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.'--GENESIS xl. 1-15. + +Potiphar was 'captain of the guard,' or, as the title literally +runs, chief of the executioners. In that capacity he had charge of +the prison, which was connected with his house (Gen. xl. 3). It is, +therefore, quite intelligible that he should have put Joseph in +confinement on his own authority, and the distinction drawn between +such a prisoner and the 'king's prisoners,' who were there by royal +warrant or due process of law, is natural. Such high-handed +treatment of a slave was a small matter, and it was merciful as well +as arrogant, for death would have been the punishment of the crime +of which Joseph was accused. Either Potiphar was singularly lenient, +or, as is perhaps more probable, he did not quite believe his wife's +story, and thought it best to hush up a scandal. The transfer of +Joseph from the house to the adjoining prison would be quietly +managed, and then no more need be said about an ugly business. + +So now we see him at the lowest ebb of his fortunes, flung down in a +moment by a lie from the height to which he had slowly been +climbing, having lost the confidence of his master, and earned the +unslumbering hatred of a wicked woman. He had wrecked his career by +his goodness. 'What a fool!' says the world. 'How badly managed +things are in this life,' say doubters, 'that virtue should not be +paid by prosperity!' But the end, even the nearer end in this life, +will show whether he was a fool, and whether things are so badly +arranged; and the lesson enforced by the picture of Joseph in his +dungeon, and which young beginners in life have special need to +learn, is that, come what will of it, right is right, and sin is +sin, that consequences are never to deter from duty, and that it is +better to have a clean conscience and be in prison than do +wickedness and sit at a king's table. A very threadbare lesson, but +needing to be often repeated. + +'But the Lord was with Joseph.' That is one of the eloquent 'buts' +of Scripture. The prison is light when God is there, and chains do +not chafe if He wraps His love round them. Many a prisoner for God +since Joseph's time has had his experience repeated, and received +tenderer tokens from Him in a dungeon than ever before. Paul the +prisoner, John in Patmos, Bunyan in Bedford jail, George Fox in +Lancaster Castle, Rutherford in Aberdeen, and many more, have found +the Lord with them, and showing them His kindness. We may all be +sure that, if ever faithfulness to conscience involves us in +difficulties, the faithfulness and the difficulties will combine to +bring to us sweet and strong tokens of God's approval and presence, +the winning of which will make a prison a palace and a gate of +heaven. + +Joseph's relations to jailer and fellow-prisoners are beautiful and +instructive. The former is called 'the keeper of the prison,' and is +evidently Potiphar's deputy, in more immediate charge of the prison. +Of course, the great man had an underling to do the work, and +probably that underling was not chosen for sweetness of temper or +facile leniency to his charges. But he fell under the charm of +Joseph's character--all the more readily, perhaps, because his +occupation had not brought many good men to his knowledge. This +jewel would flash all the more brightly for the dark background of +criminals, and the jailer would wonder at a type of character so +unlike what he was accustomed to. Eastern prisons to-day present a +curious mixture of cruelty and companionship. The jailers are on +intimate terms with prisoners, and yet are ready to torture them. +There is no discipline, nor any rules, nor inspection. The jailer +does as he likes. So it seems to have been in Egypt, and there would +be nothing unnatural in making a prisoner jailer of the rest, and +leaving everything in his hands. The 'keeper of the prison' was +lazy, like most of us, and very glad to shift duties on to any +capable shoulders. Such a thing would, of course, be impossible with +us, but it is a bit of true local colouring here. + +Joseph won hearts because God was with him, as the story is careful +to point out. Our religion should recommend us, and therefore +itself, to those who have to do with us. It is not enough that we +should be severely righteous, as Joseph had been, or ready to meet +trouble with stoical resignation, but we are to be gentle and +lovable, gracious towards men, because we receive grace from God. We +owe it to our Lord and to our fellows, and to ourselves, to be +magnets to attract to Jesus, by showing how fair He can make a life. +Joseph in prison found work to do, and he did not shirk it. He might +have said to himself: 'This is poor work for me, who had all +Potiphar's house to rule. Shall such a man as I come down to such +small tasks as this?' He might have sulked or desponded in idleness, +but he took the kind of work that offered, and did his best by it. +Many young people nowadays do nothing, because they think themselves +above the small humdrum duties that lie near them. It would do some +of us good to remember Joseph in the jail, and his cheerful +discharge of what his hands found to do there. + +Of course, work done 'because the Lord was with him,' in the +consciousness of His presence, and in obedience to Him, went well. +'The Lord made it to prosper,' as He always will make such work. + + 'When thou dost favour any action, + It runs, it flies.' + +And even if, sometimes, work done in the fear of the Lord does not +outwardly prosper, it does so in deepest truth, if it work in us the +peaceable fruit of righteousness. We need to have a more Christian +idea of what constitutes prosperity, and then we shall understand +that there are no exceptions to the law that, if a man does his work +by God and with God and for God, 'that which he does, the Lord makes +it to prosper.' + +The help that Joseph gave by interpreting the two high officials' +dreams cannot be considered here in detail, but we note that the +names of similar officers, evidently higher in rank than we should +suppose, with our notions of bakers and butlers, are found in +Egyptian documents, and that these two were 'king's prisoners,' and +put in charge of Potiphar, who alleviated their imprisonment by +detailing Joseph as their attendant, thus showing that his feeling +to the young Hebrew was friendly still. Dreams are the usual method +of divine communication in Genesis, and belong to a certain stage in +the process of revelation. The friend of God, who is in touch with +Him, can interpret these. 'The secret of the Lord is with them that +fear Him,' and it is still true that they who live close by God have +insight into His purposes. Joseph showed sympathy with the two +dreamers, and his question, 'Why look ye so sadly?' unlocked their +hearts. He was not so swallowed up in his own trouble as to be blind +to the signs of another's sorrow, or slow to try to comfort. Grief +is apt to make us selfish, but it is meant to make us tender of +heart and quick of hand to help our fellows in calamity. We win +comfort for our own sorrows by trying to soothe those of others. +Jesus stooped to suffer that He might succour them that suffer, and +we are to tread in His steps. + + + + +JOSEPH, THE PRIME MINISTER + + + 'And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a + one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And + Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed + thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou + art: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy + word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne + will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, + See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And + Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon + Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, + and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to + ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried + before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all + the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am + Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand + or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called + Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him to wife + Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On. And + Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. And Joseph + was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king + of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of + Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. And + in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by + handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven + years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the + food in the cities: the food of the field, which was + round about every city, laid he up in the same.' + GENESIS xli. 38-48. + +At seventeen years of age Joseph was sold for a slave; at thirty he +was prime minister of Egypt (Gen. xxxvii, 2; xli. 46). How long his +prison life lasted is uncertain; but it was long enough for the +promises contained in his early dreams to 'try him' (Ps. cv. 19) +whether his faith would stand apparent disappointment and weary +delay. Like all the Scripture narratives, this history of Joseph has +little to say about feelings, and prefers facts. But we can read +between the lines, and be tolerably sure that the thirteen years of +trial were well endured, and that the inward life had grown so as to +fit him for his advancement. We have here a full-length portrait of +the prime minister, or vizier, which brings out three points--his +elevation, his naturalisation, and his administration. + +Joseph had not only interpreted Pharaoh's dream, but had suggested a +policy in preparation for the coming famine. He had recommended the +appointment of 'a wise and discreet man,' with supreme authority +over the land. Pharaoh first consulted 'his servants,' and, with +their consent, possibly not very hearty, appointed the proposer of +the plan as its carrier-out, quoting to him his own words, 'wise and +discreet.' + +The sudden installing of an unknown prisoner in high office has +often been thought hard to believe, and has been pointed to as proof +of the legendary character of the story. But the ground on which +Pharaoh put it goes far to explain it. He and his servants had come +to believe that 'God' spoke through this man, that 'the Spirit of +God' was in him. So here was a divinely sent messenger, whom it +would be impiety and madness to reject. Observe that Pharaoh and +Joseph both speak in this chapter of 'God.' There was a common +ground of recognition of a divine Being on which they met. The local +colour of the story indicates a period before the fuller revelation, +which drew so broad a line of demarcation between Israel and the +other nations. + +Joseph's sudden promotion is made the more intelligible by the +probability which the study of Egyptian history has given, that the +Pharaoh who made him his second in command was one of the Hyksos +conquerors who dominated Egypt for a long period. They would have no +prejudices against Joseph on account of his being a foreigner. A +dynasty of alien conquerors has generally an open door for talent, +and cares little who a man's father is, or where he comes from, if +he can do his work. And Joseph, by not being an Egyptian born, would +be all the fitter an instrument for carrying out the policy which he +had suggested. + +His ceremonial investiture with the insignia of office is true to +Egyptian manners. The signet ring, as the emblem of full authority; +the chain, as a mark of dignity; the robe of 'fine linen' (or rather +of cotton), which was a priestly dress--all are illustrated by the +monuments. The proclamation made before him as he rode in the second +chariot has been very variously interpreted. It has been taken for a +Hebraised Egyptian word, meaning 'Cast thyself down'; and this +interpretation was deemed the most probable, until Assyrian +discovery brought to light 'that _abarakku_ is the Assyrian +name of the grand vizier' (Fr. Delitzsch, _Hebrew Language Viewed +in the Light of Assyrian Research_, p. 26). Sayce proposes +another explanation, also from the cuneiform tablets: 'There was a +word _abrik_ in the Sumerian language, which signified a seer, +and was borrowed by the Semitic Babylonians under the varying forms +of _abrikku_ and _abarakku_. It is _abrikku_ which we have in Genesis, +and the title applied by the people to the "seer" Joseph proves to be +the one we should most naturally expect.' The Tel el-Amarna tablets +show that the knowledge of cuneiform writing was common in Egypt +(Sayce, _Higher Criticism and the Monuments_, p. 214). This +explanation is tempting, but it is perhaps scarcely probable that the +proclamation should have been in any other language than Egyptian, +or should have had reference to anything but Joseph's new office. It was +not as seer that he was to be obeyed, but as Pharaoh's representative, +even though he had become the latter because he had proved himself the +former. + +But in any case, the whole context is accurately and strongly +Egyptian. Was there any point in the history of Israel, down to an +impossibly late date, except the time of Moses, at which Jewish +writers were so familiar with Egypt as to have been capable of +producing so true a picture? + +The lessons of this incident are plain. First stands out, clear and +full, the witness it bears to God's faithfulness, and to His +sovereign sway over all events. What are all the persons concerned +in the narrative but unconscious instruments of His? The fierce +brothers, the unconcerned slave-dealers, Potiphar, his wife, the +prisoners, Pharaoh, are so many links in a chain; but they are also +men, and therefore free to act, and guilty if acting wrongly. Men +execute God's purposes, even when unconscious or rebellious, but are +responsible, and often punished, for the acts which He uses to +effect His designs. + +Joseph's thirteen years of trial, crowned with sudden prosperity, +may read all of us, and especially young men and women, a lesson of +patience. Many of us have to fight our way through analogous +difficulties at the outset of our career; and we are apt to lose +heart and get restive when success seems slow to come, and one +hindrance after another blocks our road. But hindrances are helps. +If one of Joseph's misfortunes had been omitted, his good fortune +would never have come. If his brethren had not hated him, if he had +not been sold, if he had not been imprisoned, he would never have +ruled Egypt. Not one thread in the tapestry could have been +withdrawn without spoiling the pattern. We cannot afford to lose one +of our sorrows or trials. There would be no summer unless winter had +gone before. There is a bud or a fruit for every snowflake, and a +bird's song for every howl of the storm. + +Plainly, too, does the story read the lesson of quiet doing of the +work and accepting the circumstances of the moment. Joseph was being +prepared for the administration of a kingdom by his oversight of +Potiphar's house and of the prison. His character was matured by his +trials, as iron is consolidated by heavy hammers. To resist +temptation, to do modestly and sedulously whatever work comes to our +hands, to be content to look after a jail even though we have +dreamed of sun and moon bowing down to us, is the best +apprenticeship for whatever elevation circumstances--or, to speak +more devoutly, God--intends for us. Young men thrown into city life +far away from their homes, and whispered to by many seducing voices, +have often to suffer for keeping themselves unspotted; but they are +being strengthened by rough discipline, and will get such promotion, +in due time, as is good for them. But outward success is not God's +best gift. It was better to be the Joseph who deserved his high +place, than to have the place. The character which he had grown into +was more than the trappings which Pharaoh put on him. And such a +character is always the reward of such patience, faith, and self- +control, whether chains and chariots are added or not. + +Little need be said about the other points of the story. Joseph's +naturalisation as an Egyptian was complete. His name was changed, in +token that he had completely become a subject of Pharaoh's. The +meaning of the formidable-looking polysyllable, which Egyptian lips +found easier than 'Joseph,' is uncertain. 'At present the origin of +the first syllable is still doubtful, and though the latter part of +the name is certainly the Egyptian _n-ti-pa-ankh_ ("of the +life"), it is difficult to say in which of its different senses the +expression _pa-ankh_ ("the life") is employed' (Sayce, _ut +supra_, p. 213). The prevailing opinion of Egyptian experts is +that it means 'Support of life.' + +The naturalising was completed by his marriage to Asenath (supposed +to mean 'One belonging to the goddess Neith'), a daughter of a high +officer of state, Poti-phera (meaning, like its shortened form, +Potiphar, 'The gift of Ra' the sun-god). Such an alliance placed him +at once in the very innermost circle of Egyptian aristocracy. It may +have been a bitter pill for the priest to swallow, to give his +daughter to a man of yesterday, and an alien; but, just as probably, +he too looked to Joseph with some kind of awe, and was not unwilling +to wed Asenath to the first man in the empire, wherever he had +started up from. + +But should not Joseph's religion have barred such a marriage? The +narrator gives no judgment on the fact, and we have to form our own +estimate. But it is not to be estimated as if it had occurred five +or six centuries later. The family of Jacob was not so fenced off, +nor was its treasure of revelation so complete, as afterwards. We +may be fairly sure that Joseph felt no inconsistency between his +ancestral faith, which had become his own in his trials, and this +union. He was risking a great deal; that is certain. Whether the +venture ended well or ill, we know not. Only we may be very sure +that a marriage in which a common faith is not a strong bond of +union lacks its highest sanctity, and is perilously apt to find that +difference in religious convictions is a strong separator. + +Joseph's administration opens up questions as to Egyptian land +tenure, and the like, which cannot be dealt with here. 'In the +earlier days of the monarchy the country was in the hands of great +feudal lords; ... the land belonged to them absolutely.... But after +the convulsion caused by the Hyksos conquest and the war of +independence, this older system of land tenure was completely +changed.... The Pharaoh is the fountain head, not only of honour, +but of property as well.... The people ceased to have any rights of +their own' (Sayce, _ut supra_, p. 216). + +We may note Joseph's immediate entrance upon office and his +characteristic energy in it. He 'went out from the presence of +Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.' No grass grew +under this man's feet. He was ubiquitous, personally overseeing +everything for seven long years. Wasteful consumption of the +abundant crops had to be restrained, storehouses to be built, +careful records of the contents to be made, after Egyptian fashion. +The people, who could not look so far as seven years ahead, and +wanted to enjoy, or make money out of, the good harvests, had to be +looked after, and an army of officials to be kept in order. Dignity +meant work for him. Like all true men, he thought more of his duty +than of his honours. Depend on it, he did not wear his fine clothes +or ride in the second chariot, when he was hurrying about the +country at his task. + +He had come 'out of prison to reign,' and, as we all find, if we are +God's servants, to reign means to serve, and the higher the place +the harder the task. The long years of waiting had nourished powers +which the seven years of busy toil tested. We must make ourselves, +by God's help, ready, in obscurity, and especially in youth, for +whatever may be laid on us in after days. And if we understand what +life here means, we shall be more covetous of spheres of diligent +service than of places of shining dignity. Whatever our task, let us +do it, as Joseph did his, with strenuous concentration, knowing, as +he did, that the years in which it is possible are but few at the +longest. + + + + +RECOGNITION AND RECONCILIATION + + + 'Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them + that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go + out from me. And there stood no man with him, while + Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he + wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh + heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; + doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not + answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And + Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray + you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your + brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not + grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me + hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. + For these two years hath the famine been in the land: + and yet there are five years, in the which there shall + neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before + you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to + save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not + you that sent me hither, but God: and He hath made me + a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a + ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and + go up to my father, and say unto him. Thus saith thy son + Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down + unto me, tarry not: And thou shalt dwell in the land of + Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy + children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, + and thy herds, and all that thou hast: And there will I + nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; + lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, + come to poverty. And, behold, your eyes see, and the + eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that + speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all + my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye + shall haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell + upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin + wept upon his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brethren, + and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked + with him.' + GENESIS xlv. 1-15. + + +I + + +If the writer of this inimitable scene of Joseph's reconciliation +with his brethren was not simply an historian, he was one of the +great dramatic geniuses of the world, master of a vivid minuteness +like Defoe's, and able to touch the springs of tears by a pathetic +simplicity like his who painted the death of Lear. Surely theories +of legend and of mosaic work fail here. + +1. We have, first, disclosure. The point at which the impenetrable, +stern ruler breaks down is significant. It is after Judah's torrent +of intercession for Benjamin, and self-sacrificing offer of himself +for a substitute and a slave. Why did this touch Joseph so keenly? +Was it not because his brother's speech shows that filial and +fraternal affection was now strong enough in him to conquer self? He +had sent Joseph to the fate which he is now ready to accept. He and +the rest had thought nothing of the dagger they plunged into their +father's heart by selling Joseph; but now he is prepared to accept +bondage if he may save his father's grey head an ache. The whole of +Joseph's harsh, enigmatical treatment had been directed to test +them, and to ascertain if they were the same fierce, cruel men as of +old. Now, when the doubt is answered, he can no longer dam back the +flood of forgiving love. The wisest pardoning kindness seeks the +assurance of sorrow and change in the offender, before it can safely +and wholesomely enjoy the luxury of letting itself out in tears of +reconciliation. We do not call Joseph a type of Christ; but the +plain process of forgiveness in his brotherly heart is moulded by +the law which applies to God's pardon as to ours. All the wealth of +yearning pardon is there, before contrition and repentance; but it +is not good for the offender that it should be lavished on him, +impenitent. + +What a picture that is of the all-powerful ruler, choking down his +emotion, and hurriedly ordering the audience chamber to be cleared! +How many curious glances would be cast over their shoulders, by the +slowly withdrawing crowd, at the strange group--the viceroy, usually +so calm, thus inexplicably excited, and the huddled, rude shepherds, +bewildered and afraid of what was coming next, in this unaccountable +country! How eavesdroppers would linger as near as they durst, and +how looks would be exchanged as the sounds of passionate weeping +rewarded their open ears! The deepest feelings are not to be +flaunted before the world. The man who displays his tears, and the +man who is too proud to shed them, are both wrong; but perhaps it is +worse to weep in public than not to weep at all. + +'I am Joseph.' Were ever the pathos of simplicity, and the simplicity +of pathos, more nobly expressed than in these two words?--(There +are but two in the Hebrew.) Has the highest dramatic genius ever +winged an arrow which goes more surely to the heart than that? +The question, which hurries after the disclosure, seems strange and +needless; but it is beautifully self-revealing, as expressive of +agitation, and as disclosing a son's longing, and perhaps, too, as +meant to relieve the brothers' embarrassment, and, as it were, to +wrap the keen edge of the disclosure in soft wool. + +2. We have, next, conscience-stricken silence. No wonder his +brethren 'could not answer' and 'were troubled at his presence.' +They had found their brother a ruler; they had found the ruler their +brother. Their former crime had turned what might have been a joy +into a terror. Already they had come to know and regret it. It might +seem to their startled consciences as if now they were about to +expiate it. They would remember the severity of Joseph's past +intercourse; they see his power, and cannot but be doubtful of his +intentions. Had all his strange conduct been manoeuvring to get +them, Benjamin and all, into his toils, that one blow might perfect +his revenge? Our suspicions are the reflections of our own hearts. +So there they stand in open-mouthed, but dumb, wonder and dread. It +would task the pencil of him who painted, on the mouldering +refectory wall at Milan, the conflicting emotions of the apostles, +at the announcement of the betrayer, to portray that silent company +of abased and trembling criminals. They are an illustration of the +profitlessness of all crime. Sin is, as one of its Hebrew names +tells us, missing the mark--whether we think of it as fatally +failing to reach the ideal of conduct, or as always, by a divine +nemesis, failing to hit even the shabby end it aims at. 'Every rogue +is a roundabout fool.' They put Joseph in the pit, and here he is on +a throne. They have stained their souls, and embittered their +father's life for twenty-two long years, and the dreams have come +true, and all their wickedness has not turned the stream of the +divine purpose, any more than the mud dam built by a child diverts +the Mississippi. One flash has burned up their whole sinful past, +and they stand scorched and silent among the ruins. So it always is. +Sooner or later the same certainty of the futility of his sin will +overwhelm every sinful man, and dumb self-condemnation will stand in +silent acknowledgment of evil desert before the throne of the +Brother, who is now the Prince and the Judge, on whose fiat hangs +life or death. To see Christ enthroned should be joy; but it may be +turned into terror and silent anticipation of His just condemnation. + +3. We have encouragement and complete forgiveness. That invitation +to come close up to him, with which Joseph begins the fuller +disclosure of his heart, is a beautiful touch. We can fancy how +tender the accents, and how, with some lightening of fear, but still +hesitatingly and ashamed, the shepherds, unaccustomed to courtly +splendours, approached. The little pause while they draw near helps +him to self-command, and he resumes his words in a calmer tone. With +one sentence of assurance that he is their brother, he passes at +once into that serene region where all passion and revenge die, +unable to breathe its keen, pure air. The comfort which he addresses +to their penitence would have been dangerous, if spoken to men blind +to the enormity of their past. But it will not make a truly +repentant conscience less sensitive, though it may alleviate the +aching of the wound, to think that God has used even its sin for His +own purposes. It will not take away the sense of the wickedness of +the motive to know that a wonderful providence has rectified the +consequences. It will rather deepen the sense of evil, and give new +cause of adoration of the love that pardons the wrong, and the +providence that neutralises the harm. + +Joseph takes the true point of view, which we are all bound to +occupy, if we would practise the Christian grace of forgiveness. He +looks beyond the mere human hate and envy to the divine purpose. +'The sword is theirs; the hand is Thine.' He can even be grateful to +his foes who have been unintentionally his benefactors. He thinks of +the good that has come out of their malice, and anger dies within +him. + +Highest attainment of all, the good for which he is grateful is not +his all-but-regal dignity, but the power to save and gladden those +who would fain have slain, and had saddened him for many a weary +year. We read in these utterances of a lofty piety and of a +singularly gentle heart, the fruit of sorrow and the expression of +thoughts which had slowly grown up in his mind, and had now been +long familiar there. Such a calm, certain grasp of the divine +shaping and meaning of his life could not have sprung up all at once +in him, as he looked at the conscience-stricken culprits cowering +before him. More than natural sweetness and placability must have +gone to the making of such a temper of forgiveness. He must have +been living near the Fountain of all mercy to have had so full a cup +of it to offer. Because he had caught a gleam of the divine pardon, +he becomes a mirror of it; and we may fairly see in this ill-used +brother, yearning over the half-sullen sinners, and seeking to open +a way for his forgiveness to steal into their hearts, and rejoicing +over his very sorrows which have fitted him to save them alive, and +satisfy them in the days of famine, an adumbration of our Elder +Brother's forgiving love and saving tenderness. + +4. The second part of Joseph's address is occupied with his message +to Jacob, and shows how he longed for his father's presence. There +is something very natural and beautiful in the repeated exhortations +to haste, as indicating the impatient love of a long-absent son. If +his heart was so true to his father, why had he sent him no message +for all these years? Egypt was near enough, and for nine years now +he had been in power. Surely he could have gratified his heart. But +he could not have learned by any other means his brethren's +feelings, and if they were still what they had been, no intercourse +would be possible. He could only be silent, and yearn for the way to +open in God's providence, as it did. + +The message to Jacob is sent from 'thy son Joseph,' in token that +the powerful ruler lays his dignity at his father's feet. No +elevation will ever make a true son forget his reverence for his +father. If he rise higher in the world, and has to own an old man, +away in some simple country home, for his sire, he will be proud to +do it. The enduring sanctity of the family ties is not the least +valuable lesson from our narrative for this generation, where social +conditions are so often widely different in parents and in children. +There is an affectionate spreading out of all his glory before his +father's old eyes; not that he cared much about it for himself, +since, as we have seen, elevation to him meant mainly work, but +because he knew how the eyes would glisten at the sight. His mother, +who would have been proud of him, is gone, but he has still the joy +of gladdening his father by the exhibition of his dignity. It +bespeaks a simple nature, unspoiled by prosperity, to delight thus +in his father's delight, and to wish the details of all his +splendour to be told him. A statesman who takes most pleasure in his +elevation because of the good he can do by it, and because it will +please the old people at home, must be a pure and lovable man. The +command has another justification in the necessity to assure his +father of the wisdom of so great a change. God had set him in the +Promised Land, and a very plain divine injunction was needed to +warrant his leaving it. Such a one was afterwards given in vision; +but the most emphatic account of his son's honour and power was none +the less required to make the old Jacob willing to abandon so much, +and go into such strange conditions. + +We have another instance of the difference between man's purposes +and God's counsel in this message. Joseph's only thought is to +afford his family temporary shelter during the coming five years of +famine. Neither he nor they knew that this was the fulfilment of the +covenant with Abraham, and the bringing of them into the land of +their oppression for four centuries. No shadow of that future was +cast upon their joy, and yet, the steady march of God's plan was +effected along the path which they were ignorantly preparing. The +road-maker does not know what bands of mourners, or crowds of +holiday makers, or troops of armed men may pass along it. + +5. This wonderfully beautiful scene ends with the kiss of full +reconciliation and frank communion. All the fear is out of the +brothers' hearts. It has washed away all the envy along with it. The +history of Jacob's household had hitherto been full of sins against +family life. Now, at last, they taste the sweetness of fraternal +love. Joseph, against whom they had sinned, takes the initiative, +flinging himself with tears on the neck of Benjamin, his own +mother's son, nearer to him than all the others, crowding his pent- +up love in one long kiss. Then, with less of passionate affection, +but more of pardoning love, he kisses his contrite brothers. The +offender is ever less ready to show love than the offended. The +first step towards reconciliation, whether of man with man or of man +with God, comes from the aggrieved. We always hate those whom we +have harmed; and if enmity were ended only by the advances of the +wrong-doer, it would be perpetual. The injured has the prerogative +of praying the injurer to be reconciled. So was it in Pharaoh's +throne-room on that long past day; so is it still in the audience +chamber of heaven. 'He that might the vantage best have took found +out the remedy.' 'We love Him, because He first loved us.' + +The pardoned men find their tongues at last. Forgiveness has opened +their lips, and though their reverence and thanks are no less, their +confidence and familiarity are more. How they would talk when once +the terror was melted away! So should it be with the soul which has +tasted the sweetness of Christ's forgiving love, and has known 'the +kisses of His mouth.' Long, unrestrained, and happy should be the +intercourse which we forgiven sinners keep up with our Brother, the +Prince of all the land. 'After that his brethren talked with him.' + + + + +JOSEPH, THE PARDONER AND PRESERVER + + +II + + +THE noble words in which Joseph dissipates his brothers' doubts +have, as their first characteristic, the recognition of the God by +whom his career had been shaped, and, for their next, the +recognition of the purpose for which it had been. There is a world +of tenderness and forgivingness in the addition made to his first +words in verse 4, 'Joseph, _your brother_.' He owns the mystic +bond of kindred, and thereby assures them of his pardon for their +sin against it. It was right that he should remind them of their +crime, even while declaring his pardon. But he rises high above all +personal considerations and graciously takes the place of soother, +instead of that of accuser. Far from cherishing thoughts of anger or +revenge, he tries to lighten the reproaches of their own +consciences. Thrice over in four verses he traces his captivity to +God. He had learned that wisdom in his long years of servitude, and +had not forgotten it in those of rule. + +There will be little disposition in us to visit offences against +ourselves on the offenders, if we discern God's purpose working +through our sorrows, and see, as the Psalmist did, that even our +foes are 'men which are Thy hand, O Lord.' True, His overruling +providence does not make their guilt less; but the recognition of it +destroys all disposition to revenge, and injured and injurer may one +day unite in adoring the result of what the One suffered at the +other's hands. Surely, some Christian persecutors and their victims +have thus joined hands in heaven. If we would cultivate the habit of +seeing God behind second causes, our hearts would be kept free from +much wrath and bitterness. + +Joseph was as certain of the purpose as of the source of his +elevation. He saw now what he had been elevated for, and he eagerly +embraced the task which was a privilege. No doubt, he had often +brooded over the thought, 'Why am I thus lifted up?' and had felt +the privilege of being a nation's saviour; but now he realises that +he has a part to play in fulfilling God's designs in regard to the +seed of Abraham. Cloudy as his outlook into the future may have +been, he knew that great promises affecting all nations were +intertwined with his family, separation from whom had been a sorrow +for years. But now the thought comes to him with sudden illumination +and joy: 'This, then, is what it all has meant, that I should be a +link in the chain of God's workings.' He knows himself to be God's +instrument for effecting His covenant promises. How small a thing +honour and position became in comparison! + +We cannot all have great tasks in the line of God's purposes, but we +can all feel that our little ones are made great by being seen to be +in it. The less we think about chariots and gold chains, and the +more we try to find out what God means by setting us where we are, +and to do that, the better for our peace and true dignity. A true +man does not care for the rewards of work half as much as for the +work itself. Find out what God intends, and never mind whether He +puts you in a dungeon or in a palace. Both places lie on the road +which He has marked and, in either, the main thing is to do His +will. + +Next comes the swiftly devised plan for carrying out God's purpose. +It sounds as if Joseph, with prompt statesmanship, had struck it out +then and there. At all events, he pours it forth with contagious +earnestness and haste. Note how he says over and over again 'My +father,' as if he loved to dwell on the name, but also as if he had +not yet completely realised the renewal of the broken ties of +brotherhood. It was some trial of the stuff he was made of, to have +to bring his father and his family to be stared at, and perhaps +mocked at, by the court. Many a successful man would be very much +annoyed if his old father, in his country clothes, and hands +roughened by toil, sat down beside him in his prosperity. Joseph had +none of that baseness. Jacob would come, if at all, as a half- +starved immigrant, and would be 'an abomination to the Egyptians.' +But what of that? He was 'my father,' and his son knows no better +use to make of his dignity than to compel reverence for Jacob's grey +hairs, which he will take care shall _not_ be 'brought down +with sorrow to the grave.' It is a very homely lesson--never be +ashamed of your father. But in these days, when children are often +better educated than their parents, and rise above them in social +importance, it is a very needful one. + +The first overtures of reconciliation should come from the side of +the injured party. That is Christ's law, and if it were Christians' +practice, there would be fewer alienations among them. It is +Christ's law, because it is Christ's own way of dealing with us. He, +too, was envied, and sold by His brethren. His sufferings were meant +'to preserve life.' Stephen's sermon in the Sanhedrin dwells on +Joseph as a type of Christ; and the typical character is seen not +least distinctly in this, that He against whom we have sinned pleads +with us, seeks to draw us nearer to Himself, and to lead us to put +away all hard thoughts of Him, and to cherish all loving ones +towards Him, by showing us how void His heart is of anger against +us, and how full of yearning love and of gracious intention to +provide for us a dwelling-place, with abundance of all needful good, +beside Himself, while the years of famine shall last. + + + + +GROWTH BY TRANSPLANTING + + + 'Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father + and my brethren, and their flocks, and their herds, and + all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; + and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took + some of his brethren, even five men, and presented them + unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren, What + is your occupation? And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy + servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers. + They said moreover unto Pharaoh, For to sojourn in the + land are we come; for thy servants have no pasture for + their flocks, for the famine is sore in the land of + Canaan: now therefore, we pray thee, let thy servants + dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spake unto + Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come + unto thee: The land of Egypt is before thee; in the + best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; + in the land of Goshen let them dwell: and if thou knowest + any men of activity among them, then make them rulers + over my cattle. And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, + and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. + And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob + said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage + are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the + days of the years of my life been, and have not attained + unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in + the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, + and went out from before Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his + father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in + the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land + of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished + his father, and his brethren, and all his father's + household, with bread, according to their families.' + --GENESIS xlvii. 1-12. + +1. The conduct of Joseph in reference to the settlement in Goshen is +an example of the possibility of uniting worldly prudence with high +religious principle and great generosity of nature. He had promised +his brothers a home in that fertile eastern district, which afforded +many advantages in its proximity to Canaan, its adaptation to +pastoral life, and its vicinity to Joseph when in Zoan, the capital. +But he had not consulted Pharaoh, and, however absolute his +authority, it scarcely stretched to giving away Egyptian territory +without leave. So his first care, when the wanderers arrive, is to +manage the confirmation of the grant. He goes about it with +considerable astuteness--a hereditary quality, which is redeemed +from blame because used for unselfish purposes and unstained by +deceit. He does not tell Pharaoh how far he had gone, but simply +announces that his family are in Goshen, as if awaiting the +monarch's further pleasure. Then he introduces a deputation, no +doubt carefully chosen, of five of his brothers (as if the whole +number would have been too formidable), previously instructed how to +answer. He knows what Pharaoh is in the habit of asking, or he knows +that he can lead him to ask the required question, which will bring +out the fact of their being shepherds, and utilise the prejudice +against that occupation, to ensure separation in Goshen. All goes as +he had arranged. Thanks partly to the indifference of the king, who +seems to have been rather a _roi fainéant_ in the hands of his +energetic _maire du palais_, and to have been contented to +give, with a flourish of formality, as a command to Joseph, what +Joseph had previously carefully suggested to him (vers. 6, 7). There +is nothing unfair in all this. It is good, shrewd management, and no +fault can be found with it; but it is a new trait in the ideal +character of a servant of God, and contrasts strongly with the type +shown in Abraham. None the less, it is a legitimate element in the +character and conduct of a good man, set down to do God's work in +such a world. Joseph is a saint and a politician. His shrewdness is +never craft; sagacity is not alien to consecration. No doubt it has +to be carefully watched lest it degenerate; but prudence is as +needful as enthusiasm, and he is the complete man who has a burning +fire down in his heart to generate the force that drives him, and a +steady hand on the helm, and a keen eye on the chart, to guide him. +Be ye 'wise as serpents' but also 'harmless as doves.' + +2 We may note in Joseph's conduct also an instance of a man in high +office and not ashamed of his humble relations. One of the great +lessons meant to be taught by the whole patriarchal period was the +sacredness of the family. That is, in some sense, the keynote of +Joseph's history. Here we see family love, which had survived the +trial of ill-usage and long absence, victorious over the temptation +of position and high associates. It took some nerve and a great deal +of affection, for the viceroy, whom envious and sarcastic courtiers +watched, to own his kin. What a sweet morsel for malicious tongues +it would be, 'Have you heard? He is only the son of an old shepherd, +who is down in Goshen, come to pick up some crumbs there!' One can +fancy the curled lips and the light laugh, as the five brothers, led +by the great man himself, made their rustic reverences to Pharaoh. +It is as if some high official in Paris were to walk in half a dozen +peasants in blouse and sabots, and present them to the president as +'my brothers.' It was a brave thing to do; and it teaches a lesson +which many people, who have made their way in the world, would be +nobler and more esteemed if they learned. + +3. The brother's words to Pharaoh are another instance of that +ignorant carrying out of the divine purposes which we have already +had to notice. They evidently contemplate only a temporary stay in +the country. They say that they are come 'to _sojourn_'--the +verb from which are formed the noun often rendered '_strangers_,' and +that which Jacob uses in verse 9, 'my _pilgrimage_.' The reason for +their coming is given as the transient scarcity of pasturage in Canaan, +which implies the intention of return as soon as that was altered. +Joseph had the same idea of the short duration of their stay; and +though Jacob had been taught by vision that the removal was in order +to their being made a great nation, it does not seem that his sons' +intentions were affected by that--if they knew it. So mistaken are our +estimates. We go to a place for a month, and we stay in it for +twenty years. We go to a place to settle for life, and our tent-pegs +are pulled up in a week. They thought of five years, and it was to be +nearly as many centuries. They thought of temporary shelter and food; +God meant an education of them and their descendants. Over all this +story the unseen Hand hovers, chastising, guiding, impelling; and the +human agents are free and yet fulfilling an eternal purpose, blind +and yet accountable, responsible for motives, and mercifully ignorant +of consequences. So we all play our little parts. We have no call to +be curious as to what will come of our deeds. This end of the action, +the motive of it, is our care; the other end, the outcome of it, is +God's business to see to. + +4. We may also observe how trivial incidents are wrought into God's +scheme. The Egyptian hatred of the shepherd class secured one of the +prime reasons for the removal from Canaan--the unimpeded growth of a +tribe into a nation. There was no room for further peaceful and +separate expansion in that thickly populated country. Nor would +there have been in Egypt, unless under the condition of comparative +isolation, which could not have been obtained in any other way. Thus +an unreasonable prejudice, possibly connected with religious ideas, +became an important factor in the development of Israel; and, once +again, we have to note the wisdom of the great Builder who uses not +only gold, silver, and precious stones, but even wood, hay, +stubble--follies and sins--for His edifice. + +5. The interview of Jacob with Pharaoh is pathetic and beautiful. +The old man comports himself, in all the later history of Joseph, as +if done with the world, and waiting to go. 'Let me die, since I have +seen thy face,' was his farewell to life. He takes no part in the +negotiation about Goshen, but has evidently handed over all temporal +cares to younger hands. A halo of removedness lies round his grey +hairs, and to Pharaoh he behaves as one withdrawn from fleeting +things, and, by age and nearness to the end, superior even to a +king's dignity. As he enters the royal presence he does not do +reverence, but invokes a blessing upon him. 'The less is blessed of +the better.' He has nothing to do with court ceremonials or +conventionalities. The hoary head is a crown of honour, Pharaoh +recognises his right to address him thus by the kindly question as +to his age, which implied respect for his years. The answer of the +'Hebrew Ulysses,' as Stanley calls him, breathes a spirit of +melancholy not unnatural in one who had once more been uprooted, and +found himself again a wanderer in his old age. The tremulous voice +has borne the words across all the centuries, and has everywhere +evoked a response in the hearts of weary and saddened men. Look at +the component parts of this pensive retrospect. + +Life has been to him a 'pilgrimage'. He thinks of all his wanderings +from that far-off day when at Bethel he received the promise of +God's presence 'in all places whither thou goest,' till this last +happy and yet disturbing change. But he is thinking not only, +perhaps not chiefly, of the circumstances, but of the spirit, of his +life. This is, no doubt, the confession 'that they were strangers +and pilgrims' referred to in the Epistle to the Hebrews. He was a +pilgrim, not because he had often changed his place of abode, but +because he sought the 'city which hath foundations,' and therefore +could not be at home here. The goal of his life lay in the far +future; and whether he looked for the promises to be fulfilled on +earth, or had the unformulated consciousness of immortality, and +saluted the dimly descried coast from afar while tossing on life's +restless ocean, he was effectually detached from the present, and +felt himself an alien in the existing order. We have to live by the +same hope, and to let it work the same estrangement, if we would +live noble lives. Not because all life is change, nor because it all +marches steadily on to the grave, but because our true home--the +community to which we really belong, the metropolis, the mother city +of our souls--is above, are we to feel ourselves strangers upon +earth. They who only take into account the transiency of life are +made sad, or sometimes desperate, by the unwelcome thought. But they +whose pilgrimage is a journey home may look that transiency full in +the face, and be as glad because of it as colonists on their voyage +to the old country which they call 'home,' though they were born on +the other side of the world and have never seen its green fields. + +To Jacob's eyes his days seem 'few.' Abraham's one hundred and +seventy-five years, Isaac's one hundred and eighty, were in his +mind. But more than these was in his mind. The law of the moral +perspective is other than that of the physical. The days in front, +seen through the glass of anticipation, are drawn out; the days +behind, viewed through the telescope of memory, are crowded +together. What a moment looked all the long years of his struggling +life--shorter now than even had once seemed the seven years of +service for his Rachel, that love had made to fly past on such swift +wings! That happy wedded life, how short it looked! A bright light +for a moment, and + + 'Ere a man could say "Behold!" + The jaws of darkness did devour it up.' + +It is well to lay the coolness of this thought on our fevered +hearts, and, whether they be torn by sorrows or gladdened with +bliss, to remember 'this also will pass' and the longest stretch of +dreary days be seen in retrospect, in their due relation to +eternity, as but a moment. That will not paralyse effort nor abate +sweetness, but it will teach proportion, and deliver from the +illusions of this solid-seeming shadow which we call life. + +The pensive retrospect darkens as the old man's memory dwells upon +the past. His days have not only been few--that could be borne--but +they have been 'evil' by which I understand not unfortunate so much +as faulty. We have seen in preceding pages the slow process by which +the crafty Jacob had his sins purged out of him, and became 'God's +wrestler.' Here we learn that old wrong-doing, even when forgiven--or, +rather, when and because forgiven--leaves regretful memories +lifelong. The early treachery had been long ago repented of and +pardoned by God and man. The nature which hatched it had been +renewed. But here it starts up again, a ghost from the grave, and +the memory of it is full of bitterness. No lapse of time deprives a +sin of its power to sting. As in the old story of the man who was +killed by a rattlesnake's poison fang embedded in a boot which had +lain forgotten for years, we may be wounded by suddenly coming +against it, long after it is forgiven by God and almost forgotten by +ourselves. Many a good man, although he knows that Christ's blood +has washed away his guilt, is made to possess the iniquities of his +youth. 'Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy +mouth any more, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou +hast done.' + +But this shaded retrospect is one-sided. It is true, and in some +moods seems all the truth; but Jacob saw more distinctly, and his +name was rightly Israel, when, laying his trembling hands on the +heads of Joseph's sons, he laid there the blessing of 'the God which +fed me all my life long, ... 'the Angel which redeemed me from all +evil.' That was his last thought about his life, as it began to be +seen in the breaking light of eternal day. Pensive and penitent +memory may call the years few and evil, but grateful faith even +here, and still more the cleared vision of heaven, will discern more +truly that they have been a long miracle of loving care, and that +all their seeming evil has been transmuted into good. + + + + +TWO RETROSPECTS OF ONE LIFE + + + 'And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, Few and evil have the + days of the years of my life been.'--GENESIS xlvii. 9. + + 'The God which fed me all my life long unto this day; + the Angel which redeemed me from all evil.' + --GENESIS xlviii. 15,16. + +These are two strangely different estimates of the same life to be +taken by the same man. In the latter Jacob categorically contradicts +everything that he had said in the former. 'Few and evil,' he said +before Pharaoh. 'All my life long,' 'the Angel which redeemed me +from all evil,' he said on his death-bed. + +If he meant what he said when he spoke to Pharaoh, and characterised +his life thus, he was wrong. He was possibly in a melancholy mood. +Very naturally, the unfamiliar splendours of a court dazzled and +bewildered the old man, accustomed to a quiet shepherd life down at +Hebron. He had not come to see Pharaoh, he only cared to meet +Joseph; and, as was quite natural, the new and uncongenial +surroundings depressed him. Possibly the words are only a piece of +the etiquette of an Eastern court, where it is the correct thing for +the subject to depreciate himself in all respects as far inferior to +the prince. And there may be little more than conventional humility +in the words of my first text. But I am rather disposed to think +that they express the true feeling of the moment, in a mood that +passed and was followed by a more wholesome one. + +I put the two sayings side by side just for the sake of gathering up +one or two plain lessons from them. + +1. We have here two possible views of life. + +Now the key to the difference between these two statements and moods +of feeling seems to me to be a very plain one. In the former of them +there is nothing about God. It is all Jacob. In the latter we notice +that there is a great deal more about God than about Jacob, and that +determines the whole tone of the retrospect. In the first text Jacob +speaks of 'the days of the years of _my_ pilgrimage,' 'the days +of the years of _my_ life,' and so on, without a syllable about +anything except the purely earthly view of life. Of course, when you +shut out God, the past is all dark enough, grey and dismal, like the +landscape on some cloudy day, where the woods stand black, and the +rivers creep melancholy through colourless fields, and the sky is +grey and formless above. Let the sun come out, and the river flashes +into a golden mirror, and the woods are alive with twinkling lights +and shadows, and the sky stretches a blue pavilion above them, and +all the birds sing. Let God into your life, and its whole complexion +and characteristics change. The man who sits whining and +complaining, when he has shut out the thought of a divine Presence, +finds that everything alters when he brings that in. + +And, then, look at the two particulars on which the patriarch +dwells. 'I am only one hundred and thirty years old,' he says; a +mere infant compared with Abraham and Isaac! How did he know he was +not going to live to be as old as either of them? And 'if his days +were evil,' as he said, was it not a good thing that they were few? +But, instead of that, he finds reasons for complaint in the brevity +of the life which, if it were as evil as he made it out to be, must +often have seemed wearisomely long, and dragged very slowly. Now, +both things are true--life is short, life is long. Time is elastic--you +can stretch it or you can contract it. It is short compared with the +duration of God; it is short, as one of the Psalms puts it pathetically, +as compared with this Nature round us--'The earth abideth for ever'; +we are strangers upon it, and there is no abiding for us. It is short +as compared with the capacities and powers of the creatures that possess +it; but, oh! if we think of our days as a series of gifts of God, if we +look upon them, as Jacob looked upon them when he was sane, as being one +continued shepherding by God, they stretch out into blessed length. Life +is long enough if it manifests that God takes care of us, and if we learn +that He does. Life is long enough if it serves to build up a God-pleasing +character. + +It is beautiful to see how the thought of God enters into the dying +man's remembrances in the shape which was natural to him, regard +being had to his own daily avocations. For the word translated 'fed' +means much more than supplied with nourishment. It is the word for +doing the office of shepherd, and we must not forget, if we want to +understand its beauty, that Jacob's sons said, 'Thy servants are +shepherds; both we and also our fathers.' So this man, in the +solitude of his pastoral life, and whilst living amongst his woolly +people who depended upon his guidance and care, had learned many a +lesson as to how graciously and tenderly and constantly fed, and +led, and protected, and fostered by God were the creatures of His +hand. + +It was he, I suppose, who first gave to religious thought that +metaphor which has survived temple and sacrifice and priesthood, and +will survive even earth itself; for 'I am the Good Shepherd' is as +true to-day as when first spoken by Jesus, and 'the Lamb which is in +the midst of the throne shall lead them,' and be their Shepherd when +the flock is carried to the upper pastures and the springs that +never fail. The life which has brought us that thought of a +Shepherd-God has been long enough; and the days which have been so +expanded as to contain a continuous series of His benefits and +protections need never be remembered as 'few,' whatsoever be the +arithmetic that is applied to them. + +The other contradiction is equally eloquent and significant. 'Few +and evil' have my days been, said Jacob, when he was not thinking +about God; but when he remembered the Angel of the Presence, that +mysterious person with whom he had wrestled at Peniel, and whose +finger had lamed the thigh while His lips proclaimed a blessing, his +view changed, and instead of talking about 'evil' days, he says, +'The Angel that redeemed me from all evil.' Yes, his life had been +evil, whether by that we mean sorrowful or sinful, and the sorrows +and the sins had been closely connected. A sorely tried man he had +been. Far away back in the past had been his banishment from home; +his disappointment and hard service with the churlish Laban; the +misbehaviour of his sons; the death of Rachel--that wound which was +never stanched; and then the twenty years' mourning for Rachel's +son, the heir of his inheritance. These were the evils, the sins +were as many, for every one of the sorrows, except perhaps the +chiefest of them all, had its root in some piece of duplicity, +dishonesty, or failure. But he was there in Egypt beside Joseph. The +evils had stormed over him, but he was there still. And so at the +end he says, 'The Angel ... redeemed me from evil, though it smote +me. Sorrow became chastisement, and I was purged of my sin by my +calamities.' The sorrows are past, like some raging inundation that +comes up for a night over the land and then subsides; but the +blessing of fertility which it brought in its tawny waves abides +with me yet. Joseph is by my side. 'I had not thought to see thy +face, and God hath showed me the face of thy seed.' That sorrow is +over. Rachel's grave is still by the wayside, and that sorest of +sorrows has wrought with others to purify character. Jacob has been +tried by sorrows; he has been purged from sins. 'The Angel delivered +me from all evil.' So, dear friends, sorrow is not evil if it helps +to strip us from the evil that we love, and the ills that we bear +are good if they alienate our affections from the ills that we do. + +2. Secondly, note the wisdom and the duty of taking the completer +and brighter view. + +These first words of Jacob's are very often quoted as if they were +the pattern of the kind of thing people ought to say, 'Few and evil +have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage.' That is a text +from which many sermons have been preached with approbation of the +pious resignation expressed in it. But it does not seem to me that +that is the tone of them. If the man believed what he said, then he +was very ungrateful and short-sighted, though there were excuses to +be made for him under the circumstances. If the days had been evil, +he had made them so. + +But the point which I wish to make now is that it is largely a +matter for our own selection which of the two views of our lives we +take. We may make our choice whether we shall fix our attention on +the brighter or on the darker constituents of our past. + +Suppose a wall papered with paper of two colours, one black, say, +and the other gold. You can work your eye and adjust the focus of +vision so that you may see either a black background or a gold one. +In the one case the prevailing tone is gloomy, relieved by an +occasional touch of brightness; and in the other it is brightness, +heightened by a background of darkness. And so you can do with life, +fixing attention on its sorrows, and hugging yourselves in the +contemplation of these with a kind of morbid satisfaction, or +bravely and thankfully and submissively and wisely resolving that +you will rather seek to learn what God means by darkness, and not +forgetting to look at the unenigmatical blessings, and plain, +obvious mercies, that make up so much of our lives. We have to +govern memory as well as other faculties, by Christian principle. We +have to apply the plain teaching of Christian truth to our +sentimental, and often unwholesome, contemplations of the past. +There is enough in all our lives to make material for plenty of +whining and complaining, if we choose to take hold of them by that +handle. And there is enough in all our lives to make us ashamed of +one murmuring word, if we are devout and wise and believing enough +to lay hold of them by that one. Remember that you can make your +view of your life either a bright one or a dark one, and there will +be facts for both; but the facts that feed melancholy are partial +and superficial, and the facts that exhort, 'Rejoice in the Lord +alway; and again I say, Rejoice,' are deep and fundamental. + +3. So, lastly, note how blessed a thing it is when the last look is +the happiest. + +When we are amongst the mountains, or when we are very near them, +they look barren enough, rough, stony, steep. When we travel away +from them, and look at them across the plain, they lie blue in the +distance; and the violet shadows and the golden lights upon them and +the white peaks above make a dream of beauty. Whilst we are in the +midst of the struggle, we are often tempted to think that things go +hardly with us and that the road is very rough. But if we keep near +our dear Lord, and hold by His hand, and try to shape our lives in +accordance with His will--whatever be their outward circumstances +and texture--then we may be very sure of this, that when the end +comes, and we are far enough away from some of the sorrows to see +what they lead to and blossom into, then we shall be able to say, It +was all very good, and to thank Him for all the way by which the +Lord our God has led us. + +In the same conversation in which the patriarch, rising to the +height of a prophet and organ of divine revelation, gives this his +dying testimony of the faithfulness of God, and declares that he has +been delivered from all evil, he recurs to the central sorrow of his +life; and speaks, though in calm words, of that day when he buried +Rachel by 'Ephrath, which is Bethel.' But the pain had passed and +the good was present to him. And so, leaving life, he left it +according to his own word, 'satisfied with favour, and full of the +blessing of the Lord.' So we in our turns may, at the last, hope +that what we know not now will largely be explained; and may seek to +anticipate our dying verdict by a living confidence, in the midst of +our toils and our sorrows, that 'all things work together for good +to them that love God.' + + + + +'THE HANDS OF THE MIGHTY GOD OF JACOB' + + + The archers shot at him, but his bow abode in strength, + and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands + of the mighty God of Jacob.' + GENESIS xlix. 23, 24. + +These picturesque words are part of what purports to be one of the +oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible--the dying Jacob's prophetic +blessing on his sons. Of these sons there are two over whom his +heart seems especially to pour itself--Judah the ancestor of the +royal tribe, and Joseph. The future fortunes of their descendants +are painted in most glowing colours. And of these two, the blessing +on the 'son who was dead and is alive again, who was lost and is +found' is the fuller of tender desire and glad prediction. The words +of our text are probably to be taken as prophecy, not as history--as +referring to the future conflicts and victories of the tribe, not to +the past trials and triumphs of its father. But be that as it may, +they contain, in most vivid metaphor, the earliest utterance of a +very familiar truth. They are the first hint of that thought which +is caught up and expanded in many a later saying of psalmist, and +prophet, and apostle. We hear their echoes in the great song +ascribed to David 'in the day that the Lord delivered him from the +hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul': 'He teacheth my +hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms'; and +the idea receives its fullest carrying out and noblest setting +forth, in the trumpet-call of the apostle, who had seen more +formidable weapons and a more terrible military discipline in Rome's +legions than Jacob knew, and who pressed them into his stimulating +call: 'Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.' 'Put +on the whole armour of God.' Strength for conflict by contact with +the strength of God is the common thought of all these passages--a +very familiar thought, which may perhaps be freshened for us by the +singular intensity with which this metaphor of our text presents it. +Look at the picture.--Here stands the solitary man, ringed all round +by enemies full of bitter hate. Their arrows are on the string, +their bows drawn to the ear. The shafts fly thick, and when they +have whizzed past him, and he can be seen again, he stands unharmed, +grasping his unbroken bow. The assault has shivered no weapon, has +given no wound. He has been able to stand in the evil day--and look! +a pair of great, gentle, strong hands are laid upon his hands and +arms, and strength passes into his feebleness from the touch of 'the +hands of the mighty God of Jacob.' So the enemy have two, not one, +to reckon with. By the side of the hunted man stands a mighty +figure, and it is His strength, not the mortal's impotence, that has +to be overcome. Some dream of such divine help in the struggle of +battle has floated through the minds, and been enshrined in the +legends, of many people, as when the panoplied Athene has been +descried leading the Grecian armies, or, through the dust of +conflict, the gleaming armour and white horses of the Twin Brethren +were seen far in advance of the armies of Rome. But the dream is for +us a reality. It _is_ true that we go not to warfare at our own +charges, nor by our own strength. If we love Him and try to make a +brave stand against our own evil, and to strike a manful blow for +God in this world, we shall not have to bear the brunt alone. +Remember he who fights for God never fights without God. + +There is a strange story in a later book of Scripture, which almost +reads as if it had been modelled on some reminiscence of these words +of the dying Jacob--and is, at any rate, a remarkable illustration +of them. The kingdom of Israel, of which the descendants of Joseph +were the most conspicuous part, was in the very crisis and agony of +one of its Syrian wars. Its principal human helper was 'fallen sick +of the sickness whereof he died.' And to his death-bed came, in a +passion of perplexity and despair, the irresolute weakling who was +then king, bewailing the impending withdrawal of the nation's best +defence. The dying Elisha, with curt authority, pays no heed to the +tears of Joash, but bids him take bow and arrows. 'And he said to +the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow,' and he put his +hand upon it; and '_Elisha put his hands upon the king's +hands_.' Then, when the thin, wasted, transparent fingers of the +old man were thus laid, guiding and infusing strength, by a strange +paradox, into the brown, muscular hands of the young king, he tells +him to open the casement that looked eastward towards the lands of +the enemy, and, as the blinding sunshine and the warm air streamed +into the sick-chamber, he bids him draw the bow. He was obeyed, and, +as the arrow whizzed Jordanwards, the dying prophet followed its +flight with words brief and rapid like it, 'the arrow of the Lord's +deliverance.' Here we have all the elements of our text singularly +repeated--the dying seer, the king the representative of Joseph in +the royal dignity to which his descendants have come, the arrows and +the bow, the strength for conflict by the touch of hands that had +the strength of God in them. The lesson of that paradox that the +dying gave strength to the living, the feeble to the strong, was the +old one which is ever new, that mere human power is weakness when it +is strongest, and that power drawn from God is omnipotent when it +seems weakest. And the further lesson is the lesson of our text, +that our hands are then strengthened, when His hands are laid upon +them, of whom it is written: 'Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is Thy +hand, and high is Thy right hand. + +As a father in old days might have taken his little boy out to the +butts, and put a bow into his hand, and given him his first lesson +in archery, directing his unsteady aim by his own firmer finger, and +lending the strength of his wrist to his child's feebler pull, so +God does with us. The sure, strong hand is laid on ours, and is +'profitable to direct.' A wisdom not our own is ever at our side, +and ready for our service. We but dimly perceive the conditions of +the conflict, and the mark at which we should aim is ever apt to be +obscured to our perceptions. But in all cases where conscience is +perplexed, or where the judgment is at fault, we may, if we will, +have Him for our teacher. And when we know not where to strike the +foes that seem invulnerable, like the warrior who was dipped in the +magic stream, or clothed in mail impenetrable as rhinoceros' hide, +He will make us wise to know the one spot where a wound is fatal. We +shall not need to fight as he that beats the air; to strike at +random; or to draw our bow at a venture, if we will let Him guide +us. + +Or if ever the work be seen clearly enough, but our poor hands +cannot take aim for very trembling, or shoot for fear of striking +something very dear to us, He will steady our nerves and make our +aim sure and true. We have often, in our fight with ourselves, and +in our struggle to get God's will done in the world, to face as +cruel a perplexity as the father who had to split the apple on his +son's head. The evil against which we have to contend is often so +closely connected with things very precious to us, that it is hard +to smite the one when there is such danger of grazing the other. +Many a time our tastes, our likings, our prejudices, our hopes, our +loves, make our sight dim, and our pulses too tumultuous to allow of +a good, long, steady gaze and a certain aim. It is hard to keep the +arrow's point firm when the heart throbs and the hand shakes. But in +all such difficult times He is ready to help us. 'Behold, we know +not what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee,' is a prayer never +offered in vain. + +The word that is here rendered 'made strong,' might be translated +'made pliable,' or 'flexible' conveying the notion of deftness and +dexterity rather than that of simple strength. It is practised +strength that He will give, the educated hand and arm, masters of +the manipulation of the weapon. The stiffness and clumsiness of our +handling, the obstinate rigidity as well as the throbbing feebleness +of our arms, the dimness of our sight, may all be overcome. At His +touch the raw recruit is as the disciplined veteran; the prophet who +cannot speak because he is a child, gifted with a mouth and wisdom +which all the adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor to +resist. Do not be disheartened by your inexperience, or by your +ignorance; but as the prophet said to the young king, Take the bow +and shoot. God's strong hand will hold yours, and the arrow will fly +true. + +That strong hand is laid on ours, and lends its weight to our feeble +pull. The bow is often too heavy for us to bend, but we do not need +to strain our strength in the vain attempt to do it alone. Tasks +seem too much for us. The pressure of our daily work overwhelms us. +The burden of our daily anxieties and sorrows is too much. Some huge +obstacle starts up in our path. Some great sacrifice for truth, +honour, duty, which we feel we cannot make, is demanded of us. Some +daring defiance of some evil, which has caught us in its toils, or +which it is unfashionable to fight against, seems laid upon us. We +cannot rise to the height of the occasion, or bring ourselves to the +wrench that is required. Or the wearing recurrence of monotonous +duties seems to take ail freshness out of our lives, and all spring +out of ourselves; and we are ready to give over struggling any more, +and let ourselves drift. Can we not feel that large hand laid on +ours; and does not power, more and other than our own, creep into +our numb and relaxed fingers? Yes, if we will let Him. His strength +is made perfect in our weakness; and every man and woman who will +make life a noble struggle against evil, vanity, or sin, may be very +sure that God will direct and strengthen their hands to war, and +their fingers to fight. + +But the remarkable metaphor of the text not only gives the fact of +divine strength being bestowed, but also the _manner_ of the +gift. What a boldness of reverent familiarity there is in that +symbol of the hands of God laid on the hands of the man! How +strongly it puts the contact between us and Him as the condition of +our reception of power from Him! A true touch, as of hand to hand, +conveys the grace. It is as when the prophet laid himself down with +his warm lip on the dead boy's cold mouth, and his heart beating +against the still heart of the corpse, till the life passed into the +clay, and the lad lived. So, if we may say it, our Quickener bends +Himself over all our deadness, and by His own warmth reanimates us. + +Perhaps this same thought is one of the lessons which we are meant +to learn from the frequency with which our Lord wrought His miracles +of healing by the touch of His hand. 'Come and lay Thy hand on him, +and he shall live.' 'And He put forth His hand and touched him, and +said, I will, be thou clean.' 'Many said, He is dead; but Jesus took +him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.' The touch of His +hand is healing and life. The touch of our hands is faith. In the +mystery of His incarnation, in the flow of His sympathy, in the +forth-putting of His power, He lays hold not on angels, but He lays +hold on the seed of Abraham. By our lowly trust, by the forth- +putting of our desires, we stretch 'lame hands of faith,' and, +blessed be God! we do not 'grope,' but we grasp His strong hand and +are held up. + +The contact of our spirits with His Spirit is a contact far more +real than the touch of earthly hands that grasp each other closest. +There is ever some film of atmosphere between the palms. But 'he +that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,' and he that clasps +Christ's outstretched hand of help with his outstretched hand of +weakness, holds Him with a closeness to which all unions of earth +are gaping gulfs of separation. You remember how Mary cast herself +at Christ's feet on the resurrection morning, and would have flung +her arms round them in the passion of her joy. The calm word which +checked her has a wonderful promise in it. 'Touch me not, for I am +not yet ascended to my Father'; plainly leading to the inference, +'When I am ascended, then you may touch Me.' And that touch will be +more reverent, more close, more blessed, than any clasping of His +feet, even with such loving hands, and is possible for us all for +evermore. + +Nothing but such contact will give us strength for conflict and for +conquest. And the plain lesson therefore is--see to it, that the +contact is not broken by you. Put away the metaphor, and the simple +English of the advice is just this:--First, live in the desire and +the confidence of His help in all your need, of His strength as all +your power. As a part of that confidence--its reverse and under +side, so to speak--cherish the profound sense of your own weakness. + + 'In our own strength we nothing can; + Full soon were we down-ridden'-- + +as Luther has taught us to sing. Let there be a constant renewal, in +the midst of your duties and trials, of that conscious dependence +and feeling of insufficiency. Stretch out the empty hands to Him in +that desire and hope, which, spoken or silent, is prayer. Keep the +communications open, by which His strength flows into your souls. +Let them not be choked with self-confidence, with vanities, with the +rubbish of your own nature, or of the world. Do not twitch away your +hands from under the strong hands that are laid so gently upon them. +But let Him cover, direct, cherish, and strengthen your poor fingers +till they are strong and nimble for all your work and warfare. If +you go into the fight trusting to your own wit and wisdom, to the +vigour of your own arm, or the courage of your own heart, that very +foolhardy confidence is itself defeat, for it is sin as well as +folly, and nothing can come of it but utter collapse and disaster. +But if you will only go to your daily fight with yourself and the +world, with your hand grasping God's hand, you will be able to +'withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.' The +enemies may compass you about like bees, but in the name of the Lord +you can destroy them. Their arrows may fly thick enough to darken +the sun, but, as the proud old boast has it, 'then we can fight in +the shade'; and when their harmless points have buried themselves in +the ground, you will stand unhurt, your unshivered bow ready for the +next assault, and your hands made strong by the hands of the mighty +God of Jacob. 'In all these things we are more than conquerors, +through Him that loved us.' + + + + +THE SHEPHERD, THE STONE OF ISRAEL + + + '... The mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the Shepherd, + the stone of Israel.'--GENESIS xlix. 24. + +A slight alteration in the rendering will probably bring out the +meaning of these words more correctly. The last two clauses should +perhaps not be read as a separate sentence. Striking out the +supplement 'is,' and letting the previous sentence run on to the end +of the verse, we get a series of names of God, in apposition with +each other, as the sources of the strength promised to the arms of +the hands of the warlike sons of Joseph. From the hands of the +mighty God of Jacob--from thence, from the Shepherd, the stone of +Israel--the power will come for conflict and for conquest. This +exuberant heaping together of names of God is the mark of the flash +of rapturous confidence which lit up the dying man's thoughts when +they turned to God. When he begins to think of Him he cannot stay +his tongue. So many aspects of His character, so many remembrances +of His deeds, come crowding into his mind; so familiar and so dear +are they, that he must linger over the words, and strive by this +triple repetition to express the manifold preciousness of Him whom +no name, nor crowd of names, can rightly praise. So earthly love +ever does with its earthly objects, inventing and reiterating +epithets which are caresses. Such repetitions are not tautologies, +for each utters some new aspect of the one subject, and comes from a +new gush of heart's love towards it. And something of the same +rapture and unwearied recurrence to the Name that is above every +name should mark the communion of devout souls with their heavenly +Love. What a wonderful burst of such praise flowed out from David's +thankful heart, in his day of deliverance, like some strong current, +with its sevenfold wave, each crested with the Name--'The Lord is my +rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in +whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my +high tower.' + +Those three names which we find here are striking and beautiful in +themselves; in their juxtaposition; in their use on Jacob's lips. +They seem to have been all coined by him, for, if we accept this +song as a true prophecy uttered by him, we have here the earliest +instance of their occurrence. They all have a history, and appear +again expanded and deepened in the subsequent revelation. Let us +look at them as they stand. + +1. _The Mighty God of Jacob_.--The meaning of such a name is +clear enough. It is He who has shown Himself mighty and mine by His +deeds for me all through my life. The dying man's thoughts are busy +with all that past from the day when he went forth from the tent of +Isaac, and took of the stones of the field for his pillow when the +sun went down. A perplexed history it had been, with many a bitter +sorrow, and many a yet bitterer sin. Passionate grief and despairing +murmurs he had felt and flung out, while it slowly unfolded itself. +When the Pharaoh had asked, 'How old art thou?' he had answered in +words which owe their sombreness partly to obsequious assumption of +insignificance in such a presence, but have a strong tinge of +genuine sadness in them too: 'Few and evil have the days of the +years of my life been.' But lying dying there, with it all well +behind him, he has become wiser; and now it all looks to him as one +long showing forth of the might of his God, who had been with him +all his life long, and had redeemed him from all evil. He has got +far enough away to see the lie of the land, as he could not do while +he was toiling along the road. The barren rocks and white snow glow +with purple as the setting sun touches them. The struggles with +Laban; the fear of Esau; the weary work of toilsome years; the sad +day when Rachel died, and left to him the 'son of her sorrow'; the +heart sickness of the long years of Joseph's loss--all have faded +away, or been changed into thankful wonder at God's guidance. The +one thought which the dying man carries out of life with him is: God +has shown Himself mighty, and He has shown Himself mine. + +For each of us, our own experience should be a revelation of God. +The things about Him which we read in the Bible are never living and +real to us till we have verified them in the facts of our own +history. Many a word lies on the page, or in our memories, fully +believed and utterly shadowy, until in some soul's conflict we have +had to grasp it, and found it true. Only so much of our creed as we +have proved in life is really ours. If we will only open our eyes +and reflect upon our history as it passes before us, we shall find +every corner of it filled with the manifestations to our hearts and +to our minds of a present God. But our folly, our stupidity, our +impatience, our absorption with the mere outsides of things, our +self-will, blind us to the Angel with the drawn sword who resists +us, as well as to the Angel with the lily who would lead us. So we +waste our days; are deaf to His voice speaking through all the +clatter of tongues, and blind to His bright presence shining through +all the dimness of earth; and, for far too many of us, we never can +see God in the present, but only discern Him when He has passed by, +like Moses from his cleft. Like this same Jacob, we have to say: +'Surely God was in this place, and I knew it not.' Hence we miss the +educational worth of our lives, are tortured with needless cares, +are beaten by the poorest adversaries, and grope amidst what seems +to us a chaos of pathless perplexities, when we might be marching on +assured and strong, with God for our guide, and the hands of the +Mighty One of Jacob for our defence. + +Notice, too, how distinctly the thought comes out in this name--that +the very vital centre of a man's religion is his conviction that God +is his. Jacob will not be content with thinking of God as the God of +his fathers; he will not even be content with associating himself +with them in the common possession; but he must feel the full force +of the intensely personal bond that knits him to God, and God to +him. Of course such a feeling does not ignore the blessed fellowship +and family who also are held in this bond. The God of Jacob is to +the patriarch also the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. +But that comes second, and this comes first. Each man for himself +must put forth the hand of his own faith, and grasp that great hand +for his own guide. '_My_ Lord and _my_ God' is the true form of the +confession. 'He loved _me_ and gave Himself for _me_,' is the shape in +which the Gospel of Christ melts the soul. God is mine because His +love individualises me, and I have a distinct place in His heart, His +purposes, and His deeds. God is mine, because by my own individual +act--the most personal which I can perform--I cast myself on Him, by +my faith appropriate the common salvation, and open my being to the +inflow of His power. God is mine, and I am His, in that wonderful +mutual possession, with perpetual interchange of giving and receiving +not only gifts but selves, which makes the very life of love, whether +it be love on earth or love in heaven. + +Remember, too, the profound use which our Lord made of this name, +wherein Jacob claims to possess God. Because Moses at the bush +called God, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, they +cannot have ceased to be. The personal relations, which subsist +between God and the soul that clasps Him for its own, demand an +immortal life for their adequate expression, and make it impossible +that Death's skeleton fingers should have power to untie such a +bond. Anything is conceivable, rather than that the soul which can +say 'God is mine' should perish. And that continued existence +demands, too, a state of being which shall correspond to itself, in +which its powers shall all be exercised, its desires fulfilled, its +possibilities made facts. Therefore there must be the resurrection. +'God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for +them a city.' + +The dying patriarch left to his descendants the legacy of this great +name, and often, in later times, it was used to quicken faith by the +remembrance of the great deeds of God in the past. One instance may +serve as a sample of the whole. 'The Lord of Hosts is with us, the +God of Jacob is our refuge.' The first of these two names lays the +foundation of our confidence in the thought of the boundless power +of Him whom all the forces of the universe, personal and impersonal, +angels and stars, in their marshalled order, obey and serve. The +second bids later generations claim as theirs all that the old +history reveals as having belonged to the 'world's grey fathers.' +They had no special prerogative of nearness or of possession. The +arm that guided them is unwearied, and all the past is true still, +and will for evermore be true for all who love God. So the venerable +name is full of promise and of hope for us: 'The God of Jacob is our +refuge.' + +2. _The Shepherd_.--How that name sums up the lessons that +Jacob had learned from the work of himself and of his sons! 'Thy +servants are shepherds' they said to Pharaoh; 'both we, and also our +sons.' For fourteen long, weary years he had toiled at that task. +'In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my +sleep departed from mine eyes,' and his own sleepless vigilance and +patient endurance seem to him to be but shadows of the loving care, +the watchful protection, the strong defence, which 'the God, who has +been my Shepherd all my life long,' had extended to him and his. +Long before the shepherd king, who had been taken from the +sheepcotes to rule over Israel, sang his immortal psalm, the same +occupation had suggested the same thought to the shepherd patriarch. +Happy they whose daily work may picture for them some aspect of +God's care--or rather, happy they whose eyes are open to see the dim +likeness of God's care which every man's earthly relations, and some +part of his work, most certainly present. + +There can be no need to draw out at length the thoughts which that +sweet and familiar emblem has conveyed to so many generations. +Loving care, wise guidance, fitting food, are promised by it; and +docile submission, close following at the Shepherd's heels, +patience, innocence, meekness, trust, are required. But I may put +emphasis for a moment on the connection between the thought of 'the +mighty God of Jacob' and that of 'the Shepherd.' The occupation, as +we see it, does not call for a strong arm, or much courage, except +now and then to wade through snowdrifts, and dig out the buried and +half-dead creatures. But the shepherds whom Jacob knew, had to be +hardy, bold fighters. There were marauders lurking ready to sweep +away a weakly guarded flock. There were wild beasts in the gorges of +the hills. There was danger in the sun by day on these burning +plains, and in the night the wolves prowled round the flock. We +remember how David's earliest exploits were against the lion and the +bear, and how he felt that even his duel with the Philistine bully +was not more formidable than these had been. If we will read into +our English notions of a shepherd this element of danger and of +daring, we shall feel that these two clauses are not to be taken as +giving the contrasted ideas of strength and gentleness, but the +connected ones of strength, and therefore protection and security. +We have the same connection in later echoes of this name. 'Behold, +the Lord God shall come with _strong_ hand; He shall feed His +flock like a shepherd.' And our Lord's use of the figure brings into +all but exclusive prominence the good shepherd's conflict with the +ravening wolves--a conflict in which he must not hesitate even 'to +lay down his life for the sheep.' As long as the flock are here, +amidst dangers and foes, and wild weather, the arm that guides must +be an arm that can guard; and none less mighty than the Mighty One +of Jacob can be the Shepherd of men. But a higher fulfilment yet +awaits this venerable emblem, when in other pastures, where no lion +nor any ravening beast shall come, the 'Lamb, which is in the midst +of the throne,' and is Shepherd as well as Lamb, 'shall feed them, +and lead them by living fountains of waters.' + +3. _The Stone of Israel_.--Here, again, we have a name, that +after-ages have caught up and cherished, used for the first time. I +suppose the Stone of Israel means much the same thing as the Rock. +If so, that symbol, too, which is full of such large meanings, was +coined by Jacob. It is, perhaps, not fanciful to suppose that it +owes its origin to the scenery of Palestine. The wild cliffs of the +eastern region where Peniel lay, or the savage fastnesses in the +southern wilderness, a day's march from Hebron, where he lived so +long, came back to his memory amid the flat, clay land of Egypt; and +their towering height, their immovable firmness, their cool shade, +their safe shelter, spoke to him of the unalterable might and +impregnable defence which he had found in God. So there is in this +name the same devout, reflective laying-hold upon experience which +we have observed in the preceding. + +There is also the same individualising grasp of God as his very own; +for 'Israel' here is, of course, to be taken not as the name of the +nation but as his own name, and the intention of the phrase is +evidently to express what God had been to him personally. + +The general idea of this symbol is perhaps firmness, solidity. And +that general idea may be followed out in various details. God is a +rock for a foundation. Build your lives, your thoughts, your +efforts, your hopes there. The house founded on the rock will stand +though wind and rain from above smite it, and floods from beneath +beat on it like battering rams. God is a rock for a fortress. Flee +to Him to hide, and your defence shall be the 'munitions of rocks,' +which shall laugh to scorn all assault, and never be stormed by any +foe. God is a rock for shade and refreshment. Come close to Him from +out of the scorching heat, and you will find coolness and verdure +and moisture in the clefts, when all outside that grateful shadow is +parched and dry. + +The word of the dying Jacob was caught up by the great law-giver in +his dying song. 'Ascribe ye greatness to our God. He is the Rock.' +It reappears in the last words of the shepherd king, whose grand +prophetic picture of the true King is heralded by 'The Book of +Israel spake to me.' It is heard once more from the lips of the +greatest of the prophets in his glowing prophecy of the song of the +final days: 'Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah +is the Rock of Ages,' as well as in his solemn prophecy of the Stone +which God would lay in Zion. We hear it again from the lips that +cannot lie: 'Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The Stone which +the builders rejected, the same is become the headstone of the +corner?' And for the last time the venerable metaphor which has +cheered so many ages appears in the words of that Apostle who was +'surnamed Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone': 'To whom +coming as unto a living Stone, yea also as living stones are built +up.' As on some rocky site in Palestine, where a hundred generations +in succession have made their fortresses, one may see stones with +the bevel that tells of early Jewish masonry, and above them Roman +work, and higher still masonry of crusading times, and above it the +building of to-day; so we, each age in our turn, build on this great +rock foundation, dwell safe there for our little lives, and are laid +to peaceful rest in a sepulchre in the rock. On Christ we may build. +In Him we may dwell and rest secure. We may die in Jesus, and be +gathered to our own people, who, having died, live in Him. And +though so many generations have reared their dwellings on that great +rock, there is ample room for us too to build. We have not to +content ourselves with an uncertain foundation among the shifting +rubbish of perished dwellings, but can get down to the firm virgin +rock for ourselves. None that ever builded there have been +confounded. We clasp hands with all who have gone before us. At one +end of the long chain this dim figure of the dying Jacob, amid the +strange vanished life of Egypt, stretches out his withered hands to +God the Stone of Israel; at the other end, we lift up ours to Jesus, +and cry:-- + + 'Rock of Ages! cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee.' + +The faith is one. One will be the answer and the reward. May it be +yours and mine! + + + + +A CALM EVENING, PROMISING A BRIGHT MORNING + + + 'And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, + and all that went up with him to bury his father, after + he had buried his father. And when Joseph's brethren + saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will + peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all + the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger + unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he + died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I + pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their + sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, + forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy + father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And + his brethren also went and fell down before his face; + and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph + said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? + But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God + meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, + to save much people alive Now therefore fear ye not: I + will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted + them, and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in + Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an + hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children + of the third generation: the children also of Machir the + son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. And + Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely + visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land + which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And + Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, + God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones + from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten + years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a + coffin in Egypt.'--GENESIS l. 14-26. + +Joseph's brothers were right in thinking that he loved Jacob better +than he did them; and they knew only too well that he had reasons +for doing so. But their fear that Jacob's death would be followed by +an outbreak of long-smothered revenge betrayed but too clearly their +own base natures. They thought him like themselves, and they knew +themselves capable of nursing wrath to keep it warm through long +years of apparent kindliness. They had no room in their hearts for +frank, full forgiveness. So they had lived on through numberless +signs of their brother's love and care, and still kept the old +dread, and, probably, not a little of the old envy. How much +happiness they had lost by their slowness to believe in Joseph's +love! + +Is there nothing like this in our thoughts of God? Do men not live +for years on His bounty, and all the while cherish suspicions of His +heart? 'Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as +thyself.' It is hard to believe in a love which has no faintest +trace of desire for vengeance for all past slights. It is hard for +hearts conscious of their own slowness to pardon, to realise +undoubtingly God's infinite placability. + +The brothers' procedure is marked by unwarrantable lack of trust in +Joseph. Why did they not go to him at once, and appeal to his +brotherly affection? Their roundabout way of going to work by +sending a messenger was an insult to their brother, though it may +have been meant as honour to the viceroy. The craft which was their +father's by nature seems to have been amply transmitted. The story +of Jacob's dying wish looks very apocryphal. If he had been afraid +of Joseph's behaviour when he was gone, he was much more likely to +have spoken to Joseph about it before he went, than to have left the +gun loaded and bid them fire it after his death. Jacob knew his son +better, and trusted him more than his brothers did. + +We note, too, the ingenious way of slipping in motives for +forgiving, first in putting the mention of their relationship into +Jacob's mouth, and then claiming to be worshippers of 'thy (not our) +father's God.' They had proved how truly they were both, when they +sold him to the Midianites! + +Joseph's tears were a good answer. No doubt they were partly drawn +out by the shock of finding that he had been so misunderstood, but +they were omens of his pardon. So, when they were reported to the +brothers, they came themselves, and fulfilled the old dream by +falling down before him in abjectness. They do not call themselves +his brethren, but his slaves, as if grovelling was the way to win +love or to show it. A little affection would have gone farther than +much submission. If their attitude truly expressed their feelings, +their hearts were as untouched by Joseph's years of magnanimous +kindness as a rock by falling rain. If it was a theatrical display +of feigned subjection, it was still worse. Our Brother, against whom +we have sinned, wants love, not cowering; and if we believe in His +forgiveness, we shall give Him the hearts which He desires, and +after that shall render the unconditional submission which only +trust and love can yield. + +Joseph's answer is but the reiteration of his words at his first +making himself known. He soothes unworthy fears, says not a word of +reproach for their misunderstanding of him, waives all pretension to +deal out that retribution which God alone sends, and shows that he +has lost all bitterness in thinking of the past, since he sees in +it, not the working of their malice, but of God's providence, and is +ready to thank, if not them, at any rate Him, for having, by even so +painful a way, made him the instrument of widespread good. A man who +sees God's hand in his past, and thinks lightly of his sorrows and +nobly of the opportunities of service which they have brought him, +will waste no feeling on the men who were God's tools. If we want to +live high above low hatreds and revenges, let us cultivate the habit +of looking behind men to God. So we shall be saved from many +fruitless pangs over irrevocable losses and from many disturbing +feelings about other people. + +The sweet little picture of the great minister's last days is very +tenderly touched. Surrounded by his kindred, probably finding in a +younger generation the reverence and affection which the elder had +failed to give, he wears away the calm evening of the life which had +opened so stormily. It 'came in like a lion, it goes out like a +lamb.' The strong domestic instincts so characteristic of the Hebrew +race had full gratification. Honours and power at court and kingdom +probably continued, but these did not make the genial warmth which +cheered the closing years. It was that he saw his children's +children's children, and that they gathered round his knees in +confidence, and received from him his benediction. + +But it is in his death that the flame shoots up most brightly at the +last. 'By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing +of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his +bones.' He had been an Egyptian to all appearance all his life from +the day of his captivity, filling his place at court, marrying an +Egyptian woman, and bearing an Egyptian name, but his dying words +show how he had been a stranger in the midst of it all. As truly as +his fathers who dwelt in tents, he too felt that he here had no +continuing city. He lived by faith in God's promises, and therefore +his heart was in the unseen future far more than in the present. + +He died with the ancestral assurance on his lips. Jacob, dying, had +said to him, 'Behold, I die; but God shall be with you, and bring +you again unto the land of your fathers' (Gen. xlviii. 21). Joseph +hands on the hope to his descendants. It is a grand instance of +indomitable confidence in God's word, not nonplussed, bewildered, or +weakened, though the man who cherishes it dies without seeing even a +beginning of fulfilment. Such a faith bridges the gulf of death as a +very small matter. In the strength of it we may drop our unfinished +tasks, and, needful as we may seem to wider or narrower circles, may +be sure that God and His word live, though we die. No man is +necessary. Israel was safe in Egypt, and sure to come out of it, +though Joseph's powerful protection was withdrawn. + +His career may teach another lesson; namely, that true faith does +not detach us from strenuous interest and toil in the present. +Though the great hope burned in his heart, he did all his work as +prime minister all the better because of it. It should always be so. +Life here is not worth living if there is not another. The distance +dignifies the foreground. The highest importance and nobleness of +the life that now is, lie in its being preparation or apprenticeship +for the greater future. The Egyptian vizier, with Canaan written on +his heart, and Egypt administered by his hands, is a type of what +every Christian should be. + +Possibly Joseph's 'commandment concerning his bones may have been +somewhat influenced by the Egyptian belief which underlies their +practice of embalming the body. He, too, may have thought that, in +some mysterious way, he would share in the possession of the land in +which his bones were to be laid. Or he may simply have been yielding +to natural sentiment. It is noteworthy that Jacob desired to be laid +beside his ancestors, and Joseph to be kept in Egypt for a time. +Both had the same assurance as to future possession of Canaan, but +it led to different wishes as to burial. Perhaps Joseph felt that +his position in Egypt required that his embalmed body should for a +while remain there. Perhaps he wished to leave with his people a +silent witness of his own hope, and a preacher, eloquent in its +dumbness, of the duty of their keeping alive that hope, whatever +might come upon them. + +'In a coffin in Egypt'--so the book ends. It might seem that that +mummy-case proclaimed rather the futility of the hope of restoration +to the land, and, as centuries rolled away, and the bondage became +heavier, no doubt many a wondering and doubting look was turned to +it. But there it lay, perhaps neglected, for more than three hundred +years, the visible embodiment of a hope which smiled at death and +counted centuries as nothing. At last the day came which vindicated +the long-deferred confidence; and, as the fugitives in their haste +shouldered the heavy sarcophagus, and set out with it for the Land +of Promise, surely some thrill of trust would pass through their +ranks, and in some hearts would sound the exhortation, 'If the +vision tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not +tarry.' + +We have not a dead Joseph to bid us wait with patience and never +lose our firm grip of God's promises, but we have a living Jesus. +Our march to the land of rest is headed, not by the bones of a +departed leader, but by the Forerunner, 'who is for us entered' +whither He will bring all who trust in Him. Therefore we should +live, as Joseph lived, with desires and trust reaching out beyond +things seen to the land assured to us by God's promise, doing our +day's task all the more vigorously because we do not belong to the +order of things in the midst of which we live; and then, when we lie +down at the end of our life's work, we shall not be saddened by +disappointed hopes, nor reluctantly close our eyes on good to come, +when we shall not be there to share it, but be sure that we shall +'see the good of Thy chosen,' and 'rejoice in the gladness of Thy +nation.' + + + + +JOSEPH'S FAITH + + + 'Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, + God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones + from hence.'--GENESIS l. 25. + +This is the one act of Joseph's life which the author of the Epistle +to the Hebrews selects as the sign that he too lived by faith. 'By +faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the +children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.' + +It was at once a proof of how entirely he believed God's promise, +and of how earnestly he longed for its fulfilment. It was a sign too +of how little he felt himself at home in Egypt, though to outward +appearance he had become completely one of its people. The ancestral +spirit was in him true and strong though he was 'separate from his +brethren.' He bore an Egyptian name, a swelling title, he married an +Egyptian woman, he had an Egyptian priest for father-in-law, but he +was an Israelite in heart; and in the midst of official cares and a +surfeit of honours, his desires turned away from them all towards +the land promised by God to his fathers. + +And when he lay dying, he could not bear to think that his bones +should moulder in the country where his life had been spent. 'I know +that this is not our land after all; swear to me that when the +promise that has tarried so long comes at last, you will take me, +all that is left of me, and carry it up, and lay it in some corner +of the blessed soil, that I too may somehow share in the inheritance +of His people. God shall surely visit you. Carry my bones up hence.' + +Perhaps there is in this wish a trace of something besides faith in +God's promises. Of course, there is a natural sentiment which no +clearness of knowledge of a future state wholly dispels. We all feel +as if somehow our bodies remain a part of ourselves even after +death, and we have wishes where they shall lie. But perhaps Joseph +had a more definite belief on the matter than that. What theory of +another life does an Egyptian mummy express? Why all that sedulous +care to preserve the poor relics? Was it not a consequence of the +belief that somehow or other there could be no life without a body, +and that in some mysterious way the preservation of that contributed +to the continuance of this? And so Joseph, who was himself going to +be embalmed and put into a mummy-case, may have caught something of +the tone of thought prevalent around him, and have believed that to +carry his bones to the land of promise was, in some obscure manner, +to carry _him_ thither. Be that as it may, whether the wish +came from a mistake about the relation of flesh and spirit, or only +from the natural desire which we too possess, that our graves may +not be among strangers, but beside our father's and our mother's--that +is not the main thing in this fact. The main thing is that this +dying man believed God's promise, and claimed his share in it. + +And on this the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, whoever he +was, fastens. Neglecting the differences in knowledge between Joseph +and the Christians whom he addresses, and pointing back to the +strong confidence in God and longing for participation in the +promises which brightened the glazing eye and gave _him_ 'hope +in his death,' he declares that the principle of action which guided +this man in the dim twilight of early revelation, is that same faith +which ought to guide us who live in the full light of the unsetting +sun. + +Taking, then, this incident, with the New Testament commentary upon +it, it leads us to a truth which we often lose sight of, but which +is indispensable if we would understand the relations of the earlier +and later days. + +1. _Faith is always the same, though knowledge varies._--There +is a vast difference between a man's creed and a man's faith. The +one may vary, does vary within very wide limits; the other remains +the same. The things believed have been growing from the beginning--the +attitude of mind and will by which they have been grasped has +been the same from the beginning, and will be the same to the end. +And not only so, but it will be substantially the same in heaven as +it is on earth. For there is but one bond which unites men to God; +and that emotion of loving trust is one and the same in the dim +twilight of the world's morning, and amid the blaze of the noonday +of heaven. The contents of faith, that on which it relies, the +treasure it grasps, changes; the essence of faith, the act of +reliance, the grasp which holds the treasure, does not change. + +It is difficult to decide how much Joseph's gospel contained. From +our point of view it was very imperfect. The spiritual life was +nourished in him and in the rest of 'the world's grey fathers' on +what looks to us but like seven basketsful of fragments. They had +promises, indeed, in which we, looking at them with the light of +fulfilment blazing upon them, can see the broad outlines of the +latest revelation, and can trace the future flower all folded +together and pale in the swelling bud. But we shall err greatly if +we suppose, as we are apt to do, that those promises were to them +anything like what they are to us. It requires a very vigorous +exercise of very rare gifts to throw ourselves back to their +position, and to gain any vivid and approximately accurate notion of +the theology of these ancient lovers of God. + +This, at any rate, we may, perhaps, say: they had a sure and clear +knowledge of the living God, who had talked with them as with a +friend; they knew His inspiring, guiding presence; they knew the +forgiveness of sins; they knew, though they very dimly understood, +the promise, 'In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be +blessed.' How far they looked across the gulf of death and beheld +anything--even cloudland--on the other side, is a question very hard +to answer, and about which confident dogmatism, either affirmative +or negative, is unwarranted. But it is to be remembered that, +whether they had any notion of a future state or no, they had a +promise which fulfilled for them substantially the same office as +that does for us. The promise of the land of Canaan gleaming before +them through the mists, bare and 'earthly' as it seems to us when +compared with our hope of an inheritance incorruptible in the +heavens, is, by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, identified +with that hope of ours, for he expressly says that, whilst they were +looking for an earthly Canaan, they were 'desiring a better country, +that is an heavenly.' So that, whether they definitely expected a +life after death or not, the anticipation of the land promised to +them and to their fathers held the same place in their creed, and as +a moral agent in their lives, which the rest that remains for the +people of God ought to do in ours. + +And it is to be taken into account also that fellowship with God has +in it the germ of the assurance of immortality. It seems almost +impossible to suppose a state of mind in which a man living in +actual communion with God shall believe that death is to end it all. +Christ's proof that immortal life was revealed in the Pentateuch, +was the fact that God there called Himself the God of Abraham and of +Isaac and of Jacob; by which our Lord meant us to learn that men who +are brought into personal relations with God can never die, that it +is impossible that a soul which has looked up to the face of the +unseen Father with filial love should be left in the grave, or that +those who are separated to be His, as He is theirs, should see +corruption. The relation once established is eternal, and some more +or less definite expectation of that eternity seems inseparable from +the consciousness of the relation. + +But be that as it may, and even taking the widest possible view of +the contents of the patriarchal creed, what a rude outline it looks +beside ours! Can there be anything in common between us? Can they be +in any way a pattern for us? Yes; as I said, faith is one thing, +creed is another. Joseph and his ancestors were joined to God by the +very same bond which unites us to Him. There has never been but one +path of life: 'They _trusted_ God and were lightened, and their +faces were not ashamed.' In that Old Covenant the one thing needful +was trust in the living Jehovah. In the New, the one thing needful +is the very same emotion, directed to the very same Lord, manifested +now and incarnate in the divine Son, our Saviour. In this exercise +of loving confidence, in which reason and will and affection blend +in the highest energy and holiest action, Joseph and we are one. +Across the gulf of centuries we clasp hands; and in despite of all +superficial differences of culture and civilisation, and all deeper +differences in knowledge of God and His loving will, Pharaoh's prime +minister, and the English workman, and the Hindoo ryot, may be alike +in what is deepest--the faith which grasps God. How all that +mysterious Egyptian life fades away as we think of the fundamental +identity of religious emotion then and now! It disguises our brother +from us, as it did from the wandering Arabs who came to buy corn, +and could not recognise in the swarthy, imperious Egyptian, with +strange head-dress and unknown emblems hanging by chains of gold +about his neck, the fair boy whom they had sold to the merchants. +But beneath it all is the brother's heart, fed by the same life- +blood which feeds ours. He trusts in God, he expects a future +because God has promised it, and, therefore, he is separated from +those among whom he dwells, and knit to us in this far-off island of +the sea, who so many centuries after are partakers of like precious +faith. + +And incomplete as his creed was, Joseph may have been a better +Christian than some of us, and was so, if what he knew nourished his +spiritual life more than what we know nourishes ours, and if his +heart and will twined more tenaciously round the fragments of +revelation which he possessed, and drew from them more support and +strength than we do from the complete Gospel which we have. + +Brethren, what makes us Christians is not the theology we have in +our heads, but the faith and love we have in our hearts. We must, +indeed, have a clear statement of truth in orderly propositions--that +is, a system of dogmas--to have anything to trust to at all. +There can be no saving faith in an unseen Person, except through the +medium of thoughts concerning Him, which thoughts put into words are +a creed. The antithesis which is often eagerly urged upon us--not +doctrines, but Christ--is a very incomplete and misleading one. +'Christ' is a mere name, empty of all significance till it is filled +with definite statements of who and what Christ is. But whilst I, +for my part, believe that we must have doctrines to make Christ a +reality and an object of faith to grasp at all, I would urge all the +more earnestly, because I thus believe, that, when we have these +doctrines, it is not the creed that saves, but the faith. We are +united to Christ, not by the doctrine of His nature and work, +needful as that is, but by trusting in Him as that which the +doctrine declares Him to be--Redeemer, Friend, Sacrifice, Divine +Lover of our souls. Let us always remember that it is not the amount +of religious knowledge which I have got, but the amount which I use, +that determines my religious position and character. Most of us have +in our creeds principles that have no influence upon our moral and +active life; and, if so, it matters not one whit how pure, how +accurate, how comprehensive, how consistent, how scriptural my +conceptions of the Gospel may be. If they are not powers in my soul, +they only increase my responsibility and my liability to +condemnation. The dry light of the understanding is of no use to +anybody. You must turn your creed into a faith before it has power +to bless and save. + +There are hosts of so-called Christians who get no more good out of +the most solemn articles of their orthodox belief than if they were +heathens. What in the use of your saying that you believe in God the +Father Almighty, when there is no child's love and happy confidence +in your heart? What the better are you for believing in Jesus +Christ, His divine nature, His death and glory, when you have no +reliance on Him, nor any least flutter of trembling love towards +Him? Is your belief in the Holy Ghost of the smallest consequence, +if you do not yield to His hallowing power? What does it matter that +you believe in the forgiveness of sins, so long as you do not care a +rush whether yours are pardoned or no? And is it anything to you or +to God that you believe in the life everlasting, if all your work, +and hopes, and longings are confined to 'this bank and shoal of +time'? Are you any more a Christian because of all that intellectual +assent to these solemn verities? Is not your life like some +secularised monastic chamber, with holy texts carved on the walls, +and saintly images looking down from glowing windows on revellers +and hucksters who defile its floor? Your faith, not your creed, +determines your religion. Many a 'true believer' is a real +'infidel.' + +Thank God that the soul may be wedded to Christ, even while a very +partial conception of Christ is in the understanding. The more +complete and adequate the creed, indeed, the mightier and more +fruitful in blessing will the faith naturally be; and every portion +of the full orb of the Sun of Righteousness which is eclipsed by the +shadow of our intellectual misconceptions, will diminish the light +and warmth which falls upon our souls. It is no part of our duty to +pronounce what is the minimum of a creed which faith needs for its +object. For myself, I confess that I do not understand how the +spiritual life can be sustained in its freshness and fervour, in its +fulness and reality, without a belief in the divinity and saving +work of Jesus Christ. But with that belief for the centre which +faith grasps, the rest may vary indefinitely. All who stand around +that centre, some nearer, some further off, some mazed in errors +which others have cast behind them, some of them seeing and +understanding more, and some less of Him and of His work--are His. +He loves them, and will save them all. Knowledge varies. The faith +which unites to God remains the same. + +2. We may gather from this incident another consideration, namely, +that _Faith has its noblest office in detaching from the +present_. + +All his life long, from the day of his captivity, Joseph was an +Egyptian in outward seeming. He filled his place at Pharaoh's court, +but his dying words open a window into his soul, and betray how +little he had felt that he belonged to the order of things in the +midst of which he had been content to live. This man, too, +surrounded by an ancient civilisation, and dwelling among granite +temples and solid pyramids and firm-based sphinxes, the very emblems +of eternity, confessed that here he had no continuing city, but +sought one to come. As truly as his ancestors who dwelt in +tabernacles, like Abraham journeying with his camels and herds, and +pitching his tent outside the walls of Hebron, like Isaac in the +grassy plains of the South country, like Jacob keeping himself apart +from the families of the land, their descendant, an heir with them +of the same promise, showed that he too regarded himself as a +'stranger and a sojourner.' Dying, he said, 'Carry my bones up from +hence. Therefore we may be sure that, living, the hope of the +inheritance must have burned in his heart as a hidden light, and +made him an alien everywhere but on its blessed soil. + +And faith will always produce just such effects. In exact proportion +to its strength, that living trust in God will direct our thoughts +and desires to the 'King in His beauty, and the land that is very +far off.' In proportion as our thoughts and desires are thus +directed, they will be averted from what is round about us; and the +more longingly our eyes are fixed on the furthest horizon, the less +shall we see the flowers at our feet. To behold God pales the +otherwise dazzling lustre of created brightness. They whose souls +are fed with heavenly manna, and who have learned that it is their +necessary food, will scent no dainties in the fleshpots of Egypt, +for all their rank garlic and leeks. It is simply a question as to +which of two classes of ideas occupies the thoughts, and which of +two sets of affections engages the heart. If vulgar brawling and +rude merrymakers fill the inn, there will be no room for the pilgrim +thoughts which bear the Christ in their bosom, and have angels for +their guard; and if these holy wayfarers enter, their serene +presence will drive forth the noisy crowd, and turn the place into a +temple. Nothing but Christian faith gives to the furthest future the +solidity and definiteness which it must have, if it is to be a +breakwater for us against the fluctuating sea of present cares and +thoughts. + +If the unseen is ever to rule in men's lives, it must be through +their thoughts. It must become intelligible, clear, real. It must be +brought out of the flickering moonlight of fancy and surmises, into +the sunlight of certitude and knowledge. Dreams, and hopes, and +peradventures are too unsubstantial stuff to be a bulwark against +the very real, undeniable present. And such certitude is given +through faith which grasps the promises of God, and twines the soul +round the risen Saviour so closely that it sits with Him in heavenly +places. Such certitude is given by faith alone. + +If the unseen is ever to rule in men's lives, it must become not +only an object for certain knowledge, but also for ardent wishes. +The vague sense of possible evils lurking in its mysteries must be +taken out of the soul, and there must come somehow an assurance that +all it wraps in its folds is joy and peace. It must cease to be +doubtful, and must seem infinitely desirable. Does anything but +Christian faith engage the heart to love, and all the longing wishes +to set towards, the things that are unseen and eternal? Where +besides, then, can there be found a counterpoise weighty enough to +heave up the souls that are laden with the material, and cleaving to +the dust? Nowhere. The only possible deliverance from the tyrannous +pressure of the trifles amidst which we live is in having the +thoughts familiarised with Christ in heaven, which will dwarf all +that is on earth, and in having the affections fixed on Him, which +will emancipate them from the pains and sorrows that ever wait upon +love of the mutable and finite creatures. + +Let us remember that such deliverance from the present is the +condition of all noble, joyous, pure life. It needs Christianity to +effect it indeed, but it does not need Christianity to see how +desirable it is, and how closely connected with whatever is lovely +and of good report is this detachment from the near and the visible. +A man that is living for remote objects is, in so far, a better man +than one who is living for the present. He will become thereby the +subject of a mental and moral discipline that will do him good. And, +on the other hand, a life which has no far-off light for its guiding +star, has none of the unity, of the self-restraint, of the tension, +of the conscious power which makes our days noble and strong. +Whether he accomplish them or fail, whether they be high or low, the +man who lets future objects rule present action is in advance of +others. 'To scorn delights and live laborious days,' which is the +prerogative of the man with a future, is always best. He is rather a +beast than a man, who floats lazily on the warm, sunny wavelets as +they lift him in their roll, and does not raise his head high enough +above them to see and steer for the solid shore where they break. +But only he has found the full, controlling, blessing, quickening +power that lies in the thought of the future, and in life directed +by it, to whom that future is all summed in the name of his Saviour. +Whatever makes a man live in the past and in the future raises him; +but high above all others stand those to whom the past is an +apocalypse of God, with Calvary for its centre, and all the future +is fellowship with Christ, and joy in the heavens. Having these +hopes, it will be our own faults if we are not pure and gentle, calm +in changes and sorrows, armed against frowning dangers, and proof +against smiling temptations. They are our armour--'Put on the +breastplate of faith ... and for an helmet the hope of salvation.' + +A very sharp test for us all lies in these thoughts. This change of +the centre of interest from earth to heaven is the uniform effect of +faith. What, then, of us? On Sundays we profess to seek for a city; +but what about the week, from Monday morning to Saturday night? What +difference does our faith make in the current of our lives? How far +are they unlike--I do not mean externally and in occupations, but in +principle--the lives of men who 'have no hope'? Are you living for +other objects than theirs? Are you nurturing other hopes in your +hearts, as a man may guard a little spark of fire with both his +hands, to light him amid the darkness and the howling storm? Do you +care to detach yourself from the world? or are you really 'men of +this world, which have their portion in this life,' even while +Christians by profession? A question which I have no right to ask, +and no power to answer but for myself; a question which it concerns +your souls to ask and to answer very definitely for yourselves. +There is no need to preach an exaggerated and impossible abstinence +from work and enjoyment in the world where God has put us, or to set +up a standard 'too high for mortal life beneath the sky.' Whatever +call there may have sometimes been to protest against a false +asceticism, and withdrawing from active life for the sake of one's +personal salvation, times are changed now. What we want to-day is: +'Come ye out and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing.' +In my conscience I believe that multitudes are having the very heart +of the Christian life eaten out by absorption in earthly pursuits +and loves, and by the effacing of all distinction in outward life, +in occupation, in recreation, in tastes and habits, between people +who call themselves Christians, and people who do not care at all +whether there is another world or not. There can be but little +strength in our faith if it does not compel us to separation. If it +has any power to do anything at all, it will certainly do that. If +we are naturalised as citizens there, we cannot help being aliens +here. 'Abraham,' says the New Testament, 'dwelt in tabernacles, +_for_ he looked for a city.' Just so! The tent life will always +be the natural one for those who feel that their mother-country is +beyond the stars. We should be like the wandering Swiss, who hear in +a strange land the rude, old melody that used to echo among the +Alpine pastures. The sweet, sad tones kindle home-sickness that will +not let them rest. No matter where they are, or what they are doing, +no matter what honour they have carved out for themselves with their +swords, they throw off the livery of the alien king which they have +worn, and turning their backs upon pomp and courts, seek the free +air of the mountains, and find home better than a place by a foreign +throne. Let us esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the +treasures of Egypt, and go forth to Him without the camp, for here +have we no continuing city. + +3. Again, we have here an instance that _Faith makes men energetic +in the duties of the present_. + +The remarks which I have been making must be completed by that +consideration, or they become hurtful and one-sided. You know that +common sarcasm, that Christianity degrades this present life by +making it merely the portal to a better, and teaches men to think of +it as only evil, to be scrambled through anyhow. I confess that I +wish the sneer were a less striking contrast to what Christian +people really think. But it is almost as gross a caricature of the +teaching of Christianity as it is of the practice of Christians. + +Take this story of Joseph as giving us a truer view of the effect on +present action of faith in, and longing for, God's future. He was, +as I said, a true Hebrew all his days. But that did not make him run +away from Pharaoh's service. He lived by hope, and that made him the +better worker in the passing moment, and kept him tugging away all +his life at the oar, administering the affairs of a kingdom. + +Of course it is so. The one thing which saves this life from being +contemptible is the thought of another. The more profoundly we feel +the reality of the great eternity whither we are being drawn, the +greater do all things here become. They are made less in their power +to absorb or trouble, but they are made infinitely greater in +importance as preparations for what is beyond. When they are first +they are small, when they are second they are great. When the mist +lifts, and shows the snowy summits of the 'mountains of God,' the +nearer lower ranges, which we thought the highest, dwindle indeed, +but gain in sublimity and meaning by the loftier peaks to which they +lead up. Unless men and women live for eternity, they _are_ +'merely players,' and all their busy days 'like a tale told by an +idiot, full of sound and fury, _signifying nothing_.' How +absurd, how monotonous, how trivial it all is, all this fret and +fume, all these dying joys and only less fleeting pains, all this +mill-horse round of work which we pace, unless we are, mill-horse- +like, driving a shaft that goes _through the wall_, and grinds +something that falls into 'bags that wax not old' on the other side. +The true Christian faith teaches us that this world is the workshop +where God makes men, and the next, the palace where He shows them. +All here is apprenticeship and training. It is of no more value than +the attitudes into which gymnasts throw themselves, but as a +discipline most precious. The end makes the means important; and if +we believe that God is preparing us for immortal life with Him by +all our work, then we shall do it with a will: otherwise we may well +be languid as we go on for thirty or forty years, some of us, doing +the same trivial things, and getting nothing out of them but food, +occupation of time, and a mechanical aptitude for doing what is not +worth doing. + +It is the horizon that gives dignity to the foreground. A picture +without sky has no glory. This present, unless we see gleaming +beyond it the eternal calm of the heavens, above the tossing tree- +tops with withering leaves, and the smoky chimneys, is a poor thing +for our eyes to gaze at, or our hearts to love, or our hands to toil +on. But when we see that all paths lead to heaven, and that our +eternity is affected by our acts in time, then it is blessed to +gaze, it is possible to love, the earthly shadows of the uncreated +beauty, it is worth while to work. + +Remember, too, that faith will energise us for any sort of work, +seeing that it raises all to one level and brings all under one +sanction, and shows all as cooperating to one end. Look at that +muster-roll of heroes of faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and +mark the variety of grades of human life represented there--statesmen, +soldiers, prophets, shepherds, widow women, martyrs--all fitted for +their tasks and delivered from the snare that was in their calling, +by that faith which raised them above the world, and therefore +fitted them to come down on the world with stronger strokes of duty. +This is the secret of doing with our might whatsoever our hand finds +to do-to trust Christ, to live _with_ Him, and _by_ the hope of the +inheritance. + +Then, brethren, let us see that our clearer revelation bears fruit +in a faith in the great divine promises as calm and firm as this +dying patriarch had. Then the same power will work not only the same +detachment and energy in life, but the same calmness and solemn +light of hope in death. It is very beautiful to notice how Joseph +dying almost overleaps the thought of death as a very small matter. +His brethren who stood by his bedside might well fear what might be +the consequences to their people when the powerful protector, the +prime minister of the kingdom, was gone. But the dying man has firm +hold of God's promises, and he knows that these will be fulfilled, +whether he live or no. 'I die,' says he, 'but God shall surely visit +you. _He_ is not going to die; and though I stand no more +before Pharaoh, you will be safe.' + +Thus we may contemplate our own going away, or the departure of the +dearest from our homes, and of the most powerful for good in human +affairs, and in the faith of God's true promises may feel that no +one is indispensable to our well-being or to the world's good. God's +chariot is self-moving. One after another, who lays his hand upon +the ropes, and hauls for a little space, drops out of the ranks. But +it will go on, and in His majesty He will ride prosperously. + +And for himself, too, the dying man felt that death was a very small +matter. 'Whether I live or die I shall have a share in the promise. +Living, perhaps my feet would stand upon its soil; dying, my bones +will rest there.' And we, who know a resurrection, have in it that +which makes Joseph's fond fancy a reality, and reduces the +importance of that last enemy to nothing. Some will be alive and +remain till the coming of the Lord, some will be laid in the grave +till His voice calls them forth, and carries their bones up from +hence to the land of the inheritance. But whether we be of +generations that fell on sleep looking for the promise of His +coming, or whether of the generation that go forth to meet Him when +He comes, it matters not. All who have lived by faith will then be +gathered at last. The brightest hopes of the present will be +forgotten. Then, when we too shall stand in the latter day, wearing +the likeness of His glory, and extricated wholly from the bondage of +corruption and the dust of death, we, perfected in body, soul, and +spirit, shall enter the calm home, where we shall change the +solitude of the desert and the transitoriness of the tent and the +dangers of the journey, for the society and the stability and the +security of the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker +is God. + + + + +A COFFIN IN EGYPT + + + 'They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.' + --GENESIS l. 26. + +So closes the book of Genesis. All its recorded dealings of God with +Israel, and all the promises and the glories of the patriarchal +line, end with 'a coffin in Egypt'. Such an ending is the more +striking, when we remember that a space of three hundred years +intervenes between the last events in Genesis and the first in +Exodus, or almost as long a time as parts the Old Testament from the +New. And, during all that period, Israel was left with a mummy and a +hope. The elaborately embalmed body of Joseph lay in its gilded and +pictured case, somewhere in Goshen, and was, no doubt, in the care +of the Israelites, as is plain from the fact that they carried it +with them at the exodus. For three centuries, that silent 'coffin in +Egypt' preached its impressive messages. What did it say? It spoke, +no doubt, to ears often deaf, but still some faint whispers of its +speechless testimony would sound in some hearts, and help to keep +vivid some hopes. + +First, it was a silent reminder of mortality. Egyptian consciousness +was much occupied with death. The land was peopled with tombs. But +the corpse of Joseph was perhaps not laid in one of these, but +remained housed somewhere in sight, as it were, of all Israel. Many +a passer-by would pause for a moment, and think; Here is the end of +dignity second only to Pharaoh's, to this has come that strong +brain, that true heart, Israel's pride and protection is shut up in +that wooden case. + + 'The glories of our birth and state + Are shadows, not substantial things; + There is no armour against fate, + Death lays his icy hand on kings.' + +Yes, but let us remember that while that silent sarcophagus enforced +the old, old lesson to the successive generations that looked on it +and little heeded its stern, sad teaching of mortality, it had other +brighter truths to tell. For the shrivelled, colourless lips that +lay in it, covered with many a fold of linen, had left as their last +utterance, 'I die, but God will surely visit you,' No man is +necessary. Israel can survive the loss of the strongest and wisest. +God lives, though a hundred Josephs die. It is pure gain to lose +human helpers, if thereby we become more fully conscious of our need +of a divine arm and heart, and more truly feel that we have these +for our all-sufficient stay. Blessed is the fleeting of all that can +pass, if its withdrawal lets the calm light of the Eternal, which +cannot pass, stream in uninterrupted on us! When the leaves fall, we +see more clearly the rock which their short-lived greenness in its +pride veiled. When the many-hued and ever-shifting clouds are swept +out of the sky by the wind, the sun that lent them all their colour +shines the more brightly. The message of every death-bed and grave +is meant to be, 'This and that man dies, but God lives.' The last +result of our contemplation of mortality, as affecting our dearest +and most needful ones, and as sure to include ourselves in its far- +reaching, close-woven net, ought to be to drive us to God's breast, +that there we may find a Friend who does not pass, and may dwell in +'the land of the living,' on whose soil the foot of all-conquering +Death dare never tread. + +Nor are these thoughts all the message of that 'coffin in Egypt.' In +the first verses of the next book, that of Exodus, there is a +remarkable juxtaposition of ideas, when we read that 'Joseph died +and all his brethren and all that generation.' But was that the end +of Israel? By no means, for the narrative goes on immediately to +say--linking the two things together by a simple 'and'--that 'the +children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and +multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty.' + +So life springs side by side with death. There are cradles as well +as graves. + + 'The individual withers, + And the race is more and more.' + +Leaves drop and new leaves come. The April days are not darkened, +and the tender green of the fresh leaf-buds is all the more vigorous +and luxuriant, because it is fed from the decaying leaves that +litter the roots of the long-lived oak. Thus through the ages the +pathetic alternation goes on. Penelope's web is ever being woven and +run down and woven again. Joseph dies; Israel grows. Let us not take +half-views, nor either fix our thoughts on the universal law of +dissolution and decay, nor on the other side of the process--the +universal emergence of life from death, reconstruction from +dissolution. In our individual histories and on the wider field of +the world's history, the same large law is at work, which is +expressed in the simplest terms by these old words, 'Joseph died, +and all his brethren and all that generation'--and 'the children of +Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly.' So the wholesome +lesson of mortality is stripped of much of its sadness, and retains +all its pathos, solemnity, and power to purify the heart. + +Again, that 'coffin in Egypt' was a herald of Hope. The reason for +Joseph's dying injunction that his body should be preserved after +the Egyptian fashion, and laid where it could be lifted and carried +away, when the long-expected deliverance was effected, was the dying +patriarch's firm confidence that, though he died, he had still +somehow a share in God's faithful promise. We do not know the +precise shape which his thought of that share took. It may have been +merely the natural sentiment which desires that the unconscious +frame shall moulder quietly beside the mouldering forms which once +held our dear ones. This naturalised Egyptian did his work manfully +in the land of his adoption, and flung himself eagerly into its +interests, but his heart turned to the cave at Machpelah, and, +though he lived in Egypt, he could not bear to think of lying there +for ever when dead, especially of being left there alone. There may +have been some trace in his wish of the peculiar Egyptian belief +that the preservation of the body contributed in some way to the +continuance of personal life, and that a certain shadowy self +hovered about the spot where the mummy was laid. Our knowledge of +the large place filled by a doctrine of a future life in Egyptian +thought makes it most probable that Joseph had at least some +forecast of that hope of immortality, which seems to us to be +inseparable from the consciousness of present communion with God. + +But, in any case, Israel had charge of that coffin because the dead +man that lay in it had, on the very edge of the gulf of death, +believed that he had still a portion in Israel's hope, and that, +when he had taken the plunge into the great darkness, he had not +sunk below the reach of God's power to give him personal fulfilment +of His yet unfulfilled promise. His dying command was the expression +of his unshaken faith that, though he was dead, God would visit him +with His salvation, and give him to see the prosperity of His +chosen, that he might rejoice in the gladness of the nation, and +glory with His inheritance. He had lived, trusting in God's bare +promise, and, as he lived, he died. The Epistle to the Hebrews lays +hold of the true motive power in the incident, when it points to +Joseph's dying 'commandment concerning his bones' as a noble +instance of Faith. + +Thus, through slow creeping centuries, this silent preacher said--'Hope +on, though the vision tarry, wait for it, for it will surely +come. God is faithful, and will perform His word.' There was much to +make hope faint. To bring Israel out of Canaan seemed a strange way +of investing it with the possession of Canaan. As the tardy years +trickled away, drop by drop, and the promise seemed no nearer +fulfilment, some film of doubt must have crept over Hope's bright +eyes. When new dynasties reigned, and Israel slowly sank into the +state of bondage, it must have been still harder to believe that the +shortest road to the inheritance was round by Goshen. But through +all the darkening course of Israel in these sad centuries, there +stood the 'coffin,' the token of a triumphant faith which had leapt, +as a trifle, over the barrier of death, and grasped as real the good +which lay beyond that frowning wall. We have a better Herald of hope +than a mummy-case and a pyramid built round it. We have an empty +grave and an occupied Throne, by which to nourish our confidence in +Immortality and our estimate of the insignificance of death. Our +Joseph does not say--'I die, but God will surely visit you,' but He +gives us the wonderful assurance of identification with Himself, and +consequent participation in His glory--'Because I live, ye shall +live also.' Therefore our hope should be as much brighter and more +confirmed than this ancient one was as that on which it is based is +better and more joyous. But, alas, there is no invariable proportion +between food supplied and strength derived. An orchid can fling out +gorgeous blooms, though it grows on a piece of dry wood, but plants +set in rich soil often show poor flowers. Our hope will be worthy of +its foundation, only on condition of our habitually reflecting on +the firmness of that foundation, and cultivating familiarity with +the things hoped for. + +There are many ways in which the apostle's great saying that 'we are +saved by hope' approves itself as true. Whatever leads us to grasp +the future rather than the present, even if it is but an earthly +future, and to live by hope rather than by fruition, even if it is +but a short-reaching hope, lifts us in the scale of being, ennobles, +dignifies, and in some respects purifies us. Even men whose +expectations have not wing-power enough to cross the dreadful ravine +of Death, are elevated in the degree in which they work towards a +distant goal. Short-sighted hopes are better than blind absorption +in the present. Whatever puts the centre of gravity of our lives in +the future is a gain, and most of all is that hope blessed, which +bids us look forward to an eternal sitting with Jesus at the right +hand of God. + +If such hope has any solidity in it, it will certainly detach us +from the order of things in which we dwell. The world is always +tempting us to 'forget the imperial palace' whither we go. The +Israelites must have been swayed by many inducements to settle down +for good and all in the low levels of fertile Goshen, and to think +themselves better off there than if going out on a perilous +enterprise to win no richer pastures than they already possessed. In +fact, when the deliverance came, it was not particularly welcome, +oven though oppression was embittering the peoples' lives. But, when +hope had died down in them, and desire had become languid, and +ignoble contentment with their flocks and herds had dulled their +spirits, Joseph's silent coffin must have pealed in their ears--'This +is not your rest; arise and claim your inheritance.' In like +manner, the pressure of the apparently solid realities of to-day, +the growth of the 'scientific' temper of mind which confines +knowledge to physical facts, the drift of tendency among religious +people to regard Christianity mainly in its aspect of dealing with +social questions and bringing present good, powerfully reinforce our +natural sluggishness of Hope, and have brought it about that the +average Christian of this day has fewer of his thoughts directed to +the future life than his predecessors had, or than it is good for +him to have. + +Among the many truths which almost need to be rediscovered by their +professed believers, that of the rest that remains for the people of +God is one. For the test of believing a truth is its influence on +conduct, and no one can affirm that the conduct of the average +Christian of our times bears marks of being deeply influenced by +that Future, or by the hope of winning it. Does he live as if he +felt that he was an alien among the material things surrounding him? +Does it look as if his true affinities were beyond the grave and +above the stars? If we did thus feel, not at rare intervals, when +'in seasons of calm weather, our souls have sight of that immortal +sea,' which lies glassy before the throne, and on whose banks the +minstrels stand singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, but +habitually and with a vivid realisation, which makes the things +hoped for more solid than what we touch and handle, our lives would +be far other than they are. We should not work less, but more, +earnestly at our present duties, whatever these may be, for they +would be seen in new importance as bearing on our place in that +world of consequences. The more our goal and prize are seen gleaming +through the dust of the race-ground, the more strenuous our effort +here. Nothing ennobles the trifles of our lives in time like the +streaming in on these of the light of eternity. That vision ever +present with us will not sadden. The fact of mortality is grim +enough, if forced upon us unaccompanied by the other fact that Death +opens the gate of our Home. But when the else depressing thought +that 'here we have no continuing city' is but the obverse and result +of the fact that 'we seek one to come,' it is freed from its +sadness, and becomes powerful for good and even for joy. We need, +even more than Israel in its bondage did, to realise that we are +strangers and pilgrims. It concerns the depth of our religion and +the reality of our profiting by the discipline, as well as of our +securing the enjoyment of the blessings, of the fleeting and else +trivial present, that we shall keep very clear in view the great +future which dignifies and interprets this enigmatical earthly life. + +Further, that 'coffin in Egypt' was a preacher of patience. As we +have seen, three centuries at least, probably a somewhat longer +period, passed between the time when Joseph's corpse was laid in it, +and the night when it was lifted out of it by the departing +Israelites. No doubt, hope deferred had made many a heart sick, and +the weary question, 'Where is the promise of His coming?' had in +some cases changed into bitter disbelief that the promise would ever +be fulfilled. But, for all these years, the dumb monitor stood there +proclaiming, 'If the vision tarry, wait for it.' + +Surely we need the same lesson. It is hard for us to acquiesce in +the slow march of the divine purposes. Life is short, and desire +would fain see the great harvests reaped before death seals our +eyes. Sometimes the very prospect of the great things that shall one +day be accomplished in the world, and we not there to see, weighs +heavily on us. Reformers, philanthropists, idealists of all sorts +are constitutionally impatient, and in their generous haste to see +their ideals realised, forget that 'raw haste' is 'half-sister to +delay' and are indignant with man for his sluggishness and with God +for His majestic slowness. Not less do we fret and fume and think +the days drag with intolerable slowness, before some eagerly +expected good rises like a star on our individual lives. But there +is deep truth in Paul's apparent paradox, that 'if we hope for that +we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' The more sure the +confidence, the more quiet the patient waiting. It is uncertainty +which makes earthly hope short of breath, and impatient of delay. + +But since a Christian man's hope is consolidated into certainty, and +when it is set on God, cannot only say, I trust that it will be so +and so, but, I know that it shall, it may well be content to be +patient for the fulfilment, 'as the husbandman waiteth for the +precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it.' 'One +day is with the Lord as a thousand years' in respect of the +magnitude of the changes which may be wrought by the instantaneous +operation of His hand when the appointed hour shall strike, and +therefore it should not strain our patience nor stagger our faith +that 'a thousand years' should be 'as one day,' in respect of the +visible approximation achieved in them, towards the establishment of +His purpose. The world was prepared for man through countless +millenniums. Man was prepared for the advent of Christ through long +centuries. Nineteen hundred years have effected comparatively little +in incorporating the issues of Christ's work in the consciousness +and characters of mankind. Much of the slowness of that progress of +Christianity is due to the faithlessness and sloth of professing +Christians. But it still remains true that God lifts His foot +slowly, and plants it firmly, in His march through the world. So, +both in regard to the progress of truth, and the diffusion of the +highest, and of the secondary, blessings of Christianity through the +nations, and in respect to the reception of individual good gifts, +we shall do wisely to leave God to settle the 'when' since we are +sure that He has bound Himself to accomplish the fact. + +Finally, that 'coffin in Egypt' was a pledge of possession. It lay +long among the Israelites to uphold fainting faith, and at last was +carried up before their host, and reverently guarded during forty +years' wanderings, till it was deposited in the cave at Machpelah, +beside the tombs of the fathers of the nation. Thus it became to the +nation, and remains for us, a symbol of the truth that no hope based +upon God's bare word is ever finally disappointed. From all other +anticipations grounded on anything less solid, the element of +uncertainty is inseparable, and Fear is ever the sister of Hope. +With keen insight Spenser makes these two march side by side, in his +wonderful procession of the attendants of earthly Love. There is +always a lurking sadness in Hope's smiles, and a nameless dread in +her eyes. And all expectations busied with or based upon the +contingencies of this poor life, whether they are fulfilled or +disappointed, prove less sweet in fruition than in prospect, and +often turn to ashes in the eating, instead of the sweet bread which +we had thought them to be. One basis alone is sure, and that is the +foundation on which Joseph rested and risked everything--the plain +promise of God. He who builds on that rock will never be put to +shame, and when floods sweep away every refuge built on sand, he +will not need to 'make haste' to find, amid darkness and storm, some +less precarious shelter, but will look down serenely on the wildest +torrent, and know it to be impotent to wash away his fortress home. + +There is no nobler example of victorious faith which prolonged +confident expectation beyond the insignificant accident of death +than Joseph's dying 'commandment concerning his bones.' His +confidence, indeed, grasped a far lower blessing than ours should +reach out to clasp. It was evoked by less clear and full promises +and pledges than we have. The magnitude and loftiness of the +Christian hope of Immortality, and the certitude of the fact on +which it reposes, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, should result in +a corresponding increase in the firmness and clearness of our hope, +and in its power in our lives. The average Christian of to-day may +well be sent to school to Joseph on his death-bed. Is our faith as +strong as--I will not ask if it is stronger than--that of this man +who, in the morning twilight of revelation, and with a hope of an +eternal possession of an earthly inheritance, which, one might have +thought, would be shattered by death, was able to fling his anchor +clean across the gulf when he gave injunction, 'Carry my bones up +hence'? We have a better inheritance, and fuller, clearer promises +and facts on which to trust. Shame to us if we have a feebler faith. + + + + + + + +EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE + +ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. + +EXODUS, LEVITICUS AND NUMBERS + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE BOOK OF EXODUS + +FOUR SHAPING CENTURIES (Exodus i. 1-14) + +DEATH AND GROWTH (Exodus i. 6, 7) + +THE ARK AMONG THE FLAGS (Exodus ii. 1-10) + +THE BUSH THAT BURNED, AND DID NOT BURN OUT (Exodus iii. 2) + +THE CALL OF MOSES (Exodus iii. 10-20) + +A LAST MERCIFUL WARNING (Exodus xi. 1-10) + +THE PASSOVER: AN EXPIATION AND A FEAST, A MEMORIAL AND A PROPHECY +(Exodus xii. 1-14) + +THOUGHT, DEED, WORD (Exodus xiii. 9) + +A PATH IN THE SEA (Exodus xiv. 19-31) + +'MY STRENGTH AND SONG' (Exodus xv. 2) + +THE SHEPHERD AND THE FOLD (Exodus xv. 13) + +THE ULTIMATE HOPE (Exodus xv. 17) + +MARAH (Exodus xv. 23-25) + +THE BREAD OF GOD (Exodus xvi. 4-12) + +JEHOVAH NISSI (Exodus xvii. 15) + +GERSHOM AND ELIEZER (Exodus xviii. 3, 4) + +THE IDEAL STATESMAN (Exodus xviii. 21) + +THE DECALOGUE:--I. MAN AND GOD (Exodus xx. 1-11) + +THE DECALOGUE:--II. MAN AND MAN (Exodus xx. 12-21) + +THE FEAST OF INGATHERING IN THE END OF THE YEAR (Exodus xxiii. 16) + +'THE LOVE OF THINE ESPOUSALS' (Exodus xxiv. 1-12) + +THE BREAD OF THE PRESENCE (Exodus xxv. 30) + +THE GOLDEN LAMPSTAND (Exodus xxv. 31) + +THE NAMES ON AARON'S BREASTPLATE (Exodus xxviii. 12,29) + +THREE INSCRIPTIONS WITH ONE MEANING (Exodus xxviii. 36; Zech. xiv. +20; Rev. xxii. 4) + +THE ALTAR OF INCENSE (Exodus xxx. 1) + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--I. (Exodus xxx. 12) + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--II. (Exodus xxx. 15) + +THE GOLDEN CALF (Exodus xxxii. 1-8, 30-35) + +THE SWIFT DECAY OF LOVE (Exodus xxxii. 15-26) + +THE MEDIATOR'S THREEFOLD PRAYER (Exodus xxxiii. 12-23) + +GOD PROCLAIMING HIS OWN NAME (Exodus xxxiv. 6) + +SIN AND FORGIVENESS (Exodus xxxiv. 7) + +BLESSED AND TRAGIC UNCONSCIOUSNESS (Exodus xxxiv. 29; Judges xvi. +20) + +AN OLD SUBSCRIPTION LIST (Exodus xxxv. 21) + +THE COPIES OF THINGS IN THE HEAVENS (Exodus xl. 1-16) + + + + +THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS + + +THE BURNT OFFERING A PICTURE AND A PROPHECY (Lev. i. 1-9) + +STRANGE FIRE (Lev. x. 1-11) + +THE FIRST STAGE IN THE LEPER'S CLEANSING (Lev. xiv 1-7) + +THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (Lev. xvi. 1-19) + +'THE SCAPEGOAT' (Lev. xvi. 22) + +THE CONSECRATION OF JOY (Lev. xxiii. 33-44) + +SOJOURNERS WITH GOD (Lev. xxv. 23) + +GOD'S SLAVES (Lev. xxv. 42) + +THE KINSMAN REDEEMER (Lev. xxv. 48) + +THE OLD STORE AND THE NEW (Lev. xxvi. 10) + +EMANCIPATED SLAVES (Lev. xxvi. 13) + + + + +THE BOOK OF NUMBERS + + +THE WARFARE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE (Num. iv. 23) + +THE GUIDING PILLAR (Num. ix. 16) + +HOBAB (Num. x. 29) + +THE HALLOWING OF WORK AND OF REST (Num. x. 35, 36) + +MOSES DESPONDENT (Num. xi. 14) + +AFRAID OF GIANTS (Num. xiii. 17-33) + +WEIGHED, AND FOUND WANTING (Num. xiv. 1-10) + +MOSES THE INTERCESSOR (Num. xiv. 19) + +SERVICE A GIFT (Num. xviii. 7) + +THE WATERS OF MERIBAH (Num. xx. 1-13) + +THE POISON AND THE ANTIDOTE (Num. xxi. 4-9) + +BALAAM (Num. xxii. 5) + +AN UNFULFILLED DESIRE (Num. xxiii. 10; xxxi. 8) + + + + +THE BOOK OF EXODUS + + + + +FOUR SHAPING CENTURIES + + + 'Now these are the names of the children of Israel, + which came into Egypt: every man and his household + came with Jacob. 2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, + 3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4. Dan and Naphtali, + Gad and Asher. 5. And all the souls that came out of + the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was + in Egypt already. 6. And Joseph died, and all his + brethren, and all that generation. 7, And the children + of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and + multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land + was filled with them. 8. Now there arose up a new king + over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9. And he said unto + his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel + are more and mightier than we: 10. Come on, let us deal + wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to + pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join + also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get + them up out of the land. 11. Therefore they did set over + them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And + they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and + Raamses. 12. But the more they afflicted them, the more + they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because + of the children of Israel. 13. And the Egyptians made + the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14. And + they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in + mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in + the field: all their service, wherein they made them + serve, was with rigour.'--EXODUS i. 1-14. + +The four hundred years of Israel's stay in Egypt were divided into +two unequal periods, in the former and longer of which they were +prosperous and favoured, while in the latter they were oppressed. +Both periods had their uses and place in the shaping of the nation +and its preparation for the Exodus. Both carry permanent lessons. + +I. The long days of unclouded prosperity. These extended over +centuries, the whole history of which is summed up in two words: +death and growth. The calm years glided on, and the shepherds in +Goshen had the happiness of having no annals. All that needed to be +recorded was that, one by one, the first generation died off, and +that the new generations 'were fruitful, and increased abundantly, +and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty.' The emphatic +repetitions recall the original promises in Genesis xii. 2, xvii. +4,5, xviii. 18. The preceding specification of the number of the +original settlers (repeated from Genesis xlvi. 27) brings into +impressive contrast the small beginnings and the rapid increase. We +may note that eloquent setting side by side of the two processes +which are ever going on simultaneously, death and birth. + +One by one men pass out of the warmth and light into the darkness, +and so gradually does the withdrawal proceed that we scarcely are +aware of its going on, but at last 'all that generation' has +vanished. The old trees are all cleared off the ground, and +everywhere their place is taken by the young saplings. The web is +ever being woven at one end, and run down at the other. 'The +individual withers, but the race is more and more.' How solemn that +continual play of opposing movements is, and how blind we are to its +solemnity! + +That long period of growth may be regarded in two lights. It +effected the conversion of a horde into a nation by numerical +increase, and so was a link in the chain of the divine working. The +great increase, of which the writer speaks so strongly, was, no +doubt, due to the favourable circumstances of the life in Goshen, +but was none the less regarded by him, and rightly so, as God's +doing. As the Psalmist sings, '_He_ increased His people +greatly.' 'Natural processes' are the implements of a supernatural +will. So Israel was being multiplied, and the end for which it was +peacefully growing into a multitude was hidden from all but God. But +there was another end, in reference to which the years of peaceful +prosperity may be regarded; namely, the schooling of the people to +patient trust in the long-delayed fulfilment of the promise. That +hope had burned bright in Joseph when he died, and he being dead yet +spake of it from his coffin to the successive generations. Delay is +fitted and intended to strengthen faith and make hope more eager. +But that part of the divine purpose, alas! was not effected as the +former was. In the moral region every circumstance has two opposite +results possible. Each condition has, as it were, two handles, and +we can take it by either, and generally take it by the wrong one. +Whatever is meant to better us may be so used by us as to worsen us. +And the history of Israel in Egypt and in the desert shows only too +plainly that ease weakened, if it did not kill, faith, and that +Goshen was so pleasant that it drove the hope and the wish for +Canaan out of mind. 'While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered +and slept.' Is not Israel in Egypt, slackening hold of the promise +because it tarried, a mirror in which the Church may see itself? and +do _we_ not know the enervating influence of Goshen, making us +reluctant to shoulder our packs and turn out for the pilgrimage? The +desert repels more strongly than Canaan attracts. + +II. The shorter period of oppression. Probably the rise of a 'new +king' means a revolution in which a native dynasty expelled foreign +monarchs. The Pharaoh of the oppression was, perhaps, the great +Rameses II., whose long reign of sixty-seven years gives ample room +for protracted and grinding oppression of Israel. The policy adopted +was characteristic of these early despotisms, in its utter disregard +of humanity and of everything but making the kingdom safe. It was +not intentionally cruel, it was merely indifferent to the suffering +it occasioned. 'Let us deal _wisely_ with them'--never mind +about justice, not to say kindness. Pharaoh's 'politics,' like those +of some other rulers who divorce them from morality, turned out to +be impolitic, and his 'wisdom' proved to be roundabout folly. He was +afraid that the Israelites, if they were allowed to grow, might find +out their strength and seek to emigrate; and so he set to work to +weaken them with hard bondage, not seeing that that was sure to make +them wish the very thing that he was blunderingly trying to prevent. +The only way to make men glad to remain in a community is to make +them at home there. The sense of injustice is the strongest +disintegrating force. If there is a 'dangerous class' the surest way +to make them more dangerous is to treat them harshly. It was a +blunder to make 'lives bitter,' for hearts also were embittered. So +the people were ripened for revolt, and Goshen became less +attractive. + +God used Pharaoh's foolish wisdom, as He had used natural laws, to +prepare for the Exodus. The long years of ease had multiplied the +nation. The period of oppression was to stir them up out of their +comfortable nest, and make them willing to risk the bold dash for +freedom. Is not that the explanation, too, of the similar times in +our lives? It needs that we should experience life's sorrows and +burdens, and find how hard the world's service is, and how quickly +our Goshens may become places of grievous toil, in order that the +weak hearts, which cling so tightly to earth, may be detached from +it, and taught to reach upwards to God. 'Blessed is the man ... in +whose heart are thy ways,' and happy is he who so profits by his +sorrows that they stir in him the pilgrim's spirit, and make him +yearn after Canaan, and not grudge to leave Goshen. Our ease and our +troubles, opposite though they seem and are, are meant to further +the same end,--to make us fit for the journey which leads to rest +and home. We often misuse them both, letting the one sink us in +earthly delights and oblivion of the great hope, and the other +embitter our spirits without impelling them to seek the things that +are above. Let us use the one for thankfulness, growth, and patient +hope, and the other for writing deep the conviction that this is not +our rest, and making firm the resolve that we will gird our loins +and, staff in hand, go forth on the pilgrim road, not shrinking from +the wilderness, because we see the mountains of Canaan across its +sandy flats. + + + + +DEATH AND GROWTH + + + 'And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that + generation. 7. And the children of Israel were fruitful, + and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed + exceeding mighty....'--EXODUS i. 6, 7. + +These remarkable words occur in a short section which makes the link +between the Books of Genesis and of Exodus. The writer recapitulates +the list of the immigrants into Egypt, in the household of Jacob, +and then, as it were, having got them there, he clears the stage to +prepare for a new set of actors. These few words are all that he +cares to tell us about a period somewhat longer than that which +separates us from the great Protestant Reformation. He notes but two +processes--silent dropping away and silent growth. 'Joseph died, and +all his brethren, and all that generation.' Plant by plant the +leaves drop, and the stem rots and its place is empty. Seed by seed +the tender green spikelets pierce the mould, and the field waves +luxuriant in the breeze and the sunshine. 'The children of Israel +were fruitful, and increased abundantly.' + +I. Now, then, let us look at this twofold process which is always at +work--silent dropping away and silent growth. + +It seems to me that the writer, probably unconsciously, being +profoundly impressed with certain features of that dropping away, +reproduces them most strikingly in the very structure of his +sentence: 'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that +generation.' The uniformity of the fate, and the separate times at +which it befell individuals, are strongly set forth in the clauses, +which sound like the threefold falls of earth on a coffin. They all +died, but not all at the same time. They went one by one, one by +one, till, at the end, they were all gone. The two things that +appeal to our imagination, and ought to appeal to our consciences +and wills, in reference to the succession of the generations of men, +are given very strikingly, I think, in the language of my text--namely, +the stealthy assaults of death upon the individuals, and its +final complete victory. + +If any of you were ever out at sea, and looked over a somewhat +stormy water, you will have noticed, I dare say, how strangely the +white crests of the breakers disappear, as if some force, acting +from beneath, had plucked them under, and over the spot where they +gleamed for a moment runs the blue sea. So the waves break over the +great ocean of time; I might say, like swimmers pulled under by +sharks, man after man, man after man, gets twitched down, till at +the end--'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and _all_ that +generation.' + +There is another process going on side by side with this. In the +vegetable world, spring and autumn are two different seasons: May +rejoices in green leaves and opening buds, and nests with their +young broods; but winter days are coming when the greenery drops and +the nests are empty, and the birds flown. But the singular and +impressive thing (which we should see if we were not so foolish and +blind) which the writer of our text lays his finger upon is that at +the same time the two opposite processes of death and renewal are +going on, so that if you look at the facts from the one side it +seems nothing but a charnel-house and a Golgotha that we live in, +while, seen from the other side, it is a scene of rejoicing, budding +young life, and growth. + +You get these two processes in the closest juxtaposition in ordinary +life. There is many a house where there is a coffin upstairs and a +cradle downstairs. The churchyard is often the children's +playground. The web is being run down at the one end and woven at +the other. Wherever we look-- + + 'Every moment dies a man, + Every moment one is born.' + +'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the +children of Israel ... multiplied ... exceedingly.' + +But there is another thought here than that of the +contemporaneousness of the two processes, and that is, as it is +written on John Wesley's monument in Westminster Abbey, 'God buries +the workmen and carries on the work.' The great Vizier who seemed to +be the only protection of Israel is lying in 'a coffin in Egypt.' +And all these truculent brothers of his that had tormented him, they +are gone, and the whole generation is swept away. What of that? They +were the depositories of God's purposes for a little while. Are +God's purposes dead because the instruments that in part wrought +them are gone? By no means. If I might use a very vulgar proverb, +'There are as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it,' +especially if God casts the net. So when the one generation has +passed away there is the other to take up the work. Thus the text is +a fitting introduction to the continuance of the history of the +further unfolding of God's plan which occupies the Book of Exodus. + +II. Such being the twofold process suggested by this text, let us +next note the lessons which it enforces. + +In the first place, let us be quite sure that we give it its due +weight in our thoughts and lives. Let us be quite sure that we never +give an undue weight to the one half of the whole truth. There are +plenty of people who are far too much, constitutionally and (perhaps +by reason of a mistaken notion of religion) religiously, inclined to +the contemplation of the more melancholy side of these truths; and +there are a great many people who are far too exclusively disposed +to the contemplation of the other. But the bulk of us never trouble +our heads about either the one or the other, but go on, forgetting +altogether that swift, sudden, stealthy, skinny hand that, if I +might go back to my former metaphor, is put out to lay hold of the +swimmer and then pull him underneath the water, and which will clasp +us by the ankles one day and drag us down. Do you ever think about +it? If not, surely, surely you are leaving out of sight one of what +ought to be the formative elements in our lives. + +And then, on the other hand, when our hearts are faint, or when the +pressure of human mortality--our own, that of our dear ones, or that +of others--seems to weigh us down, or when it looks to us as if +God's work was failing for want of people to do it, let us remember +the other side--'And the children of Israel ... increased ... and +waxed exceeding mighty; ... and the land was filled with them.' So +we shall keep the middle path, which is the path of safety, and so +avoid the folly of extremes. + +But then, more particularly, let me say that this double +contemplation of the two processes under which we live ought to +stimulate us to service. It ought to say to us, 'Do you cast in your +lot with that work which is going to be carried on through the ages. +Do you see to it that your little task is in the same line of +direction as the great purpose which God is working out--the +increasing purpose which runs through the ages.' An individual life +is a mere little backwater, as it were, in the great ocean. But its +minuteness does not matter, if only the great tidal wave which rolls +away out there, in the depths and the distance amongst the +fathomless abysses, tells also on the tiny pool far inland and yet +connected with the sea by some narrow, long fiord. + +If my little life is part of that great ocean, then the ebb and flow +will alike act on it and make it wholesome. If my work is done in +and for God, I shall never have to look back and say, as we +certainly shall say one day, either here or yonder, unless our lives +be thus part of the divine plan, 'What a fool I was! Seventy years +of toiling and moiling and effort and sweat, and it has all come to +nothing; like a long algebraic sum that covers pages of intricate +calculations, and the _pluses_ and _minuses_ just balance each other; +and the net result is a great round nought.' So let us remember the +twofold process, and let it stir us to make sure that 'in our embers' +shall be 'something that doth live,' and that not 'Nature,' but +something better--God--'remembers what was so fugitive.' It is not +fugitive if it is a part of the mighty whole. + +But further, let this double contemplation make us very content with +doing insignificant and unfinished work. + +Joseph might have said, when he lay dying: 'Well! perhaps I made a +mistake after all. I should not have brought this people down here, +even if I have been led hither. I do not see that I have helped them +one step towards the possession of the land.' Do you remember the +old proverb about certain people who should not see half-finished +work? All our work in this world has to be only what the +physiologists call functional. God has a great scheme running on +through ages. Joseph gives it a helping hand for a time, and then +somebody else takes up the running, and carries the purpose forward +a little further. A great many hands are placed on the ropes that +draw the car of the Ruler of the world. And one after another they +get stiffened in death; but the car goes on. We should be contented +to do our little bit of the work. Never mind whether it is complete +and smooth and rounded or not. Never mind whether it can be isolated +from the rest and held up, and people can say, 'He did that entire +thing unaided.' That is not the way for most of us. A great many +threads go to make the piece of cloth, and a great many throws of +the shuttle to weave the web. A great many bits of glass make up the +mosaic pattern; and there is no reason for the red bit to pride +itself on its fiery glow, or the grey bit to boast of its silvery +coolness. They are all parts of the pattern, and as long as they +keep their right places they complete the artist's design. Thus, if +we think of how 'one soweth and another reapeth,' we may be content +to receive half-done works from our fathers, and to hand on +unfinished tasks to them that come after us. It is not a great trial +of a man's modesty, if he lives near Jesus Christ, to be content to +do but a very small bit of the Master's work. + +And the last thing that I would say is, let this double process +going on all round us lift our thoughts to Him who lives for ever. +Moses dies; Joshua catches the torch from his hand. And the reason +why he catches the torch from his hand is because God said, 'As I +was with Moses so I will be with thee.' Therefore we have to turn +away in our contemplations from the mortality that has swallowed up +so much wisdom and strength, eloquence and power, which the Church +or our own hearts seem so sorely to want: and, whilst we do, we have +to look up to Jesus Christ and say, 'He lives! He lives! No man is +indispensable for public work or for private affection and solace so +long at there is a living Christ for us to hold by.' + +Dear brethren, we need that conviction for ourselves often. When +life seems empty and hope dead, and nothing is able to fill the +vacuity or still the pain, we have to look to the vision of the Lord +sitting on the empty throne, high and lifted up, and yet very near +the aching and void heart. Christ lives, and that is enough. + +So the separated workers in all the generations, who did their +little bit of service, like the many generations of builders who +laboured through centuries upon the completion of some great +cathedral, will be united at the last; 'and he that soweth, and he +that reapeth, shall rejoice together' in the harvest which was +produced by neither the sower nor the reaper, but by Him who blessed +the toils of both. + +'Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation'; but +Jesus lives, and therefore His people 'grow and multiply,' and His +servants' work is blessed; and at the end they shall be knit +together in the common joy of the great harvest, and of the day when +the headstone is brought forth with shoutings of 'Grace! grace unto +it.' + + + + +THE ARK AMONG THE FLAGS + + + 'And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to + wife a daughter of Levi. 2. And the woman conceived, and + bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly + child, she hid him three months. 3. And when she could + not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, + and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the + child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's + brink. 4. And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would + be done to him. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down + to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked + along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among + the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 6. And when + she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the + babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This + is one of the Hebrews' children. 7. Then said his sister + to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse + of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for + thee? 8. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the + maid went and called the child's mother. 9. And Pharaoh's + daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse + it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman + took the child, and nursed it. 10. And the child grew, + and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he + became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she + said, Because I drew him out of the water.'--EXODUS ii. 1-10. + +I. It is remarkable that all the persons in this narrative are +anonymous. We know that the names of 'the man of the house of Levi' +and his wife were Amram and Jochebed. Miriam was probably the +anxious sister who watched what became of the little coffer. The +daughter of Pharaoh has two names in Jewish tradition, one of which +corresponds to that which Brugsch has found to have been borne by +one of Rameses' very numerous daughters. One likes to think that the +name of the gentle-hearted woman has come down to us; but, whether +she was called 'Meri' or not, she and the others have no name here. +The reason can scarcely have been ignorance. But they are, as it +were, kept in shadow, because the historian saw, and wished us to +see, that a higher Hand was at work, and that over all the events +recorded in these verses there brooded the informing, guiding Spirit +of God Himself, the sole actor. + + 'Each only as God wills + Can work--God's puppets, best and worst, + Are we: there is no last nor first.' + +II. The mother's motive in braving the danger to herself involved in +keeping the child is remarkably put. 'When she saw that he was a +goodly child, she hid him.' It was not only a mother's love that +emboldened her, as it does all weak creatures, to shelter her +offspring at her own peril, but something in the look of the infant, +as it lay on her bosom, touched her with a dim hope. According to +the Septuagint translation, both parents shared in this. And so the +Epistle to the Hebrews unites them in that which is here attributed +to the mother only. Stephen, too, speaks of Moses as 'fair in God's +sight.' As if the prescient eyes of the parents were not blinded by +love, but rather cleared to see some token of divine benediction +resting on him. The writer of the _Hebrews_ lifts the deed out +of the category of instinctive maternal affection up to the higher +level of faith. So we may believe that the aspect of her child woke +some prophetic vision in the mother's soul, and that she and her +husband were of those who cherished the hopes naturally born from +the promise to Abraham, nurtured by Jacob's and Joseph's dying wish +to be buried in Canaan, and matured by the tyranny of Pharaoh. Their +faith, at all events, grasped the unseen God as their helper, and +made Jochebed bold to break the terrible law, as a hen will fly in +the face of a mastiff to shield her brood. Their faith perhaps also +grasped the future deliverance, and linked it in some way with their +child. We may learn how transfiguring and ennobling to the gentlest +and weakest is faith in God, especially when it is allied with +unselfish human love. These two are the strongest powers. If they +are at war, the struggle is terrible: if they are united, 'the +weakest is as David, and David as an angel of God.' Let us seek ever +to blend their united strength in our own lives. + +Will it be thought too fanciful if we suggest that we are taught +another lesson,--namely, that the faith which surrenders its earthly +treasures to God, in confidence of His care, is generally rewarded +and vindicated by receiving them back again, glorified and +sanctified by the altar on which they have been laid? Jochebed +clasped her recovered darling to her bosom with a deeper gladness, +and held him by a surer title, when Miriam brought him back as the +princess's charge, than ever before. We never feel the preciousness +of dear ones so much, nor are so calm in the joy of possession, as +when we have laid them in God's hands, and have learned how wise and +wonderful His care is. + +III. How much of the world's history that tiny coffer among the +reeds held! How different that history would have been if, as might +easily have happened, it had floated away, or if the feeble life +within it had wailed itself dead unheard! The solemn possibilities +folded and slumbering in an infant are always awful to a thoughtful +mind. But, except the manger at Bethlehem, did ever cradle hold the +seed of so much as did that papyrus chest? The set of opinion at +present minimises the importance of the individual, and exalts the +spirit of the period, as a factor in history. Standing beside +Miriam, we may learn a truer view, and see that great epochs require +great men, and that, without such for leaders, no solid advance in +the world's progress is achieved. Think of the strange cradle +floating on the Nile; then think of the strange grave among the +mountains of Moab, and of all between, and ponder the same lesson as +is taught in yet higher fashion by Bethlehem and Calvary, that God's +way of blessing the world is to fill men with His message, and let +others draw from them. Whether it be 'law,' or 'grace and truth,' a +man is needed through whom it may fructify to all. + +IV. The sweet picture of womanly compassion in Pharaoh's daughter is +full of suggestions. We have already noticed that her name is handed +down by one tradition as 'Merris,' and that 'Meri' has been found as +the appellation of a princess of the period. A rabbinical authority +calls her 'Bithiah,' that is, 'Daughter of Jehovah'; by which was, +no doubt, intended to imply that she became in some sense a +proselyte. This may have been only an inference from her protection +of Moses. There is a singular and very obscure passage in I +Chronicles iv. 17, 18, relating the genealogy of a certain Mered, +who seems to have had two wives, one 'the Jewess,' the other +'Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh.' We know no more about him or +her, but Keil thinks that Mered probably 'lived before the exodus'; +but it can scarcely be that the 'daughter of Pharaoh,' his wife, is +our princess, and that she actually became a 'daughter of Jehovah,' +and, like her adopted child, refused royal dignity and preferred +reproach. In any case, the legend of her name is a tender and +beautiful way of putting the belief that in her 'there was some good +thing towards the God of Israel.' + +But, passing from that, how the true woman's heart changes languid +curiosity into tenderness, and how compassion conquers pride of race +and station, as well as regard for her father's edict, as soon as +the infant's cry, which touches every good woman's feelings, falls +on her ear! 'One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.' All the +centuries are as nothing; the strange garb and the stranger mental +and spiritual dress fade, and we have here a mere woman, affected, +as every true sister of hers to-day would be, by the helpless +wailing. God has put that instinct there. Alas that it ever should +be choked by frivolity or pride, and frozen by indifference and +self-indulgence! Gentle souls spring up in unfavourable soil. +Rameses was a strange father for such a daughter. How came this dove +in the vulture's cage? Her sweet pity beside his cold craft and +cruelty is like the lamb couching by the lion. Note, too, that +gentlest pity makes the gentlest brave. She sees the child is a +Hebrew. Her quick wit understands why it has been exposed, and she +takes its part, and the part of the poor weeping parents, whom she +can fancy, against the savage law. No doubt, as Egyptologists tell +us, the princesses of the royal house had separate households and +abundant liberty of action. Still, it was bold to override the +strict commands of such a monarch. But it was not a self-willed +sense of power, but the beautiful daring of a compassionate woman, +to which God committed the execution of His purposes. + +And that is a force which has much like work trusted to it in modern +society too. Our great cities swarm with children exposed to a worse +fate than the baby among the flags. Legislation and official charity +have far too rough hands and too clumsy ways to lift the little life +out of the coffer, and to dry the tears. We must look to Christian +women to take a leaf out of 'Bithiah's' book. First, they should use +their eyes to see the facts, and not be so busy about their own +luxury and comfort that they pass the poor pitch-covered box +unnoticed. Then they should let the pitiful call touch their heart, +and not steel themselves in indifference or ease. Then they should +conquer prejudices of race, pride of station, fear of lowering +themselves, loathing, or contempt. And then they should yield to the +impulses of their compassion, and never mind what difficulties or +opponents may stand in the way of their saving the children. If +Christian women knew their obligations and their power, and lived up +to them as bravely as this Egyptian princess, there would be fewer +little ones flung out to be eaten by crocodiles, and many a poor +child, who is now abandoned from infancy to the Devil, would be +rescued to grow up a servant of God. She, there by the Nile waters, +in her gracious pity and prompt wisdom, is the type of what +Christian womanhood, and, indeed, the whole Christian community, +should be in relation to child life. + +V. The great lesson of this incident, as of so much before, is the +presence of God's wonderful providence, working out its designs by +all the play of human motives. In accordance with a law, often seen +in His dealings, it was needful that the deliverer should come from +the heart of the system from which he was to set his brethren free. +The same principle which sent Saul of Tarsus to be trained at the +feet of Gamaliel, and made Luther a monk in the Augustinian convent +at Erfurt, planted Moses in Pharaoh's palace and taught him the +wisdom of Egypt, against which he was to contend. It was a strange +irony of Providence that put him so close to the throne which he was +to shake. For his future work he needed to be lifted above his +people, and to be familiar with the Egyptian court as well as with +Egyptian learning. If he was to hate and to war against idolatry, +and to rescue an unwilling people from it, he must know the +rottenness of the system, and must have lived close enough to it to +know what went on behind the scenes, and how foully it smelled when +near. He would gain influence over his countrymen by his connection +with Pharaoh, whilst his very separation from them would at once +prevent his spirit from being broken by oppression, and would give +him a keener sympathy with his people than if he had himself been +crushed by slavery. His culture, heathen as it was, supplied the +material on which the divine Spirit worked. God fashioned the +vessel, and then filled it. Education is not the antagonist of +inspiration. For the most part, the men whom God has used for His +highest service have been trained in all the wisdom of their age. +When it has been piled up into an altar, then 'the fire of the Lord' +falls. + +Our story teaches us that God's chosen instruments are immortal till +their work is done. No matter how forlorn may seem their outlook, +how small the probabilities in their favour, how divergent from the +goal may seem the road He leads them, He watches them. Around that +frail ark, half lost among the reeds, is cast the impregnable shield +of His purpose. All things serve that Will. The current in the full +river, the lie of the flags that stop it from being borne down, the +hour of the princess's bath, the direction of her idle glance, the +cry of the child at the right moment, the impulse welling up in her +heart, the swift resolve, the innocent diplomacy of the sister, the +shelter of the happy mother's breast, the safety of the palace,--all +these and a hundred more trivial and unrelated things are spun into +the strong cable wherewith God draws slowly but surely His secret +purpose into act. So ever His children are secure as long as He has +work for them, and His mighty plan strides on to its accomplishment +over all the barriers that men can raise. + +How deeply this story had impressed on devout minds the truth of the +divine protection for all who serve Him, is shown by the fact that +the word employed in the last verse of our lesson, and there +translated 'drawn,' of which the name 'Moses' is a form, is used on +the only occasion of its occurrence in the Old Testament (namely +Psalm xviii. 16, and in the duplicate in 2 Sam. xxii. 17) with plain +reference to our narrative. The Psalmist describes his own +deliverance, in answer to his cry, by a grand manifestation of God's +majesty; and this is the climax and the purpose of the earthquake +and the lightning, the darkness and the storm: 'He sent from above, +He took me, He drew me out of many waters.' So that scene by the +margin of the Nile, so many years ago, is but one transient instance +of the working of the power which secures deliverance from +encompassing perils, and for strenuous, though it may be +undistinguished, service to all who call upon Him. God, who put the +compassion into the heart of Pharaoh's dusky daughter, is not less +tender of heart than she, and when He hears us, though our cry be +but as of an infant, 'with no language but a cry,' He will come in +His majesty and draw us from encompassing dangers and impending +death. We cannot all be lawgivers and deliverers; but we may all +appeal to His great pity, and partake of deliverance like that of +Moses and of David. + + + + +THE BUSH THAT BURNED, AND DID NOT BURN OUT + + + 'And, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush + was not consumed.' EXODUS iii. 1 + +It was a very sharp descent from Pharaoh's palace to the wilderness, +and forty years of a shepherd's life were a strange contrast to the +brilliant future that once seemed likely for Moses. But God tests +His weapons before He uses them, and great men are generally +prepared for great deeds by great sorrows. Solitude is 'the mother- +country of the strong,' and the wilderness, with its savage crags, +its awful silence, and the unbroken round of its blue heaven, was a +better place to meet God than in the heavy air of a palace, or the +profitless splendours of a court. + +So as this lonely shepherd is passing slowly in front of his flock, +he sees a strange light that asserted itself, even in the brightness +of the desert sunshine. 'The bush' does not mean one single shrub. +Rather, it implies some little group, or cluster, or copse, of the +dry thorny acacias, which are characteristic of the country, and +over which any ordinary fire would have passed like a flash, leaving +them all in grey ashes. But this steady light persists long enough +to draw the attention of the shepherd, and to admit of his +travelling some distance to reach it. And then--and then--the Lord +speaks. + +The significance of this bush, burning but not consumed, is my main +subject now, for I think it carries great and blessed lessons for +us. + +Now, first, I do not think that the bush burning but not consumed, +stands as it is ordinarily understood to stand, for the symbolical +representation of the preservation of Israel, even in the midst of +the fiery furnace of persecution and sorrow. + +Beautiful as that idea is, I do not think it is the true +explanation; because if so, this symbol is altogether out of keeping +with the law that applies to all the rest of the symbolical +accompaniments of divine appearances, all of which, without +exception, set forth in symbol some truth about God, and not about +His Church; and all of which, without exception, are a +representation in visible and symbolical form of the same truth +which was proclaimed in articulate words along with them. The symbol +and the accompanying voice of God in all other cases have one and +the same meaning. + +That, I think, is the case here also; and we learn from the Bush, +not something about God's Church, however precious that may be, but +what is a great deal more important, something about God Himself; +namely, the same thing that immediately afterwards was spoken in +articulate words. + +In the next place, let me observe that the fire is distinctly a +divine symbol, a symbol of God not of affliction, as the ordinary +explanation implies. I need not do more than remind you of the +stream of emblem which runs all through Scripture, as confirming +this point. There are the smoking lamp and the blazing furnace in +the early vision granted to Abraham. There is the pillar of fire by +night, that lay over the desert camp of the wandering Israelites. +There is Isaiah's word, 'The light of Israel shall be a flaming +fire.' There is the whole of the New Testament teaching, turning on +the manifestation of God through His Spirit. There are John the +Baptist's words, 'He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with +fire.' There is the day of Pentecost, when the 'tongues of fire sat +upon each of them.' And what is meant by the great word of the +Epistle to the Hebrews, 'Our God is a consuming fire'? + +Not Israel only, but many other lands--it would scarcely be an +exaggeration to say, all other lands--have used the same emblem with +the same meaning. In almost every religion on the face of the earth, +you will find a sacred significance attached to fire. That +significance is not primarily destruction, as we sometimes suppose, +an error which has led to ghastly misunderstandings of some +Scriptures, and of the God whom they reveal. When, for instance, +Isaiah (xxxiii. 14) asks, 'Who among us shall dwell with the +devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?' +he has been supposed to be asking what human soul is there that can +endure the terrors of God's consuming and unending wrath. But a +little attention to the words would have shown that 'the devouring +fire' and the 'everlasting burnings' mean God and not hell, and that +the divine nature is by them not represented as too fierce to be +approached, but as the true dwelling-place of men, which indeed only +the holy can inhabit, but which for them is life. Precisely parallel +is the Psalmist's question, 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the +Lord, and who shall stand in His holy place?' + +Fire is the source of warmth, and so, in a sense, of life. It is +full of quick energy, it transmutes all kinds of dead matter into +its own ruddy likeness, sending up the fat of the sacrifices in +wreathes of smoke that aspire heavenward; and changing all the +gross, heavy, earthly dullness into flame, more akin to the heaven +into which it rises. + +Therefore, as cleansing, as the source of life, light, warmth, +change, as glorifying, transmuting, purifying, refining, fire is the +fitting symbol of the mightiest of all creative energy. And the +Bible has consecrated the symbolism, and bade us think of the Lord +Himself as the central fiery Spirit of the whole universe, a spark +from whom irradiates and vitalises everything that lives. + +Nor should we forget, on the other side, that the very felicity of +this emblem is, that along with all these blessed thoughts of life- +giving and purifying, there does come likewise the more solemn +teaching of God's destructive power. 'What maketh heaven, that +maketh hell'; and the same God is the fire to quicken, to sanctify, +to bless; and resisted, rejected, neglected, is the fire that +consumes; the savour of life unto life, or the savour of death unto +death. + +And then, still further, notice that this flame is undying--steady, +unflickering. What does that mean? Adopting the principle which I +have already taken as our guide, that the symbol and the following +oral revelation teach the same truth, there can be no question as to +that answer. 'I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, of +Isaac, and of Jacob. 'I AM THAT I AM.' + +That is to say, the fire that burns and does not burn out, which has +no tendency to destruction in its very energy, and is not consumed +by its own activity, is surely a symbol of the one Being whose being +derives its law and its source from Himself, who only can say--'I AM +THAT I AM'--the law of His nature, the foundation of His being, the +only conditions of His existence being, as it were, enclosed within +the limits of His own nature. You and I have to say, 'I am that +which I have become,' or 'I am that which I was born,' or 'I am that +which circumstances have made me.' He says, 'I AM THAT I AM.' All +other creatures are links; this is the staple from which they all +hang. All other being is derived, and therefore limited and +changeful; this Being is underived, absolute, self-dependent, and +therefore unalterable for evermore. Because we live we die. In +living the process is going on of which death is the end. But God +lives for evermore, a flame that does not burn out; therefore His +resources are inexhaustible, His power unwearied. He needs no rest +for recuperation of wasted energy. His gifts diminish not the store +which He has to bestow. He gives, and is none the poorer; He works, +and is never weary; He operates unspent; He loves, and He loves for +ever; and through the ages the fire burns on, unconsumed and +undecayed. + +O brethren! is not that a revelation--familiar as it sounds to our +ears now, blessed be God!--is not that a revelation of which, when +we apprehend the depth and the preciousness, we may well fix an +unalterable faith upon it, and feel that for us, in our fleeting +days and shadowy moments, the one means to secure blessedness, rest, +strength, life, is to grasp and knit ourselves to Him who lives for +ever, and whose love is lasting as His life? 'The eternal God, the +Lord ... fainteth not, neither is weary. They that wait upon Him +shall renew their strength.' + +The last thought suggested to me by this symbol is this. Regarding +the lowly thorn-bush as an emblem of Israel--which unquestionably it +is, though the fire be the symbol of God--in the fact that the +symbolical manifestation of the divine energy lived in so lowly a +shrine, and flamed in it, and preserved it by its burning, there is +a great and blessed truth. + +It is the same truth which Jesus Christ, with a depth of +interpretation that put to shame the cavilling listeners, found in +the words that accompanied this vision: 'I am the God of Abraham, +the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' He said to the sneering +Sadducees, who, like all other sneerers, saw only the surface of +what they were sarcastic about, 'Did not Moses teach you,' in the +section about the bush, 'that the dead rise, when he said: I AM the +God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.' A man, about whom it +can once be said that God is his God, cannot die. Such a bond can +never be broken. The communion of earth, imperfect as it is, is the +prophecy of Heaven and the pledge of immortality. And so from that +relationship which subsisted between the fathers and God, Christ +infers the certainty of their resurrection. It seems a great leap, +but there are intervening steps not stated by our Lord, which +securely bridge the gulf between the premises and the conclusion. +Such communion is, in its very nature, unaffected by the accident of +death, for it cannot be supposed that a man who can say that God is +_His_ God can be reduced to nothingness, and such a bond be +snapped by such a cause. Therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are +still living, 'for all' those whom we call dead, as well as those +whom we call living, 'live unto Him,' and though so many centuries +have passed, God still _is_, not _was_, their God. The relation between +them is eternal and guarantees their immortal life. But immortality +without corporeity is not conceivable as the perfect state, and if the +dead live still, there must come a time when the whole man shall partake +of redemption; and in body, soul, and spirit the glorified and risen +saints shall be 'for ever with the Lord.' + +That is but the fuller working out of the same truth that is taught +us in the symbol 'the bush burned and was not consumed.' God dwelt +in it, therefore it flamed; God dwelt in it, therefore though it +flamed it never flamed out. Or in other words, the Church, the +individual in whom He dwells, partakes of the immortality of the +indwelling God. 'Every one shall be salted with fire,' which shall +be preservative and not destructive; or, as Christ has said, +'Because I live ye shall live also.' + +Humble as was the little, ragged, sapless thorn-bush, springing up +and living its solitary life amidst the sands of the desert, it was +not too humble to hold God; it was not too gross to burst into flame +when He came; it was not too fragile to be gifted with undying +being; like His that abode in it. And for us each the emblem may be +true. If He dwell in us we shall live as long as He lives, and the +fire that He puts in our heart shall be a fountain of fire springing +up into life everlasting. + + + + +THE CALL OF MOSES + + + 'Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, + that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of + Israel, out of Egypt. 11. And Moses said unto God, Who + am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should + bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12. + And He said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this + shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When + thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall + serve God upon this mountain. 13. And Moses said unto + God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, + and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath + sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His + name? what shall I say unto them? 14. And God said unto + Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, thus shalt thou say + unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. + 15. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou + say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your + fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the + God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for + ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. + 16. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and + say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of + Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, + saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which + is done to you in Egypt: 17. And I have said, I will + bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the + land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the + Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the + Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. + 18. And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt + come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of + Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the + Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech + Thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we + may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 19. And I am sure + that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by + a mighty hand. 20. And I will stretch out my hand, and + smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the + midst thereof: and after that he will let you go.' + --EXODUS iii 10-20. + +The 'son of Pharaoh's daughter' had been transformed, by nearly +forty years of desert life, into an Arab shepherd. The influences of +the Egyptian court had faded from him, like colour from cloth +exposed to the weather; nor is it probable that, after the failure +of his early attempt to play the deliverer to Israel, he nourished +further designs of that sort. He appears to have settled down +quietly to be Jethro's son-in-law, and to have lived a modest, still +life of humble toil. He had flung away fair prospects,--and what had +he made of it? The world would say 'Nothing,' as it ever does about +those who despise material advantages and covet higher good. Looking +after sheep in the desert was a sad downcome from the possibility of +sitting on the throne of Egypt. Yes, but it was in the desert that +the vision of the bush burning, and not burning out, came; and it +would not have come if Moses had been in a palace. + +This passage begins in the midst of the divine communication which +followed and interpreted the vision. We note, first, the divine +charge and the human shrinking from the task. It was a startling +transition from verse 9, which declares God's pitying knowledge of +Israel's oppression, to verse 10, which thrusts Moses forward into +the thick of dangers and difficulties, as God's instrument. 'I will +send thee' must have come like a thunder-clap. The commander's +summons which brings a man from the rear rank and sets him in the +van of a storming-party may well make its receiver shrink. It was +not cowardice which prompted Moses' answer, but lowliness. His +former impetuous confidence had all been beaten out of him. Time was +when he was ready to take up the _rôle_ of deliverer at his own +hand; but these hot days were past, and age and solitude and +communion with God had mellowed him into humility. His recoil was +but one instance of the shrinking which all true, devout men feel +when designated for tasks which may probably make life short, and +will certainly make it hard. All prophets and reformers till to-day +have had the same feeling. Men who can do such work as the +Jeremiahs, Pauls, Luthers, Cromwells, can do, are never forward to +begin it. + +Self-confidence is not the temper which God uses for His +instruments. He works with 'bruised reeds,' and breathes His +strength into them. It is when a man says 'I can do nothing,' that +he is fit for God to employ. 'When I am weak, then I am strong.' +Moses remembered enough of Egypt to know that it was no slight peril +to front Pharaoh, and enough of Israel not to be particularly eager +to have the task of leading them. But mark that there is no refusal +of the charge, though there is profound consciousness of inadequacy. +If we have reason to believe that any duty, great or small, is laid +on us by God, it is wholesome that we should drive home to ourselves +our own weakness, but not that we should try to shuffle out of the +duty because we are weak. Moses' answer was more of a prayer for +help than of a remonstrance, and it was answered accordingly. + +God deals very gently with conscious weakness. 'Certainly I will be +with thee.' Moses' estimate of himself is quite correct, and it is +the condition of his obtaining God's help. If he had been self- +confident, he would have had no longing for, and no promise of, +God's presence. In all our little tasks we may have the same +assurance, and, whenever we feel that they are too great for us, the +strength of that promise may be ours. God sends no man on errands +which He does not give him power to do. So Moses had not to +calculate the difference between his feebleness and the strength of +a kingdom. Such arithmetic left out one element, which made all the +difference in the sum total. 'Pharaoh _versus_ Moses' did not +look a very hopeful cause, but 'Pharaoh _versus_ Moses and +Another'--that other being God--was a very different matter. God and +I are always stronger than any antagonists. It was needless to +discuss whether Moses was able to cope with the king. That was not +the right way of putting the problem. The right way was, Is God able +to do it? + +The sign given to Moses is at first sight singular, inasmuch as it +requires faith, and can only be a confirmation of his mission when +that mission is well accomplished. But there was a help to present +faith even in it, for the very sacredness of the spot hallowed now +by the burning bush was a kind of external sign of the promise. + +One difficulty being solved, Moses raised another, but not in the +spirit of captiousness or reluctance. God is very patient with us +when we tell Him the obstacles which we seem to see to our doing His +work. As long as these are presented in good faith, and with the +wish to have them cleared up, He listens and answers. The second +question asked by Moses was eminently reasonable. He pictures to +himself his addressing the Israelites, and their question, What is +the name of this God who has sent you? Apparently the children of +Israel had lost much of their ancestral faith, and probably had in +many instances fallen into idolatry. We do not know enough to +pronounce with confidence on that point, nor how far the great name +of Jehovah had been used before the time of Moses, or had been +forgotten in Egypt. + +The questions connected with these points and with the history of +the name do not enter into our present purpose. My task is rather to +point out the religious significance of the self-revelation of God +contained in the name, and how it becomes the foundation of Israel's +deliverance, existence, and prerogatives. Whatever opinions are +adopted as to the correct form of the name and other grammatical and +philological questions, there is no doubt that it mainly reveals God +as self-existent and unchangeable. He draws His being from no +external source, nor 'borrows leave to be.' Creatures are what they +are made or grow to be; they are what they were not; they are what +they will some time not any more be. But He is what He is. Lifted +above time and change, self-existing and self-determined, He is the +fountain of life, the same for ever. + +This underived, independent, immutable being is a Person who can +speak to men, and can say 'I am.' Being such, He has entered into +close covenant relations with men, and has permitted Himself to be +called 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' The name Jehovah +lifts Him high above all creatures; the name 'the God of your +fathers' brings Him into tender proximity with men, and, in +combination with the former designation, guarantees that He will +forever be what He has been, even to all generations of children's +children. That mighty name is, indeed, His 'memorial to all +generations,' and is as fresh and full of blessedness to us as to +the patriarchs. Christ has made us understand more of the treasures +for heart and mind and life which are stored in it. 'Our Father +which art in heaven' is the unfolding of its inmost meaning. + +We may note that the bush burning but not consumed expressed in +symbol the same truth which the name reveals. It seems a mistake to +take the bush as the emblem of Israel surviving persecution. Rather +the revelation to the eye says the same thing as that to the ear, as +is generally the case. As the desert shrub flamed, and yet did not +burn away, so that divine nature is not wearied by action nor +exhausted by bestowing, nor has its life any tendency towards ending +or extinction, as all creatural life has. + +The closing verses of this passage (vs. 16-20) are a programme of +Moses' mission, in which one or two points deserve notice. First, +the general course of it is made known from the beginning. Therein +Moses was blessed beyond most of God's servants, who have to risk +much and to labour on, not knowing which shall prosper. If we could +see, as he did, the lie of the country beforehand, our journeys +would be easier. So we often think, but we know enough of what shall +be to enable us to have quiet hearts; and it is best for us not to +see what is to fail and what to succeed. Our ignorance stimulates +effort, and drives to clinging to God's hand. + +Then we may note the full assurances to be given to the 'elders of +Israel.' Apparently some kind of civic organisation had been kept +up, and there were principal people among the slaves who had to be +galvanised first into enthusiasm. So they are to be told two +things,--that Jehovah has appeared to Moses, and that He, not Moses +only, will deliver them and plant them in the land. The enumeration +of the many tribes (v. 17) might discourage, but it is intended to +fire by the thought of the breadth of the land, which is further +described as fertile. The more exalted our conceptions of the +inheritance, the more willing shall we be to enter on the pilgrimage +towards it. The more we realise that Jehovah has promised to lead us +thither, the more willing shall we be to face difficulties and +dangers. + +The directions as to the opening of communications with Pharaoh have +often been made a difficulty, as if there was trickery in the modest +request for permission to go three days' journey into the +wilderness. But that request was to be made, knowing that it would +not be granted. It was to be a test of Pharaoh's willingness to +submit to Jehovah. Its very smallness made it so more effectually. +If he had any disposition to listen to the voice speaking through +Moses, he would yield that small point. It is useless to speculate +on what would have happened if he had done so. But probably the +Israelites would have come back from their sacrificing. + +Of more importance is it to note that the failure of the request was +foreseen, and yet the effort was to be made. Is not that the same +paradox which meets us in all the divine efforts to win over hard- +hearted men to His service? Is it not exactly what our Lord did when +He appealed to Judas, while knowing that all would be vain? + +The expression in verse 19, 'not by a mighty hand,' is very obscure. +It may possibly mean that Pharaoh was so obstinate that no human +power was strong enough to bend his will. Therefore, in contrast to +the 'mighty hand' of man, which was not mighty enough for this work, +God will stretch out His hand, and that will suffice to compel +obedience from the proudest. God can force men by His might to +comply with His will, so far as external acts go; but He does not +regard that as obedience, nor delight in it. We can steel ourselves +against men's power, but God's hand can crush and break the +strongest will. 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the +living God.' It is a blessed thing to put ourselves into them, in +order to be moulded by their loving touch. The alternative is laid +before every soul of man. + + + + +A LAST MERCIFUL WARNING + + + 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one + plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards + he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he + shall surely thrust you out hence altogether. 2. Speak + now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow + of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, + jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. 3. And the Lord + gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. + Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of + Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the + sight of the people. 4. And Moses said, Thus saith the + Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of + Egypt; 5. And all the first-born in the land of Egypt + shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth + upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the + maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the + first-born of beasts. 6. And there shall be a great cry + throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none + like it, nor shall be like it any more. 7. But against + any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his + tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that + the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and + Israel. 8. And all these thy servants shall come down + unto Me, and bow themselves unto Me, saying, Get Thee + out, and all the people that follow Thee: and after that + I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh in a great + anger. 9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall + not hearken unto you; that My wonders may be multiplied + in the land of Egypt. 10. And Moses and Aaron did all + these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened + Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children + of Israel go out of his land.'--EXODUS xi. 1-10. + +The first point to be noted in this passage is that it interposes a +solemn pause between the preceding ineffectual plagues and the last +effectual one. There is an awful lull in the storm before the last +crashing hurricane which lays every obstacle flat. 'There is silence +in heaven' before the final peal of thunder. Verses 1 to 3 seem, at +first sight, out of place, as interrupting the narrative, since +Moses' denunciation and prophecy in verses 4 to 8 must have been +spoken at the interview with Pharaoh which we find going on at the +end of the preceding chapter. But it is legitimate to suppose that, +at the very moment when Pharaoh was blustering and threatening, and +Moses was bearding him, giving back scorn for scorn, the latter +heard with the inward ear the voice which made Pharaoh's words empty +wind, and gave him the assurances and commands contained in verses 1 +to 3, and that thus it was given him in that hour what he should +speak; namely, the prediction that follows in verses 4 to 8. Such a +view of the sequence of the passage makes it much more vivid, +dramatic, and natural, than to suppose that the first verses are +either interpolation or an awkward break referring to a revelation +at some indefinite previous moment. When a Pharaoh or a Herod or an +Agrippa threatens, God speaks to the heart of a Moses or a Paul, and +makes His servant's face 'strong against their faces.' + +The same purpose of parting off the preceding plagues from the past +ones explains the introduction of verses 9 and 10, which stand as a +summary of the whole account of these, and, as it were, draw a line +across the page, before beginning the story of that eventful day and +night of Israel's deliverance. + +Moses' conviction, which he knew to be not his own thought but God's +revelation of His purpose, pointed first to the final blow which was +to finish Pharaoh's resistance. He had been vacillating between +compliance and refusal, like an elastic ball which yields to +compression and starts back to its swelling rotundity as soon as the +pressure is taken off. But at last he will collapse altogether, like +the same ball when a slit is cut in it, and it shrivels into a +shapeless lump. Weak people's obstinate fits end like that. He will +be as extreme in his eagerness to get rid of the Israelites as he +had been in his determination to keep them. The sail that is filled +one moment tumbles in a heap the next, when the halyards are cut. It +is a poor affair when a man's actions are shaped mainly by fear of +consequences. Fright always drives to extremes. 'When he shall let +you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.' Many a +stout, God-opposing will collapses altogether when God's finger +touches it. 'Can thy heart endure in the days that I shall deal with +thee?' + +Verses 2 and 3 appear irrelevant here, but the command to collect +from the Egyptians jewels, which might be bartered for necessaries, +may well have been given to Moses simultaneously with the assurance +that he would lead forth the people after the next plague, and the +particulars of the people's favour and of Moses' influence in the +eyes of the native inhabitants, come in anticipatively to explain +why the request for such contributions was granted when made. + +With the new divine command swelling in his heart, Moses speaks his +last word to Pharaoh, towering above him in righteous wrath, and +dwindling his empty threats into nothingness. What a contrast +between the impotent rage of the despot, with his vain threat, 'Thou +shalt die,' and the unblenching boldness of the man with God at his +back! One cannot but note in Moses' prediction of the last plague +the solemn enlargement on the details of the widespread calamity, +which is not unfeeling gloating over an oppressor's misery, but a +yearning to save from hideous misery by timely and plain depicting +of it. There is a flash of national triumph in the further contrast +between the universal wailing in Egypt and the untouched security of +the children of Israel, but that feeling merges at once into the +higher one of 'the Lord's' gracious action in establishing the +'difference' between them and their oppressors. It is not safe to +dwell on superiority over others, either as to condition or +character, unless we print in very large letters that it is 'the +Lord' who has made it. There is a flash, too, of natural triumph in +the picture of the proud courtiers brought down to prostrate +themselves before the shepherd from Horeb, and to pray him to do +what their master and they had so long fought against his doing. And +there is a most natural assertion of non-dependence on their leave +in that emphatic 'After that _I will_ go out.' He is not +asserting himself against God, but against the cowering courtiers. +'Hot anger' was excusable, but it was not the best mood in which to +leave Pharaoh. Better if he had gone out unmoved, or moved only to +'great heaviness and sorrow of heart' at the sight of men setting +themselves against God, and rushing on the 'thick bosses of the +Almighty's buckler' to their own ruin. Moses' anger we naturally +sympathise with, Christ's meekness we should try to copy. + +The closing verses, as we have already noticed, are a kind of +summing-up of the whole narrative of the plagues and their effects +on Pharaoh. They open two difficult questions, as to how and why it +was that the effect of the successive strokes was so slight and +transient. They give the 'how' very emphatically as being that +'Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart.' Does that not free Pharaoh from +guilt? And does it not suggest an unworthy conception of God? It +must be remembered that the preceding narrative employs not only the +phrase that 'Jehovah hardened Pharaoh's heart,' but also the +expression that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. And it is further to +be noted that the latter expression is employed in the accounts of +the earlier plagues, and that the former one appears only towards +the close of the series. So then, even if we are to suppose that it +means that there was a direct hardening action by God on the man's +heart, such action was not first, but subsequent to obstinate +hardening by himself. God hardens no man's heart who has not first +hardened it himself. But we do not need to conclude that any inward +action on the will is meant. Was not the accumulation of plagues, +intended, as they were, to soften, a cause of hardening? Does not +the Gospel, if rejected, harden, making consciences and wills less +susceptible? Is it not a 'savour of death unto death,' as our +fathers recognised in speaking of 'gospel-hardened sinners'? The +same fire softens wax and hardens clay. Whosoever is not brought +near is driven farther off, by the influences which God brings to +bear on us. + +The 'why' is stated in terms which may suggest difficulties,--'that +my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.' But we have to +remember that the Old Testament writers are not wont to distinguish +so sharply as more logical Westerns do between the actual result of +an event and its purpose. With their deep faith in the all-ruling +power of God, whatever had come to pass was what He had meant to +come to pass. In fact, Pharaoh's obstinacy had not thwarted the +divine purpose, but had been the dark background against which the +blaze of God's irresistible might had shone the brighter. He makes +the wrath of man to praise Him, and turns opposition into the +occasion of more conspicuously putting forth His omnipotence. + + + + +THE PASSOVER: AN EXPIATION AND A FEAST, A MEMORIAL AND A PROPHECY + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land + of Egypt, saying, 2. This month shall be unto you the + beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the + year to you. 3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of + Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they + shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the + house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4. And if + the household be too little for the lamb, let him and + his neighbour next unto his house take it according to + the number of the souls; every man according to his + eating shall make your count for the lamb. 5. Your lamb + shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye + shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: + 6. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of + the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation + of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7. And they shall + take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts + and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they + shall eat it. 8. And they shall eat the flesh in that + night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with + bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9. Eat not of it raw, + nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his + head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. + 10. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the + morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning + ye shall burn with fire. 11. And thus shall ye eat it; + with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and + your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: + it is the Lord's passover. 12. For I will pass through + the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the + firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and + against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: + I am the Lord. 13. And the blood shall be to you for a + token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the + blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be + upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. + 14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and + ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your + generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance + for ever.'--EXODUS xii. 1-14. + +The Passover ritual, as appointed here, divides itself into two main +parts--the sprinkling of the sacrificial blood on the door-posts and +lintels, and the feast on the sacrifice. These can best be dealt +with separately. They were separated in the later form of the +ritual; for, when there was a central sanctuary, the lambs were +slain there, and the blood sprinkled, as in other expiatory +sacrifices, on the altar, while the domestic feast remained +unaltered. The former was more especially meant to preserve the +Israelites from the destruction of their first-born; the latter as a +permanent memorial of their deliverance. But both have perpetual +fitness as prophetic of varying aspects of the Christian redemption. + +I. The ritual of the protecting blood. + +In the hurry and agitation of that eventful day, it must have seemed +strange to the excited people that they should be called upon to +observe such a service. But its institution at that crisis is in +accordance with the whole tone of the story of the Exodus, in which +man is nothing and God all. Surely, never was national deliverance +effected so absolutely without effort or blow struck. If we try to +realise the state of mind of the Israelites on that night, we shall +feel how significant of the true nature of their deliverance this +summons to an act of worship, in the midst of their hurry, must have +been. + +The domestic character of the rite is its first marked feature. Of +course, there were neither temple nor priests then; but that does +not wholly account for the provision that every household, unless +too few in number to consume a whole lamb, should have its own +sacrifice, slain by its head. The first purpose of the rite, to +provide for the safety of each house by the sprinkled blood, partly +explains it; but the deepest reason is, no doubt, the witness which +was thereby borne to the universal priesthood of the nation. The +patriarchal order made each man the priest of his house. This rite, +which lay at the foundation of Israel's nationality, proclaimed that +a restricted priestly class was a later expedient. The primitive +formation crops out here, as witness that, even where hid beneath +later deposits, it underlies them all. + +We have called the Passover a sacrifice. That has been disputed, but +unreasonably. No doubt, it was a peculiar kind of sacrifice, unlike +those of the later ritual in many respects, and scarcely capable of +being classified among them. But it is important to keep its +strictly sacrificial character in view; for it is essential to its +meaning and to its typical aspect. The proofs of its sacrificial +nature are abundant. The instructions as to the selection of the +lamb; the method of disposing of the blood, which was sprinkled with +hyssop--a peculiarly sacrificial usage; the treatment of the +remainder after the feast; the very feast itself,--all testify that +it was a sacrifice in the most accurate use of the word. The +designation of it as 'a passover to the Lord,' and in set terms as a +'sacrifice,' in verse 27 and elsewhere, to say nothing of its later +form when it became a regular Temple sacrifice, or of Paul's +distinct language in 1 Corinthians v. 7, or of Peter's quotation of +the very words of verse 5, applied to Christ, 'a lamb without +blemish,' all point in the same direction. + +But if a sacrifice, what kind of sacrifice was it? Clearly, the +first purpose was that the blood might be sprinkled on the door- +posts and lintels, and so the house be safe when the destroying +angel passed through the land. Such is the explanation given in +verse 13, which is the divine declaration of its meaning. This is +the centre of the rite; from it the name was derived. Whether +readers accept the doctrines of substitution and expiation or not, +it ought to be impossible for an honest reader of these verses to +deny that these doctrines or thoughts are there. They may be only +the barbarous notions of a half-savage age and people. But, whatever +they are, there they are. The lamb without blemish carefully chosen +and kept for four days, till it had become as it were part of the +household, and then solemnly slain by the head of the family, was +their representative. When they sprinkled its blood on the posts, +they confessed that they stood in peril of the destroying angel by +reason of their impurity, and they presented the blood as their +expiation. In so far, their act was an act of confession, +deprecation, and faith. It accepted the divinely appointed means of +safety. The consequence was exemption from the fatal stroke, which +fell on all homes from the palace to the slaves' hovel, where that +red streak was not found. If any son of Abraham had despised the +provision for safety, he would have been partaker of the plague. + +All this refers only to exemption from outward punishment, and we +are not obliged to attribute to these terrified bondmen any higher +thoughts. But clearly their obedience to the command implied a +measure of belief in the divine voice; and the command embodied, +though in application to a transient judgment, the broad principles +of sacrificial substitution, of expiation by blood, and of safety by +the individual application of that shed blood. + +In other words, the Passover is a Gospel before the Gospel. We are +sometimes told that in its sacrificial ideas Christianity is still +dressing itself in 'Hebrew old clothes.' We believe, on the +contrary, that the whole sacrificial system of Judaism had for its +highest purpose to shadow forth the coming redemption. Christ is not +spoken of as 'our Passover,' because the Mosaic ritual had happened +to have that ceremonial; but the Mosaic ritual had that ceremonial +mainly because Christ is our Passover, and, by His blood shed on the +Cross and sprinkled on our consciences, does in spiritual reality +that which the Jewish Passover only did in outward form. All other +questions about the Old Testament, however interesting and hotly +contested, are of secondary importance compared with this. Is its +chief purpose to prophesy of Christ, His atoning death, His kingdom +and church, or is it not? The New Testament has no doubt of the +answer. The Evangelist John finds in the singular swiftness of our +Lord's death, which secured the exemption of His sacred body from +the violence inflicted on His fellow-sufferers, a fulfilment of the +paschal injunction that not a bone should be broken; and so, by one +passing allusion, shows that he recognised Christ as the true +Passover. John the Baptist's rapturous exclamation, 'Behold the Lamb +of God!' blends allusions to the Passover, the daily sacrifice, and +Isaiah's great prophecy. The day of the Crucifixion, regarded as +fixed by divine Providence, may be taken as God's own finger +pointing to the Lamb whom He has provided. Paul's language already +referred to attests the same truth. And even the last lofty visions +of the Apocalypse, where the old man in Patmos so touchingly recurs +to the earliest words which brought him to Jesus, echo the same +conviction, and disclose, amidst the glories of the throne, 'a Lamb +as it had been slain.' + +II. The festal meal on the sacrifice. + +After the sprinkling of the blood came the feast. Only when the +house was secure from the destruction which walked in the darkness +of that fateful night, could a delivered household gather round the +board. That which had become their safety now became their food. +Other sacrifices were, at a later period, modelled on the same type; +and in all cases the symbolism is the same, namely, joyful +participation in the sacrifice, and communion with God based upon +expiation. In the Passover, this second stage received for future +ages the further meaning of a memorial. But on that first night it +was only such by anticipation, seeing that it preceded the +deliverance which it was afterwards to commemorate. + +The manner of preparing the feast and the manner of partaking of it +are both significant. The former provided that the lamb should be +roasted, not boiled, apparently in order to secure its being kept +whole; and the same purpose suggested the other prescriptions that +it was to be served up entire, and with bones unbroken. The reason +for this seems to be that thus the unity of the partakers was more +plainly shown. All ate of one undivided whole, and were thus, in a +real sense, one. So the Apostle deduces the unity of the Church from +the oneness of the bread of which they in the Christian Passover +partake. + +It was to be eaten with the accompaniments of bitter herbs, usually +explained as memorials of the bondage, which had made the lives +bitter, and the remembrance of which would sweeten their +deliverance, even as the pungent condiments brought out the savour +of the food. The further accompaniment of unleavened bread seems to +have the same signification as the appointment that they were to eat +with their garments gathered round their loins, their feet shod, and +staves in hand. All these were partly necessities in their urgent +hurry, and partly a dramatic representation for later days of the +very scene of the first Passover. A strange feast indeed, held while +the beat of the pinions of the destroying angel could almost be +heard, devoured in hot haste by anxious men standing ready for a +perilous journey, the end whereof none knew! The gladness would be +strangely dashed with terror and foreboding. Truly, though they +feasted on a sacrifice, they had bitter herbs with it, and, +standing, swallowed their portions, expecting every moment to be +summoned to the march. + +The Passover as a feast is a prophecy of the great Sacrifice, by +virtue of whose sprinkled blood we all may be sheltered from the +sweep of the divine judgment, and on which we all have to feed if +there is to be any life in us. Our propitiation is our food. 'Christ +for us' must become 'Christ in us,' received and appropriated by our +faith as the strength of our lives. The Christian life is meant to +be a joyful feast on the Sacrifice, and communion with God based +upon it. We feast on Christ when the mind feeds on Him as truth, +when the heart is filled and satisfied with His love, when the +conscience clings to Him as its peace, when the will esteems the +'words of His mouth more than' its 'necessary food,' when all +desires, hopes, and inward powers draw their supplies from Him, and +find their object in His sweet sufficiency. + +Nor will the accompaniments of the first Passover be wanting. Here +we feast in the night; the dawn will bring freedom and escape. Here +we eat the glad Bread of God, not unseasoned with bitter herbs of +sorrow and memories of the bondage, whose chains are dropping from +our uplifted hands. Here we should partake of that hidden +nourishment, in such manner that it hinders not our readiness for +outward service. It is not yet time to sit at His table, but to +stand with loins girt, and feet shod, and hands grasping the pilgrim +staff. Here we are to eat for strength, and to blend with our secret +hours of meditation the holy activities of the pilgrim life. + +That feast was, further, appointed with a view to its future use as +a memorial. It was held before the deliverance which it commemorated +had been accomplished. A new era was to be reckoned from it. The +month of the Exodus was thenceforward to be the first of the year. +The memorial purpose of the rite has been accomplished. All over the +world it is still observed, so many hundred years after its +institution, being thus, probably, the oldest religious ceremonial +in existence. Once more aliens in many lands, the Jewish race still, +year by year, celebrate that deliverance, so tragically unlike their +homeless present, and with indomitable hope, at each successive +celebration, repeat the expectation, so long cherished in vain, +'This year, here; next year, in the land of Israel. This year, +slaves; next year, freemen.' There can be few stronger attestations +of historical events than the keeping of days commemorating them, if +traced back to the event they commemorate. So this Passover, like +Guy Fawkes' Day in England, or Thanksgiving Day in America, remains +for a witness even now. + +What an incomprehensible stretch of authority Christ put forth, if +He were no more than a teacher, when He brushed aside the Passover, +and put in its place the Lord's Supper, as commemorating His own +death! Thereby He said, 'Forget that past deliverance; instead, +remember Me.' Surely this was either audacity approaching insanity, +or divine consciousness that He Himself was the true Paschal Lamb, +whose blood shields the world from judgment, and on whom the world +may feast and be satisfied. Christ's deliberate intention to +represent His death as expiation, and to fix the reverential, +grateful gaze of all future ages on His Cross, cannot be eliminated +from His founding of that memorial rite in substitution for the God- +appointed ceremonial, so hoary with age and sacred in its +significance. Like the Passover, the Lord's Supper was established +before the deliverance was accomplished. It remains a witness at +once of the historical fact of the death of Jesus, and of the +meaning and power which Jesus Himself bade us to see in that death. +For us, redeemed by His blood, the past should be filled with His +sacrifice. For us, fed on Himself, all the present should be +communion with Him, based upon His death for us. For us, freed +bondmen, the memorial of deliverance begun by His Cross should be +the prophecy of deliverance to be completed at the side of His +throne, and the hasty meal, eaten with bitter herbs, the adumbration +of the feast when all the pilgrims shall sit with Him at His table +in His kingdom. Past, present, and future should all be to us +saturated with Jesus Christ. Memory should furnish hope with +colours, canvas, and subjects for her fair pictures, and both be +fixed on 'Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us.' + + + + +THOUGHT, DEED, WORD + + + 'It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and + for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law + may be in thy mouth.'--EXODUS xiii. 9. + +The question may be asked, whether this command is to be taken +metaphorically or literally. No doubt the remembrance of the great +deliverance was intrusted to acts. Besides the annual Passover +feasts, inscriptions on the door-posts and fringes on the dress were +appointed for this purpose. And the Jews from a very early period, +certainly before our Lord's time, wore phylacteries fastened, as +this and other places prescribe, on the left arm and on the +forehead, and alleged these words as the commandment which they +therein obeyed. But it seems more probable that the meaning is +metaphorical, and that what is enjoined is rather a constant +remembrance of the great deliverance, and a constant regulation of +the practical life by it. For what is it that is to be 'a sign'? It +is the Passover feast. And the 'therefore' of the next verse seems +to say that keeping this ordinance in its season is the fulfilment +of this precept. Besides, the expression 'for a sign,' 'for a +memorial,' may just as well mean 'it shall serve as,' or 'it shall +be like,' as 'you shall wear.' So I think we must say that this is a +figure, not a fact; the enjoining of an object for thought and a +motive for life, not of a formal observance. And it is very +characteristic of the Jew, and of the universal tendency to harden +and lower religion into outward rites, that a command so wide and +profound was supposed to be kept by fastening little boxes with four +slips of parchment containing extracts from the Pentateuch on arm +and forehead. Jewish rabbis are not the only people who treat God's +law like that. Even if literal, the injunction is for the purpose of +remembering. Taking that meaning, then, the text sets forth +principles that apply quite as much to us. You will observe 'hand,' +'eyes,' 'mouth'; the symbols of practice, knowledge, expression; +work, thought, and word. Observe also that there is a slight change +in construction in the three clauses; the two former are to be done +in order that the latter may come to pass. Then the memorial of the +great deliverance is to be 'on the hand' and 'before the eyes,' in +order that 'the Lord's law' may be 'in the mouth.' Keeping these +points in view-- + +I. God's great deliverance should be constantly before our thoughts. +It is more than an accident that both Judaism and Christianity +should begin with a great act of deliverance; that that act of +deliverance should constitute a community, and that a memorial rite +should be the centre of the ritual of both. The Lord's Supper +historically took the place of the Passover. It was instituted at +the Passover and instead of it. It is precisely the same in design, +a memorial feast appointed to keep up the vivid remembrance of the +historical fact to which redemption is traced; and not only to keep +up its remembrance, but to proclaim the importance of extending that +remembrance through all life. + +Notice the peculiarity of both the Jewish and the Christian rite, +that the centre point of both is a historical fact, a redeeming act. +Judaism and Christianity are the only religions in regard to which +this is true to anything like the same extent or in the same way. +Christianity as a revelation is not so much the utterance in words +of great religious thoughts as the history of a life and a death, a +fact wrought upon the earth, which is at once the means of +revelation and the means of redemption. This is a feature unshared +by other religions. + +This characteristic determines the principal object of our religious +thought. The true object for religious thought is Christ, and His +life and death. + +All religious truth flows from and is wrapped up in that: +_e.g._ theology, or the nature of God; anthropology, or the +nature of man; soteriology, morality, etc. All truth for the +individual and for the race has its source in God's great redeeming +act. Religious emotion is best fed at this source, _e.g._ +thankfulness, wonder, love: all these transcendent feelings which +are melted together in adoration. Here is where they are kindled. +You cannot pump them up, or bring them into existence by willing, or +scourge yourself into them, any more than you can make a seed grow +by pulling at the germ with a pair of pincers, but this gives the +warmth and moisture which make it germinate. + +The clear perception of this truth is valuable, as correcting false +tendencies in religion, _e.g._ the tendency to be much occupied +with the derived truths, and to think of them almost to the +exclusion of the great fact from which they come; the tendency to +substitute melancholy self-inspection for objective facts; the +tendency to run out into mere feeling. + +The command requires of us a habitual occupation of mind with the +great deliverance. + +And the habitual presence of this thought will be best secured by +specific times of occupation with it. Let every Christian practise +the habit of meditation, which in an age of so many books, +newspapers, and the distractions of our busy modern life, is apt to +become obsolete. + +II. The great deliverance is to be ever present in practical life. + +The 'hand' is clearly the seat and home of power and practical +effort. So the remembrance is to be present and to preside over our +practical work. + +How it is fitted to do so. + +_(a)_ It gives the law for all our activity. + +The pattern. The death as well as the life of Christ teaches us what +we ought to be. + +The motive. He died for me! Shall I not serve Him who redeemed me? + +_(b)_ That remembered deliverance arms us against temptations, +and lifts us above sinking into sin. + +How blessed such a life would be! How victorious over the small +motives that rule one's life, the deadening influence of routine, +the duties that are felt to be overwhelmingly great and those that +are felt to be wearisomely and monotonously small! How this unity of +motive would give unity to life and simplify its problems! How it +would free us from many a perplexity! There are so many things that +seem doubtful because we do not bring the test of the highest motive +to bear on them. Complications would fall away when we only wished +to know and be like Christ. Many a tempting amusement, or +occupation, or speculation would start up in its own shape when this +Ithuriel spear touched it. How it would save from distractions! How +strong it would make us, like a belt round the waist bracing the +muscles tighter! 'This one thing I do' is always a strengthening +principle. + +How far is this possible? Not absolutely, but we may approximate +very closely and indefinitely towards it. For there is the +possibility of such thought blending with common motives, like a +finer perfume in the scentless air, or some richer elixir in a cup. +There is the possibility of its doing to other motives what light +does to landscape when a sudden sunbeam gleams across the plain, and +everything leaps into increased depth of colour. Let us try more and +more to rescue life from the slavery of habit and the distractions +of all these smaller forces, and to bring it into the greatness and +power of submission to the dominion of this sovereign, unifying +motive. Our lives would thus be greatened and strengthened, even as +Germany and Italy have been, by being delivered from a rabble of +petty dukes and brought under the sway of one emperor or king. Let +us try to approach nearer and nearer to the fusion of action and +contemplation, and to the blending with all other motives of this +supreme one. + +This command supplies us with an easily applied and effective test. +Is there any place where you cannot take it, any act which you feel +it would be impossible to do for His sake? Avoid such. Where the +safety-lamp burns blue and goes out, is no place for you. + +It is a beautiful thought that Jesus does for us what we are thus +commanded to do for Him. The high priest bore the names of the +tribes on his shoulders and in his heart. 'I have graven thee on the +palms of my hands.' We bear Him in our hands and in our hearts. 'I +bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.' + +III. The great deliverance is to be ever on our lips. + +The three regions here named are the inward thought, the outward +practice, and the testimony of the lips. Note that that testimony is +a consequence of thought and practice. + +1. The purpose of the deliverance is to make 'prophets of His law.' +Such was the divine intention as to Israel. Such is God's purpose as +to all Christians. The very meaning of redemption is there. He has +'opened our lips' that we 'should show forth His praise.' He has +regard to 'His own name.' He desires to make us vocal, for the same +purpose for which a man strings a harp, to bring sweet music out of +it. Words of testimony are a form of love. + +2. The other two are incomplete without this vocal testimony. + +3. The utterance of the lips, to be worth anything, must rest on and +follow the other two. How noble, then, and blessed, how strong and +calm and simple our lives would be, if we had this for the one great +object of our thoughts, of our practical endeavour, of our words, if +all our being was sustained, impelled, made vocal, by one thought, +one love! + +O my brother, see to it that you give yourself to Him. That great +Light will gladden your eyes, will guide your activity, and, like +the sunrise striking Memnon's voiceless, stony lips, will bring +music. Thought will have one boundless home of 'many mansions.' Work +will have one law, one motive, its consecration and strength; and as +in some solemn procession, all our steps and all our movements will +keep time to the music of our praise to 'Him who loved us.' + + + + +A PATH IN THE SEA + + + 'And the angel of God, which went before the camp of + Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of + the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind + them: 20. And it came between the camp of the Egyptians + and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness + to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that + the one came not near the other all the night. 21. And + Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord + caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that + night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were + divided. 22. And the children of Israel went into the + midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters + were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their + left. 23. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after + them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, + his chariots, and his horsemen. 24. And it came to pass, + that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host + of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the + cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25. And + took off their chariot-wheels, that they drave them + heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from + the face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them + against the Egyptians. 26. And the Lord said unto Moses, + Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may + come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and + upon their horsemen. 27. And Moses stretched forth his + hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength + when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against + it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of + the sea. 28. And the waters returned, and covered the + chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh + that came into the sea after them; there remained not + so much as one of them. 29. But the children of Israel + walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the + waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and + on their left. 30. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day + out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the + Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore. 31. And Israel saw + that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: + and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, + and His servant Moses.'--EXODUS xiv. 19-31. + +This passage begins at the point where the fierce charge of the +Egyptian chariots and cavalry on the straggling masses of the +fugitives is inexplicably arrested. The weary day's march, which +must have seemed as suicidal to the Israelites as it did to their +pursuers, had ended in bringing them into a position where, as +Luther puts it, they were like a mouse in a trap or a partridge in a +snare. The desert, the sea, the enemy, were their alternatives. And, +as they camped, they saw in the distance the rapid advance of the +dreaded force of chariots, probably the vanguard of an army. No +wonder that they lost heart. Moses alone keeps his head and his +faith. He is rewarded with the fuller promise of deliverance, and +receives the power accompanying the command, to stretch forth his +hand, and part the sea. Then begins the marvellous series of +incidents here recorded. + +I. The first step in the leisurely march of the divine deliverance +is the provision for checking the Egyptian advance and securing the +safe breaking up of the Israelitish camp. The pursuers had been +coming whirling along at full speed, and would soon have been +amongst the disorderly mass, dealing destruction. There was no +possibility of getting the crossing effected unless they were held +at bay. When an army has to ford a river in the face of hostile +forces, the hazardous operation is possible only if a strong +rearguard is left on the enemy's side, to cover the passage. This is +exactly what is done here. The pillar of fire and cloud, the symbol +of the divine presence, passed from the van to the rear. Its +guidance was not needed, when but one path through the sea was +possible. Its defence was needed when the foe was pressing eagerly +on the heels of the host. His people's needs determined then, as +they ever do, the form of the divine presence and help. Long after, +the prophet seized the great lesson of this event, when he broke +into the triumphant anticipation of a yet future deliverance,--which +should repeat in fresh experience the ancient victory, 'The Lord +will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward,' In +the place where the need is sorest, and in the form most required, +there and that will God ever be to those who trust Him. + +We can see here, too, a frequent characteristic of the miraculous +element in Scripture, namely, its reaching its end not by a leap, +but by a process. Once admit miracle, and it appears as if +adaptation of means to ends was unnecessary. It would have been as +easy to have transported the Israelites bodily and instantaneously +to the other side of the sea, as to have taken these precautions and +then cleft the ocean, and made them march through it. Legendary +miracle would have preferred the former way. The Bible miracle +usually adapts methods to aims, and is content to travel to its goal +step by step. + +Nor can we omit to notice the double effect of the one manifestation +of the divine presence. The same pillar was light and darkness. The +side which was cloud was turned to the pursuers; that which was +light, to Israel. The former were paralysed, and hindered from +advancing a step, or from seeing what the latter were doing; these, +on the other hand, had light thrown on their strange path, and were +encouraged and helped to plunge into the mysterious road, by the +ruddy gleam which disclosed it. So every revelation is either light +or darkness to men, according to the use they make of it. The ark, +which slew Philistines, and flung Dagon prone on his own threshold, +brought blessing to the house of Obededom. The Child who was to be +'set for the fall,' was also for 'the rising of many.' The stone +laid in Zion is 'a sure foundation,' and 'a stone of stumbling.' The +Gospel is the savour of life unto life, or of death unto death. The +same fire melts wax and hardens clay. The same Christ is salvation +and destruction. God is to each of us either our joy or our dread. + +II. The sudden march of the Egyptians having thus been arrested, +there is leisure, behind the shelter of the fiery barrier, to take +the next step in the deliverance. The sea is not divided in a +moment. Again, we have a process to note, and that brought about by +two things,--Moses' outstretched rod, and the strong wind which blew +all night. The chronology of that fateful night is difficult to +adjust from our narrative. It would appear, from verse 20, that the +Egyptians were barred advancing until morning; and, from verse 21, +that the wind which ploughed with its strong ploughshare a furrow +through the sea, took all night for its work. But, on the other +hand, the Israelites must have been well across, and the Egyptians +in the very midst of the passage, 'in the morning watch,' and all +was over soon after 'the morning appeared.' Probably the wind +continued all the night, so as to keep up the pressure which dammed +back the waters, but the path was passable some hours before the +gale abated. It must have been a broad way to admit of some two +million frightened people with wives and children effecting a +crossing in the short hours of part of one night. + +But though God used the wind as His besom to sweep a road clear for +His people, the effect produced by ordinary means was extraordinary. +No wind that ever blew would blow water in two opposite directions +at once, as a man might shovel snow to right and left, and heap it +in mounds by the sides of the path that he dug. That was what the +text tells us was done. The miracle is none the less a miracle +because God employed physical agents, just as Christ's miracles were +no less miraculous when He anointed blind eyes with moistened clay, +or sent men to wash in Siloam, than when His bare word raised the +dead or stilled the ocean. Wind or no wind, Moses' rod or no rod, +the true explanation of that broad path cleared through the sea is--'the +waters saw Thee, O God.' The use of natural means may have been +an aid to feeble faith, encouraging it to step down on to the +untrodden and slippery road. The employment of Moses and his rod was +to attest his commission to act as God's mouthpiece. + +III. Then comes the safe passage. It is hard to imagine the scene. +The vivid impression made by our story is all the more remarkable +when we notice how wanting in detail it is. We do not know the time +nor the place. We have no information about how the fugitives got +across, the breadth of the path, or its length. Characteristically +enough, Jewish legends know all about both, and assure us that the +waters were parted into twelve ways, one for each tribe, and that +the length of the road was three hundred miles! But Scripture, with +characteristic reticence, is silent about all but the fact. That is +enough. We gather, from the much later and poetical picture of it in +Psalm lxxvii., that the passage was accomplished in the midst of +crashing thunder and flashing lightnings; though it may be doubted +whether these are meant to be taken as real or ideal. At all events, +we have to think of these two millions of people--women, children, +and followers--plunging into the depths in the night. + +What a scene! The awestruck crowds, the howling wind, perhaps the +thunderstorm, the glow of the pillar glistening on the wet and slimy +way, the full paschal moon shining on the heaped waters! How the awe +and the hope must both have increased with each step deeper in the +abyss, and nearer to safety! The Epistle to the Hebrews takes this +as an instance of 'faith' on the part of the Israelites; and truly +we can feel that it must have taken some trust in God's protecting +hand to venture on such a road, where, at any moment, the walls +might collapse and drown them all. They were driven to venture by +their fear of Pharaoh; but faith, as well as fear, wrought in them. +Our faith, too, is often called upon to venture upon perilous paths. +We may trust Him to hold back the watery walls from falling. The +picture of the crossing carries eternal truth for us all. The way of +safety does not open till we are hemmed in, and Pharaoh's chariots +are almost come up. It often leads into the very thick of what we +deem perils. It often has to be ventured on in the dark, and with +the wind in our faces. But if we tread it in faith, the fluid will +be made solid, and the pathless passable, or any other apparent +impossibility be realised, before our confidence shall be put to +shame, or one real evil reach us. + +IV. The next stage is the hot pursuit and the panic of the +Egyptians. The narrative does not mark the point at which the pillar +lifted and disclosed the escape of the prey. It must have been in +the night. The baffled pursuers dash after them, either not seeing, +or too excited and furious to heed where they were going. The rough +sea bottom was no place for chariots, and they would be hopelessly +distanced by the fugitives on foot. How long they stumbled and +weltered we are not told, but 'in the morning watch,' that is, while +it was yet dark, some awful movement in the fiery pillar awed even +their anger into stillness, and drove home the conviction that they +were fighting against God. There is something very terrible in the +vagueness, if we may call it so, of that phrase 'the Lord looked ... +through the pillar.' It curdles the blood as no minuteness of +narrative would do. And what a thought that His look should be a +trouble! 'The steady whole of the judge's face' is awful, and some +creeping terror laid hold on that host of mad pursuers floundering +in the dark, as that more than natural light flared on their path. +The panic to which all bodies of soldiers in strange circumstances +are exposed, was increased by the growing difficulty of advance, as +the chariot wheels became clogged or the ground more of quicksand. +At last it culminates in a shout of '_Sauve qui peut!_' We may +learn how close together lie daring rebellion against God and abject +terror of Him; and how in a moment, a glance of His face, a turn of +His hand, bring the wildest blasphemer to cower in fear. We may +learn, too, to keep clear of courses which cannot be followed a +moment longer, if once a thought that God sees us comes in. And we +may learn the miserable result of all departure from Him, in making +what ought to be our peace and blessing, our misery and terror, and +turning the brightness of His face into a consuming fire. + +V. Then comes, at last, the awful act of destruction, of which a man +is the agent and an army the victim. We must suppose the Israelites +all safe on the Arabian coast, when the level sunlight streams from +the east on the wild hurry of the fleeing crowd making for the +Egyptian shore. What a solemn sight that young morning looked on! +The wind had dropped, the rod is stretched out, the sea returns to +its strength; and after a few moments' despairing struggle all is +over, and the sun, as it climbs, looks down upon the unbroken +stretch of quiet sea, bearing no trace of the awful work which it +had done, or of the quenched hatred and fury which slept beneath. + +We can understand the stern joy which throbs so vehemently in every +pulse of that great song, the first blossom of Hebrew poetry, which +the ransomed people sang that day. We can sympathise with the many +echoes in psalm and prophecy, which repeated the lessons of faith +and gratitude. But some will be ready to ask, Was that triumphant +song anything more than narrow national feeling, and has +Christianity not taught us another and tenderer thought of God than +that which this lesson carries? We may ask in return, Was it divine +providence that swept the Spanish Armada from the sea, fulfilling, +as the medal struck to commemorate it bore, the very words of Moses' +song, 'Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them'? Was it +God who overwhelmed Napoleon's army in the Russian snows? Were +these, and many like acts in the world's history, causes for +thankfulness to God? Is it not true that, as has been well said, +'The history of the world is the judgment of the world'? And does +Christianity forbid us to rejoice when some mighty and ancient +system of wrong and oppression, with its tools and accomplices, is +cleared from off the face of the earth? 'When the wicked perish, +there is shouting.' Let us not forget that the love and gentleness +of the Gospel are accompanied by the revelation of divine judgment +and righteous retribution. This very incident has for its last echo +in Scripture that wonderful scene in the Apocalypse, where, in the +pause before the seven angels bearing the seven plagues go forth, +the seer beholds a company of choristers, like those who on that +morning stood on the Red Sea shore, standing on the bank of the 'sea +of glass mingled with fire,'--which symbolises the clear and +crystalline depth of the stable divine judgments, shot with fiery +retribution,--and lifting up by anticipation a song of thanksgiving +for the judgments about to be wrought. That song is expressly called +'the song of Moses' and 'of the Lamb,' in token of the essential +unity of the two dispensations, and especially of the harmony of +both in their view of the divine judgments. Its ringing praises are +modelled on the ancient lyric. It, too, triumphs in God's judgments, +regards them as means of making known His name, as done not for +destruction, but that His character may be known and honoured by +men, to whom it is life and peace to know and love Him for what He +is. + +That final victory over 'the beast,' whether he be a person or a +tendency, is to reproduce in higher fashion that old conquest by the +Red Sea. There is hope for the world that its oppressors shall not +always tyrannise; there is hope for each soul that, if we take +Christ for our deliverer and our guide, He will break the chains +from off our wrists, and bring us at last to the eternal shore, +where we may stand, like the ransomed people, and, as the unsetting +morning dawns, see its beams touching with golden light the calm +ocean, beneath which our oppressors lie buried for ever, and lift up +glad thanksgivings to Him who has 'led us through fire and through +water, and brought us out into a wealthy place.' + + + + +'MY STRENGTH AND SONG' + + + 'The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my + salvation....' + EXODUS xv. 2. + +These words occur three times in the Bible: here, in Isaiah xii. 2, +and in Psalm cxviii. 14. + +I. The lessons from the various instances of their occurrence. The +first and second teach that the Mosaic deliverance is a picture- +prophecy of the redemption in Christ. The third (Psalm cxviii. 14), +long after, and the utterance of some private person, teaches that +each age and each soul has the same mighty Hand working for it. 'As +we have heard, so have we seen.' + +II. The lessons from the words themselves. + +_(a)_ True faith appropriates God's universal mercy as a +personal possession. '_My_ Lord and _my_ God!' 'He loved +_me_, and gave Himself for _me_.' + +_(b)_ Each single act of mercy should reveal God more clearly +as 'My strength.' The 'and' in the second clause is substantially +equivalent to 'for.' It assigns the reason for the assurance +expressed in the first. Because of the experienced deliverance and +God's manifestation of Himself in it as the author of 'salvation,' +my faith wins happy increase of confidence that He 'is the strength +of my heart.' Blessed they who bring that treasure out of all the +sorrows of life! + +_(c)_ The end of His deliverances is 'praise.' 'He is my song.' +This is true for earth and for heaven. The 'Song of Moses and the +Lamb.' + + + + +THE SHEPHERD AND THE FOLD + + + '... Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy + holy habitation.' + EXODUS XV. 13. + +What a grand triumphal ode! The picture of Moses and the children of +Israel singing, and Miriam and the women answering: a gush of +national pride and of worship! We belong to a better time, but still +we can feel its grandeur. The deliverance has made the singer look +forward to the end, and his confidence in the issue is confirmed. + +I. The guiding God: or the picture of the leading. The original is +'lead gently.' _Cf._ Isaiah xl. 11, Psalm xxiii. 2. The emblem +of a flock underlies the word. There is not only guidance, but +gentle guidance. The guidance was gentle, though accompanied with so +tremendous and heart-curdling a judgment. The drowned Egyptians were +strange examples of gentle leading. But God's redemptive acts are +like the guiding pillar of fire, in that they have a side that +reveals wrath and evokes terror, and a side that radiates lambent +love and kindles happy trust. + +'In Thy strength.' _Cf._ Isaiah xl. 10, 'with strong hand.' 'He +shall gently lead.' Note the combination with gentleness. That +divine strength is the only power which is able to guide. We are so +weak that it takes all His might to hold us up. It is His strength, +not ours. 'My strength is made perfect in (thy) weakness.' + +'To the resting-place of Thy holiness.' The word is used for +pasture, or resting-places for cattle. Here it meant Canaan; for us +it means Heaven--'the green pastures' of real participation in His +holiness. + +II. The triumphant confidence as to the future based upon the +deliverance of the past. _'Hast,'_ a past tense. It is as good +as done. The believing use of God's great past, and initial mercy, +to make us sure of His future. + +_(a)_ In that He will certainly accomplish it. + +_(b)_ In that even now there is a foretaste--rest in toil. He +guides to the 'waters of resting.' A rest now (Heb. iv. 3); a rest +'that remaineth' (Heb. iv. 3, 9). + +III. The warning against confidence in self. These people who sang +thus perished in the wilderness! They let go hold of God's hand, so +they 'sank like lead.' So He will fulfil begun work (Philippians i. +6). Let us cleave to Him. In Hebrews iii. and iv. lessons are drawn +from the Israelites not 'entering in.' See also Psalm xcv. + + + + +THE ULTIMATE HOPE + + + 'Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain + of Thine inheritance....'--EXODUS xv. 17. + +I. The lesson taught by each present deliverance and kindness is +that we shall be brought to His rest at last. + +_(a)_ Daily mercies are a pledge and a pattern of His +continuous acts. The confidence that we shall be kept is based upon +no hard doctrine of final perseverance, but on the assurance that +God is always the same, like the sunshine which has poured out for +all these millenniums and still rushes on with the same force. +Consider-- + +The inexhaustibleness of the divine resources. + +The steadfastness of the divine purposes. + +The long-suffering of the divine patience. + +_(b)_ Thus daily mercies should lead on our thoughts to +heavenly things. They should not prison us in their own sweetness. +We should see the great Future shining through them as a +transparent, not an opaque medium. + +_(c)_ That ultimate future should be the great object of our +hope. Surely it is chiefly in order that we may have the light of +that great to-morrow brightening and magnifying our dusty to-days, +that we are endowed with the faculty of looking forward and 'calling +things that are not as though they were.' So we should engage and +enlarge our minds with it. + +II. The form which that ultimate future assumes. + +The Israelites thought of Canaan, and in particular of 'Zion,' its +centre-point. + +_(a)_ Perpetual rest. 'Bring in and plant'--a contrast to the +desert nomad life. + +_(b)_ Perpetual safety. 'The sanctuary which Thy hands have +established,' _i.e._ made firm. + +_(c)_ Perpetual dwelling in God. 'Thy dwelling,' 'Thy +mountain,' '_Thy_ holy habitation' (ver. 13), rather than +'_our_ land.' For Israel their communion with Jehovah was +perfected on Zion by the Temple and the sacrifices, including the +revelation of (priestly) national service. + +_(d)_ Perpetual purity. 'Thy sanctuary.' 'Without' holiness 'no +man shall see the Lord.' + + + + +MARAH + + + 'And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of + the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore + the name of it was called Marah. 24. And the people + murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? + 25. And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him + a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the + waters were made sweet....'--EXODUS xv. 23-25. + +I. The time of reaching Marah--just after the Red Sea. The +Israelites were encamped for a few days on the shore to shake +themselves together, and then at this, their very first station, +they began to experience the privations which were to be their lot +for forty years. Their course was like that of a ship that is in the +stormy Channel as soon as it leaves the shelter of the pier at +Dover, not like that of one that glides down the Thames for miles. + +After great moments and high triumphs in life comes Marah. + +Marah was just before Elim--the alternation, how blessed! The shade +of palms and cool water of the wells, one for each tribe and one for +each 'elder.' So we have alternations in life and experience. + +II. The wrong and the right ways of taking the bitter experience. +The people grumbled: Moses cried to the Lord. The quick +forgetfulness of deliverances. The true use of speech is not +complaint, but prayer. + +III. The power that changes bitter to sweet. The manner of the +miracle is singular. God hides Himself behind Moses, and His +miraculous power behind the material agent. Perhaps the manner of +the miracle was intended to suggest a parallel with the first +plague. There the rod made the Nile water undrinkable. There is a +characteristic economy in the miraculous, and outward things are +used, as Christ used the pool and the saliva and the touch, to help +the weak faith of the deaf and dumb man. + +What changes bitter to sweet for us?--the Cross, the remembrance of +Christ's death. 'Consider Him that endured.' The Cross is the true +tree which, when 'cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.' + +Recognition of and yielding to God's will: that is the one thing +which for us changes all. The one secret of peace and of getting +sweetness out of bitterness is loving acceptance of the will of God. + +Discernment of purpose in God's 'bitter' dealings--'for our profit.' +The dry rod 'budded.' The Prophet's roll was first bitter, then +sweet. Affliction 'afterwards yieldeth the peaceable fruit.' + + + + +THE BREAD OF GOD + + + 'Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain + bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out + and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove + them, whether they will walk in My law, or no. 5. And + it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall + prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice + as much as they gather daily. 6. And Moses and Aaron said + unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall + know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of + Egypt: 7. And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory + of the Lord; for that He heareth your murmurings against + the Lord: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? + 8. And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give + you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread + to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings + which ye murmur against Him: and what are we? your murmurings + are not against us, but against the Lord, 9. And Moses + spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the + children of Israel, Come near before the Lord: for He + hath heard your murmurings. 10. And it came to pass, as + Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children + of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, + behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. + 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12. I have + heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak + unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in + the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall + know that I am the Lord your God.'--EXODUS xvi. 4-12. + +Unbelief has a short memory. The Red Sea is forgotten in a month. +The Israelites could strike their timbrels and sing their lyric of +praise, but they could not believe that to-day's hunger could be +satisfied. Discontent has a slippery memory. They wish to get back +to the flesh-pots, of which the savour is in their nostrils, and +they have forgotten the bitter sauce of affliction. When they were +in Egypt, they shrieked about their oppression, and were ready to +give up anything for liberty; when they have got it, they are ready +to put their necks in the yoke again, if only they can have their +stomachs filled. Men do not know how happy they are till they cease +to be so. Our present miseries and our past blessings are the themes +on which unbelief harps. Let him that is without similar sin cast +the first stone at these grumbling Israelites. Without following +closely the text of the narrative, we may throw together the lessons +of the manna. + +I. Observe God's purpose in the gift, as distinctly expressed in the +promise of it. + +'That I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law or no.' How +did the manna become a test of this? By means of the law prescribed +for gathering it. There was to be a given quantity daily, and twice +as much on the sixth day. If a man trusted God for to-morrow, he +would be content to stop collecting when he had filled his omer, +tempting as the easily gathered abundance would be. Greed and +unbelief would masquerade then as now, under the guise of prudent +foresight. The old Egyptian parallels to 'make hay while the sun +shines,' and suchlike wise sayings of the philosophy of distrust, +would be solemnly spoken, and listened to as pearls of wisdom. When +experience had taught that, however much a man gathered, he had no +more than his omer full, after all,--and is not that true yet?--then +the next temptation would be to practise economy, and have something +over for to-morrow. Only he who absolutely trusted God to provide +for him would eat up his portion, and lie down at night with a quiet +heart, knowing that He who had fed him would feed. When experience +had taught that what was saved rotted, then laziness would come in +and say, 'What is the use of gathering twice as much on the sixth +day? Don't we know that it will not keep?' So the whole of the gift +was a continual training of, and therefore a continual test for, +faith. God willed to let His gifts come in this hand-to-mouth +fashion, though He could have provided at once what would have +obviously lasted them all their wilderness life, in order that they +might be habituated to cling to Him, and that their daily bread +might be doubly for their nourishment, feeding their bodies and +strengthening that faith which, to them as to us, is the condition +of all blessedness. God lets our blessings, too, trickle to us drop +by drop, instead of pouring them in a flood all at once upon us, for +the same reason. He does so, not because of any good to Him from our +faith, except that the Infinite love loves infinitely to be loved; +but for our sakes, that we may taste the peace and strength of +continual dependence, and the joy of continual receiving. He could +give us the principal down; but He prefers to pay us the interest, +as we need it. + +Christianity does not absolutely forbid laying up money or other +resources for future wants. But the love of accumulating, which is +so strong in many professing Christians, and the habit of amassing +beyond all reasonable future wants, is surely scarcely permitted to +those who profess to believe that incarnate wisdom forbade taking +anxious care for the morrow, and sent its disciples to lilies and +birds to learn the happy immunities of faith. We too get our daily +mercies to prove us. The letter of the law for the manna is not +applicable to us who gain our bread by God's blessing on our labour. +But the spirit is, and the members of great commercial nations have +surely little need to be reminded that still the portion put away is +apt to breed worms. How often it vanishes, or, if it lasts, tortures +its owner, who has more trouble keeping it than he had in getting +it; or fatally corrupts his own character, or ruins his children! +All God's gifts are tests, which--thanks be to Him--is the same as +to say that they are means of increasing faith, and so adding to +joy. + +II. The manna was further a disclosure of the depth of patient long- +suffering in God. + +Very strikingly the 'murmurings' of the children of Israel are four +times referred to in this context, and on each occasion are stated +as the reason for the gift of the manna. It was God's answer to the +peevish complaints of greedy appetites. When they were summoned to +come near to the Lord, with the ominous warning that 'He hath heard +your murmurings,' no doubt many a heart began to quake; and when the +Glory flashed from the Shechinah cloud, it would burn lurid to their +trembling consciences. But the message which comes from it is sweet +in its gentleness, as it promises the manna because they have +murmured, and in order that they may know the Lord. A mother soothes +her crying infant by feeding it from her own bosom. God does not +take the rod to His whimpering children, but rather tries to win +them by patience, and to shame their unbelief by His swift and over- +abundant answers to their complaints. When He must, He punishes; but +when He can, He complies. Faith is the condition of our receiving +His highest gifts; but even unbelief touches His heart with pity, +and what He can give to it, He does, if it may be melted into trust. +The farther men stray from Him, the more tender and penetrating His +recalling voice. We multiply transgressions, He multiplies mercies. + +III. The manna was a revelation in miraculous and transient form of +an eternal truth. + +The God who sent it sends daily bread. The words which Christ quoted +in His wilderness hunger are the explanation of its meaning as a +witness to this truth: 'Man doth not live by bread alone, but by +every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' To a Christian, +the divine power is present and operative in all natural processes +as really as in those which we call miraculous. God is separable +from the universe, but the universe is not separable from God. If it +were separated, it would cease. So far as the reality of the divine +operation is concerned, it matters not whether He works in the +established fashion, through material things, or whether His will +acts directly. The chain which binds a phenomenon to the divine will +may be long or short; the intervening links may be many, or they may +be abolished, and the divine cause and the visible effect may touch +without anything between. But in either case the power is of God. +Bread made out of flour grown on the other side of the world, and +fashioned by the baker, and bought by the fruits of my industry, is +as truly the gift of God as was the manna. For once, He showed these +men His hand at work, that we all might know that it was at work, +when hidden. The lesson of the 'angel's food' eaten in the +wilderness is that men are fed by the power of God's expressed and +active will,--for that is the meaning of 'the word that proceedeth +out of the mouth of God,'--in whatever fashion they get their food. +The gift of it is from Him; its power to nourish is from Him. It is +as true to-day as ever it was: 'Thou openest Thine hand, and +satisfiest the desire of every living thing.' The manna ceased when +the people came near cornfields and settled homes. Miracles end when +means are possible. But the God of the miracle is the God of the +means. + +Commentators make much of what is supposed to be a natural +substratum for the manna, in a certain vegetable product, found in +small quantities in parts of the Arabian peninsula. No doubt, we are +to recognise in the plagues of Egypt, and in the dividing of the Red +Sea, the extraordinary action of ordinary causes; and there is no +objection in principle to doing so here. But that an exudation from +the bark of a shrub, which has no nutritive properties at all, is +found only in one or two places in Arabia, and that only at certain +seasons and in infinitesimal quantity, seems a singularly thin +'substratum' on which to build up the feeding of two millions of +people, more or less exclusively and continuously for forty years, +by means of a substance which has nothing to do with tamarisk-trees, +and is like the natural product in nothing but sweetness and name. +Whether we admit connection between the two, or not, the miraculous +character of the manna of the Israelites is unaffected. It was +miraculous in its origin--'rained from heaven,' in its quantity, in +its observance of times and seasons, in its putrefaction and +preservation,--as rotting when kept for greed, and remaining sweet +when preserved for the Sabbath. It came straight from the creative +will of God, and whether its name means 'What is it?' or 'It is a +gift,' the designation is equally true and appropriate, pointing, in +the one case, to the mystery of its nature; in the other, to the +love of the Giver, and in both referring it directly to the hand of +God. + +IV. The manna was typical of Christ. + +Our Lord Himself has laid His hand upon it, and claimed it as a +faint foreshadowing of what He is. The Jews, not satisfied with the +miracle of the loaves, demand from Him a greater sign, as the +condition of what they are pleased to call 'belief'--which is +nothing but accepting the testimony of sense. They quote Moses as +giving the manna, and imply that Messiah is expected to repeat the +miracle. Christ accepts the challenge, and goes on to claim that He +not only gives, but Himself is, for all men's souls, all and more +than all which the manna had been to the bodies of that dead +generation. Like it, He came--but in how much more profound a +sense!--from heaven. Like it, He was food. But unlike it, He could +still for ever the craving of the else famishing soul; unlike it, He +not only nourished a bodily life already possessed, but communicated +a spiritual life which never dies; and, unlike it, He was meant to +be the food of the whole world. His teaching passed beyond the +symbolism of the manna, when He not only declared Himself to be the +'true bread from heaven which gives life to the world,' but opened a +glimpse into the solemn mystery of His atoning death by the +startling and apparently repulsive paradox that 'His flesh was food +indeed and His blood drink indeed.' The manna does not typically +teach Christ's atonement, but it does set Him forth as the true +sustenance and life-giver, sweet as honey to the soul, sent from +heaven for us each, but needing to be made ours by the act of our +faith. An Israelite would have starved, though the manna lay all +round the camp, if he did not go forth and secure his portion; and +he might no less have starved, if he did not eat what Heaven had +sent. 'Crede et manducasti,' 'Believe, and thou hast eaten,'--as St. +Augustine says. The personal appropriating act of faith is essential +to our having Christ for the food of our souls. The bread that +nourishes our bodies is assimilated to their substance, and so +becomes sustenance. This bread of God, entering into our souls by +faith, transforms them into its substance, and so gives and feeds an +immortal life. The manna was for a generation; this bread is 'the +same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' That was for a handful of +men; this is for the world. Nor is the prophetic value of the manna +exhausted when we recognise its witness to Christ. The food of the +wilderness is the food of the city. The bread that is laid on the +table, 'spread in the presence of the enemy,' is the bread that +makes the feast in the king's palace. The Christ who feeds the +pilgrim soldiers is the Christ on whom the conquerors banquet. 'To +him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna.' + + + + +JEHOVAH NISSI + + + 'And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it + Jehovah Nissi [that is, the Lord is my Banner].' + --EXODUS xvii. 15. + +We are all familiar with that picturesque incident of the conflict +between Israel and Amalek, which ended in victory and the erection +of this memorial trophy. Moses, as you remember, went up on the +mount whilst Joshua and the men of war fought in the plain. But I +question whether we usually attach the right meaning to the +symbolism of this event. We ordinarily, I suppose, think of Moses as +interceding on the mountain with God. But there is no word about +prayer in the story, and the attitude of Moses is contrary to the +idea that his occupation was intercession. He sat there, with the +rod of God in his hand, and the rod of God was the symbol and the +vehicle of divine power. When he lifted the rod Amalek fled before +Israel; when the rod dropped Israel fled before Amalek. That is to +say, the uplifted hand was not the hand of intercession, but the +hand which communicated power and victory. And so, when the conflict +is over, Moses builds this memorial of thanksgiving to God, and +piles together these great stones--which, perhaps, still stand in +some of the unexplored valleys of that weird desert land--to teach +Israel the laws of conflict and the conditions of victory. These +laws and conditions are implied in the name which he gave to the +altar that he built--Jehovah Nissi, 'the Lord is my Banner.' + +Now, then, what do these stones, with their significant name, teach +us, as they taught the ancient Israelites? Let me throw these +lessons into three brief exhortations. + +I. First, realise for whose cause you fight. + +The Banner was the symbol of the cause for which an army fought, or +the cognizance of the king or commander whom it followed. So Moses, +by that name given to the altar, would impress upon the minds of the +cowardly mob that he had brought out of Egypt--and who now had +looked into an enemy's eyes for the first time--the elevating and +bracing thought that they were God's soldiers, and that the warfare +which they waged was not for themselves, nor for the conquest of the +country for their own sake, nor for mere outward liberty, but that +they were fighting that the will of God might prevail, and that He +might be the King now of one land--a mere corner of the earth--and +thereby might come to be King of all the earth. That rude altar said +to Israel: 'Remember, when you go into the battle, that the battle +is the Lord's; and that the standard under which you war is the God +for whose cause you contend--none else and none less than Jehovah +Himself. You are consecrated soldiers, set apart to fight for God.' + +Such is the destination of all Christians. They have a battle to +fight, of which they do not think loftily enough, unless they +clearly and constantly recognise that they are fighting on God's +side. + +I need not dwell upon the particulars of this conflict, or run into +details of the way in which it is to be waged. Only let us remember +that the first field upon which we have to fight for God we carry +about within ourselves; and that there will be no victories for us +over other enemies until we have, first of all, subdued the foes +that are within. And then let us remember that the absorbing +importance of inward conflict absolves no Christian man from the +duty of strenuously contending for all things that are 'lovely and +of good report,' and from waging war against every form of sorrow +and sin which his influence can touch. There is no surer way of +securing victory in the warfare within and conquering self than to +throw myself into the service of others, and lose myself in their +sorrows and needs. There is no possibility of my taking my share in +the merciful warfare against sin and sorrow, the tyrants that +oppress my fellows, unless I conquer myself. These two fields of the +Christian warfare are not two in the sense of being separable from +one another, but they are two in the sense of being the inside and +the outside of the same fabric. The warfare is one, though the +fields are two. + +Let us remember, on the other hand, that whilst it is our simple +bounden duty, as Christian men and women, to reckon ourselves as +anointed and called for the purpose of warring against sin and +sorrow, wherever we can assail them, there is nothing more +dangerous, and few things more common, than the hasty identification +of fighting for some whim, or prejudice, or narrow view, or partial +conception of our own, with contending for the establishment of the +will of God. How many wicked things have been done in this world for +God's glory! How many obstinate men, who were really only forcing +their own opinions down people's throats because they were theirs, +have fancied themselves to be pure-minded warriors for God! How easy +it has been, in all generations, to make the sign of the Cross over +what had none of the spirit of the Cross in it; and to say, 'The +cause is God's, and therefore I war for it'; when the reality was, +'The cause is mine, and therefore I take it for granted that it is +God's.' + +Let us beware of the 'wolf in sheep's clothing,' the pretence of +sanctity which is only selfishness with a mask on. And, above all, +let us beware of the uncharitableness and narrowness of view, the +vehemence of temper, the fighting for our own hands, the enforcing +of our own notions and whims and peculiarities, which have often +done duty as being true Christian service for the Master's sake. We +are God's host, but we are not to suppose that every notion that we +take into our heads, and for which we may contend, is part of the +cause of God. + +And then remember what sort of men the soldiers in such an army +ought to be. 'Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.' These +bearers may either be regarded as a solemn procession of priests +carrying the sacrificial vessels; or, as is more probable from the +context of the original, as the armour-bearers of the great King. +They must be pure who bear His weapons, for these are His righteous +love, His loving purity. If our camp is the camp of the Lord, no +violence should be there. What sanctity, what purity, what patience, +what long-suffering, what self-denial, and what enthusiastic +confidence of victory there should be in those who can say, 'We are +the Lord's host, Jehovah is our Banner!' He always wins who sides +with God. And he only worthily takes his place in the ranks of the +sacramental host of the Most High who goes into the warfare knowing +that, because He is God's soldier, he will come out of it, bringing +his victorious shield with him, and ready for the laurels to be +twined round his undinted helmet. That is the first of the thoughts, +then, that are here. + +II. The second of the exhortations which come from the altar and its +name is, Remember whose commands you follow. + +The banner in ancient warfare, even more than in modern, moved in +front of the host, and determined the movements of the army. And so, +by the stones that he piled and the name which he gave them, Moses +taught Israel and us that they and we are under the command of God, +and that it is the movements of His staff that are to be followed. +Absolute obedience is the first duty of the Christian soldier, and +absolute obedience means the entire suppression of my own will, the +holding of it in equilibrium until He puts His finger on the side +that He desires to dip and lets the other rise. They only understand +their place as Christ's servants and soldiers who have learned to +hush their own will until they know their Captain's. In order to be +blessed, to be strong, to be victorious, the indispensable condition +is that our inmost desire shall be, 'Not my will, but Thine be +done.' + +Sometimes, and often, there will be perplexities in our daily lives, +and conflicts very hard to unravel. We shall often be brought to a +point where we cannot see which way the Banner is leading us. What +then? 'It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait' for +the salvation and for the guidance of his God. And we shall +generally find that it is when we are looking too far ahead that we +do not get guidance. You will not get guidance to-day for this day +next week. When this day next week comes, it will bring its own +enlightenment with it. + + 'Lead, kindly Light, ... + ... One step enough for me.' + +Let us take short views both of duty and of hope, and we shall not +so often have to complain that we are left without knowing what the +Commander's orders are. Sometimes we are so left, and that is a +lesson in patience, and is generally God's way of telling us that it +is not His will that we should do anything at all just yet. +Sometimes we are so left in order that we may put our hand out +through the darkness, and hold on by Him, and say, 'I know not what +to do, but mine eyes are towards Thee.' + +And be sure of this, brethren, that He will not desert His own +promise, and that they who in their inmost hearts can say, 'The Lord +is my Banner,' will never have to complain that He led them into a +'pathless wilderness where there was no way.' It is sometimes a very +narrow track, it is often a very rough one, it is sometimes a +dreadfully solitary one; but He always goes before us, and they who +hold His hand will not hold it in vain. 'The Lord is my Banner'; +obey His orders and do not take anybody else's; nor, above all, the +suggestions of that impatient, talkative heart of yours, instead of +His commandments. + +III. Lastly, the third lesson that these grey stones preach to us +is, Recognise by whose power you conquer. + +The banner, I suppose, to us English people, suggests a false idea. +It suggests the notion of a flag, or some bit of flexible drapery +which fluttered and flapped in the wind; but the banner of old-world +armies was a rigid pole, with some solid ornament of bright metal on +the top, so as to catch the light. The banner-staff spoken of in the +text links itself with the preceding incident. I said that Moses +stood on the mountain-top with the rod in his hand. Now that rod was +exactly a miniature banner, and when he lifted it, victory came to +Israel; and when it fell, victory deserted their arms. So by the +altar's name he would say, Do not suppose that it was Moses that won +the battle, nor that it was the rod that Moses carried in his hand +that brought you strength. The true Victor was Jehovah, and it was +He who was Moses' Banner. It was by Him that the lifted rod brought +victory; as for Moses, he had nothing to do with it; and the people +had to look higher than the hill-top where he sat. + +This thought puts stress on the first word of the phrase instead of +on the last, as in my previous remarks. 'The Lord is my Banner,'--no +Moses, no outward symbol, no man or thing, but only He Himself. +Therefore, in all our duties, and in all our difficulties, and in +all our conflicts, and for all our conquests, we are to look away +from creatures, self, externals, and to look only to God. We are all +too apt to trust in rods instead of in Him, in Moses instead of in +Moses' Lord. + +We are all too apt to trust in externals, in organisations, +sacraments, services, committees, outside aids of all sorts, as our +means for doing God's work, and bringing power to us and blessing to +the world. Let us get away from them all, dig deeper down than any +of these, be sure that these are but surface reservoirs, but that +the fountain which fills them with any refreshing liquid which they +may bear lies in God Himself. Why should we trouble ourselves about +reservoirs when we can go to the Fountain? Why should we put such +reliance on churches and services and preaching and sermons and +schemes and institutions and organisations when we have the divine +Lord Himself for our strength? 'Jehovah is my Banner,' and Moses' +rod is only a symbol. At most it is like a lightning-conductor, but +it is not the lightning. The lightning will come without the rod, if +our eyes are to the heaven, for the true power that brings God down +to men is that forsaking of externals and waiting upon Him which He +never refuses to answer. + +In like manner we are too apt to put far too much confidence in +human teachers and human helpers of various kinds. And when God +takes them away we say to ourselves that there is a gap that can +never be filled. Ay! but the great sea can come in and fill any gap, +and make the deepest and the driest of the excavations in the desert +to abound in sweet water. + +So let us turn away from everything external, gather in our souls +and fix our hopes on Him; let us recognise the imperative duty of +the Christian warfare which is laid upon us; let us docilely submit +ourselves to His sweet commands, and trust in His sufficient and +punctual guidance, and not expect from any outward sources that +which no outward sources can ever give, but which He Himself will +give--strength to our fingers to fight, and weapons for the warfare, +and covering for our heads in the day of battle. + +And then, when our lives are done, may the only inscription on the +stone that covers us be 'Jehovah Nissi: the Lord is my banner'! The +trophy that commemorates the Christian's victory should bear no name +but His by whose grace we are more than conquerors. 'Thanks be to +God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' + + + + +GERSHOM AND ELIEZER + + + 'The name of the one [of Moses' sons] was Gershom ... and + the name of the other was Eliezer....'--EXODUS xviii. 3, 4. + +In old times parents often used to give expression to their hopes or +their emotions in the names of their children. Very clearly that was +the case in Moses' naming of his two sons, who seem to have been the +whole of his family. The significance of each name is appended to it +in the text. The explanation of the first is, 'For he said, I have +been an alien in a strange land'; and that of the second, 'For the +God of my fathers, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the +sword of Pharaoh.' These two names give us a pathetic glimpse of the +feelings with which Moses began his exile, and of the better +thoughts into which these gradually cleared. The first child's name +expresses his father's discontent, and suggests the bitter contrast +between Sinai and Egypt; the court and the sheepfold; the gloomy, +verdureless, gaunt peaks of Sinai, blazing in the fierce sunshine, +and the cool, luscious vegetation of Goshen, the land for cattle. +The exile felt himself all out of joint with his surroundings, and +so he called the little child that came to him 'Gershom,' which, +according to one explanation, means 'banishment,' and, according to +another (a kind of punning etymology), means 'a stranger here'; in +the other case expressing the same sense of homelessness and want of +harmony with his surroundings. But as the years went on, Moses began +to acclimatise himself, and to become more reconciled to his +position and to see things more as they really were. So, when the +second child is born, all his murmuring has been hushed, and he +looks beyond circumstances, and lays his hand upon God. 'And the +name of the second was Eliezer, for, he said, the God of my fathers +was my help.' + +Now, there are the two main streams of thought that filled these +forty years; and it was worth while to put Moses into the desert for +all that time, and to break off the purposes and hopes of his life +sharp and short, and to condemn him to comparative idleness, or work +that was all unfitted to bring out his special powers, for that huge +scantling out of his life, one-third of the whole of it, in order +that there might be burnt into him, not either of these two thoughts +separately, but the two of them in their blessed conjunction; 'I am +a stranger here'; 'God is my Help.' And so these are the thoughts +which, in like juxtaposition, ought to be ours; and in higher +fashion with regard to the former of them than was experienced by +Moses. Let me say a word or two about each of these two things. Let +us think of the strangers, and of the divine helper that is with the +strangers. + +I. 'A stranger here.' + +Now, that is true, in the deepest sense, about all men; for the one +thing that makes the difference between the man and the beast is +that the beast is perfectly at home in his surroundings, and gets +all that he needs out of them, and finds in them a field for all +that he can do, and is fully developed to the very highest point of +his capacity by what people nowadays call the 'environment' in which +he is put. But the very opposite is the case in regard to us men. +'Foxes have holes,' and they are quite comfortable there; 'and the +birds of the air have roosting-places,' and tuck their heads under +their wings and go to sleep without a care and without a +consciousness. 'But the Son of man,' the ideal Humanity as well as +the realised ideal in the person of Jesus Christ, 'hath not where to +lay His head.' No; because He is so 'much better than they.' Their +immunity from care is not a prerogative--it is an inferiority. We +are plunged into the midst of a scene of things which obviously does +not match our capacities. There is a great deal more in every man +than can ever find a field of expression, of work, or of +satisfaction in anything beneath the stars. And no man that +understands, even superficially, his own character, his own +requirements, can fail to feel in his sane and quiet moments, when +the rush of temptation and the illusions of this fleeting life have +lost their grip upon him: 'This is not the place that can bring out +all that is in me, or that can yield me all that I desire.' Our +capacities transcend the present, and the experiences of the present +are all unintelligible, unless the true end of every human life is +not here at all, but in another region, for which these experiences +are fitting us. + +But, then, the temptations of life, the strong appeals of flesh and +sense, the duties which in their proper place are lofty and +elevating and refining, and put out of their place, are contemptible +and degrading, all come in to make it hard for any of us to keep +clearly before us what our consciousness tells us when it is +strongly appealed to, that we are strangers and sojourners here and +that this is not 'our rest, because it is polluted.' Therefore it +comes to be the great glory and blessedness of the Christian +Revelation that it obviously shifts the centre for us, and makes +that future, and not this present, the aim for which, and in the +pursuit of which, we are to live. So, Christian people, in a far +higher sense than Moses, who only felt himself 'a stranger there,' +because he did not like Midian as well as Egypt, have to say, 'We +are strangers here'; and the very aim, in one aspect, of our +Christian discipline of ourselves is that we shall keep vivid, in +the face of all the temptations to forget it, this consciousness of +being away from our true home. + +One means of doing that is to think rather oftener than the most of +us do, about our true home. You have heard, I dare say, of half- +reclaimed gipsies, who for a while have been coaxed out of the free +life of the woods and the moors, and have gone into settled homes. +After a while there has come over them a rush of feeling, a +remembrance of how blessed it used to be out in the open and away +from the squalor and filth where men 'sit and hear each other groan' +and they have flung off 'as if they were fetters' the trappings of +'civilisation,' and gone back to liberty. That is what we ought to +do--not going back from the higher to the lower, but smitten with +what the Germans call the _heimweh_, the home-sickness, that +makes us feel that we must get clearer sight of that land to which +we truly belong. + +Do you think about it, do you feel that where Jesus Christ is, is +your home? I have no doubt that most of you have, or have had, dear +ones here on earth about whom you could say that, 'Where my husband, +my wife is; where my beloved is, or my children are, that is my +home, wherever my abode may be.' Are you, Christian people, saying +the same thing about heaven and Jesus Christ? Do you feel that you +are strangers here, not only because you, reflecting upon your +character and capacities and on human life, see that all these +require another life for their explanation and development, but +because your hearts are knit to Him, and 'where your treasure is +there your heart is also'; and where your heart is there you are? We +go home when we come into communion with Jesus Christ. Do you ever, +in the course of the rush of your daily work, think about the calm +city beyond the sea, and about its King, and that you belong to it? +'Our citizenship is in heaven' and here we are strangers. + +II. Now let me say a word about the other child's name. + +'God is Helper.' We do not know what interval of time elapsed +between the birth of these two children. There are some indications +that the second of them was in years very much the junior. Perhaps +the transition from the mood represented in the one name to that +represented in the other, was a long and slow process. But be that +as it may, note the connection between these two names. You can +never say 'We are strangers here' without feeling a little prick of +pain, unless you say too 'God is my Helper.' There is a beautiful +variation of the former word which will occur to many of you, I have +no doubt, in one of the old psalms: 'I am a stranger _with +Thee_, and a sojourner, as were all my fathers.' There is the +secret that takes away all the mourning, all the possible discomfort +and pain, out of the thought: 'Here we have no continuing city,' and +makes it all blessed. It does not matter whether we are in a foreign +land or no, if we have that Companion with us. His presence will +make blessedness in Midian, or in Thebes. It does not matter whether +it is Goshen or the wilderness, if the Lord is by our side. So +sweetness is breathed into the thought, and bitterness is sucked out +of it, when the name of the second child is braided into the name of +the first; and we can contemplate quietly all else of tragic and +limiting and sad that is involved in the thought that we are +sojourners and pilgrims, when we say 'Yes! we are; but the Lord is +my Helper.' + +Then, on the other hand, we shall never say and feel 'the Lord is my +Helper,' as we ought to do, until we have got deep in our hearts, +and settled in our consciousness, the other conviction that we are +strangers here. It is only when we realise that there is no other +permanence for us that we put out our hands and grasp at the +Eternal, in order not to be swept away upon the dark waves of the +rushing stream of Time. It is only when all other props are stricken +from us that we rest our whole weight upon that one strong central +pillar, which can never be moved. Learn that God helps, for that +makes it possible to say 'I am a stranger,' and not to weep. Learn +that you are strangers, for that stimulates to take God for out +help. Just as when the floods are out, men are driven to the highest +ground to save their lives; so when the billows of the waters of +time are seen to be rolling over all creatural things, we take our +flight to the Rock of Ages. Put the two together, and they fit one +another and strengthen us. + +This second conviction was the illuminating light upon a perplexed +and problematic past. Moses, when he fled from Egypt, thought that +his life's work was rent in twain. He had believed that his brethren +would have seen that it was God's purpose to use him as the +deliverer. For the sake of being such, he had surrendered the court +and its delights. But on his young ambition and innocent enthusiasm +there came this _douche_ of cold water, which lasted for forty +years, and sent him away into the wilderness, to be a shepherd under +an Arab sheikh, with nothing to look forward to. At first he said, +'This is not what I was meant for; I am out of my element here.' But +before the forty years were over he said, 'The God of my father was +my help, and He delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh.' What had +looked a disaster turned out to be a deliverance, a manifestation of +divine help, and not a hindrance. He had got far enough away from +that past to look at it sanely, that is to say gratefully. So we, +when we get far enough away from our sorrows, can look back at them, +sometimes even here on earth, and say, 'The mercy of the Lord +compassed me about.' Here is the key that unlocks all the +perplexities of providence, 'The Lord was my Helper.' + +And that conviction will steady and uphold a man in a present, +however dark. It was no small exercise of his faith and patience +that the great lawgiver should for so many years have such unworthy +work to do as he had in Midian. But even then he gathered into his +heart this confidence, and brought summer about him into the mid- +winter of his life, and light into the midst of darkness; 'for he +said'--even then, when there was no work for him to do that seemed +much to need a divine help--'the Lord is my Helper.' + +And so, however dark may be our present moment, and however obscure +or repulsive our own tasks, let us fall back upon that old word, +'Thou hast been my Help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of +my salvation.' + +When Moses named his boy, his gratitude was allied with faith in +favours to come; and when he said 'was,' he meant also 'will be.' +And he was right. He dreamt very little of what was coming, but this +confidence that was expressed in his second child's name was +warranted by that great future that lay before him, though he did +not know it. When the pinch came his confidence faltered. It was +easy to say 'The Lord is my Helper,' when there was nothing very +special for which God's help was needed, and nothing harder to do +than to look after a few sheep in the wilderness. But when God said +to him, 'Go and stand before Pharaoh,' Moses for the moment forgot +all about God's being his helper, and was full of all manner of +cowardly excuses, which, like the excuses of a great many more of us +for not doing our plain duty, took the shape of a very engaging +modesty and diffidence as to his capacities. But God said to him, +'Surely I will be with thee.' He gave him back 'Eliezer' in a little +different form. 'You used to say that I was your helper. What has +become of your faith now? Has it all evaporated when the trial +comes? Surely I will be with thee.' If we will set ourselves to our +tasks, not doubting God's help, we shall have occasion in the event +to be sure that God did help us. + +So, brethren, let us cherish these two thoughts, and never keep them +apart, and God will be, as our good old hymn has it-- + + 'Our help while troubles last, + And our eternal home.' + + + + +THE IDEAL STATESMAN +[Footnote: Preached on occasion of Mr. Gladstone's death.] + + 'Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, + such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; + and place such over them.'--EXODUS xviii. 21. + +You will have anticipated my purpose in selecting this text. I +should be doing violence to your feelings and mine if I made no +reference to the event which has united the Empire and the world in +one sentiment. The great tree has fallen, and the crash has for the +moment silenced all the sounds of the forest. Wars abroad and +controversies at home are hushed. All men, of all schools of +opinion, creeds, and parties, see now, in the calm face of the dead, +'the likeness to the great of old'; and it says something, with all +our faults, for the soundness of the heart of English opinion, that +all sorts and conditions of men have brought their sad wreaths to +lay them on that coffin. + +But, whilst much has been said, far more eloquently and +authoritatively than I can say it, about the many aspects of that +many-sided life, surely it becomes us, as Christian people, to look +at it from the distinctively Christian point of view, and to gather +some of the lessons which, so regarded, it teaches us. + +My text is part of the sagacious advice which Jethro, the father-in- +law of Moses, gave him about the sort of men that he should pick out +to be his lieutenants in civic government. Its old-fashioned, simple +phraseology may hide from some of us the elevation and +comprehensiveness of the ideal that it sets forth. But it is a grand +ideal; and amongst the great names of Englishmen who have guided the +destinies of this land, none have approached more nearly to it than +he whose death has taken away the most striking personality from our +public life. + +So let me ask you to look with me, first, at the ideal of a +politician that is set forth here. + +The free life of the desert, far away from the oppressions of +surrounding military despotisms, that remarkable and antique +constitution of the clan, with all its beautiful loyalty, had given +this Arab sheikh a far loftier conception of what a ruler of men was +than he could have found exemplified at Pharaoh's court; or than, +alas! has been common in many so-called Christian countries. The +field upon which he intended that these great qualities should be +exercised was a very limited one, to manage the little affairs of a +handful of fugitives in the desert. But the scale on which we work +has nothing to do with the principles by which we work, and the laws +of perspective and colouring are the same, whether you paint the +minutest miniature or a gigantic fresco. So what was needed for +managing the little concerns of Moses' wanderers in the wilderness +is the ideal of what is needed for the men who direct the public +affairs of world-wide empires. + +Let me run over the details. They must be 'able men,' or, as the +original has it, 'men of strength.' There is the intellectual basis, +and especially the basis of firm, brave, strongly-set will which +will grasp convictions, and, whatever comes, will follow them to +their conclusions. The statesman is not one that puts his ear down +to the ground to hear the tramp of some advancing host, and then +makes up his mind to follow in their paths; he is not sensitive to +the varying winds of public opinion, nor does he trim his sails to +suit them, but he comes to his convictions by first-hand approach +to, and meditation on, the great principles that are to guide, and +then holds to them with a strength that nothing can weaken, and a +courage that nothing can daunt. 'Men of strength' is what +democracies like ours do most need in their leaders; a 'strong man, +in a blatant land,' who knows his own mind, and is faithful to it +for ever. That is a great demand. + +'Such as fear God'--there is the secret of strength, not merely in +reference to the intellectual powers which are not dependent for +their origin, though they may be for the health and vigour of their +work, upon any religious sentiment, but in regard to all true power. +He that would govern others must first be lord of himself, and he +only is lord of himself who is consciously and habitually the +servant of God. So that whatever natural endowment we start with, it +must be heightened, purified, deepened, enlarged, by the presence in +our lives of a deep and vital religious conviction. That is true +about all men, leaders and led, large and small. That is the bottom- +heat in the greenhouse, as it were, that will make riper and sweeter +all the fruits which are the natural result of natural capacities. +That is the amulet and the charm which will keep a man from the +temptations incident to his position and the weaknesses incident to +his character. The fear of God underlies the noblest lives. That is +not to-day's theory. We are familiar with the fact, and familiar +with the doctrine formulated out of it, that there may be men of +strong and noble lives and great leaders in many a department of +human activity without any reference to the Unseen. Yes, there may +be, but they are all fragments, and the complete man comes only when +the fear of the Lord is guide, leader, impulse, polestar, regulator, +corrector, and inspirer of all that he is and all that he does. + +'Men of truth'--that, of course, glances at the crooked ways which +belong not only to Eastern statesmanship, but it does more than +that. He that is to lead men must himself be led by an eager haste +to follow after, and to apprehend, the very truth of things. And +there must be in him clear transparent willingness to render his +utmost allegiance, at any sacrifice, to the dawning convictions that +may grow upon him. It is only fools that do not change. Freshness of +enthusiasm, and fidelity to new convictions opening upon a man, to +the end of his life, are not the least important of the requirements +in him who would persuade and guide individuals or a nation. + +'Hating covetousness'; or, as it might be rendered, 'unjust gain.' +That reference to the 'oiling of the palms' of Eastern judges may be +taken in a loftier signification. If a man is to stand forth as the +leader of a people, he must be clear, as old Samuel said that he +was, from all suspicion of having been following out his career for +any form of personal advantage. 'Clean hands,' and that not only +from the vulgar filth of wealth, but from the more subtle advantages +which may accrue from a lofty position, are demanded of the leader +of men. + +Such is the ideal. The requirements are stern and high, and they +exclude the vermin that infest 'politics,' as they are called, and +cause them to stink in many nostrils. The self-seeking schemer, the +one-eyed partisan, the cynic who disbelieves in ideals of any sort, +the charlatan who assumes virtues that he does not possess, and +mouths noble sentiments that go no deeper than his teeth, are all +shut out by them. The doctrine that a man may do in his public +capacity things which would be disgraceful in private life, and yet +retain his personal honour untarnished, is blown to atoms by this +ideal. It is much to be regretted, and in some senses to be +censured, that so many of our wisest, best, and most influential men +stand apart from public life. Much of that is due to personal bias, +much more of it is due to the pressure of more congenial duties, and +not a little of it is due to the disregard of Jethro's ideal, and to +the degradation of public life which has ensued thereby. But there +have been great men in our history whose lives have helped to lift +up the ideal of a statesman, who have made such a sketch as Jethro +outlined, though they may not have used his words, their polestar; +and amongst the highest of these has been the man whose loss we to- +day lament. + +Let me try to vindicate that expression of opinion in a word or two. +I cannot hope to vie in literary grace, or in completeness, with the +eulogies that have been abundantly poured out; and I should not have +thought it right to divert this hour of worship from its ordinary +themes, if I had had no more to say than has been far better said a +thousand times in these last days. But I cannot help noticing that, +though there has been a consensus of admiration of, and a +practically unanimous pointing to, character as after all the secret +of the spell which Mr. Gladstone has exercised for two generations, +there has not been, as it seems to me, equal and due prominence +given to what was, and what he himself would have said was, the real +root of his character and the productive cause of his achievements. + +And so I venture now to say a word or two about the religion of the +man that to his own consciousness underlay all the rest of him. It +is not for me to speak, and there is no need to speak, about the +marvellous natural endowments and the equally marvellous, many-sided +equipment of attainment which enriched the rich, natural soil. +Intermeddling as he did with all knowledge, he must necessarily have +been but an amateur in many of the subjects into which he rushed +with such generous eagerness. But none the less is the example of +all but omnivorous acquisitiveness of everything that was to be +known, a protest, very needful in these days, against the possible +evils of an excessive specialising which the very progress of +knowledge in all departments seems to make inevitable. I do not need +to speak, either, of the flow, and sometimes the torrent, of +eloquence ever at his command, nor of the lithe and sinewy force of +his extraordinarily nimble, as well as massive, mind; nor need I say +more than one word about the remarkable combination of qualities so +generally held and seen to be incompatible, which put into one +personality a genius for dry arithmetical figures and a genius for +enthusiasm and sympathy with all the oppressed. All these things +have been said far better than I can say them, and I do not repeat +them. + +But I desire to hammer this one conviction into your hearts and my +own, that the inmost secret of that noble life, of all that wealth +of capacity, all that load of learning, which he bore lightly like a +flower, was the fact that the man was, to the very depths of his +nature, a devout Christian. He would have been as capable, as +eloquent, and all the rest of it, if he had been an unbeliever. But +he would never have been nor done what he was and did, and he would +never have left the dint of an impressive and lofty personality upon +a whole nation and a world, if beneath the intellect there had not +been character, and beneath character Christianity. + +He was far removed, in ecclesiastical connections, from us +Nonconformists, and he held opinions in regard to some very +important ecclesiastical questions which cut straight across some of +our deepest convictions. We never had to look for much favour from +his hands, because his intellectual atmosphere removed him far from +sympathy with many of the truths which are dearest to the members of +the Free Evangelical Churches. But none the less we recognise in him +a brother in Jesus Christ, and rejoice that there, on the high +places of a careless and sceptical generation, there stood a +Christian man. + +In this connection I cannot but, though I have no right to do so, +express how profoundly thankful I, for one, was to the present Prime +Minister of England that in his brief eulogium on, I was going to +say, his great rival, he ended all by the emphatic declaration that +Mr. Gladstone was, first and foremost, a great Christian man. Yes; +and there was the secret, as I have already said, not of his merely +political eminence, but of the universal reverence which a nation +expresses to-day. All detraction is silenced, and all calumnies have +dropped away, as filth from the white wings of a swan as it soars, +and with one voice the Empire and the world confess that he was a +great and a good man. + +I need not dwell in detail on the thoughts of how, by reason of this +deep underlying fear of God, the other qualifications which are +sketched in our ideal found their realisation in him; how those who, +all through his career, smiled most at the successive enthusiasms +which monopolised his mind, and sometimes at the contrasts between +these, are now ready to admit that, whether the enthusiasms were +right or wrong, there is something noble in the spectacle of a man +ever keeping his mind, even when its windows were beginning to be +dimmed by the frosts of age, open to the beams of new truth. And the +greatest, as some people think, of his political blunders, as we are +beginning, all of us, to recognise, now that party strife is hushed, +was the direct consequence of that ever fresh and youthful +enthusiasm for new thoughts and new lines of action. Innovators aged +eighty are not too numerous. + +Nor need I say more than one word about the other part of the ideal, +'hating covetousness.' The giver of peerages by the bushel died a +commoner. The man that had everything at his command made no money, +nor anything else, out of his long years of office, except the +satisfaction of having been permitted to render what he believed to +be the highest of service to the nation that he loved so well. Like +our whilom neighbour, the other great commoner, John Bright, he +lived among his own people; and like Samuel, of whom I have already +spoken, he could stretch out his old hands and say, 'They are +clean.' One scarcely feels as if, to such a life, a State funeral in +Westminster Abbey was congruous. One had rather have seen him laid +among the humble villagers who were his friends and companions, and +in the quiet churchyard which his steps had so often traversed. But +at all events the ideal was realised, and we all know what it was. + +Might I say one word more? As this great figure passes out of men's +sight to nobler work, be sure, on widened horizons corresponding to +his tutored and exercised powers, does he leave no lessons behind +for us? He leaves one very plain, homely one, and that is, 'Work +while it is called to-day.' No opulence of endowment tempted this +man to indolence, and no poverty of endowment will excuse us for +sloth. Work is the law of our lives; and the more highly we are +gifted, the more are we bound to serve. + +He leaves us another lesson. Follow convictions as they open before +you, and never think that you have done growing, or have reached +your final stage. + +He leaves another lesson. Do not suppose that the Gospel of Jesus +Christ cannot satisfy the keenest intellect, nor dominate the +strongest will. It has come to be a mark of narrowness and +fossilhood to be a devout believer in Christ and His Cross. Some of +you young men make an easy reputation for cleverness and advanced +thought by the short and simple process of disbelieving what your +mother taught you. Here is a man, probably as great as you are, with +as keen an intellect, and he clung to the Cross of Christ, and had +for his favourite hymn-- + + 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me hide myself in Thee.' + +He leaves another lesson. If you desire to make your characters all +that it is in them to be made, you must, like him, go to Jesus +Christ, and get your teaching and your inspiration from that great +Lord. We cannot all be great men. Never mind. It is character that +tells; we can all be good men, and we can all be Christian men. And +whether we build cottages or palaces, if we build on one foundation, +and only if we do, they will stand. + +Moses leaves another lesson, as he glides into the past. 'This man, +having served his generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and +was gathered to his fathers, and saw corruption'; but He 'whom God +hath raised up saw no corruption.' The lamps are quenched, the sun +shines. Moses dies, 'The prophets, do they live for ever?' but when +Moses and Elias faded from the Mount of Transfiguration 'the +apostles saw no man any more, save Jesus only,' and the voice said, +'This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him.' + + + + +THE DECALOGUE: I--MAN AND GOD + + + 'And God spake all these words, saying, 2. I am the Lord + thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of + Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3. Thou shalt have + no other gods before me. 4. Thou shalt not make unto + thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing + that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth + beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5. + Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: + for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the + iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third + and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6. And + shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and + keep my commandments. 7. Thou shalt not take the name of + the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him + guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8. Remember the + sabbath-day, to keep it holy. 9. Six days shalt thou + labour, and do all thy work: 10. But the seventh day is + the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do + any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy + man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor + thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11. For in six + days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all + that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore + the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it.' + --EXODUS xx. 1-11. + +An obscure tribe of Egyptian slaves plunges into the desert to hide +from pursuit, and emerges, after forty years, with a code gathered +into 'ten words,' so brief, so complete, so intertwining morality +and religion, so free from local or national peculiarities, so close +fitting to fundamental duties, that it is to-day, after more than +three thousand years, authoritative in the most enlightened peoples. +The voice that spoke from Sinai reverberates in all lands. The Old +World had other lawgivers who professed to formulate their precepts +by divine inspiration: they are all fallen silent. But this voice, +like the trumpet on that day, waxes louder and louder as the years +roll. Whose voice was it? The only answer explaining the supreme +purity of the commandments, and their immortal freshness, is found +in the first sentence of this paragraph, 'God spake all these +words.' + +I. We have first the revelation, which precedes and lays the +foundation for the commandments; 'I am the Lord thy God, which have +brought thee out of the land of Egypt.' God speaks to the nation as +a whole, establishing a special relation between Himself and them, +which is founded on His redeeming act, and is reciprocal, requiring +that they should be His people, as He is their God. The +manifestation in act of His power and of His love precedes the claim +for reverence and obedience. This is a universal truth. God gives +before He asks us to give. He is not a hard taskmaster, 'gathering +where He has not strawn.' Even in that system which is eminently +'the law,' the foundation is a divine act of deliverance, and only +when He has won the people for Himself by redeeming them from +bondage does He call on them for obedience. His rule is built on +benefits. He urges no mere right of the mightier, nor cares for +service which is not the glad answer of gratitude. The flashing +flames which ran as swift heralds before His descending chariot +wheels, the quaking mountain, the long-drawn blasts of the trumpet, +awed the gathered crowd. But the first articulate words made a +tenderer appeal, and sought to found His right to command on His +love, and their duty to obey on their gratitude. The great gospel +principle, that the Redeemer is the lawgiver, and the redeemed are +joyful subjects because their hearts are touched with love, +underlies the apparently sterner system of the Old Testament. God +opens His heart first, and then asks for men's. + +This prelude certainly confines the Decalogue to the people of +Israel. Their deliverance is the ground on which the law is rested, +therefore, plainly, the obligation can be no wider than the benefit. +But though we are not bound to obey any of the Ten Commandments, +because they were given to Israel, they are all, with one exception, +demonstrably, a transcript of laws written on the heart of mankind; +and this fact carries with it a strong presumption that the law of +the Sabbath, which is the exception referred to, should be regarded +as not an exception, but as a statute of the primeval law, witnessed +to by conscience, republished in wondrous precision and completeness +in these venerable precepts. The Ten Commandments are binding on us; +but they are not binding as part, though the fundamental part, of +the Jewish law. + +Two general observations may be made. One is on the negative +character of the commandments as a whole. Law prohibits because men +are sinful. But prohibitions pre-suppose as their foundation +positive commands. We are forbidden to do something because we are +inclined to do it, and because we ought to do the opposite. Every +'thou shalt not' implies a deeper 'thou shalt.' The cold negation +really rests on the converse affirmative command. + +The second remark on the law as a whole is as to the relation which +it establishes between religion and morality, making the latter a +part of the former, but regarding it as secured only by the prior +discharge of the obligations of the former. Morality is the garb of +religion; religion is the animating principle of morality. The +attempts to build up a theory of ethics without reference to our +relations to God, or to secure the practice of righteousness without +such reference, or to substitute, with a late champion of unbelief, +'the service of man' for the worship of God, are all condemned by +the deeper and simpler wisdom of this law. Christians should learn +the lesson, which the most Jewish of the New Testament writers had +drawn from it, that, 'pure and undefiled service' of God is the +service of man, and should beware of putting asunder what God has +joined so closely. + +II. The first commandment bears in its negative form marks of the +condition of the world when it was spoken, and of the strong +temptation to polytheism which the Israelites were to resist. +Everywhere but in that corner among the wild rocks of Sinai, men +believed in 'gods many.' Egypt swarmed with them; and, no doubt, the +purity of Abraham's faith had been sadly tarnished in his sons. We +cannot understand the strange fascination of polytheism. It is a +disease of humanity in an earlier stage than ours. But how strong it +was and is, all history shows. All these many gods were on amicable +terms with one another, and ready to welcome newcomers. But the +monotheism, which was here laid at the very foundation of Israel's +national life, parted it by a deep gulf from all the world, and +determined its history. + +The prohibition has little force for us; but the positive command +which underlies it is of eternal force. We should rather think of it +as a revelation and an invitation than as a mere command. For what +is it but the declaration that at the centre of things is throned, +not a rabble of godlings, nor a stony impersonal somewhat, nor a +hypothetical unknowable entity, nor a shadowy abstraction, but a +living Person, who can say 'Me,' and whom we can call on as 'Thou,' +and be sure that He hears? No accumulation of finite excellences, +however fair, can satisfy the imagination, which feels after one +Being, the personal ideal of all perfectness. The understanding +needs one ultimate Cause on which it can rest amid the dance of +fleeting phenomena; the heart cannot pour out its love to be shared +among many. No string of goodly pearls will ever give the +merchantman assurance that his quest is complete. Only when human +nature finds all in One, and that One a living Person, the Lover and +Friend of all souls, does it fold its wings and rest as a bird after +long flight. + +The first commandment enjoins, or rather blesses us by showing us +that we may cherish, supreme affection, worship, trust, self- +surrender, aspiration, towards one God. After all, our God is that +which we think most precious, for which we are ready to make the +greatest sacrifices, which draws our warmest love; which, lost, +would leave us desolate; which, possessed, makes us blessed. If we +search our hearts with this 'candle of the Lord,' we shall find many +an idol set up in their dark corners, and be startled to discover +how much we need to bring ourselves to be judged and condemned by +this commandment It is the foundation of all human duty. Obedience +to it is the condition of peace and blessedness, light and leading +for mind, heart, will, affections, desires, hopes, fears, and all +the world within, that longs for one living Person even when it +least knows the meaning of its longings and the reason of its +unrest. + +III. The second commandment forbids all representations, whether of +the one God or of false deities. The golden calf, which was a symbol +of Jehovah, is condemned equally with the fair forms that haunted +the Greek Olympus, or the half-bestial shapes of Egyptian mythology. +The reasons for the prohibition may be considered as two,--the +impossibility of setting forth the glory of the Infinite Spirit in +any form, and the certainty that the attempt will sink the +worshipper deeper in the mire of sense. An image degrades God and +damages men. By it religion reverses its nature, and becomes another +clog to keep the soul among the things seen, and an ally of all +fleshly inclinations. We know how idolatry seemed to cast a spell +over the Israelites from Egypt to Babylon, and how their first +relapse into it took place almost before the voice which 'spake all +these words' had ceased. + +In its grosser form, we have no temptation to it. But there are +other ways of breaking the commandment than setting up an image. All +sensuous worship in which the treacherous aid of art is called in to +elevate the soul, comes perilously near to contradicting its spirit, +if not its letter. The attempt to make of the senses a ladder for +the soul to climb to God by, is a great deal more likely to end in +the soul's going down the ladder than up it. The history of public +worship in the Christian Church teaches that the less it has to do +with such slippery help the better. There is a strong current +running in England, at all events, in the direction of bringing in a +more artistic, or, as it is called, a 'less bare,' form of service. +We need to remember that the God who is a Spirit is worshipped 'in +spirit,' and that outward forms may easily choke, and outward aids +hinder, that worship. + +The especial difficulty of obedience to this commandment is marked +by the reason or sanction annexed. That opens a wide field, on which +it would be folly to venture here. There is a glimpse of God's +character, and a statement of a law of His working. He is a +'jealous' God, We need not be afraid of the word. It means nothing +but what is congruous with the loftiest conception of a loving God. +It means that He allows of no rival in our hearts' affection, or in +our submission for love's sake to Him. A half trust in God is no +trust. How can worship be shared, or love be parted out, among a +pantheon? Our poor hearts ask of one another and get from one +another, wherever a man and a woman truly love, just what God +asks,--'All in all, or not at all.' His jealousy is but infinite +love seeking to be known as such, and asking for a whole heart. + +The law of His providence sounds hard, but it is nothing more than +stating in plain words the course of the world's history, which +cannot be otherwise if there is to be any bond of human society at +all. We hear a great deal in modern language about solidarity (and +sometimes it is spelled with a final 'e,' to look more +philosophical) and heredity. The teaching of this commandment is +simply a statement of the same facts, with the addition that the +Lawgiver is visible behind the law. The consequences of conduct do +not die with the doers. 'The evil that men do, lives after them.' +The generations are so knit together, and the full results of deeds +are often so slow-growing, that one generation sows and another +reaps. Who sowed the seed that fruited in misery, and was gathered +in a bitter harvest of horrors and crimes in the French Revolution? +Who planted the tree under which the citizens of the United States +sit? Did not the seedling go over in the _Mayflower_? As long +as the generations of men are more closely connected than those of +sheep or birds, this solemn word must be true. Let us see that we +sow no tares to poison our children when we are in our graves. The +saying had immediate application to the consequences of idolatry in +the history of Israel, and was a forecast of their future. But it is +true evermore and everywhere. + +IV. The third commandment must be so understood as to bring it into +line with the two preceding, as of equal breadth and equally +fundamental. It cannot, therefore, be confined to the use of the +name of God in oaths, whether false or trivial. No doubt, perjury +and profane swearing are included in the sweep of the prohibition; +but it reaches far beyond them. The name of God is the declaration +of His being and character. We take His name 'in vain' when we speak +of Him unworthily. Many a glib and formal prayer, many a mechanical +or self-glorifying sermon, many an erudite controversy, comes under +the lash of this prohibition. Professions of devotion far more +fervid than real, confessions in which the conscience is not +stricken, orthodox teachings with no throb of life in them, +unconscious hypocrisies of worship, and much besides, are gibbeted +here. The most vain of all words are those which have become +traditional stock in trade for religious people, which once +expressed deep convictions, and are now a world too wide for the +shrunk faith which wears them. + +The positive side underlying the negative is the requirement that +our speech of God shall fit our thought of God, and our thought of +Him shall fit His Name; that our words shall mirror our affections, +and our affection be a true reflection of His beauty and sweetness; +that cleansed lips shall reverently utter the Name above every name, +which, after all speech, must remain unspoken; and that we shall +feel it to be not the least wonderful or merciful of His +condescensions that He 'is extolled with our tongues.' + +V. The series of commandments referring to Israel's relations with +God is distinctly progressive from the first to the fourth, which +deals with the Sabbath. The fact that it appears here, side by side +with these absolutely universal and first principles of religion and +worship, clearly shows that the giver of the code regarded it as of +equal comprehensiveness. If we believe that the giver of the code +was God, we seem shut up to the conclusion that, though the Sabbath +is a positive institution, and in so far unlike the preceding +commandments, it is to be taken as not merely a temporary or Jewish +ordinance. The ground on which it is rested here points to the same +conclusion. The version of the Decalogue in Deuteronomy bases it on +the Egyptian deliverance, but this, on the divine rest after +creation. As we have already said, we do not regard the Decalogue as +binding on us because given to Israel; but we do regard it as +containing laws universally binding, which are written by God's +finger, not on tables of stone, but on 'the fleshly tables of the +heart.' All the others are admittedly of this nature. Is not the +Sabbath law likewise? It is not, indeed, inscribed on the +conscience, but is the need for it not stamped on the physical +nature? The human organism requires the seventh-day rest, whether +men toil with hand or brain. Historically, it is not true that the +Sabbath was founded by this legislation. The traces of its +observance in Genesis are few and doubtful; but we know from the +inscriptions that the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty- +eighth days of the moon were set apart by the Assyrians, and +scholars can supply other instances. The 'Remember' of this +commandment can scarcely be urged as establishing this, for it may +quite as naturally be explained to mean 'Remember, as each +successive seventh day comes round, to consecrate it.' But apart +from that, the law written on body, mind, and soul says plainly to +all men, 'Rest on the seventh day.' Body and mind need repose; the +soul needs quiet communion with God. No vigorous physical, +intellectual, or religious life will long be kept up, if that need +be disregarded. The week was meant to be given to work, which is +blessed and right if done after the pattern of God's. The Sabbath +was meant to lift to a share in His rest, to bring eternity into +time, to renew wasted strength 'by a wise passiveness,' and to draw +hearts dissipated by contact with fleeting tasks back into the +stillness where they can find themselves in fellowship with God. + +We have not the Jewish Sabbath, nor is it binding on us. But as men +we ought to rest, and resting, to worship, on one day in the week. +The unwritten law of Christianity, moulding all outward forms by its +own free spirit, gradually, and without premeditation, slid from the +seventh to the first day, as it had clear right to do. It was the +day of Christ's resurrection, probably of His ascension, and of +Pentecost. It is 'the Lord's Day.' In observing it, we unite both +the reasons for the Sabbath given in Exodus and Deuteronomy,--the +completion of a higher creation in the resurrection rest of the Son +of God, and the deliverance from a sorer bondage by a better Moses. +The Christian Sunday and its religious observance are indispensable +to the religious life of individuals and nations. The day of rest is +indispensable to their well-being. Our hard-working millions will +bitterly rue their folly, if they are tempted to cast it away on the +plea of obtaining opportunities for intellectual culture and +enjoyment. It is + + 'The couch of time, care's balm and bay,' + +and we shall be wise if we hold fast by it; not because the Jews +were bid to hallow the seventh day, but because we need it for +repose, and we need it for religion. + + + + +THE DECALOGUE: II.--MAN AND MAN + + + 'Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be + long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. + 13. Thou shalt not kill. 14. Thou shalt not commit + adultery. 15. Thou shalt not steal. 16. Thou shalt not + bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17. Thou + shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not + covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor + his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing + that is thy neighbour's. 18. And all the people saw the + thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the + trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and, when the people + saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19. And they + said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: + but let not God speak with us, lest we die. 20. And Moses + said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove + you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye + sin not. 21. And the people stood afar off: and Moses + drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.' + --EXODUS xx. 12-21. + +I. The broad distinction between the two halves of the Decalogue is +that the former deals with man's relations to God, and the latter +with His relations to men. This double division is recognised in the +New Testament summary of 'all the law,' as found in two +commandments, and is probably implied in the two tables on which it +was inscribed. Commentators have been much exercised, however, about +how to divide the commandments between these two parts. The fifth, +which is the first in this division, belongs in substance to the +second half, but its form connects it with the first table. It is +like the preceding ones in having a reason appended, and in naming +'the Lord thy God'; while the following are all bare, curt +prohibitions. The fact seems to be that it is a transition +commandment, and meant to cast special sacredness round the parental +relationship, by paralleling it, in some sense, with that to God, of +which it is a reflection. Other duties to other men stand on a +different level from duties to parents. 'Honour,' which is to be +theirs, is not remote from the reverence due to God. They are, as it +were, His shadows to the child. The fatherhood of God is dimly +revealed in that parting off the commandment from the second table, +and assimilating it in form to the laws of the first. + +II. The connection of the two halves of the Decalogue teaches some +important truth. Josephus said a wise thing when he remarked that, +'whereas other legislators had made religion a department of virtue, +Moses made virtue a department of religion.' No theory of morals is +built upon the deepest foundation which does not recognise the final +ground of the obligation of duty in the voice of God. Duty is +_debitum_-debt. Who is the creditor? Myself? An impersonal law? +Society? No, God. The practice of morality depends, like its theory, +on religion. In the long-run, and on the wide scale, nations and +periods which have lost the latter will not long keep the former in +any vigour or purity. He who begins by erasing the first commandment +will sooner or later make a clean sweep of all the ten. And, on the +other hand, wherever there is true worship of the one God, there all +fair charities between man and man will flourish and fruit. The two +tables are one law. Duties to God come first, and those to man, who +is made in the image of God, flow from these. + +III. The order of these human duties is significant. We have, next +after the law of parental reverence, three commandments, which, in a +descending series of importance, forbid crimes against life, +marriage, and property. Then the law passes from deeds to the more +subtle, and, as men think, less grave, offences of the tongue. Next +it crosses the boundary which divides human from divine law, and +crimes from sins, to take cognisance of unspoken and unacted +desires. So the order of progress in the first table is exactly the +reverse of that in the second. There we begin with inward devotion, +and travel outwards by deed and word to the sabbatical institution; +here we begin with overt acts, and travel inwards, through words, to +the hidden desire. The end touches the beginning. For that which we +'covet' is our God; and the first commandment is only obeyed when +our hearts hunger after Him, and not after earth. The sequence here +corresponds to the order of progress in our knowledge and practice +of our human duties. The first thing that the rudest state of +society has to do is to establish some kind of security for life and +property and woman's honour. The worst men know that much as their +duty, however foul may be their lips, and hot their passions. Then +the recognition of the sanctity of the great gift of speech, and the +supreme obligations of veracity, grow upon men as they get above the +earlier stage. Most children pass through a phase when they tell +lies as pastime, and most rude societies and half-moralised men have +a similar epoch. Last of all, when actions have been bridled and the +tongue taught the law of truth, comes the full recognition that the +work is not done till the silent longing of a hungry heart is +stilled, and that unselfish love of our neighbour is only perfect +when we can rejoice in his good and wish none of it for ourselves. +The second table is a chart of moral progress. + +IV. The scope of these laws has often been violently stretched so as +to include all human duty; but without tugging at them so as to make +them cover everything, we may note briefly how far they extend. We +are scarcely warranted in taking any of them but the last, as going +deeper than overt acts, for, though our Lord has taught in the +Sermon on the Mount that hatred is murder, and impure desire +adultery, that is His deepening of the commandment. But it is quite +fair to bring out the positive precept which, in each case, +underlies the stern, short prohibition. + +The fifth commandment shares with the fourth the distinction of +being a positive command. It enjoins 'honour,' not 'love,' partly +because, in olden times, the father was a prince in his house in a +sense that has long since ceased to be true, partly because there +was less need to enjoin the affection which is in some degree +instinctive, than the submission and respect which the children are +tempted to withhold, partly in order to suggest the analogy with +reverence to God. A strange change has passed over the relations of +parents and children, even within a generation. There is more, +perhaps, of frank familiar intercourse, which, no doubt, is an +improvement on the old style. But there is a great deal less of what +the commandment enjoins. City life, education, the general impairing +of the idea of authority, which we see everywhere, have told upon +many families; and many a father who, by indulgence or by too much +engrossment in business, lets the children twitch the reins out of +his hands, might lament, as his grown-up children spurn control, 'If +then I be a father, where is mine honour?' There is no one of the +commandments which it is more needful to preach in England than +this. + +The promise attached to it has another side of threatening. It is a +plain fact that when the paternal relation is corrupted, a powerful +solvent has been introduced which rapidly tends to disintegrate +society. The most ancient empire in the world today, China, has, +amid many vices and follies, been preserved mainly by the profound +reverence to ancestors which is largely its real working religion. +The most vigorous power in the old world, Rome, owed its iron might +not only to its early simplicity of life and its iron tenacity, but +to the strength of paternal authority and the willingness of filial +obedience. No more serious damage can be inflicted on society or on +individuals than the weakening of the honour paid to fathers and +mothers. + +'Thou shalt not kill' forbids not only the act of murder, but all +that endangers life. It enjoins all care, diligence, and effort to +preserve it. A man who looks on while another drowns, or who sends a +ship out half manned and overloaded, breaks it as really as a red- +handed murderer. But the commandment was not intended to touch the +questions of capital punishment or of war. These were allowed under +the Jewish code, and cannot therefore be supposed to be prohibited +here. How far either is consistent with the deepest meaning of the +law, as expanded and reconsecrated in Christianity, is another +question. Their defenders have to execute some startling feats of +gymnastics to harmonise either with the New Testament. + + 'Curus kind o' Christian dooty, + This 'ere cuttin' folks's throats.' + +The ground of the commandment is not given, seeing that conscience +is expected to admit its force as soon as stated. But its place at +the head of the second table brings it into connection with the +first commandment, and suggests that man's life is sacred because he +is the image of God. As Christians, we are bound to interpret it on +the lines which Christ has laid down; according to which, hatred is +murder, and love is the fulfilling of this as of all other laws. So +Luther's comprehensive summing up of the duties enjoined may be +accepted: 'Patience, gentleness, kindliness, peaceableness, pity, +and, of all things, a sweet, friendly heart, without any hate, +anger, bitterness, toward any, even enemies.' + +In like manner, the seventh commandment sanctifies wedded life, and is +the first step in that true reverence of woman which marked the Jewish +people through all their history, and was in such contrast to her +position in all other ancient societies. Purity in all the relations +of the sexes, the control of passion, the reverence for marriage, are +subjects difficult to speak of in public. But modern society sorely +needs some plain speaking on these subjects--abundance of bread and +idleness, facilities for divorce, the filth which newspapers lay down +on every breakfast-table, the insidious sensuality of much fiction and +art, the licence of the stage. The opportunities for secret profligacy +in great cities conspire to loosen the bonds of morality. I would +venture to ask public teachers seriously to consider their duty in this +matter, and to seek for opportunities wisely to warn budding youth of +the pitfalls in its path. + +What is 'stealing'? As Luther says, 'It is the smallest part of the +thieves that are hung. If we are to hang them all, where shall we +get rope enough? We must make all our belts and straps into +halters.' + +Theft is the taking or keeping what is not 'mine.' But what do we +mean by 'mine'? Communists tell us that 'property is theft.' But +that is the exaggeration of the scriptural teaching that all +property is trust property, that possessions are 'mine' on +conditions and for purposes, that I cannot 'do what I will with mine +own,' but am a steward, set to dispense it to those who want. The +Christian doctrine of stewardship extends this commandment over much +ground which we seldom think of as affected by it. All sharp +practice in business, the shopkeeper's false weights and the +merchant's equivalents of these, adulterations, pirating trademarks, +imitating a rival's goods, infringing patents, and the like, however +disguised by fine names, are neither more nor less than stealing. +Many a prosperous gentleman says solemnly every Sunday of his life, +'Incline our hearts to keep this law,' who would have to live in a +much more modest fashion if his prayer were, by any unfortunate +accident, answered. + +False witness is not only given in court. The sins of the tongue +against the law of love are more subtle and common than those of +act. 'Come, let us enjoy ourselves, and abuse our neighbours,' is +the real meaning of many an invitation to social intercourse. If +some fairy could treat our newspapers as the Russian censors do, and +erase all the lies about the opposite side, which they report and +coin, how many blank columns there would be! If all the words of +ill-natured calumny, of uncharitable construction of their friends +which people speak, could be made inaudible, what stretches of +silence would open out in much animated talk! 'A man that beareth +false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a +sharp arrow.' + +But deed and word will not be right unless the heart be right; and +the heart will be wrong unless it be purged of the bitter black drop +of covetousness. The desire to make my neighbour's goods mine is the +parent of all breaches of neighbourly duty, even as its converse +'love' is the fulfilling of it all; for such desire implies that I +am ruled by selfishness, and that I would willingly deprive another +of goods, for my own gratification. Such a temper, like a wild boar +among vineyards, will trample down all the rich clusters in order to +slake its own thirst. Find a man who yields to his desires after his +neighbour's goods, and you find a man who will break all +commandments like a hornet in a spider's web. Be he a Napoleon, and +glorified as a conqueror and hero, or be he some poor thief in a +jail, he has let his covetousness get the upper hand, and so all +wrong-doing is possible. Nor is it only the second table which +covetousness dashes to fragments. It serves the first in the same +fashion; for, as St. Paul puts it, the covetous man 'is an +idolater,' and is as incapable of loving God as of loving his +neighbour. This final commandment, overleaping the boundary between +conduct and character, and carrying the light of duty into the dark +places of the heart, where deeds are fashioned, sets the whole flock +of bats and twilight-loving creatures in agitation. It does what is +the main work of the law, in compelling us to search our hearts, and +in convincing of sin. It is the converse of the thought that all the +law is contained in love; for it closes the list of sins with one +which begets them all, and points us away from actions and words +which are its children to selfish desire as in itself the +transgression of all the law, whether it be that which prescribes +our relations to God or that which enjoins our duties to man, + + + + +THE FEAST OF INGATHERING IN THE END OF THE YEAR + + + 'And the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy + labours, which them hast sown In thy field: and the + feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, + when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.' + --EXODUS xxiii. 16. + +The Israelites seem to have had a double beginning of the year--one +in spring, one at the close of harvest; or it may only be that here +the year is regarded from the natural point of view--a farmer's +year. This feast was at the gathering in of the fruits, which was +the natural close of the agricultural year. + +This festival of ingathering was the Feast of Tabernacles. It is +remarkable that the three great sacred festivals, the Passover, +Pentecost, Tabernacles, had all a reference to agriculture, though +two of them also received a reference to national deliverances. This +fact may show that they were in existence before Moses, and that he +simply imposed a new meaning on them. + +Be that as it may, I take these words now simply as a starting-point +for some thoughts naturally suggested by the period at which we +stand. We have come to the end of another year--looked for so long, +passed so swiftly, and now seeming to have so utterly departed! + +I desire to recall to you and to myself the solemn real sense in +which for us too the end of the year is a 'time of ingathering' and +'harvest.' We too begin the new year with the accumulated +consequences of these past days in our 'barns and garners.' + +Now, in dealing with this thought, let me put it in two or three +forms. + +I. Think of the past as still living in and shaping the present. + +It is a mere illusion of sense that the past is gone utterly. 'Thou +carriest them away, as with a flood.' We speak of it as irrevocable, +unalterable, that dreadful past. It is solemnly true that 'ye shall +no more return that way.' + +But there is a deeper truth in the converse thought that the +apparently transient is permanent, that nothing human ever dies, +that the past is present. 'The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,'--yes, +but only its petals drop, and as they fall, the fruit which they +sheltered swells and matures. + +The thought of the present as the harvest from the past brings out +in vivid and picturesque form two solemn truths. + +The first is the passing away of all the external, but of it only. +It has all gone where the winter's cold, the spring rains, the +summer's heats have gone. But just as these live in the fruitful +results that have accrued from them, just as the glowing sunshine of +the departed ardent summer is in the yellow, bending wheat-ear or +glows in the cluster, so, in a very solemn sense, 'that which hath +been is now' in regard to every life. The great law of continuity +makes the present the inheritor of the past. That law operates in +national life, in which national characteristics are largely +precipitates, so to speak, from national history. But it works even +more energetically, and with yet graver consequences, in our +individual lives. 'The child is father of the man.' What we are +depends largely on what we have been, and what we have been +powerfully acts in determining what we shall be. Life is a mystic +chain, not a heap of unconnected links. + +And there is another very solemn way in which the past lives on in +each of us. For not only is our present self the direct descendant +of our past selves, but that past still subsists in that we are +responsible for it, and shall one day have to answer for it. The +writer of Ecclesiastes followed the statement just now quoted as to +the survival of the past, with another, which is impressive in its +very vagueness: 'God seeketh again that which is passed away.' + +So the undying past lives in its results in ourselves, and in our +being answerable for it to God. + +This metaphor is insufficient in one respect. There is not one epoch +for sowing and another for reaping, but the two processes are +simultaneous, and every moment is at once a harvest and a seed-time. + +This fact masks the reality of the reaping here, but it points on to +the great harvest when God shall say, 'Gather the wheat into My +barns!' + +II. Notice some specific forms of this reaping and ingathering. + +(1) Memory. + +It is quite possible that in the future it may embrace all the life. + +'Chambers of imagery.' + +(2) Habits and character. Like the deposit of a flood. 'Habitus' +means clothing, and cloth is woven from single threads. + +(3) Outward consequences, position, reputation, etc. + +III. Make a personal reference to ourselves. + +What sort of harvest are we carrying over from this year? Lay this to +heart as certain, that we enter on no new year--or new day--empty-handed, +but always 'bearing our sheaves with us.' 'Be not deceived! God is not +mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' + +But remember, that while this law remains, there is also the law of +forgiveness, 'Go in peace!' and there may be a new beginning, 'Sin +no more!' + + + + +'THE LOVE OF THINE ESPOUSALS' + + + 'And He said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, + and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders + of Israel; and worship ye afar off. 2. And Moses alone + shall come near the Lord; but they shall not come nigh, + neither shall the people go up with him. 3. And Moses + came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and + all the judgments: and all the people answered with one + voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said + will we do. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, + and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar + under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the + twelve tribes of Israel. 5. And he sent young men of the + children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings, and + sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord. 6. And + Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and + half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7. And he + took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience + of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said + will we do, and be obedient. 8. And Moses took the blood, + and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the + blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you + concerning all these words. 9. Then went up Moses and + Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of + Israel; 10. And they saw the God of Israel: and there + was under His feet as it were a pared work of a sapphire- + stone, and as it were the body of heaven in His clearness. + 11. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid + not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink. + 12. And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to Me into the + mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of + stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; + that thou mayest teach them,'--EXODUS xxiv. 1-12. + +An effort is needed to feel what a tremendous and unique fact is +narrated in these words. Next to the incarnation, it is the most +wonderful and far-reaching moment in history. It is the birthday of +a nation, which is God's son. It is the foundation stone of all +subsequent revelation. Its issues oppress that ancient people to- +day, and its promises are not yet exhausted. It is history, not +legend, nor the product of later national vanity. Whatever may come +of analysing 'sources' and of discovering 'redactors,' Israel held a +relation to God all its own; and that relation was constituted thus. + +I. Note the preliminaries of the covenant. The chapter begins with +the command to Moses to come up to the mount, with Aaron and other +representatives of the people. But he was already there when the +command was given, and a difficulty has been found (or, shall we +say, made) out of this. The explanation seems reasonable and plain +enough, that the long section extending from Exodus xx. 22, and +containing the fundamental laws as spoken by God, is closed by our +verses 1 and 2, which imply, in the very order to Moses to come up +with his companions, that he must first go down to bring them. God +dismisses him as a king might end an audience with his minister, by +bidding him return with attendants. The singular use of the third +person in reference to Moses in the third verse is not explained by +supposing another writer; for, whoever wrote it, it would be equally +anomalous. + +So he comes down from the stern cloud-encircled peak to that great +plain where the encampment lay, and all eyes watch his descent. The +people gather round him, eager and curious. He recounts 'all the +judgments,' the series of laws, which had been lodged in his mind by +God, and is answered by the many-voiced shout of too swiftly +promised obedience. Glance over the preceding chapters, and you will +see how much was covered by 'all that the Lord hath spoken.' +Remember that every lip which united in that lightly made vow drew +its last breath in the wilderness, because of disobedience, and the +burst of homage becomes a sad witness to human weakness and +changefulness. The glory of God flashed above them on the barren +granite, the awful voice had scarcely died into desert silence, +nerves still tingled with excitement, and wills were bowed before +Jehovah, manifestly so near. For a moment, the people were ennobled, +and obedience seemed easy. They little knew what they were saying in +that brief spasm of devotion. It was high-water then, but the tide +soon turned, and all the ooze and ugliness, covered now, lay bare +and rotting. 'Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that +thou shouldest vow and not pay.' We may take the lesson to +ourselves, and see to it that emotion consolidates into strenuous +persistency, and does not die in the very excitement of the vow. + +The pledge of obedience was needed before the Covenant could be +made, and, as we shall find, was reiterated in the very centre of +the ceremonial ratification. For the present, it warranted Moses in +preparing for the morrow's ritual. His first step was to prepare a +written copy of the laws to which the people had sworn. Here we come +across an old, silenced battery from which a heavy fire used to be +directed against the historical accuracy of the Pentateuch. +Alphabetic writing was of a later date. There could not have been a +written code. The statement was a mere attempt of a later age to +claim antiquity for comparatively modern legislation. It was no more +historical than similar traditions in other countries, Sibylline +books, etc. All that is out of court now. Perhaps some other guns +will be spiked in due time, that make a great noise just at present. +Then comes the erection of a rude altar, surrounded by twelve +standing stones, just as on the east of Jordan we may yet see +dolmens and menhirs. The altar represents the divine presence; and +the encircling stones, Israel gathered around its God. The group is +a memorial and a witness to the people,--and a witness against them, +if disobedient. Thus two permanent records were prepared, the book +and the monument. The one which seemed the more lasting has +perished; the more fragile has endured, and will last to the world's +end. + +II. Note the rite of ratification of the covenant. The ceremonial is +complex and significant. We need not stay on the mere picture, +impressive and, to our eyes, strange as it is, but rather seek to +bring out the meaning of these smoking offerings, and that blood +flung on the altar and on the crowd. First came two sorts of +sacrifices, offered not by priests, but by selected young men, +probably one for each tribe, whose employment in sacrificial +functions shows the priestly character of the whole nation, +according to the great words of Exodus xix. 6. Burnt-offerings and +peace-offerings differed mainly in the use made of the sacrifice, +which was wholly consumed by fire in the former, while it was in +part eaten by the offerer in the latter. The one symbolised entire +consecration; the other, communion with God on the basis of +sacrifice. The sin-offering does not appear here, as being of later +origin, and the product of the law, which deepened the consciousness +of transgression. But these sacrifices, at the threshold of the +covenant, receive an expiatory character by the use made of the +blood, and witness to the separation between God and man, which +renders amity and covenant friendship impossible, without a +sacrifice. + +They must have yielded much blood. It is divided into two parts, +corresponding to the two parties to the covenant, like the cloven +animals in Abraham's covenant. One half is 'sprinkled' on the altar, +or, as the word means, 'swung,'--which suggests a larger quantity +and a more vehement action than 'sprinkling' does. That drenching of +the altar with gore is either a piece of barbarism or a solemn +symbol of the central fact of Christianity no less than of Judaism, +and a token that the only footing on which man can be received into +fellowship with God is through the offering of a pure life, instead +of the sinner, which, accepted by God, covers or expiates sin. There +can be no question that the idea of expiation is at the very +foundation of the Old Testament ritual. It is fashionable to regard +the expiatory element of Christianity as 'Hebrew old clothes,' but +the fact is the other way about. It is not that Christianity has not +been able to rid itself of a rude and false conception, but that +'Judaism' had its sacrifices appointed by God, in order to prepare +the way for the true offering, which takes away sin. + +The expiation by blood having been thus made, the hindrances to the +nation's entering into covenant are removed. Therefore follows in +logical order the next step, their formal (alas! how purely formal +it proved to be) taking on themselves its obligations. The freshly +written 'book' is produced, and read there, to the silent people, +before the bloody altar, beneath the peak of Sinai. Again the chorus +of assent from a thousand throats echoes among the rocks. They +accept the conditions. They had done so last night; but this is the +actual contract on their part, and its place in the whole order of +the ceremony is significant. It follows expiation, without which man +cannot enter into friendship with God, without the acceptance of +which man will not yield himself in obedience. The vows which God +approves are those of men whose sins are covered. + +The final step was the sprinkling of the people with the blood. The +division of the blood into two portions signifies that it had an +office in regard to each party to the covenant. If it had been +possible to pour it all on the altar, and then all on the people, +that would have been done. The separation into two portions was +inevitable; but in reality it is the same blood which, sprinkled on +the altar, expiates, and on the worshipper, consecrates, cleanses, +unites to God, and brings into covenant with Him. Hence Moses +accompanies the sprinkling of the people with the explanation, 'This +is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you, +upon all these conditions' (Rev. Ver. margin). It ratifies the +compact on both sides. God 'hath made' it, in accepting the +sprinkled blood; they have made it, in being sprinkled therewith. +But while the rite sets forth the great gospel truth of expiation, +the Covenant moves within the region of law. It is made 'on the +basis of all these words,' and is voidable by disobedience. It is +the _Magna Charta_ of the nation, and its summing up is 'this +do, and thou shalt live.' Its promises are mainly of outward +guardianship and national blessings. And these are suspended by it, +as they were in fact contingent, on the national observance of the +national vow. The general idea of a covenant is that of a compact +between two parties, each of whom comes under obligations contingent +on the other's discharge of his. Theologians have raised the +question whether God's covenant is of this kind. Surely it is. His +promises to Israel had an 'if,' and the fulfilment of the conditions +necessarily secured the accomplishment of the promises. The ritual +of the first covenant transcends the strictly retributive compact +which it ratified, and shadows a gospel beyond law, even the new +covenant which brings better gifts, and does not turn on 'do,' but +simply on the sprinkling with the blood of Jesus. The words of Moses +were widened to carry a blessing beyond his thoughts, which was +disclosed when, in an upper chamber, a dying man said to the twelve +representatives of the true Israel, 'This is the new covenant in My +blood, drink ye all of it.' The blood which Moses sprinkled gave +ritual cleansing, but it remained outside the man. The blood of +Jesus gives true purification, and passes into our veins to become +our life. The covenant by Moses was 'do and live'; that in Christ is +'believe and live.' Moses brought commandments, and on them his +covenant was built; Christ brings gifts, and His covenant is all +promises, which are ours on the simple condition of taking them. + +III. Note the vision and feast on the basis of the covenant. The +little company that climbed the mountain, venturing within the +fence, represented the whole people. Aaron and his sons were the +destined priests. The elders were probably seventy, because that +number is the product of the two perfect numbers, and perhaps with +allusion to the seventy souls who went down into Egypt with Jacob. +It is emphatically said that they saw 'the God of Israel,' for that +day's covenant had made him so in a new closeness of relationship. +In token of that new access to and possession in Him, which was +henceforth to be the prerogative of the obedient people, some +manifestation of His immediate presence was poured on their +astonished eyes. It is needless to inquire its nature, or to ask how +such a statement is consistent with the spirituality of the divine +nature, or with what this same book of Exodus says, 'There shall no +man see Me, and live.' The plain intention is to assert that there +was a visible manifestation of the divine presence, but no attempt +is made to describe it. Our eyes are stayed at the pavement beneath +His feet, which was blue as sapphire, and bright as the cloudless +sky gleaming above Sinai. It is enough to learn that 'the secret of +the Lord is with them' to whom He shows 'His covenant'; that, by the +power of sacrifice, a true vision of God may be ours, which is 'in a +mirror, darkly,' indeed, but yet is real and all sufficing. Before +the covenant was made, Israel had been warned to keep afar lest He +should break through on them, but now 'He laid not His hand' upon +them; for only blessing can stream from His presence now, and His +hand does not crush, but uphold. + +Nor is this all which we learn of the intercourse with God which is +possible on the ground of His covenant. They 'did eat and drink.' +That may suggest that the common enjoyments of the natural life are +in no way inconsistent with the vision of God; but more probably it +is meant to teach a deeper lesson. We have remarked that the ritual +of the peace-offering included a feast on the sacrifice 'before the +Lord,' by which was signified communion with Him, as at His table, +and this meal has the same meaning. They who stand in covenant +relations with God, feed and feast on a sacrifice, and thereby hold +fellowship with Him, since He too has accepted the sacrifice which +nourishes them. So that strange banquet on Sinai taught a fact which +is ever true, prophesied the deepest joys of Christian experience, +which are realised in the soul that eats the flesh and drinks the +blood of Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant, and dimly +shadowed the yet future festival, when, cleansed and consecrated by +His blood, they who have made a covenant with Him by His sacrifice, +shall be gathered unto Him in the heavenly mount, where He makes a +'feast of fat things and wines on the lees well refined,' and there +shall sit, for ever beholding His glory, and satisfied with the +provisions of His house. + + + + +THE BREAD OF THE PRESENCE + + + 'Thou shalt set upon the table shew-bread before Me + alway.'--EXODUS xxv. 30. + +I suspect that to many readers the term 'shew-bread' conveys little +more meaning than if the Hebrew words had been lifted over into our +version. The original expression, literally rendered, is 'bread of +the face'; or, as the Revised Version has it in the margin, +'presence bread,' and the meaning of that singular designation is +paraphrased and explained in my text: 'Thou shalt set upon the +table, bread of the presence before Me always.' It was bread, then, +which was laid in the presence of God. The directions with regard to +it may be very briefly stated. Every Sabbath the priests laid upon +the table which stood on one side of the Altar of Incense, in the +Inner Court, two piles of loaves, on each of which piles was placed +a pan of incense. They lay there for a week, being replaced by fresh +ones on the coming Sabbath. + +The Altar of Incense in the middle symbolised the thought that the +priestly life, which was the life of the nation, and is the life of +the Christian both individually and collectively, is to be centrally +and essentially a life of prayer. On one side of it stood the great +golden lamp which, in like manner, declared that the activities of +the priestly life, which was the life of Israel, and is the life of +the Christian individually and collectively, is to be, in its +manward aspect, a light for the world. On the other side of the +Altar of Incense stood this table with its loaves. What does it say +about the life of the priest, the Church, and the individual +Christian? That is the question that I wish to try to answer here; +and in doing so let me first ask you to look at the thing itself, +and then to consider its connection with the other two articles in +connection with which it made a threefold oneness. + +I. Let me deal with this singular provision of the ancient ritual by +itself alone. + +Bread is a product at once of God's gift and of man's work. In the +former aspect, He 'leaves not Himself without witness, in that,' in +the yearly miracle of the harvest, 'He gives us bread from Heaven, +and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness'; in +the latter, considered as a product of man's activity, agriculture +is, if not the first, at all events in settled communities the +prime, form of human industry. The farmer and the baker begin the +series of man's industries. So that these loaves were fitly taken as +representatives of all kinds of human industry and their products, +and as such were consecrated to God. That is the broad significance +of this institution, which, as we shall have to see, links itself +with the other two conceptions of the priestly life in its Godward +and in its manward aspect. Now the first thing that is suggested, +therefore, is the plain obligation, which is also a blessed +privilege, for all men who are priests of God by faith in, and union +with, the great High Priest, that they lay all their activities as +an offering before God. The loaves in their very place on that +table, right in front of the veil that parted the Inner Court from +the inmost of all, where the Shekinah shone, and the Cherubim bowed +in worship, tell us that in some sense they, too, were an offering, +and that the table was an altar. Their sacrificial character is +emphasised by the fact that upon the top of each of the piles there +was laid a pan of incense. + +So, then, the whole was an offering of Israel's activities and its +results to God. And we, Christian men and women, have to make an +offering of all our active life, and all its products. That thought +opens up many considerations, one or two of which I ask leave to +touch briefly. First, then, if my active life is to be an offering +to God, that means that I am to surrender myself. And that surrender +means three things: first that in all my daily work I am to set Him +before me as my end; second, that in all my daily work I am to set +Him before me as my law; third, that in all my daily work I am to +set Him before me as my power. As for the first, whatever a man does +for any motive other, and with any end less, than God and His Glory, +that act, beautiful as it may be in other respects, loses its +supreme beauty, and falls short of perfect nobleness, just in the +measure in which other motives, or other ends, than this supreme +one, are permitted to dominate it. I do not contend for such an +impossible suppression of myself as that my own blessedness and the +like shall be in no manner my end, but I do maintain this, that in +good old language, 'Man's chief end is to glorify God,' and that +anything which I do, unless it is motived by this regard to Him as +its 'chief end,' loses its noblest consecration, and is degraded +from its loftiest beauty. The Altar sanctifies, and not only +sanctifies but ennobles, the gift. That which has in it the taint of +self-regard so pronouncedly and dominantly as that God is shut out, +is like some vegetation down in low levels at the bottom of a vale, +which never has the sun to shine upon it. But let it rise as some +tree above the brushwood until its topmost branches are in the +light, and then it is glorified. To live to self is ignoble and +mean; to live for others is higher and nobler. But highest and +noblest of all is to offer the loaves to God, and to make Him the +end of all our activities. + +Again, there is another consideration, bearing on another region in +which the assertive self is only too apt to spoil all work. And that +is, that if our activities are offerings to God, this means that His +supreme Will is to be our law, and that we obey His commands and +accept His appointments in quiet submission. The tranquillity of +heart, the accumulation of power, which come to men when they, from +the depths, say, 'Not my will but Thine be done'; 'Speak, Lord! for +Thy servant heareth,' cannot be too highly stated. There is no such +charm to make life quiet and strong as the submission of the will to +God's providences, and the swift obedience of the will to God's +commandments. And whilst to make self my end mars what else is +beautiful, making self my law mars it even more. + +Further, we offer our activities to God when we fall back upon Him +as our one power, and say, 'Perfect Thy strength in my weakness.' He +that goes out into the world to do his daily work, of whatsoever +sort it is--you in your little sphere, or I in mine--in dependence +upon himself, is sure to be defeated. He that says 'we have no +strength against this great multitude that cometh against us, but +our eyes are unto Thee,' will, sooner or later, be able to go back +with joy, and say, 'the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof +we are glad.' The man that goes into the fight like that foolish +prime minister of France under the Empire, 'with a light heart.' +will very soon find his Sedan, and have shamefully to surrender. +Brethren, these three things, making God the end of my work; making +God's will the law of my work; making God's strength the power of my +work; these are the ways by which we, too, can bring our little pile +of barley bread, and lay it upon that table. + +Again, this consecration of life's activities is to be carried out +by treating their products, as well as themselves, as offerings to +God. The loaves were the results of human activity. They were also +the products of divine gifts elaborated by human effort. And both +things are true about all the bread that you and I have been able to +make for the satisfaction of our desires, or the sustenance of our +strength--it comes ultimately from the gift of God. In regard to +this consecration of the product of our activities, as well as of +our activities themselves, I have but two words to offer, and the +one is, let us see to it that we consecrate our enjoyment of God's +gifts by bringing that enjoyment, as well as the activities which He +has blessed to produce it, into His presence. That table bore the +symbols of the grateful recognition of God's mercies by the people. +And when our hearts are glad, and our 'bosom's lord sits lightly on +his throne,' we have special need to take care that our joy be not +godless, nor our enjoyment of His gifts be without reference to +Himself. 'Ah,' you say, 'that is a threadbare commonplace.' Yes, it +is, dear friends; it is a commonplace just because it is needful at +every turn, if we are to make our lives what they ought to be. + +May I say another thing? and that is, that the loaves that were laid +within the Sanctuary were not intended to be separated from the +others that were eaten in the tents, nor were they meant to be a +kind of purchasing of an indulgence, or of a right, by surrendering +a little, to the godless and selfish enjoyment of the rest of the +batch, or of the rest of the harvest. Let us apply that to our +money, which is one of the products of our activities; and not +fancy, as a great many people do, that what we give as a +subscription to some benevolent or religious institution buys for us +the right to spend all the rest selfishly. That is another +commonplace, very threadbare and very feeble, when we speak it, but +with claws and teeth in it that will lay hold of us, when we try to +put it in practice. The enjoyments and the products of our daily +activities are to be offered to God. + +Still further, this table with its burden has suggestions that as +Christians we are bound to bring all our work to Him for His +judgment upon it. The loaves were laid right in front of the veil, +behind which blazed the light of His presence. And that meant that +they were laid before 'those pure eyes and perfect judgment of all- +judging' God. Whether we bring our activities there or no, of course +in a very real and solemn sense they are there. But what I desire to +insist upon now is how important, for the nobleness and purity of +our daily lives, it is that we should be in the continual habit of +realising to ourselves the thought that whatever we do, we do before +His Face. The Roman Catholics talk about 'the practice of the +presence of God.' One does not like the phrase, but all true +religion will practise what is meant by it. And for us it should be +as joyous to think, 'Thou God seest me,' as it is for a child to +play or work with a quiet heart, because it knows that its mother is +sitting somewhere not very far off and watching that no harm comes +to it. That thought of being in His presence would be for us a +tonic, and a test. How it would pull us up in many a meanness, and +keep our feet from wandering into many forbidden ways, if there came +like a blaze of light into our hearts the thought: 'Thou God seest +me!' There are many of our activities, I am afraid, which we should +not like to put down on that table. Can _you_ think of any in +_your_ lives that you would be rather ashamed to lay there, and +say to Him, 'Judge Thou this'? Then do not do it. That is a brief, +but a very stringent, easily applied, and satisfactory test of a +great many doubtful things. If you cannot take them into the Inner +Court, and lay them down there, and say, 'Look, Lord! this is my +baking,' be sure that they are made, not of wholesome flour, but of +poisoned grain, and that there is death in them. + +Further, this table, with its homely burden of twelve poor loaves, +may suggest to us how the simplest, smallest, most secular of our +activities is a fit offering to Him. The loaves were not out of +place amidst the sanctities of the spot, nor did they seem to be +incongruous with the golden altar and the golden lamp-stand, and yet +they were but twelve loaves. The poorest of our works is fit to be +carried within the shrine, and laid upon His altar. We may be sure +that He delights even in the meanest and humblest of them, if only +we take them to Him and say: 'All things come of Thee, and of Thine +own have we given Thee.' Ah! there are a great many strange things +in Christ's treasury. Mothers will hoard up trifles that belonged to +their children, which everybody else thinks worthless. Jesus Christ +has in His storehouse a 'cup of cold water,' the widows' mites, and +many another thing that the world counts of no value, and He +recognises as precious. There is an old story about some great +emperor making a progress through his dominions, where he had been +receiving precious gifts from cities and nobles, and as the gay +cortège was passing a poor cottage, the peasant-owner came out with +a coarse earthenware cup filled with spring water in his hand, and +offered it to his overlord as the only gift that he could give. The +king accepted it, and ennobled him on the spot. Take your barley +loaves to Christ, and He will lay them up in His storehouse. + +II. Now I need only say a word or two about the other aspect of this +table of shew-bread, taken with the other two articles in +conjunction with which it formed a unity. + +The lamp and the table go together. They are both offshoots from the +altar in the middle. That is to say, your lives will not shine +before men unless your activities are offered to God. The smallest +taint of making self your end, your law, or your strength, mingling +with your lives, and manifest in their actions, will dim the light +which shines from them, and men will be very quick to find out and +say, 'He calls himself a Christian; but he lives for himself.' +Neither the light, which is the radiance of a Christian life +manwards, can be sustained without the offering of the life in its +depths to God, nor can the activities of the life be acceptably +offered to Him, unless the man that offers them 'lets his light +shine before men.' The lamp and the table must go together. + +The lamp and the table must together be offshoots from the altar. If +there be not in the centre of the life aspiration after Him in the +depths of the heart, communion with Him in the silent places of the +soul, then there will be little brightness in the life to ray out +amongst men, and there will be little consecration of the activities +to be laid before God. The reason why the manifold bustle and busy- +ness of the Christian Church today sows so much and reaps so little, +lies mainly here, that they have forgotten to a large extent how the +altar in the centre must give the oil for the lamp to shine, and the +grain to be made into the loaves. And, on the other hand, the altar +in the middle needs both its flanking accompaniments. For the +Christian life is to be no life of cloistered devotion and +heavenward aspiration only or mainly, but is to manifest its still +devotion and its heavenward aspiration by the consecration of its +activities to God, and the raying of them out into a darkened world. +The service of man is the service of God, for lamp and table are +offshoots of the altar. But the service of God is the basis of the +best service of man, for the altar stands between the lamp and the +table. + +So, brethren, let us blend these three aspects into a unity, the +Altar, the Lamp, the Table, and so shall we minister aright, and men +will call us the 'priests of the Most High God,' till we pass within +the veil where, better than the best of us here can do, we shall be +able to unite still communion and active service, and shine as the +sun in the Kingdom of our Father. 'His servants shall serve Him' +with priestly ministrations, 'and shall see His face, and His name +shall be in their foreheads.' + + + + +THE GOLDEN LAMPSTAND + + + 'Thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold....' + --EXODUS xxv. 31. + +If we could have followed the Jewish priest as he passed in his +daily ministrations into the Inner Court, we should have seen that +he first piled the incense on the altar which stood in its centre, +and then turned to trim the lamps of the golden candlestick which +flanked it on one side. Of course it was not a candlestick, as our +versions misleadingly render the word. That was an article of +furniture unknown in those days. It was a lampstand; from a central +upright stem branched off on either side three arms decorated with +what the Book calls 'beaten work,' and what we in modern jewellers' +technicality call _répoussé_ work, each of which bore on its +top, like a flower on its stalk, a shallow cup filled with oil, in +which a wick floated. There were thus seven lamps in all, including +that on the central stem. The material was costly, the work adorning +it was artistic, the oil with which it was fed was carefully +prepared, the number of its lamps expressed perfection, it was daily +trimmed by the priest, and there, all through the night, it burned, +the one spot of light in a dark desert. + +Now, this Inner Court of the Tabernacle or Temple was intended, with +its furniture, to be symbolical of the life of Israel, the priestly +nation. The Altar of Incense, which was the main article of +ecclesiastical equipment there, and stood in the central place, +represented the life of Israel in its Godward aspect, as being a +life of continual devotion. The Candlestick on the one hand, and the +Table of Shew-bread on the other, were likewise symbolical of other +aspects of that same life. I have to deal now with the meaning and +lessons of this golden lampstand, and it teaches us-- + +I. The office manwards of the Church and of the individual +Christian. + +Let me just for a moment recall the various instances in which this +symbol reappears in Scripture. We have, in the vision of the prophet +who sustained and animated the spirits of Israel in their Restoration, +the repetition of the emblem, in the great golden candlestick which +Zechariah saw, fed by two 'olive trees,' one on either side of it; and +in the last book of Scripture we have that most significant and +lovely variation of it, the reappearance, not of the _one_ golden +candlestick or lampstand, but of _seven_. The formal unity is at an +end, but the seven constitute a better, more vital unity, because +Christ is in the midst. We may learn the lesson that the Christian +conception of the oneness of the Church towers above the Jewish +conception of the oneness of Israel by all the difference that there is +between a mere mechanical, external unity, and a vital oneness--because +all are partakers of the one Christ. I may recall, also, how our Lord, +in that great programme of the Kingdom which Matthew has gathered +together in what we call 'the Sermon on the Mount,' immediately after +the Beatitudes, goes on to speak of the office of His people under +the two metaphors of 'the salt of the earth' and 'the light of the +world,' and immediately connects with the latter of the two a reference +to a lamp lit and set upon its stand; and clinches the whole by the +exhortation, 'Let your light so shine before men that they may see +your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.' + +A remarkable and beautiful variation of that exhortation is found in +one of the Apostolic writings when Paul, instead of saying, 'Ye are +the light of the world,' says, 'Shine as lights in the world,' and +so gives us the individual, as well as the collective and +ecclesiastical, aspect of these great functions. That is a hint that +is very much needed. Christian people are quite willing to admit +that the Church, the abstraction, the generalisation, is 'the light +of the world.' But they are wofully apt to slip their own necks out +from under the yoke of the obligation, and to forget that the +collective light is only the product of the millions of individual +lights rushing together--just as in some gas-lights you have a whole +series of minute punctures, each of which gives out its own little +jet of radiance, and all run together into one brilliant circle. So +do not let us escape the personal pressure of this office, or lay it +all on the broad shoulders of that generalised abstraction 'the +Church.' But, since the collective light is but the product of the +individual small shinings, let us take the two lessons: first, +contribute our part to the general lustre; second, be content with +having our part lost in the general light. + +But now let me turn for a little while to the more specific meaning +of this symbol. The life which, by the central position of the Altar +of Incense, was symbolised as being centrally, essentially in its +depths and primarily, a life of habitual devotion and communion with +God, in its manward aspect is a life that shines 'to give the light +of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' +That is the solemn obligation, the ideal function, of the Christian +Church and of each individual who professes to belong to it. Now, if +you recur to our Lord's own application of this metaphor, to which I +have already referred, you will see that the first and foremost way +by which Christian communities and individuals discharge this +function is by conduct. 'Let your light so shine before men'--that +they may hear your eloquent proclamation of the Gospel? No! 'Let +your light so shine before men'--that you may convince the +gainsayers by argument, or move the hard-hearted by appeals and +exhortations; that you may preach and talk? No! 'That _they may +see your good works_, and glorify your Father which is in +Heaven.' We may say of the Christian community, and of the Christian +individual, with all reverence, what the Scripture in an infinitely +deeper and more sacred sense says of Jesus Christ Himself, 'the life +was the light.' It is conduct, whereby most effectually, most +universally, and with the least risk of rousing antagonism and +hostile feelings, Christian people may 'shine as lights in the +world.' For we all know how the inconsistencies of a Christian man +block the path of the Gospel far more than a hundred sermons or +talks further it. We all know how there are people, plenty of them, +who, however illogically yet most naturally, compare our lives in +their daily action with oar professed beliefs, and, saying to +themselves, 'I do not see that there is much difference between them +and me,' draw the conclusion that it matters very little whether a +man is a Christian or not, seeing that the conduct of the men who +profess to be so is little more radiant, bright with purity and +knowledge and joy, than is the conduct of others. Dear brethren, you +can do far more to help or hinder the spread of Christ's Kingdom by +the way in which you do common things, side by side with men who are +not partakers of the 'like precious faith' with yourselves, than I +or my fellow-preachers can do by all our words. It is all very well +to lecture about the efficiency of a machine; let us see it at work, +and that will convince people. We preach; but you preach far more +eloquently, and far more effectively, by your lives. 'In all +labour,' says the Book of Proverbs, 'there is profit'--which we may +divert from its original meaning to signify that in all Christian +living there is force to attract--'but the talk of the lips tendeth +only to poverty.' Oh! if the Christian men and women of England +would live their Christianity, they would do more to convert the +unconverted, and to draw in the outcasts, than all of us preachers +can do. 'From you,' said the Apostle once to a church very young, +and just rescued from the evils of heathenism--'from you sounded +out,' as if blown from a trumpet, 'the Word of the Lord, so that we +need not to speak anything.' Live the life, and thereby you diffuse +the light. + +Nor need we forget that this most potent of all weapons is one that +can be wielded by all Christian people. Our gifts differ. Some of us +cannot speak for Jesus; some of us who think we can had often better +hold our tongues. But we can all live like and for Him. And this +most potent and universally diffused possibility is also the weapon +that can be wielded with least risk of failure. There is a certain +assumption, which it is often difficult to swallow, in a Christian +man's addressing another on the understanding that he, the speaker, +possesses something which the other lacks. By words we may often +repel, and often find that the ears that we seek to enter with our +message close themselves against us and are unwilling to hear. But +there is no chance of offending anybody, or of repelling anybody, by +living Christlike. We can all do that, and it is the largest +contribution that any of us can make to the collective light which +shines out from the Christian Church. + +But, brethren, we have to remember that there are dangers attending +the life that reveals its hidden principles as being faith in Christ +and obedience to Him. Did you ever notice how, in the Sermon on the +Mount, there are two sets of precepts which seem diametrically +opposite to one another? There is a whole series of illustrations of +the one commandment, 'Take heed that ye do not your righteousness +before men, to be seen of them,' and then there Is the precept, 'Let +your light so shine before men that they may see your good works.' +So that whilst, on the one hand, there is to be the manifestation in +daily conduct of the inner principles that animate us, on the other +hand, if there comes in the least taint or trace of ostentation, +everything is spoiled, and the light is darkness. The light of the +sun makes all things visible and hides itself. We do not see the +sunbeams, but we see what the sunbeams illuminate. It is the coarser +kinds of light which are themselves separately visible, and they are +so only because they have not power enough to make everything around +them as brilliant as they themselves are. So our light is to be +silent, our light is--if I might use such a phrase--to hide itself +in 'a glorious privacy,' whilst it enables men to see, even through +our imperfect ministration, the face of our Father in Heaven. + +But let me remind you that the same variation by Paul of our Lord's +words to which I have already referred as bringing out the +difference between the collective and the individual function, also +brings out another difference; for Paul says, 'Ye shine as lights in +the world, holding forth the word of life.' He slightly varies the +metaphor. We are no longer regarded as being ourselves illuminants, +but simply as being the stands on which the light is placed. And +that means that whilst the witness by life is the mightiest, the +most universally possible, and the least likely to offend, there +must also be, as occasion shall serve, without cowardice, without +shamefaced reticence, the proclamation of the great Gospel which has +made us 'lights in the world.' And that is a function which every +Christian man can discharge too, though I have just been saying that +they cannot all preach and speak; for every Christian soul has some +other soul to whom its word comes with a force that none other can +have. + +So the one office that is set forth here is the old familiar one, +the obligation of which is fully recognised by us all, and pitifully +ill-discharged by any of us, to shine by our daily life, and to +shine by the actual communication by speech of 'the Name that is +above every name.' That is the ideal; alas for the reality! 'Ye are +the light of the world.' What kind of light do we--the Church of +Christ that gathers here--ray out into the darkness of Manchester? +Socially, intellectually, morally, in the civic life, in the +national life, are Christian people in the van? They ought to be. +There is a church clock in our city which has a glass dial that +professes to be illuminated at night, so that the passer-by may tell +the hour; but it is generally burning so dimly that nobody can see +on its grimy face what o'clock it is. That is like a great many of +our churches, and I ask you to ask yourselves whether it is like you +or not--a dark lantern, a most imperfectly illuminated dial, which +gives no guidance and no information to anybody. + +This golden lampstand teaches us-- + +II. How this office is to be discharged. + +Remember simply these two points. It stood, as I have already said, +on one side of the Altar of Incense which was central to everything. +It was daily tended by the priests, and fed with fresh oil. Hence we +may derive some important practical lessons. + +To begin with, we note that our light is a derived light, and +therefore can only be kept bright when we keep close to the source +from whence it is derived. + +'That was the true Light, which coming into the world lighteth every +man'--there is the source of all illumination, in Jesus Christ +Himself. He alone is _the_ Light, and as for all others we must +say of them what was said of His great forerunner, 'Not that light, +but sent to bear witness of that light'; and again, 'he was a light +kindled,' and therefore 'shining,' and so his shining was but 'for a +season.' But Jesus is for ever the light of the world, and all our +illumination comes from Him. As Paul says, 'Now are ye light in the +Lord,' therefore only in the measure in which we are 'in the Lord,' +shall we be light. Keep near to Him and you will shine; break the +connection with Him, and you are darkness, darkness for yourselves, +and darkness for the world. Switch off, and the light is darkness. + +Change the metaphor, and instead of saying 'derived light' say +'reflected light.' _There_ is a pane of glass in a cottage, +miles away across the moor. It was invisible a moment ago, and +suddenly it gleams like a diamond. Why? The sun has struck it; and +in a moment after it will be invisible again. As long as Jesus +Christ is shining on my heart, so long, and not a moment longer, +shall I give forth the light that will illumine the world. +Astronomers have a contrivance by which they can keep a photographic +film on which they are seeking to get the image of a star, moving +along with the movement of the heavens, so that on the same spot the +star shall always shine. We have to keep ourselves steady beneath +the white beam from Jesus, and then we, too, shall be 'light in the +Lord.' + +Our light is fed light. Daily came the priest, daily the oil that +had been exhausted by shining was replenished. We all know what that +oil means and is; the Divine Spirit which comes into every heart +which is open by faith in Christ, and which abides in every heart +where there are desire, obedience, and the following of Him; which +can be quenched by my sin, by my negligence, by my ceasing to wish +it, by my not using its gifts when I have them; which can be grieved +by my inconsistencies, and by the spots of darkness that so often +take up more of the sphere of my life than the spots of +illumination. But we can have as much of that oil of the Divine +Spirit, the 'unction from the Holy One,' as we desire, and expect, +and use. And unless we have, dear brethren, there is no shining for +us. This generation in its abundant activities tends to a +Christianity which has more spindles than power, which is more +surface than depth, which is so anxious to do service that it +forgets the preliminary of all right service, patient, solitary, +silent communion with God. Suffer the word of exhortation--let +shining be second, let replenishing with the oil be first. First the +Altar of Incense, then the Candlestick. + +III. This golden lampstand tells us of the fatal effect of +neglecting the Church's and the individual's duty. + +Where is the seven-branched candlestick of the second Temple? No one +knows. Possibly, according to one statement, it lies at the bottom +of the Mediterranean. Certainly we know that it is pictured on that +sad panel in the conqueror's arch at Rome, and that it became a +trophy of the insolent victor. It disappeared, and the Israel whom +it vainly endeavoured through the centuries to stir to a +consciousness of its vocation, has never since had a gleam of light +to ray out into the world. Where are the seven candlesticks, which +made a blessed unity because Christ walked in their midst? Where are +the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Thyatira, and the +rest? Where they stood the mosque is reared, and from its minaret +day by day rings out--not the proclamation of the Name, but--'There +is no God but God, and Mahomet is His Prophet.' The Pharos that +ought to have shone out over stormy seas has been seized by +wreckers, and its light is blinded, and false lights lure the +mariner to the shoals and to shipwreck. + +'Take heed lest He also spare not thee.' O brethren! is it not a +bitter irony to call _us_ 'lights of the world'? Let us penitently +recognise the inconsistencies of our lives, and the reticence of our +speech. Let us not lose sight of the high ideal, that we may the more +penitently recognise the miserable falling short of our reality. And +let us be thankful that _the_ Priest is tending the lamps. 'He +will not quench the smoking wick,' but will replenish it with oil, and +fan the dying flame. Only let us not resist His ministrations, which +are always gentle, even when He removes the charred blacknesses that +hinder our being what we should be, and may be, if we will--lights +of the world. 'Arise! shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of +the Lord is risen upon thee.' + + + + +THE NAMES ON AARON'S BREASTPLATE + + + Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord, upon his + two shoulders, for a memorial.... And Aaron shall bear + the names of the Children of Israel in the breastplate + of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the + Holy Place.'--EXODUS xxviii. 12,29. + +Every part of the elaborately prescribed dress of the high priest +was significant. But the significance of the whole was concentrated +in the inscription upon his mitre, 'Holiness to the Lord,' and in +those others upon his breastplate and his shoulder. + +The breastplate was composed of folded cloth, in which were lodged +twelve precious stones, in four rows of three, each stone containing +the name of one of the tribes. It was held in position by the ephod, +which consisted of another piece of cloth, with a back and front +part, which were united into one on the shoulders. On each shoulder +it was clasped by an onyx stone bearing the names of six of the +tribes. Thus twice, on the shoulders, the seat of power, and on the +heart, the organ of thought and of love, Aaron, entering into the +presence of the Most High, bore 'the names of the tribes for a +memorial continually.' + +Now, I think we shall not be indulging in the very dangerous +amusement of unduly spiritualising the externalities of that old law +if we see here, in these two things, some very important lessons. + +I. The first one that I would suggest to you is--here we have the +expression of the great truth of representation of the people by the +priest. + +The names of the tribes laid upon Aaron's heart and on his shoulders +indicated the significance of his office--that he represented Israel +before God, as truly as he represented God to Israel. For the moment +the personality of the official was altogether melted away and +absorbed in the sanctity of his function, and he stood before God as +the individualised nation. Aaron was Israel, and Israel was Aaron, +for the purposes of worship. And that was indicated by the fact that +here, on the shoulders from which, according to an obvious symbol, +all acts of power emanate, and on the heart from which, according to +most natural metaphor, all the outgoings of the personal life +proceed, were written the names of the tribes. That meant, 'This man +standing here is the Israel of God, the concentrated nation.' + +The same thought works the other way. The nation is the diffused +priest, and all its individual components are consecrated to God. +All this was external ceremonial, with no real spiritual fact at the +back of it. But it pointed onwards to something that is not +ceremonial. It pointed to this, that the true priest must, in like +manner, gather up into himself, and in a very profound sense be, the +people for whom he is the priest; and that they, in their turn, by +the action of their own minds and hearts and wills, must consent to +and recognise that representative relation, which comes to the +solemn height of identification in Christ's relation to His people. +'I am the Vine, ye are the branches,' says He, and also, 'That they +all may be one in us as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.' So +Paul says, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' 'The life +which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,' + +So Christ gathers us all, if we will let Him, into Himself; and our +lives may be hid with Him--in a fashion that is more than mere +external and formal representation, or as people have a member of +Parliament to represent them in the councils of the nation--even in +a true union with Him in whom is the life of all of us, if we live +in any real sense. Aaron bore the names of the tribes on shoulder +and heart, and Israel was Aaron, and Aaron was Israel. + +II. Further, we see here, in these eloquent symbols, the true +significance of intercession. + +Now, that is a word and a thought which has been wofully limited and +made shallow and superficial by the unfortunate confining of the +expression, in our ordinary language, to a mere action by speech. +Intercession is supposed to be verbal asking for some good to be +bestowed on, or some evil to be averted from, some one in whom we +are interested. But the Old Testament notion of the priest's +intercession, and the New Testament use of the word which we so +render, go far beyond any verbal utterances, and reach to the very +heart of things. Intercession, in the true sense of the word, means +the doing of any act whatsoever before God for His people by Jesus +Christ. Whensoever, as in the presence of God, He brings to God +anything which is His, that is intercession. He undertakes for them, +not by words only, though His mighty word is, 'I will that they whom +Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am,' but by acts which are +more than even the words of the Incarnate Word. + +If we take these two inscriptions upon which I am now commenting, we +shall get, I think, what covers the whole ground of the intercession +on which Christians are to repose their souls. For, with regard to +the one of them, we read that the high priest's breastplate was +named 'the breastplate of judgment'; and what that means is +explained by the last words of the verse following that from which +my text is taken: 'Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of +Israel upon his heart before the Lord.' Judgment means a judicial +sentence; in this case a judicial sentence of acquittal. And that +Aaron stood before God in the Holy Place, ministering with this +breastplate upon his heart, is explained by the writer of these +regulations to mean that he carried there the visible manifestation +of Israel's acquittal, based upon his own sacrificial function. Now, +put that into plain English, and it is just this--Jesus Christ's +sacrifice ensures, for all those whose names are written on these +gems on His heart, their acquittal in the judgment of Heaven. Or, in +other words, the first step in the intercession of our great High +Priest is the presenting before God for ever and ever that great +fact that He, the Sinless, has died for the love of sinful men, and +thereby has secured that the judgment of Heaven on them shall now be +'no condemnation.' Brethren, there is the root of all our hope in +Christ, and of all that Christ is to individuals and to society--the +assurance that the breastplate of judgment is on His heart, as a +sign that all who trust Him are acquitted by the tribunal of Heaven. + +The other side of this great continual act of intercession is set +forth by the other symbol--the names written on the shoulders, the +seat of power. There is a beautiful parallel, which yet at first +sight does not seem to be one, to the thought that lies here, in the +Book of the Prophet Isaiah, where, addressing the restored and +perfected Israel, he says, speaking in the person of Jehovah: 'I +have graven thee upon the palms of My hands.' That has precisely the +same meaning that I take to be conveyed by this symbol in the text. +The names of the tribes are written on His shoulders; and not until +that arm is wearied or palsied, not till that strong hand forgets +its cunning, will our defence fail. If our names are thus written on +the seat of power, that means that all the divine authority and +omnipotence which Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of the Father, +wields in His state of royal glory, are exercised on behalf of, or +at all events on the side of, those whose names He thus bears upon +His shoulders. That is the guarantee for each of us that our hands +shall be made strong, according to the ancient prophetic blessing, +'by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.' Just as a father or a +mother will take their child's little tremulous hand in theirs and +hold it, that it may be strengthened for some small task beyond its +unbacked, uninvigorated power; so Jesus Christ will give us strength +within, and also will order the march of His Providence and send the +gift of His Spirit, for the succour and the strengthening of all +whose names are written on His ephod. He has gone within the veil. +He has left us heavy tasks, but our names are on His shoulders, and +we 'can do all things in Christ who strengthened us.' + +III. Still further, this symbol suggests to us the depth and reality +of Christ's sympathy. + +The heart is, in our language, the seat of love. It is not so in the +Old Testament. Affection is generally allocated to another part of +the frame; but here the heart stands for the organ of care, of +thought, of interest. For, according to the Old Testament view of +the relation between man's body and man's soul, the very seat and +centre of the individual life is in the heart. I suppose that was +because it was known that, somehow or other, the blood came thence. +Be that as it may, the thought is clear throughout all the Old +Testament that the heart is the man, and the man is the heart. And +so, if Jesus bears our names upon His heart, that does not express +merely representation nor merely intercession, but it expresses also +personal regard, individualising knowledge. For Aaron wore not one +great jewel with 'Israel' written on it, but twelve little ones, +with 'Dan,' 'Benjamin,' and 'Ephraim,' and all the rest of them, +each on his own gem. + +So we can say, 'Such a High Priest became us, who could have +compassion upon the ignorant, and upon them that are out of the +way'; and we can fall back on that old-fashioned but inexhaustible +source of consolation and strength: 'In all their affliction He was +afflicted'; and though the noise of the tempests which toss us can +scarcely be supposed to penetrate into the veiled place where He +dwells on high, yet we may be sure--and take all the peace and +consolation and encouragement out of it that it is meant to give us--that +'we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with a +feeling of our infirmities,' but that Himself, having known +miseries, 'is able to succour them that are tempted.' Our names are +on Christ's heart. + +IV. Then, lastly, we have here a suggestion of how precious to Aaron +Israel is. + +Jewels were chosen to symbolise the tribes. Bits of tin, potsherds, +or anything else that one could have scratched letters upon, would +have done quite as well. But 'the precious things of the everlasting +mountains' were chosen to bear the dear names. 'The Lord's portion +is His people'; and precious in the eyes of Christ are the souls for +whom He has given so much. They are not only precious, but lustrous, +flashing back the light in various colours indeed, according to +their various laws of crystallisation, but all receptive of it and +all reflective of it. I said that the names on the breastplate of +judgment expressed the acquittal and acceptance of Israel. But does +Christ's work for us stop with simple acquittal? Oh no! 'Whom He +justified them He also glorified,' And if our souls are 'bound in +the bundle of life,' and our names are written on the heart of the +Christ, be sure that mere forgiveness and acquittal is the least of +the blessings which He intends to give, and that He will not be +satisfied until in all our nature we receive and flash back the +light of His own glory. + +It is very significant in this aspect that the names of the twelve +tribes are described as being written on the precious stones which +make the walls of the New Jerusalem. Thus borne on Christ's heart +whilst He is within the veil and we are in the outer courts, we may +hope to be carried by His sustaining and perfecting hand into the +glories, and be made participant of the glories. Let us see to it +that we write His name on our hearts, on their cares, their thought, +their love, and on our hands, on their toiling and their possessing; +and then, God helping us, and Christ dwelling in us, we shall come +to the blessed state of those who serve Him, and bear His name +flaming conspicuous for ever on their foreheads. + + + + +THREE INSCRIPTIONS WITH ONE MEANING + + + 'Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon + it ... HOLINESS TO THE LORD.'--EXODUS xxviii. 36. + + 'In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, + HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.'--ZECH. xiv. 20. + + 'His name shall be in their foreheads.'--REV. xxii. 4. + +You will have perceived my purpose in putting these three widely +separated texts together. They all speak of inscriptions, and they +are all obviously connected with each other. The first of them comes +from the ancient times of the institution of the ceremonial ritual, +and describes a part of the high priest's official dress. In his +mitre was a thin plate of gold on which was written, 'Holiness to +the Lord.' The second of them comes from almost the last portion +recorded of the history of Israel in the Old Testament, and is from +the words of the great Prophet of the Restoration--his ideal +presentation of the Messianic period, in which he recognises as one +feature, that the inscription on the mitre of the high priest shall +be written on 'the bells of the horses.' And the last of them is +from the closing vision of the celestial kingdom, the heavenly and +perfected form of the Christian Church. John, probably remembering +the high priest and his mitre, with its inscription upon the +forehead, says: 'His servants shall do Him priestly service'--for +that is the meaning of the word inadequately translated 'serve Him'--'and +see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.' + +These three things, then--the high priest's mitre, the horses' +bells, the foreheads of the perfected saints--present three aspects +of the Christian thought of holiness. Take them one by one. + +I. The high priest's mitre. + +The high priest was the official representative of the nation. He +stood before God as the embodied and personified Israel. For the +purposes of worship Israel was the high priest, and the high priest +was Israel. And so, on his forehead, not to distinguish him from the +rest of the people, but to include all the people in his +consecration, shone a golden plate with the motto, 'Holiness to the +Lord.' So, at the very beginning of Jewish ritual there stands a +protest against all notions that make 'saint' the designation of any +abnormal or exceptional sanctity, and confine the name to the +members of any selected aristocracy of devoutness and goodness. All +Christian men, _ex officio_, by the very fact of their Christianity, +are saints, in the true sense of the word. And the representative of +the whole of Israel stood there before God, with this inscription +blazing on his forehead, as a witness that, whatsoever holiness may +be, it belongs to every member of the true Israel. + +And what is it? It is a very unfortunate thing--indicating +superficiality of thought--that the modern popular notion of +'holiness' identifies it with purity, righteousness, moral +perfection. Now that idea _is_ in it, but is not the whole of +it. For, not to spend time upon mere remarks on words, the meaning +of the word thus rendered is in Hebrew, as well as in Greek and in +our own English, one and the same. The root-meaning is 'separated,' +'set apart,' and the word expresses primarily, not moral character, +but relation to God. That makes all the difference; and it +incalculably deepens the conception, as well as puts us on the right +track for understanding the only possible means by which there can +ever be realised that moral perfection and excellence which has +unfortunately monopolised the meaning of the word in most people's +minds. The first thought is 'set apart to God.' That is holiness, in +its root and germ. + +And how can we be set apart for God? You may devote a dead thing for +certain uses easily enough. How can a man be separated and laid +aside? + +Well, there is only one way, brethren, and that is by self- +surrender. 'Yield yourselves to God' is but the other side, or, +rather, the practical shape, of the Old and the New Testament +doctrine of holiness. A man becomes God's when he says, 'Lord, take +me and mould me, and fill me and cleanse me, and do with me what +Thou wilt.' In that self-surrender, which is the tap-root of all +holiness, the first and foremost thing to be offered is that most +obstinate of all, the will that is in us. And when we yield our +wills in submission both to commandments and providences, both to +gifts and to withdrawals, both to gains and to losses, both to joys +and to sorrows, then we begin to write upon our foreheads 'Holiness +to the Lord.' And when we go on to yield our hearts to Him, by +enshrining Him sole and sovereign in their innermost chamber, and +turning to Him the whole current of our lives and desires, and hopes +and confidences, which we are so apt to allow to run to waste and be +sucked up in the desert sands of the world, then we write more of +that inscription. And when we fill our minds with joyful submission +to His truth, and occupy our thoughts with His mighty Name and His +great revelation, and carry Him with us in the hidden corners of our +consciousness, even whilst we are busy about daily work, then we add +further letters to it. And when the submissive will, and the devoted +heart, and the occupied thoughts are fully expressed in daily life +and its various external duties, then the writing is complete. +'Holiness to the Lord' is self-surrender of will and heart and mind +and everything. And that surrender is of the very essence of +Christianity. + +What is a saint? Some man or woman that has practised unheard-of +austerities? Somebody that has lived an isolated and self-regarding +life in convent or monastery or desert? No! a man or woman in the +world who, moved by the mercies of God, yields self to God as 'a +living sacrifice.' + +So the New Testament writers never hesitate to speak even of such +very imperfect Christians as were found in abundance in churches +like Corinth and Galatia as being all 'saints,' every man of them. +That is not because the writers were minimising their defects, or +idealising their persons, but because, if they are Christians at +all, they are saints; seeing that no man is a Christian who has not +been drawn by Christ's great sacrifice for him to yield himself a +sacrifice for Christ. + +Of course that intrusive idea which has, in popular apprehension, so +swallowed up the notion of holiness--viz. that of perfection of +moral character or conduct--is included in this other, or rather is +developed from it. For the true way to conquer self is to surrender +self; and the more entire our giving up of ourselves, the more +certainly shall we receive ourselves back again from His hands. 'By +the mercies of God, I beseech you, yield yourselves living +sacrifices.' + +II. I come to my next text--the horses' bells. + +Zechariah has a vision of the ideal Messianic times, and, of course, +as must necessarily be the case, his picture is painted with colours +laid upon his palette by his experience, and he depicts that distant +future in the guise suggested to him by what he saw around him. So +we have to disentangle from his words the sentiment which he +expresses, and to recognise the symbolic way in which he puts it. +His thought is this,--the inscription on the high priest's mitre +will be written on the bells which ornament the harness of the +horses, which in Israel were never used as with us, but only either +for war or for pomp and display, and the use of which was always +regarded with a certain kind of doubt and suspicion. Even these +shall be consecrated in that far-off day. + +And then he goes on with variations on the same air, 'In that day +there shall be upon the bells of the horses, "Holiness unto the +Lord,"' and adds that 'the pots in the Lord's house'--the humble +vessels that were used for the most ordinary parts of the Temple +services--'shall be like the bowls before the altar,' into which the +sacred blood of the offerings was poured. The most external and +secular thing bearing upon religion shall be as sacred as the +sacredest. But that is not all. 'Yea! every pot in Jerusalem and in +Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all they that +sacrifice shall come and take of them,' and put their offerings +therein. That is to say, the coarse pottery vessels that were in +every poverty-stricken house in the city shall be elevated to the +rank of the sacred vessels of the Temple. Domestic life with all its +secularities shall be hallowed. The kitchens of Jerusalem shall be +as truly places of worship as is the inner shrine of the Most High. + +On the whole, the prophet's teaching is that, in the ideal state of +man upon earth, there will be an entire abolition of the distinction +between 'sacred' and 'secular'; a distinction that has wrought +infinite mischief in the world, and in the lives of Christian +people. + +Let me translate these words of our prophet into English +equivalents. Every cup and tumbler in a poor man's kitchen may be as +sacred as the communion chalice that passes from lip to lip with the +'blood of Jesus Christ' in it. Every common piece of service that we +do, down among the vulgarities and the secularities and the +meannesses of daily life, may be lifted up to stand upon precisely +the same level as the sacredest office that we undertake. The bells +of the horses may jingle to the same tune as the trumpets of the +priests sounded within the shrine, and on all, great and small, may +be written, 'Holiness to the Lord.' + +But let us remember that that universally diffused sanctity will +need to have a centre of diffusion, else there will be no diffusion, +and that all life will become sacred when the man that lives it has +'Holiness to the Lord' written on his forehead, and not else. If +that be the inscription on the driver's heart, the horses that he +drives will have it written on their bells, but they will not have +it unless it be. Holy men make all things holy. 'To the pure all +things are pure,' but unto them that are unclean and disobedient +there is nothing pure. Hallow thyself, and all things are clean unto +thee. + +III. And so I come to my third text--the perfected saints' +foreheads. + +The connection between the first and the last of these texts is as +plain and close as between the first and the second. For John in his +closing vision gives emphasis to the priestly idea as designating in +its deepest relations the redeemed and perfected Christian Church. +Therefore he says, as I have already explained, 'His servants shall +do Him _priestly_ service, and His name shall be in their +foreheads.' The old official dress of the high priest comes into his +mind, and he paints the future, just as Zechariah did, under the +forms of the past, and sees before the throne the perfected saints, +each man of them with that inscription clear and conspicuous. + +But there is an advance in his words which I think it is not +fanciful to note. It is only the _name_ that is written in the +perfected saint's forehead. Not the 'Holiness unto the Lord,' but +just the bare name. What does that mean? Well, it means the same as +your writing your name in one of your books does, or as when a man +puts his initials on the back of his oxen, or as the old practice of +branding the master's mark upon the slave did. It means absolute +ownership. + +But it means something more. The name is the manifested personality, +the revealed God, or, as we say in an abstract way, the character of +God. That Name is to be in the foreheads of His perfected people. +How does it come to be there? Read also the clause before the text--'His +servants shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads.' +That is to say, the perfected condition is not reached by surrender +only, but by assimilation; and that assimilation comes by contemplation. +The faces that are turned to Him, and behold Him, are smitten with the +light and shine, and those that look upon them see 'as it had been the +face of an angel,' as the Sanhedrim saw that of Stephen, when he beheld + the Son of Man 'standing at the right hand of God.' + +My last text is but a picturesque way of saying what the writer of +it says in plain words when he declares, 'We shall be like Him, for +we shall see Him as He is.' The name is to be 'in their foreheads,' +where every eye can see it. Alas! alas! it is so hard for us to live +out our best selves, and to show to the world what is in us. +Cowardice, sheepishness, and a hundred other reasons prevent it. In +this poor imperfect state no emotion ever takes shape and visibility +without losing more or less of its beauty. But yonder the +obstructions to self-manifestation will be done away; and 'when He +shall be manifested, we also shall be manifested with Him in glory.' + +'Then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun in My heavenly +Father's Kingdom.' But the beginning of it all is 'Holiness to the +Lord' written on our hearts; and the end of that is the vision which +is impossible without holiness, and which leads on to the beholder's +perfect likeness to his Lord. + + + + +THE ALTAR OF INCENSE + + + 'Thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon.' + --EXODUS xxx. 1. + +Ceremonies are embodied thoughts. Religious ceremonies are moulded +by, and seek to express, the worshipper's conception of his God, and +his own relation to Him; his aspirations and his need. Of late years +scholars have been busy studying the religions of the more backward +races, and explaining rude and repulsive rites by pointing to the +often profound and sometimes beautiful ideas underlying them. When +that process is applied to Australian and Fijian savages, it is +honoured as a new and important study; when we apply it to the +Mosaic Ritual it is pooh-poohed as 'foolish spiritualising.' Now, no +doubt, there has been a great deal of nonsense talked in regard to +this matter, and a great deal of ingenuity wasted in giving a +Christian meaning--or, may I say, a Christian twist?--to every pin +of the Tabernacle, and every detail of the ritual. Of course, to +exaggerate a truth is the surest way to discredit a truth, but the +truth remains true all the same, and underneath that elaborate +legislation, which makes such wearisome and profitless reading for +the most of us, in the Pentateuch, there lie, if we can only grasp +them, great thoughts and lessons that we shall all be the better for +pondering. + +To one item of these, this altar of incense, I call attention now, +because it is rich in suggestions, and leads us into very sacred +regions of the Christian life which are by no means so familiar to +many of us as they ought to be. Let me just for one moment state the +facts with which I wish to deal. The Jewish Tabernacle, and +subsequently the Temple, were arranged in three compartments: the +outermost court, which was accessible to all the people; the second, +which was trodden by the priests alone; and the third, where the +Shechinah dwelt in solitude, broken only once a year by the foot of +the High Priest. That second court we are concerned with now. There +are three pieces of ecclesiastical furniture in it: an altar in the +centre, flanked on either side by a great lampstand, and a table on +which were piled loaves. It is to that central piece of furniture +that I ask your attention now, and to the thoughts that underlie it, +and the lessons that it teaches. + +I. This altar shows us what prayer is. + +Suppose we had been in that court when in the morning or in the +evening the priest came with the glowing pan of coals from another +altar in the outer court, and laid it on this altar, and heaped upon +it the sticks of incense, we should have seen the curling, fragrant +wreaths ascending till 'the House was filled with smoke,' as a +prophet once saw it. We should not have wanted any interpreter to +tell us what that meant. What could that rising cloud of sweet +odours signify but the ascent of the soul towards God? Put that into +more abstract words, and it is just the old, hackneyed commonplace +which I seek to try to freshen a little now, that incense is the +symbol of prayer. That that is so is plain enough, not only from the +natural propriety of the case, but because you find the +identification distinctly stated in several places in Scripture, of +which I quote but two instances. In one psalm we read, 'Let my +prayer come before Thee as incense.' In the Book of the Apocalypse +we read of 'golden bowls full of odours, which are the prayers of +saints.' And that the symbolism was understood by, and modified the +practice of, the nation, we are taught when we read that whilst +Zechariah the priest was within the court offering incense, as it +was his lot to do, 'the whole multitude of the people were without +praying,' doing that which the priest within the court symbolised by +his offering. So then we come to this, dear friends, that we +fearfully misunderstand and limit the nobleness and the essential +character of prayer when, as we are always tempted to do by our +inherent self-regard, we make petition its main feature and form. Of +course, so long as we are what we shall always be in this world, +needy and sinful creatures; and so long as we are what we shall ever +be in all worlds, creatures absolutely dependent for life and +everything on the will and energy of God, petition must necessarily +be a very large part of prayer. But the more we grow into His +likeness, and the more we understand the large privileges and the +glorious possibilities which lie in prayer, the more will the +relative proportions of its component parts be changed, and petition +will become less, and aspiration will become more. The essence of +prayer, the noblest form of it, is thus typified by the cloud of +sweet odours that went up before God. + +In all true prayer there must be the lowest prostration in reverence +before the Infinite Majesty. But the noblest prayer is that which +lifts 'them that are bowed down' rather than that which prostrates +men before an inaccessible Deity. And so, whilst we lie low at His +feet, that may be the prayer of a mere theist, but when our hearts +go out towards Him, and we are drawn to Himself, that is the prayer +that befits Christian aspiration; the ascent of the soul toward God +is the true essence of prayer. As one of the non-Christian +philosophers--seekers after God, if ever there were such, and who, I +doubt not, found Him whom they sought--has put it, 'the flight of +the lonely soul to the only God'; that is prayer. Is that my prayer? +We come to Him many a time burdened with some very real sorrow, or +weighted with some pressing responsibility, and we should not be +true to ourselves, or to Him, if our prayer did not take the shape +of petition. But, as we pray, the blessing of the transformation of +its character should be realised by us, and that which began with +the cry for help and deliverance should always be, and it always +will be, if the cry for help and deliverance has been of the right +sort, sublimed into 'Thy face, Lord, will I seek.' The Book of +Ecclesiastes describes death as the 'return of the spirit to God who +gave it.' That is the true description of prayer, a going back to +the fountain's source. Flames aspire; to the place 'whence the +rivers came thither they return again.' The homing pigeon or the +migrating bird goes straight through many degrees of latitude, and +across all sorts of weather, to the place whence it came. Ah! +brethren, let us ask ourselves if our spirits thus aspire and soar. +Do we know what it is to be, if I might so say, like those captive +balloons that are ever yearning upwards, and stretching to the +loftiest point permitted them by the cord that tethers them to +earth? + +Now another thought that this altar of incense may teach us is that +the prayer that soars must be kindled. There is no fragrance in a +stick of incense lying there. No wreaths of ascending smoke come +from it. It has to be kindled before its sweet odour can be set free +and ascend. That is why so much of our prayer is of no delight to +God, and of no benefit to us, because it is not on fire with the +flame of a heart kindled into love and thankfulness by the great +sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The cold vapours lie like a winding-sheet +down in the valleys until the sun smites them, warms them, and draws +them up. And our desires will hover in the low levels, and be dank +and damp, until they are drawn up to the heights by the warmth of +the Sun of righteousness. Oh! brethren, the formality and the +coldness, to say nothing of the inconsecutiveness and the +interruptedness by rambling thoughts that we all know in our +petitions, in our aspirations, are only to be cured in one way:-- + + 'Come! shed abroad a Saviour's love, + And that will kindle ours.' + +It is the stretched string that gives out musical notes; the slack +one is dumb. And if we desire that we may be able to be sure, as our +Master was, when He said, 'I know that Thou hearest me always,' we +must pray as He did, of whom it is recorded that 'He prayed the more +earnestly,' and 'was heard in that He feared.' The word rendered +'the more earnestly' carries in it a metaphor drawn from that very +fact that I have referred to. It means 'with the more stretched-out +extension and intensity.' If our prayers are to be heard as music in +heaven, they must come from a stretched string. + +Once more, this altar of incense teaches us that kindled prayer +delights God. That emblem of the sweet odour is laid hold of with +great boldness by more than one Old and New Testament writer, in +order to express the marvellous thought that there is a mutual joy +in the prayer of faith and love, and that it rises as 'an odour of a +sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.' The +cuneiform inscriptions give that thought with characteristic +vividness and grossness when they speak about the gods being +'gathered like flies round the steam of the sacrifice.' We have the +same thought, freed from all its grossness, when we think that the +curling wreaths going up from a heart aspiring and enflamed, come to +Him as a sweet odour, and delight His soul. People say, 'that is +anthropomorphism--making God too like a man.' Well, man is like God, +at any rate, and surely the teaching of that great name 'Father' +carries with it the assurance that just as fathers of flesh are glad +when they see that their children like best to be with them, so +there is something analogous in that joy before the angels of heaven +which the Father has, not only because of the prodigal who comes +back, but because of the child who has long been with Him, and is +ever seeking to nestle closer to His heart. The Psalmist was lost in +wonder and thankfulness that he was able to say 'He was extolled +with my tongue.' Surely it should be a gracious, encouraging, +strengthening thought to us all, that even our poor aspirations may +minister to the divine gladness. + +Now let us turn to another thought. + +II. This altar shows us where prayer stands in the Christian life. + +There are two or three points in regard to its position which it is +no fanciful spiritualising, but simply grasping the underlying +meaning of the institution, if we emphasise. First, let me remind +you that there was another altar in the outer court, whereon was +offered the daily sacrifice for the sins of the people. That altar +came first, and the sacrifice had to be offered on it first, before +the priest came into the inner court with the coals from that altar, +and the incense kindled by them. What does that say to us? The altar +of incense is not approached until we have been to the altar of +sacrifice. It is no mere arbitrary appointment, nor piece of +evangelical narrowness, which says that there is no real access to +God, in all the fullness and reality of His revealed character for +us sinful men, until our sins have been dealt with, taken away by +the Lamb of God, sacrificed for us. And it is simply the transcript +of experience which declares that there will be little inclination +or desire to come to God with the sacrifice of praise and prayer +until we have been to Christ, the sacrifice of propitiation and +pardon. Brethren, we need to be cleansed, and we can only be +delivered from the unholiness which is the perpetual and necessary +barrier to our vision of God by making our very own, through simple +faith, the energy and the blessedness of that great Sacrifice of +propitiation. Then, and then only, do we properly come to the altar +of incense. Its place in the Christian life is second, not first. +'First be reconciled to thy' Father, 'then lay' the incense 'on the +altar.' + +Again, great and deep lessons are given to us in the place of our +altar in regard to the other articles that stood in that inner +court. I have said that there were three of them. In the centre this +altar of incense; on the one hand the great lampstand; on the other +hand the table with loaves thereon. The one symbolised Israel's +function in the world to be its light, which in our function too, +and the other with loaves thereon symbolised the consecration to God +of Israel's activities, and their results. + +But between the two, central to both, stood the altar of incense. +What does that say as to the place of prayer, defined as I have +defined it, in the Christian life? It says this, that the light will +burn dim and go out, and the loaves, the expression and the +consequences of our activities, will become mouldy and dry, unless +both are hallowed and sustained by prayer. And that lesson is one +which we all need, and which I suppose this generation needs quite +as much as, if not more than, any that has gone before it. For life +has become so swift and rushing, and from all sides, the Church, the +world, society, there come such temptations, and exhortations, and +necessities, for strenuous and continuous work, that the basis of +all wholesome and vigorous work, communion with God, is but too apt +to be put aside and relegated to some inferior position. The carbon +points of the electric arc-light are eaten away with tremendous +rapidity in the very act of giving forth their illumination, and +they need to be continually approximated and to be frequently +renewed. The oil is burned away in the act of shining, and the lamp +needs to be charged again. If we are to do our work in the world as +its lights, and if we are to have any activities fit to be +consecrated to God and laid on the Table before the Veil, it can +only be by our making the altar of incense the centre, and these +others subsidiary. + +One last thought--the place of prayer in the Christian life is +shadowed for us by the position of this altar in reference to 'the +secret place of the Most High,' that mysterious inner court which +was dark but for the Shechinah's light, and lonely but for the +presence of the worshipping cherubim and the worshipped God. It +stood, as we are told a verse or two after my text, 'before the +veil.' A straight line drawn from the altar of sacrifice would have +bisected the altar of incense as it passed into the mercy-seat and +the glory. And that just tells us that the place of prayer in the +Christian lift is that it is the direct way of coming close to God. +Dear brother, we shall never lift the veil, and stand in 'the secret +place of the Most High,' unless we take the altar of incense on our +road. + +There is one more thought here-- + +III. The altar of incense shows us how prayer is to be cultivated. + +Twice a day, morning and evening, came the officiating priest with +his pan of coals and incense, and laid it there; and during all the +intervening hours between the morning and the evening the glow lay +half hidden in the incense, and there was a faint but continual +emission of fragrance from the smouldering mass that had been +renewed in the morning, and again in the evening. And does not that +say something to us? There must be definite times of distinct prayer +if the aroma of devotion is to be diffused through our else +scentless days. I ask for no pedantic adherence, with monastic +mechanicalness, to hours and times, and forms of petitions. These +are needful crutches to many of us. But what I do maintain is that +all that talk which we hear so much of in certain quarters nowadays +as to its not being necessary for us to have special times of +prayer, and as to its being far better to have devotion diffused +through our lives, and of how _laborare est orare_--to labour +is to pray--all that is pernicious nonsense if it is meant to say +that the incense will be fragrant and smoulder unless it is stirred +up and renewed night and morning. There must be definite times of +prayer if there is to be diffused devotion through the day. What +would you think of people that said, 'Run your cars by electricity. +Get it out of the wires; it will come! Never mind putting up any +generating stations'? And not less foolish are they who seek for a +devotion permeating life which is not often concentrated into +definite and specific acts. + +But the other side is as true. It is bad to clot your religion into +lumps, and to leave the rest of the life without it. There must be +the smouldering all day long. 'Rejoice evermore; pray without +ceasing.' You can pray thus. Not set prayer, of course; but a +reference to Him, a thought of Him, like some sweet melody, 'so +sweet we know not we are listening to it,' may breathe its +fragrance, and diffuse its warmth into the commonest and smallest of +our daily activities. It was when Gideon was threshing wheat that +the angel appeared to him. It was when Elisha was ploughing that the +divine inspiration touched him. It was when the disciples were +fishing that they saw the Form on the shore. And when we are in the +way of our common life it is possible that the Lord may meet us, and +that our souls may be aspiring to Him. Then work will be worship; +then burdens will be lightened; then our lamps will burn; then the +fruits of our daily lives will ripen; then our lives will be noble; +then our spirits will rest as well as soar, and find fruition and +aspiration perpetually alternating in stable succession of eternal +progress. + + + + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--I. + + + 'Then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul.' + --EXODUS xxx. 12. + +This remarkable provision had a religious intention. Connect it with +the tax-money which Peter found in the fish's mouth. + +I. Its meaning. Try to realise an Israelite's thoughts at the +census. 'I am enrolled among the people and army of God: am I +worthy? What am I, to serve so holy a God?' The payment was meant-- + +_(a)_ To excite the sense of sin. This should be present in all +approach to God, in all service; accompanying the recognition of our +Christian standing. Our sense of sin is far too slight and weak; +this defect is at the root of much feebleness in popular religion. +The sense of sin must embrace not outward acts only, but inner +spirit also. + +_(b)_ To suggest the possibility of expiation. It was 'ransom' +_i.e._ 'covering,' something paid that guilt might be taken +away and sin regarded as non-existent. This is, of course, +obviously, only a symbol. No tax could satisfy God for sin. The very +smallness of the amount shows that it is symbolical only. 'Not with +corruptible things as silver' is man redeemed. + +II. Its identity for all. Rich or poor, high or low, all men are +equal in sin. There are surface differences and degrees, but a deep +identity beneath. So on the same principle all souls are of the same +value. Here is the true democracy of Christianity. So there is one +ransom for all, for the need of all is identical. + +III. Its use. It was melted down for use in the sanctuary, so as to +be a 'memorial' permanently present to God when His people met with +Him. The greater portion was made into bases for the boards of the +sanctuary. That is, God's dwelling with men and our communion with +Him all rest on the basis of ransom. We are 'brought nigh by the +blood of Christ.' + + + + +RANSOM FOR SOULS--II. + + 'The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not + give less than half a shekel....'--EXODUS xxx. 15. + +This tax was exacted on numbering the people. It was a very small +amount, about fifteen pence, so it was clearly symbolical in its +significance. Notice-- + +I. The broad principle of equality of all souls in the sight of God. +Contrast the reign of caste and class in heathendom with the +democracy of Judaism and of Christianity. + +II. The universal sinfulness. Payment of the tax was a confession +that all were alike in this: not that all were equally sinful, but +all were sinful, whatever variations of degree might exist. + +'There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the +glory of God.' + +III. The one ransom. It was a prophecy of which _we_ know the +meaning. Recall the incident of the 'stater' in the fish's mouth. + +Christ declares His exemption from the tax. Yet He voluntarily comes +under it, and He provides the payment of it for Himself and for +Peter. + +He does so by a miracle. + +The Apostle has to 'take and give it'; so faith is called into +exercise. + +Thus there is but one Sacrifice for all; and the poorest can +exercise faith and the richest can do no more. 'None other name.' + + + + +THE GOLDEN CALF + + + 'And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come + down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves + together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us + gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, + the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, + we wot not what is become of him. 2. And Aaron said + unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in + the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your + daughters, and bring them unto me. 3. And all the people + brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, + and brought them unto Aaron. 4. And he received them at + their hand, and fashioned it with a graving-tool, after + he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be + thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the + land of Egypt. 5. And when Aaron saw it, he built an + altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, + To-morrow is a feast to the Lord. 6. And they rose up + early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and + brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat + and to drink, and rose up to play. 7. And the Lord said + unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which + thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted + themselves: 8. They have turned aside quickly out of the + way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten + calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed + thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which + have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.... 30. And + it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the + people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up + unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement + for your sin. 31. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and + said, Oh! this people have sinned a great sin, and have + made them gods of gold. 32. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive + their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of Thy + book which Thou hast written. 33. And the Lord said unto + Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot + out of My book. 34. Therefore now go, lead the people + unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, + Mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day + when I visit I will visit their sin upon them. 35. And + the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, + which Aaron made.'--EXODUS xxxii. 1-8; 30-35. + +It was not yet six weeks since the people had sworn, 'All that the +Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient.' The blood of the +covenant, sprinkled on them, was scarcely dry when they flung off +allegiance to Jehovah. Such short-lived loyalty to Him can never +have been genuine. That mob of slaves was galvanised by Moses into +obedience; and since their acceptance of Jehovah was in reality only +yielding to the power of one strong will and its earnest faith, of +course it collapsed as soon as Moses disappeared. + +We have to note, first, the people's universal revolt. The language +of verse 1 may easily hide to a careless reader the gravity and +unanimity of the apostasy. 'The people gathered themselves +together.' It was a national rebellion, a flood which swept away +even some faithful, timid hearts. No voices ventured to protest. +What were the elders, who shortly before 'saw the God of Israel,' +doing to be passive at such a crisis? Was there no one to bid the +fickle multitude look up to the summit overhead, where the red +flames glowed, or to remind them of the hosts of Egypt lying stark +and dead on the shore? Was Miriam cowed too, and her song forgotten? + +We need not cast stones at these people; for we also have short +memories for either the terrible or the gracious revelations of God +in our own lives. But we may learn the lesson that God's lovers have +to set themselves sometimes dead against the rush of popular +feeling, and that there are times when silence or compliance is sin. + +It would have been easy for the rebels to have ignored Aaron, and +made gods for themselves. But they desired to involve him in their +apostasy, and to get 'official sanction' for it. He had been left by +Moses as his lieutenant, and so to get him implicated was to stamp +the movement as a regular and entire revolt. + +The demand 'to make gods' (or, more probably, 'a god') flew in the +face of both the first and second commandments. For Jehovah, who had +forbidden the forming of any image, was denied in the act of making +it. To disobey Him was to cast Him off. The ground of the rebellion +was the craving for a visible object of trust and a visible guide, +as is seen by the reason assigned for the demand for an image. Moses +was out of sight; they must have something to look at as their +leader. Moses had disappeared, and, to these people who had only +been heaved up to the height of believing in Jehovah by Moses, +Jehovah had disappeared with him. They sank down again to the level +of other races as soon as that strong lever ceased to lift their +heavy apprehensions. + +How ridiculous the assertion that they did not know what had become +of Moses! They knew that he was up there with Jehovah. The elders +could have told them that. The fire on the mount might have burned +in on all minds the confirmation. Note, too, the black ingratitude +and plain denial of Jehovah in 'the _man_ that brought us up +out of the land of Egypt.' They refuse to recognise God's part. It +was Moses only who had done it; and now that he is gone they must +have a visible god, like other nations. + +Still sadder than their sense-bound wish is Aaron's compliance. He +knew as well as we do what he should have said, but, like many +another man in influential position, when beset by popular cries, he +was frightened, and yielded when he should have 'set his face like a +flint.' His compliance has in essentials been often repeated, +especially by priests and ministers of religion who have lent their +superior abilities or opportunities to carry out the wishes of the +ignorant populace, and debased religion or watered down its +prohibitions, to please and retain hold of them. The Church has +incorporated much from heathenism. Roman Catholic missionaries have +permitted 'converts' to keep their old usages. Protestant teachers +have acquiesced in, and been content to find the brains to carry +out, compromises between sense and soul, God's commands and men's +inclinations. + +We need not discuss the metallurgy of verse 4. But clearly Aaron +asked for the earrings, not, as some would have it, hoping that +vanity and covetousness would hinder their being given, but simply +in order to get gold for the bad work which he was ready to do. The +reason for making the thing in the shape of a calf is probably the +Egyptian worship of Apis in that form, which would be familiar to +the people. + +We must note that it was the people who said, 'These be thy gods, O +Israel!' Aaron seems to keep in the rear, as it were. He makes the +calf, and hands it over, and leaves them to hail it and worship. +Like all cowards, he thought that he was lessening his guilt by thus +keeping in the background. Feeble natures are fond of such +subterfuges, and deceive themselves by them; but they do not shift +their sin off their shoulders. + +Then he comes in again with an impotent attempt to diminish the +gravity of the revolt. 'When he _saw_ this,' he tried to turn +the flood into another channel, and so proclaimed a 'feast to +Jehovah'!--as if He could be worshipped by flagrant defiance of His +commandments, or as if He had not been disavowed by the ascription +to the calf, made that morning out of their own trinkets, of the +deliverance from Egypt. A poor, inconsequential attempt to save +appearances and hallow sin by writing God's name on it! The 'god' +whom the Israelites worshipped under the image of a calf, was no +less another 'god before Me,' though it was called by the name of +Jehovah. If the people had their idol, it mattered nothing to them, +and it mattered as little to Jehovah, what 'name' it bore. The wild +orgies of the morrow were not the worship which He accepts. + +What a contrast between the plain and the mountain! Below, the +shameful feast, with its parody of sacrifice and its sequel of lust- +inflamed dancing; above, the awful colloquy between the all-seeing +righteous Judge and the intercessor! The people had cast off +Jehovah, and Jehovah no more calls them 'My,' but '_thy_ +people.' They had ascribed their Exodus first to Moses, and next to +the calf. Jehovah speaks of it as the work of Moses. + +A terrible separation of Himself from them lies in '_thy_ +people, which _thou_ broughtest up,' and Moses' bold rejoinder +emphasises the relation and act which Jehovah seems to suppress +(verse 11). Observe that the divine voice refuses to give any weight +to Aaron's trick of compromise. These are no worshippers of Jehovah +who are howling and dancing below there. They are 'worshipping +_it_, and sacrificing to it,' not to Him. The cloaks of sin may +partly cover its ugliness here, but they are transparent to His +eyes, and many a piece of worship, which is said to be directed to +Him, is, in His sight, rank idolatry. + +We do not deal with the magnificent courage of Moses, his single- +handed arresting of the wild rebellion, and the severe punishment by +which he trampled out the fire. But we must keep his severity in +mind if we would rightly judge his self-sacrificing devotion, and +his self-sacrificing devotion if we would rightly judge his +severity. + +No words of ours can make more sublime his utter self-abandonment +for the sake of the people among whom he had just been flaming in +wrath, and smiting like a destroying angel. That was a great soul +which had for its poles such justice and such love. The very words +of his prayer, in their abruptness, witness to his deep emotion. 'If +Thou wilt forgive their sin' stands as an incomplete sentence, left +incomplete because the speaker is so profoundly moved. Sometimes +broken words are the best witnesses of our earnestness. The +alternative clause reaches the high-water mark of passionate love, +ready to give up everything for the sake of its objects. The 'book +of life' is often spoken of in Scripture, and it is an interesting +study to bring together the places where the idea occurs (see Ps. +lxix. 28; Dan. xii. 1; Phil. iv. 3; Rev. iii. 5). The allusion is to +the citizens' roll (Ps. lxxxvii. 6). Those whose names are written +there have the privileges of citizenship, and, as it is the 'book of +life' (or '_of the living_'), life in the widest sense is +secured to them. To blot out of it, therefore, is to cut a man off +from fellowship in the city of God, and from participation in life. + +Moses was so absorbed in his vocation that his life was less to him +than the well-being of Israel. How far he saw into the darkness +beyond the grave we cannot say; but, at least, he was content, and +desirous to die on earth, if thereby Israel might continue to be +God's people. And probably he had some gleam of light beyond, which +enhanced the greatness of his offered sacrifice. To die, whatever +loss of communion with God that involved here or hereafter, would be +sweet if thereby he could purchase Israel's restoration to God's +favour. We cannot but think of Paul willing to be separated from +Christ for his brethren's sake. + +We may well think of a greater than Moses or Paul, who did bear the +loss which they were willing to bear, and died that sin might be +forgiven. Moses was a true type of Christ in that act of supreme +self-sacrifice; and all the heroism, the identification of himself +with his people, the love which willingly accepts death, that makes +his prayer one of the greatest deeds on the page of history, are +repeated in infinitely sweeter, more heart-subduing fashion in the +story of the Cross. Let us not omit duly to honour the servant; let +us not neglect to honour and love infinitely more the Lord. 'This +man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses.' Let us see that we +render Him + + 'Thanks never ceasing, + And infinite love.' + + + + +THE SWIFT DECAY OF LOVE + + + 'And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and + the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the + tables were written on both their sides; on the one + side and on the other were they written. 16. And the + tables were the work of God, and the writing was the + writing of God, graven upon the tables. 17. And when + Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, + he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp. + 18. And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout + for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry + for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do + I hear. 19. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh + unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: + and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out + of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. 20. And + he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in + the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon + the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. + 21. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto + thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? + 22. And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: + thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. + 23. For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go + before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought + us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become + of him. 24. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any + gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then + I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. + 25. And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for + Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their + enemies:) 26. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, + and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto + me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together + unto him.'--EXODUS xxxii. 15-26. + +Moses and Joshua are on their way down from the mountain, the former +carrying the tables in his hands and a heavier burden in his heart,--the +thought of the people's swift apostasy. Joshua's soldierly ear +interprets the shouts which are borne up to them as war-cries; 'He +snuffeth the battle afar off, and saith Aha!' But Moses knew that +they meant worse than war, and his knowledge helped his ear to +distinguish a cadence and unison in the noise, unlike the confused +mingling of the victors' yell of triumph and the shriek of the +conquered. If we were dealing with fiction, we should admire the +masterly dramatic instinct which lets the ear anticipate the eye, +and so prepares us for the hideous sight that burst on these two at +some turn in the rocky descent. + +I. Note, then, what they saw. The vivid story puts it all in two +words,--'the calf and the dancing.' There in the midst, perhaps on +some pedestal, was the shameful copy of the Egyptian Apis; and +whirling round it in mad circles, working themselves into frenzy by +rapid motion and frantic shouts, were the people,--men and women, +mingled in the licentious dance, who, six short weeks before, had +sworn to the Covenant. Their bestial deity in the centre, and they +compassing it with wild hymns, were a frightful contradiction of +that grey altar and the twelve encircling stones which they had so +lately reared, and which stood unregarded, a bowshot off, as a +silent witness against them. Note the strange, irresistible +fascination of idolatry. Clearly the personal influence of Moses was +the only barrier against it. The people thought that he had +disappeared, and, if so, Jehovah had disappeared with him. We wonder +at their relapses into idolatry, but we forget that it was then +universal, that Israel was at the beginning of its long training, +that not even a divine revelation could produce harvest in seedtime, +and that to look for a final and complete deliverance from the 'veil +that was spread over all nations,' at this stage, is like expecting +a newly reclaimed bit of the backwoods to grow grass as thick and +velvety as has carpeted some lawn that has been mown and cared for +for a century. Grave condemnation is the due of these short-memoried +rebels, who set up their 'abomination' in sight of the fire on +Sinai; but that should not prevent our recognising the evidence +which their sin affords of the tremendous power of idolatry in that +stage of the world's history. Israel's proneness to fall back to +heathenism makes it certain that a supernatural revelation is needed +to account for their possession of the loftier faith which was so +far above them. + +That howling, leaping crowd tells what sort of religion they would +have 'evolved' if left to themselves. Where did 'Thou shalt have +none other gods beside Me' come from? Note the confusion of thought, +so difficult for us to understand, which characterises idolatry. +What a hopelessly inconsequential cry that was, 'Make us gods, which +shall go before us!' and what a muddle of contradictions it was that +men should say 'These be thy gods,' though they knew that the thing +was made yesterday out of their own earrings! It took more than a +thousand years to teach the nation the force of the very self- +evident argument, as it seems to us, 'the workman made it, therefore +it is not God.' The theory that the idol is only a symbol is not the +actual belief of idolaters. It is a product of the study, but the +worshipper unites in his thought the irreconcilable beliefs that it +was made and is divine. A goldsmith will make and sell a Madonna, +and when it is put in the cathedral, will kneel before it. + +Note what was the sin here. It is generally taken for granted that +it was a breach of the second, not of the first, commandment, and +Aaron's proclamation of 'a feast to the Lord' is taken as proving +this. Aaron was probably trying to make an impossible compromise, +and to find some salve for his conscience; but it does not follow +that the people accepted the half-and-half suggestion. Leaders who +try to control a movement which they disapprove, by seeming to +accept it, play a dangerous game, and usually fail. But whether the +people call the calf 'Jehovah' or 'Apis' matters very little. There +would be as complete apostasy to another god, though the other god +was called by the same name, if all that really makes his 'name' was +left out, and foreign elements were brought in. Such worship as +these wild dances, offered to an image, broke both the commandments, +no matter by what name the image was invoked. + +The roots of idolatry are in all men. The gross form of it is +impossible to us; but the need for aid from sense, the dependence on +art for wings to our devotion, which is a growing danger to-day, is +only the modern form of the same dislike of a purely spiritual +religion which sent these people dancing round their calf. + +II. Mark Moses' blaze of wrath and courageous, prompt action. He +dashes the tables on the rock, as if to break the record of the +useless laws which the people have already broken, and, with his +hands free, flings himself without pause into the midst of the +excited mob. Verses 19 and 20 bear the impression of his rapid, +decisive action in their succession of clauses, each tacked on to +the preceding by a simple 'and.' Stroke followed stroke. His fiery +earnestness swept over all obstacles, the base riot ceased, the +ashamed dancers slunk away. Some true hearts would gather about him, +and carry out his commands; but he did the real work, and, single- +handed, cowed and controlled the mob. No doubt, it took more time +than the brief narrative, at first sight, would suggest. The image +is flung into the fire from which it had come out. The fire made it, +and the fire shall unmake it. We need not find difficulty in +'burning' a golden idol. That does not mean 'calcined,' and the +writer is not guilty of a blunder, nor needed to be taught that you +cannot burn gold. The next clause says that after it was 'burned,' +it was still solid; so that, plainly, all that is meant is, that the +metal was reduced to a shapeless lump. That would take some time. +Then it was broken small; there were plenty of rocks to grind it up +on. That would take some more time, but not a finger was lifted to +prevent it. Then the more or less finely broken up fragments are +flung into the brook, and, with grim irony, the people are bid to +drink. 'You shall have enough of your idol, since you love him so. +Here, down with him! You will have to take the consequences of your +sin. You must drink as you have brewed.' It is at once a +contemptuous demonstration of the idol's impotence, and a picture of +the sure retribution. + +But we may learn two things from this figure of the indignant +lawgiver. One is, that the temper in which to regard idolatry is not +one of equable indifference nor of scientific investigation, but +that some heat of moral indignation is wholesome. We are all +studying comparative mythology now, and getting much good from it; +but we are in some danger of forgetting that these strange ideas and +practices, which we examine at our ease, have spread spiritual +darkness and moral infection over continents and through +generations. Let us understand them, by all means; let us be +thankful to find fragments of truth in, or innocent origins of, +repulsive legends; but do not let the student swallow up the +Christian in us, nor our minds lose their capacity of wholesome +indignation at the systems, blended with Christ-like pity and effort +for the victims. + +We may learn, further, how strong a man is when he is all aflame +with true zeal for God. The suddenness of Moses' reappearance, the +very audacity of his act, the people's habit of obedience, all +helped to carry him through the crisis; but the true secret of his +swift victory was his own self-forgetting faith. There is contagion +in pure religious enthusiasm. It is the strongest of all forces. One +man, with God at his back, is always in the majority. He whose whole +soul glows with the pure fire, will move among men like flame in +stubble. 'All things are possible to him that believeth.' +Consecrated daring, animated by love and fed with truth, is all- +conquering. + +III. Note the weaker nature of Aaron, taking refuge in a transparent +lie. Probably his dialogue with his brother came in before the +process described in the former verses was accomplished. But the +narrative keeps all that referred to the destruction of the idol +together, and goes by subject rather than by time. We do not learn +how Moses had come to know Aaron's share in the sin, but his +question is one of astonishment. Had they bewitched him anyhow? or +what inducement had led him so far astray? The stronger and devouter +soul cannot conceive how the weaker had yielded. Aaron's answer puts +the people's wish forward. 'They said, Make us gods'; that was all +which they had 'done.' A poor excuse, as Aaron feels even while he +is stammering it out. What would Moses have answered if the people +had 'said' so to him? Did he, standing there, with the heat of his +struggle on him yet, look like a man that would acknowledge any +demand of a mob as a reason for a ruler's compliance? It is the +coward's plea. How many ecclesiastics and statesmen since then have +had no better to offer for their acts! Such fear of the Lord as +shrivelled before the breath of popular clamour could have had no +deep roots. One of the first things to learn, whether we are in +prominent or in private positions, is to hold by our religious +convictions in supreme indifference to all surrounding voices, and +to let no threats nor entreaties lead us to take one step beyond or +against conscience. + +Aaron feels the insufficiency of the plea, when he has to put it +into plain words to such a listener, and so he flies to the resource +of timid and weak natures, a lie. For what did he ask the gold, and +put it into the furnace, unless he meant to make a god? Perhaps he +had told the people the same story, as priests in all lands have +been apt to claim a miraculous origin for idols. And he repeats it +now, as if, were it true, he would plead the miracle as a +vindication of the worship as well as his absolution. But the lie is +too transparent to deserve even an answer, and Moses turns silently +from him. + +Aaron's was evidently the inferior nature, and was less deeply +stamped with the print of heaven than his brother's. His feeble +compliance is recorded as a beacon for all persons in places of +influence or authority, warning them against self-interested or +cowardly yielding to a popular demand, at the sacrifice of the +purity of truth and the approval of their own consciences. He was +not the last priest who has allowed the supposed wishes of the +populace to shape his representations of God, and has knowingly +dropped the standard of duty or sullied the clear brightness of +truth in deference to the many-voiced monster. + +IV. Note the rallying of true hearts round Moses. The Revised +Version reads 'broken loose' instead of 'naked,' and the correction +is valuable. It explains the necessity for the separation of those +who yet remained bound by the restraints of God's law, and for the +terrible retribution that followed. The rebellion had not been +stamped out by the destruction of the calf; and though Moses' dash +into their midst had cowed the rebels for a time, things had gone +too far to settle down again at once. The camp was in insurrection. +It was more than a riot, it was a revolution. With the rapid eye of +genius, Moses sees the gravity of the crisis, and, with equally +swift decisiveness, acts so as to meet it. He 'stood in the gate of +the camp,' and made the nucleus for the still faithful. His summons +puts the full seriousness of the moment clearly before the people. +They have come to a fork in the road. They must be either for +Jehovah or against Him. There can be no mixing up of the worship of +Jehovah and the images of Egypt, no tampering with God's service in +obedience to popular clamour. It must be one thing or other. This is +no time for the family of 'Mr. Facing-both-ways'; the question for +each man is, 'Under which King?' Moses' unhesitating confidence that +he is God's soldier, and that to be at his side is to be on God's +side, was warranted in him, but has often been repeated with less +reason by eager contenders, as they believed themselves to be, for +God. No doubt, it becomes us to be modest and cautious in calling +all true friends of God to rank themselves with us. But where the +issue is between foul wrong and plain right, between palpable +idolatry, error, or unbridled lust, and truth, purity, and +righteousness, the Christian combatant for these is entitled to send +round the fiery cross, and proclaim a crusade in God's name. There +will always be plenty of people with cold water to pour on +enthusiasm. We should be all the better for a few more, who would +venture to feel that they are fighting for God, and to summon all +who love Him to come to their and His help. + +Moses' own tribe responded to the summons. And, no doubt, Aaron was +there too, galvanised into a nobler self by the courage and fervour +of his brother, and, let us hope, urged by penitence, to efface the +memory of his faithlessness by his heroism now. + +We do not go on to the dreadful retribution, which must be regarded, +not as massacre, but as legal execution. It is folly to apply to it, +or to other analogous instances, the ideas of this Christian +century. We need not be afraid to admit that there has been a +development of morality. The retributions of a stern age were +necessarily stern. But if we want to understand the heart of Moses, +or of Moses' God, we must not look only at the ruler of a wild +people trampling out a revolt at the sacrifice of many lives, but +listen to him, as the next section of the narrative shows him, +pleading with tears for the rebels, and offering even to let his own +name be blotted out of God's book if their sin might be forgiven. +So, coupling the two parts of his conduct together, we may learn a +little more clearly a lesson, of which this age has much need,--the +harmony of retributive justice and pitying love; and may come to +understand that Moses learned both the one and the other by +fellowship with the God in whom they both dwell in perfection and +concord. + + + + +THE MEDIATOR'S THREEFOLD PRAYER + + + 'And Moses said unto the Lord, See, Thou sayest unto me, + Bring up this people: and Thou hast not let me know whom + Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said, I know thee + by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight. + 13. Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace + in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, + that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that + this nation is Thy people. 14. And He said, My presence + shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. 15. And + he said unto Him, If Thy presence go not with me, carry + us not up hence. 16. For wherein shall it be known here + that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it + not in that Thou goest with us! So shall we be separated, I + and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the + face of the earth, 17. And the Lord said unto Moses, I + will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou + hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name. + 18. And he said, I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory. + 19. And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before + thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before + thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, + and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. 20. And + he said, Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no + man see Me, and live. 21. And the Lord said, Behold, + there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: + 22. And it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth + by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and + will cover thee with My hand while I pass by: 23. And + I will take away Mine hand, and thou shall see My back + parts; but My face shall not be seen.'--EXODUS xxxiii. 12-23. + +The calf worship broke the bond between God and Israel. Instead of +His presence, 'an angel' is to lead them, for His presence could +only be destruction. Mourning spreads through the camp, in token of +which all ornaments are laid aside. The fate of the nation is in +suspense, and the people wait, in sad attire, till God knows 'what +to do unto' them. The Tabernacle is carried beyond the precincts of +the camp, in witness of the breach, and all the future is doubtful. +The preceding context describes (vs. 7-11) not one event, but the +standing order of these dark days, when the camp had to be left if +God was to be found, and when Moses alone received tokens of God's +friendship, and the people stood wistfully and tremblingly gazing +from afar, while the cloudy pillar wavered down to the Tabernacle +door. Duty brought Moses back from such communion; but Joshua did +not need to come near the tents of the evil-doers, and, in the +constancy of devout desire, made his home in the Tabernacle. In one +of these interviews, so close and familiar, the wonderful dialogue +here recorded occurred. It turns round three petitions, to each of +which the Lord answers. + +I. We have the leader's prayer for himself, with the over-abundant +answer of God. In the former chapter, we had the very sublimity of +intercession, in which the stern avenger of idolatry poured out his +self-sacrificing love for the stiff-necked nation whom he had had to +smite, and offered himself a victim for them. Here his first prayer +is mainly for himself, but it is not therefore a selfish prayer. +Rather he prays for gifts to himself, to fit him for his service to +them. We may note separately the prayer, and the pleas on which it +is urged. 'Show me now Thy way (or ways), that I may know Thee.' The +desire immediately refers to the then condition of things. As we +have pointed out, it was a time of suspense. In the strong metaphor +of the context, God was making up His mind on His course, and Israel +was waiting with hushed breath for the _dénouement_. It was not +the entrance of the nation into the promised land which was in +doubt, but the manner of their guidance, and the penalties of their +idolatry. These things Moses asked to know, and especially, as verse +12 shows, to receive some more definite communication as to their +leader than the vague 'an angel.' But the specific knowledge of +God's 'way' was yearned for by him, mainly, as leading on to a +deeper and fuller and more blessed knowledge of God Himself, and +that again as leading to a fuller possession of God's favour, which, +as already in some measure possessed, lay at the foundation of the +whole prayer. The connection of thought here goes far beyond the +mere immediate blessing, which Moses needed at the moment. That cry +for insight into the purposes and methods of Him whom the soul +trusts, amid darkness and suspense, is the true voice of sonship. +The more deeply it sees into these, the more does the devout soul +feel the contrast between the spot of light in which it lives and +the encircling obscurity, and the more does it yearn for the further +setting back of the boundaries. Prayer does more than effort, for +satisfying that desire. Nor is it mere curiosity or the desire for +intellectual clearness that moves the longing. For the end of +knowing God's ways is, for the devout man, a deeper, more blessed +knowledge of God Himself, who is best known in His deeds; and the +highest, most blessed issue of the God-given knowledge of God, is +the conscious sunshine of His favour shining ever on His servant. +That is not a selfish religion which, beginning with the assurance +that we have found grace in His sight, seeks to climb, by happy +paths of growing knowledge of Him as manifested in His ways, to a +consciousness of that favour which is made stable and profound by +clear insight into the depths of His purposes and acts. + +The pleas on which this prayer is urged are two: the suppliant's +heavy tasks, and God's great assurances to him. He boldly reminds +God of what He has set him to do, and claims that he should be +furnished with what is needful for discharging his commission. How +can he lead if he is kept in the dark? When we are as sure as Moses +was of God's charge to us, we may be as bold as he in asking the +needful equipment for it. God does not send His servants out to sow +without seed, or to fight without a sword. His command is His +pledge. He smiles approval when His servants' confidence assumes +even bold forms, which sound like remonstrance and a suspicion that +He was forgetting, for He discerns the underlying eagerness to do +His will, and the trust in Him. The second plea is built on God's +assurances of intimate and distinguishing knowledge and favour. He +had said that He knew Moses 'by name,' by all these calls and +familiar interviews which gave him the certainty of his individual +relation to, and his special appointment from, the Lord. Such +prerogative was inconsistent with reserve. The test of friendship is +confidence. So pleads Moses, and God recognises the plea. 'I call +you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; +but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of +my Father I have made known unto you.' + +The plea based upon the relation of the people to God is subordinate +in this first prayer. It is thrown in at the end almost as an +afterthought; it boldly casts responsibility off Moses on to God, +and does so to enforce the prayer that he should be equipped with +all requisites for his work, as if he had said, 'It is more Thy +concern than mine, that I should be able to lead them.' The divine +answer is a promise to go not with the people, but with Moses. It is +therefore not yet a full resolving of the doubtful matter, nor +directly a reply to Moses' prayer. In one aspect it is less, and in +another more, than had been asked. It seals to the man and to the +leader the assurance that for himself he shall have the continual +presence of God, in his soul and in his work, and that, in all the +weary march, he will have rest, and will come to a fuller rest at +its end. Thus God ever answers the true hearts that seek to know +Him, and to be fitted for their tasks. Whether the precise form of +desire be fulfilled or no, the issue of such bold and trustful +pleading is always the inward certainty of God's face shining on us, +and the experience of repose, deep and untroubled in the midst of +toil, so that we may be at once pilgrims towards, and dwellers in, +'the house of the Lord,' + +II. We have the intercessor's prayer for the people, with the answer +(vs. 15-17). If the promise of verse 14 is taken as referring to the +people, there is nothing additional asked in this second stage, and +the words of verse l7, 'this thing also,' are inexplicable. Observe +that 'with me' in verse 15 is a supplement, and that the 'us' of the +next clause, as well as the whole cast of verse 16, suggests that we +should rather supply 'with us,' The substance, then, of the second +petition, is the extension of the promise, already given to Moses +for himself, to the entire nation. Observe how he identifies himself +with them, making them 'partakers' in his grace, and reiterating 'I +and Thy people,' as if he would have no blessing which was not +shared by them. He seeks that the withdrawal of God's presence, +which had been the consequence of Israel's withdrawal from God, +should be reversed, and that not he alone, but all the rebels, might +still possess His presence. + +The plea for this prayer is God's honour, which was concerned in +making it plain even in the remote wilderness, to the wandering +tribes there, that His hand was upon Israel. Moses expands the +argument which he had just touched before. The thought of His own +glory as the motive of God's acts, may easily be so put at to be +repulsive; but at bottom it is the same as to say that His motive is +love--for the glory which He seeks is the communication of true +thoughts concerning His character, that men may be made glad and +like Himself thereby. Moses has learned that God's heart must long +to reveal its depth of mercy, and therefore he pleads that even +sinful Israel should not be left by God, in order that some light +from His face may strike into a dark world. There is wide +benevolence, as well as deep insight into the desires of God, in the +plea. + +The divine answer yields unconditionally to the request, and rests +the reason for so doing wholly on the relation between God and +Moses. The plea which he had urged in lowly boldness as the +foundation of both his prayers is endorsed, and, for his sake, the +divine presence is again granted to the people. + +Can we look at this scene without seeing in it the operation on a +lower field of the same great principle of intercession, which +reaches its unique example in Jesus Christ? It is not arbitrary +forcing of the gospel into the history, but simply the recognition +of the essence of the history, when we see in it a foreshadowing of +our great High-priest. He, too, knits Himself so closely with us, +both by the assumption of our manhood and by the identity of loving +sympathy, that He accepts nothing from the Father's hand for Himself +alone. He, too, presents Himself before God, and says 'I and Thy +people.' The great seal of proof for the world that He is the +beloved of God, lies in the divine guardianship and guidance of His +servants. His prayer for them prevails, and the reason for its +prevalence is God's delight in Him. The very sublime of self- +sacrificing love was in the lawgiver, but the height of his love, +measured against the immeasurable altitude of Christ's, is as a +mole-hill to the Andes. + +III. We have the last soaring desire which rises above the limits of +the present. These three petitions teach the insatiableness, if we +may use the word, of devout desires. Each request granted brings on +a greater. 'The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received.' +Enjoyment increases capacity, and increase of capacity is increase +of desire. God being infinite, and man capable of indefinite growth, +neither the widening capacity nor the infinite supply can have +limits. This is not the least of the blessings of a devout life, +that the appetite grows with what it feeds on, and that, while there +is always satisfaction, there is never satiety. + +Moses' prayer sounds presumptuous, but it was heard unblamed, and +granted in so far as possible. It was a venial error--if error it +may be called--that a soul, touched with the flame of divine love, +should aspire beyond the possibilities of mortality. At all events, +it was a fault in which he has had few imitators. _Our_ desires +keep but too well within the limits of the possible. The precise +meaning of the petition must be left undetermined. Only this is +clear, that it was something far beyond even that face-to-face +intercourse which he had had, as well as beyond that vision granted +to the elders. If we are to take 'glory' in its usual sense, it +would mean the material symbol of God's presence, which shone at the +heart of the pillar, and dwelt afterwards between the cherubim, but +probably we must attach a loftier meaning to it here, and rather +think of what we should call the uncreated and infinite divine +essence. Only do not let us make Moses talk like a metaphysician or +a theological professor. Rather we should hear in his cry the voice +of a soul thrilled through and through with the astounding +consciousness of God's favour, blessed with love-gifts in answered +prayers, and yearning for more of that light which it feels to be +life. + +And if the petition be dark, the answer is yet more obscure 'with +excess of light.' Mark how it begins with granting, not with +refusing. It tells how much the loving desire has power to bring, +before it speaks of what in it must be denied. There is infinite +tenderness in that order of response. It speaks of a heart that does +not love to say 'no,' and grants our wishes up to the very edge of +the possible, and wraps the bitterness of any refusal in the sweet +envelope of granted requests. A broad distinction is drawn between +that in God which can be revealed, and that which cannot. The one is +'glory,' the other 'goodness,' corresponding, we might almost say, +to the distinction between the 'moral' and the 'natural' attributes +of God. But, whatever mysterious revelation under the guise of +vision may be concealed in these words, and in the fulfilment of +them in the next chapter, they belong to the 'things which it is +impossible for a man to utter,' even if he has received them. We are +on more intelligible ground in the next clause of the promise, the +proclamation of 'the Name.' That expression is, in Scripture, always +used as meaning the manifested character of God. It is a revelation +addressed to the spirit, not to the sense. It is the translation, so +far as it is capable of translation, of the vision which it +accompanied; it is the treasure which Moses bore away from Sinai, +and has shared among us all. The reason for his prayer was probably +his desire to have his mediatorial office confirmed and perfected; +and it was so, by that proclamation of the Name. The reason for this +marvellous gift is next set forth as being God's own unconditional +grace and mercy. He is His own motive, His own reason. Just as the +independent and absolute fullness of His being is expressed by the +name 'I am that I am,' so the independent and absolute freeness of +His mercy, whether in granting Moses' prayer or in pardoning the +people, is expressed by 'I will shew mercy on whom I will shew +mercy.' Not till all this exuberance of gracious answer has smoothed +the way does the denial of the impossible request come; and even +then it is so worded as to lay all the emphasis on what is granted, +and to show that the refusal is but another phase of love. The +impossibility of beholding the Face is reiterated, and then the +careful provisions which God will make for the fulfilment of the +possible part of the bold wish are minutely detailed. The +distinction between the revealable and unrevealable, which has been +already expressed by the contrast of 'glory' and 'grace,' now +appears in the distinction between the 'face' which cannot be looked +on, and the 'back' which may be. + +Human language and thought are out of their depth here. We must be +content to see a dim splendour shining through the cloudy words, to +know that there was granted to one man a realisation of God's +presence, and a revelation of His character, so far transcending +ordinary experiences as that it was fitly called sight, but yet as +far beneath the glory of His being as the comparatively imperfect +knowledge of a man's form, when seen only from behind, is beneath +that derived from looking him in the face. + +But whatever was the singular prerogative of the lawgiver, as he +gazed from the cleft of the rock at the receding glory, we see more +than he ever did; and the Christian child, who looks upon the 'glory +of God in the face of Jesus Christ,' has a vision which outshines +the flashing radiance that shone round Moses. It deepened his +convictions, confirmed his faith, added to his assurance of his +divine commission, but only added to his knowledge of God by the +proclamation of the Name, and that Name is more fully proclaimed in +our ears. Sinai, with all its thunders, is silent before Calvary. +And he who has Jesus Christ to declare God's Name to him need not +envy the lawgiver on the mountain, nor even the saints in heaven. + + + + +GOD PROCLAIMING HIS OWN NAME + + + 'The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The + Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, + and abundant in goodness and truth.'--EXODUS xxxiv. 6. + +This great event derives additional significance and grandeur from +the place in which it stands. It follows the hideous act of idolatry +in which the levity and sinfulness of Israel reached their climax. +The trumpet of Sinai had hardly ceased to peal, and there in the +rocky solitudes, in full view of the mount 'that burned with fire,' +while the echoes of the thunder and the Voice still lingered, one +might say, among the cliffs, that mob of abject cowards were bold +enough to shake off their allegiance to God, and, forgetful of all +the past, plunged into idolatry, and wallowed in sensuous delights. +What a contrast between Moses on the mount and Aaron and the people +in the plain! Then comes the wonderful story of the plague and of +Moses' intercession, followed by the high request of Moses, so +strange and yet so natural at such a time, for the vision of God's +'glory.' Into all the depths of that I do not need to plunge. Enough +that he is told that his desire is beyond the possibilities of +creatural life. The mediator and lawgiver cannot rise beyond the +bounds of human limitations. But what _can_ be _shall_ be. +God's 'goodness' will pass before him. Then comes this wonderful +advance in the progress of divine revelation. If we remember the +breach of the Covenant, and then turn to these words, considered as +evoked by the people's sin, they become very remarkable. If we +consider them as the answer to Moses' desire, they are no less so. +Taking these two thoughts with us, let us consider them in-- + +I. The answer to the request for a sensuous manifestation. + +The request is 'show me,' as if some visible manifestation were +desired and expected, or, if not a visible, at least a direct +perception of Jehovah's glory.' Moses desires that he, as mediator +and lawgiver, may have some closer knowledge. The answer to his +request is a word, the articulate proclamation of the 'Name' of the +Lord. It is higher than all manifestation to sense, which was what +Moses had asked. Here there is no symbol as of the Lord in the +'cloud.' The divine manifestation is impossible to sense, and that, +too, not by reason of man's limitations, but by reason of God's +nature. The manifestation to spirit in full immediate perception is +impossible also. It has to be maintained that we know God only 'in +part'; but it does not follow that our knowledge is only +representative, or is not of Him 'as He is.' Though not whole it is +real, so far as it goes. + +But this is not the highest form. Words and propositions can never +reveal so fully, nor with such certitude, as a personal revelation. +But we have Christ's life, 'God manifest': not words about God, but +the manifestation of the very divine nature itself in action. +'Merciful':--and we see Jesus going about 'doing good.' 'Gracious,' +and we see Him welcoming to Himself all the weary, and ever +bestowing of the treasures of His love. 'Longsuffering':--'Father! +forgive them!' God is 'plenteous in mercy and in truth,' forgiving +transgression and sin:--'Thy sins be forgiven thee.' + +How different it all is when we have deeds, a human life, on which +to base our belief! How much more certain, as well as coming closer +to our hearts! Merely verbal statements need proof, they need +warming. In Christ's showing us the Father they are changed as from +a painting to a living being; they are brought out of the region of +abstractions into the concrete. + + 'And so the word had breath, and wrought + With human hands the creed of creeds.' + +'Show us the Father and it sufficeth us.' 'He that hath seen Me, +hath seen the Father.' + +Is there any other form of manifestation possible? Yes; in heaven +there will be a closer vision of Christ--not of God. Our knowledge +of Christ will there be expanded, deepened, made more direct. We +know not how. There will be bodily changes: 'Like unto the body of +His glory.' etc. 'We shall be like Him.' 'Changed from glory to +glory.' + +II. The answer to the desire to see God's glory. + +The 'Glory' was the technical name for the lustrous cloud that hung +over the Mercy-seat, but here it probably means more generally some +visible manifestation of the divine presence. What Moses craved to +see with his eyes was the essential divine light. That vision he did +not receive, but what he did receive was partly a visible +manifestation, though not of the dazzling radiance which no human +eye can see and live, and still more instructive and encouraging, +the communication in words of that shining galaxy of attributes, +'the glories that compose Thy name.' In the name specially so- +called, the name Jehovah, was revealed absolute eternal Being, and +in the accompanying declaration of so-called 'attributes' were +thrown into high relief the two qualities of merciful forgiveness +and retributive justice. The 'attributes' which separate God from +us, and in which vulgar thought finds the marks of divinity, are +conspicuous by their absence. Nothing is said of omniscience, +omnipresence, and the like, but forgiveness and justice, of both of +which men carry analogues in themselves, are proclaimed by the very +voice of God as those by which He desires that He should be chiefly +conceived of by us. + +The true 'glory of God' is His pardoning Love. That is the glowing +heart of the divine brightness. If so, then the very heart of that +heart of brightness, the very glory of the 'Glory of God,' is the +Christ, in whom we behold that which was at once 'the glory as of +the only begotten of the Father' and the 'Glory of the Father.' + +In Jesus these two elements, pardoning love and retributive justice, +wondrously meet, and the mystery of the possibility of their +harmonious co-operation in the divine government is solved, and +becomes the occasion for the rapturous gratitude of man and the +wondering adoration of principalities and powers in heavenly places. +Jesus has manifested the divine mercifulness; Jesus has borne the +burden of sin and the weight of the divine Justice. The lips that +said 'Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee,' also cried, 'Why +hast Thou forsaken Me?' The tenderest manifestation of the God +'plenteous in mercy ... forgiving iniquity,' and the most awe- +kindling manifestation of the God 'that will by no means clear the +guilty,' are fused into one, when we 'behold that Lamb of God that +taketh away the sin of the world.' + +III. The answer to a great sin. + +This Revelation is the immediate issue of Israel's great apostasy. + +Sin evokes His pardoning mercy. This insignificant speck in Creation +has been the scene of the wonder of the Incarnation, not because its +magnitude was great, but because its need was desperate. Men, +because they are sinners, have been subjects of an experience more +precious than the 'angels which excel in strength' and hearken 'to +the voice of His word' have known or can know. The wilder the storm +of human evil roars and rages, the deeper and louder is the voice +that peals across the storm. So for us all Christ is the full and +final revelation of God's grace. The last, because the perfect +embodiment of it; the sole, because the sufficient manifestation of +it. 'See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.' + + + + +SIN AND FORGIVENESS + + + '... Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and + that will by no means clear the guilty....'--EXODUS xxiv. 7. + +The former chapter tells us of the majesty of the divine revelation +as it was made to Moses on 'the mount of God.' Let us notice that, +whatever was the visible pomp of the external Theophany to the +senses, the true revelation lay in the proclamation of the 'Name'; +the revelation to the conscience and the heart; and such a +revelation had never before fallen on mortal ears. It is remarkable +that the very system which was emphatically one of law and +retribution should have been thus heralded by a word which is +perfectly 'evangelical' in its whole tone. That fact should have +prevented many errors as to the relation of Judaism and +Christianity. The very centre of the former was 'God is love,' +'merciful and gracious,' and if there follows the difficult addition +'visiting the iniquities,' etc., the New Testament adds its 'Amen' +to that. True, the harmony of the two and the great revelation of +the _means_ of forgiveness lay far beyond the horizon of Moses +and his people, but none the less was it the message of Judaism that +'there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be feared.' The law +spoke of retribution, justice, duty, and sin, but side by side with +the law was another institution, the sacrificial worship, which +proclaimed that God was full of love, and that the sinner was +welcomed to His side. And it is the root of many errors to transfer +New Testament language about the law to the whole Old Testament +system. But, passing away from this, I wish to look at two points in +these words. + +I. The characteristics of human sins. + +II. The divine treatment of them. + +I. The characteristics of human sins. + +Observe the threefold form of expression--iniquity and transgression +and sin. + +It seems natural that in the divine proclamation of His own holy +character, the sinful nature of men should be characterised with all +the fervid energy of such words; for the accumulation even of +synonyms would serve a _moral_ purpose, expressive at once of +the divine displeasure against sin, and of the free full pardon for +it in all its possible forms. But the words are very far from all +meaning the same thing. They all designate the same actions, but +from different points of view, and with reference to different +phases and qualities of sin. + +Now these three expressions are inadequately represented by the +English translation. + +'Iniquity' literally means 'twisting,' or 'something twisted,' and +is thus the opposite of 'righteousness,' or rather of what is +'straight.' It is thus like our own 'right' and 'wrong,' or like the +Latin 'in-iquity' (by which it is happily enough rendered in our +version). So looking at this word and the thoughts which connect +themselves with it, we come to this:-- + +(1) All sin of every sort is deviation from a standard to which we +ought to be conformed. + +Note the graphic force of the word as giving the straight line to +which our conduct ought to run parallel, and the contrast between it +and the wavering curves into which our lives meander, like the lines +in a child's copy-book, or a rude attempt at drawing a circle at one +sweep of the pencil. Herbert speaks of + + 'The crooked wandering ways in which we live.' + +There is a path which is 'right' and one which is 'wrong,' whether +we believe so or not. + +There are hedges and limitations for us all. This law extends to the +ordering of all things, whether great or small. If a line be +absolutely straight, and we are running another parallel to it, the +smallest possible wavering is fatal to our copy. And the smallest +deflection, if produced, will run out into an ever-widening distance +from the straight line. + +There is nothing which it is more difficult to get into men's belief +than the sinfulness of little sins; nothing more difficult to cure +ourselves of than the habit of considering quantity rather than +quality in moral questions. What a solemn thought it is, that of a +great absolute law of right rising serene above us, embracing +everything! And this is the first idea that is here in our text--a +grave and deep one. + +But the second of these expressions for sin literally means +'apostasy,' 'rebellion,' not 'transgression,' and this word brings +in a more solemn thought yet, viz.:-- + +(2) Every sin is apostasy from or rebellion against God. + +The former word dealt only with abstract thought of a 'law,' this +with a 'Lawgiver.' + +Our obligations are not merely to a law, but to Him who enacted it. +So it becomes plain that the very centre of all sin is the shaking +off of obedience to God. Living to 'self' is the inmost essence of +every act of evil, and may be as virulently active in the smallest +trifle as in the most awful crime. + +How infinitely deeper and darker this makes sin to be! + +When one thinks of our obligations and of our dependence, of God's +love and care, what an 'evil and a bitter thing' every sin becomes! + +Urge this terrible contrast of a loving Father and a disobedient +child. + +This idea brings out the ingratitude of all sin. + +But the third word here used literally means 'missing an aim,' and +so we come to + +(3) Every sin misses the goal at which we should aim. There may be a +double idea here--that of failing in the great purpose of our being, +which is already partially included in the first of these three +expressions, or that of missing the aim which we proposed to +ourselves in the act. All sin is a failure. + +By it we fall short of the loftiest purpose. Whatever we gain we +lose more. + +Every life which has sin in it is a 'failure.' You may be +prosperous, brilliant, successful, but you are 'a failure.' + +For consider what human life might be: full of God and full of joy. +Consider what the 'fruits' of sin are. 'Apples of Sodom.' How sin +leads to sorrow. This is an inevitable law. Sin fails to secure what +it sought for. All 'wrong' is a mistake, a blunder. 'Thou fool!' + +So this word suggests the futility of sin considered in its +consequences. 'These be thy gods, O Israel!' 'The end of these +things is death.' + +II. The divine treatment of sins. + +'Forgiving,' and yet not suffering them to go unpunished. + +(1) God _forgives_, and yet He does not leave sin unpunished, +for He will 'by no means _clear_ the guilty.' + +The one word refers to His love, His heart; the other to the +retributions which are inseparable from the very course of nature. + +Forgiveness is the flow of God's love to all, and the welcoming back +to His favour of all who come. Forgiveness likewise includes the +escape from the extreme and uttermost consequences of sin in this +life and in the next, the sense of God's displeasure here, and the +final separation from Him, which is eternal death. Forgiveness is +not inconsistent with retribution. There must needs be retribution, +from-- + +_(a)_ The very constitution of our nature. + +Conscience, our spiritual nature, our habits all demand it. + +_(b)_ The constitution of the world. + +In it all things work under God, but only for 'good' to them who +love God. To all others, sooner or later, the Nemesis comes. 'Ye +shall eat of the fruit of your doings.' + +(2) _God_ forgives, and therefore He does not leave sin +unpunished. It is divine mercy that strikes. The end of His +chastisement is to separate us from our sins. + +(3) Divine forgiveness and retributive justice both centre in the +revelation of the Cross. + +To us this message comes. It was the hidden heart of the Mosaic +system. It was the revelation of Sinai. To Israel it was +'proclaimed' in thunder and darkness, and the way of forgiveness and +the harmony of righteousness and mercy were veiled. To us it is +proclaimed from Calvary. There in full light the Lord passes before +us and proclaims, 'I am the Lord, the Lord God merciful and +gracious.' 'Ye are come ... unto Jesus.' 'See that ye refuse not Him +that speaketh.' 'This is my Beloved Son, hear Him !' + + + + +BLESSED AND TRAGIC UNCONSCIOUSNESS + + + '... Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone + while he talked with Him.'--EXODUS xxxiv. 29. + + '... And Samson wist not that the Lord had departed + from him.'--JUDGES xvi. 20. + +The recurrence of the same phrase in two such opposite connections +is very striking. Moses, fresh from the mountain of vision, where he +had gazed on as much of the glory of God as was accessible to man, +caught some gleam of the light which he adoringly beheld; and a +strange radiance sat on his face, unseen by himself, but visible to +all others. So, supreme beauty of character comes from beholding God +and talking with Him; and the bearer of it is unconscious of it. + +Samson, fresh from his coarse debauch, and shorn of the locks which +he had vowed to keep, strides out into the air, and tries his former +feats; but his strength has left him because the Lord has left him; +and the Lord has left him because, in his fleshly animalism, he has +left the Lord. Like, but most unlike, Moses, he knows not his +weakness. So strength, like beauty, is dependent upon contact with +God, and may ebb away when that is broken, and the man may be all +unaware of his weakness till he tries his power, and ignominiously +fails. + +These two contrasted pictures, the one so mysteriously grand and the +other so tragic, may well help to illustrate for us truths that +should be burned into our minds and our memories. + +I. Note, then, the first thought which they both teach us, that +beauty and strength come from communion with God. + +In both the cases with which we are dealing these were of a merely +material sort. The light on Moses' face and the strength in Samson's +arm were, at the highest, but types of something far higher and +nobler than themselves. But still, the presence of the one and the +departure of the other alike teach us the conditions on which we may +possess both in nobler form, and the certainty of losing them if we +lose hold of God. + +Moses' experience teaches us that the loftiest beauty of character +comes from communion with God. That is the use that the Apostle +makes of this remarkable incident in 2 Cor. iii, where he takes the +light that shone from Moses' face as being the symbol of the better +lustre that gleams from all those who 'behold (or reflect) the glory +of the Lord' with unveiled faces, and, by beholding, are 'changed +into the likeness' of that on which they gaze with adoration and +longing. The great law to which, almost exclusively, Christianity +commits the perfecting of individual character is this: Look at Him +till you become like Him, and in beholding, be changed. 'Tell me the +company a man keeps, and I will tell you his character,' says the +old proverb. And what is true on the lower levels of daily life, +that most men become assimilated to the complexion of those around +them, especially if they admire or love them, is the great principle +whereby worship, which is desire and longing and admiration in the +superlative degree, stamps the image of the worshipped upon the +character of the worshipper. 'They followed after vanity, and have +become vain,' says one of the prophets, gathering up into a sentence +the whole philosophy of the degradation of humanity by reason of +idolatry and the worship of false gods. 'They that make them are +like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.' The law +works upwards as well as downwards, for whom we worship we declare +to be infinitely good; whom we worship we long to be like; whom we +worship we shall certainly imitate. + +Thus, brethren, the practical, plain lesson that comes from this +thought is simply this: If you want to be pure and good, noble and +gentle, sweet and tender; if you desire to be delivered from your +own weaknesses and selfish, sinful idiosyncrasies, the way to secure +your desire is, 'Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the +earth.' Contemplation, which is love and longing, is the parent of +all effort that succeeds. Contemplation of God in Christ is the +master-key that opens this door, and makes it possible for the +lowliest and the foulest amongst us to cherish unpresumptuous hopes +of being like Him' if we see Him as He is revealed here, and +perfectly like Him when yonder we see Him 'as He _is_.' + +There have been in the past, and there are today, thousands of +simple souls, shut out by lowliness of position and other +circumstances from all the refining and ennobling influences of +which the world makes so much, who yet in character and bearing, ay, +and sometimes in the very look of their meek faces, are living +witnesses how mighty to transform a nature is the power of loving +gazing upon Jesus Christ. All of us who have had much to do with +Christians of the humbler classes know that. There is no influence +to refine and beautify men like that of living near Jesus Christ, +and walking in the light of that Beauty which is 'the effulgence of +the divine glory and the express image of His Person.' + +And in like manner as beauty so strength comes from communion with +God and laying hold on Him. We can only think of Samson as a 'saint' +in a very modified fashion, and present him as an example in a very +limited degree. His dependence upon divine power was rude, and +divorced from elevation of character and morality, but howsoever +imperfect, fragmentary, and I might almost say to our more trained +eyes, grotesque, it looks, yet there was a reality in it; and when +the man was faithless to his vow, and allowed the crafty harlot's +scissors to shear from his head the token of his consecration, it +was because the reality of the consecration, rude and external as +that consecration was, both in itself and in its consequences, had +passed away from him. + +And so we may learn the lesson, taught at once by the flashing face +of the lawgiver and the enfeebled force of the hero, that the two +poles of perfectness in humanity, so often divorced from one +another--beauty and strength--have one common source, and depend for +their loftiest position upon the same thing. God possesses both in +supremest degree, being the Almighty and the All-fair; and we +possess them in limited, but yet possibly progressive, measure, +through dependence upon Him. The true force of character, and the +true power for work, and every real strength which is not disguised +weakness, 'a lath painted to look like iron,' come on condition of +our keeping close by God. The Fountain is open for you all; see to +it that you resort thither. + +II. And now the second thought of my text is that the bearer of the +radiance is unconscious of it. + +'Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.' In all regions of +life, the consummate apex and crowning charm of excellence is +unconsciousness of excellence. Whenever a man begins to imagine that +he is good, he begins to be bad; and every virtue and beauty of +character is robbed of some portion of its attractive fairness when +the man who bears it knows, or fancies, that he possesses it. The +charm of childhood is its perfect unconsciousness, and the man has +to win back the child's heritage, and become 'as a little child,' if +he would enter into and dwell in the 'Kingdom of Heaven.' And so in +the loftiest region of all, that of the religious life, you may be +sure that the more a man is like Christ, the less he knows it; and +the better he is, the less he suspects it. The reasons why that is +so, point, at the same time, to the ways by which we may attain to +this blessed self-oblivion. So let me put just in a word or two some +simple, practical thoughts. + +Let us, then, try to lose ourselves in Jesus Christ. That way of +self-oblivion is emancipation and blessedness and power. It is safe +for us to leave all thoughts of our miserable selves behind us, if +instead of them we have the thought of that great, sweet, dear Lord, +filling mind and heart. A man walking on a tight-rope will be far +more likely to fall, if he is looking at his toes, than if he is +looking at the point to which he is going. If we fix our eyes on +Jesus, then we can safely look, neither to our feet nor to the +gulfs; but straight at Him gazing, we shall straight to Him advance. +'Looking off' from ourselves 'unto Jesus' is safe; looking off +anywhere else is peril. Seek that self-oblivion which comes from +self being swallowed up in the thought of the Lord. + +And again, I would say, think constantly and longingly of the +unattained. 'Brethren! I count not myself to have apprehended.' +Endless aspiration and a stinging consciousness of present +imperfection are the loftiest states of man here below. The +beholders down in the valley, when they look up, may see our figures +against the skyline, and fancy us at the summit, but our loftier +elevation reveals untrodden heights beyond; and we have only risen +so high in order to discern more clearly how much higher we have to +rise. Dissatisfaction with the present is the condition of +excellence in all pursuits of life, and in the Christian life even +more eminently than in all others, because the goal to be attained +is in its very nature infinite; and therefore ensures the blessed +certainty of continual progress, accompanied here, indeed, with the +sting and bite of a sense of imperfection, but one day to be only +sweetness, as we think of how much there is yet to be won in addition +to the perfection of the present. + +So, dear friends, the best way to keep ourselves unconscious of +present attainments is to set our faces forward, and to make 'all +experience' as 'an arch wherethro' gleams that untraveiled world to +which we move.' 'Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.' + +The third practical suggestion that I would make is, cultivate a +clear sense of your own imperfections. We do not need to try to +learn our goodness. That will suggest itself to us only too clearly; +but what we do need is to have a very clear sense of our +shortcomings and failures, our faults of temper, our faults of +desire, our faults in our relations to our fellows, and all the +other evils that still buzz and sting and poison our blood. Has not +the best of us enough of these to knock all the conceit out of us? A +true man will never be so much ashamed of himself as when he is +praised, for it will always send him to look into the deep places of +his heart, and there will be a swarm of ugly, creeping things under +the stones there, if he will only turn them up and look beneath. So +let us lose ourselves in Christ, let us set our faces to the +unattained future, let us clearly understand our own faults and +sins. + +III. Thirdly, the strong man made weak is unconscious of his +weakness. + +I do not mean here to touch at all upon the general thought that, by +its very nature, all evil tends to make us insensitive to its +presence. Conscience becomes dull by practice of sin and by neglect +of conscience, until that which at first was as sensitive as the +palm of a little child's hand becomes as if it were 'seared with a +hot iron.' The foulness of the atmosphere of a crowded hall is not +perceived by the people in it. It needs a man to come in from the +outer air to detect it. We can accustom ourselves to any mephitic +and poisonous atmosphere, and many of us live in one all our days, +and do not know that there is any need of ventilation or that the +air is not perfectly sweet. The 'deceitfulness' of sin is its great +weapon. + +But what I desire to point out is an even sadder thing than that--namely, +that Christian people may lose their strength because they +let go their hold upon God, and know nothing about it. Spiritual +declension, all unconscious of its own existence, is the very +history of hundreds of nominal Christians amongst us, and, I dare +say, of some of us. The very fact that you do not suppose the +statement to have the least application to yourself is perhaps the +very sign that it does apply. When the lifeblood is pouring out of a +man, he faints before he dies. The swoon of unconsciousness is the +condition of some professing Christians. Frost-bitten limbs are +quite comfortable, and only tingle when circulation is coming back. +I remember a great elm-tree, the pride of an avenue in the south, +that had spread its branches for more years than the oldest man +could count, and stood, leafy and green. Not until a winter storm +came one night and laid it low with a crash did anybody suspect what +everybody saw in the morning--that the heart was eaten out of it, +and nothing left but a shell of bark. Some Christian people are like +that; they manage to grow leaves, and even some fruit, but when the +storm comes they will go down, because the heart has been out of +their religion for years. 'Samson wist not that the Lord was +departed from him.' + +And so, brother, because there are so many things that mask the +ebbing away of a Christian life, and because our own self-love and +habits come in to hide declension, let me earnestly exhort you and +myself to watch ourselves very narrowly. Unconsciousness does not +mean ignorant presumption or presumptuous ignorance. It is difficult +to make an estimate of ourselves by poking into our own sentiments +and supposed feelings and convictions, and the estimate is likely to +be wrong. There is a better way than that. Two things tell what a +man is--one, what he wants, and the other, what he does. As the will +is, the man is. Where do the currents of your desires set? If you +watch their flow, you may be pretty sure whether your religious life +is an ebbing or a rising tide. The other way to ascertain what we +are is rigidly to examine and judge what we do. 'Let us search and +try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.' Actions are the true test +of a man. Conduct is the best revelation of character, especially in +regard to ourselves. So let us 'watch and be sober'--sober in our +estimate of ourselves, and determined to find every lurking evil, +and to drag it forth into the light. + +Again, let me say, let us ask God to help us. 'Search me, O God! and +try me.' We shall never rightly understand what we are, unless we +spread ourselves out before Him and crave that Divine Spirit, who is +'the candle of the Lord,' to be carried ever in our hands into the +secret recesses of our sinful hearts. 'Anoint thine eyes with eye +salve that thou mayest see,' and get the eye salve by communion with +God, who will supply thee a standard by which to try thy poor, +stained, ragged righteousness. The _collyrium_, the eye salve, +may be, will be, painful when it is rubbed into the lids, but it +will clear the sight; and the first work of Him, whose dearest name +is _Comforter_, is to convince of sin. + +And, last of all, let us keep near to Jesus Christ, near enough to +Him to feel His touch, to hear His voice, to see His face, and to +carry down with us into the valley some radiance on our countenances +which may tell even the world, that we have been up where the Light +lives and reigns. + +'Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have +need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and +miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I counsel thee to buy of +Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white +raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy +nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that +thou mayest see,' + + + + +AN OLD SUBSCRIPTION LIST + + + 'And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, + and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they + brought the Lord's offering to the work....' + --EXODUS xxxv. 21. + +This is the beginning of the catalogue of contributions towards the +erection of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. It emphasises the +purely spontaneous and voluntary character of the gifts. There was +plenty of compulsory work, of statutory contribution, in the Old +Testament system of worship. Sacrifices and tithes and other things +were imperative, but the Tabernacle was constructed by means of +undemanded offerings, and there were parts of the standing ritual +which were left to the promptings of the worshipper's own spirit. +There was always a door through which the impulses of devout hearts +could come in, to animate what else would have become dead, +mechanical compliance with prescribed obligations. That spontaneous +surrender of precious things, not because a man must give them, but +because he delights in letting his love come to the surface and find +utterance in giving which is still more blessed than receiving, had +but a narrow and subordinate sphere of action assigned to it in the +legal system of the Old Covenant, but it fills the whole sphere of +Christianity, and becomes the only kind of offering which +corresponds to its genius and is acceptable to Christ. We may look, +then, not merely at the words of our text, but at the whole section +of which they form the introduction, and find large lessons for +ourselves, not only in regard to the one form of Christian service +which is pecuniary liberality, but in reference to all which we have +to do for Jesus Christ, in the picture which it gives us of that +eager crowd of willing givers, flocking to the presence of the +lawgiver, with hands laden with gifts so various in kind and value, +but all precious because freely and delightedly brought, and all +needed for the structure of God's house. + +I. We have set forth here the true motive of acceptable service. + +'They came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom +his spirit made willing.' There is a striking metaphor in that last +word. Wherever the spirit is touched with the sweet influences of +God's love, and loves and gives back again, that spirit is buoyant, +lifted, raised above the low, flat levels where selfishness feeds +fat and then rots. The spirit is raised by any great and unselfish +emotion. There is buoyancy and glad consciousness of elevation in +all the self-sacrifice of love, which dilates and lifts the spirit +as the light gas smoothes out the limp folds of silk in a balloon, +and sends it heavenwards, a full sphere. Only service or surrender, +which is thus cheerful because it is the natural expression of love, +is true service in God's sight. Whosoever, then, had his spirit +raised and made buoyant by a great glad resolve to give up some +precious thing for God's sanctuary, came with his gift in his hand, +and he and it were accepted. That trusting of men's giving to +spontaneous liberality was exceptional under the law. It is normal +under the Gospel, and has filled the whole field, and driven out the +other principle of statutory and constrained service and sacrifice +altogether. We have its feeble beginnings in this incident. It is +sovereign in Christ's Church. There are no pressed men on board +Christ's ship. None but volunteers make up His army. 'Thy people +shall be willing in the day of Thy might.' He cares nothing for any +service but such as it would be pain to keep back; nothing for any +service which is not given with a smile of glad thankfulness that we +are able to give it. + +And for the true acceptableness of Christian service, that motive of +thankful love must be actually present in each deed. It is not +enough that we should determine on and begin a course of sacrifice +or work under the influence of that great motive, unless we renew it +at each step. We cannot hallow a row of actions in that wholesale +fashion by baptizing the first of them with the cleansing waters of +true consecration, while the rest are done from lower motives. Each +deed must be sanctified by the presence of the true motive, if it is +to be worthy of Christ's acceptance. But there is a constant +tendency in all Christian work to slide off its only right +foundation, and having been begun 'in the spirit,' to be carried on +'in the flesh.' Constant watchfulness is needed to resist this +tendency, which, if yielded to, destroys the worth and power, and +changes the inmost nature, of apparently devoted and earnest +service. + +Not the least subtle and dangerous of these spurious motives which +steal in surreptitiously to mar our work for Christ is habit. +Service done from custom, and representing no present impulse of +thankful devotion, may pass muster with us, but does it do so with +God? No doubt a habit of godly service is, in some aspects, a good, +and it is well to enlist that tremendous power of custom which sways +so much of our lives, on the side of godliness. But it is not good, +but, on the contrary, pure loss, when habit becomes mechanical, and, +instead of making it easier to call up the true motive, excludes +that motive, and makes it easy to do the deed without it. I am +afraid that if such thoughts were applied as a sieve to sift the +abundant so-called Christian work of the present day, there would be +an alarming and, to the workers, astonishing quantity of refuse that +would not pass the meshes. + +Let us, then, try to bring every act of service nominally done for +Christ into conscious relation with the motive which ought to be its +parent; for only the work that is done because our spirits lift us +up, and our hearts are willing, is work that is accepted by Him, and +is blessed to us. + +And how is that to be secured? How is that glad temper of +spontaneous and cheerful consecration to be attained and maintained? +I know of but one way. 'Brethren,' said the Apostle, when he was +talking about a very little matter--some small collection for a +handful of poor people--'ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, +how that, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that +we, through His poverty, might become rich.' Let us keep our eyes +fixed upon that great pattern of and motive for surrender; and our +hearts will become willing, touched with the fire that flamed in +His. There is only one method of securing the gladness and +spontaneousness of devotion and of service, and that is, living very +near to Jesus Christ, and drinking in for ourselves, as the very +wine that turns to blood and life in our veins, the spirit of that +dear Master. Every one whose heart is lifted up will have it lifted +up because it holds on by Him who hath ascended up, and who, being +'lifted up, draws all men to Him.' The secret of consecration is +communion with Jesus Christ. + +The appeal to lower motives is often tempting, but always a mistake. +Continual contact with Jesus Christ, and realisation of what He has +done for us, are sure to open the deep fountains of the heart, and +to secure abundant streams. If we can tap these perennial reservoirs +they will yield like artesian wells, and need no creaking machinery +to pump a scanty and intermittent supply. We cannot trust this +deepest motive too much, nor appeal to it too exclusively. + +Let me remind you, too, that Christ's appeal to this motive leaves +no loophole for selfishness or laziness. Responsibility is all the +greater because we are left to assess ourselves. The blank form is +sent to us, and He leaves it to our honour to fill it up. Do not +tamper with the paper, for remember there is a Returning Officer +that will examine your schedule, who knows all about your +possessions. So, when He says, 'Give as you like; and I do not want +anything that you do not like,' remember that 'Give as you like' +ought to mean, 'Give as you, who have received everything from Me, +are bound to give.' + +II. We get here the measure of acceptable work. + +We have a long catalogue, very interesting in many respects, of the +various gifts that the people brought. Such sentences as these occur +over and over again--'And every man with whom was found' so-and-so +'brought it'; 'And all the women did spin with their hands, and +brought that which they had spun'; 'And the rulers brought' so-and- +so. Such statements embody the very plain truism that what we have +settles what we are bound to give. Or, to put it into grander words, +capacity is the measure of duty. Our work is cut out for us by the +faculties and opportunities that God has given us. + +That is a very easy thing to say, but it is an uncommonly hard thing +honestly to apply. For there are plenty of people that are smitten +with very unusual humility whenever you begin to talk to them about +work. 'It is not in my way,' 'I am not capable of that kind of +service,' and so on, and so on. One would believe in the genuineness +of the excuse more readily if there were anything about which such +people said, 'Well, I _can_ do that, at all events'; but such +an all-round modesty, which is mostly observable when service is +called for, is suspicious. It might be well for some of these +retiring and idle Christians to remember the homely wisdom of 'You +never know what you can do till you try.' On the other hand, there +are many Christians who, for want of honest looking into their own +power, for want of what I call sanctified originality, are content +to run in the ruts that other people's vehicles have made, without +asking themselves whether that is the gauge that their wheels are +fit for. Both these sets of people flagrantly neglect the plain law +that what we have settles what we should give. + +The form as well as the measure of our service is determined +thereby. 'She hath done what she could,' said Jesus Christ about +Mary. We often read that, as if it were a kind of apology for a +sentimental and useless gift, because it was the best that she could +bestow. I do not hear that tone in the words at all. I hear, rather, +this, that duty is settled by faculty, and that nobody else has any +business to interfere with that which a Christian soul, all aflame +with the love of God, finds to be the spontaneous and natural +expression of its devotion to the Master. The words are the +vindication of the form of loving service; but let us not forget +that they are also a very stringent requirement as to its measure, +if it is to please Christ. 'What she could'; the engine must be +worked up to the last ounce of pressure that it will stand. All must +be got out of it that can be got out of it. Is that the case about +us? We talk about hard work for Christ. Have any of us ever, worked +up to the edge of our capacity? I am afraid that if the principles +that lie in this catalogue were applied to us, whether about our +gold and silver, or about our more precious spiritual and mental +possessions, _we_ could not say, 'Every man with whom was +found' this, that, and the other, 'brought it for the work.' + +III. Notice, again, how in this list of offerings there comes out +the great thought of the infinite variety of forms of service and +offering, which are all equally needful and equally acceptable. + +The list begins with 'bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and +tablets, all jewels of gold.' And then it goes on to 'blue, and +purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and red skins of rams, and +badgers' skins, and shittim wood.' And then we read that the 'women +did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun'--namely, +the same things as have been already catalogued, 'the blue, +and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.' That looks as if the +richer gave the raw material, and the women gave the labour. Poor +women! they could not give, but they could spin. They had no stores, +but they had ten fingers and a distaff, and if some neighbour found +the stuff, the ten fingers joyfully set the distaff twirling, and +spun the yarn for the weavers. Then there were others who willingly +undertook the rougher work of spinning, not dainty thread for the +rich soft stuffs whose colours were to glow in the sanctuary, but +the coarse black goat's hair which was to be made into the heavy +covering of the roof of the tabernacle. No doubt it was less +pleasant labour than the other, but it got done by willing hands. +And then, at the end of the whole enumeration, there comes, 'And the +rulers brought precious stones, and spices, and oil,' and all the +expensive things that were needed. The large subscriptions are at +the bottom of the list, and the smaller ones are in the place of +honour. All this just teaches us this--what a host of things of all +degrees of preciousness in men's eyes go to make God's great +building! + +So various were the requirements of the work on hand. Each man's +gift was needed, and each in its place was equally necessary. The +jewels on the high-priest's breastplate were no more nor less +essential than the wood that made some peg for a curtain, or than +the cheap goat's-hair yarn that was woven into the coarse cloth +flung over the roof of the Tabernacle to keep the wet out. All had +equal consecration, because all made one whole. All was equally +precious, if all was given with the same spirit. So there is room +for all sorts of work in Christ's great house, where there are not +only 'vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth,' +and all 'unto honour ... meet for the Master's use.' The smallest +deed that co-operates to a great end is great. 'The more feeble are +necessary.' Every one may find a corner where his special possession +will work into the general design. If I have no jewels to give, I +can perhaps find some shittim wood, or, if I cannot manage even +that, I can at least spin some other person's yarn, even though I +have only a distaff, and not a loom to weave it in. Many of us can +do work only when associated with others, and can render best +service by helping some more highly endowed. But all are needed, and +welcomed, and honoured, and rewarded. The owner of all the slaves +sets one to be a water-carrier, and another to be his steward. It is +of little consequence whether the servant be Paul or Timothy, the +Apostle or the Apostle's helper. 'He worketh the work of the Lord, +as I also do,' said the former about the latter. All who are +associated in the same service are on one level. + +I remember once being in the treasury of a royal palace. There was a +long gallery in which the Crown valuables were stored. In one +compartment there was a great display of emeralds, and diamonds, and +rubies, and I know not what, that had been looted from some Indian +rajah or other. And in the next case there lay a common quill pen, +and beside it a little bit of discoloured coarse serge. The pen had +signed some important treaty, and the serge was a fragment of a flag +that had been borne triumphant from a field where a nation's +destinies had been sealed. The two together were worth a farthing at +the outside, but they held their own among the jewels, because they +spoke of brain-work and bloodshed in the service of the king. Many +strangely conjoined things lie side by side in God's jewel-cases. +Things which people vulgarly call large and valuable, and what +people still more vulgarly call small and worthless, have a way of +getting together there. For in that place the arrangement is not +according to what the thing would fetch if it were sold, but what +was the thought in the mind and the emotion in the heart which gave +it. Jewels and camel's hair yarn and gold and silver are all massed +together. Wood is wanted for the Temple quite as much as gold and +silver and precious stones. + +So, whatever we have, let us bring that; and whatever we are, let us +bring that. If we be poor and our work small, and our natures +limited, and our faculties confined, it does not matter. A man is +accepted 'according to that he hath, and not according to that he +hath not.' God does not ask how much we have given or done, if we +have given or done what we could. But He does ask how much we have +kept back, and takes strict account of the unsurrendered +possessions, the unimproved opportunities, the unused powers. He +gives much who gives all, though his all be little; he gives little +who gives a part, though the part be much. The motive sanctifies the +act, and the completeness of the consecration magnifies it. 'Great' +and 'small' are not words for God's Kingdom, in which the standard +is not quantity but quality, and quality is settled by the purity of +the love which prompts the deed, and the consequent thoroughness of +self-surrender which it expresses. Whoever serves God with a whole +heart will render to Him a whole strength, and will thus bring Him +the gifts which He most desires. + + + + +THE COPIES OF THINGS IN THE HEAVENS + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. On the first + day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle + of the tent of the congregation. 3. And thou shalt put + therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with + the vail. 4. And thou shalt bring in the table, and set + in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; + and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the + lamps thereof. 5. And thou shalt set the altar of gold + for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put + the hanging of the door to the tabernacle. 6. And thou + shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the + door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. + 7. And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the + congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein. + 8. And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang + up the hanging at the court gate. 9. And thou shalt take + the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all + that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels + thereof: and it shall be holy. 10. And thou shalt anoint + the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, + and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most + holy. 11. And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, + and sanctify it. 12. And thou shalt bring Aaron and his + sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, + and wash them with water. 13. And thou shalt put upon + Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify + him; that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. + 14. And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with + coats: 15. And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst + anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in + the priest's office; for their anointing shall surely + be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations. + 16. Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord + commanded him, so did he.'--EXODUS xl. 1-16. + +The Exodus began on the night after the fourteenth day of the first +month. The Tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first +month; that is, one year, less a fortnight, after the Exodus. Exodus +xix. 1 shows that the march to Sinai took nearly three months; and +if to this we add the eighty days of Moses' seclusion on the +mountain, we get about six months as occupied in preparing the +materials for the Tabernacle. 'Setting it up' was a short process, +done in a day. The time specified was ample to get ready a wooden +framework of small dimensions, with some curtains and coverings of +woven stuffs. What a glad stir there would be in the camp on that +New Year's day, when the visible token of God's dwelling in its +midst first stood there! Our present purpose is simply to try to +bring out the meaning of the Tabernacle and its furniture. It was +both a symbol and a type; that is, it expressed in material form +certain great religious needs and truths; and, just because it did +so, it pointed onwards to the full expression and satisfaction of +these in Christ Jesus and His gifts. In other words, it was a +parable of the requisites for, and the blessings of, communion with +God. + +Note, then, first, the general lesson of the Tabernacle as a whole. +Its name declares its meaning, 'the tent of meeting' (Rev. Ver.). It +was the meeting-place of God with man, as the name is explained in +Exodus xxix. 42, 'where I will meet with you, to speak there unto +thee.' It is also named simply 'the dwelling'; that is, of God. It +was pitched in the midst of the camp, like the tent of the king with +his subjects clustered round him. Other nations had temples, like +the solemn structures of Egypt; but this slight, movable sanctuary +was a new thing, and spoke of the continual presence of Israel's +God, and of His loving condescension in sharing their wandering +lives, and, like them, dwelling 'within curtains.' It was a visible +representation of a spiritual fact for the then present; it was a +parable of the inmost reality of communion between man and God; and +it was, therefore, a prophecy both of the full realisation of His +presence among men, in the temple of Christ's body, and of the yet +future communion of Heaven, which is set before us by the 'great +voice ... saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.' + +The threefold division into court of the worshippers, holy place for +the priests, and holiest of all, was not peculiar to the Tabernacle. +It signifies the separation which, after all nearness, must still +exist. God is unrevealed after all revelation; afar off, however +near; shrouded in the utter darkness of the inmost shrine, and only +approached by the priestly intercessor with the blood of the +sacrifice. Like all the other arrangements of the Sanctuary, the +division of its parts declares a permanent truth, which has +impressed itself on the worship of all nations; and it reveals God's +way of meeting the need by outward rites for the then present, and +by the mediation of the great High-Priest in the time to come, whose +death rent the veil, and whose life will, one day, make the holiest +place in the heavens patent to our feet. + +The enumeration of the furniture of the Tabernacle starts from the +innermost shrine, and goes outward. It was fit that it should begin +with God's special abode. The 'holy of holies' was a tiny chamber, +closed in from light, the form, dimensions, materials, and furniture +of which were all significant. It measured ten cubits, or fifteen +feet, every way, thereby expressing, in its cubical form and in the +predominance of the number ten, stability and completeness. It will +be remembered that the same cubical form is given to the heavenly +city, in the Apocalypse, for the same reason. There, in the thick +darkness, unseen by mortals except for the one approach of the high- +priest on the day of atonement, dwelt the 'glory' which made light +in the darkness, and flashed on the gold which covered all things in +the small shrine. + +Our lesson does not speak of cherubim or mercy-seat, but specifies +only the ark of the testimony. This was a small chest of acacia +wood, overlaid with gold, and containing the two tables of the law, +which were called the testimony, as bearing witness to Israel of +God's will concerning their duty, and as therein bearing witness, +too, of what He is. Nor must the other part of the witness-bearing +of the law be left out of view,--that it testifies against the +transgressors of itself. The ark was the centre-point of the divine +revelation, the very throne of God; and it is profoundly significant +that its sole contents should be the tables of stone. Egyptian arks +contained symbols of their gods, degrading, bestial, and often +impure; but the true revelation was a revelation, to the moral +sense, of a Being who loves righteousness. Other faiths had their +mysteries, whispered in the inmost shrine, which shunned the light +of the outer courts; but here the revelation within the veil was the +same as that spoken on the house-tops. Our lesson does not refer to +the 'mercy seat,' which covered the ark above, and spoke the need +for, and the provision of, a means whereby the witness of the law +against the worshipper's sins should be, as it were, hid from the +face of the enthroned God. The veil which is referred to in verse 3 +was that which hung between the holy of holies and the holy place. +It did not 'cover the ark,' as the Authorised Version unfortunately +renders, but 'screened' it, as the Revised Version correctly gives +it. It blazed with colour and embroidered figures of cherubim. No +doubt, the colours were symbolical; but it is fancy, rather than +interpretation, which seeks meanings beyond splendour in the blue +and purple and crimson and white which were blended in its gorgeous +folds. What is it which hangs, in ever-shifting hues, between man +and God? The veil of creation, embroidered by His own hand with +beauty and life, which are symbolised in the cherubim, the types of +the animate creation. The two divisions of the Tabernacle, thus +separated by the veil, correspond to earth and heaven; and that +application of the symbol is certainly intended, though not +exclusively. + +We step, then, from the mystery of the inner shrine out to the +comparatively inferior sacredness of the 'holy place,' daily trodden +by the priests. Three articles stand in it: the table for the so- +called shew-bread, the great lampstand, and the golden altar of +incense. Of these, the altar was in the midst, right in the path to +the holiest place; and on the right, looking to the veil, the table +of shew-bread; while on the left was the lampstand. These three +pieces of furniture were intimately connected with each other, and +represented various aspects of the spiritual character of true +worshippers. The holy place was eminently the people's, just as the +most holy place was eminently God's. True, only the priests entered +it; but they did so on behalf of the nation. We may expect, +therefore, to find special reference to the human side of worship in +its equipments; and we do find it. Of the three articles, the altar +of incense was in idea, as in locality, the centre; and we consider +it first, though it stands last in our list, suggesting that, in +coming from the most holy place, the other two would be first +encountered. The full details of its construction and use are found +in Exodus xxx. Twice a day sweet incense was burned on it, and no +other kind of sacrifice was permitted; but once a year it was +sprinkled, by the high priest, with expiatory blood. The meaning is +obvious. The symbolism of incense as representing prayer in frequent +in Scripture, and most natural. What could more beautifully express +the upward aspirations of the soul, or the delight of God in these, +than the incense sending up its wreaths of fragrant smoke? Incense +gives no fragrance nor smoke till it is kindled; and the censer has +to be constantly swung to keep up the glow, without which there will +be no 'odour of a sweet smell.' So cold prayers are no prayers, but +are scentless, and unapt to rise. The heart must be as a coal of +fire, if the prayer is to come up before God with acceptance. Twice +a day the incense was kindled; and all day long, no doubt, it +smouldered, 'a perpetual incense before the Lord.' So, in the life +of true communion, there should be daily seasons of special +devotion, and a continual glow. The position of the altar of incense +was right in the line between the altar of burnt offering, in the +outer court, and the entrance to the holiest place; by which we are +taught that acceptable prayer follows on reconciliation by +sacrifice, and leads into 'the secret place of the Most High.' The +yearly atonement for the altar taught that evil imperfection cleaves +to all our devotion, which needs and receives the sprinkling of the +blood of the great sacrifice. + +The great seven-branched candlestick, or lampstand, stood on the +right of the altar, as the priest looked to the most holy place. Its +meaning is plain. It is an emblem of the Church as recipient and +communicative of light, in all the applications of that metaphor, to +a dark world. As the sacred lamps streamed out their hospitable rays +into the desert all the night, so God's servants are lights in the +world. The lamps burned with derived light, which had to be fed as +well as kindled. So we are lighted by the touch of the great Aaron, +and His gentle hand tends the smoking wick, and nourishes it to a +flame. We need the oil of the Spirit to sustain the light. The lamp +was a clustered light, representing in its metal oneness the formal +and external unity of Israel. The New Testament unity is of a better +kind. The seven candlesticks are made one because He walks in the +midst, not because they are welded on to one stem. + +Consistency of symbolism requires that the table of shew-bread +should, like the altar and the candlestick, express some phase of +true worship. Its interpretation is less obvious than that of the +other two. The name means literally 'bread of the face'; that is, +bread presented to, and ever lying before, God. There are two +explanations of the meaning. One sees in the offering only a devout +recognition of God as the author of material blessing, and a +rendering to Him of His gifts of outward nourishment. In this case, +the shew-bread would be anomalous, a literality thrust into the +midst of symbolism. The other explanation keeps up the congruity, by +taking the material bread, which is the result of God's blessing on +man's toil, as a symbol of the spiritual results of God's blessing +on man's spiritual toil, or, in other words, of practical +righteousness or good works, and conceives that these are offered to +God, by a strong metaphor, as acceptable food. It is a bold +representation, but we may quote 'I will sup with him' as proof that +it is not inadmissible; and it is not more bold than the declaration +that our obedience is 'an odour of a sweet smell.' So the three +pieces of furniture in the holy place spoke of the true Israel, when +cleansed by sacrifice and in communion with God, as instant in +prayer, continually raying out the light derived from Him, and +zealous of good works, well-pleasing to God. + +We pass outwards, through another veil, and stand in the court, +which was always open to the people. There, before the door of the +Tabernacle, was the altar of burnt offering. The order of our +chapter brings us to it last, but the order of worship brought the +worshipper to it first. Its distinctive character was that on it the +blood of the slain sacrifices was offered. It was the place where +sinful men could begin to meet with God, the foundation of all the +communion of the inner sanctuary. We need not discuss mere details +of form and the like. The great lesson taught by the altar and its +place, is that reconciliation is needed, and is only possible by +sacrifice. As a symbol it taught every Israelite what his own +conscience, once awakened, endorsed, that sin must be expiated +before the sinner and God can walk in concord. As prophecy, it +assured those whose hearts were touched with longing, that God would +Himself 'provide the lamb for the burnt offering,' in some way as +yet unknown. For us it is an intended prefiguration of the great +work of Jesus Christ. 'We have an altar.' We need that altar at the +beginning of our fellowship with God, as much as Israel did. A +Christianity which does not start from the altar of burnt offering +will never get far into the holy place, nor ever reach that +innermost shrine where the soul lives and adores, silent before the +manifest God between the cherubim. + +The laver, or basin, was intended for the priests' use, in washing +hands and feet before ministering at the altar or entering the +tabernacle. It teaches the necessity for purity, in order to +priestly service. + +Thus these three divisions of the Tabernacle and its court set forth +the stages in the approach of the soul to God, beginning with the +reconciling sacrifice and cleansing water, advancing to closer +communion by prayer, impartation of light received, and offering of +good works to God, and so entering within the veil into secret +sweetnesses of union with God, which attains its completeness only +when we pass from the holy place on earth to the most holy in the +heavens. + +The remainder of the text can only be glanced at in a sentence or +two. It consists of two parts: the consecration of the Tabernacle +and its vessels by the anointing oil which, when applied to +inanimate objects, simply devoted them to sacred uses, and the +consecration of Aaron and his sons. A fuller account is given in +Leviticus viii., from which we learn that it was postponed to a +later period, and accompanied with a more elaborate ritual than that +prescribed here. That consists of three parts: washing, as +emblematic of communicated purity; robing, and anointing,--the last +act signifying, when applied to men, their endowment with so much of +the divine Spirit as fitted them for their theocratic functions. +These three things made the 'sanctifying,' or setting apart for +God's service, of Aaron and his sons. He is consecrated alone, in +order that his primacy may be clearly indicated. He is consecrated +by Moses as the higher; then the sons are consecrated with the same +ceremonial, to indicate the hereditary priesthood, and the equality +of Aaron's successors with himself. 'They truly were many priests, +because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death,' and +provision for their brief tenure of office was embodied in the +consecration of the sons by the side of the father. Their priesthood +was only 'everlasting' by continual succession of short-lived +holders of the office. But the prediction which closes the text has +had a fulfilment beyond these fleeting, shadowy priests, in Him +whose priesthood is 'everlasting' and 'throughout all generations.' +because 'He ever liveth to make intercession' (Heb. vii. 25). + + + + +THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS + + +THE BURNT OFFERING A PICTURE AND A PROPHECY + + 'And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out + of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, 2. Speak + unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any + man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall + bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and + of the flock. 3. If his offering be a burnt-sacrifice of + the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall + offer it of his own voluntary will, at the door of the + tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. 4. And he + shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; + and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for + him. 5. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord: + and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, + and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that + is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. + 6. And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into + his pieces. 7. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put + fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the + fire: 8. And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the + parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that + is on the fire which is upon the altar: 9. But his inwards + and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall + burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an + offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.' + --LEV. i. 1-9. + +In considering the Jewish sacrificial system, it is important to +distinguish the symbolical from the typical value of the sacrifices. +The former could scarcely be quite unnoticed by the offerers; but +the latter was only gradually made plain, was probably never very +generally seen, and is a great deal clearer to us, in the light of +Christ, the Antitype, than it could ever have been before His +coming. As symbols, the sacrifices expressed great eternal truths as +to spiritual worship and communion, its hindrances, requisites, +manner, and blessings. They were God's picture-book for these +children in religious development. As types, they shadowed the work +of Jesus Christ and its results. + +The value of the sacrifices in either aspect is independent of +modern questions as to their Mosaic origin; for at whatever period +the Priest's Code was promulgated, it equally bears witness to the +ruling ideas of the offerings, and, in any case, it was long before +Christ came, and therefore its prophecy of Him is as supernatural, +whether Moses or Ezra were its author. I make this remark, not as +implying that the new theory is not revolutionary, but simply as +absolving a student of the religious significance of the sacrificial +system from entering here on questions of date. + +The 'burnt offering' stands first in Leviticus for several reasons. +It was derived from patriarchal times; it was offered twice daily, +besides frequently on other occasions; and in its significance it +expressed the complete consecration which should be the habitual +state of the true worshipper. Its name literally means 'that which +ascends,' and refers, no doubt, to the ascent of the transformed +substance of the sacrifice in fire and smoke, as to God. The central +idea of this sacrifice, then, as gathered from its name and +confirmed by its manner, is that of the yielding of the whole being +in self-surrender, and borne up by the flame of intense consecration +to God. Very beautiful is the variety of material which was +permitted. The poor man's pair of pigeons went up with as sweet an +odour as the rich man's young bull. God delights in the consecration +to Him of ourselves and our powers, no matter whether they be great +or small, if only the consecration be thorough, and the whole being +be wrapped in the transforming blaze. + +It is worth while to try to realise the strange and to our eyes +repulsive spectacle of the burnt offering, which is veiled from us +by its sacred associations. The worshipper leads up his animal by +some rude halter, and possibly resisting, to the front of the +Tabernacle, the courts of which he dared not tread, but which was to +him the dwelling-place of God. There by the altar he stands, and, +first pressing his hand with force on the victim's head, he then, +with one swift cut, kills it, and as the warm blood spouts from the +mangled throat, the attendant priest catches it in a basin, and, +standing at the two diagonally opposite corners of the altar in +turn, dashes, with one dexterous twist, half of the contents against +each, so as to wet two sides of the altar with one throw, and the +other two with the other. The offerer then flays the reeking +carcase, tossing the gory hide to the priest as his perquisite, and +cuts up the sacrifice according to a fixed method. His part of the +work is done, and he stands by with bloody hands while the priests +arrange the pieces on the pile on the altar; and soon the odour of +burning flesh and the thick smoke hanging over the altar tell that +the rite is complete. What a scene it must have been when, as on +some great occasions, hundreds of burnt offerings were offered in +succession! The place and the attendants would look to us liker +shambles and butchers than God's house and worshippers. + +Now, if we inquire into the significance of the offering, it turns on +two points--expiation and burning. The former it has in common with +other bloody sacrifices, though it presents features of its own, even +in regard to expiation. But the latter is peculiar to it, and must +therefore be taken to be its special teaching. The stages in the whole +process are five: the presentation, laying on of hands, slaughter, +sprinkling of blood, and burning of the whole carcase. The first three +are alike in this and other sacrifices, the fourth is modified here, +and the last is found here only. Each has its lesson. The offerer has +himself to bring the animal to the door of the Tabernacle, that he may +show his willing surrender of a valuable thing. As he stands there with +his offering, his thoughts would pass into the inner shrine, where God +dwelt; and he would, if he were a true worshipper, feel that while God, +on His part, already dwelt in the midst of the people, he, on the other +hand, can only enter into the enjoyment of His presence by sacrifice. +The offering was to be 'a male without blemish'; for bodily defect +symbolising moral flaw could not be tolerated in the offerings to a +holy God, who requires purity, and will not be put off with less than +a man's best, be it ox or pigeon. 'The torn and the lame and the sick,' +which Malachi charged his generation with bringing, are neither worthy +of God to receive nor of us to offer. When he pressed his hand on the +head of the sacrifice, what was the worshipper meant to think? In all +other instances where hands are laid on, some transference or +communication of gifts or qualities is implied; and it is natural to +suppose that the same meaning attaches to the act here, with such +modifications as the case requires. We find that it was done in +other bloody sacrifices, accompanied with confession. Nothing is +said of confession here; but we cannot dismiss the idea that the +offerer laid his sins on the victim by that striking act, especially +as the very next clause says 'it shall be accepted for him to make +atonement for him.' The atonement was made, as we shall see, by the +application of the blood to the altar; but the possibility of the +victim's blood atoning for the offerer depended on his having laid +his hands on its head. We may perhaps go farther than 'transference +of sins.' Might we not widen the expression, and say 'identification,' +or, to use a word which has become so worn by religious controversy +that it slips through our fingers unnoticed, 'substitution'? Did not the +offerer say in effect, by that act, 'This is I? This animal life shall +die, as I ought to die. It shall go up as a sweet savour to Jehovah, +as my being should.' + +The animal invested with this representative character is next to be +slain by the offerer, not by the priest, who only performed that +part of the ritual in the case of national or public sacrifices. +That was distinctly a vicarious death; and, as inflicted by the hand +of the person represented by the animal, he thereby acknowledged +that its death was the wages of his sin, and allowed the justice of +his condemnation, while he presented this innocent life--innocent +because not that of a moral being--as his substitute. So far the +worshipper's part goes. But now, when the act of expiation is to be +symbolically represented, and, so far as outward sacrifice could, is +to be accomplished, another actor appears. The priest comes forward +as mediator between God and man, and applies the blood to the altar. +The difference between the sprinkling of the blood, in the burnt +offerings and in the other sacrifices, which had expiation for their +principal object, in some of which it was smeared on the horns of +the altar, and, in the most solemn of all, was carried into the +holiest place, and sprinkled on the mercy-seat, suggests that the +essential character of the burnt offering was not expiatory, though +expiation was the foundation on which alone the essential character +could be reared. The application of the blood was the formal act by +which atonement was made. The word rendered 'to make atonement' +means 'to cover'; and the idea conveyed is that the blood, which is +the life of the sacrifice, covers the sins of the offerer, so as to +make them powerless to dam back the love or to precipitate the wrath +of God. + +With this act the expiatory portion of the ritual ends, and we may +here pause to look back for a moment on it as a whole. We have +pointed out the double bearings of the Mosaic ritual as symbolical +and as typical or prophetic. In the former aspect, the emphatic +teaching of this rite is that 'the wages of sin is death,' that +'without shedding of blood there is no remission,' that God has +appointed sacrifice as the means of entering into fellowship with +Him, and that substitution and vicarious penalty are facts in His +government. We may like or dislike these thoughts; we may call them +gross, barbarous, immoral, and the like, but, at all events, we +ought not to deny that they are ingrained in the Mosaic sacrificial +system, which becomes unmeaning elaboration of empty and often +repulsive ceremonies, if they are not recognised as its very centre. +Of course, the meaning of the sacrifices was hidden from many a +worshipper. They became opaque instead of transparent, and hid the +great truth which they were meant to reveal. All forms labour under +that disadvantage; but that they were significant in design, and +largely so to devout hearts in effect, admits of no reasonable +doubt. That which they signified was chiefly the putting away of sin +by the sacrifice of innocent life, which stood in the place of the +guilty. Of course, too, their benefit was symbolical, and the blood +of bulls and goats could never put away sin; but, under the shelter +of the outward forms, a more spiritual insight gradually grew up, +such as breathes in many a psalm, and such as, we cannot doubt, +filled the heart of many a worshipper, as he stood by the bleeding +sacrifice on which his own hands had laid the burden that had +weighed so heavy on himself. How far the prophetic aspect of the +sacrifices was discerned, is a more difficult question. But this at +least we know--that the highest level of evangelical prophecy, in +Isaiah's wonderful fifty-third chapter, is reached from this +vantage-ground. It is the flower of which these ordinances are the +root. We need not enlarge upon the prophetic aspect of the +sacrifice. The mere negative sinlessness of the victim points to the +'Lamb without blemish and without spot,' on whom, as Isaiah says, in +language dyed through and through with sacrificial references, 'the +Lord hath made to meet the iniquity of us all,' and who Himself +makes 'His soul an offering for sin.' The modern tendency to bring +down the sacrificial system to a late date surely sins against the +sacred and all-explaining law of evolution, in the name of which it +is attempted, inasmuch as it is an unheard-of thing for the earlier +stages of a religion to be less clogged with ceremonial than the +later. Psalmist and prophet first, and priest afterwards, is not the +order of development. + +The remaining part of the ritual was, as we have pointed out, +peculiar to the burnt offering. In it alone the whole of the +sacrifice was consumed on the altar, with the exceptions of the +skin, which was given to the priest, and of the contents of the +intestines. Hence it was sometimes called 'a whole burnt offering.' +The meaning of this provision may be apprehended if we note that the +word rendered 'burn,' in verse 9, is not that which simply implies +destruction by fire, but is a peculiar word, reserved for +sacrificial burnings, and meaning 'to cause to ascend in smoke or +vapour.' The gross flesh was, as it were, refined into vapour and +odour, and went up to God as 'a sweet savour.' It expressed, +therefore, the transformation of the sinful human nature of the +worshipper, by the refining power of the fire of God, into something +more ethereal and kindred with the heaven to which it rose. Or, to +put the thought in plainer words, on the basis of expiation, the +glad surrender of the whole being is possible and will ensue; and +when a man yields himself in joyful self-surrender to the God who +has forgiven his sins, then the fire of the divine Spirit is shed +abroad in his heart, and kindles a flame which lays hold on all the +gross, earthly elements of his being, and changes them into fire, +kindred with itself, which aspires, in ruddy tongues of upward- +leaping light, to the God to whom the heart has been surrendered, +and to whom the whole being tends. + +This is the purpose of expiation; this is the summit of all +religion. One man has realised to the full, in his life, what the +burnt offering taught as the goal for all worshippers. Jesus has +lived in the constant exercise of perfect self-surrender, and in the +constant unmeasured possession of 'the Spirit of burning,' with +which He has come to baptize us all. If we look to Him as our +expiation, we should also find in Him the power to yield ourselves +'living sacrifices,' and draw from Him the sacred and refining fire, +which shall transform our grossness into His likeness, and make even +us 'acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ.' + + + + +STRANGE FIRE + + + 'And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of + them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense + thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which + He commanded them not. 2. And there went out fire from + the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the + Lord. 3. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that + the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them + that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be + glorified. And Aaron held his peace. 4. And Moses called + Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of + Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren + from before the sanctuary out of the camp. 5. So they went + near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp; as + Moses had said. 6. And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto + Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons. Uncover not your + heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest + wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, + the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the + Lord hath kindled. 7. And ye shall not go out from the + door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: + for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they + did according to the word of Moses. 8. And the Lord + spake unto Aaron, saying, 9. Do not drink wine nor strong + drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the + tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be + a statute for ever throughout your generations; 10. And + that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and + between unclean and clean; 11. And that ye may teach the + children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath + spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.'--LEV. x. 1-11. + +This solemn story of sin and punishment is connected with the +preceding chapter by a simple 'and.' Probably, therefore, Nadab and +Abihu 'offered strange fire,' immediately after the fire from +Jehovah had consumed the appointed sacrifice. Their sin was +aggravated by the time of its being committed. But a week had passed +since the consecration of their father and themselves as priests. +The first sacrifices had just been offered, and here, in the very +blossoming time, came a vile canker. If such licence in setting +aside the prescriptions of the newly established sacrificial order +asserted itself then, to what lengths might it not run when the +first impression of sanctity and of God's commandment had been worn +by time and custom? The sin was further aggravated by the sinners +being priests, who were doubly obliged to punctilious adherence to +the instituted ritual. If they set the example of contempt, would +not the people better (or, rather, worsen) their instruction? + +Unquestionably, their punishment was awfully severe. But we shall +entirely misconceive their sin if we judge it by our standards. We +are not dependent on forms as Israel was, but the spiritual religion +of Christianity was only made possible by the externalism of the +older system. The sweet kernel would not have softened and become +juicy without the shelter of the hard shell. Scaffolding is needed +to erect a building; and he is not a wise man who either despises or +would keep permanently standing the scaffold poles. + +We draw a broad distinction between positive commandments and moral +or religious obligations. But in the Mosaic legislation that +distinction does not exist. There, all precepts are God's uttered +will, and all disobedience is rebellion against Him. Nor could it be +otherwise at the stage of development which Israel had reached. + +What, then, was the crime of these two rash sons of Aaron? That +involves two questions: What did they do? and What was the sin of +doing it? The former question may be answered in various ways. +Certainly the designation of 'strange fire' seems best explained by +the usual supposition that it means fire not taken from the altar. +The other explanations, which make the sin to have been offering at +an unauthorised time, or offering incense not compounded according +to the prescription, give an unnatural meaning to the phrase. It was +the 'fire' which was wrong,--that is, it was 'fire which they had +kindled,' caught up from some common culinary hearth, or created by +themselves in some way. + +What was their sin in thus offering it? Plainly, the narrative +points to the essence of the crime in calling it 'fire which He had +not commanded.' So this was their crime, that they were tampering +with the appointed order which but a week before they had been +consecrated to conserve and administer; that they were thus +thrusting in self-will and personal caprice, as of equal authority +with the divine commandment; that they were arrogating the right to +cut and carve God's appointments, as the whim or excitement of the +moment dictated; and that they were doing their best to obliterate +the distinction on the preservation of which religion, morality, and +the national existence depended; namely, the distinction between +holy and common, clean and unclean. To plough that distinction deep +into the national consciousness was no small part of the purpose of +the law; and here were two of its appointed witnesses disregarding +it, and flying in its face. The flash of holy fire consuming the +sacrifices had scarcely faded off their eyeballs when they thus +sinned. + +They have had many successors, not only in Israel, while a ritual +demanding punctilious conformity lasted, but in Christendom since. +Alas! our censers are often flaming with 'strange fire.' How much +so-called Christian worship glows with self-will or with partisan +zeal! When we seek to worship God for what we can get, when we rush +into His presence with hot, eager desires which we have not +subordinated to His will, we are burning 'strange fire which He has +not commanded.' The only fire which should kindle the incense in our +censers, and send it up to heaven in fragrant wreaths, is fire +caught from the altar of sacrifice. God must kindle the flame in our +hearts if we are to render these else cold hearts to Him. + + 'The prayers I bring will then be sweet indeed + If Thou the Spirit give, by which I pray.' + +The swift, terrible punishment does indeed bear marks of the +severity of that earlier stage of revelation. But it was not +disproportioned to the offence, and it was not the cruelty of a +martinet who avenged ceremonial lapses with penalties which should +have been kept for moral offences. The surface of the sin was +ceremonial impropriety: the heart of it was flouting Jehovah and His +law. It was better that two men should die, and the whole nation +perish not, as it would have done if their example had been +followed. It is mercy to trample out the first sparks beside a +powder-barrel. + +There is a very striking parallel between verse 2 and the last verse +of the preceding chapter. In both the same expression is used, +'There came forth fire from before the Lord, and consumed' (the word +rendered _devoured_ in verse 2 is the same in Hebrew as _consumed_). So, +then, the same divine fire, which had graciously signified God's +acceptance of the appointed sacrifice, now flashed out with lightning-like +power of destruction, and killed the two rebel priests. There is dormant +potency of destruction in the God who reveals Himself as gracious. The +'wrath of the Lamb' is as real as His gentleness. The Gospel is 'the +savour of life unto life' and 'of death unto death.' + +Moses' word to the stunned father is of a piece with the severity of +the whole incident. No voice of condolence or sympathy comes from +him. The brother is swallowed up in the lawgiver. He puts into words +the meaning of the terrible stroke, and expects Aaron to acquiesce, +though his heart bleeds. What was his interpretation? He saw in it +God's purpose to be 'sanctified in them that come nigh Him.' The +priests were these. Nadab and Abihu had been consecrated for the +purpose of enforcing the truth of God's holiness. They had done the +very opposite, by breaking down the distinction between sacred and +common. + +But their nearness to God brought with it not only corresponding +obligations, but corresponding criminality and penalty, if these +obligations were not discharged. If God is not 'sanctified' +_by_ His servants, He will sanctify Himself _on_ them. If His people +do not set forth His infinite separation from all evil and elevation +above all creatures, He will proclaim these truths in lightning that +kills and thunder that roars. It is a universal law which Moses sternly +spoke to Aaron instead of comfort, bidding him recognise the necessity +of the fearful blow to his paternal heart. 'You only have I known of all +the families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for all your +iniquities.' + +The prohibition to Aaron and his sons to show signs of mourning is +as stern as the rest of the story, and serves to insist upon the +true point of view from which to regard it. For the official +representatives of the divine order of worship to mourn the deaths +of its assailants would have seemed to indicate their murmuring at +God's judgments, and might have led them to participate in the sin +while they lamented its punishment. It is hard to mourn and not to +repine. Affection blinds to the ill-desert of its objects. Nadab's +and Abihu's stark corpses lying in the forecourt of the sanctuary, +and Aaron's dry eyes and undisturbed attire, proclaim the same +truths,--the gravity of the dead men's sin, and the righteous +judgment of God. But the people might sorrow, for _their_ +mourning would help to imprint on them more deeply the lessons of +the dread event. + +While the victims' cousins carried their bodies to their graves in +the sand, their father and brothers had to remain in the Tabernacle, +because 'the anointing oil of Jehovah is upon you.' That oil, as the +symbol of the Spirit, separates those on whom it is poured from all +contact with death, from participation in sin, from the weight of +sorrow. What have immortality, righteousness, joy in the Holy Ghost, +to do with these dark shadows? Those whom God has called to His +immediate service must hold themselves apart from earthly passions, +and must control natural affection, if indulging it imperils their +clear witness to God's righteous will. + +The prohibition (verses 8-11) of wine and strong drink during the +discharge of the priestly functions seems to suggest that Nadab and +Abihu had committed their sin while in some degree intoxicated. Be +that as it may, the prohibition is rested upon the necessity of +preserving, in all its depth and breadth, the distinction between +common and holy which Nadab and Abihu had broken down. That +distinction was to be very present to the priest in his work, and +how could he have the clearness of mind, the collectedness and +composure, the sense of the sanctity of his office, and +ministrations which it requires and gives, if he was under the +influence of strong drink? + +Nothing has more power to blur the sharpness of moral and religious +insight than even a small amount of alcohol. God must be worshipped +with clear brain and naturally beating heart. Not the fumes of wine, +in which there lurks almost necessarily the tendency to 'excess,' +but the being 'filled with the Spirit' supplies the only legitimate +stimulus to devotion. Besides the personal reason for abstinence, +there was another,--namely, that only so could the priests teach the +people 'the statutes' of Jehovah. Lips stained from the wine-cup +would not be fit to speak holy words. Words spoken by such would +carry no power. + +God's servants can never impress on the sluggish conscience of +society their solemn messages from God, unless they are +conspicuously free from self-indulgence, and show by their example +the gulf, wide as between heaven and hell, which parts cleanness +from uncleanness. Our lives must witness to the eternal distinction +between good and evil, if we are to draw men to 'abhor that which is +evil, and cleave to that which is good.' + + + + +THE FIRST STAGE IN THE LEPER'S CLEANSING + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2. This shall be + the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He + shall be brought unto the priest: 3. And the priest + shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall + look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed + in the leper; 4. Then shall the priest command to take + for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, + and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 5. And the + priest shall command that one of the birds be killed + in an earthen vessel over running water: 6. As for the + living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar-wood, and + the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the + living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over + the running water: 7. And he shall sprinkle upon him that + is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall + pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose + into the open field.'--LEV. xiv. 1-7. + +The whole treatment of leprosy is parabolic. Leprosy itself is a +'parable of death.' The horrible loathsomeness, the contagiousness, +the non-curableness, etc. So the man was shut out from camp and from +sanctuary. There was a double process in the cleansing rite, +restoring to each. + +I. Sketch the ceremonial. Two birds, one slain over a vessel of +water so that its blood drained in. Then the living bird was to be +dipped into this water and blood, along with cedar, scarlet, and +hyssop, and the man sprinkled seven times and the living bird set +loose. + +II. The significance. This elaborate symbolism was partly +intelligible even then. Two birds, like the two goats on the +Atonement Day. Did both in some sense symbolise the man? The first +one was not exactly a sacrifice. Its death points to the physical +death which was the end of the disease, but also in some sense its +death symbolised the death by which cleansing was secured. + +_(a)_ The purifying water is made by blood added to it, i.e. +cleansing by sacrifice. + +'By water and by blood.' + +_(b)_ The sevenfold sprinkling. The cedar, symbol of +incorruptibility; the scarlet, of full vital energy; the hyssop, of +purifying. So the thought was suggested of the communication of +cleansing, full health and incorruption, undecaying strength; all +physical contrasts to leprosy sevenfold. + +_(c)_ The free, glad activity. The freed bird. The restored +leper. + + + + +THE DAY OF ATONEMENT + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the + two sons of Aaron when they offered before the Lord, + and died; 2. And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto + Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into + the holy place within the vail before the mercy-seat, + which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear + in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. 3. Thus shall Aaron + come into the holy place; with a young bullock for a sin + offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. 4. He shall + put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen + breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen + girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: + these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his + flesh in water, and so put them on. 5. And he shall take + of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids + of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt + offering. 6. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the + sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement + for himself, and for his house. 7. And he shall take the + two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door + of the tabernacle of the congregation. 8. And Aaron + shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the + Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9. And Aaron + shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and + offer him for a sin offering: 10. But the goat, on which + the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented + alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with Him, + and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. + 11. And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering + which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for + himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock + of the sin offering which is for himself. 12. And he + shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from + off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of + sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: + 13. And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the + Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the + mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: + 14. And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and + sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward; + and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood + with his finger seven times. 15. Then shall he kill the + goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and + bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood + as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it + upon the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat. 16. And + he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because + of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because + of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall + he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that + remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness. + 17. And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the + congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in + the holy place, until he come out, and have made an + atonement for himself, and for his household, and for + all the congregation of Israel. 18. And he shall go out + unto the altar that is before the Lord, and make an + atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the + bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon + the horns of the altar round about. 19. And he shall + sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven + times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness + of the children of Israel.'--LEV. xvi. 1-19. + +The Talmudical treatise on the ritual of the day of atonement is +entitled 'Yoma,' _the_ day, which sufficiently expresses its +importance in the series of sacrificial observances. It was the +confession of the incompleteness of them all, a ceremonial +proclamation that ceremonies do not avail to take away sin; and it +was also a declaration that the true end of worship is not reached +till the worshipper has free access to the holy place of the Most +High. Thus the prophetic element is the very life-breath of this +supreme institution of the old covenant, which therein acknowledges +its own defects, and feeds the hopes of a future better thing. We do +not here consider the singular part of the ritual of the Day of +Atonement which is concerned with the treatment of the so-called +'scapegoat' but confine ourselves to the consideration of that part +of it which was observed in the Tabernacle and was intended to +expiate the sins of the priesthood and of the people. The chapter +connects the rites of the Day of Atonement with the tragic death of +the sons of Aaron, which witnessed to the sanctity of the inner +shrine, as not to be trodden but with the appointed offerings by the +appointed priest; and so makes the whole a divinely given +instruction as to the means by which, and the objects for which, +Aaron may enter within the veil. + +I. In verses 3-10 we have the preliminaries of the sacrifices and a +summary of the rites. First, Aaron was to bathe, and then to robe +himself in pure white. The dress is in singular contrast to the +splendour of his usual official costume, in which he stood before +men as representing God, and evidently signifies the purity which +alone fits for entrance into the awful presence. Thus vested, he +brings the whole of the animals to be sacrificed to the altar,--namely, +for himself and his order, a bullock and a ram; for the people, two +goats and a ram. The goats are then taken by him to the door of the +tent,--and it is to be observed that they are spoken of as both +constituting one sin offering (v. 5). They therefore both belong to +the Lord, and are, in some important sense, one, as was recognised by +the later Rabbinical prescription that they should be alike in colour, +size, and value. The appeal to the lot was an appeal to God to decide +the parts they were respectively to sustain in a transaction which, +in both parts, was really one. The consideration of the meaning of +the ritual for the one which was led away may be postponed for the +present. The preliminaries end with the casting of the lots, and in +later times, with tying the ominous red fillet on the head of the dumb +creature for which so weird a fate was in store. + +II. The first part of the ritual proper (vs. 11-14) is the expiation +for the sins of Aaron and the priesthood, and his entrance into the +most holy place. The bullock was slain in the usual manner of the +sin offering, but its blood was destined for a more solemn use. The +white-robed priest took a censer of burning embers from the altar +before the tent-door, and two hands full of incense, and, thus +laden, passed into the Tabernacle. How the silent crowd in the outer +court would watch the last flutter of the white robe as it was lost +in the gloom within! He passed through the holy place, which, on +every day but this, was the limit of his approach; but, on this one +day, he lifted the curtain, and entered the dark chamber, where the +glory flashed from the golden walls and rested above the ark. Would +not his heart beat faster as he laid his hand on the heavy veil, and +caught the first gleam of the calm light from the Shechinah? As soon +as he entered, he was to cast the incense into the censer, that the +fragrant cloud might cover the mercy-seat. Incense is the symbol of +prayer, and that curling cloud is a picture of the truth that the +purest of men, even the anointed priest, robed in white, who has +offered sacrifices daily all the year round, and today has anxiously +obeyed all the commands of ceremonial cleanliness, can yet only draw +near to God as a suppliant, not entering there as having a right of +access, but beseeching entrance as undeserved mercy. The incense did +not cover 'the glory' that Aaron might not gaze upon it, but it +covered him that Jehovah might not look on his sin. It would appear +that, between verse 13 and verse 14, Aaron's leaving the most holy +place to bring the blood of the sacrifice must be understood. If so, +we can fancy the long-drawn sigh of relief with which the waiting +worshippers saw him return, and carry back into the shrine the +expiating blood. The 'most holy place' would still be filled and its +atmosphere thick with the incense fumes when he returned to perform +the solemn expiation for himself and the whole priestly order. Once +the blood was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, and seven times, +apparently, on the ground in front of it. The former act was +intended, as seems probable, to make atonement for the sins of the +priesthood; the latter, to cleanse the sanctuary from the ideal +defilements arising from their defective and sinful ministrations. + +This completed the part of the ceremonial which belonged immediately +to Aaron and the priests. It carries important lessons. Could there +be a more striking exhibition of their imperfect realisation of the +idea of the priestly office? Observe the anomaly inherent in the +very necessity of the case. Aaron was dressed in the white robes +emblematic of purity; he had partaken in the benefit of, and had +himself offered, sacrifices all the year round. So far as ritual +could go, he was pure, and yet so stained with sin that he dared not +enter into the divine presence without that double safeguard of the +incense and the blood. The priest who cleanses others is himself +unclean, and he and his fellows have tainted the sanctuary by the +very services which were meant to atone and to purify. That solemn +ritual is intended to teach priest and people alike, that every +priest 'taken from among men' fails in his office, and pollutes the +temple instead of purifying the worshipper. But the office was God's +appointment, and therefore would not always be filled by men too +small and sinful for its requirements. There must somewhere and +somewhen be a priest who will be one indeed, fulfilling the divine +ideal of the functions, and answering the deep human longings which +have expressed themselves in all lands, for one, pure with no +ceremonial but a real purity, to bring us to God and God to us, to +offer sacrifice which shall need no after atonement to expiate its +defects, and to stand without incense or blood of sprinkling for +himself in the presence of God for us. The imperfections of the +human holders of the Old Testament offices, whether priest, prophet, +or king, were no less prophecies than their positive qualifications +were. Therefore, when we see Aaron passing into the holy place, we +see the dim shadow of Christ, who 'needeth not to make atonement' +for His own sins, and is our priest 'for ever.' + +III. The ritual for the atonement of the sins of the people follows. +The two goats had been, during all this time, standing at the door +of the Tabernacle. We have already pointed out that they are to be +considered as one sacrifice. There are two of them, for the same +reason, as has been often remarked, as there were two birds in the +ritual of cleansing the leper; namely, because one animal could not +represent the two parts of the one whole truth which they are meant +to set forth. The one was sacrificed as a sin offering, and the +other led away into a solitary land. Here we consider the meaning of +the former only, which presents no difficulty. It is a sin offering +for the people, exactly corresponding to that just offered for the +priests. The same use is made of the blood, which is once sprinkled +by Aaron on the mercy-seat and seven times on the ground before it, +as in the former case. It is not, however, all employed there, but +part of it is carried out into the other divisions of the +Tabernacle; and first, the holy place, which the priests daily +entered and which is called in verse 16 'the tent of meeting,' and +next, the altar of burnt offering in the outer court, are in like +manner sprinkled seven times with the blood, to 'hallow' them 'from +the uncleanness of the children of Israel' (verse 19). The teaching +of this rite, in its bearing upon the people, is similar to that of +the previous priestly expiation. The insufficiency of sacrificial +cleansing is set forth by this annual atonement for sins which had +all been already atoned for. The defects of a ritual worship are +proclaimed by the ritual which cleanses the holy places from the +uncleanness contracted by them from the worshippers. If the altar, +the seat of expiation, itself needed expiation, how imperfect its +worth must be! If the cleansing fountain is foul, how shall it be +cleansed, or how shall it cleanse the offerers? The bearing of the +blood of expiation into the most holy place, where no Israelite ever +entered, save the high priest, taught that the true expiation could +only be effected by one who should pass into the presence of God, +and leave the door wide open for all to enter. For surely the +distance between the worshippers and the mercy-seat was a confession +of imperfection; and the entrance there of the representative of the +sinful people was the holding out of a dim hope that in some +fashion, yet unknown, the veil would be rent, and true communion be +possible for the humble soul. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us +where we are to look for the realities of which these ceremonies +were the foreshadowings. The veil was rent at the crucifixion. +Christ has gone into 'the secret place of the Most High,' and if we +love Him, our hearts have gone with Him, and our lives are 'hid with +Him, in God.' + + + + +'THE SCAPEGOAT' + + + 'And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities + unto a land not inhabited....'-LEV. xvi. 22. + +The import of the remarkable treatment of this goat does not depend +on the interpretation of the obscure phrase rendered in the +Authorised Version 'for the scapegoat.' Leaving that out of sight +for the moment, we observe that the two animals were one sacrifice, +and that the transaction with the living one was the completion of +that with the slain. The sins of the congregation, which had been +already expiated by the sacrifice, were laid by the high priest on +the head of the goat, which was then sent away into the wilderness +that he might 'bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not +inhabited' (v. 22). Nothing depends on the fate of the goat, though, +in after times, it was forced over a precipice and so killed. The +carrying away of expiated sin, and not the destruction of unexpiated +sinners, is the meaning of the impressive rite, and, had it been +possible, the same goat that was sacrificed would have been sent +into the desert. As that could not be done, an ideal unity was +established between the two: the one sacrificed represented the fact +of expiation, the one driven away represented the consequences of +expiation in the complete removal of sin. The expiation was made +'within the veil'; but a visible token of its completeness was given +to help feeble faith, in the blessed mystery of the unseen +propitiation. What was divided in the symbol between the twin goats +is all done by the one Sacrifice, who has entered into the holiest +of all, at once Priest and Sacrifice, and with His own blood made +expiation for sin, and has likewise carried away the sin of the +world into a land of forgetfulness, whence it never can return. + +The clear meaning of the rite is thus obtained, whatever be the +force of the difficult phrase already referred to. 'Scapegoat' is +certainly wrong. But it may be questioned whether the Revised +Version is right in retaining the Hebrew word untranslated, and, by +putting a capital letter to it, marking it as a proper name ('for +Azazel'). The word occurs only here, so that we have no help from +other passages. It seems to come from a root meaning 'to drive +away,' and those who take it to be a proper name, generally suppose +it to refer to some malignant spirit, or to Satan, and interpret it +as meaning 'a fiend whom one drives away,' or, sometimes, 'who +drives away.' The vindication of such an interpretation is supposed +to lie in the necessity of finding a complete antithesis in the +phrase to the 'for Jehovah' of the previous clause in verse 8. But +it is surely sacrificing a good deal to rhetorical propriety to drag +in an idea so foreign to the Pentateuch, and so opposed to the plain +fact, that both goats were one sin offering (v. 5), in order to get +a pedantically correct antithesis. In the absence of any guidance +from usage, certainty as to the meaning of the word is unattainable. +But there seems no reason, other than that of the said antithesis, +against taking it to mean removal or dismissal, rather than 'a +remover.' The Septuagint translates it in both ways: as a person in +verse 8, and as 'sending away' in verse 10. If the latter meaning be +adopted, then the word just defines the same purpose as is given +more at length in verse 22, namely, the carrying away of the sins of +the congregation. The logical imperfection of the opposition in +verse 8 would then be simply enough solved by the fact that while +both goats were 'for the Lord,' one was destined to be actually +offered in sacrifice, and the other to be 'for dismissal.' The +incomplete contrast testifies to the substantial unity of the two, +and needs no introduction, into the most sacred rite of the old +covenant, of a ceremony which looks liker demon-worship than a +parable of the great expiation for a world's sins. + +The question for us is, What spiritual ideas are contained in this +Levitical symbolism? There is signified, surely, the condition of +approach to God. Remember how the Israelites had impressed on their +minds the awful sanctity of 'within the veil.' The inmost shrine was +trodden once a year only by the high priest, and only after anxious +lustrations and when clothed in pure garments, he entered 'with +sacrifice and incense lest he die.' This ritual was for a gross and +untutored age, but the men of that age were essentially like +ourselves, and we have the same sins and spiritual necessities as +they had. + +The two goats are regarded as _one_ sacrifice. They are a 'sin +offering.' Hence, to show how unimportant and non-essential is the +distinction between them, the 'lot' is employed; also, while the one +is being slain, the other stands before the 'door of the +Tabernacle.' This shows that both are parts of one whole, and it is +only from the impossibility of presenting both halves of the truth +to be symbolised in one that two are taken. The one which is slain +represents the sacrifice for sin. The other represents the effects +of that sacrifice. It is never heard of more. 'The Lamb of God +taketh away the sins of the world.' 'As far as the east is from the +west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.' + +I. The perfect removal of all sin is thus symbolised. + +Notice (1) the vivid consciousness of sin which marked Judaism. + +Was it exaggerated or right? + +The same consciousness is part of all of us, but how overlaid! how +stifled! + +That consciousness once awakened has in it these elements--a bitter +sense of sin as mine, involving guilt; despair as to whether I can +ever overcome it; and fearful thoughts of my relation to God which +conscience itself brings. + +(2) The futility of all attempts to remove these fears. + +False religions have next to nothing to say about forgiveness. +Sacrifices and lustrations they have, but no assurance of +absolution. Systems of philosophy and morals have nothing to say but +that the universe goes crashing on, and if you have broken its laws +you must suffer. That is all, or only the poor cheer of 'Well! you +have fallen, get up and go on again!' So men often drug themselves +into forgetfulness. They turn away from the unwelcome subject, and +forget it at the price of all moral earnestness and often of all +happiness; a lethargic sleep or a gaiety, as little real as that of +the Girondins singing in their prison the night before being led out +to the guillotine. + +It is only God's authoritative revelation that can ensure the cure, +only He can assure us of pardon, and of the removal of all barriers +between ourselves and His love. Only His word can ensure, and His +power can effect, the removal of the consequences of our sins. Only +His word can ensure, and His power effect, the removal of the power +of evil on our characters. + +(3) Still the question, Can guilt ever be cancelled? often assumes a +fearful significance. Doubtless much seems to say that it cannot be. + +_(a)_ The irrevocableness of the past. + +_(b)_ The rigid law of consequences in this world. + +_(c)_ The indissoluble unity of an individual life and moral +nature, confirmed by the experience of failure in all attempts at +reformation of self. + +_(d)_ The consciousness of disturbed relations with God, and +the prophecy of judgment. All this that ancient symbol suggested. +The picture of the goat going away, and away, and away, a lessening +speck on the horizon, and never heard of more is the divine symbol +of the great fact that there is full, free, everlasting forgiveness, +and on God's part, utter forgetfulness. 'Though your sins be as +scarlet, they shall be white as snow.' 'I will remember them no more +at all for ever.' + +II. The bearing away of sin is indissolubly connected with +sacrifice. Two goats were provided, of which one was offered for a +sin offering, indicating that sacrifice came first; then the removal +of sin was symbolised by the sending away of the second goat. There +is an evident reference to this sequence in the words 'without +shedding of blood there is no remission.' The two goats represent +Christ's work; the one in its essence, the other in its effect. + +The one teaches that sacrifice is a necessary condition of pardon. +Forgiveness was not given because the offerer confessed his guilt or +because 'God was merciful,' but because the goat had been slain as a +sin offering. There is deep spiritual truth for us in this +symbolism. We do not need to enter on the philosophy of atonement, +but simply to rest on the fact--that the only authority on which we +can be sure of forgiveness at all indissolubly associates the two +things, sacrifice and pardon. We have no reason to believe in +forgiveness except from the Bible record and assurance. + +Was the Mosaic ritual a divinely appointed thing? If so, its +testimony is conclusive. But even if it were only the embodiment of +human aspirations and wants, it would be a strong evidence of the +necessity of some such thing as forgiveness. + +The shallow dream that God's forgiveness can be extended without a +sacrifice having been offered does not exalt but detracts from the +divine character. It invariably leads to an emasculated abhorrence +of evil, and detracts from the holiness of God, as well as +introduces low thoughts of the greatness of forgiveness and of the +infinite love of God. + +III. The bearing away of sin is associated with man's laying of his +sins on the sacrifice appointed by God. + +We have seen that the two goats must be regarded as together making +one whole. The one which was slain made 'atonement ... because of +the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their +transgressions, even all their sins,' but that expiation was not +actually effective till Aaron had 'laid his hands on the head of the +live goat, and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children +of Israel, ... and put them on the head of the live goat, and sent +him away into the wilderness.' The sacrifice of the slain goat did +not accomplish the pardon or removal of the people's sins, but made +it possible that their sins should be pardoned and removed. + +Then the method by which that possibility is realised is the laying +hands on the scapegoat and confessing the sins upon it. The sins +which are actually forgiven, by virtue of the atonement made for all +sins, are those which it bears away to the wilderness. + +This answers, point for point, to repentance and faith. By these the +possibility is turned into an actuality for as many as believe on +Christ. + +Christ has died for sin. Christ has made atonement by which all sin +may be forgiven; whether any shall actually be forgiven depends on +something else. It is conceivable that though Christ died, no sin +might be pardoned, if no man believed. His blood would not, even +then, have been shed in vain, for the purpose of it would have been +fully effected in providing a way by which any and all sin could be +forgiven. So that the whole question whether any man's sin is +pardoned turns on this, Has he laid his hand on Christ? Faith is +only a condition of forgiveness, not a cause, or in itself a power. +There was no healing in the mere laying of the hand on the head of +the goat. + +It was not faith which was the reason for forgiveness, but God's +love which had provided the sacrifice. + +God's will is not a bare will to pardon, nor a bare will to pardon +for Christ's sake, but for Christ's sake to pardon them who believe. +'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.' +'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' 'Through this Man is preached +the remission of sins.' + + + + +THE CONSECRATION OF JOY + + + 'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 34. Speak unto + the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of + this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for + seven days unto the Lord. 35. On the first day shall be + an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. + 36. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire + unto the Lord; on the eighth day shall be an holy + convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made + by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye + shall do no servile work therein. 37. These are the + feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy + convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the + Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, + and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: 38. Beside + the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and + beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill + offerings, which ye give unto the Lord. 39. Also in the + fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered + in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto + the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, + and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 40. And ye + shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly + trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick + trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice + before the Lord your God seven days. 41. And ye shall + keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. + It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye + shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42. Ye shall + dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born + shall dwell in booths: 43. That your generations may + know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in + booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: + I am the Lord your God. 44. And Moses declared unto + the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.' + --LEV. xxiii. 33-44. + +These directions for the observance of the great festival at the +close of harvest are singularly arranged. Verses 33-36 give part of +the instructions for the Feast, verses 37 and 38 interrupt these +with a summary of the contents of the chapter, and verses 39 to the +end pick up the broken thread, and finish the regulations for the +feast. Naturally, this apparent afterthought has been pointed out as +clear evidence of diversity of authorship. But a reasonable +explanation may be given on the hypothesis of the unity of the +section, by observing that verses 33-36 deal only with the +sacrificial side of the feast, as worship proper, and thus come into +line with the previous part of the chapter, which is occupied with +an enumeration of the annual 'feasts of the Lord' (v. 4). It was +natural, therefore, that, when the list had been completed by the +sacrificial prescriptions for the last of the series, the close of +the catalogue should be marked, in verses 37, 38, and that then the +other parts of the observances connected with this feast, which are +not sacrificial, nor, properly speaking, worship, should be added. +There is no need to invoke the supposition of two authors, and a +subsequent stitching together, in order to explain the arrangement. +The unity is all the more probable because, otherwise, the first +half would give the name of the feast as that of 'tabernacles,' and +would not contain a word to account for the name. + +We need not, then, include the separating wedge, in verses 37, 38, +in our present consideration. The ritual of the feast is broadly +divided by it, and we may consider the two portions separately. The +first half prescribes the duration of the feast as seven days (the +perfect number), with an eighth, which is named, like the first, 'an +holy convocation,' on which no work was to be done, but is also +called 'a solemn assembly,' or rather, as the Revised Version reads, +in margin, 'a closing festival,' inasmuch as it closed, not only +that particular feast, but the whole series for the year. The +observances enjoined, then, are the public assembly on the first and +eighth days, with cessation from labour, and a daily offering. We +learn more about the offering from Numbers xxix. 12 _et seq._, +which appoints a very peculiar arrangement. On each day there was to +be, as on other feast days, one goat for a sin offering; but the +number of rams and lambs for the burnt offering was doubled, and, +during the seven days of the feast, seventy bullocks were offered, +arranged in a singular diminishing scale,--thirteen on the first +day, and falling off by one a day till the seventh day, when seven +were sacrificed. The eighth day was marked as no part of the feast +proper, by the number of sacrifices offered on it, dropping to one +bullock, one ram, and seven lambs. No satisfactory account of this +regulation has been suggested. It may possibly have meant no more +than to mark the first day as the chief, and to let the worshippers +down gradually from the extraordinary to the ordinary. + +The other half of the regulations deals with the more domestic +aspect of the festival. Observe, as significant of the different +point of view taken in it, that the first and eighth days are there +described, not as 'holy convocations,' but as 'sabbaths,' or, as the +Revised Version gives it better, 'a solemn rest.' Observe, also, +that these verses connect the feast with the ingathering of the +harvest, as does Exodus xxiii. 16. It is quite possible that Moses +grafted the more commemorative aspect of the feast on an older +'harvest home'; but that is purely conjectural, however confidently +affirmed as certain. To tumble down cartloads of quotations about +all sorts of nations that ran up booths and feasted in them at +vintage-time does not help us much. The 'joy of harvest' was +unquestionably blended with the joy of remembered national +deliverance, but that the latter idea was superadded to the former +at a later time is, to say the least, not proven. Would it matter +very much if it were? Three kinds of trees are specified from which +'the fruit,' that is branches with fruit on them, if the tree bore +fruit, were to be taken: palms, 'thick trees,' that is thick +foliaged, which could give leafy shade, and willows of the brook, +which the Rabbis say were used for binding the others together. +Verse 40 does not tell what is to be done with these branches, but +the later usage was to carry some of them in the hand as well as to +use them for booths. The keynote of the whole feast is struck in +verse 40: 'Ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God.' The leafy +spoils come into view here as tokens of jubilation, which certainly +suggests their being borne in the hand; but they were also meant to +be used in building the booths in which the whole nation was to live +during the seven days, in commemoration of God's having made them +'dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.' +This is all that is enjoined by Moses. Later additions to the +ceremonial do not concern us here, however interesting some of these +are. The true intention of the feast is best learned from the +original simple form. What, then, was its intention? It was the +commemoration of the wilderness life as the ground of rejoicing +'before the Lord.' But we must not forget that, according to +Leviticus, it was appointed while the wilderness life was still +present, and so was not to be observed then. Was it, then, a dead +letter, or had the appointment a message of joy even to the weary +wanderers who lived in the veritable booths, which after generations +were to make a feast of mimicking? How firm the confidence of +entering the land must have been, which promulgated such a law! It +would tend to hearten the fainting courage of the pilgrims. A +divinely guaranteed future is as certain as the past, and the +wanderers whom He guides may be sure of coming to the settled home. +All words which He speaks beforehand concerning that rest and the +joyful worship there are pledges that it shall one day be theirs. +The present use of the prospective law was to feed faith and hearten +hope; and, when Canaan was reached, its use was to feed memory and +brighten godly gladness. + +The feast of tabernacles was the consecration of joy. Other +religions have had their festivals, in which wild tumult and foul +orgies have debased the worshippers to the level of their gods. How +different the pure gladness of this feast 'before the Lord'! No +coarse and sensuous delights of passion could live before the 'pure +eyes and perfect witness' of God. In His 'presence' must be purity +as well as 'fullness of joy.' If this festival teaches us, on the +one hand, that they wofully misapprehend the spirit of godliness who +do not find it full of gladsomeness, it teaches us no less, on the +other, that they wofully misapprehend the spirit of joy, who look +for it anywhere but 'before the Lord.' The ritual of the feast +commanded gladness. Joy is a duty to God's children. There were +mourners in Israel each year, as the feast came round, who would +rather have shrunk into a corner, and let the bright stream of +merriment flow past them; but they, too, had to open their heavy +hearts, and to feel that, in spite of their private sorrows, they +had a share in the national blessings. No grief should unfit us for +feeling thankful joy for the great common gift of 'a common +salvation.' The sources of religious joy, open to all Christians, +are deeper than the fountains of individual sorrow, deep as life +though these sometimes seem. + +The wilderness life came into view in the feast as a wandering life +of privation and change. The booths reminded of frail and shifting +dwellings, and so made the contrast with present settled homes the +sweeter. They were built, not of such miserable scrub as grew in the +desert, and could scarcely throw shade enough to screen a lizard, +but of the well-foliaged branches of trees grown by the rivers of +water, and so indicated present abundance. The remembrance of +privations and trials past, of which the meaning is understood, and +the happy results in some degree possessed, is joy. Prosperous men +like to talk of their early struggles and poverty. This feast +teaches that such remembrance ought always to trace the better +present to God, and that memory of conquered sorrows and trials is +wholesome only when it is devout, and that the joy of present ease +is bracing, not when it is self-sufficient, but when it is thankful. +The past, rightly looked at, will yield for us all materials for a +feast of tabernacles; and it is rightly looked at only when it is +all seen as God's work, and as tending to settled peace and +abundance. Therefore the regulations end with that emphatic seal of +all His commands, to impress which on our hearts is the purpose of +all His dealings with us as with Israel, 'I am the Lord your God.' + +III. We may note our Lord's allusions to the feast. There are +probably two, both referring to later additions to the ceremonies. +One is in John vii. 37. We learn from the Talmud that on each of the +seven days (and according to one Rabbi on the eighth also) a priest +went down to Siloam and drew water in a golden pitcher, which he +brought back amid the blare of trumpets to the altar, and poured +into a silver basin while the joyous worshippers chanted the 'Great +Hallel' (Psa. cxiii.-cxviii.), and thrice waved their palm branches +as they sang. We may venture to suppose that this had been done for +the last time; that the shout of song had scarcely died away when a +stir in the crowd was seen, and a Galilean peasant stood forth, and +there, before the priests with their empty vessels, and the hushed +multitude, lifted up His voice, so as to be heard by all, and cried, +saying: 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.' What +increased force is given to the extraordinary self-assertion of such +words, if we picture this as the occasion of their utterance! +Leviticus gives no preeminence to any one day, but John's +expression, 'that great day of the feast,' may well have been +warranted by later developments. + +The other allusion is less certain, though it is probable. It is +found in the saying at John viii. 12: 'I am the Light of the world,' +etc. The Talmud gives a detailed account of the illuminations +accompanying the feast. Four great golden lamps were set up in the +court, each tended by four young priests. 'There was not a court in +Jerusalem that was not lit up by the lights of the water-drawing.' +Bands of grave men with flashing torches danced before the people, +while Levites 'accompanied them with harps, psalteries, cymbals, and +numberless musical instruments,' and another band of Levites +standing on the fifteen steps which led to the women's court, +chanted the fifteen so-called 'songs of degrees,' and yet others +marched through the courts blowing their trumpets as they went. It +must have been a wild scene, dangerously approximating to the +excitement of heathen nocturnal festivals, and our Lord may well +have sought to divert the spectators to higher thoughts. But the +existence of the allusion is doubtful. + +We have one more allusion to the feast, considered as a prophecy of +the true rest and joy in the true Canaan. The same John, who has +preserved Christ's references, gives one of his own in Revelation +vii. 9, when he shows us the great multitude out of every nation +'with palms in their hands.' These are not the Gentile emblems of +victory, as they are often taken to be. There are no heathen emblems +in the Apocalypse, but all moved within the circle of Jewish types +and figures. So we are to think of that crowd of 'happy palmers' as +joyously celebrating the true feast of tabernacles in the settled +home above, and remembering, with eyes made clear by heaven, the +struggles and fleeting sorrows of the wilderness. The emblem sets +forth heaven as a festal assembly, as the ingathering of the results +of the toils of earth, as settled life after weary pilgrimage, as +glad retrospect of the meaning and triumphant possession of the +issues of God's patient guidance and wise discipline. Here we dwell +in 'the earthly house of this tabernacle'; there, in a 'building of +God ... eternal.' Here we are agitated by change, and wearied by the +long road; there, changeless but increasing joy will be ours, and +the backward look of thankful wonder will enhance the sweetness of +the blessed present, and confirm the calm and sure hope of an ever- +growing glory stretching shoreless and bright before us. + + + + +SOJOURNERS WITH GOD + + + 'The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is + Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.' + --LEV. xxv. 23. + +The singular institution of the Jubilee year had more than one +purpose. As a social and economical arrangement it tended to prevent +the extremes of wealth and poverty. Every fiftieth year the land was +to revert to its original owners, the lineal descendants of those +who had 'come in with the conqueror,' Joshua. Debts were to be +remitted, slaves emancipated, and so the mountains of wealth and the +valleys of poverty were to be somewhat levelled, and the nation +carried back to its original framework of a simple agricultural +community of small owners, each 'sitting under his own vine and fig- +tree' and, like Naboth, sturdily holding the paternal acres. + +As a ceremonial institution it was the completion of the law of the +Sabbath. The seventh day proclaimed the need for weekly rest from +labour, and as was the sabbath in the week, so was the seventh year +among the years--a time of quiet, when the land lay fallow and much +of the ordinary labour was suspended. Nor were these all; when seven +weeks of years had passed, came the great Jubilee year, charged with +the same blessed message of Rest, and doubtless showing dimly to +many wearied and tearful eyes some gleams of a better repose beyond. + +Besides these purposes, it was appointed to enforce, and to make the +whole fabric of the national wealth consciously rest upon, this +thought contained in our text. The reason why the land was not to +pass out of the hauls of the representatives of those to whom God +had originally given it, was that He had not really given it to them +at all. It was not theirs to sell--they had only a beneficiary +occupation. While they held it, it was still His, and neither they, +nor any one to whom they might sell the use of it for a time, were +anything more than tenants at will. The land was His, and they were +only like a band of wanderers, squatting for a while by permission +of the owner, on his estate. Their camp-fires were here today, but +to-morrow they would be gone. They were 'strangers and sojourners.' +That may sound sad, but all the sadness goes when we read on--'with +Me.' They are God's guests, so though they do not own a foot of +soil, they need not fear want. + +All this is as true for us. We can have no better New Year's +thoughts than those which were taught by the blast of the silver +trumpets that proclaimed liberty to the slaves, and restored to the +landless pauper his alienated heritage. + +I. Here is the lesson of God's proprietorship and our stewardship. + +'The land is Mine' was of course true in a special sense of the +territory which God gave by promise and miracle, which was kept by +obedience, and lost by rebellion. But it is as really true about our +possessions, and that not only because of our transient stay here. +It would be as true if we were to live in this world for ever. It +will be as true in heaven. Length of time makes no difference in +this tenure. Undisturbed possession for ever so long does not +constitute ownership here. God is possessor of all, by virtue of His +very nature, by His creation and preservation of us and of all +things. So that when we talk about 'mine' and 'thine,' we are only +speaking a half truth. There is a great sovereign 'His' behind both. +So then let us take that thought with us for use, as we pass into +another year. What lessons does it give? + +It should nurture constant thankfulness. To-day looking back over +whatever dark, dreary, sunless days, we all have bright ones too. +Does any thought of God as the Fountain of all our joys and goods +rise in our souls? Have we learned to associate a divine hand and a +Father's will with them? Do we congratulate ourselves on our own +cleverness, tact, and skill, saying, 'mine hand hath done it,' or do +we hug ourselves on our own good fortune, and burn incense to chance +and 'circumstances'?--or, sadder still, are we generously grateful +to every human friend that helps us, and unthankful only to God--or +does the glad thought come, to gild the finest gold of our +possessions with new brilliance and worth, and to paint and perfume +the whitest lily of our joys with new delightsomeness, 'All things +come of Thee'; 'Thou makest us drink of the river of Thy pleasures'? +Blessed are they who, by the magic glass of a thankful heart, see +all things in God, and God in all things. To them life is tenfold +brighter, as a light plunged in oxygen flames more intensely than in +common air. The darkest night is filled with light, and the +loneliest place blazes with angel faces, and the stoniest pillar is +soft, to him who sees everywhere the ladder that knits earth with +heaven, and to whom all His blessings are as the messengers that +descend by it on errands of mercy, whose long shining ranks lead up +the eye and the heart to the loving God from whom they come. + +Here too is the ground for constant thankful submission. 'The Lord +gave, and the Lord hath taken away.' We have no right to murmur, +however we may regret, if the Landowner takes back a bit of the land +which He has let us occupy. It was the condition of our occupation +that He should be at liberty to do so whenever He saw that it would +be best for us. He does not give us our little patches for His +advantage, but for ours, nor does He take them away at His own whim, +but 'for our profit.' We get more than full value for all the work +and capital we have expended, and His only reason for ever +disturbing us is that we may be driven to claim a better inheritance +in Himself than we can find even in the best of His gifts. So He +sometimes gives, that we may be led by our possessions to think +lovingly of Him; and He sometimes takes, that we may be led, in the +hour of emptiness and loss, to recognise whose hand it was that +pulled up the props round which our poor tendrils clung. But the +opposite actions have the same purpose, and like the up-and-down +stroke of a piston, or the contrary motion of two cogged wheels that +play into each other, are meant to impel us in one direction, even +to the heart of God who is our home. A landowner stops up a private +road one day in a year, in order to assert his right, and to remind +the neighbourhood that he could stop it altogether if he liked. So +God reminds us by our losses and sorrows, of what we are so apt to +forget, and what it is such a joy to us to remember--His possession +of them all. Blessed be God! He teaches us in that fashion far +seldomer than in the other. Let joy teach us the lesson, and we +shall the less need 'the sternest' teacher 'and the best,' even +sorrow. Better to learn it by gladness than by tears; better to see +it written in 'laughing flowers' than in desolate gardens and +killing frost. + +So, too, there should be a constant sense of responsibility in the +use of all which we have. All is His, and He has given all to us, +for a purpose. So, plainly, we are but stewards, or trustees, and +are bound to employ everything, not according to our own inclination +or notion of what is right, but according to what, in the exercise +of our best and most impartial judgment, we believe to be the +owner's will. Trusteeship means that we take directions as to the +employment of the property from its owner. It means too that we +employ it not for our own satisfaction and well-being alone, though +that is included, and is a part of His purpose who 'delights in the +prosperity of His servants.' Thoughts of others, thoughts of the +owner's claims, and of bringing back to Him all that He has given to +us, increased by our diligence, must be uppermost in our minds, if +we are to live nobly or happily here. 'It is required in stewards +that a man be found faithful.' And this applies to all we have in +mind, body, and estate. A thoughtful expenditure and use of all His +gifts, on principles drawn from our knowledge of His will, and for +objects not terminating with self, is the duty that corresponds to +the great fact of God's ownership of all. If we use His gifts to +minister to our own vanity or frivolity, or love of ease, or +display; if an 'intolerable deal' of all we have is used for +ourselves, and a poor ha'porth' for others; if our gifts are +grudging; if we possess without sense of responsibility, and enjoy +without thankfulness, and lose with murmuring; if our hearts are +more set on material prosperity than on love and peace, knowledge +and purity, noble lives and a Father God; if higher desires and +hopes are dying out as we 'get on' in the world, and religious +occupations which used to be pleasant are stale; then for all our +outward Christianity the stern old woe applies, 'Your riches are +corrupted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you,' and +we need the shrill note of the trumpet of Jubilee to be blown in our +ears, 'The land is Mine.' + +II. We have the teaching of the transiency of our stay here. + +'Ye are strangers and sojourners'--pilgrims who make a brief halt in +a foreign country. The image has in it an allusion to the nomad life +of Abraham and his son and grandson, as well as to the desert- +wanderings of the people, and suggests the thought, 'You are +homeless wanderers, not having where to lay your heads, as truly +when you have been settled for generations on your ancestral lands, +as when you plodded wearily in the wilderness.' It is a universal +truth, ever acknowledged and forgotten, wholesome though sometimes +sad to feel, and preached to even frivolous natures by the change in +our calendar which a New Year brings. + +How vividly this word of our text brings out the contrast between +the permanence of the external world and our brief stay in it! + +In Israel there would be few vineyards or olive-grounds held by the +same man at two, and none at three, successive jubilees. The hoary +twisted olives yielded their black berries, say, to Simeon, the son +of Joseph, to-day, as they did fifty years ago to Joseph, the son of +Reuben, and as they will do fifty years hence to Judas, the son of +Simeon. So is it with us all. There is nothing more pathetic than +the thought of how generations come and go, and empires rise and +fall, while the scene on which they play their brief parts remains +the same. + + 'The mountains look on Marathon, + And Marathon looks on the sea.' + +to-day as they did more than two millenniums ago, only the grass was +for a while a little ranker on the plain. Olivet lifts the same +outline against the pale morning twilight as when David went up its +slope a weeping exile. The pebble that we kick out of our path had +thousands of years of existence ere we were born, and may lie there +unaltered to all appearance for centuries after we are dead. 'One +generation cometh and another goeth, but the earth abideth for +ever.' + +And how much more lasting our possessions are than their possessors! +Where are the strong hands that clutched the rude weapons that lie +now quietly ticketed in our museums? How dim and dark the bright +brave eyes that once flashed through the bars of these helmets, +hanging just a little rusted, over the tombs in Westminster Abbey! +Other men will live in our houses, read our books, own our mills, +use our furniture, preach in our pulpits, sit in our pews: we are +but lodgers in this abiding nature, 'like a wayfaring man that +turneth aside to tarry for a night,' and to-morrow morning vacates +his rooms for a new arrival, and goes away unregretted and is +forgotten in an hour. + +The constant change and progression of life are enforced, too, in +this metaphor. + +The old threadbare emblem of a journey which is implied in the text +suggests how, moment by moment, we hurry on and how everything is +slipping past us, as fields and towns do to a traveller in a train. +Only our journey is smooth and noiseless, like the old-fashioned +canal boat travelling, where, if you shut your eyes, you could not +tell that you were moving. We glide on and never know it, and so +gradually and silently is the scene 'changed by still degrees,' that +it is only now and then that men have any vivid consciousness that +the 'fashion of this world is' ever 'in the act of passing,' like +the canvas of a panorama ever winding and unwinding on its twin +rollers with slow, equable motion. It needs an effort of attention +and will to discern the movement, and it is worth while to make the +effort, for that clear and poignant sense of the constant flux and +mutation of all things around us, and of the ebbing away of our own +lives, is fundamental to all elevation of thought, to all nobleness +of deed, to all worthy conception of duty and of joy. Everything +that is, stands poised, like Fortune, on a rolling ball. The solid +earth is a movable sphere, for ever spinning on its axis and rushing +on its path among the stars. Ever some star is sinking in mist, or +dipping below the horizon; ever new constellations are climbing to +the zenith. A long, patient discipline is needed to keep fresh in +our hearts the sense of this transiency. Let us set ourselves +consciously to deepen our convictions of it, and amidst all the +illusions of these solid-seeming shows of things, keep firm hold of +the assurance that they are but fleeting shadows that sweep across +the solemn mountain's side, and that only God and the doing of His +will lasts. So shall our life pierce down with its seeking roots to +the abiding ground of all Being, and, looking to the 'things that +are eternal,' we shall be able to make what is but for a moment +contribute to the everlasting ennobling of our character and +enrichment of our life yonder. + +Surely these words, too, tell of the true home. + +'Ye are strangers'--because your native land is elsewhere. It is not +merely the physical facts of death and change that make us strangers +here, but the direction of our desires, and the true affinities of +our nature. If by these we belong to heaven and God, then here we +shall feel that we have not where to lay our heads, and shall 'dwell +in tabernacles' because 'we look for the city.' + +What a contrast between the perishable tents of the wilderness and +the rock-built mansions of that city. And how short this phase of +being must look when seen from above! You remember how long a year, +a week, seemed to you when a child--what do the first ten years of +your life look to you now? What must the earthly life of Abel, the +first who died, look to him even now, when he contrasts its short +twenty or thirty years with the thousands since? and, after +thousands and thousands more, how it will dwindle! So to us, if we +reach that safe shore, and look back upon the sea that brought us +thither, as it stretches to the horizon, miles of billows once so +terrible will seem shrunken to a line of white foam. + +Cherish, then, constant consciousness of that solemn eternity, and +let your eyes be ever directed to it, like a man who sees some great +flush of light on the horizon, and is ever turning from his work to +look. Use the transient as preparation for the eternal, the fleeting +days as those which determine the undying 'Day' and its character. +Keep your cares and interests in the present rigidly limited to +necessary things. Why should travellers burden themselves? The less +luggage, the easier marching. The accommodation and equipment in the +desert do not matter much. The wise man will say, 'Oh, it will do. I +shall soon be home.' 'Ye are strangers and sojourners.' + +III. We have here also the teaching of trust. + +Some of us think that such thoughts as the preceding are sad. Why +should they be so? They need not be. Our text adds a little word +which takes all the sadness out of them. 'With Me'; that gives the +true notion of our earthly life. We are strangers indeed, passing +through a country which is not ours, but whilst we are sojourners, +we are 'sojourners' with the king of the land. In the antique +hospitable times, the chief of the tribe would take the travellers +to his own tent, and charge himself with their safety and comfort. +So we are God's guests on our travels. He will take care of us. The +visitor has no need to trouble himself about the housekeeping, he +may safely leave that with the master of the house. If the king has +taken us in charge, we may be quite sure that no harm will come to +us in his country. So for ourselves and for those we love, and for +all the wide interests of church and world, there are peace and +strength in the thought that we are the guests of God here, +'strangers and sojourners with _Him_.' Will He invite us to His +table and let us hunger? Will He call us to be His guests, and then, +like some traitorous Arab sheikh, break the laws of hospitality and +harm His too-confiding guests? Impossible for evermore. So we are +safe, and our bread shall be given us, for we are sojourners with +God. + +True, we are strangers, and in our constant movement we lose many of +the companions of our march, and the track of the caravan may be +traced by the graves on either side. But, since we are 'with Him,' +we have companionship even when most solitary, and even in a strange +land shall not be lonely. Seek then to cultivate as a joy and +strength that consciousness that the Lord of all the land is ever +with you, Whoever goes, He abides. Whatever rushes past us like a +phantasmagoria, He passes not. Whatever and whoever change, He +changes never. Where thou goest, He will go. He will be 'thy shield +at thy right hand,' and thy 'keeper from all evil.' So, looking +forward to the unknown days of another New Year, we may be of good +cheer. + +So will it be while we live; and if this year we should die--well, +the King of this land, where we are strangers, is the King of the +other land beyond the sea, where we are at home. So we shall only be +the nearer to Him for the change. Death the separator shall but +unite us to the King, whose presence indeed fills this subject- +province of His empire with all its good, but who dwells in more +resplendent 'beauty,' and is felt in greater nearness in the other +'land that is very far off.' Whether here or there, we may have God +with us, if we will. With Him for our Host and companion, let us +peacefully go on our road, while the life of strangers and +sojourners shall last. It will bring us to the fatherland where we +shall be at home with the King, and find in Him our 'sure dwelling, +and quiet resting-place, and peaceful habitation for ever.' + + + + +GOD'S SLAVES + + + 'For they are My servants, which I brought forth out + of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen.' + --LEV. xxv. 42. + +This is the basis of the Mosaic legislation as to slavery. It did +not suppress but regulated that accursed system. Certainly Hebrew +slavery was a very different thing from that of other nations. In +the first place, no Jew was to be a slave. To that broad principle +there were exceptions, such as the case of the man who voluntarily +gave himself up to his creditor. But even he was not to be treated +as a slave, but as a 'hired servant,' and at the jubilee was to be +set free. There were also other regulations of various kinds in +other circumstances on which we do not need to dwell. The slaves of +alien blood were owned and used, but under great mitigations and +restrictions. + +Of course we have here an instance of the incompleteness of the +Mosaic law,--or rather we may more truly say of its completeness, +regard being had to the state of the world at the time. All social +change hangs together. Institutions cannot be altered at a blow, +without altering the stage of civilisation, of which they are the +expression. 'Raw haste' is 'half-sister to delay.' What is good and +necessary for one era is out of place in another. So God works +slowly, and lets bad things die out, by changing the atmosphere in +which they flourish. + +All servitude to men was an infraction of God's rights over Israel. +God was the Israelites' 'Master'; they were His 'slaves.' He was so, +because He had 'broken the bands of their yoke, and set them free.' +There is, then, here-- + +I. The ground of God's rights. 'I brought you forth.' + +II. Our servitude because of our redemption. 'Ye are My servants.' + +III. Our consequent freedom from all other masters. 'Ye shall not be +sold as bondmen.' + + + + +THE KINSMAN REDEEMER + + + 'After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of + his brethren may redeem him.'--LEV. xxv. 48. + +There are several of the institutions and precepts of the Mosaic +legislation which, though not prophetic, nor typical, have yet +remarkable correspondences with lofty Christian truth. They may be +used as symbols, if only we remember that we are diverting them from +their original purpose. + +How singularly these words lend themselves to the statement of the +very central truths of Christianity--a slavery which is not +necessarily perpetual and a redemption effected by a kinsman! + +That institution of the 'Goel' is of a very remarkable kind, and +throws great light on Christian verities. I wish, in dealing with +it, to guard against any idea that it was meant to be prophetic or +typical. + +I. The kinsman redeemer under the old law. + +The strength of the family tie in the Israelitish polity was great. +The family was the unit--hence there were certain duties devolving +on the nearest male relative. These, so far as we are at present +concerned, were three. + +_(a)_ The redemption of a slave. The Mosaic legislation about +slavery was very remarkable. It did not nominally prohibit it, but +it fenced it round and modified it, so as to make it another thing. + +Israelites were allowed to hold Gentile slaves, but under careful +restrictions. Israelites were allowed to sell themselves as slaves. +If the sale was to Israelites, the slavery was ended in six years or +at the jubilee, whichever period came first--unless the slave had +his ear bored to the doorpost to intimate his contentment in service +(Exod. xxi. 5,6). This is not slavery in our sense of the word, but +only a six years' engagement. If sold to a heathen in Israel, then +the Goel had to redeem him; and the reason for this was that all +Israelites belonged to God. + +_(b)_ The redemption of an inheritance. + +This was the task of the kinsman-goel. The land belonged to the +tribe. Pauperism was thus kept off. There could be no 'submerged +tenth.' The theocratic reason was, 'the land shall not be sold at +all for ever for it is Mine!' + +_(c)_ The avenging of murder. Blood feuds were thus checked, +though not abolished. The remarkable institution of 'cities of +refuge' gave opportunity for deliberate investigation into each +case. If wilful murder was proved, the murderer was given up to the +Goel for retribution; if death had been by misadventure, the slayer +was kept in the city of refuge till the high-priest's decease. + +This is the germ of the figure of the Redeemer-Kinsman in later +Scripture. Notice how higher ideas began to gather round the office. +The prophets felt that in some way God was their 'Goel.' In Isaiah +the application of the name to Him is frequent and, we might almost +say, habitual. So in Psalm xlix. 7, 'None can be Goel to his +brother'; verse 15, 'God will be Goel to my soul from the power of +the grave.' + +Job xix. 25, 'I know that my Goel liveth....' + +II. Our Kinsman-Redeemer. + +The New Testament metaphor of 'Redemption' or buying back with a +ransom is distinctly drawn from the Hebrew Goel's office. + +Christ is the Kinsman. The brotherhood of Christ with us was +voluntarily assumed, and was for the purpose of redeeming His +brethren. + +He is the Kinsman-Redeemer from slavery,--a slavery which is +voluntary. The soul is self-delivered to evil and sin; but blessed +be God! this slavery is terminable. The kinship of Christ was +needful for our redemption. 'It behoved Him to be made like unto His +brethren.' He thus gave His life a 'ransom' for many. Note the +objective value of His atonement, and its subjective power as +setting us free. + +He is the Kinsman-Redeemer of our inheritance. God is the +inheritance here. The manhood of Jesus brings God back to us for +our--(1) Knowledge; (2) Love; (3) Possession. Heaven is our +inheritance hereafter. His manhood secures it for us. 'I go to +prepare a place for you.' 'An inheritance incorruptible.' 'The +redemption of the purchased possession.' + +The Kinsman-Avenger of blood. It is only in a modified sense that we +can transfer this part of the Goel's office to Jesus. The old +Kinsman-Avenger of blood avenged it by shedding the shedder's blood +in retribution. But that was not the kind of vindication (for Goel +means also Vindicator) for which Job looked when he used the +expression. Resurrection to the vision of God was to come to him 'at +the last,' by the standing of his Goel on the earth, and that was to +be the true avenging of his death, and his vindication. The great +murderer Death is to die, and his victims are to be wrested from +him, and their death be proved to be the means of their fuller life. +'Precious shall their blood be in His sight,' and when their slayer +is slain they will live for ever, partakers of their Kinsman- +Redeemer's glory, because they had been partakers of His death, and +His blood had been precious in their sight. Let us cling to our +Kinsman-Redeemer in all our life that He may give us freedom and an +inheritance among His brethren, and, closing our eyes in death, we +may commend our spirits to the 'Angel that redeemed us from all +evil,' and be sure that He will 'redeem' our 'souls from the power +of the grave.' + + + + +THE OLD STORE AN THE NEW + + + 'Ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because + of the new.' + LEV. xxvi. 10. + +This is one of the blessings promised to obedience. No doubt it, +like the other elements of that 'prosperity' which 'is the blessing +of the Old Testament,' presupposes a supernatural order of things, +in which material well-being was connected with moral good far more +closely and certainly than we see to be the case. But the spirit and +heart of the promise remain, however the form of it may have passed +away. It is a picturesque way of saying that the harvest shall be +more than enough for the people's wants. All through the winter, and +the spring, and the ripening summer, their granaries shall yield +supplies. There will be no season of scarcity such as often occurs +in countries whose communications are imperfect, just before +harvest, when the last year's crop is exhausted, and it is hard to +get anything to live on till this year's is ready. But when the new +wheat comes in they will have still much of the old, and will have +to 'bring it forth' to empty their barns, to make room for the fresh +supplies which the blessing of God has sent before they were needed. +The same idea of superabundant yield from the fields is given under +another form in a previous verse of this chapter (ver. 5): 'Your +threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach +unto the sowing time, and ye shall eat your bread to the full': +which reminds one of the striking prophecy of Amos: 'Behold, the +days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the +reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.' So rapid +the growth, and so large the fruitfulness, that the gatherer shall +follow close on the heels of the sower, and will not have +accomplished his task before it is again time to sow. The prophet +clearly has in his mind the old promise of the law, and applies it +to higher matters, even to the fields white to harvest, where 'he +that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together.' In the same +way we may take these words, and gather from them better promises +and larger thoughts than they originally carried. + +There is in them a promise as to the fullness of the divine gifts, +which has a far wider reach and nobler application than to the +harvests and granaries of old Palestine. + +We may take the words in that aspect, first, as containing God's +pledge that these outward gifts shall come in unbroken continuity. +And have they not so come to us all, for all these long years? Has +there ever been a gap left yawning? has there ever been a break in +the chain of mercies and supplies? has it not rather been that 'one +post ran to meet another,' that before one of the messengers had +unladed all his budget, another's arrival has antiquated and put +aside his store? True, we are often brought very low; there may not +be much in the barn but sweepings, and a few stray grains scattered +over the floor. We may have but a handful of meal in the barrel, and +be ready to dress it 'that we may eat it, and die.' But it never +really comes to that. The new ever comes before the old is all eaten +up; or if it be delayed even beyond that time, it comes before the +hunger reaches inanition. It may be good that we should have to +trust Him, even when the storehouse is empty; it may be good for us +to know something of want, but that discipline comes seldom, and is +never carried very far. For the most part He anticipates wants by +gifts, and His good gifts overlap each other in our outward lives as +slates on a roof, or scales on a fish. + +We wonder at the smooth working of the machinery for feeding a great +city; and how, day by day, the provisions come at the right time, +and are parted out among hundreds of thousands of homes. But we +seldom think of the punctual love, the perfect knowledge, the +profound wisdom which cares for us all, and is always in time with +its gifts. It was that quality of punctuality extended over a whole +universe which seemed so wonderful to the Psalmist: 'The eyes of all +wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season.' +God's machinery for distribution is perfect, and its very +perfection, with the constancy of the resulting blessings, robs Him +of His praise, and hinders our gratitude. By assiduity He loses +admiration. + +'Things grown common lose their dear delight.' 'If in His gifts and +benefits He were more sparing and close-handed,' said Luther, 'we +should learn to be thankful.' But let us learn it by the continuity +of our joys, that we may not need to be taught it by their +interruption; and let us still all tremulous anticipation of +possible failure or certain loss by the happy confidence which we +have a right to cherish, that His mercies will meet our needs, +continuous as they are, and be strung so close together on the poor +thread of our lives that no gap will be discernible in the jewelled +circle. + +May we not apply that same thought of the unbroken continuity of +God's gifts to the higher region of our spiritual experience? His +supplies of wisdom, love, joy, peace, power, to our souls are always +enough and more than enough for our wants. If ever men complain of +languishing vitality in their religious emotions, or of a stinted +supply of food for their truest self, it is their own fault, not +His. He means that there should be no parentheses of famine in our +Christian life. It is not His doing if times of torpor alternate +with seasons of quick energy and joyful fullness of life. So far as +He is concerned the flow is uninterrupted, and if it come to us in +jets and spurts as from an intermittent well, it is because our own +fault has put some obstacle to choke the channel and dam out His +Spirit from our spirits. We cannot too firmly hold, or too +profoundly feel, that an unbroken continuity of supplies of His +grace--unbroken and bright as a sunbeam reaching in one golden shaft +all the way from the sun to the earth--is His purpose concerning us. +Here, in this highest region, the thought of our text is most +absolutely true; for He who gives is ever pouring forth His own self +for us to take, and there is no limit to our reception but our +capacity and our desire; nor any reason for a moment's break in our +possession of love, righteousness, peace, but our withdrawal of our +souls from beneath the Niagara of His grace. As long as we keep our +poor vessels below that constant downpour they will be full. It is +all our own blame if they are empty. Why should Christian people +have these dismal times of deadness, these parentheses of paralysis? +as if their growth must be like that of a tree with its alternations +of winter sleep and summer waking? In regard to outward blessings we +are, as it were, put upon rations, and 'that He gives' us we +'gather.' There He sometimes does, in love and wisdom, put us on +very short allowance, and even now and then causes 'the fields to +yield no meat.' But never is it so in the higher region. There He +puts the key of the storehouse into our own hands, and we may take +as much as we will, and have as much as we take. There the bread of +God is given for evermore, and He wills that in uninterrupted +abundance 'the meek shall eat and be satisfied.' + +The source is full to overflowing, and there are no limits to the +supply. The only limit is our capacity, which again is largely +determined by our desire. So after all His gifts there is more yet +unreceived to possess. After all His Self-revelation there is more +yet unspoken to declare. Great as is the goodness which He has +'wrought before the sons of men for them that trust in Him,' there +are far greater treasures of goodness 'laid up' in the deep mines of +God 'for them that fear Him.' Bars of uncoined treasure and ingots +of massy gold lie in His storehouses, to be put into circulation as +soon as we need, and can use, them. Hence we have the right to look +for an endless increase in our possession of God; and from the +consideration of an Infinite Spirit that imparts Himself, and of +finite but indefinitely expansible spirits that receive, the +certainty arises of an endless life for us of growing glory; a +heaven of ceaseless advance, where in constant alternation desire +shall widen capacity, and capacity increase fruition, and fruition +lead in, not satiety, but quickened appetite and deeper longing. + +But we may also see in this text the prescription of a duty as well +as the announcement of a promise. There is direction here as to our +manner of receiving God's gifts, as well as large assurance as to +His manner of bestowing them. It is His to substitute the new for +the old. It is ours gladly to accept the exchange, a task not always +easy or pleasant. + +No doubt there is a natural love of change deep in us all, but that +is held in check by its opposite, and all poetry and human life +itself are full of the sadness born of mutation. Our Lord laid bare +a deep tendency, when He said, 'No man having tasted old wine, +straightway desireth new; because he saith the old is better.' We +cling to what is familiar, in the very furniture of our houses; and +yet we are ever being forced to accept what is strange and new, and, +like some fresh article in a room, is out of harmony with the well- +worn things that we have seen standing in their corners for years. +It takes some time for the raw look to wear off, and for us to 'get +used to it,' as we say. So is it, though often for deeper reasons, +in far more important things. A man, for instance, has been engaged +in some kind of business for years, and at last God shows him, by +clear indications, that he must turn to something else. How slow he +is to see it, how reluctant to do it! How he cleaves to the 'old +store'! How he shrinks from clearing out the barn, to bring in the +new! Or a household has been going on for many days unbroken, and at +last a time comes when some of its members have to pass out into new +circumstances; a son to push his way in the world, a daughter to +brighten another fireside. It is hard for the parents to enter fully +into the high hopes of their children, and to accept the new +condition, without many vain longings for the old days that can +never come back any more. So, all through our lives, wisdom and +faith say, 'Bring forth the old because of the new.' Accept +cheerfully the law of constant change under which God's love has set +us. Do not let the pleasant bonds of habit tie down your hearts so +tightly to the familiar possessions that you shrink from the +introduction of fresh elements. Be sure that the new comes from the +same loving hand which sent the old in its season, and that change +is meant to be progress. Do not confine yourselves within any mill- +horse round of associations and occupations. Front the vicissitudes +of life, not merely with brave patience, but with happy confidence, +for they all come from Him whose love is older than your oldest +blessings, and whose mercies, new every morning, express themselves +afresh through every change. Welcome the new, treasure the old, and +in both see the purpose of that loving Father who, Himself +unchanged, changeth all things, and + + '... fulfils Himself in many ways, + Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.' + +In higher matters than these our text may give us counsel as to our +duty. 'God hath more light yet to break forth from His holy word.' +We are bound to welcome new truth, so soon as to our apprehensions +it has made good its title, and not to refuse it lodgment in our +minds because it needs the displacement of their old contents. In +the regions of our knowledge and of our Christian life, most +chiefly, are we under solemn obligations to 'bring forth the old +store because of the new'; if we would not be unfaithful to God's +great educational process that goes on through all our lives. It is +often difficult to adjust the relations of our last lesson with our +previous possessions. There is always a temptation to make too much +of a new truth, and to fancy that it will produce more change in our +whole mental furniture than it really will do. No man is less likely +to come to the knowledge of the truth than he who is always deep in +love with some new thought, 'the Cynthia of the minute,' and ever +ready to barter 'old lamps for new ones.' But all these things +admitted, still it remains true that we are here to learn, that our +education is to go on all our days, and that here on earth it can +only be carried out by our parting with the old store, which may +have become musty by long lying in the granaries, to make room for +the new, just gathered in the ripened field. The great central +truths of God in Christ are to be kept for ever; but we shall come +to grasp them in their fullness only by joyfully welcoming every +fresh access of clearer light which falls upon them; and gladly +laying aside our inadequate thoughts of God's permanent revelation +of Himself in Jesus Christ, to house and garner in heart and spirit +the fuller knowledge which it may please Him to impart. + +So the law for life is thankful enjoyment of the old store, and +openness of mind and freedom of heart which permit its unreluctant +surrender when newer harvests ripen. And the highest form of the +promise of our text will be when we pass into another world, and its +rich abundance is poured out into our laps. Blessed are they who can +willingly put away the familiar blessings of earth, and stretch out, +willingly emptied, expectant hands to meet the 'new store' of +Heaven! + + + + +EMANCIPATED SLAVES + + + 'I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of + the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; + and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you + go upright.'--LEV. xxvi. 13. + +The history of Israel is a parable and a prophecy as well as a +history. + +The great central word of the New Testament has been drawn from it, +viz. 'redemption,' _i.e._ a buying out of bondage. + +The Hebrew slaves in Egypt were 'delivered.' The deliverance made +them a nation. God acquired them for Himself, and they became His +servants. + +The great truths of the gospel are all there. + +Henceforth the fact of their deliverance became the basis of all His +appeals to them; the ground of His law; the reason for their +obedience. In the previous context it has shaped the institution of +slavery. Here it is the foundation of a general exhortation to +obedience. The emphatic picture of the men stooping beneath the +yoke, and then straightening themselves up, erect, illustrates the +joyful freedom which Christ gives. That freedom is our subject. + +I. Jesus gives freedom from the slavery of sin. + +Freedom consists in power to follow unhindered the law of our being. +So sin is slavery because it is contrary to that law. + +When Jesus promised freedom through the truth, the Jews indignantly +spurned the offer with the proud boast, which the presence of a +Roman garrison in Jerusalem should have made to stick in their +throats: 'We were never in bondage to any man.' A like hardy +shutting of eyes to plain facts characterises the attitude of +multitudes to the Christian view of man's condition. Jesus answered +the Jews by the deep saying: 'He that committeth sin is the servant +of sin.' A man fancies himself showing off his freedom by throwing +off the restraints of morality or law, and by 'doing as he likes,' +but he is really showing his servitude. Self-will looks like +liberty, but it is serfdom. The libertine is a slave. That slavery +under sin takes two forms. The man who sins is a slave to the power +of sin. Will and conscience are meant to guide and impel us, and we +never sin without first coercing or silencing them and subjecting +them to the upstart tyranny of desires and senses which should obey +and not command. The 'beggars' are on horseback, and the 'princes' +walking. There is a servile revolt, and we know what horrors +accompany that. + +But that slavery under sin is shown also by the terrible force with +which any sin, if once committed, appeals to the doer to repeat it. +It is not only in regard to sensual sins that the awful insistence +of habit grips the doer, and makes it the rarest thing that evil +once done is done only once. + +But he who sins is also a slave to the guilt of sin. True, that +sense of guilt is for the most part and in most men dormant, but the +snake is but hibernating, and often wakes and stings at most +unexpected moments. 'The deceitfulness of sin' lies to the sinner, +so that for the most part he 'wipes his mouth, saying I have done no +harm,' but some chance incident may at any time, and certainly +something will at some time, dissipate the illusion, as a stray +sunbeam might scatter a wisp of mist and show startled eyes the grim +fact that had always been there. And even while not consciously +felt, guilt hampers the soul's insight into divine realities, clips +its wings so that it cannot soar, paralyses its efforts after noble +aims, and inclines it to ignoble grovelling as far away from +thoughts of God and goodness as may be. + +Christ makes the man bound and tied by the cords of his sins lift +himself up and stand erect. By His death He brings forgiveness which +removes guilt and the consciousness of it. By His inbreathed life He +gives a new nature akin to His own, and brings into force a new +motive, even transforming love, which is stronger than the death +with which sin has cursed its doers. 'The law of the Spirit of Life +in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.' + +II. Jesus gives freedom from a slavish relation to God. + +Apart from Him, God, if recognised at all, is for the most part +thought of as 'austere, reaping where He did not sow,' and His +commandments as grievous. Men may sullenly recognise that they +cannot resist, but they do not submit. They may obey in act, but +there is no obedience in their wills, nor any cheerfulness in their +hearts. The elder brother in the parable could say, 'Neither +transgressed I at any time thy commandment,' but his service had +been joyless, and he never remembered having received gifts that +made him 'merry with his friends.' + +But from all such slavish, and therefore worthless, obedience, and +all such reluctant, and therefore unreal, submission, Jesus +liberates those who believe on Him and abide in His word. He +declares God as our loving Father, and through Him we have authority +to become sons of God. He 'sends forth the Spirit of His Son into +our hearts,' and that makes us to be no more slaves but sons. Sullen +obedience becomes glad choice, and it is the inmost desire, and the +deepest delight, of the loving child to do always the things that +please the loving Father. 'I ought' and 'I will' coalesce, and so +there is no slavery, but perfect freedom, in recognising and bowing +to the great 'I must' which sweetly rules the life. + +III. Christ gives deliverance from servility to men. + +We need not touch on the historical connection, plain as that is, +between modern conceptions of individual freedom and the influence +of Christ's teaching. Modern democracy is rooted in Christ, though +it is often unaware of its genesis, and blindly attacks the force to +which it owes its existence. + +Because all men are redeemed by Christ, because by that redemption +all stand in the same relation to Him, because all have equal access +to Him, and are taught and guided by His Spirit, because 'we must +all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,' therefore class +prerogatives and subject classes fade away, and there is 'neither +bond nor free,' but 'all are one in Christ Jesus.' + +But there are other ways in which men tyrannise over men and in +which Christ's redemption sets us free. + +There is the undue authority of favourite teachers and examples. + +There is the tyranny of public opinion. + +There is undue regard to human approbation. + +There is the sway of priestcraft. + +How does Christianity deliver from these? It makes Christ's law our +unconditional duty. It makes His approbation our highest joy. It +gives legitimate scope to the instinct of loyalty, submission, and +imitation, and of subjection to authority. It reduces to +insignificance men's judgment, and all their loud voices to a babble +of nothings. 'With me it is a very small matter to be judged of +man's judgment.' It brings the soul into direct communion with God, +and sweeps away all intermediaries. + +'Not for that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of +your joy; for by faith ye stand.' + +So personal independence and individuality of character are the +result of Christianity. 'I have made you go upright. + +IV. Christ gives us freedom from the power of circumstances. + +Most men are made by these. We need not here enter on questions of +the influence of their environment on all men's development. + +But Christ gives us-- + +_(a)_ A great aim for our lives high above these. + +_(b)_ A foothold in Him outside of them. We are not the slaves +of our circumstances, but their masters. + +_(c)_ The power to utilise them. + +So Christians are 'free' in all senses of the word. + +The great Act of Emancipation has been passed for us all. Only +Christ has rule over us, and we have our perfect freedom in His +service. We have been sitting in the prison-house, and He has come +and declared 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me to proclaim liberty +to the captives.' + + + + +THE BOOK OF NUMBERS + + + + +THE WARFARE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE + + + 'All that enter in to perform the service, to do the + work in the tabernacle.' + NUM. iv. 23. + +These words occur in the series of regulations as to the functions +of the Levites in the Tabernacle worship. The words 'to perform the +service' are, as the margin tells us, literally, to 'war the +warfare.' Although it may be difficult to say why such very prosaic +and homely work as carrying the materials of the Tabernacle and the +sacrificial vessels was designated by such a term, the underlying +suggestion is what I desire to fix upon now--viz., that work for +God, of whatever kind it be, which Christian people are bound to do, +and which is mainly service for men for God's sake, will never be +rightly done until we understand that it is a _warfare_, as +well as a work. + +The phrase on which I am commenting occurs again and again in the +regulations as to the Levitical service, and is applied, not only as +in my text to those who were told off to bear the burdens on the +march, but also to the whole body of Levites, who did the inferior +services in connection with the ritual worship. They were not, as it +would appear, sacrificing priests, but they belonged to the same +tribe as these, and they had sacred functions to discharge. So we +come to this principle, that Christian service is to be looked at as +warfare. + +Now, that is a principle which ought to be applied to all +Christians. For there is no such thing as designating a portion of +Christ's Church to service which others have not to perform. The +distinction of 'priest' and 'layman' existed in the Old Testament; +it does not exist under the New Covenant, and there is no obligation +upon any one Christian man to devote himself for Christ's sake to +Christ's service and man's help (which is Christ's service), that +does not lie equally upon all Christian people. The function is the +same for all; the methods of discharging it may be widely different. +Within the limits of the priestly tribe there may still be those +whose office it is to carry the vessels, and those whose office it +is to act more especially as ministering priests; but they are all +'of the tribe of Levi.' We, if we are Christian people at all, are +all bound to do this work of 'the tabernacle,' and war this warfare. + +It is important that we Christian people should elevate our thoughts +of our duties in the world to the height of this great metaphor. The +metaphor of the Christian life as being a 'warfare' is familiar +enough, but that is not exactly the point which I wish to dwell upon +now. When we speak about 'fighting the good fight of faith,' we +generally mean our wrestle and struggle with our own evils and with +the things that hinder us from developing a Christlike character, +and 'growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour +Jesus Christ.' But it is another sort of warfare about which I am +now speaking, the warfare which every Christian man has to wage who +flings himself into the work of diminishing the world's miseries and +sins, and tries to make people better, and happier because they are +better. That is a fight, and will always be so, if it is rightly +done. + +I. Think of the foes. + +Speaking generally, society is constituted upon a non-Christian +basis. We talk about 'Christian' nations. There is not one on the +face of the earth. There is not a nation whose institutions and +maxims and politics and the practices of its individual members are +ruled and moulded predominantly by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So +every man that has come into personal touch with that Lord, and has +felt that His commandments are the supreme authority in his own +individual life, when he goes out into society, comes full tilt +against a whole host of things that are in pronounced antagonism, or +in real though unacknowledged contradiction, to the principles by +which a Christian has to live for himself, and to commend to his +brethren. So we have to fight. There are two things to be done--the +imparting of good which will increase the sum of the world's +happiness, and the destruction of evil, which will subtract some of +the world's sorrows. The latter is always a conflict, for there are +arrayed in defence of the evil vested interests, and the influence +of habit, and the lowered vitality and sensitiveness of conscience +which has come from breathing the polluted atmosphere which evil has +vitiated. So that if we set ourselves, in humble, quiet, out-and-out +dependence on Jesus Christ and submission to His will, to lead other +people to submit to His will, there is nothing in the world more +certain than that we shall find against us, starting up, as it were, +out of the mist and taking form suddenly, a whole host of enemies. +So we Christian men, as individuals, as members of a community and +able to bring some influence to bear upon the conscience of society, +have to fight against popular social evils, and to war for +righteousness' sake. + +There is another foe. There is nothing that men dislike more than +being lifted up into a clearer atmosphere and made to see truths +which they do not see or care for. When we first become Christians +we are all hot to go and teach and preach; and we fancy that we have +only to stand up, with a Bible in our hand, and read two or three +texts, and our fellows will grasp them as gladly as we have done. +But soon we find out that it is not so easy to draw men to Christ as +we thought it would be. We have to fight against gravitation and +unwillingness, when we would lift a poor brother into the liberty +and the light that we are in. We have to struggle with the men that +we are trying to help. We have to war, in order to bring 'the peace +of God which passes understanding' into their hearts. + +But the worst of all our foes, in doing Christian service, is our +own miserable selves, with our laziness, and our vanity, and our +wondering what A, B, and C will think about us, and the mingling of +impure motives with nobler ones, and our being angry with people +because they are so insensible, not so much to Christ's love as to +our words and pleadings. Unless we can purge all that devil's leaven +out of ourselves, we have little chance of working 'the work of the +tabernacle,' or warring the warfare of God. Ah! brethren, to do +anything for this world of unbelief and sin, of which we ourselves +are part, is a struggle. And I know of no work that needs more +continual putting a firm heel upon self, in all its subtle +manifestations, than the various forms of Christian service. Not +only we preachers, but Sunday-school teachers, mothers in their +nurseries, teaching their children, and all of us, if we are trying +to do anything for men, for Christ's sake, must feel, if we are +honest with ourselves and about our work, that the first condition +of success in it is to fight down self, and that only then, being +emptied of ourselves, are we ready to be filled with the Spirit, by +which we are made mighty to pull down the strongholds of sin. + +II. The weapons of this warfare. + +There are two great passages in the New Testament, both of which +deal with the Christian life under this metaphor of warfare. One of +these is the detailed description of the Christian armour in the +Epistle to the Ephesians. There we have described the equipment for +that phase of the fight of the Christian life which has to do mainly +with the perfecting of the individual character. But somewhat +different is the armour which is to be worn, when the Christian man +goes out into the world to labour and to wage war there for Jesus +Christ. We may turn, then, rather to the other of the two passages +in question for the descriptions of the equipment, armour, and +weapons of the Christian in his warfare for the spread of truth and +goodness in the world. The passage to which I refer is in 2 Cor. vi. +What are the weapons that Paul specifies in that place? I venture to +alter their order, because he seems to have put them down just as +they came into his mind, and we can put some kind of logical +sequence into them. 'By the Word of God'--that is the first one. 'By +the Holy Ghost,' which is otherwise given as 'by the power of God,' +is the next. Get your minds and hearts filled with the truth of the +Gospel, and dwell in fellowship with God, baptized with His Holy +Spirit; and then you will be clothed 'as with a vesture down to your +heels' with the power of God. These are the divine side, the weapons +given us from above--'the Word of God' which is 'the sword of the +Spirit,' and the indwelling Holy Ghost manifesting Himself in power. +Then follow a series of human qualities which, though they are 'the +fruit of the Spirit,' are yet not produced in us without our own co- +operation. We have to forge and sharpen these weapons, though the +fire in which they are forged is from above, and the metal of which +they are made is given from heaven, like meteoric iron. These are +'kindness, long-suffering, love unfeigned.' We have to dismiss from +our minds the ordinary characteristics of warfare in thinking of +that which Christians are to wage. Like the old Knights Templars, we +must carry a sword which has a cross for its hilt, and must be clad +in gentleness, and long-suffering, and unfeigned love. 'The wrath of +men worketh not the righteousness of God.' You cannot bully people +into Christianity, you cannot scold them into goodness. There must +be sweetness in order to attract, and he imperfectly echoes the +music of the voice that came from 'the lips into which grace was +poured,' whose words are harsh and rough, and who preaches the +Gospel as if he were thundering damnation into people's ears. + +Brethren, whatever be our warfare against sin, we must never lose +our tempers. Harsh words break no bones indeed, but neither do they +break hearts. A character like Jesus Christ--that is the victorious +weapon. Let a man go and live in the world with these weapons that I +have been naming, the truth of God in his heart, the Holy Spirit in +his spirit, the power that comes therefrom animating his deadness +and strengthening his weakness, and himself an emblem and an +embodiment of the redeeming love of Christ--and though he spoke no +word he would be sure to preach Christ; and though he struck no blow +he would be a formidable antagonist to the hosts of evil, and the +icebergs of sin and godlessness would run down into water before his +silent and omnipotent shining. These are the weapons. + +III. Note the temper, or disposition, of the Christian warrior- +servant. + +Courage goes without saying. If a man expects to be beaten, and to +do nothing by his Christian witness but clear his conscience, he +deserves nothing else than what he will get--viz. that his +expectation will be fulfilled and he _will_ do nothing else +_but_ clear his conscience, and that imperfectly. That is why +so many preachers and Sunday-school teachers never see any +conversions in their congregation or classes--because they do not +expect any; because they go to their work without the enthusiastic +boldness which would give power to their utterances. + +I suppose concentration, too, goes without saying. When a man is on +the battlefield with the swords whirling about his head, and the +bayonets an inch from his breast, he does not go dreaming of scenes +a hundred miles off, or think anything else than the one thing, how +to keep a whole skin and wound an enemy. If Christian men will do +their work in the dawdling, half-interested, and half-indifferent +way in which so many of us promenade through our Christian service +as if it was a review and not a fight, they are not likely to bring +back many trophies of victory. You must put your whole selves into +the battle. I said we must subdue ourselves ere we begin to fight. +That is no contradiction to what I am saying now, for, as we all +know, there is a distinction between the two selves in us--the self- +centred self, which is to be crucified, and the God-centred self, +which is to be nourished. You must put your whole selves into the +battle. + +There must, too, be discipline. One difference between a mob and an +army is that the mob has as many wills as there are heads in it, and +the army has only one will, that of the commander. He says to one +man 'Go!' and he goes, and gets shot; and to another one 'Come!' and +he comes; and to a third one 'Do this!' and, no matter what it is, +straightway he goes and does it. So if we are soldiers we have to +take orders from headquarters, and to be sure that we pay no +attention to any other commands. Suppose a man is set at a certain +post by his captain, and a corporal comes and says, 'You go and do +this other thing; never mind your post, I will look after that,' to +obey that is mutiny. If Jesus Christ tells you to do anything, and +any others say 'Do not do it just yet!' neglect them, and obey Him. +If your own heart says, 'Stop a little while and try something other +and easier before you tackle that task,' be sure of the Captain's +voice, and then, whatever happens, obey, and obey at once. Warfare +is a diabolical thing, but there is a divine beauty in one aspect of +it-- + + Their's not to make reply, + Their's not to reason why, + Their's but to do-- + +even if it mean 'to die.' Thus let us wage warfare. + +IV. The Relieving Guard. + +This metaphor of warfare is used in the Book of Job, in a passage +where our English Version does not show it. So I venture to +substitute the right translation for the one in the Authorised +Version, 'All the days of my warfare will I wait till my change +comes.' The guard will be relieved some day, and the private that +has been tramping up and down in the dark or the snow, perhaps +within rifle's length of the enemy, will shoulder his gun and go +into the comfortable guardhouse, and hang up his knapsack, and fling +off his dirty boots, and sit down by the fire, and make himself +comfortable. There is a 'heavenly manner of relieving guard.' Soon +it will be the end of the sentry's time, and then, as one of those +that had done a good day's work, and a long one, said with a sigh of +relief, 'I have fought a good fight.' Henceforth the helmet is put +off, which is 'the hope of salvation,' and the crown is put on, +which is salvation in its fullness. 'All the days of my warfare will +I wait'--till my Captain relieves the guard. + + + + +THE GUIDING PILLAR + + + 'So it was alway: the cloud covered [the tabernacle] by + day, and the appearance of fire by night.'--Num. ix. 16. + +The children of Israel in the wilderness, surrounded by miracle, had +nothing which we do not possess. They had some things in an inferior +form; their sustenance came by manna, ours comes by God's blessing +on our daily work, which is better. Their guidance came by this +supernatural pillar; ours comes by the reality of which that pillar +was nothing but a picture. And so, instead of fancying that men thus +led were in advance of us, we should learn that these, the +supernatural manifestations, visible and palpable, of God's presence +and guidance were the beggarly elements: 'God having provided some +better thing for us that they without us should not be made +perfect.' + +With this explanation of the relation between the miracle and symbol +of the Old, and the reality and standing miracle of the New, +Covenants, let us look at the eternal truths, which are set before +us in a transitory form, in this cloud by day and fiery pillar by +night. + +I. Note, first, the double form of the guiding pillar. + +The fire was the centre, the cloud was wrapped around it. The former +was the symbol, making visible to a generation who had to be taught +through their senses, the inaccessible holiness and flashing +brightness and purity of the divine nature; the latter tempered and +veiled the too great brightness for feeble eyes. + +The same double element is found in all God's manifestations of +Himself to men. In every form of revelation are present both the +heart and core of light, which no eye can look upon, and the +merciful veil which, because it veils, unveils; because it hides, +reveals; makes visible because it conceals; and shows God because it +is 'the hiding of His power.' So, through all the history of His +dealings with men, there has ever been what is called in Scripture +language the 'face,' or the 'name of God'; the aspect of the divine +nature on which the eye can look; and manifested through it, there +has always been the depth and inaccessible abyss of that Infinite +Being. We have to be thankful that in the cloud is the fire, and +that round the fire is the cloud. For only so can our eyes behold +and our hands grasp the else invisible and remote central Sun of the +universe. God hides to make better known the glories of His +character. His revelation is the flashing of the uncreated and +intolerable light of His infinite Being through the encircling +clouds of human conceptions and words, or of deeds which each show +forth, in forms fitted to our apprehension, some fragment of His +lustre. After all revelation, He remains unrevealed. After ages of +showing forth His glory, He is still 'the King invisible, whom no +man hath seen at any time nor can see.' The revelation which He +makes of Himself is 'truth and is no lie.' The recognition of the +presence in it of both the fire and the cloud does not cast any +doubt on the reality of our imperfect knowledge, or of the authentic +participation in the nature of the central light, of the sparkles of +it which reach us. We know with a real knowledge what we know of +Him. What He shows us is Himself, though not His whole self. + +This double aspect of all possible revelation of God, which was +symbolised in comparatively gross external form in the pillar that +led Israel on its march, and lay stretched out and quiescent, a +guarding covering above the Tabernacle when the weary march was +still, recurs all through the history of Old Testament revelation by +type and prophecy and ceremony, in which the encompassing cloud was +comparatively dense, and the light which pierced it relatively +faint. It reappears in both elements in Christ, but combined in new +proportions, so as that 'the veil, that is to say, His flesh,' is +thinned to transparency and all aglow with the indwelling lustre of +manifest Deity. So a light, set in some fair alabaster vase, shines +through its translucent walls, bringing out every delicate tint and +meandering vein of colour, while itself diffused and softened by the +enwrapping medium which it beautifies by passing through its purity. +Both are made visible and attractive to dull eyes by the +conjunction. 'He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father,' and he +that hath seen the Father in Christ hath seen the man Christ, as +none see Him who are blind to the incarnate deity which illuminates +the manhood in which it dwells. + +But we have to note also the varying appearance of the pillar +according to need. There was a double change in the pillar according +to the hour, and according as the congregation was on the march or +encamped. By day it was a cloud, by night it glowed in the darkness. +On the march it moved before them, an upright pillar, as gathered +together for energetic movement; when the camp rested it 'returned +to the many thousands of Israel' and lay quietly stretched above the +Tabernacle like one of the long-drawn, motionless clouds above the +setting summer sun, glowing through all its substance with +unflashing radiance reflected from unseen light, and 'on all the +glory' (shrined in the Holy Place beneath) was 'a defence.' + +Both these changes of aspect symbolise for us the reality of the +Protean capacity of change according to our ever-varying needs, +which for our blessing we may find in that ever-changing, +unchanging, divine Presence which will be our companion, if we will. + +It was not only by a natural process that, as daylight declined, +what had seemed but a column of smoke in the fervid desert sunlight, +brightened into a column of fire, blazing amid the clear stars. But +we may well believe in an actual admeasurement of the degree of +light, correspondent to the darkness and to the need for certitude +and cheering sense of God's protection, which the defenceless camp +would feel as they lay down to rest. + +When the deceitful brightness of earth glistens and dazzles around +us, our vision of Him may be 'a cloudy screen to temper the +deceitful ray'; and when 'there stoops on our path, in storm and +shade, the frequent night,' as earth grows darker, and life becomes +greyer and more sombre, and verges to its eventide, the pillar +blazes brighter before the weeping eye, and draws nearer to the +lonely heart. We have a God who manifests Himself in the pillar of +cloud by day, and in flaming fire by night. + +II. Note the guidance of the pillar. + +When it lifts the camp marches; when it glides down and lies +motionless the march is stopped, and the tents are pitched. The main +point which is dwelt upon in this description of the God-guided +pilgrimage of the wandering people is the absolute uncertainty in +which they were kept as to the duration of their encampment, and as +to the time and circumstances of their march. Sometimes the cloud +tarried upon the Tabernacle many days; sometimes for a night only; +sometimes it lifted in the night. 'Whether it was by day or by night +that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two +days, or a month, or a year that the cloud tarried upon the +Tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their +tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up they journeyed.' +So never, from moment to moment, did they know when the moving cloud +might settle, or the resting cloud might soar. Therefore, absolute +uncertainty as to the next stage was visibly represented before them +by that hovering guide which determined everything, and concerning +whose next movement they knew absolutely nothing. + +Is not that all true about us? We have no guiding cloud like this. +So much the better. Have we not a more real guide? God guides us by +circumstances, God guides us by His word, God guides us by His +Spirit, speaking through our common-sense and in our understandings, +and, most of all, God guides us by that dear Son of His, in whom is +the fire and round whom is the cloud. And perhaps we may even +suppose that our Lord implies some allusion to this very symbol in +His own great words, 'I am the Light of the world. He that followeth +Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' +For the conception of 'following' the light seems to make it plain +that our Lord's image is not that of the sun in the heavens, or any +such supernal light, but that of some light which comes near enough +to a man to move before him, and behind which he can march. So, I +think, that Christ Himself laid His hand upon this ancient symbol, +and in these great words said in effect, 'I am that which it only +shadowed and foretold.' At all events, whether in them He was +pointing to our text or no, we must feel that He is the reality +which was expressed by this outward symbol. And no man who can say, +'Jesus Christ is the Captain of my salvation, and after His pattern +I march; at the pointing of His guiding finger I move; and in His +footsteps, He being my helper, I try to tread,' need feel or fancy +that any possible pillar, floating before the dullest eye, was a +better, surer, or diviner guide than he possesses. They whom Christ +guides want none other for leader, pattern, counsellor, companion, +reward. This Christ is our Christ 'for ever and ever, He will be our +guide even unto death' and beyond it. The pillar that we follow, +which will glow with the ruddy flame of love in the darkest hours of +life--blessed be His name!--will glide in front of us through the +'valley of the shadow of death,' brightest then when the murky +midnight is blackest. Nor will the pillar which guides us cease to +blaze, as did the guide of the desert march, when Jordan has been +crossed. It will still move before us on paths of continuous and +ever-increasing approach to infinite perfection. They who here +follow Christ afar off and with faltering steps shall there 'follow +the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.' + +In like manner, the same absolute uncertainty which was intended to +keep the Israelites (though it failed often to do so) in the +attitude of constant dependence, is the condition in which we all +have to live, though we mask it from ourselves. That we do not know +what lies before us is a commonplace. The same long tracts of +monotonous continuance in the same place and doing the same duties +befall us that befell these men. Years pass, and the pillar spreads +itself out, a defence above the unmoving sanctuary. And then, all in +a flash, when we are least thinking of change, it gathers itself +together, is a pillar again, shoots upwards, and moves forwards; and +it is for us to go after it. And so our lives are shuttlecocked +between uniform sameness which may become mechanical monotony, and +agitation by change which may make us lose our hold of fixed +principles and calm faith, unless we recognise that the continuance +and the change are alike the will of the guiding God, whose will is +signified by the stationary or moving pillar. + +III. That leads me to the last thing that I would note--viz. the +docile following of the Guide. + +In the context, the writer does not seem to be able to get away from +the thought that whatever the pillar indicated, immediate prompt +obedience followed. He says so over and over and over again. 'As +long as the cloud abode they rested, and when the cloud tarried long +they journeyed not'; and 'when the cloud was a few days on the +Tabernacle they abode'; and 'according to the commandment they +journeyed'; and 'when the cloud abode until the morning they +journeyed'; and 'whether it were two days, or a month, or a year +that the cloud tarried they journeyed not, but abode in their +tents.' So, after he has reiterated the thing half a dozen times or +more, he finishes by putting it all again in one verse, as the last +impression which he would leave from the whole narrative--'at the +commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the +commandment of the Lord they journeyed.' Obedience was prompt; +whensoever and for whatsoever the signal was given, the men were +ready. In the night, after they had had their tents pitched for a +long period, when only the watchers' eyes were open, the pillar +lifts, and in an instant the alarm is given, and all the camp is in +a bustle. That is what we have to set before us as the type of our +lives. We are to be as ready for every indication of God's will as +they were. The peace and blessedness of our lives largely depend on +our being eager to obey, and therefore quick to perceive, the +slightest sign of motion in the resting, or of rest in the moving, +pillar which regulates our march and our encamping. + +What do we need in order to cultivate and keep such a disposition? +We need perpetual watchfulness lest the pillar should lift +unnoticed. When Nelson was second in command at Copenhagen, the +admiral in command of the fleet hoisted the signal for recall, and +Nelson put his telescope to his blind eye and said, 'I do not see +it.' That is very like what we are tempted to do. When the signal +for unpleasant duties that we would gladly get out of is hoisted, we +are very apt to put the telescope to the blind eye, and pretend to +ourselves that we do not see the fluttering flags. We need still +more to keep our wills in absolute suspense, if His will has not +declared itself. Do not let us be in a hurry to run before God. When +the Israelites were crossing the Jordan, they were told to leave a +great space between themselves and the guiding ark, that they might +know how to go, because they had 'not passed that way heretofore.' +Impatient hurrying at God's heels is apt to lead us astray. Let Him +get well in front, that you may be quite sure which way He desires +you to go, before you go. And if you are not sure which way He +desires you to go, be sure that He does not at that moment desire +you to go anywhere. + +We need to hold the present with a slack hand, so as to be ready to +fold our tents and take to the road, if God will. We must not reckon +on continuance, nor strike our roots so deep that it needs a +hurricane to remove us. To those who set their gaze on Christ, no +present, from which He wishes them to remove, can be so good for +them as the new conditions into which He would have them pass. It is +hard to leave the spot, though it be in the desert, where we have so +long encamped that it has come to feel like home. We may look with +regret on the circle of black ashes on the sand where our little +fire glinted cheerily, and our feet may ache, and our hearts ache +more, as we begin our tramp once again, but we must set ourselves to +meet the God-appointed change cheerfully, in the confidence that +nothing will be left behind which it is not good to lose, nor +anything met which does not bring a blessing, however its first +aspect may be harsh or sad. + +We need, too, to cultivate the habit of prompt obedience. It is +usually reluctance which puts the drag on. Slow obedience is often +the germ of incipient disobedience. In matters of prudence and of +intellect, second thoughts are better than first, and third +thoughts, which often come back to first ones, better than second; +but in matters of duty, first thoughts are generally best. They are +the instinctive response of conscience to the voice of God, while +second thoughts are too often the objections of disinclination, or +sloth, or cowardice. It is easiest to do our duty when we are at +first sure of it. It then comes with an impelling power which +carries us over obstacles as on the crest of a wave, while +hesitation and delay leave us stranded in shoal water. If we would +follow the pillar, we must follow it at once. + +A heart that waits and watches for God's direction, that uses +common-sense as well as faith to unravel small and great +perplexities, and is willing to sit loose to the present, however +pleasant, in order that it may not miss the indications which say, +'Arise, this is not your rest,' fulfils the conditions on which, if +we keep them, we may be sure that He will guide us by the right way, +and bring us at last to 'the city of habitation.' + + + + +HOBAB + + + 'And Moses said unto Hobab ... Come thou with us, and + we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good + concerning Israel.'--NUM. x. 29. + +There is some doubt with regard to the identity of this Hobab. +Probably he was a man of about the same age as Moses, his brother- +in-law, and a son of Jethro, a wily Kenite, a Bedouin Arab. Moses +begs him to join himself to his motley company, and to be to him in +the wilderness 'instead of eyes.' What did Moses want a man for, +when he had the cloud? What do we want common-sense for, when we +have God's Spirit? What do we want experience and counsel for, when +we have divine guidance promised to us? The two things work in +together. The cloud led the march, but it was very well to have a +man that knew all about the oases and the wells, the situation of +which was known only to the desert-born tribes, and who could teach +the helpless slaves from Goshen the secrets of camp life. So Moses +pressed Hobab to change his position, to break with his past, and to +launch himself into an altogether new and untried sort of life. + +And what does he plead with him as the reason? 'We will do thee +good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.' Probably +Hobab looked rather shy at the security, for I suppose he was no +worshipper of Jehovah, and he said, 'No; I had rather go home to my +own people and my own kindred and my father's house where I fit in, +and keep to my own ways, and have something a little more definite +to lay hold of than your promise, or the promise of your Jehovah +that lies behind it. These are not solid, and I am going back to my +tribe.' But Moses pressed and he at last consented, and the +following verses suggest that the arrangement was made +satisfactorily, and that the journeyings began prosperously. In the +Book of Judges we find traces of the presence of Hobab's descendants +as incorporated among the people of Israel. One of them came to be +somebody, the Jael who struck the tent-peg through the temples of +the sleeping Sisera, for she is called 'the wife of Heber the +_Kenite_.' Probably, then, in some sense Hobab must have become +a worshipper of Jehovah, and have cast in his lot with his brother- +in-law and his people. I do not set Hobab up as a shining example. +We do not know much about his religion. But it seems to me that this +little glimpse into a long-forgotten and unimportant life may teach +us two or three things about the venture of faith, the life of +faith, and the reward of faith. + +I. The venture of faith. + +I have already said that Hobab had nothing in the world to trust to +except Moses' word, and Moses' report of God's Word. 'We will do you +good; God has said that He will do good to us, and you shall have +your share in it.' It was a grave thing, and, in many circumstances, +would have been a supremely foolish thing, credulous to the verge of +insanity, to risk all upon the mere promise of one in Moses' +position, who had so little in his own power with which to fulfil +the promise; and who referred him to an unseen divinity, somewhere +or other; and so drew bills upon heaven and futurity, and did not +feel himself at all bound to pay them when they fell due, unless God +should give him the cash to do it with. But Hobab took the plunge, +he ventured all upon these two promises--Moses' word, and God's word +that underlay it. + +Now that is just what we have to do. For, after all talking about +reasons for belief, and evidences of religion, and all the rest of +it, it all comes to this at last--will you risk everything on Jesus +Christ's bare word? There are plenty of reasons for doing so, but +what I wish to bring out is this, that the living heart and root of +true Christianity is neither more nor less than the absolute and +utter reliance upon nothing else but Christ, and therefore on His +word. He did not even condescend to give reasons for that reliance, +for His most solemn assurance was just this, 'Verily, verily, I say +unto you.' That is as much as to say, 'If you do not see in Me, +without any more argument, reason enough for believing Me, you do +not see Me at all.' + +Christ did not argue--He asserted, and in default of all other +proof, if I might venture to say so, He put His own personality into +the scales and said, 'There, that will outweigh everything.' So no +wonder that 'they were astonished at His doctrine,'--not so much at +the substance of it as at the tone of it, 'for He taught them +_with authority_.' + +But what right had He to teach them with authority? What right has +He to present Himself there in front of us and proclaim, 'I say unto +you, and there is an end of it'? The heart and essence of Christian +faith is doing, in a far sublimer fashion, precisely what this wild +Arab did, when he uprooted himself from the conditions in which his +life had grown up, and flung himself into an unknown future, on bare +trust in a bare word. Jesus Christ asks us to do the same by Him. +Whether His word comes to us revealing, or commanding, or promising, +it is absolute, and, for His true followers, ends all controversy, +all hesitation, all reluctance. When He commands it is ours to obey +and live. And when He promises it is for us to twine all the +tendrils of our expectations round that faithful word, and by faith +to make 'the anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast.' The venture of +faith takes a _word_ for the most solid thing in the universe, +and the Incarnate Word of God for the basis of all our hope, the +authority for all our conduct, 'the Master-light of all our seeing.' + +II. Hobab suggests to us, secondly-- + +The sort of life that follows the venture of faith. The hindrances +to his joining Moses were plainly put by himself. He said in effect, +'I will not come; I will depart to mine own land and to my kindred. +Why should I attach myself to a horde of strangers, and go wandering +about the desert for the rest of my life, looking out for +encampments for them, when I can return to where I have been all my +days; and be surrounded by the familiar atmosphere of friends and +relatives?' But he bethought himself that there was a nobler life to +live than that, and because he was stirred by the impulse of +reliance on Moses and his promise, and perhaps by some germ of +reliance on Moses' God, he finally said, 'The die is cast. I choose +my side. I will break with the past. I turn my back on kindred and +home. Here I draw a broad line across the page, and begin over again +in an altogether new kind of life. I identify myself with these +wanderers; sharing their fortunes, hoping to share their prosperity, +and taking their God for my God.' He had perhaps not been a nomad +before, for there still are permanent settlements as well as nomad +encampments in Arabia, as there were in those days, and he and his +relatives, from the few facts that we know of them, seem to have had +a fixed home, with a very narrow zone of wandering round it. So +Hobab, an old man probably, if he was anything like the age of his +connection by marriage, Moses, who was eighty at this time, makes up +his mind to begin a new career. + +Now that is what we have to do. If we have faith in Christ and His +promise, we shall not say, 'I am going back to my kindred and to my +home.' We shall be prepared to accept the conditions of a wanderer's +life. We shall recognise and feel, far more than we ever have done, +that we are indeed 'pilgrims and sojourners' here. Dear Christian +friends, we have no business to call ourselves Christ's men, unless +the very characteristic of our lives is that we are drawn ever +forward by the prospect of future good, and unless that future is a +great deal more solid and more operative upon us, and tells more on +our lives, than this intrusive, solid-seeming present that thrusts +itself between us and our true home. That is a sure saying. The +Christian obligation to live a life of detachment, even while +diligent in duty, is not to be brushed aside as pulpit rhetoric and +exaggeration, but it is the plainest teaching of the New Testament. +I wish it was a little more exemplified in the daily life of the +people who call themselves Christians. + +If I am not living for the unseen and the future, what right have I +to say that I am Christ's at all? If the shadows are more than the +substance to me; if this condensed vapour and fog that we call +reality has not been to our apprehension thinned away into the +unsubstantial mist that it is, what have the principles of +Christianity done for us, and what worth is Christ's word to us? If +I believe Him, the world is--I do not say, as the sentimental poet +put it, 'but a fleeting show, for man's illusion given';--but as +Paul puts it, a glass which may either reveal or obscure the +realities beyond; and according as we look at, or look through, 'the +things seen and temporal,' do we see, or miss, 'the things unseen +and eternal.' So, then, the life of faith has for its essential +characteristic--because it is a life of reliance on Christ's bare +word--that future good is consciously its supreme aim. That will +detach us, as it did Hobab, from home and kindred, and make us feel +that we are 'pilgrims and sojourners.' + +III. Lastly, our story suggests to us-- + +The rewards of faith. + +'Come with us,' says Moses; 'we are journeying unto the place of +which the Lord said, I will give it you. Come thou with us, and we +will do thee what goodness the Lord shall do unto us.' He went, and +neither he nor Moses ever saw the land, or at least never set their +feet on it. Moses saw it from Pisgah, but probably Hobab did not +even get so much as that. + +So he had all his tramping through the wilderness, and all his work, +for nothing, had he? Had he not better have gone back to Midian, and +made use of the present reality, than followed a will-of-the-wisp +that led him into a bog, if he got none of the good that he set out +expecting to get? Then, did he make a mistake? Would he have been a +wiser man if he had stuck to his first refusal? Surely not. It seems +to me that the very fact of this great promise being given to this +old--dare I call Hobab a 'saint'?--to this old saint, and never +being fulfilled at all in this world, compels us to believe that +there was some gleam of hope, and of certainty, of a future life, +even in these earliest days of dim and partial revelation. + +To me it is very illuminative, and very beautiful, that the dying +Jacob bursts in his song into a sudden exclamation, 'I have waited +for Thy salvation, O Lord!' It is as if he had felt that all his +life long he had been looking for what had never come, and that it +could not be that God was going to let him go down to the grave and +never grasp the good that he had been waiting for all his days. We +may apply substantially the same thoughts to Hobab, and to all his +like, and may turn them to our own use, and argue that the +imperfections of the consequences of our faith here on earth are +themselves evidences of a future, where all that Christ has said +shall be more than fulfilled, and no man will be able to say, 'Thou +didst send me out, deluding me with promises which have all gone to +water and have failed.' + +Hobab dying there in the desert had made the right choice, and if we +will trust ourselves to Christ and His faithful word, and, trusting +to Him, will feel that we are detached from the present and that it +is but as the shadow of a cloud, whatever there may be wanting in +the results of our faith here on earth, there will be nothing +wanting in its results at the last. Hobab did not regret his +venture, and no man ever ventures his faith on Christ and is +disappointed. 'He that believeth shall not be confounded.' + + + + +THE HALLOWING OF WORK AND OF REST + + + 'And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that + Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be + scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee. + 36. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, unto + the many thousands of Israel.'--Num. x. 35, 36. + +The picture suggested by this text is a very striking and vivid one. +We see the bustle of the morning's breaking up of the encampment of +Israel. The pillar of cloud, which had lain diffused and motionless +over the Tabernacle, gathers itself together into an upright shaft, +and moves, a dark blot against the glittering blue sky, the sunshine +masking its central fire, to the front of the encampment. Then the +priests take up the ark, the symbol of the divine Presence, and fall +into place behind the guiding pillar. Then come the stir of the +ordering of the ranks, and a moment's pause, during which the leader +lifts his voice--'Rise, Lord, and let Thine enemies be scattered, +and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee.' Then, with braced +resolve and confident hearts, the tribes set forward on the day's +march. + +Long after those desert days a psalmist laid hold of the old prayer +and offered it, as not antiquated yet by the thousand years that had +intervened. 'Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered,' +prayed one of the later psalmists; 'let them that hate Him flee +before Him.' We, too, in circumstances so different, may take up the +immortal though ancient words, on which no dimming rust of antiquity +has encrusted itself, and may, at the beginnings and the endings of +all our efforts and of each of our days, and at the beginning and +ending of life itself, offer this old prayer--the prayer which asked +for a divine presence in the incipiency of our efforts, and the +prayer which asked for a divine presence in the completion of our +work and in the rest that remaineth. + +I. So, then, if we put these two petitions together, I think we +shall see in them first, a pattern of that realisation of, and +aspiration after, the divine Presence, which ought to fill all our +lives. + +'Rise, Lord, let Thine enemies be scattered.' + +But was not that moving pillar the token that God had risen? And was +not the psalmist who reiterated Moses' prayer asking for what had +been done before he asked it? Was not the ark the symbol of the +divine Presence, and was not its movement after the pillar a pledge +to the whole host of Israel that the petition which they were +offering, through their leader's lips, was granted ere it was +offered? Yes. And yet the present God would not manifest His +Presence except in response to the desire of His servants; and just +because the ark was the symbol, and that moving column was the +guarantee of God's being with the host as their defence, therefore +there rose up with confidence this prayer, 'Rise, Lord, and let +Thine enemies be scattered.' + +That twofold attitude, the realisation of, and therefore the +aspiration after, the divine gifts, which are given before they are +desired, but are not appropriated and brought into operation in our +lives unless they are desired, is precisely the paradox of the +Christian life. Having, we long for, and longing, we have, and +because we possess God we pray, 'Oh! that we might possess Thee.' +The more we long, the more we receive. But unless He gave Himself in +anticipation of our longing, there would be neither longing nor +reception. Only on condition of our desiring to have Him does He +flow into our lives, victorious and strength-giving, and the more we +experience that omnipotent might and calming, guiding nearness, the +more assuredly we shall long for it. + +Let us then, dear brethren, blend these two things together, for +indeed they are inseparable one from the other, and there can be no +real experience in any depth of the one of them without the other. +Blessed be God! there need be no long interval of waiting between +sowing the seed of supplication and reaping the harvest of fruition. +That process of growth and reaping goes on with instantaneous +rapidity. 'Before they call I will answer,' for pillar and ark were +there ere Moses opened his lips; and 'while they are yet speaking I +will hear,' for, in response to the cry, the host moved +triumphantly, guarded through the wilderness. So it may be, and +ought to be, with each of us. + +In like manner, coupling these two petitions together, and taking +them as unitedly covering the whole field of life in their great +antitheses of work and rest, effort and accomplishment, beginning +and ending, morning and evening, we may say that here is an example, +to be appropriated in our own lives, of that continuous longing and +realisation which will encircle all life as with a golden ring, and +make every part of it uniform and blessed. To begin, continue, and +end with God is the secret of joyful beginning, of patient +continuance, and of triumphant ending. There is no reason in heaven, +though there are hosts of excuses on earth, why there should not be, +in the case of each of us, an absolutely continuous and +uninterrupted sense of being with God. O brethren! that is a stage +of Christian experience high above the one on which most of us +stand. But that is our fault, and not the necessity of our +condition. Let us lay this to heart, that it is possible to have the +pillar always guiding our march, and possible to have it stretching, +calm and motionless, over all our hours of rest. + +II. Now, if, turning from the lessons to be drawn from these two +petitions, taken in conjunction, we look at them separately, we may +say that we have here an example of the spirit in which we should +set ourselves, day by day, and at each new epoch and beginning, be +it greater or smaller, to every task. + +There are truths that underlie that first prayer, 'Rise up, Lord, +and let Thine enemies be scattered,' which are of perennial +validity, and apply to us as truly as to these warriors of God in +the wilderness long centuries ago. The first of them is that the +divine Presence is the source of all energy, and of successful +endeavour after, and accomplishment of, any duty. The second of them +is that that presence is, as I have been saying, granted, in its +operative power, only on condition of its being sought. And the +third of them is that I have a right to identify my enemies with +God's only on condition that I have made His cause mine. When Moses +prayed, 'Let Thine enemies be scattered,' he meant by these the +hostile nomad tribes that might ring Israel round, and come down +like a sandstorm upon them at any moment. What right had he to +suppose that the people whose lances and swords threatened the +motley host that he was leading through the wilderness were God's +enemies? Only this right, that his host had consented to be God's +soldiers, and that they having thus made His enemies theirs, He, on +His part, was sure to make their enemies His. We are often tempted +to identify our foes with God's, without having taken the +preliminary step of having so yielded ourselves to be His servants +and instruments for carrying forward His will, as that our own wills +have become a vanishing quantity, or rather have been ennobled and +greatened in proportion as they have been moulded in submission to +His. We must take God's cause for ours, in all the various aspects +of that phrase. And that means, first of all, that we make our own +perfecting into the likeness of Jesus Christ the main aim of our own +lives and efforts. It means, further, the putting ourselves bravely +and manfully on the side of right and truth and justice, in all +their forms. Above all, it means that we give ourselves to be God's +instruments in carrying on His great purposes for the salvation of +the world through Jesus Christ. If we do these things, whatever +obstacles may arise in our paths, we may be sure that these are +God's antagonists, because they are antagonists to God's work in and +by us. + +Only in so far as they are such, can you pray, 'Let them flee before +Thee!' Many of the things that we call our enemies come to us +disguised, and are mistaken by our superficial sight, and we do not +know that they are friends. 'All things work together for good to +them that love God.' And, when we desire His Presence, the +hindrances to doing His will--which are the only real enemies that +we have to fight--will melt away before His power, 'as wax melteth' +before the ardours of the fire; and, for the rest, the distresses, +the difficulties, the sorrows, and all the other things that we so +often think are our foes, we shall find out to have been our +friends. Make God's cause yours, and He will make your cause His. + +That applies to the great things of life, and to the little things. +I begin my day's work some morning, perhaps wearied, perhaps annoyed +with a multiplicity of trifles which seem too small to bring great +principles to bear upon them. But do you not think there would be a +strange change wrought in the petty annoyances of every day, and in +the small trifles of which all our lives, of whatever texture they +are, must largely be composed, if we began each day and each task +with that old prayer, 'Rise, Lord, and let Thine enemies be +scattered'? Do you not think there would come a quiet into our +hearts, and a victorious peace to which we are too much strangers? +If we carried the assurance that there is One that fights for us, +into the trifles as well as into the sore struggles of our lives, we +should have peace and victory. Most of us will not have many large +occasions of trial and conflict in our career; and, if God's +fighting for us is not available in regard to the small annoyances +of home and daily life, I know not for what it is available. 'Many +littles make a mickle,' and there are more deaths in skirmishes than +in the field of a pitched battle. More Christian people lose their +hold of God, their sense of His presence, and are beaten +accordingly, by reason of the little enemies that come down on them, +like a cloud of gnats in a summer evening, than are defeated by the +shock of a great assault or a great temptation, which calls out +their strength, and sends them to their knees to ask for help from +God. + +So we may learn from this prayer the spirit of expectance of victory +which is not presumption, and of consecration, which alone will +enable us to pass through life victorious. 'Be of good cheer,' said +the Master, as if in answer to this prayer in its Christian form--'I +have overcome the world.' We turn to the helmed and sworded Figure +that stands mysteriously beside us whilst we are all unaware of His +coming, and the swift question that Joshua put rises to our lips, +'Art Thou for us or for our adversaries?' The reply comes, 'Nay! but +as Captain of the Lord's host am I come up.' That is Christ's answer +to the prayer, 'Rise, Lord, let Thine enemies be scattered.' + +III. Lastly, we have here a pattern of the temper for hours of +repose. + +'When the ark rested, he said, "Return, O Lord, unto the many +thousands of Israel."' As I said at the beginning of these remarks, +the pillar of cloud seems to have taken two forms, braced together +upright when it moved, diffused and stretched as a shelter and a +covering over the host of Israel when it and they were at rest. In +like manner, that divine Presence is Protean in its forms, and takes +all shapes, according to the moment's necessities of the Christian +trusting heart. When we are to brace ourselves for the march it +condenses itself into an upright and moving guide. When we lay +ourselves down with relaxed muscles for repose, it softly expands +itself and 'covers our head' in the hours of rest, 'as in the day of +battle.' + +Ah! brother, we have more need of God in times of repose than in +times of effort. It is harder to realise His Presence in the brief +hours of relaxation than even in the many hours of strenuous toil. +Every one who goes for a holiday knows that. You have only to look +at the sort of amusements that most people fly to when they have not +anything to do, to see that there is quite as much, if not more, +peril to communion of soul with God in times when the whole nature +is somewhat relaxed, and the strings are loosened, like those of a +violin screwed down a turn or two of the peg, than there is in times +of work. + +So let us take special care of our hours of repose, and be quite +sure that they are so spent as that we can ask when the day's work +is done, and we have come to slippered ease, in preparation for +nightly rest, 'Return, O Lord, unto Thy waiting servant.' Work +without God unfits for rest with Him. Rest without God unfits for +work for Him. + +We may take these two petitions as tests of the allowableness of any +occupation, or of any relaxation. Dare I ask Him to come with me +into that field of work? If I dare not, it is no place for me. Dare +I ask Him to come with me into this other chamber of rest? If I dare +not, I had better never cross its threshold. Take these two prayers, +and where you cannot pray them, do not risk yourself. + +But the highest form of the contrast between the two waits still to +be realised. For life as a whole is a fight, and beyond it there is +the 'rest that remaineth,' where there will be not merely God's +'return unto the thousands of Israel,' but the realisation of His +fuller presence, and of deeper rest, which shall be wondrously +associated with more intense work, though in that work there will be +no conflict. The two petitions will flow together then, for whilst +we labour we shall rest; and whilst we rest we shall labour, +according to the great sayings, 'they rest from their labours,' and +yet 'they rest not day nor night.' + + + + +MOSES DESPONDENT + + + 'I am not able to bear all this people alone, because + it is too heavy for me.' + NUM. xi. 14. + +Detail the circumstances. + +The leader speaks the truth in his despondency. He is pressed with +the feeling of his incapacity for his work. We may take his words +here as teaching us what men need in him who is to be their guide, +and how impossible it is to find what they need in mere men. + +I. What men need in their guide. + +These Israelites were wandering in the wilderness; they were without +natural supplies for their daily necessities; they had a long hard +journey before them, an unknown road, at the terminus of which was a +land where they should rest. We have precisely the same necessities +as those which Moses despairingly said that they had. + +Like them, we wander hungry, and need a Leader who can satisfy our +desires and evermore give us bread for our souls even more than for +our bodies. We need One to whom we can 'weep,' as the Israelites did +to Moses, and not weep in vain. We need One who can do for us what +Moses felt that the Israelites needed, and that he could not give +them, when he almost indignantly put to God the despairing question, +'Can I carry them in my bosom as a nursing father beareth the +sucking child?' Our weakness, our ignorance, our heart-hunger, cry +out for One who can 'bear all this people alone.' who in his single +Self has resources of strength, wisdom, and sufficiency to meet not +only the wants of one soul but those of the world. For He who can +satisfy the poorest single soul must be able to satisfy all men. + +II. The impossibility of finding this in men. + +Moses' experience here is that of all leaders and great men. He is +overwhelmed with the work; feels his own utter impotence; has +himself to be strengthened; loathes his work; longs for release from +it. See how he confesses + + His human dependence. + His incapacity to do and be what is needed. + His impatience with the people. + His longing to be rid of it all. + +That is a true picture of the experience of the best of men--a true +picture of the limitations of the noblest leaders. + +But it is not only the leaders who confess their inadequacy, but the +followers feel it, for even the most enthusiastic of them come +sooner or later to find that their Oracle had not learned all +wisdom, nor was fit to be taken as sole guide, much less as sole +defence or satisfaction. He who looks to find all that he needs in +men must take many men to find it, and no multiplicity of men will +bring him what he seeks. The Milky Way is no substitute for the sun. +Our hearts cry out for One great light, for One spacious home. +Endless strings of pearls do not reach the preciousness of One pearl +of price. + +III. The failures of human leaders prophesy the true Leader. + +Moses was prophetic of Christ by his failures as by his successes. +He could not do what the people clamoured to have done, and what he +in the mood of despair in which the text shows him, sadly owned that +he could not. In that very confession he becomes an unconscious +prophet. For that he should have so vividly set forth the +qualifications of a leader of men, as defined by the people's cries, +and should have so bitterly felt his incapacity to supply them, is a +witness, if there is a God at all, that somewhere the needed Ideal +will be realised in 'a Leader and Commander of the people,' God-sent +and 'worthy of more glory than Moses.' + +The best service that all human leaders, helpers or lovers, can do +us, is to confess their own insufficiency, and to point us to Jesus. + +All that men need is found in Him and in Him alone. All that men +have failed, and must always fail, to be, He is. Those eyes are +blessed that 'see no man any more save Jesus only.' We need One who +can satisfy our desires and fill our hungry souls, and Jesus speaks +a promise, confirmed by the experience of all who have tested it +when He declares: 'He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger.' We +need One who will dry our tears, and Jesus, when He says 'Weep not,' +wipes them away and stanches their sources, giving 'the oil of joy +for mourning.' We need One who can hold us up in our journey, and +minister strength to fainting hearts and vigour to weary feet, and +Jesus 'strengthens us with might in the inner man.' We need One who +will bring us to the promised land of rest, and Jesus brings many +sons to glory, and wills that they be 'with Him where He is.' So let +us turn away from the multiplicity of human insufficiencies to Him +who is our one only help and hope, because He is all-sufficient and +eternal. + + + + +AFRAID OF GIANTS + + + 'And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and + said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go + up into the mountain; 18. And see the land, what it is; + and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be + strong or weak, few or many; 19. And what the land is + that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what + cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or + in strong holds; 20. And what the land is, whether it + be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. + And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the + land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes. + 21. So they went up, and searched the land from the + wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. + 22. And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; + where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, + were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in + Egypt.) 23. And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and + cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, + and they bare it between two upon staff; and they brought + of the pomegranates, and of the figs. 24. The place was + called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes + which the children of Israel cut down from thence. 25. And + they returned from searching of the land after forty days. + 26. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to + all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the + wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word + unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them + the fruit of the land. 27. And they told him, and said, + We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely + it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit + of it. 28. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell + in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: + and, moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. 29. + The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south; and the + Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell + in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, + and by the coast of Jordan. 30. And Caleb stilled the + people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, + and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. + 31. But the men that went up with him said, We be not + able to go up against the people; for they are stronger + than we. 32. And they brought up an evil report of the + land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, + saying, The land, through which we have gone to search + it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; + and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great + stature. 33. And there we saw the giants, the sons of + Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own + sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.' + --NUM. xiii. 17-33. + +We stand here on the edge of the Promised Land. The discussion of +the true site of Kadesh need not concern us now. Wherever it was, +the wanderers had the end of their desert journey within sight; one +bold push forward, and their feet would tread on their inheritance. +But, as is so often the case, courage oozed out at the decisive +moment, and cowardice, disguised as prudence, called for 'further +information,'--that cuckoo-cry of the faint-hearted. There are +three steps in this narrative: the despatch of the explorers, their +expedition, and the two reports brought back. + +I. We have the despatch and instructions of the explorers. A +comparison with Deuteronomy i. shows that the project of sending the +spies originated in the people's terror at the near prospect of the +fighting which they had known to be impending ever since they left +Egypt. Faith finds that nearness diminishes dangers, but sense sees +them grow as they approach. The people answered Moses' brave words +summoning them to the struggle with this feeble petition for an +investigation. They did not honestly say that they were alarmed, but +defined the scope of the exploring party's mission as simply to +'bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the +cities into which we shall come.' Had they not the pillar blazing +there above them to tell them that? The request was not fathomed in +its true faithlessness by Moses, who thought it reasonable and +yielded. So far Deuteronomy goes; but this narrative puts another +colour on the mission, representing it as the consequence of God's +command. The most eager discoverer of discrepancies in the component +parts of the Pentateuch need not press this one into his service, +for both sides may be true: the one representing the human +feebleness which originated the wish; the other, the divine +compliance with the desire, in order to disclose the unbelief which +unfitted the people for the impending struggle, and to educate them +by letting them have their foolish way, and taste its bitter +results. Putting the two accounts together, we get, not a +contradiction, but a complete view, which teaches a large truth as +to God's dealings; namely, that He often lovingly lets us have our +own way to show us by the issues that His is better, and that +daring, which is obedience, is the true prudence. + +The instructions given to the explorers turn on two points: the +eligibility of the country for settlement, and the military strength +of its inhabitants. They alternate in a very graphic way from the +one of these to the other, beginning, in verse 18, with the land, +and immediately going on to the numbers and power of the +inhabitants; then harking back again, in verse 19, to the fertility +of the land, and passing again to the capacity of the cities to +resist attack; and finishing up, in verse 20, with the land once +more, both arable and forest. The same double thought colours the +parting exhortation to 'be bold,' and to 'bring of the produce of +the land.' Now the people knew already both points which the spies +were despatched to find out. Over and over again, in Egypt, in the +march, and at Sinai, they had been told that the land was 'flowing +with milk and honey,' and had been assured of its conquest. What +more did they want? Nothing, if they had believed God. Nothing, if +they had been all saints,--which they were not. Their fears were +very natural. A great deal might be said in favour of their wish to +have accurate information. But it is a bad sign when faith, or +rather unbelief, sends out sense to be its scout, and when we think +to verify God's words by men's confirmation. Not to believe Him +unless a jury of twelve of ourselves says the same thing, is surely +much the same as not believing Him at all; for it is not He, but +they, whom we believe after all. + +There is no need to be too hard on the people. They were a mob of +slaves, whose manhood had been eaten out by four centuries of +sluggish comfort, and latterly crushed by oppression. So far as we +know, Abraham's midnight surprise of the Eastern kings was the +solitary bit of fighting in the national history thus far; and it is +not wonderful that, with such a past, they should have shrunk from +the prospect of bloodshed, and caught at any excuse for delay at +least, even if not for escape. 'We have all of us one human heart,' +and these cowards were no monsters, but average men, who did very +much what average men, professing to be Christians, do every day, +and for doing get praised for prudence by other average professing +Christians. How many of us, when brought right up to some task +involving difficulty or danger, but unmistakably laid on us by God, +shelter our distrustful fears under the fair pretext of 'knowing a +little more about it first,' and shake wise heads over rashness +which takes God at His word, and thinks that it knows enough when it +knows what He wills? + +II. We have the exploration (verses 21-25). The account of it is +arranged on a plan common in the Old Testament narratives, the +observation of which would, in many places, remove difficulties +which have led to extraordinary hypotheses. Verse 21 gives a general +summary of what is then taken up, and told in more detail. It +indicates the completeness of the exploration by giving its extreme +southern and northern points, the desert of Zin being probably the +present depression called the Arabah, and 'Rehob as men come to +Hamath' being probably near the northern Dan, on the way to Hamath, +which lay in the valley between the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon. +The account then begins over again, and tells how the spies went up +into 'the South.' The Revised Version has done wisely in printing +this word with a capital, and thereby showing that it is not merely +the name of a cardinal point, but of a district. It literally means +'the dry,' and is applied to the arid stretch of land between the +more cultivated southern parts of Canaan and the northern portion of +the desert which runs down to Sinai. It is a great chalky plateau, +and might almost be called a steppe or prairie. Passing through +this, the explorers next would come to Hebron, the first town of +importance, beside which Abraham had lived, and where the graves of +their ancestors were. But they were in no mood for remembering such +old stories. Living Anaks were much more real to them than dead +patriarchs. So the only thing mentioned, besides the antiquity of +the city, is the presence in it of these giants. They were probably +the relics of the aboriginal inhabitants, and some strain of their +blood survived till late days. They seem to have expelled the +Hittites, who held Mamre, or Hebron, in Abraham's time. Their name +is said to mean 'long-necked,' and the three names in our lesson are +probably tribal, and not personal, names. The whole march northward +and back again comes in between verses 22 and 23; for Eshcol was +close to Hebron, and the spies would not encumber themselves with +the bunch of grapes on their northward march. The details of the +exploration are given more fully in the spies' report, which shows +that they had gone up north from Hebron, through the hills, and +possibly came back by the valley of the Jordan. At any rate, they +made good speed, and must have done some bold and hard marching, to +cover the ground out and back in six weeks. So they returned with +their pomegranates and figs, and a great bunch of the grapes for +which the valley identified with Eshcol is still famous, swinging on +a pole,--the easiest way of carrying it without injury. + +III. We have next the two reports. The explorers are received in a +full assembly of the people, and begin their story with an object- +lesson, producing the great grape cluster and the other spoils. But +while honesty compelled the acknowledgment of the fertility of the +land, cowardice slurred that over as lightly as might be, and went +on to dilate on the terrors of the giants and the strength of the +cities, and the crowded population that held every corner of the +country. Truly, the eye sees what it brings with it. They really had +gone to look for dangers, and of course they found them. Whatever +Moses might lay down in his instructions, they had been sent by the +people to bring back reasons for not attempting the conquest, and so +they curtly and coldly admit the fertility of the soil, and fling +down the fruit for inspection as undeniably grown there, but they +tell their real mind with a great 'nevertheless.' Their report is, +no doubt, quite accurate. The cities were, no doubt, some of them +walled, and to eyes accustomed to the desert, very great; and there +were, no doubt, Anaks at Hebron, at any rate, and the 'spies' had +got the names of the various races and their territories correctly. +As to these, we need only notice that the Hittites were an outlying +branch of the great nation, which recent research has discovered, as +we might say, the importance and extent of which we scarcely yet +know; that the Jebusites held Jerusalem till David's time; that the +'Amorites,' or 'Highlanders,' occupied the central block of +mountainous country in conjunction with the two preceding tribes; +and that the 'Canaanites,' or 'Lowlanders,' held the lowlands east +and west of that hilly nucleus, namely, the deep gorge of the +Jordan, and the strip of maritime plain. A very accurate report may +be very one-sided. The spies were not the last people who, being +sent out to bring home facts, managed to convey very decided +opinions without expressing any. A grudging and short admission to +begin with, the force of which is immediately broken by sombre and +minute painting of difficulty and danger, is more powerful as a +deterrent than any dissuasive. It sounds such an unbiassed appeal to +common-sense, as if the reporter said, 'There are the facts; we +leave you to draw the conclusions.' An 'unvarnished account of the +real state of the case,' in which there is not a single misstatement +nor exaggeration, may be utterly false by reason of wrong +perspective and omission, and, however true, is sure to act as a +shower-bath to courage, if it is unaccompanied with a word of cheer. +To begin a perilous enterprise without fairly facing its risks and +difficulties is folly. To look at _them_ only is no less folly, +and is the sure precursor of defeat. But when on the one side is +God's command, and on the other such doleful discouragements, they +are more than folly, they are sin. + +It is bracing to turn from the creeping prudence which leaves God +out of the account, to the cheery ring of Caleb's sturdy confidence. +His was 'a minority report,' signed by only two of the 'Commission.' +These two had seen all that the others had, but everything depends +on the eyes which look. The others had measured themselves against +the trained soldiers and giants, and were in despair. These two +measured Amalekites and Anaks against God, and were jubilant. They +do not dispute the facts, but they reverse the implied conclusion, +because they add the governing fact of God's help. How differently +the same facts strike a man who lives by faith, and one who lives by +calculation! Israel might be a row of ciphers, but with God at the +head they meant something. Caleb's confidence that 'we are well able +to overcome' was religious trust, as is plain from God's eulogium on +him in the next chapter (Num. xiv. 24). The lessons from it are that +faith is the parent of wise courage; that where duty, which is God's +voice, points, difficulties must not deter; that when we have God's +assurance of support, they are nothing. Caleb was wise to counsel +going up to the assault 'at once,' for there is no better cure for +fear than action. Old soldiers tell us that the trying time is when +waiting to begin the fight. 'The native hue of resolution' gets +'sicklied o'er' with the paleness that comes from hesitation. Am I +sure that anything is God's will? Then the sooner I go to work at +doing it, the better for myself and for the vigour of my work. + +This headstrong rashness, as they thought it, brings up the other +'spies' once more. Notice how the gloomy views are the only ones in +their second statement. There is nothing about the fertility of the +land, but, instead, we have that enigmatical expression about its +'eating up its inhabitants.' No very satisfactory explanation of +this is forthcoming. It evidently means that in some way the land +was destructive of its inhabitants, which seems to contradict their +former reluctant admission of its fertility. Perhaps in their +eagerness to paint it black enough, they did contradict themselves, +and try to make out that it was a barren soil, not worth conquering. +Fear is not very careful of consistency. Note, too, the +exaggerations of terror. 'All the people' are sons of Anak now. The +size as well as the number of the giants has grown; 'we were in our +own sight as grasshoppers.' No doubt they were gigantic, but fear +performed the miracle of adding a cubit to their stature. When the +coward hears that 'there is a lion without,'--that is, in the open +country,--he immediately concludes, 'I shall be slain in the +streets,' where it is not usual for lions to disport themselves. + +Thus exaggerated and one-sided is distrust of God's promises. Such a +temper is fatal to all noble life or work, and brings about the +disasters which it foresees. If these cravens had gone up to fight +with men before whom they felt like grasshoppers, of course they +would have been beaten; and it was much better that their fears +should come out at Kadesh than when committed to the struggle. +Therefore God lovingly permitted the mission of the spies, and so +brought lurking unbelief to the surface, where it could be dealt +with. Let us beware of the one-eyed 'prudence' which sees only the +perils in the path of duty and enterprise for God, and is blind to +the all-sufficient presence which makes us more than conquerors, +when we lean all our weight on it. It is well to see the Anakim in +their full formidableness, and to feel that we are 'as grasshoppers +in our own sight' and in theirs, if the sight drives us to lift our +eyes to Him who 'sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the +inhabitants thereof,' however huge and strong, 'are as +grasshoppers.' + + + + +WEIGHED, AND FOUND WANTING + + + 'And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and + cried; and the people wept that night. 2. And all the + children of Israel murmured against Moses and against + Aaron; and the whole congregation said unto them, Would + God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God + we had died in this wilderness! 3. And wherefore hath + the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, + that our wives and our children should be a prey? were + it not better for us to return into Egypt? 4. And they + said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us + return into Egypt 5. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their + faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the + children of Israel. 6. And Joshua the son of Nun, and + Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that + searched the land, rent their clothes. 7. And they spake + unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, + The land, which we passed through to search it, is an + exceeding good land. 8. If the Lord delight in us, then + He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land + which floweth with milk and honey. 9. Only rebel not ye + against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; + for they are bread for us: their defence is departed + from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not. + 10. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. + And the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of + the congregation before all the children of Israel.' + --NUM. xiv. 1-10. + +Terror is more contagious than courage, for a mob is always more +prone to base than to noble instincts. The gloomy report of the +spies jumped with the humour of the people, and was at once +accepted. Its effect was to throw the whole assembly into a paroxysm +of panic, which was expressed in the passionate Eastern manner by +wild, ungoverned shrieking and tears. What a picture of a frenzied +crowd the first verse of this chapter gives! That is not the stuff +of which heroes can be made. Weeping endured for a night, but to +such weeping there came no morning of joy. When day dawned, the +tempest of emotion settled down into sullen determination to give up +the prize which hung within reach of a bold hand, ripe and ready to +drop. It was one of the moments which come once at least in the +lives of nations as of individuals, when a supreme resolve is called +for, and when to fall beneath the stern requirement, and refuse a +great attempt because of danger, is to pronounce sentence of +unworthiness and exclusion on themselves. Not courage only, but +belief in God, was tested in this crucial moment, which made a +turning-point in the nation's history. Our text brings before us +with dramatic vividness and sharpness of contrast, three parties in +this decisive hour--the faithless cowards, the faithful four, and +the All-seeing presence. + +I. Note the faithless cowards. The gravity of the revolt here is +partly in its universality, which is emphasised in the narrative at +every turn: '_all_ the congregation' (v. 1), '_all_ the children of +Israel,' the _whole_ congregation' (v. 2), '_all_ the assembly of the +congregation' (which implies a solemn formal convocation), '_all_ the +company' (v, 7), '_all_ the congregation,' '_all_ the children of Israel' +(v. 10). It was no sectional discontent, but full-blown and universal +rebellion. The narrative draws a distinction between the language +addressed to Moses, and the whisperings to one another. Publicly, the +unanimous voice suggested the return to Egypt as an alternative for +discussion, and put it before Moses; to one another they muttered the +proposal, which no man had yet courage to speak out, of choosing a +new leader, and going back, whatever became of Moses. That could only +mean murder as well as mutiny. The whispers would soon be loud enough. + +In the murmurs to Moses, observe the distinct and conscious apostacy +from Jehovah. They recognise that God 'has brought' them there, and +they slander Him by the assertion that His malignant, deliberate +purpose was to kill them all, and make slaves of their wives and +children. That was how they read the past, and thought of Him! He +had enticed them into His trap, as a hunter might some foolish +animal, by dainties strewed along the path, and now they were in the +toils, and their only chance of life was to break through. Often, +already, had they raised that mad cry--'back to Egypt!' but there +had never been such a ring of resolve in it, nor had it come from so +many throats, nor had any serious purpose to depose Moses been +entertained. If we add the fact that they were now on the very +frontier of Canaan, and that the decision now taken was necessarily +final, we get the full significance of the incident from the mere +secular historian's point of view. But its bearing on the people's +relation to Jehovah gives a darker colouring to it. It is not merely +faint-hearted shrinking from a great opportunity, but it is wilful +and deliberate rejection of His rule, based upon utter distrust of +His word. So Scripture treats this event as the typical example of +unbelief (Psa. xcv.; Heb. iii. and iv.). So regarded, it presents, +as in a mirror, some of the salient characteristics of that master +sin. Bad as it is, it is not out of the range of possibility that it +should be repeated, and we need the warning to 'take heed lest any +of us should fall after the same example of unbelief.' + +We may learn from it the essentials of faith and its opposite. The +trust which these cowards failed to exercise was reliance on +Jehovah, a personal relation to a Person. In externals and contents, +their trust was very unlike the New Testament faith, but in object +and essence it was identical. They had to trust in Jehovah; we, in +'God manifest in the flesh.' Their creed was much less clear and +blessed than ours, but their faith, if they had had it, would have +been the same. Faith is not the belief of a creed, whether man-made +or God-revealed, but the cleaving to the Person whom the creed makes +known. He may be made known more or less perfectly; but the act of +the soul, by which we grasp Him, does not vary with the completeness +of the revelation. That act was one for 'the world's grey fathers' +and for us. In like manner, unbelief is the same black and fatal +sin, whatever be the degree of light against which it turns. To +depart from the living God is its essence, and that is always +rebellion and death. + +Note the short memory and churlish unthankfulness of unbelief. It +has been often objected to the story of the Exodus, that such +extremity of folly as is ascribed to the Israelites is inconceivable +in such circumstances. How could men, with all these miracles in +mind, and manna falling daily, and the pillar blazing every night, +and the roll of Sinai's thunders scarcely out of their ears, behave +thus? But any one who has honestly studied his own heart, and known +its capacity for neglecting the plainest indications of God's +presence, and forgetting the gifts of His love, will believe the +story, and see brethren in these Israelites. Miracles were less +wonderful to them, because they knew less about nature and its laws. +Any miracles constantly renewed become commonplace. Habit takes the +wonder out of everything. The heart that does not 'like to retain +God in its knowledge' will find easy ways of forgetting Him, and +revolting from Him, though the path be strewed with blessings, and +tokens of His presence flame on every side. True, it is strange that +all the wonders and mercies of the past two years had made no deeper +impression on these people's hearts; but if they had not done so, it +is not unnatural that they had made so slight an impression on their +wills. Their ingratitude and forgetfulness are inexplicable, as all +sin is, for its very essence is that it has no sufficient reason. +But neither is inconceivable, and both are repeated by us every day. + +Note the credulity of unbelief. The word of Jehovah had told them +that the land 'flowed with milk and honey,' and that they were sure +to conquer it. They would not believe Him unless they had +verification of His promises. And when they got their own fears +reflected in the multiplying mirror of the spies' report, they took +men's words for gospel, and gave to them a credence without +examination or qualification, which they had never given to God. I +think that I have heard of people who inveigh against Christians for +their slavish acceptance of the absolute authority of Jesus Christ, +and who pin their faith to some man's teaching with a credulity +quite as great as and much less warrantable than ours. + +Note the bad bargain which unbelief is ready to make. They +contemplated a risky alternative to the brave dash against Canaan. +There would be quite as much peril in going back as forward. The +march from Egypt had not been so easy; but what would it be when +there were no Moses, no Jethro, no manna, no pillar? And what sort +of reception would wait them in Egypt, and what fate befall them +there? In front, there were perils; but God would be with them. They +would have to fight their way, but with the joyous feeling that +victory was sure, and that every blow struck, and every step +marched, brought them nearer triumphant peace. If they turned, every +step would carry them farther from their hopes, and nearer the +dreary putting on of the old yoke, which 'neither they nor their +fathers were able to bear.' They would buy slavery at as dear a +price as they would have to pay for freedom and wealth. Yet they +elected the baser course, and thought themselves prudent and careful +of themselves in doing so. Is the breed of such miscalculators +extinct? Far greater hardships and pains are met on the road of +departure from God, than any which befall His servants. To follow +Him involves a conflict, but to shirk the battle does not bring +immunity from strife. The alternatives are not warfare or peace, +God's service or liberty. The most prudent self-love would coincide +with the most self-sacrificing heroic consecration, and no man can +worse consult his own well-being than in seeking escape from the +dangers and toil of enlisting in God's army, by running back through +the desert to put his neck in chains in Egypt. As Moses said: +'Because then servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and +with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore +thou shalt serve thine enemies, in hunger, and in thirst, and in +want of all things.' + +II. The faithful four. Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua, are the +only Abdiels in that crowd of unbelieving dastards. Their own peril +does not move them; their only thought is to dissuade from the fatal +refusal to advance. The leader had no armed force with which to put +down revolt, and stood wholly undefended and powerless. It was a +cruel position for him to see the work of his life crumbling to +pieces, and every hope for his people dashed by their craven fears. +Is there anywhere a nobler piece of self-abnegation than his +prostrating himself before them in the eagerness of his pleading +with them for their own good? If anything could have kindled a spark +of generous enthusiasm, that passionate gesture of entreaty would +have done it. It is like: 'We beseech you, in His stead, be ye +reconciled to God.' Men need to be importuned not to destroy +themselves, and he will have most success in such God-like work who, +as Moses, is so sure of the fatal issues, and so oblivious of all +but saving men from self-inflicted ruin, that he sues as for a boon +with tears in his voice, and dignity thrown to the winds. + +Caleb and Joshua had a different task,--to make one more attempt to +hearten the people by repeating their testimony and their +confidence. Tearing their dresses, in sign of mourning, they bravely +ring out once more the cheery note of assured faith. They first +emphatically reiterate that the land is fertile,--or, as the words +literally run, 'good exceedingly, exceedingly.' It is right to +stimulate for God's warfare by setting forth the blessedness of the +inheritance. 'The recompense of the reward' is not the motive for +doing His will, but it is legitimately used as encouragement, in +spite of the overstrained objection that virtue for the sake of +heaven is spurious virtue. If 'for the sake of heaven,' it is +spurious; but it is not spurious because it is heartened by the hope +of heaven. In Caleb's former report there was no reason given for +his confidence that 'we are well able to overcome.' Thus far all the +discussion had been about comparative strength, as any heathen +soldier would have reckoned it. But the two heroes speak out the +great Name at last, which ought to scatter all fears like morning +mist. The rebels had said that Jehovah had 'brought us into this +land to fall by the sword.' The two give them back their words with +a new turn: 'He will bring us into this land, and give it us.' That +is the only antidote to fear. Calculations of comparative force are +worse than useless, and their results depend on the temper of the +calculator; but, if once God is brought into the account, the sum is +ended. When His sword is flung into the scale, whatever is in the +other goes up. So Caleb and Joshua brush aside the terrors of the +Anaks and all the other bugbears. 'They are bread for us,' we can +swallow them at a mouthful; and this was no swaggering boast, but +calm, reasonable confidence, because it rested on this, 'the Lord is +with us.' True, there was an 'if,' but not an 'if' of doubt, but a +condition which they could comply with, and so make it a certainty, +'only rebel not against the Lord, and fear not the people of the +land.' Loyalty to Him would give courage, and courage with His +presence would be sure of victory. Obedience turns God's 'ifs' into +'verilys.' There, then, we have an outline picture of the work of +faith pleading with the rebellious, heartening them and itself by +thoughts of the fair inheritance, grasping the assurance of God's +omnipotent help, and in the strength thereof wisely despising the +strongest foes, and settling itself immovable in the posture of +obedience. + +III. The sudden appearance of the all-seeing Lord. The bold +remonstrance worked the people into a fury, and fidelity was about +to reap the reward which the crowd ever gives to those who try to +save it from its own base passions. Nothing is more hateful to +resolute sinners than good counsel which is undeniably true. But +just as the stones were beginning to fly, the 'glory of the Lord,' +that wondrous light which dwelt above the ark in the inmost shrine, +came forth before all the awestruck crowd. The stones would be +dropped fast enough, and a hush of dread would follow the howling +rage of the angry crowd. Our text does not go on to the awful +judgment which was proclaimed; but we may venture beyond its bounds +to point out that the sentence of exclusion from the land was but +the necessary consequence of the temper and character which the +refusal to advance had betrayed. Such people were not fit for the +fight. A new generation, braced by the keen air and scant fare of +the desert, with firmer muscles and hearts than these enervated +slaves had, was needed for the conquest. The sentence was mercy as +well as judgment; it was better that they should live in the +wilderness, and die there by natural process, after having had more +education in God's loving care, than that they should be driven +unwillingly to a conflict which, in their state of mind, would have +been but their butchery. None the less, it is an awful condemnation +for a man to be brought by God's providence face to face with a +great possibility of service and of blessing, and then to show +himself such that God has to put him aside, and look for other +instruments. The Israelites were excluded from Canaan by no +arbitrary decree, but by their own faithless fears, which made their +victory impossible. 'They could not enter in because of unbelief.' +In like manner our unbelief shuts us out from salvation, because we +can only enter in by faith; and the 'rest that remains' is of such a +nature that it is impossible for even His love to give it to the +unbelieving. 'Let us labour, therefore, to enter into that rest, +lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.' + + + + +MOSES THE INTERCESSOR + + + 'Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people + according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou + hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.' + --NUM. xiv. 19. + +See how in this story a divine threat is averted and a divine +promise is broken, thus revealing a standing law that these in +Scripture are conditional. + +This striking incident of Moses' intercession suggests to us some +thoughts as to + +I. The ground of the divine forgiveness. + +The appeal is not based on anything in the people. God is not asked +to forgive because of their repentance or their faith. True, these +are the conditions on which His pardon is received by us, but they +are not the reasons why it is given by Him. Nor does Moses appeal to +any sacrifices that had been offered and were conceived to placate +God. But he goes deeper than all such pleas, and lays hold, with +sublime confidence, on God's own nature as his all-powerful plea. +'The greatness of Thy mercy' is the ground of the divine +forgiveness, and the mightiest plea that human lips can urge. It +suggests that His very nature is pardoning love; that 'mercy' is +proper to Him, that it is the motive and impulse of His acts. He +forgives because He is mercy. That is the foundation truth. It is +the deep spring from which by inherent impulse all the streams of +forgiveness well up. + +What was true when Moses prayed for the rebels is true to-day. +Christ's work is the consequence, not the cause, of God's pardoning +love. It is the channel through which the waters reach us, but the +waters made the channel for themselves. + +II. The persistency of the divine pardon. + +'As thou hast forgiven ... even until now.' + +His past is the guarantee of His future. This is true of every one +of His attributes. There is no limitation to the divine forgiveness; +you cannot exhaust it. + +Sometimes there may be long tracts of almost utter godlessness, or +times of apathy. Sometimes there may be bursts of great and +unsanctified evil after many professions of fidelity, as in David's +case. Sometimes there may be but a daily experience in which there +is little apparent progress, little consciousness of growing mastery +over sin, little of deepening holiness and spiritual power. Be it so! +To all such, and to every other form of Christian unfaithfulness, +this blessed thought applies. + +We are apt to think as if our many pardons in the past made future +pardons less likely, whereas the truth is that we have received +forgiveness so often in the past that we may be quite sure that it +will never fail us in the future. God has established a precedent in +His dealings with us. He binds Himself by His past. + +As in His creative energy, the forces that flung the whole universe +forth were not exhausted by the act, but subsist continually to +sustain it, as 'He fainteth not, neither is weary,' so in the works +of His providence, and more especially of His grace, there is +nothing in the exercise of any of His attributes to exhaust +_that_ attribute, nothing in the constant appeal which we make +to His forgiving grace to weary out that grace. And thus we may +learn, even from the unfading glories of the heavens and the +undimmed splendours of His creative works, the lesson that, in the +holier region of His love, and His pardoning mercy, there is no +exhaustion, and that all the past instances of His pardoning grace +only make the broader, firmer ground of certainty as to His +continuous present and future forgiveness for all our iniquity. He +who has proposed to us the 'seventy times seven' as the number of +our forgivenesses will not let His own fall short of that tale. Our +iniquities may be 'more than the hairs of our heads,' but as the +psalmist who found his to be so comforted himself with thinking, +God's 'thoughts which are to usward' were 'more than can be +numbered.' There would be a pardoning thought for every sin, and +after all sins had been forgiven, there would be 'multitudes of +redemptions' still available for penitent souls. + +There is but one thing that limits the divine pardon, and that is +continuous rejection of it. + +Whoever seeks to be pardoned _is_ pardoned. + +III. The manner of the divine forgiveness. + +He pardoned, but He also inflicted punishment, and in both He loves +equally. The worst, that is the spiritual, consequences (which are +the punishments) of sin, namely separation and alienation from God, +He removes in the very act of forgiveness, but His pardon does not +affect the natural consequences. 'Thou wast a God that forgavest +them and tookest vengeance of their inventions,' says a psalmist in +reference to this very incident. Thank God that He loves us too +wisely and well not to let us by experience 'know that it is a +bitter thing to forsake the Lord.' + +It is a blessing that He does so, and a sign that we are pardoned, +if we rightly use it. + +IV. The vehicle of the divine forgiveness. + +The Mediator. Moses here may be taken as a dim shadow of Christ. + +'Moses was faithful in all his house' but Jesus is the true +Mediator, whose intercession consists in presenting the constant +efficacy of His sacrifice, and to whom God ever says, 'I have +pardoned according to Thy word.' + +Trust utterly to Him. You cannot weary out the forgiving love of +God. 'Christ ever liveth to make intercession'; with God is +'plenteous redemption.' 'He shall redeem Israel out of _all_ +his iniquities.' + + + + +SERVICE A GIFT + + + '... I have given your priest's office unto you as a + service of gift.'--NUM. xviii. 7. + +All Christians are priests--to offer sacrifices, alms, especially +prayers; to make God known to men. + +I. Our priesthood is a gift of God's love. + +We are apt to think of our duties as burdensome. They are an honour +and a mark of God's grace. + +1. They are His gift-- + +_(a)_ The power to do. All capacities and possessions from Him. + +_(b)_ The wish to do. 'Worketh in you to will.' + +_(c)_ The right to do, through Christ. + +2. They are a blessing. + +_(a)_ Note the good effects on ourselves--the increase of +fellowship with Him, the strengthening of all holy desires. + +_(b)_ The future benefits. Apply this to prayer and to effort +on behalf of our fellow-men. + +II. Our priesthood is to be done as a service--under a sense of +obligation to a master, with diligence (an [Greek: ergon], not a +[Greek: parergon]). + +III. Our priesthood is to be done as a gift to God--to be done +joyfully, giving ourselves back to Him: 'Yield yourselves unto + God'--'your reasonable service.' + +Then only do we really possess ourselves, and 'all things are ours, +for we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' + + + + +THE WATERS OF MERIBAH + + + 'Then came the children of Israel, even the whole + congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first + month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died + there, and was buried there. 2. And there was no water + for the congregation: and they gathered themselves + together against Moses and against Aaron. 3. And the + people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God + that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! + 4. And why have ye brought up the congregation of the + Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should + die there? 5. And wherefore have ye made us to come up out + of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no + place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; + neither is there any water to drink. 6. And Moses and + Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the + door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell + upon their faces: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto + them. 7. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 8. Take + the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, + and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before + their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou + shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou + shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. + 9. And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as He + commanded him. 10. And Moses and Aaron gathered the + congregation together before the rock, and he said unto + them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out + of this rock? 11. And Moses lifted up his hand, and with + his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out + abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts + also. 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, + Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes + of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring + this congregation into the land which I have given them. + 13. This is the water of Meribah; because the children + of Israel strove with the Lord, and He was sanctified + in them.'--NUM. xx. 1-13. + +Kadesh had witnessed the final trial and failure of the generation +that came out of Egypt; now we see the first trial and failure of +the new generation, thirty-seven years after, on the same spot. Deep +silence shrouds the history of these dreary years; but, probably, +the congregation was broken up, and small parties roamed over the +country, without purpose or hope, while Moses and a few of the +leaders kept by the tabernacle. There is a certain emphasis in the +phrase of the first verse of this chapter, 'the children of Israel, +even the _whole_ congregation,' which suggests that this was +the first reassembling of the scattered units since the last act of +the 'whole congregation.' 'The first month' was, then, the first of +the fortieth year, and the gathering was either in obedience to the +summons of Moses, who knew that the fixed time had now come, or was +the result of common knowledge of the fact. In any case, we have +here the first act of a new epoch, and the question to be tried is +whether the new men are any better than the old. It is this which +gives importance to the event, and explains the bitterness of Moses +at finding the old spirit living in the children. It was his trial +as well as theirs. He resumed the functions which had substantially +been in abeyance for a generation, and by his conduct showed that he +had become unfit for the new form which the leadership must take +with the invasion of Canaan. + +I. We note the old murmurings on the lips of the new generation. The +lament of a later prophet fits these hereditary grumblers,--'In vain +have I smitten your children; they received no correction.' The +place where they reassembled might have taught them the sin of +unbelief; their parents' graves should have enforced the lesson. But +the long years of wandering, and two millions of deaths, had been +useless. The weather-beaten but sturdy strength of the four old men, +the only survivors, might have preached the wisdom of trust in the +God in whose 'favour is life.' But the people 'had learned nothing and +forgotten nothing.' The old cuckoo-cry, which had become so +monotonous from their fathers, is repeated, with differences, not in +their favour. They do not, indeed, murmur directly against God, +because they regard Moses and Aaron as responsible. 'Why,' say they, +'have _ye_ brought up the congregation of the Lord?' They seem to use +that name with a touch of pride in their relation to God, while +destitute of any real obedience, and so they show the first traces of +the later spirit of the nation. They have acquired cattle while living +in the oases of the wilderness, and they are anxious about them. +They acknowledge the continuity of national life in their question, +'Wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt?' though most of +them had been born in the wilderness. The fear that moved their fathers +to unbelief was more reasonable and less contemptible than this +murmuring, which ignores God all but utterly, and is ready to throw +up everything at the first taste of privation. + +It is a signal instance of the solemn law by which the fathers' sins +are inherited by the children who prove themselves heirs to their +ancestors by repeating their deeds. It is fashionable now to deny +original sin, and equally fashionable to affirm 'heredity,' which is +the same thing, put into scientific language. There is such a thing +as national character persistent through generations, each unit of +which adds something to the force of the tendencies which he +receives and transmits, but which never are so omnipotent as to +destroy individual guilt, however they may lighten it. + +Note, too, the awful power of resistance to God's educating +possessed by our wills. The whole purpose of these men's lives, thus +far, had been to fit them for being God's instruments, and for the +reception of His blessing. The desert was His school for body and +mind, where muscles and wills were to be braced, and solitude and +expectation might be nurses of lofty thoughts, and in the silence +God's voice might sound. What better preparation of a hardy race of +God-trusting heroes could there have been, and what came of it all? +Failure all but complete! The instrument tempered with so much care +has its edge turned at the first stroke. The old sore breaks out at +the old spot. Man's will has an awful power to thwart God's +training; and of all the sad mysteries of this sad mysterious world, +this is the saddest and most mysterious, and is the root of all +other sadness and mystery,--that a man can set his pin-point of a +will against that great Will which gives him all his power, and when +God beckons can say, 'I will not,' and can render His most sedulous +discipline ineffectual. + +Note, too, that trivial things are large enough to hide plain duties +and bright possibilities. These men knew that they had come to +Kadesh for the final assault, which was to recompense all their +hardships. Their desert training should have made them less +resourceless and desperate when water failed; but the hopes of +conquest and the duty of trust cannot hold their own against present +material inconvenience. They even seem to make bitter mockery of the +promises, when they complain that Kadesh is 'no place of seed, or of +figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates,' which were the fruits +brought by the spies,--as if they had said, 'So this stretch of +waterless sand is the fertile land you talked of, is it? This is all +that we have got by reassembling here.' Do we not often feel that +the drought of Kadesh is more real than the grapes of Eshcol? Are we +not sometimes tempted to bitter comparisons of the fair promises +with the gloomy realities? Does our courage never flag, nor our +faith falter, nor swirling clouds of doubt hide the inheritance from +our weary and tear-filled eyes? He that is without sin may cast the +first stone at these men; but whoever knows his own weak heart will +confess that, if he had been among that thirsty crowd, he would, +most likely, have made one of the murmurers. + +II. Note God's repetition of His old gift to the new generation. +Moses makes no attempt to argue with the people, but casts himself +in entreaty before the door of the Tabernacle, as if crushed and +helpless in face of this heart-breaking proof of the persistent +obstinacy of the old faults. God's answer recalls the former miracle +at Rephidim (Exodus xvii. 1-7) in the early days of the march, when +the same cries had come from lips now silent, and the rock, smitten +at God's command by the rod which had parted the sea, yielded water. +The only differences are that here Moses is bid to speak, not to +smite; and that the miracle is to be done before all the +congregation, instead of before the elders only. Both variations +seem to have the common purpose of enhancing the wonder, and +confirming the authority of Moses, to a generation to whom the old +deliverances were only hearsay, and many of whom were in contact +with the leader for the first time. The fact that we have here the +beginning of a new epoch, and a new set of people, goes far to +explain the resemblance of the two incidents, without the need of +supposing, with many critics, that they are but different versions +of one 'legend.' The repetition of scarcity of water is not +wonderful; the recurrence of the murmurings is the sad proof of the +unchanged temper of the people, and the repetition of the miracle is +the merciful witness of the patience of God. His charity 'is not +easily provoked, is not soon angry,' but stoops to renew gifts which +had been so little appreciated that the remembrance of them failed +to cure distrust. Unbelief is obstinate, but His loving purpose is +more persistent still. Rephidim should have made the murmuring at +Kadesh impossible; but, if it does not, then He will renew the +mercy, though it had been once wasted, and will so shape the second +gift that it shall recall the first, if haply both may effect what +one had failed to do. When need is repeated, the supply is +forthcoming, even when it is demanded by sullen and forgetful +distrust. We can wear out men's patience, but God's is +inexhaustible. The same long-suffering Hand that poured water from +the rock for two generations of distrustful murmurers still lavishes +its misused gifts on us, to win us to late repentance, 'and +upbraideth not' for our slowness to learn the lessons of His +mercies. + +III. Note the breaking down at last of the long-tried leader's +patience. It is in striking contrast with the patience of God. Psalm +cvi. 32, 33, describes the sin of Moses as twofold; namely, anger +and speaking 'unadvisedly.' His harsh words, so unlike his pleadings +on the former occasion of rebellion at Kadesh, have a worse thing +than an outburst of temper in them. 'Must _we_ fetch you water +out of the rock?' arrogates to himself the power of working +miracles. He forgets that he was as much an instrument, and as +little a force, as his own rod. His angry scolding betrays wounded +personal importance, and annoyance at rebellion against his own +authority, rather than grief at the people's distrust of God, and +also a distinct clouding over of his own consciousness of dependence +for all his power on God, and an impure mingling of thoughts of +self. The same turbid blending of anger and self-regard impelled his +arm to the passionately repeated strokes, which, in his heat, he +substituted for the quiet words that he was bidden to speak. The +Palestinian Tar gum says very significantly, that at the first +stroke the rock dropped blood, thereby indicating the tragic +sinfulness of the angry blow. How unworthy a representative of the +long-suffering God was this angry man! 'The servant of the Lord must +not strive,' nor give the water with which he is entrusted, with +contempt or anger in his heart. That gift requires meek compassion +in its stewards. + +But the failure of Moses' patience was only too natural. The whole +incident has to be studied as the first of a new era, in which both +leader and led were on their trial. During the thirty-seven years of +waiting, Moses had had but little exercise of that part of his +functions, and little experience of the people's temper. He must +have looked forward anxiously to the result of the desert hardening; +he must have felt more remote from and above the children than he +did to their parents, his contemporaries who had come with him from +Egypt, and so his disappointment must have been proportionately +keen, when the first difficulty that rose revealed the old spirit in +undiminished force. For forty years he had been patient, and ready +to swallow mortifications and ignore rebellion against himself, and +to offer himself for his people; but now, when men whom he had seen +in their swaddling-clothes showed the same stiff-necked distrust as +had killed their fathers, the breaking-point of his patience was +reached. That burst of anger is a grave symptom of lessened love for +the sinful murmurers; and lessened love always means lessened power +to guide and help. The people are not changed, but Moses is. He has +no longer the invincible patience, the utter self-oblivion, the +readiness for self-sacrifice, which had borne him up of old, and so +he fails. We may learn from his failure that the prime requisite for +doing God's work is love, which cannot be moved to anger nor stirred +to self-assertion, but meets and conquers murmuring and rebellion by +patient holding forth of God's gift, and is, in some faint degree, +an echo of His endless long-suffering. He who would serve men must, +sleeping or waking, carry them in his heart, and pity their sin. +They who would represent God to men, and win men for God, must be +'imitators of God ... and walk in love.' If the bearer of the water +of life offers it with 'Hear, ye rebels,' it will flow untasted. + +IV. Note the sentence on the leader, and the sad memorial name. +Moses is blamed for not believing nor sanctifying God. His self- +assertion in his unadvised speech came from unbelief, or +forgetfulness of his dependence. He who claims power to himself, +denies it to God. Moses put himself between God and the people, not +to show but to hide God; and, instead of exalting God's holiness +before them by declaring Him to be the giver, he intercepted the +thanks and diverted them to himself. But was his momentary failure +not far too severely punished? To answer that question, we must +recur to the thought of the importance of this event as beginning a +new chapter, and as a test for both Moses and Israel. His failure +was a comparatively small matter in itself; and if the sentence is +regarded merely as the punishment of a sin, it appears sternly +disproportionate to the offence. Were eighty years of faithful +service not sufficient to procure the condonation of one moment's +impatience? Is not that harsh treatment? But a tiny blade above- +ground may indicate the presence of a poisonous root, needing +drastic measures for its extirpation; and the sentence was not only +punishment for sin, but kind, though punitive, relief from an office +for which Moses had no longer, in full measure, his old +qualifications. The subsequent history does not show any withdrawal +of God's favour from him, and certainly it would be no very sore +sorrow to be freed from the heavy load, carried so long. There is +disapprobation, no doubt, in the sentence; but it treats the conduct +of Moses rather as a symptom of lessened fitness for his heavy +responsibility than as sin; and there is as much kindness as +condemnation in saying to the wearied veteran, who has stood at his +post so long and has taken up arms once more, 'You have done enough. +You are not what you were. Other hands must hold the leader's staff. +Enter into rest.' + +Note that Moses was condemned for doing what Jesus always did, +asserting his power to work miracles. What was unbelief and a sinful +obtrusion of himself in God's place when the great lawgiver did it, +was right and endorsed by God when the Carpenter of Nazareth did it. +Why the difference? A greater than Moses is here, when He says to +us, 'What will ye that I should do unto you?' + +The name of Meribah-Kadesh is given to suggest the parallel and +difference with the other miraculous flow of water. The two +incidents are thus brought into connection, and yet individualised. +'Meribah,' which means 'strife,' brands the murmuring as sinful +antagonism to God: 'Kadesh,' which means 'holy,' brings both the +miracle and the sentence under the common category of acts by which +God manifested His holiness to the new generation; and so the double +name is a reminder of sin that they may be humble, and of mingled +mercy and judgment that they may 'trust and obey.' + + + + +THE POISON AND THE ANTIDOTE + + + 'And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the + Red Sea, to compare the land of Edom: and the soul of + the people was much discouraged because of the way. + 5. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, + Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in + the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there + any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6. And + the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they + bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7. Therefore + the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for + we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray + unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. + And Moses prayed for the people. 8. And the Lord said + unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon + a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that + is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9. And + Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, + and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any + man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.' + --NUM. xxi. 4-9. + +The mutinous discontent of the Israelites had some excuse when they +had to wheel round once more and go southwards in consequence of the +refusal of passage through Edom. The valley which stretches from the +Dead Sea to the head of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, down which +they had to plod in order to turn the southern end of the mountains +on its east side, and then resume their northern march outside the +territory of Edom, is described as a 'horrible desert.' Certainly it +yielded neither bread nor water. So the faithless pilgrims broke +into their only too familiar murmurings, utterly ignoring their +thirty-eight years of preservation. 'There is no bread.' No; but the +manna had fallen day by day. 'Our soul loatheth this light bread.' +Yes; but it was bread all the same. Thus coarse tastes prefer garlic +and onions to Heaven's food, and complain of being starved while it +is provided. 'There is no water.' No; but the 'rock that followed +them' gushed out abundance, and there was no thirst. + +Murmuring brought punishment, which was meant for amendment. 'The +Lord sent fiery serpents.' That statement does not necessarily imply +a miracle. Scripture traces natural phenomena directly to God's +will, and often overleaps intervening material links between the +cause which is God and the effect which is a physical fact. The +neighbourhood of Elath at the head of the gulf is still infested +with venomous serpents, 'marked with fiery red spots,' from which, +or possibly from the inflammation caused by their poison, they are +here called 'fiery.' God made the serpents, though they were hatched +by eggs laid by mothers; He brought Israel to the place; He willed +the poisonous stings. If we would bring ordinary events into +immediate connection with the Divine hand, and would see in all +calamities fatherly chastisement 'for our profit,' we should +understand life better than we often do. + +The swift stroke had fallen without warning or voice to interpret +it, but the people knew in their hearts whence and why it had come. +Their quick recognition of its source and purpose, and their swift +repentance, are to be put to their credit. It is well for us when we +interpret for ourselves God's judgments, and need no Moses to urge +us to humble ourselves before Him. Conscious guilt is conscious of +unworthiness to approach God, though it dares to speak to offended +men. The request for Moses' intercession witnesses to the instinct +of conscience, requiring a mediator,--an instinct which has led to +much superstition and been terribly misguided, but which is deeply +true, and is met once for all in Jesus Christ, our Advocate before +the throne. The request shows that the petitioners were sure of +Moses' forgiveness for their distrust of him, and thus it witnesses +to his 'meekness.' His pardon was a kind of pledge of God's. Was the +servant likely to be more gracious than the Master? A good man's +readiness to forgive helps bad men to believe in a pardoning God. It +reflects some beam of Heaven's mercy. + +Moses had often prayed for the people when they had sinned, and +before they had repented. It was not likely that he would be slow to +do so when they asked him, for the asking was accompanied with ample +confession. The serpents had done their work, and the prayer that +the chastisement should cease would be based on the fact that the +sin had been forsaken. But the narrative seems to anticipate that, +after the prayer had been offered and answered, Israelites would +still be bitten. If they were, that confirms the presumption that +the sending of the serpents was not miraculous. It also brings the +whole facts into line with the standing methods of Providence, for +the outward consequences of sin remain to be reaped after the sin +has been forsaken; but they change their character and are no longer +destructive, but only disciplinary. 'Serpents' still 'bite' if we +have 'broken down hedges,' but there is an antidote. + +The command to make a brazen or copper serpent, and set it on some +conspicuous place, that to look on it might stay the effect of the +poison, is remarkable, not only as sanctioning the forming of an +image, but as associating healing power with a material object. Two +questions must be considered separately,--What did the method of +cure say to the men who turned their bloodshot, languid eyes to it? +and What does it mean for us, who see it by the light of our Lord's +great words about it? As to the former question, we have not to take +into account the Old Testament symbolism which makes the serpent the +emblem of Satan or of sin. Serpents had bitten the wounded. Here was +one like them, but without poison, hanging harmless on the pole. +Surely that would declare that God had rendered innocuous the else +fatal creatures. The elevation of the serpent was simply intended to +make it visible from afar; but it could not have been set so high as +to be seen from all parts of the camp, and we must suppose that the +wounded were in many cases carried from the distant parts of the +wide-spreading encampment to places whence they could catch a +glimpse of it glittering in the sunshine. We are not told that trust +in God was an essential part of the look, but that is taken for +granted. Why else should a half-dead man lift his heavy eyelids to +look? Such a one knew that God had commanded the image to be made, +and had promised healing for a look. His gaze was fixed on it, in +obedience to the command involved in the promise, and was, in some +measure, a manifestation of faith. No doubt the faith was very +imperfect, and the desire was only for physical healing; but none +the less it had in it the essence of faith. It would have been too +hard a requirement for men through whose veins the swift poison was +burning its way, and who, at the best, were so little capable of +rising above sense, to have asked from them, as the condition of +their cure, a trust which had no external symbol to help it. The +singularity of the method adopted witnesses to the graciousness of +God, who gave their feebleness a thing that they could look at, to +aid them in grasping the unseen power which really effected the +cure. 'He that turned himself to it,' says the Book of Wisdom, 'was +not saved by the thing which he saw, but by Thee, that art the +Saviour of all.' + +Our Lord has given us the deepest meaning of the brazen serpent. +Taught by Him, we are to see in it a type of Himself, the +significance of which could not be apprehended till Calvary had +given the key. Three distinct points of parallel are suggested by +His use of the incident in His conversation with Nicodemus. First, +He takes the serpent as an emblem of Himself. Now it is clear that +it is so, not in regard to the saving power that dwells in Him, but +in regard to His sinless manhood, which was made 'in the likeness of +sinful flesh,' yet 'without sin.' The symbolism which takes the +serpent as the material type of sin comes into view now, and is +essential to the full comprehension of the typical significance of +the incident. + +Secondly, Jesus laid stress on the 'lifting up' of the serpent. That +'lifting up' has two meanings. It primarily refers to the +Crucifixion, wherein, just as the death-dealing power was manifestly +triumphed over in the elevation of the brazen serpent, the power of +sin is exhibited as defeated, as Paul says, 'triumphing over them +in it' (Col. ii. 14,15). But that lifting up on the Cross draws +after it the elevation to the throne, and to that, or, rather, to +both considered as inseparably united, our Lord refers when He +says,' I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto +Me.' + +Thirdly, the condition of healing is paralleled. 'When he looked +unto the serpent of brass, he lived.' 'That whosoever believeth may +in Him have eternal life.' From the serpent no healing power flowed; +but our eternal life is '_in_ Him,' and _from_ Him it flows into our +poisoned, dying nature. The sole condition of receiving into ourselves +that new life which is free from all taint of sin, and is mighty enough +to arrest the venom that is diffused through every drop of blood, is +faith in Jesus lifted on the Cross to slay the sin that is slaying +mankind, and raised to the throne to bestow His own immortal and +perfect life on all who look to Him. The bitten Israelite might be all +but dead. The poison wrought swiftly; but if he from afar lifted his +glazing eyeballs to the serpent on the pole, a swifter healing overtook +the death that was all but conqueror, and cast it out, and he who was +borne half unconscious to the foot of the standard went away a sound +man, 'walking, and leaping, and praising God.' So it may be with any +man, however deeply tainted with sin, if he will trust himself to Jesus, +and from 'the ends of the earth' 'look unto' Him 'and be saved,' His +power knows no hopeless cases. He _can_ cure all. He _will_ cure our +most ingrained sin, and calm the hottest fever of our poisoned blood, +if we will let Him. The only thing that we have to do is to gaze, with +our hearts in our eyes and faith in our hearts, on Him, as He is lifted +on the Cross and the throne. But we must so gaze, or we die, for none +but He can cast out the coursing venom. None but He can arrest the +swift-footed death that is intertwined with our very natures. + + + + +BALAAM + + 'He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of + Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of + the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold + there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they + cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against + me.'--NUM. xxii. 6. + +Give a general outline of the history. See Bishop Butler's great +sermon. + +I. How much knowledge and love of good there may be in a bad man. + +Balaam was a prophet: + +_(a)_ He knew something of the divine character, + +_(b)_ He knew what righteousness was (Micah v. 8). + +_(c)_ He knew of a future state, and longed for 'the last end +of the righteous.' + +He would not break the law of God, and curse by word of mouth: + +But yet for all that he wanted to curse. He wanted to do the wrong +thing, and that made him bad. And when he durst not do it in one +way, he did it in another. + +So he is a picture of the universal blending and mixture that there +is even in bad men. + +It is not knowledge that makes a man good. + +It is not aspirations after righteousness. These dwell more or less +in all souls. + +It is not desire 'to go to heaven'--everybody has that desire. + +Perfectly vicious men are devils. There is always the blending. + +Many of us are trusting to these vagrant wishes, but my friends, it +is not what a man would sometimes like, but what the whole set and +tenor of his life tends towards, that makes him. There may be plenty +of backwater eddies and cross-currents in the sea, but the tide goes +on all the same. + + 'All these fancies and their whole array + One cunning bosom sin blows quite away,' + +'Let no man deceive you; he that doeth righteousness is righteous.' + +Do not trust your convictions; they are powerless in the fight. + +II. How men may deceive themselves about their condition, or the +self-illusions and compromises of sin. + +These convictions will never, by themselves, keep a man from evil, +but they may lead men to try to compromise, just as Balaam did. He +would go, but he would not, for the life of him, curse; and he +evidently thought that he was a hero in firmness and a martyr to +duty. + +He would not curse in words, but he did it in another way--by means +of Baal-peor. + +So we find men making compromises between duty and inclination; +keeping the letter and breaking the spirit; obeying in some respects +and indemnifying themselves for their obedience by their +disobedience in others; very devout, attentive to all religious +observances, and yet sinning on. And we find such men playing tricks +upon themselves, and really deluding themselves into the idea that +they are very good men! + +This is the great characteristic of sin, its deceitfulness. It +always comes as an 'angel of light,' like some of those weird +stories in which we read about a strange guest at a banquet who +discloses a skeleton below the wedding garment! + +'Father of lies.' '_Nihil imbecillius denudato diabolo._' The +more one sins, the less capable he becomes of discerning evil. +Conscience becomes sophisticated, and it is always possible to +refine away its judgments. + +'By reason of use have their senses exercised to discern.' 'Take +heed lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' + +III. The absurdity and unreasonableness of unrighteousness. + +We look at Balaam, and think, how could a man purpose anything so +foolish as to go on seeking for an opportunity to break a law which +he knew to be irrevocable! + +Yet what did he do but what every sinner does? + +All sin is the breach of law which at the very moment of breaking is +known to be imperative. + +All sin is thus the overbearing of conscience, or the sophistication +of conscience, and all sin is the incurring voluntarily of +consequences which at the moment are or might be known to be +certain, and far overbalancing any fancied 'wages of unrighteousness.' + +Thus all sin is the overbearing of reason or the sophisticating of +reason by passion. Men know the absurdity of sin, and yet men will +go on sinning. 'A rogue is a roundabout fool.' All wrongdoing is a +mighty blunder. It is only righteousness which is congruous with a +man's reason, with a man's conscience, with a man's highest +happiness. 'The fear of the Lord,' that is wisdom. + +IV. The wages of unrighteousness. + +How Balaam's experiment ended--his death. He tried to make the 'best +of both worlds,' so he ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds, +and this was how it ended, as it always does, as it always will. How +death ends all the illusions, sternly breaks down all the +compromises, reveals all the absurdities! + +Men are one thing or the other. Learn, then, the lesson that no +gifts, no talents, no convictions, no aspirations will avail. + +Let this sad figure which looks out upon us with grey streaming hair +and uplifted hands from beside the altar on Pisgah speak to us. + +How near the haven it is possible to be cast away! Like Bunyan's way +to hell from near the gate of the celestial city. + +Balaam said, 'Let me die the death of the righteous!' and his death +was thus:--'Balaam they slew with the sword,' and his epitaph is +'Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness,' +got them, and perished! + + + + +AN UNFULFILLED DESIRE + + + '... Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my + last end be like his!'--NUM. xxiii. 10. + + '... Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the + sword.'--NUM. xiii. 8. + +Ponder these two pictures. Take the first scene. A prophet, who +knows God and His will, is standing on the mountain top, and as he +looks down over the valley beneath him, with its acacia-trees and +swift river, there spread the tents of Israel. He sees them, and +knows that they are 'a people whom the Lord hath blessed.' Brought +there to curse, 'he blesses them altogether'; and as he gazes upon +their ordered ranks and sees somewhat of the wondrous future that +lay before them, his mind is filled with the thought of all the +blessedness of that righteous nation, and the sigh of longing comes +to his lips, 'May I be with them in life and death; may I have no +higher honour, no calmer end, than to lie down and die as one of the +chosen people, with memories of a divine hand that has protected me +all through the past, and quiet hopes of the same hand holding me up +in the great darkness!' A devout aspiration, a worthy desire! + +Look at the other picture. Midian has seduced Israel to idolatry and +its constant companion, sensual sin. The old lawgiver has for his +last achievement to punish the idolater. 'Avenge the children of +Israel of the Midianites, afterwards thou shalt be gathered to thy +people.' So each tribe gives its contingent to the fight, and under +the fierce and prompt Phinehas, whose javelin had already smitten +one of the chief offenders, they go forth. Fire and sword, +devastation and victory, mark their track. The princes of Midian +fall before the swift rush of the desert-born invaders. And--sad, +strange company!--among them is the 'man who saw the vision of the +Almighty, and knew the knowledge of the Most High'! he who had +taught Moab the purest lessons of morality, and Midian, alas! the +practice of the vilest profligacy; he who saw from afar 'the sceptre +arise out of Israel and the Star from Jacob'; he who longed to 'die +the death of the righteous'! The onset of the avenging host, with +the 'shout of a king' in their midst; the terror of the flight, the +riot of havoc and bloodshed, and, finally, the quick thrust of the +sharp Israelite sword in some strong hand, and the grey hairs all +dabbled with his blood--these were what the man came to who had once +breathed the honest desire, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, +and let my last end be like his'! + +I. There is surely a solemn lesson for us all here--as touching the +danger of mere vague religious desires and convictions which we do +not allow to determine our conduct. + +Balaam had evidently much knowledge. Look at these points-- + +_(a)_ His knowledge of the covenant-name of God. + +_(b)_ His knowledge of a pure morality and a spiritual worship +far beyond sacrificial notions, and in some respects higher than the +then Old Testament standpoint. + +_(c)_ The knowledge (which is implied in the text) of a future +state, which had gone far into the background, even if it had not +been altogether lost, among the Israelites. Is it not remarkable +that the religious ideas of this man were in advance of Israel's at +this time; that there seems to have lingered among these 'outsiders' +more of a pure faith than in Israel itself? + +What a lesson here as to the souls led by God and enlightened by Him +beyond the pale of Judaism! + +But all this knowledge, of what use was it to Balaam? He knows about +God: does he seek to serve Him? He preaches morality to Moab, and he +teaches Midian to 'teach the children of Israel to commit +fornication.' He knows something of the blessedness of a 'righteous +man's' death, and perhaps sees faintly the shining gates beyond--but +how does it all end? What a gulf between _knowledge_ and +_life_! + +What is the use of correct ideas about God? They may be the +foundations of holy thoughts, and they are meant to be so. I am not +setting up emotion above principle, or fancying that there can be +religion without theology; but for what are all our thoughts about +God given us? + +_(a)_ That they may influence our hearts. + +_(b)_ That they may subdue our wills. + +_(c)_ That they may mould our practical life. + +If they do not do that--then _what_ do they do? + +They constitute a positive hindrance--like the dead lava-blocks that +choke the mouth of a crater, or the two deposits on the bottom of a +boiler, soot outside and crust inside, which keep the fire from +getting at the water. They have lost their power because they are so +familiar. They are weakened by not being practised. The very organs +of intelligence are, as it were, ossified. Self-complacency lays +hold on the possession of these ideas and shields itself against all +appeals with the fact of possessing them. Many a man mistakes, in +his own case, the knowledge of the truth for obedience to the truth. +All this is seen in everyday life, and with reference to all manner +of convictions, but it is most apparent and most fatal about +Christian truth. I appeal to the many who hear and know all about +'the word,' What more is needed? That you should do what you know +('Be not hearers only'); that you should yield your whole being to +Christ, the living Word. + +II. Balaam is an example of convictions which remain inefficacious. + +It was not without some sense of his own character, and some +forebodings of what was possibly brooding over him, that he uttered +these words of the text. But they were transitory emotions, and they +passed away. + +I suppose that every man who hears the gospel proclaimed is, at some +time or other, conscious of dawning thoughts which, if followed, +would lead him to decision for Christ. I suppose that every man +among us is conscious of thoughts visiting him many a time when he +least expects them, which, if honestly obeyed, would work an entire +revolution in his life. + +I do not wish to speak as if unbelieving men were the only people +who were unfaithful to their consciences, but rather to deal with +what is a besetting sin of us all, though it reaches its highest +aggravation in reference to the gospel. + +Such stings of conviction come to us all, but how are they deadened? + +_(a)_ By simple neglect. Pay no attention to them; do not do +anything in consequence, and they will gradually disappear. The +voice unheard will cease to speak. Non-obedience to conscience will +in the end almost throttle conscience. + +_(b)_ By angry rejection. + +_(c)_ By busy occupation with the outer world. + +_(d)_ By sinful occupation with it. + +Then consider that such dealing with our convictions leaves us far +worse men than before, and if continued will end in utter +insensibility. + +What should we do with such convictions? Reverently follow them. And +in so doing they will grow and increase, and lead us at last to God +and peace. + +Special application of all this to our attitude towards Christian +truth. + +III. Balaam is an instance of wishes that are never fulfilled. + +He wished to die 'as the righteous.' How did he die? miserably; and +why? + +(1) Because his wish was deficient in character. + +It was _one_ among a great many, feeble and not predominant, +occasioned by circumstances, and so fading when these disappeared. +Like many men's relation to the gospel who would _like_ to be +Christians, and are not. These vagrant wishes are nothing; mere +'catspaws' of wind, not a breeze. They are not real, even while they +last, and so they come to nothing. + +(2) Because it was partially wrong in its object. + +He was willing to die the death, but not to live the life, of the +righteous; like many men who would be very glad to 'go to heaven +when they die,' but who will not be Christians while they live. + +Now, God forbid that I should say that his wish was wrong! But only +it was not enough. Such a wish led to no action. + +Now, God hears the faintest wish; He does not require that we should +will strongly, but He does require that we should desire, and that +we should act according to our desires. + +Let the close be a brief picture of a righteous death. And oh! if +you feel that it is blessed, then let that desire lead you to +Christ, and all will be well. Remember that Bunyan saw a byway to +hell at the door of the celestial city. Remember how Balaam ended, +and stands gibbeted in the New Testament as an evil man, and the +type of false teachers. Finally, beware of knowledge which is not +operative in conduct, of convictions which are neglected and pass +away, of vague desires which come to nought. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture +by Alexander Maclaren + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + +This file should be named 8gens10.txt or 8gens10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8gens11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8gens10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by Anne Folland, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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