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Deuteronomy Chapter
Six
Deuteronomy 6
Chapter Contents
A persuasive to obedience. (1-3) An exhortation to
obedience. (4
5) Obedience taught. (6-16) General precepts
Instructions to be
given to their children. (17-25)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 6:1-3
(Read Deuteronomy 6:1-3)
In this and the like passages
the
"commandments" seem to denote the moral law
the "statues"
the ceremonial law
and the "judgments" the law by which the judges
decided. Moses taught the people all that
and that only
which God commanded
him to teach. Thus Christ's ministers are to teach his churches all he has
commanded
neither more nor less
Matthew 28:20. The fear of God in the heart will
be the most powerful principle of obedience. It is highly desirable that not we
only
but our children
and our children's children
may fear the Lord.
Religion and righteousness advance and secure the prosperity of any people.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 6:4
5
(Read Deuteronomy 6:4
5)
Here is a brief summary of religion
containing the first
principles of faith and obedience. Jehovah our God is the only living and true
God; he only is God
and he is but One God. Let us not desire to have any other.
The three-fold mention of the Divine names
and the plural number of the word
translated God
seem plainly to intimate a Trinity of persons
even in this
express declaration of the unity of the Godhead. Happy those who have this one
Lord for their God. It is better to have one fountain than a thousand cisterns;
one all-sufficient God than a thousand insufficient friends. This is the first
and great commandment of God's law
that we love him; and that we do all parts
of our duty to him from a principle of love; My son
give me thine heart. We
are to love God with all our heart
and soul
and might. That is
1. With a
sincere love; not in word and tongue only
but inwardly in truth. 2. With a
strong love. He that is our All
must have our all
and none but he. 3. With a
superlative love; we must love God above any creature whatever
and love
nothing but what we love for him. 4. With an intelligent love. To love him with
all the heart
and with all the understanding
we must see good cause to love
him. 5. With an entire love; he is ONE
our hearts must be united in his love.
Oh that this love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts!
Commentary on Deuteronomy 6:6-16
(Read Deuteronomy 6:6-16)
Here are means for maintaining and keeping up religion in
our hearts and houses. 1. Meditation. God's words must be laid up in our
hearts
that our thoughts may be daily employed about them. 2. The religious
education of children. Often repeat these things to them. Be careful and exact
in teaching thy children. Teach these truths to all who are any way under thy
care. 3. Pious discourse. Thou shalt talk of these things with due reverence
and seriousness
for the benefit not only of thy children
but of thy servants
thy friends and companions. Take all occasions to discourse with those about
thee
not of matters of doubtful disputation
but of the plain truths and laws
of God
and the things that belong to our peace. 4. Frequent reading of the word.
God appointed them to write sentences of the law upon their walls
and in
scrolls of parchment to be worn about their wrists. This seems to have been
binding in the letter of it to the Jews
as it is to us in the intent of it;
which is
that we should by all means make the word of God familiar to us; that
we may have it ready to use upon all occasions
to restrain us from sin
and
direct us in duty. We must never be ashamed to own our religion
nor to own
ourselves under its check and government. Here is a caution not to forget God
in a day of prosperity and plenty. When they came easily by the gift
they
would be apt to grow secure
and unmindful of the Giver. Therefore be careful
when thou liest safe and soft
lest thou forget the Lord. When the world smiles
we are apt to make court to it
and expect our happiness in it
and so we
forget Him who is our only portion and rest. There is need of great care and
caution at such a time. Then beware; being warned of your danger
stand upon
your guard. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God; neither by despairing of his
power and goodness
while we keep in the way of our duty; nor by presuming upon
it
when we turn aside out of that way.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 6:17-25
(Read Deuteronomy 6:17-25)
Moses gives charge to keep God's commandments. Negligence
will ruin us; but we cannot be saved without diligence. It is our interest
as
well as our duty
to be religious. It will be our life. Godliness has the
promise of the continuance and comfort of the life that now is
as far as it is
for God's glory. It will be our righteousness. It is only through the Mediator
we can be righteous before God. The knowledge of the spirituality and excellency
of the holy law of God
is suited to show sinful man his need of a Saviour
and
to prepare his heart to welcome a free salvation. The gospel honours the law
not only in the perfect obedience of the Son of God
the Lord Jesus Christ; but
in that it is a plan for bringing back apostate rebels and enemies
by
repentance
faith
forgiveness
and renewing grace
to love God above all
things
even in this world; and in the world above
to love him perfectly
even
as angels love him.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 6
Verse 5
[5] And
thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart
and with all thy soul
and with all thy might.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart — And is this only an external commandment?
Can any then say
that the Sinai - covenant was merely external? With all thy
heart - With an entire love. He is One; therefore our hearts must be united in
his love. And the whole stream of our affections must run toward Him. O that
this love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts.
Verse 7
[7] And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children
and shalt talk of
them when thou sittest in thine house
and when thou walkest by the way
and
when thou liest down
and when thou risest up.
Teach them diligently — Heb. whet
or sharpen them
so as they may pierce deep into their
hearts. This metaphor signifies the manner of instructing them
that it is to
be done diligently
earnestly
frequently
discreetly.
Verse 8
[8] And
thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand
and they shall be as frontlets
between thine eyes.
Thou shalt bind them — Thou shalt give all diligence
and use all means to keep them in thy
remembrance
as men often bind something upon their hands
or put it before
their eyes to prevent forgetfulness of a thing which they much desire to
remember.
Verse 13
[13] Thou
shalt fear the LORD thy God
and serve him
and shalt swear by his name.
Shalt swear by his name — When thou hast a call and just cause to swear
not by idols
or any creatures.
Verse 15
[15] (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the
LORD thy God be kindled against thee
and destroy thee from off the face of the
earth.
Among you —
Heb. In the midst of you
to see and observe all your ways and your turnings
aside to other Gods.
Verse 16
[16] Ye
shall not tempt the LORD your God
as ye tempted him in Massah.
Ye shall not tempt —
Not provoke him
as the following instance explains. Sinners
especially
presumptuous sinners
are said to tempt God
that is
to make a trial of God
whether he be
so wise as to see their sins
so just and true and powerful as
to take vengeance on them
concerning which they are very apt to doubt because
of the present impunity and prosperity of many such persons.
Verse 17
[17] Ye
shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God
and his
testimonies
and his statutes
which he hath commanded thee.
Ye diligently keep —
Negligence will ruin us: but we cannot be saved without diligence.
Verse 25
[25] And
it shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do all these commandments
before the LORD our God
as he hath commanded us.
It shall be our righteousness — Heb. Righteousness shall be to us. We shall be owned and pronounced by
God to be righteous and holy persons
if we sincerely obey him
otherwise we
shall be declared to be unrighteous and ungodly. Or
mercy shall be to us
or
with us. For as the Hebrew word rendered righteousness is very often put for
mercy
(as Psalms 24:5; 36:10; 51:14; Proverbs 10:2; 11:4; Daniel 9:16) so this sense seems best to agree
both with the scripture use of this phrase
(in which righteousness
seldom or
never
but grace or mercy frequently
is said to be to us or with us) and with
the foregoing verse and argument God
saith he
Deuteronomy 5:24
commanded these things for our
good
that he might preserve us alive
as it is this day. And
saith he in this
verse
this is not all; for as he hath done us good
so he will go on to do us
more and more good
and God's mercy shall be to us
or with us
in the remainder
of our lives
and for ever
if we observe these commandments.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
06 Chapter 6
Verses 2-4
Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them.
Wars of the Israelites
There is
perhaps
no point on which the weakness of human nature
is more clearly shown than in the difficulty of treading the right path between
persecution on the one hand
and indifference to evil on the other. For
although we are
it may be
disposed according to our several tempers more to
one of these faults than to the other
yet I fear it is true also that none of
us are free from the danger of falling into them both. If we have today been
too violent against the persons of evil men whom we do not like
this is no security
against our being tomorrow much too forbearing towards the practices of evil
men whom we do like; because we are all apt to respect persons in our judgment
and in our feelings; sometimes to be too severe
and sometimes too indulgent
not according to justice
but according to our own likings and dislikings. Nor
is it respect of persons only which thus leads us astray
but also our own
particular sympathy with
or disgust at particular faults and characters. Even
in one whom we may like
on the whole
there may be faults which we may visit
too hardly
because they are exactly such as we feel no temptation to commit.
And again
in one whom we dislike on the whole
there may
for the same reason
be faults which we tolerate too easily
because they are like our own. There is
yet a third cause
and that a very common one
which corrupts our judgment. We
may sympathise with such and such faults generally
because we are ourselves
inclined to them; but if they happen to be committed against us
and we feel the
bad effects of them
then we are apt to judge them in that particular case too
harshly. Or again
we may rather dislike a fault in general
but when it is
committed on our own side
and to advance our own interests
then in that
particular case we are tempted to excuse it too readily. There are these
dangers besetting us on the right hand and on the left
as to our treatment of
other men’s faults. And in Scripture we find very strong language against the
error on either side. A great deal is said against violence
wrath
uncharitableness
harsh judgment of others
and attempting or pretending to
work God’s service by our own bad passions
and a great deal is also said
against tolerating sin
against defiling ourselves with evil-doers
against
preferring our earthly friendships to the will and service of God. Of these
latter commands the words of the text furnish us with a most remarkable
instance. We see how strong and positive the language is (Deuteronomy 7:2); and the reason is given
(Deuteronomy 7:4). It is better that the
wicked should be destroyed a hundred times over
yea
destroyed with
everlasting destruction
than that they should tempt those who are as yet
innocent to join their company. And if we are inclined to think that God dealt
hardly with the people of Canaan in commanding them to be so utterly destroyed
let us but think what might have been our fate
and the fate of every other
nation under heaven at this hour
had the sword of the Israelites done its work
more sparingly. The Israelites fought not for themselves only
but for us.
Whatever were the faults of Jephthah or of Samson
never yet were any men
engaged in a cause more important to the whole world’s welfare. Their constant
warfare kept Israel essentially distinct from the tribes around them
their own
law became the dearer to them because they found such unceasing enemies amongst
those who hated it. The uncircumcised
who kept not the covenant of God
were
forever ranged against those who did keep it. It might follow that the
Israelites should thus be accounted the enemies of all mankind
it might be
that they were tempted by their very distinctness to despise other nations;
still
they did God’s work; still
they preserved unhurt the seed of eternal
life
and were the ministers of blessing to all other nations
even though they
themselves failed to enjoy it. But still these commands
so forcible
so
fearful--to spare none--to destroy the wicked utterly--to show no mercy--are
these commands addressed to us now? or what is it which the Lord bids us do?
Certainly
He does not bid us shed blood
or destroy the wicked
or put on any
hardness of heart which might shut out the charity of Christ’s perfect law. But
there is a part of the text which does apply to us now in the letter
thereby
teaching us how to apply the whole to ourselves in the spirit. “Be ye not
unequally yoked together in marriage with unbelievers. For what concord hath
Christ with Belial?” It is
indeed
something shocking to enter into so near
and dear a connection as marriage with those who are not the servants of God.
It is fearful to think of giving birth to children whose eternal life may be
forfeited through the example and influence of him or of her through whom their
earthly life was given. But though this be the worst and most dreadful case
still it is not the only one. St. Paul does not only speak against marriage
with the unbelievers; he speaks also no less strongly against holding friendly
intercourse with those who call themselves Christ’s
yet in their lives deny
Him (1 Corinthians 5:11). We need not actually
refuse to eat with those whose lives are evil; but woe to us if we do not
shrink from any closer intimacy with them; if their society
when we must
partake of it
be not painfully endured by us
rather than enjoyed. We may put
away from among ourselves that wicked person; put him away
that is
from our
confidence
put him away from our esteem; put him altogether away from our
sympathy. We are on services wholly different; our masters are God and Mammon;
and we cannot be united closely with those to whom our dearest hopes are their
worst fears
and to whom that resurrection which
to the true servant of
Christ
will be his perfect consummation of bliss
will be but the first
dawning of an eternity of shame and misery. (T. Arnold
D. D.)
Destruction of the Canaanites
The extermination of the Canaanites forces itself on the attention
of the most careless reader of the Old Testament. We cannot deny that there is
a difficulty which needs explanation: we cannot doubt that such a judgment was
meant to give to every age a solemn and needful warning.
1. In the first place
it behoves us to understand that this
destruction was not a punishment for idolatry. The war of Israel in Canaan did
not resemble a crusade. The Canaanites perished
not because they had bowed
down to false gods
or refused to worship the true God
but because they had
made themselves utterly abominable. This is clear from Leviticus 18:24. The Canaanites perished
because the earth could no longer bear them: the safety of the whole demanded
their extirpation.
2. We observe
further
that they did not perish without warning. The
sites of Sodom and Gomorrah
once like the garden of Eden in loveliness
withered and burnt up by fire from heaven
and at length turned into a
bituminous lake
showed the end of those sins by which the land was defiled. It
was a memorial not to be forgotten. The Dead Sea was a phenomenon which forced
the inquiry
“Wherefore hath God done this?” The forty years’ sojourn in the
wilderness was not only fraught with blessing to Israel and instruction to the
Church
but it gave to the Canaanites time to consider and repent. It produced
this effect on Rahab and on the Gibeonites
who humbled themselves under the
hand of God and were spared. The rest of the nations of Canaan heard and
feared
but repented not. We may not
then
marvel that the cup of wrath which
such habitual and audacious wickedness had filled was deep and deadly. Yet the
destruction is not without its parallels. Many modern campaigns have produced a
greater loss of life and far intenser misery. The sword appalls us by its
fierceness; but it is more merciful than the famine and the pestilence
which
in our own days have ravaged large portions of the globe. It cuts short the
suspense which is more grievous than death; it inflicts no lingering pain.
Besides
this was the only judgment in which idolaters would have seen the hand
of the God of Israel. Had they perished in thousands by want or disease they
would have attributed this to the displeasure of Moloch or Baal. But they ever
regarded battle as the trial of deities. So
when the iron chariots had been
broken in the valleys
and the rocky fastness and fenced city had failed to
protect the Anakim
all who felt the sword of Israel and all to whom the
tidings came were forced to confess that Jehovah was to be feared above all
gods. Hence we may see what Israel and all other nations were to learn from
these wars in Canaan.
1. They learnt
first
God’s absolute sovereignty
His right and
property
in the life of man
and therefore ill everything by and for which man
lives. If
then
the Canaanite had no property in his life
nor power to retain
it when God demanded it
we dare not claim more than stewardship of anything
that we call ours. The largest possessions
the richest intellectual gifts
are
less than the life. These
then
are at the disposal of Him who is the Lord of
life. If we use them as God’s servants they will secure to us everlasting possessions;
but from the unfaithful steward shall be taken even that which he seemeth to
have.
2. Again
God manifested that man hath something better than life.
Our hearts may be harrowed or sickened at the thought that the sword of Israel
struck down not only the boastful warrior
but the feeble woman and the
blooming child and the infant at the breast. But the same suffering and death
of the weak and the graceful and the pure is continually forcing itself on our
attention in every epidemic
in public calamities
and in the more frequent
casualties of private life
in Indian and Syrian massacres
and even at the
birth of Christ Himself
when Rachel was weeping for her children. All this
piercing and cutting down of the young and the tender and the promising would
be inexplicable if we had not the revelation of a higher life
for which
suffering and the contact with suffering are the preparation. (M. Biggs
M.
A.)
A noble resolve
Eliza Embert
a young Parisian lady
resolutely discarded a
gentleman to whom she was to have been married the next day because he
ridiculed religion. Having given him a gentle reproof for some impropriety
he
replied that “a man of the world would not be so old-fashioned as to regard God
and religion.” Eliza immediately started; but soon recovering herself
said
“From this moment
as I discover you do not respect religion
I cease to be
yours.”
The danger of a morally vitiated atmosphere
Some time ago the following strange occurrence happened at St.
Cierge
a village in the Jura. The principal room of an inn there
known as the
Cerf
was lighted by a hanging petroleum lamp
above which had been placed
for
the protection of the ceiling
a metal plate. In course of time the woodwork
above the plate became desiccated
and one evening it took fire
and when the
innkeeper and his family retired to rest was all aglow--a fact
however
which
they do not seem to have noticed. From the ceiling the fire was communicated to
the room above
and was first discovered by a neighbour
who
early next
morning
observing smoke issuing from the door
gave an alarm
when
as none of
the inmates could be aroused
the door was broken open. The fire
having gone
on smouldering without bursting into flame
had done little material damage
and was easily extinguished; but all the people in the house--the landlord
his
wife and sister--were dead. After the manner of country people
they had firmly
closed their windows before going to bed
and the smoke
having no exit
had
asphyxiated every one of them. In like manner those who allow a morally
vitiated atmosphere to surround them
and willingly inhale its pestiferous
fumes
wither and become spiritually suffocated.
The loss of spiritual tone
Animals that live in two elements are awkward in both. Do we find
it difficult
even after the most innocent and unexceptionable entertainments
to brace the soul for its devotions? Do not our pinions flap languidly as we
attempt our upward flight? And is it not the case that many of the so-called
amusements which men pursue are in the last degree unfavourable to those
exercises
without a constant application to which the highest zones of
religious experience
the snowy summits of a pure spirituality--those
glistening peaks that are the first to catch the auroral glow of the rising Sun
of Righteousness
and the last to lose His evening beams--cannot be reached and
maintained? To spoil a harp
you need not rudely break its strings and batter
its sounding-board. Remove it from one temperature to another
and the mischief
is done. We cannot say that people are not hurt by these things because they
are not made openly and scandalously vicious. I maintain that a man has
sustained a dire and irreparable
though a subtle
and at first impalpable
injury
when he has lost his spiritual tone. (J. Halsey.)
The Lord our God is one Lord.
Of the unity of God
I. Why God is
called the living God.
1. In opposition to
and to distinguish Him from
dead idols (Psalms 115:4-6; 1 Thessalonians 1:9).
2. Because God is the fountain of life
having all life in Himself (John 5:26)
and giving life to all things
else. All life is in Him and from Him.
II. Why God is
called the true God. To distinguish Him from all false or fictitious gods (1 Thessalonians 1:9). There is a
two-fold truth.
1. Of fidelity or faithfulness. Thus God is true--that is
faithful
But that is not the truth here meant.
2. A truth of essence
whereby a thing really is
and does not exist
in opinion only. The meaning is
that there is a true God
and but one true
God.
III. That there is
but one God.
1. The Scripture is very express and pointed on this head (chap. 6:4;
Isaiah 44:6; Mark 12:32; 1 Samuel 2:2; Psalms 18:31; Isaiah 46:9; 1 Corinthians 8:4; 1 Corinthians 8:6).
2. This truth is clear from reason.
(a) There can be but one independent in being; for if there were more
gods
either one of them would be the cause and author of being to the rest
and then that one would be the only God; or none of them would be the cause and
author of being to the rest
and so none of them would be God
because none of
them would be independent
or the fountain of being to all.
(b) There can be but one independent in working. For if there were
more independent beings
then in those things wherein they will and act freely
they might will and act contrary things
and so oppose and hinder one another;
so that
being equal in power
nothing would be done by either of them.
Trinity and unity
I. The Scriptural
Trinity implies that God is One. So far from being against the cardinal truth
of God’s unity
it actually assumes it. The Trinity of our faith means a
distinction of persons within one common indivisible Divine nature. If we ask
What is the chief spiritual benefit which we derive from the knowledge of the
unity of God? the answer is this: The unity of God is the only religious basis
for a moral law of perfect and unwavering righteousness. It is a unity of moral
character in the Ruler
and therefore of moral rule in the universe. It is such
a unity as excludes all conflict within the Divine will
all inconsistency in
the Divine law
all feebleness in the Divine administration.
II. What religious
advantages do we reap from the fresh Christian discovery of a Trinity within
this unity of the Divine nature?
1. To this question we answer
that the doctrine of the Trinity has
heightened and enriched our conception of the nature of God.
2. This doctrine affords a basis for those gracious relations which
it has pleased God to sustain towards us in the economy of our salvation. (J.
Oswald Dykes
D. D.)
One God
I. The belief in
one God gives rest to the active man; it satisfies his intellectual
his moral
his emotional
his spiritual being.
II. In the field of
scientific research this faith inspires us with a confident hope of reducing
all phenomena to law
since all proceed from one hand
and express one creative
will. This faith supplies that which physical science lacks and yet requires--namely
a prime mover and a sustaining power.
III. In morals this
faith acts most powerfully upon our will
and rouses us to exalt the higher
nature and repress the lower. Polytheism deifies the human passions. But if
there be only one God
then our highest aspirations must give us the truest
image of Him.
IV. Faith in one
God brings peace to the mourner and to the suffering
for we know that He who
now sends the trouble is the same God whose kindness we have felt so often.
Having learned to love and trust Him
we are able to accept suffering as the
chastisement of a Father’s hand. If there were gods many
we could regard the
troubles of life only as the spiteful acts of some malevolent deity; we must
bribe his fellow gods to oppose him.
V. Upon one God we
are able to concentrate all the powers of the soul
our emotions are not
dissipated
our religious efforts are not flittered away upon a pleasing
variety of characters
but the image of God is steadily renewed in the soul
and communion with God grows ever closer. (F. R. Chapman.)
The Lord our God
I. The supremacy
of the Lord. The one Being--incomparable
unrivalled.
1. As regards His existence. Alpha and Omega. Uncreated. Independent.
From everlasting.
2. As regards His decrees. Consummate wisdom.
3. As regards His operations. Needs no assistance. Makes no mistakes.
4. As regards His faithfulness. The one immutable God.
5. As regards His love. Admits no rival. Has no equal.
6. As regards His claims. The only Being who has a right to our
praise
service
love.
II. The
relationship of the Lord. “Our God.”
1. Has made a covenant with us (Exodus 6:4-8; Hebrews 8:6).
2. Has adopted us.
3. Has endowed us. With Himself. His power
wisdom
etc.
are all at
our service.
4. Has owned the relationship.
III. The command of
the Lord. “Hear
O Israel.” God would have us think much on this two-fold
theme--what He is
and what He is to us--
1. To cheek presumption.
2. To stimulate faith.
3. To increase devotedness.
4. To dissipate fears.
5. To impart comfort.
6. To fire love. (R. A. Griffin.)
The one Jehovah
Knowledge as to the fact that there is one God is of high
importance to its possessor. In connection with this statement
as to its
importance
it may be predicated that evidence has never been adduced to prove
that there is more than one God--the one Jehovah. Evidence upon evidence
however
can be adduced to prove that there is one God
the Creator of the ends
of the earth
the Upholder and Proprietor of all things. In evidence of this
we have only to look around us upon the things that exist; for they all speak
of God as the Great First Cause of their existence. For the sake of argument
however
let it be supposed that the proposition is submitted that there are
more Gods than one
how could this proposition be supported? How could there be
any being equally high with the Highest
or equally excellent with the Most
Excellent--two super-superlatives? The idea is not tenable. Not so
however
is
it with the idea that there is one God
one Supreme Ruler in the universe; and
from whom the universe itself had its origin. This idea has manifold support;
and
from among the many evidences that might be adduced in support of it
reference may be made to that unity of design which is manifest throughout all
the works of God: as in these works
so far as they can be surveyed by the
human mind in present circumstances
this unity
embracing simplicity
testifies to the infinite wisdom and power of a Designer. The extent to which
this truth might illustratively be carried out can only be glanced at in
present circumstances. New countries
for example
are constantly discovering
themselves to the eye of the traveller; and yet
go where he may
he still
finds that the old laws of nature
by the appointment of Heaven
come into
view. Many new plants may be found on foreign shores; yet all of them indicate
the necessity of their continuance to exist in the adhesion of the pollen of
the stamens to the gummy stigma of the pistil. Yes; and new animals may be
found in different parts of the globe. Whatever their variety
however
they
are all maintained by the same earth
cheered by the same sun
invigorated by
the same breath
and refreshed by the same moisture. Go where we will the
elements act upon each other
the tides uniformly fluctuate; and true to its
index is the instrument
when properly adjusted
by which the ship may be
steered. Man
too
go where we may
has the same origin
the same general
external construction
and the same characteristics by which he is
distinguished from creatures of a lower grade. Now whence
or for what purpose
does this uniformity of design exist? The text replies--“The Lord our God is
one Lord
” one self-existent
all-wise
and independent Jehovah
and of whose
existence and attributes there is incontrovertible evidence
not only in things
that exist
but in the unity
simplicity
and harmony of those principles which
operate
with marvellous uniformity
throughout every department of the
material world. In Him
as thus revealed
we have a God to adore
worthy of our
worship
worthy of our confidence
and whose goodness may well captivate with
thrilling emotions every affectionate impulse of the soul. But an awful
question here comes into my mind. Is this one Jehovah
so plainly revealed
my
God? How can I
without arrogant presumption
cherish the thought that I may
find acceptance in the sight of Him
compared with whom I am as “nothing; less
than nothing
and vanity”? His greatness
and my insignificance; His holiness
and my impurity
seem to repel every ground on which the hope of acceptance
with Him would seek to rest. Through what medium
honouring to God
can His
favour ever reach this poor heart of mine? How can condescension
in God
to
take notice of me
ever accord with His own infinite purity
justice
and
dignity? The case transcends my reason: it is too great for me. I am as one
utterly out at sea in a frail bark
without a rudder or a hand to guide it.
Here
in this labyrinth of perplexity
the great Jehovah might have left me to
the guidance of my own mental wanderings till the long night of death had
closed over my head. But in great goodness He has not left me thus! With a
condescension upon which created intelligence
of itself
never could have
reckoned
He has unfolded to me the mystery
that
while there is only one God
there are yet
in the essence of this one God
or Godhead
three distinct personalities--the
Father
the Son
and the Holy Ghost--each of them fulfilling a separate
department in the economy of human redemption; and that
while thus separate in
their gracious manifestations
they are nevertheless one as to undivided
essence. The day now begins to dawn somewhat upon my hitherto benighted soul;
and though its light be dim amid the darkness through which it comes
there is
in it an intimation that
like the dawn of morn
its light shall increase. Be
it borne in mind
however
that the revelation indicated is only intended to
suit the infancy of our existence in the life that now is; and that while it
does not tell us all that in due time we shall be made to know
it tells us all
that our present circumstances require. (Thos. Adam.)
The unity of nature proclaims one intelligent Mind
Owing to the imperfection and limitation of our powers
we are
obliged to deal with fragments of the universe
and to exaggerate their
differences. But the more profound and varied our study of the objects of Nature
the more remarkable do we find their resemblances. And we cannot occupy
ourselves with the smallest province of science without speedily becoming
sensible of its intercommunication with other provinces. The snowflake leads us
to the sun. The study of a lichen or moss becomes a key that opens up the great
temple of organic light. If we could understand
as Tennyson profoundly says
what a little flower growing in the crevice of a wayside wall is
root and all
and all in all
we should know what God and man are. And the same unbroken
gradation or continuity which we trace throughout all the parts and objects of
our own world pervades and embraces the whole physical universe--so far
at
least
as our knowledge of it at present extends. By the wonderful discoveries
of spectrum analysis
we find the same substances in sun
moon
and stars which
compose our own earth. The imagination of the poet is conversant with the
whole
and sees truth in universal relation. He attains by insight the goal to
which all other knowledge is finding its way step by step. And the Christian
poet and philosopher
whose eye has been opened
not partially
by the clay of
Nature’s materials
worked upon by human thought so that he sees men as trees
walking
but fully and perfectly
by washing in the fountain opened for sin and
uncleanness
whose pure heart sees God in everything
and in God’s light sees
light--he stands at the shining point where all things converge to one.
Wherever he turns his inquiring gaze
he finds “shade unperceived so softening
into shade
and all so forming one harmonious whole
” that not a link is
wanting in the chain which unites and reproduces all
from atom to mountain
from microscopic mass to banyan tree
from monad up to man. And if the unity of
the tabernacle proved it to be the work of one designing mind
surely the unity
of this greater tabernacle
this vast cosmos
with its myriads of parts and
complications
proves it to be no strange jumbling of chance
no incoherent
freak of fortuity
but the work of one intelligent Mind having one glorious
object in view. (Hugh Macmillan
LL. D.)
The unity of God
1. Here religion and philosophy are in accord. The saints and the
scientists alike maintain the unity of God. Authority and reason go thus far
together. God must be one; cannot be other than one.
2. The revelation of God is of necessity progressive. All education
is progressive
because all knowledge is conditioned by the mind of him who
knows. You may take a whole ocean of water
but you can get only two pints of
it into a quart cup. The water is conditioned
limited
by the cup. Thus is
knowledge conditioned by the mind.
3. The highest truth which the mind can touch is truth about God. The
supreme knowledge is knowledge of God. But this
like all other knowledge
is
conditioned by the mind of him who knows. God changes not; but year by year in
the life of a man
and age by age in the life of the race
the conception of
God changes. It is like the ascent of a hill which overhangs a plain. The plain
does not change
does not get wider
mile by mile
as the beholder climbs. No
the beholder changes. The higher he gets
the more he sees.
4. Thus religion grew out of belief in God as many
into belief in
God as one. Some see a trace of this old change out of the polytheistic into
the monotheistic idea of God in the fact that in the beginning of the Bible the
Hebrew name of God is plural
while the verb which is written with it is
singular. Men began to see that the gods of their imperfect creed were but
personifications of the attributes of the one God.
5. It was a hard lesson to learn. It is evident in the Old Testament
that faith in the unity of God won its way little by little. The best men held
it
but the people in general were slow to believe it. Even in the Psalms
God
is often spoken of as the greatest of the gods.
6. All religion
however imperfect and mistaken
is an endeavour
after a better knowledge of God. And as men grows they are able to know
more--to know more about everything
even about God. God is able to reveal
Himself more and more. At first
every tree is a god. Then there is a god of
the trees
and then of all the universe and of man included in it. God is known
as one.
7. We have not yet learned all the truth of God. We are not
universally sure
e.g.
that God cares more for deeds than creeds. But
we have learned that God is one; we have abandoned polytheism.
8. We believe in God the Father
and we believe in God the Son
and
we believe in God the Holy
Ghost. But there is one God
and there is none
other. The word “person
” which the old creed-makers used to express these
different ideas of God
has given rise to endless confusion. With us a person
is an individual. But this word “person” comes into English out of Latin
and
in Latin was a blundering translation of a wiser word in Greek. It means
“distinction.” There is one God in threefold distinction. The Divine nature is
complex as our human nature is. And there are three ways of thinking about God
corresponding to the being of God
ways which are not only true but essential
so that if we are to think of God aright we must think of Him in all these
three ways.
9. Thus the Christian doctrine
taking that old truth that “God is
one
” and holding to it
draws new truth out of it. It is an advance upon
monotheism
as that was upon polytheism. It meets the longings of the heart. It
answers the eager questions of the race. (George Hodges
D. D.)
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.
The love of God
1. This verse is the meeting point of the law and the Gospel. Very
wonderful it must have sounded in the ear of Israel. To be bidden
not only or
chiefly to fear Him as the God revealed in lightnings and thunderings and
voices on Sinai; not only or chiefly to keep themselves from provoking a wrath
so awful
a jealousy so sensitive and so terrible; but to love Him
to love Him
as the whole of duty
to love Him notwithstanding--nay
partly because of--His
incommunicable glory!
2. The words are very strong
very touching: “With all thine heart.”
Let the affections
even the emotions
find in God their object and
satisfaction. “And with all thy soul.” Let the immortal thing within thee
let
the everlasting being which thou art
come out towards this Lord God
and
devote itself
in the central life
in the moving will
to Him as its Creator
Owner
Father
Saviour
Comforter. “And with all thy might.” Not with the
feeblest
but with the mightiest of all thy faculties of thought and speech and
action--with the mightiest of all
at their mightiest
in a devotion of which
man is the priest and self the sacrifice.
3. Two things lie on the surface of the text.
4. And now reflect upon the mighty consequences and inferences of this
demand. See how it deals with life--the life of men
the life of nations--in so
far as it is received.
The great commandment of Moses and Christ recommended to Jews and
Christians
I. I am to
consider the nature and excellency of that temper of mind which you are to
exercise towards the Jehovah of Israel. If you are men and have the feelings of
humanity
I need not explain to you what love is. Without it
the names of
father
son
brother
friend
and every charity of life
are vanity and a lie.
But
though I refer to your hearts for the feeling of the temper we speak of
yet remember that as it varies in purity
in strength
and tenderness towards
our connections on earth
so will it differ much more when exercised towards
the Lord our God. The love of God is founded in just apprehensions of His
character. The very idea of God should contain in it all possible perfection in
an infinite degree. There is no weakness in Him that thou shouldest despise Him
and cast off His fear. He hath not burdened thee; that thou shouldest be weary
of His service. He hath not wronged thee
that thou shouldest hate Him and
break His commandments. The love of God is also founded on a due sense of His
mercies. He hath given us life
and breath
and all things; and in Him we live
move
and have our being. He is perfectly good in Himself
and perfectly good
to us
and to love Him with all our heart and to serve Him with all our
strength is our rational service. If we do not
the very stones will cry out
against our ingratitude
and evil
as well as good
angels will condemn us when
we are judged. Consider how honourable this temper of love is to the blessed
God
and to His happy worshippers. It exhibits Him in the lovely and
confidential character of the Universal Father
the Father of mercies
and the
God of all hope and of all consolations. It sheds the oil of gladness on all
the springs and wheels of duty
and makes His service perfect freedom. For love
is liberal in its gifts
unwearied in its services; it casts out tormenting fear
and indulges no suspicion in the unlimited confidence it reposes on the God of
our salvation. Finally
it is a principle of universal obedience to all God’s
commandments
to all men
at all times
and under all circumstances. Love is
the ruling affection of every soul of man
and
though false to every other
principle
to this he will be ever true
as the needle to the pole. For where a
man’s treasure is
there will his heart be also; and if the love of God exist
in the soul
it will regulate and subject to itself every other principle. If
we reject this Divine principle
how shall we supply its place? Faith itself is
unprofitable but as it worketh by love. Obedience is a lifeless form of
godliness but as it is animated by the spirit of love.
II. The measure of
that temper you are commanded to exercise towards the Lord your God: “Thou
shalt love Him with all thine heart
and with all thy soul
and with all thy
strength.” The love so strongly marked is of no ordinary character. It is pure
grateful
strong
affectionate
fervent
and reverent; specifically different
from all earthly affection. As the light of the sun darkeneth all other lights
so doth the love of God absorb other principles. It requires us cheerfully to
recognise Jehovah as Father of our spirits
the God of our lives
and the Lord
of our possessions: as entitled to dispose of us
of our wives
our children
our fortunes
our time
our talents
our reputation
and our influence
when
and how He pleaseth. Nor is this requisition unreasonable or unrighteous. For
we
and all we have
are His. He loveth us better than we love ourselves. He is
wise
under every circumstance of life and death
to know what is best for us
in this world and in the next; and His power is able to effect all His goodness
shall prompt and His wisdom shall contrive. In the absolute surrender of
ourselves to Him lieth all our honour
our happiness
and our security. What
greater honour
then
O ye Jews
can Christians show to the venerable Moses
than to make this precept regulate every secret of their souls? This may appear
wonderful
and it would be so
indeed
were Christianity opposed to Judaism.
But
in truth
they are one and the same religion
as the light of the dawn is
the same as the light of the day
as the rough outline is the same as the
living picture
finished by the same great Master. It was to establish the law
of love
as well as to atone for sin and to procure the Holy Spirit
that our
Immanuel sealed His love to God and man on the altar of His Cross. We love Him
because He so loved us
and His love constraineth us to love His enemies and
ours.
III. Apply the
subject to Jews and Christians. And
first
I address myself to both. Do you
love Jehovah your God with all your heart? That is
better than you love the
world and all that is in it? Better than life itself? if any man think he love
God
how doth he prove the fact? “If ye love Me
saith God
“keep My
commandments.” “This is the love of God
” saith the true worshipper
“that we
keep His commandments
and His commandments are not grievous.” Ye Jews
ye must
be circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands
not of the letter
but of the Spirit; whose praise is not of man
but of God. Ye Christians
ye
must be born again
not of water
but of the Spirit. Hearken
O men of Israel.
Had your fathers believed Moses
they would have believed Christ. Had they
loved God
they would have received Him who came forth from God. (Melville
Home.)
On love to God
In this publication of His law God clothes Himself with this
title
“The Lord thy God”--
I. With reference
to His gracious
external interpositions in behalf of that people.
II. To intimate the
gracious tendency of this seemingly severe revelation.
III. And its
connection with the offer and communication of God according to the method of
His grace. But there are two inferences falsely made from this preface which
ought to be avoided.
1. That an assured apprehension of God
as ours
is the beginning of
religion
and that this must go before all beneficial knowledge of God and His
law
whereas there must be a spiritual knowledge of God and His law in the
order of nature necessarily antecedent to any such apprehension of God
otherwise we have no just ideas of Him whom we apprehend (but embrace an idol)
nor of the footing on which we do apprehend Him.
2. That
after reconciliation with God
a man hath nothing to do with
His law.
To overturn such fancies it is to be observed that the doctrine of
the law of God is to be learned--
1. In subserviency to the glorification of God by the exercise of
justifying faith in Jesus Christ.
2. For the government of one who is justified in walking towards
heaven. It is chiefly in order to the first of those uses
to awaken men to
flee to Christ
that I mean to speak at this time from the text. There are no
Christians on earth exempted from the necessity of exciting themselves to faith
in this way
unless there are Christians whose faith needs not to be increased
or exercised.
I. I am to open
the sources of the obligation of the law of God as they are exhibited in this
expression of the text
“The Lord our God is one Lord.” Two preliminary
observations may here be mentioned.
1. It appears from the text that the chief source of the obligation
of the law of God must be searched for and found in God Himself.
2. It appears from the text that the sources of the obligation of the
law of God are to be found in those excellences of the Godhead which are most
peculiar and distinguishing. Here it is to be considered that the excellences
of God are justly distinguished into those which are called communicable and
those which are called incommunicable. With respect to both these sorts of
excellency He is incomparable. As to those which are called communicable
excellences
because some degree of something like them is imparted to other
beings
God is distinguished from His creatures by the degree and manner in
which He possesses these excellences. But the most distinguishing quality of
the manner in which God possesses communicable perfections is their being
united with His incommunicable glories. It is by these last that God is chiefly
distinguished from other beings
that He hath an immense fulness of such kinds
of beauty as in no degree can be found in any created being.
3. It may also be inferred from the text that the obligation of the
law of God is primarily derived from those excellences of the Godhead which
chiefly constitute the harmony of all Divine excellences
or the bond of union
in consequence of which all the fulness of the Godhead is one whole. “The Lord
our God is one Lord”--that is
in the midst of the immense variety of
excellences which are found in Him
there is a marvellous unity and harmony
so
that there is no division
jarring
or separation
but one glorious whole
in
which all things are compacted.
4. The source of the obligation of the law of God lies in that one
essence which is equally and fully possessed by each of the three persons in
the Godhead.
Application:
1. Beware of despising these truths as abstruse and unintelligible.
2. I call and invite every one of you to employ Jesus Christ
the
Prophet of the Church
to instruct you savingly in these things.
3. Let those who have been called into the light attend to these
exhortations (1 Peter 2:1-3; 1 Peter 2:8-9; 1 Peter 2:11-12).
II. To give a
general explication of the nature of that love to God which is demanded and
prescribed in His law. Here the following preliminary remarks are to be
attended to:
1. That we are now to speak of the love of God not as it is found in
saints on earth
mingled with contrary corruptions
but as it is prescribed in
the law of God
and as it is found in such creatures as are perfectly conformed
thereto.
2. It is difficult for us to attain just and lively conceptions of
the nature of this perfect love
because we never had any experience of it--no
not for a moment.
3. Such a knowledge of it is attainable as is sufficient to answer
the purposes of the glory of God which are intended to be answered in this
life
such as to excite high thoughts of the glorious excellences of God as
appearing in His law
to discover the preciousness of the righteousness of
Christ
the imperfection of our present attainments
the necessity of progress
and the amiableness of that state of perfection which is the “prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
4. Our thoughts may be assisted and elevated on this subject by
considering the highest attainments of Christians on earth
and adding
perfection of purity and continuance thereto.
I shall now apply myself to the direct consideration of this most
fundamental subject
namely
“What is that perfection of love to God prescribed
in His holy law?”
1. What are those views and character of God in which He is
contemplated while perfect love is exercised?
2. The different motions of the faculties of the soul in bringing
forth the actings of this love may be represented in this order.
3. In the course of these motions of the faculties of a perfect
creature
the various acts of love in their distinct kinds and in their
connection with each other are brought forth.
Application:
1. Give glory to God
the author of this law.
2. See the greatness of our fall from a state of perfect
uninterrupted love to a state of enmity.
3. See the preciousness of that redemption by which men are restored
to a state of perfect
endless conformity to this spotless standard. (John
Love
D. D.)
Supreme love of God
I. The command.
1. None will dispute for a moment God’s right to the affection of all
His creatures. Surrounded as we are by the amazing proofs of God’s love to us
hourly as we are the recipients of His bounty
it is to the lasting disgrace of
every member of the human family that such a command as this should be needed.
2. But will the mere command produce love? No
it will not. The
severest injunctions
the most formidable threatenings
are insufficient to
produce love in the human heart. The penalties attached to disobedience may
excite a slavish fear
but they cannot excite love. A child does not love its
parent because commanded to do so; it may obey that parent by the outward act
but to excite love something more is needed than a command. And that something
more is found in the affectionate kindness and watchful care of the parent
and
this it is which
shown in a thousand varied ways
calls forth the love and affection
of the child. If I want my neighbour to love me
it is not by merely expressing
the wish for it that I shall gain his affection
but by embracing every
opportunity for the exercise of benevolent feelings towards him. And thus it is
that the love of God will be awakened within the heart of any one of us. And
therefore
in exhorting you to obey the command
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God
” we should set before you those dealings of God towards you which are
calculated to kindle in your breasts the emotions of love.
II. Its extent.
What is the degree of love which God demands?
1. It must be supreme--with all the heart. You are to love God not as
you love your friends
your relatives
your children
but above
all things. He
will allow no rival to share with Him the throne of your heart’s affections.
Not even any lawful affection must be set above that which we give to God
much
less the love of sin or of the world.
2. It must be an intelligent love--with all the soul or
understanding. By this you will have a clear perception of why you love God
and of the many motives which should excite you to give Him your heart’s
undivided affections. The thoughtful Christian will see the reasonableness of
the adoration he pays to God.
3. It must be also a strong and fervent love--“with all thy might”--a
love deeply rooted in the heart
and so closely intertwined with all your
thoughts and feelings as to defy the power either of sin or Satan to tear it
from your breast. (R. Allen
M. A.)
On God’s love of being loved
One of the loudest outcries of present-day scepticism against
Christianity is that it is based on an anthropomorphic or too manlike view of
the nature of God
which is said to be degrading to the Unseen Everlasting
Cause and to be contrary to scientific fact. Now clearly there must be some
limits to thinking of God as “such an one as ourselves.” When men have
for
example
represented the Divine nature by fabricating and consecrating an image
of the human body
as in the case of the whole idolatrous world; or when they
have conceived of the Divine character in the moral likeness of wicked men
as
in the case of nearly all the gods and goddesses of paganism
there is reason
in the outcry of these sceptics and in the demand for loftier and purer ideas
of the Deity. But where objection is made to the formation of ideas of the
Divine nature based on any similarity to man’s nature
or to ideas of the
Divine providence based on our notions of great and small--as if so small a
world as this and so minute a creature as man were unworthy of the special
attention of an Infinite Being--then the objection is in fact founded on
another kind of anthropomorphism or too much manlikeness--an error which is at
least as vulgar as that which it condemns
and then the basis of so-called
scientific unbelief is open to the same accusation which it brings against the
Christian faith. For
of all indefensible notions
this must be the most
indefeasible--that the Infinite Being measures the value of objects in
proportion to their size. Does any man really believe that if there be a God at
all who is an intelligent Being
even if He were only as intelligent as a man
may be
that He values things elderly according to their cubic contents
so
that what you call a “little” world has no chance of the notice of the
Everlasting Mind? Everything that we know here of mind leads us to conclude
very differently. Men do not value each other chiefly according to their size
or anything else
when they are educated into some right perception. The noblest
nations have not inhabited the largest territories. It is not the largest
buildings
the largest works of art which are of the highest value. We may be
certain
then
to begin with
that suns and planets do not rank in the Creative
Mind according to their cubic contents. He who made man in His own image of
reason and love cannot possibly account man unworthy of notice because of his
littleness. Nothing is too great for the Mightiest One
and nothing is too
minute for His care. But now comes for consideration the deeper question of the
nature of God
as capable or incapable of real feeling towards man--as caring
or not caring for our affection--so as to be fitted to win our love to Him
a
personal and everlasting love. Nothing is clearer in the Sacred Writings than
that they all alike represent God not only as essential Love
but as asking for
our love
and delighting in it
as the love of His children
to whom He has
given all things. God’s love of being loved is
perhaps
the foremost quality
of the Divine Nature as described to us in revelation. Consider how strange it
would be if God were not such a Being as this--if the Creator of all sensitive
souls were the One Spirit devoid of real sense and feeling. Oh
surely this
great world of sense and feeling was born out of a nature all sentient and
vital
and rose like some form of beauty from a wondrous ocean of Deity
full
of the life whence she sprang. Consider
too
what an effort seems to be made
in the physical world to convey to our minds on all sides the impression that
there is real and personal feeling towards man in the Most High. Does not every
living form in plant or flower
every delicious landscape
or breadth of ocean
lighted with the radiance of the morning or the evening sun
breathe forth to
us the feeling of some unseen
but not far distant
and Omnipotent Artist
who
loves His children? But it is true that our sense affords no sufficing
revelation to the soul. She cries out still for the Living God. We require a
richer
fuller
nearer communion
and we have it in Christ. In Jesus Christ the
Infinite is revealed
not only as a Person
but as one “full of compassion.”
And now we are more ready for the reception of the truth that
if “God is
Love
” it follows that next to the satisfaction of His own Almighty love in
blessing His creatures
and saving the lost by His own sacrifice
that Nature
must seek for its sweetest delights in the love of His children. And this is
the revealed but too often forgotten fact that God loves to be loved . . . When
then
of old
God spake by Moses
“Thou shalt love
etc.
this was not the
terrible and menacing demand of a Potentate requiring love as a debt
and
threatening its non-payment with perdition. But it was Eternal Love crying out
for the love of a world of revolted souls
and determined not to rest until it
conquered the rebellion by the sacrifice of itself. But what that union of
souls with God will be in eternity
in the embrace which no created power can
unlock
and which the Uncreated never will
no earthly tongue can tell. The
infant spirit will have grown up to its adult and angelic strength and the
faint answering smile of its earlier days shall have passed into the effulgent
sunlight of an intelligent and immortal passion--a love forever strengthening
in the experience of the Love Divine
and thrilling the Infinite Nature with
the gladness that the saved alone can give it
because they alone love with the
ardour kindled by redeeming grace. (E. White.)
God must be loved
A man is not a Christian because he is socially loving and kind
any more than a person is a good son because he loves his brothers and sisters
leaving out his father and mother. Men would not wish to be treated by their
children as they propose to treat their Father in heaven. They would not be
satisfied to have their sons and daughters act on the principle that to love
each other is the sufficient and only way by which children ought to love their
parents. I should not like to hear my children say
“To be kind to each other
and not care for father and mother
is the way for us to be good children
towards them.” (H. W. Beecher.)
The service of the heart
All men know
or think they know
what love is. The poets have
sung its praises
and the philosophers have analysed it
and the moralists have
assigned it a niche
under one name or another
among their virtues; but all
have alike regarded it as too irrational
too capricious
too transitory a
thing to be an adequate foundation for morality. Christianity alone has made
love at once the guide and goal of life
the condition of perfection
the
fulfilling of the law. The principle of love is universal
without being
abstract
it is a fact
a plain
obvious
palpable reality
which all men agree
to recognise
and to recognise as ultimate and fundamental. Its analogues are
broadcast throughout the universe
from the laws of gravitation upwards. It is
universal
it is real
and further
it is vital. It is its own dynamic. It
lives and grows and expands and fructifies
and sows its fiery contagion
broadcast with an importunate
an imperious necessity of its own inner nature
which admits of neither help nor hindrance from without. The command
therefore
to love appeals to an instinct which is co-extensive with humanity
which is real beyond touch of controversy
and endowed with a vital force that
is exclusively its own. But the very instinctive nature of love often misleads
men into many other fallacies
owes its plausibility to its containing half a
truth. Love is indeed irresistible; many waters cannot quench it. But like
other irresistible forces--the lapse of a river
the electric energy
the
current of a flame--it can be guided
and by guidance be controlled. “Learning
to love” is too deep-set a phrase in our language ever to have arisen
if the
act which it describes were after all impossible. And love
like the instincts
in a being that is rational
not only can be
but must be
directed by the
will
as the sole condition of attaining its true end. To assist us to that end
let us look at love as we find it among men. In the first place
love is a
relation existing between persons. The will need not have for its field of
exercise more than a law
nor the mind more than an abstract object; but it is
only in a derived and secondary sense that we can speak of loving anything
other than a person. We may love him for the possession of this or that
attribute of loveliness; but it is the self behind the attributes--the
person--that we love. And then
though we cannot analyse this mysterious element
of our being
we may see one thing about it clearly
that it moves between two
poles--desire and sacrifice. The family
the earliest home of love
shows both
these elements in their simplest form. The love of the child for the parent is
one of simple
unreflective
self-referent desire; that of the parent for the
child one of increasingly unselfish sacrifice. Both factors
of course
coexist
but in each case one predominates
and gives character and colour to
the whole. To love is to be lifted or degraded by our love
in proportion as we
repudiate or welcome the law of sacrifice. The forms which that sacrifice may
take are infinite
but the fact of it needs no proof. Love
then
as we know
it
is a relation between persons
founded on desire
tending to self-sacrifice
needing for its true development the guidance of the will. And further
it is
never stationary. It withers unless it grows
and in growing gathers purity
intensity
perfection. This is the faculty which we are bidden to enlist wholly
in God’s service: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” How is
this to be done? Different forms of personal beauty
different graces of mind
or character
wake the love of different men. But once let a man be confronted
by the congenial character
the appropriate grace
and nature does the rest. So
with the love of God. He attracts us through many avenues. Our part is to
direct our mental vision by the will; and then
“We
needs must love the highest when we see it.”
But it is in this direction of our vision that we fail. Our eyes
are feeble
and we cannot bear the light. “He left not Himself without
witness
” but we interpret it amiss. The simplest of all witnesses is our
natural desire for God. “All men yearn for the gods
” said the Greek. “My soul is
athirst for God
” said the Hebrew poet. In spite of such utterances
a century
ago philosophers could still maintain that religion was artificial. But in the
light of our larger knowledge this is no longer possible. For however far we
look back over India
or Babylon
or Egypt
or abroad over the savage inmates
of the islands of the sea
the religious instinct is there; not merely a fear
or a sense of infinitude
but a yearning
a desire
the beginning of a love. So
universally is it found to be part of our primitive endowments
that zoologists
have proposed
for their special purpose
to classify mankind as “the religious
animal.” This desire is the foundation of all our love. Our capacity for loving
God and our capacity for loving man are one and the self-same thing. Or to put
it otherwise
we have an infinite capacity for loving
which points to an
Infinite Being as its only final object. Limit your love exclusively to any
finite thing or person
and what is the result
and why? Sooner or later it will
begin to flag; it will fail; it will become disgust; and that because you have
thought to limit what never can be limited. We are all of us endowed
then
with an emotional capacity
whose final cause is the love of God. And every
phase of human emotion should be
and may be if we will
a stage in the
training of this faculty for its destined end and goal. There is
for instance
the love of nature--of the beauty of earth and sea and sky
and of all the
various life with which they teem. Contemplate nature
and its loveliness will
strengthen and develop your emotions
but in doing so will point them on
with
irresistible suggestiveness
to One lovelier than itself. And then there is the
love of art. Art selects and rearranges nature
with a view to bring its
lessons more intimately home. Our duty is to use all art that will kindle our
emotions nobly
but sternly to forego
oven in what may seem the neutral region
of amusement
all that is insidiously poisonous to us
and yet may innocently
brighten and help the lives of other men. This fact needs insisting on; for
artistic influences elude observation
and we are hardly aware of how
profoundly painting
music
drama
poetry
and the immense literature of
fiction mould and modify for good or evil every fibre of our modern life.
Again
there is the love of humanity
the most universal of all schools of
love. In the early dawn of affection we idealise our dear ones with an
instinctive insight that is in truth prophetic of what they may one day be. But
hero and now they are finite beings--weak
sinful
incomplete. Differences of
taste and temper
inadequacies
imperfections
cannot but disclose themselves
as time goes on. But if our love he true
we shall learn to efface our
selfishness in helping other lives to overcome their insufficiencies; and every
sacrifice this costs us will deepen our power of sympathy; we shall feel not
only for the grace and beauty
but for all the pathetic frailty of the
struggling human soul; and as we learn
by loving more profoundly
the
limitless nature of our love
we shall see that its only adequate satisfaction
is in God--“Nor man nor nature satisfies whom God alone created.” There is one
more school of affection; but we can only learn its lessons if we come to it
at least in sonic degree
prepared; for it is the school of bereavement. To the
idolater of nature
or of art
or of humanity
we know what the shattering of
his idol means--hopeless
helpless
impotent despair; weeping and wailing and
gnashing of teeth. And yet it was not meant to be
it never need be
so. If
once we have risen to realise that what we love on earth can have derived its
loveliness from no other source than God
bereavement
however bitter
is full
of earnest meaning. Our concern is with the fact that bereavement reveals to us
new and mysterious vistas in the life of love. All along we have seen that
sacrifice of one kind or other must be present. But bereavement shows us how
intensely real that sacrifice must be. All else seems to vanish before it; and
the very name of love acquires an awfulness which makes its light misuse seem
blasphemy. Such are the common means by which we may learn to fulfil the
commandment
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” The genius
can dispense with the ordinary methods of education; and so too can the saint;
but for most of us it is otherwise. The things that lie around us
the stuff
that life is made of
the field of our daily exercise--nature
art
society
marriage
friendship
partings
death--these are the appointed channels that
should guide the heart to God. Our mistake is to think such things indifferent
as if there were a neutral region
neither good nor ill. Nothing is
indifferent
except to our blindness. Every object of human interest lifts us
up or drags us down. (J. R. Illingworth
M. A.)
Love of God the best basis of life
There was once a great painter who had three scholars. They were
all anxious to learn the secret of their master’s power
and become great
painters themselves. The first spent all his time in the studio at his easel.
He copied incessantly the great master’s pictures
studying deeply into their
beauties
and trying to imitate them with his own brush. He was up early
and
was the last to leave the workroom at night. He would have nothing to do with
the master himself
attended none of his lectures
never went to him with any
question
nor spent any time in talking with him. He wanted to be his own
director
and make his own discoveries
and be self-made. This scholar lived
and died without notice
and never expressed on canvas a single one of the
noble characteristics of his master. The second scholar
on the contrary
spent
little time in the studio
scarcely soiled his palette
or wore out a brush. He
attended every lecture on art
was constantly asking questions about the
theories of perspective
of colouring
of light and shade
of grouping figures
and all that
and was a zealous student of hooks. But for all his study he died
without producing a single worthy picture to help and delight mankind and
perpetuate his master’s glory. The third was as zealous in the practical work
of the artist as the first
and as zealous in the theoretical as the second
but he did one thing which they never thought of doing: he came to know and
love the master. They were much together
the young artist and the older one
and they had long talks about all phases of an artist’s life and work. So close
and continual
in fact
was their communion that they grew to talk alike
and
think alike
and even
some said
to look alike. And it was not long before
they began to paint alike
and on the canvas of the younger glowed the same
beauty and the same majesty that shone from the canvas of his master. The
parable is not hard to interpret. If the Christian has been seeking to know
God
and express God’s beauty on the canvas of his human life
it has been in
one of these three ways. If it has been by the way of practical living merely
by attempting with one’s own unaided wisdom and power to be kind and helpful and
influential
the attempt has failed. If it has been by the way of theory
merely
if by searching of books alone the Christian has sought to find out
God
he has failed. Our search for a noble and inspiring and fruitful basis of
life will succeed only as
without by any means neglecting good deeds or study
we seek with all the might of the spirit God has given us for communion
personal love and communion
with the Spirit who made our spirits
until
in
Jesus’ words
we are one with Christ
even as He is one with the Father.
How to begin to love God
It will not be so difficult for you to love God if you will only
begin by loving goodness
which is God’s likeness
and the inspiration of God’s
Holy Spirit. For you will be like a man who has long admired a beautiful
picture of someone whom he does not know
and at last meets the person for whom
the picture was meant--and
behold
the living face is a thousand times more
fair and noble than the painted one. You will be like a child which has been
brought up from its birth in a room into which the sun never shone
and then
goes out for the first time
and sees the sun in all his splendour bathing the
earth with glory. If that child has loved to watch the dim
narrow rays of
light which shone into his dark room
what will he not feel at the sight of
that sun from which all those rays had come! Just so will they feel who
having
loved goodness for its own sake
and loved their neighbours for the sake of
what little goodness is in them
have their eyes opened at last to see all
goodness
without flaw or failing
bound or end
in the character of God
which
He has shown forth in Jesus Christ our Lord
who is the likeness of His
Father’s glory
and the express image of His Person
to whom be glory and
honour forever.
Our obligation to love God
If a great potentate did make subject unto thee his whole kingdom
and all his dominions
nobles
and strong
powerful men
nay
all his subjects
and did command them to guard
defend
preserve
to clothe
cure
and feed
thee
and to take care that thou shouldest want nothing at all
wouldst thou
not love him and account him to be a loving
bountiful lord? How
then
oughtest thou to love the Lord thy God
who hath kept nothing back for Himself
but appointed to thy service all that is in heaven
and from heaven
and all
that is upon earth
or anywhere? For He wants no creature for Himself
and hath
excepted nothing from thy service
neither in all the hosts of holy angels
nor
in any of His creatures under the stars. If we will
they are ready to serve
us; nay
hell itself must serve us
by bringing upon us fear and terror
that
we may not sin. (John Arndt.)
Why we ought to love God
1. We ought to love God. It is our duty to love God. We are commanded
to love God. The Old Testament and the New Testament unite in emphasising that.
It is not likely
however
that this text ever persuaded anybody into loving
God. Love laughs at injunctions
pays no heed to duty
absolutely cannot be
commanded. Obedience can be got that way
but love--never! It is of the very
nature and essence of love that it must grow in a willing heart. Love is the
manifestation of an untrammelled choice.
2. It may be that God set temptation within the reach of man
that He
might thus make it possible for us really to love Him. The test of love is
preference. Love comes out into the light
and is discovered when there is a
choice to be made between two
or for or against. The best way in the whole
world for a man to show his love for God is to say “no” to the devil
and to
stand up on the side of God. But we must not do that because we are commanded
to do it
because we are afraid not to do it
but because we want to do it
if
there is to be any real love in it.
3. The purpose of this command is not to establish obedience
but to
proclaim an ideal. The spirit of it is not that we must love God because we
must
but that God wants us to love Him. “We love Him because He first loved
us.”
4. Christ is the only authoritative teacher of the love of God.
Love for God a real motive power
It is said that one of the greatest statesmen that we have ever
had
having gone to hear an evangelical preacher
was heard growling as he left
the church
“Why
the man said that we were to love God
” evidently thinking
that the very height of unreasonableness. And when Wilberforce attacked the
fashion of religion in the beginning of the nineteenth century
this was the
point on which he fixed--that not only was God not loved
but people did not
even think that to love God was reasonable. Going to work philosophically
he
demonstrated
first
that what he called passion--meaning love--is the
strongest force ill human affairs; and secondly
that religion requires exactly
such a stimulus
because of the difficulties that it has to overcome. We are now
living in a far warmer atmosphere everywhere than that in which Wilberforce was
living
and we have no difficulty in acknowledging the power of emotion
or
passion
or love in any department of human affairs. In politics
it is
enthusiasm that carries the statesman through. In war
it is enthusiasm that
makes heroes. It was the passion of friendship that made Jonathan able to lay a
kingdom at David’s feet. Love between the sexes is the grand mainspring of
human refinement and industry
and affection in the home sweetens adversity
and enables even the weak to bear up under intolerable burdens. But
my people
there is one kind of love for which the human heart was made which is deeper
and more influential than any other kind
and that is the love of God. I daresay
that you and I would claim that we had tasted the other kinds of love
perhaps
all the kinds
and we know well their power of developing energy and rewarding
endeavour
and sweetening what is bitter in life; but let me press this
question home on you--do we know the highest love of all? has this blossom
burst yet on the tree of our being--love to our Father in heaven? It is to be
what we call an absorbing
an overmastering love
pervading the whole being
and setting every power within us in motion. If the love of God be in us
anything like the absorbing and over-mastering passion that Jesus means it to
be it will lead us also to love everything belonging to God--His day
His
house
His people
His call
and so forth; and wherever there is any deep love
for the Sabbath
or the Bible
you will find when you come to the bottom of it
that it is due to love of God Himself
wakened in the heart in the way that I
have indicated. But there is especially one part of worship) which Jesus
connects very closely with the love of God
and that is prayer. You know those
who love must meet: The oftener they meet the higher rises the flame of love
and prayer is the trysting place between God and the soul. (J. Stalker
D.
D.)
These words . . . shall be in thine heart.
The Scriptures to be laid to heart
and diligently taught
I. The words
concerning which the command is given
their nature and importance.
1. Their supernatural origin.
2. The extraordinary manner in which God has sanctioned them
in the
signs and wonders performed by those who spoke or wrote the things declared in
them.
3. The evident excellence and useful tendency of their contents
“to
make us wise unto salvation.”
II. The command
given concerning these things.
1. We must not be indifferent
but deeply impressed with
and
concerned about
these things; that is
about Divine revelation in general
its
truth
its importance
its contents; and about that religion set forth in this
passage
as above explained
consisting in the knowledge and love of God.
2. We must see that this is religion
and this alone; and that if we
rest short of this
we rest short of religion.
3. We must be concerned to have proper views of
to experience
and
to practise this religion.
III. The obligations
which lie upon us to obey this command.
1. Gratitude; for this book lays us under great
yea
infinite
obligations. Consider what would have been our condition had we not had the
Bible--how ignorant
sinful
and miserable!
2. The express command of God
who gave us the Scriptures
lays us
under an indispensable obligation: He is our Creator
Benefactor
Redeemer
Lawgiver
and Judge. He solemnly enjoins us to have these things in our hearts.
3. The example of our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles
etc.
who
all made these things the subjects of their chief study and discourse from day
to day.
4. Compassion for and love to our children--mortal and immortal
beings; to whom
under God
we have given being
and who are committed to our
care by Him
the great proprietor and governor of all
who says
“All souls are
Mine.”
5. Our own interest should influence us; and that for time and for
eternity. For if we have not God’s Word in general
and the knowledge and love
of God in particular
in our own hearts
we shall be miserable here
and perish
everlastingly hereafter. And if we do not inculcate these things on our
children and dependants
and those on whom we might inculcate them
and they
perish
God will require “their blood
” their souls
at our hands. (J.
Benson.)
An ever-present religion
I. Religion claims
to take a foremost place in human affairs. The law is to be everywhere set
forth clear and conspicuous. As the ancient Egyptians are said to have worn
jewels on the forehead and arm inscribed with sacred words and amulets
and as
the Mohammedans now paint over their doors sentences from the Koran
such as
“God is the Creator
” “God is one
and Mahomet is His prophet
” so the Jews carried
on their bodies
and wrote upon their houses
some of the most important
passages of their law. Such a practice was liable to the abuse of ostentatious
vanity. But are not we in danger of falling into the opposite fault through the
intense reserve in which we hide our religious life? When we do recognise the
right of religion to take its true place in the world
what shall we dare to
set before it? This right is based on two grounds:
1. The essential value of the subjects treated by it.
2. The authority which it carries. Our religion must not be a mere
matter of taste
of sentiment
and of philosophic speculation. It must be
regarded as obedience to the will of our supreme Lord and Master.
II. Religion needs
to be constantly impressed upon us. We do not have to set up maxims about our
streets urging us to make haste to get rich
nor in our houses to prevent us
from forgetting our daily meals. But the spiritual appetite is less keen
and
requires to be whetted by constant teaching
by “line upon line” and “precept
upon precept.”
III. Religion must
begin in the heart. It is impossible to have religion in the outer life unless
it grow from within. Nothing is easier than to put on the show of it. Anyone
can hang texts about his house. But to infuse real religion into the home is
impossible except it grow out of inward spiritual devotion. The fruit cannot
grow without a root. To be in the heart the Divine Word must be--
IV. Religion should
grow out into every branch of life. Though it begins in the heart it cannot
contain itself there forever; if the fountain is ever bubbling up it must issue
in the flowing stream. When there is life in the root it is impossible to
prevent the tree from breaking out into leaves
sooner or later. Like the
sunlight pervading hill and plain
like the fragrant odour of incense
penetrating to the inmost recess of the sanctuary
true religion must spread
itself abroad
and reach down to the minutest details of life. (W. F.
Adeney
M. A.)
Words in the heart
1. The style of the Book of Deuteronomy is unlike that of the
preceding books of the Pentateuch
and this may be accounted for by the fact
that the contents are very different. The language of Deuteronomy is in the
main hortatory.
2. The lawgiver is seen in this book to be full of zeal for God
and
of earnest desire for the well-being of the people. His exhortations to
obedience have been truly said to be “deeply fraught with holy and patriotic
feeling.”
3. There is something of a valedictory tone throughout these pages.
The forty years’ wanderings are almost concluded
and the death of Moses is
near at hand. Moses
giving injunctions to Israel before his departure
is
typical to the final commands of Jesus Christ before His Ascension.
I. The words were
to be in their heart.
1. What words? The commandments of God
as summed up in the verses
which precede the text. Having first asserted the truth that “God is a Spirit
”
for the people were reminded
when the Lord spake unto them out of the midst of
the fire
that they “heard a voice
but saw no similitude” (Deuteronomy 4:12); so now
the Unity of
the Godhead is clearly revealed: “The Lord our God is one Lord.” Further
Moses
drew from the doctrine of the Divine Unity that God must be the sole Object of
Israel’s love and obedience--of a devotion which claimed “all” the heart and
soul and might for its rightful exercise.
2. These words were to be in their heart
or “upon” their heart
as
something written and engraven upon the memory. This faculty was to be the
treasure house of the Law of God. Constantly in Holy Scripture exhortations and
institutions had for their object the prevention of forgetfulness of the Divine
Law and Divine mercies: “My son
forget not My Law
” (Proverbs 3:1). The Sabbath was a reminder
of Creation; the Passover
of the deliverance from Egypt; and twelve stones
were set up for a memorial of the passing over Jordan. To remember the presence
of God and the commandments of God and His goodness was a stringent duty
for
these were to form the guide of life and the stimulus of devotion.
3. To forget God was a sin in itself. “Beware lest thou forget the
Lord
” the prophet continues
especially in days of affluence and prosperity in
Canaan. It was Moses’ reproach--almost his dying reproach: “Of the Rock that
begat thee
thou art unmindful
and hast forgotten God that formed thee” (Deuteronomy 32:18). And forgetfulness of
God leads to all sin.
II. “Thou shalt
teach them diligently unto thy children.”
1. There never was a time when this Divine command needed more to be
accentuated than at present. Secular education is only partial education; it
omits to train the moral and spiritual
the higher elements of our being. It
has been wisely said by a French statesman
“Strong
definite
religious
convictions constitute the real strength of any country.” He might have added
“of any soul.”
2. Religious instruction of the young is necessary
because God
commanded it. That is a clear and definite ground to go upon
for all who
believe the Scriptures. Further
it stands to reason that if religion is to be
our guide in the midst of a sinful world
we want that guide for all ages.
Childhood as well as maturity belongs to God
and must be sanctified by God.
The image of the Child Christ
with the words
“Hear ye Him
” placed by Dean
Colet over the master’s chair in St. Paul’s Grammar School
was his way of
showing the importance of religious education
and of teaching children that
they should follow Christ and be made like unto Him
if they would become true
men and women.
3. Moreover
youth is the time when powers are fresh
and the truths
which God has revealed can be best taken in and assimilated. “Remember now thy
Creator in the days of thy youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). It is the time for
acquiring deep convictions and of forming habits (Proverbs 22:6).
4. Youth is an age when we are more liable to be led astray by
passion and the first taste of the world; and therefore the restraining and blessed
influences of religion are the more necessary.
III. Lessons.
1. To strive to remember the Divine commands and the presence of God.
2. “In the heart.” Not merely an intellectual action
as “learning by
heart
” though this is important; but by loving obedience to God
and devotion
to Him.
3. To teach religion to thy children. A ground for forcing the
importance of religious instruction in our schools
and that definite. The text
says
“these words.”
4. But further
a lesson for parents
upon whom the task devolves
that in the home
as well as at the school
the children should be instructed
in the truths of Christianity
as the most momentous of parental duties. (Canon
Hutchings
M. A.)
The duties and privileges of pious parents
I. The duties of
believing parents.
1. Love to God is the first and great duty of every moral being.
Without this there can be good neither in the individual nor in his life and
actions.
2. The Word of God should be the object of constant and unremitting
study. This is a work for life.
3. The Word of God should dwell in the heart of the believer richly;
and at all times
and in all places
it ought to be the chief employment of his
mind. This leads to saving knowledge of God and of His will; and this
by the
teaching of the Holy Spirit
will make the believer “wise unto salvation
” and
by the blessing of the Holy Spirit
will do so likewise unto his children.
4. We should make the Word of God known to others--such as our
friends
our associates
our neighbours
and that
too
as extensively as
possible. Thus the believer is kept constantly in communion with God by love
and by the Scriptures; and thus he becomes more and more conformed to God’s
image every day.
5. But the believer should make known the Word of God to the world as
far as possible
by recommending it
and by circulating it
as far as possible
amongst his necessitous fellow creatures.
II. The privileges
of pious persons.
1. They are great gainers themselves; for
by “loving the Lord their
God with all their heart
” they have the experience of heaven begun in their
soul: all is life
power
readiness
willingness
and ability to do the whole
will of God--and heaven just consists of this in perfection. This gives
satisfaction; this gives “joy and peace in believing.”
2. They are great gainers
because their whole intellectual powers
are satisfied with Divine influences: their understanding is satisfied with
knowledge of the Divine nature
the Divine perfections
the Divine persons
the
Divine will
the Divine promises
the Divine blessings
and the Divine word.
3. They are great gainers
because the whole man
soul and body
with
the members
powers
and faculties
are dedicated to God
and are employed in
His service and enjoyment. This is employment for the real Christian both in
this world and the next.
All Christians should daily be thus occupied
for this is
answering the end of their creation.
1. But another unspeakable privilege is comprehended in our text
and
that is
“These words which I command thee this day
shall be in thine heart.”
This is to be conformed to the Divine image; this is to be like the Lord Jesus
Christ.
2. Another unspeakable privilege is comprehended in our text
and
that is
the instruction and edification of children.
3. This privilege is extensive
and may embrace not only the
children
but also the servants
and all others connected with the family
by
consanguinity
friendship
or otherwise.
4. The believer’s privilege extends to all men
as far as in his
power. Thus
the circle extends from the point--self--round the circumference
of the globe! How exalted the consideration of being instrumental in the hand
of God
of being so extensively useful in increasing the Church on earth
and
the Church in heaven--of profiting the souls and bodies of men--of promoting
the glory of God both in time and through eternity! (James Kidd
D. D.)
Familiarity with the Word of God
I. The words of
God are the treasure of the heart. Wherever they be
if they are not in the
heart they fail to answer the Divine intention. They are made for the heart
and the heart is made for them. Let them be there first
and it will follow
that they will be everywhere else where they are needed.
II. The words of
God are the theme of the conversation. There is a picturesque completeness in
the enumeration of the occasions upon which these words are to be talked of--at
home
abroad
evening
and morning. Though His words in origin
they are our
words in use.
III. The words of
God are the ornament of the life. The Jews adorned their persons with texts of
Scripture
written upon papyrus or parchment
and enclosed within little boxes
or cylinders
which were worn upon the hand or the brow: an emblem of their
intimacy and familiarity with Divine truth
and to us a reminder that our life
our politics
our literature
our art
should all be governed by the principles
and motives presented in revelation.
IV. The words of
God are the law of the home and household. Scraps of Scripture were suspended
by the threshold of the house surely to intimate that in a sense every
Israelite’s home was a temple sacred unto the Lord. Our households are
protected
and guided
and hallowed
when the Divine Word is their supreme
authority.
V. The words of
God are the inheritance of our children. Whatever parents fail to do for their
offspring
to bequeath to them
let them
above all things
hand down to them
the precious and sacred deposit of truth
teaching diligently unto their
children what they themselves have received from those who have gone before
them. (Homilist.)
The Bible not too good to be used
Some years ago I had occasion to send a parcel to an
honest
hardworking bricklayer who lived in the country. It contained
besides
sundry little presents for his wife and children
a trowel for his own use
made
in a superior way
with a mahogany handle; and often did I fancy that I saw him
hard at work with the trowel in his hand. Last summer
being in the
neighbourhood
I called at the cottage of the honest bricklayer
when
to my
surprise
I saw the trowel which I had sent him exhibited over the
chimney-piece as a curiosity. It had been considered too good to use
and
consequently had never been of the slightest use to its owner. (George
Mogridge.)
Thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children.
On the religious instruction of children
I. To mention some
of those things which parents are commanded to teach their children.
1. In the first place
then
inculcate upon them an early reverence
for God. Teach them this duty even before they can understand who and what He
is; and let them see it exemplified in yourselves
by your seriousness in
speaking of Him
and by your humility in every act of Divine worship.
2. Teach them also an early value for the Scriptures. Let them know
that the Bible is the Word of God; that it is the best book in the world; that
it is more to be desired than gold; and that
if it were not for the
discoveries
instructions
and promises contained in it
they and you
and all
mankind
would be ignorant and wretched beyond imagination.
3. Let them also acquire an early sense of a future state
blest
children are giddy and thoughtless. The trifling engagements of the present
hour are all that they regard; and it often happens that the world with its
baubles strikes so strongly upon their imaginations
and fixes such an early
and rooted prejudice in its favour as is not easily eradicated. You should
therefore
endeavour to convince them
as soon as possible
that the present
state is only a passage to another.
4. Forget not to inculcate upon them an early love to our Lord Jesus
Christ. Take the first opportunity to inform them of their obligations to Him;
and let them know that if they have any comfort in this world
or any hopes as
to a future
they owe it all to the kindness of the blessed Redeemer.
5. Habituate your children to the early practice of prayer.
II. To suggest some
directions to parents in this important and difficult work.
1. Take care
then
to he well instructed yourselves.
2. Begin with them very early.
3. Continue your instructions with diligence and perseverance.
4. It is also of great importance that you maintain a proper
authority.
5. I would further advise you to accommodate yourselves to their
tempers and capacities.
6. Be concerned especially to set them a good example; walk before
them in the way in which you would have them go; and show them
by your
practice
that you by no means require impossibilities. Let them see in you the
amiableness and advantages of self-government and universal piety.
7. Sanctify all by your prayers.
III. The
encouragements which parents have to teach their children diligently. Nature
and grace
reason and religion urge this strongly.
1. It will be a good evidence of your own sincerity.
2. It is also the best proof of love to your children. It should
encourage you in the discharge of this duty to consider that it is the best
means of promoting the glory of God and the revival of decaying religion.
3. These pious efforts will also comfort you on the death of your
children.
4. That an attention to the spiritual welfare of your children will
afford you unspeakable consolation in the hour of your death.
IV. To obviate some
of the most common and material objections against this important and necessary
duty. Various are the excuses that are made; but they are generally dictated by
indolence
rather than by real conviction. Some object their want of ability.
“We would gladly instruct our children
” you say
“but we are ignorant
ourselves. Ministers are the fittest persons to undertake it
for it is a part
of their office.” If your ignorance be real and not merely a pretence to
silence conscience
if you really do not know the plain principles of religion
it is high time for you to learn. Had you your own souls only to attend to
it
were a shame to continue unacquainted with the glad tidings of salvation. But
if you only mean that you know not how to communicate that little knowledge
which you have to your children; that you cannot talk to them so pertinently
and fluently as others; I answer that not strength of genius
but a willing
mind is required; and if you once undertake it
you will find your abilities
increase by exercise. Others object their want of time. But while you have
sabbaths you surely cannot plead want of time for the neglect of your duty.
Remember that you must all find time to die. Let me beseech you to attend to
this duty
which will contribute greatly to make your deathbed easy. Others
again
object their want of success. But do you expect to pass through the
world without difficulties and discouragements? You have met with
disappointments in your worldly business
and yet yon did not presently give it
up in despair. It is more than probable that your want of success may be traced
to some guilty defect in yourselves. But if you have been never so diligent and
faithful
and with little apparent success
persevere notwithstanding. The last
thing you say to them may reach their hearts. The last effort which you make
may be successful. You will
at least
“deliver your own souls”; and you will
have the testimony of a good conscience. (S. Lavington.)
The importance of scriptural education
The truth that the Word of God is God’s instrumentality for
reforming and saving man
is the foundation of our present argument for the
religious education of our children. We would enlarge the mind
elevate the
character
and ennoble the nature of our children; we would lift them up above
the mere degradation of working animals; we would ennoble them so as to give
them a capacity for intellectual enjoyment and rational happiness; we would
wish to make them not only loyal and faithful subjects of their earthly
sovereign
but devout servants of the King of kings; we would endeavour to
cheer them amidst the privations and agonies of poverty they are frequently called
to endure
with a view of the glorious hopes that are created in us by the
Christianity of the Scriptures; and it is because we desire this that we would
give them a Christian education. We live in times when thrones are utterly
shaken to pieces
when sceptres are shivered to atoms; a moral earthquake is
heaving the foundations of society. In times like these we may well turn our
thoughts to the right instruction of our children; in times like these
when
the freedom of the press has been proclaimed
when all men seem to be
speculating as to the best means of securing national prosperity and individual
happiness; in times like these
fraught with incalculable evil
as well as with
immeasurable good; in times like these
so peculiar
so startling
we may well
apply ourselves to the imparting of the sound principles of true religion to
our children
that so those who are now the youth of our land may grow up to be
a rightly-instructed as well as holy people. We have seen in that nation which
hath
in a century gone by
flung aside the law of God and lightly regarded the
Word of Jehovah
judgment following judgment
in revolution following
revolution. Truly there is a judgment from heaven upon that nation that will
not acknowledge God
and who lightly esteem the Word of God. But if we would
express ourselves thus strongly of the neglect of the Word of God in education
we would also express ourselves strongly in reference to the blessedness of the
country where that Word is honoured by being employed in the education of the
people. Education without religion is education without God
and therefore
education without the blessing of God; and if we
in the education we impart to
our children
mingle the truths of our holy religion with everything
we shall
draw down a blessing upon our homes and happiness upon our hearts; we shall be
blessed in our mountains and in our valleys
and the whole land will be glad
and rejoice in the presence of God. (M. H. Seymour
M. A.)
Family training
I. When the family
has been constituted in accordance with God’s natural laws
parents may have
encouragement that all the laws of nature are working in their favour. Like
produces like. This tendency may be modified
and in extreme cases overruled
by antagonistic laws; nevertheless
this is the course that is provided for.
And
with a single exception here and there
children
comprehensively
regarded
tend to become what their parents were
and their parents.
They represent their ancestry. And this is as true morally as in feature
in
intellect
or in any ordinary disposition. Nothing shows more strikingly the
power of blood and this great law than the recuperative power of different
kinds of men when they have fallen into evil. Anybody can fall into evil. The
difference between one man and another is not in their slipping into the river
but in their extricating themselves when they have once slipped in. Everybody’s
child may fall into temptation through inexperience; but
after having fallen
into temptation
it is not everybody’s child that can recover himself. The
child of parents that have the resiliency of a moral constitution will be apt
to recover himself; whereas
the child of parents that have no such resiliency
will be apt to go from bad to worse
clear down to the desolating end.
II. While this
general tendency should encourage us
it may also inspire hopefulness
in
special cases and difficulties.
1. Many of the infelicities of our children spring more from our
ignorance than from any evil that is in them. Your child has in many respects
just the same tendencies that you have. Yet we treat our children almost as if
we were not to bear their burdens
to be conscious of their tastes of mind
and
to administer according to their wants.
2. Many dangerous traits in childhood
that would be exceedingly
discouraging if they were to hold on
will disappear in later life
and that
too by the force of natural causes. Children
you know
have to run through
certain diseases of the body. So they do of the mind. There are times when children
will lie. There are periods when children will steal. There seems to be mumps
of obstinacy
and rash of irritability
and measles of lying--and there are no
measles half so bad as those. And many parents
seeing these early indications
reason upon them in this way: “How could this child do that thing? Why
as far
back as I can remember
I did not do it.” How is it with your husband? Suppose
he says: “Though I never consciously told a lie
my child lies inveterately;
and what will become of it?” I will tell you what will become of it. If the
child has a tendency to this perversion
it will require all your care
both of
personal instruction and institutional training
to keep his childhood from
developing into a manhood of deceit. But if you are careful to train the child
aright
just as quick as the whole of its nature is developed
one part will
take care of other parts
and help other parts.
3. Many of the deficiencies of children
and of the difficulties of
managing them
arise from the fact that the stimulating nature of society and
civilisation in our day develop the child prematurely
and that he cannot be
held properly until the forces of life are concentrated upon him. If you want
your children to behave
you must give them something to do. Society is the
training ground of the human race. It is a school of practice
where God means
that men shall be disciplined. Your child must go into that society and that
life; and if you have brought him up right
he may now and then swerve from the
right course
but the probabilities are that he will come out right in the end.
4. Many of the faults of children are only the rude forms of
excellences that are not yet ripened. I should be very sorry to have a man
judge of my Duchess pears by tasting them now
in July. I should hate to have a
man judge of my Delaware grapes by tasting them now. They are sour enough. But
a great many parents taste their children’s qualities when they are children;
and
because they do not taste good
they are very much alarmed. There are many
things to be done before a man is ripened. There is much juice to be changed
and elaborated in the child before it can be brought to its normal rendition.
5. Let me speak of one or two of those qualities which secure our
children
and which are very few and very simple.
Children taught Christian truths
Children should be taught the principles which they understand
not.
1. That they might have occasion much to think of the things that are
so much and commonly urged.
2. That if any extremity should come
they might have certain seeds
of comfort and direction to guide and support them.
3. That their condemnation might be more just
if having these so
much in their mouths
they should not get something of them into their hearts.
(J. Trapp.)
On the religious and moral education of the young
I. In what the
young should be instructed.
1. It is the duty of parents to teach them to form just sentiments of
the Deity. Just views of the perfections and character of God are necessary to
all acceptable worship; they elevate the intellectual and moral faculties
and
excite in the heart many pleasing emotions.
2. The young should be instructed in the statements of Scripture
respecting the fall and the ruin of man.
3. The young must be instructed in the mission and character of the
Redeemer
and in the regards which they owe to Him.
4. There are certain qualities which you ought to cultivate in the
young
by setting before them their necessity and their importance. Teach them
reverence for things sacred. The name of God demands their fear. Teach them to
venerate the Word of God. Show them how “He hath magnified it above all His
name
” by the bright impressions of a Divine origin which He hath impressed on
it
by the important purposes which He accomplishes by it
and by appointing it
to be the rule of judgment when the quick and the dead shall be summoned to
meet the Lord in the clouds. Children should be taught to respect the worship
of God. Suffer them not to be absent from your family devotions without a real
necessity; and beware of performing these in that hurried
careless
or languid
manner which will induce them to think lightly of domestic worship. Children
should also be taught to venerate the wise and the good
and to consider the
Christian virtues as constituting the noblest respectability. The saints may be
depressed by poverty
and scorned by those whose respect is attracted only by
the titles and the wealth of this world
but they are the excellent of the
earth. Inculcate the reverence which is due to the Divine government of the
world
and which will maintain faith and patience till calamitous times are
past
and preserve from that wantonness and insolence in prosperity by which
the goodness of God is so often abused. Mercy is another quality which you should
labour to cultivate in the hearts of the young. To impress the lessons of mercy
on the heart
some have wisely recommended it to parents
to make children
their instruments in dealing their alms to the poor
and in giving instruction
to the neglected. The books which you put into the hands of your children
should be such as are adapted to cherish benevolence. Sobriety is another
quality which you ought to cultivate in the young. I mean not to intimate that
you should labour to repress the sprightliness of childhood and the vivacity of
youth
or to recommend a mean
sordid
and gloomy temper. There are gaieties in
which they should be indulged
and to debar them from these is to make them
detest religion
and count a father’s house
where all is morose and cheerless
no better than a prison. But while you allow them to rejoice in their youth
check all merriment that is unseasonable
unbecoming their characters
or
excessive in degree. They must be taught to keep their appetites and passions
under the control of reason
and to shun every pleasure which may be dangerous
to innocence. Justice is another quality which must be cultivated in the young.
Children often discover an impatient desire to possess whatever strikes their
fancy: but in this they ought not to be gratified. Children must also be taught
to maintain a strict regard for truth. Lying
in children
often arises from
vanity and envy
from a wish to aggrandise themselves
and to depreciate the
merits of others. To guard them against this practice they should be told how
disgraceful it is deemed by men
and how odious it is in the sight of God; that
what is gained by lying is but a poor compensation for the dread of detection
and for the infamy which it brings; that the liar forfeits all the confidence
of the world; that this is the character of the devil
that he is the father of
lies; and that none who love or make falsehoods shall be permitted to enter the
heavenly city.
5. Children must be taught to look up to the Holy Spirit for light
grace
and comfort. There are many things mysterious both in the nature and
manner of the Spirit’s operations; but you can find statements in Scripture
sufficiently plain to enable you to teach them what they may derive from Him.
The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the doctrines of
Christ; and you must assure them that it is He alone who can exhibit Divine
truth in its glory and power
and that without His illumination no instructions
of yours
or of the holiest and wisest teachers
can impart to them saving
knowledge. He is also a Spirit of Holiness; and you must teach them that the
qualities which they ought to cultivate must be implanted by Him
and that
whatever semblances of these may be exhibited by unrenewed men
are produced by
no sound principle
influenced by no proper motive
and are devoid of all
stability. You must likewise explain to them that He is the Comforter whom
Christ sends to cheer His disciples amidst all their sorrows; and that by His
influence martyrs have gloried in tribulation
and the righteous hope in their
death. To Him they must look for support in every afflicting incident; and you
may assure them that the pious heart shall find Him ready to relieve
when
other comforters are silent
and other friends are no more.
6. The young should be led to serious views of death
judgment
and
eternity. Lead their views to the heavenly world
where the good are forever
happy in their Father’s house
and in a land where sin
and sorrow
and death
are unknown; where they are employed in the everlasting celebration of their
Redeemer’s love; where His image sheds over them the perfection of beauty;
where there is social intercourse without jealousy or rivalship
perpetual
worship without languor
and pleasures that never lose their relish.
II. The manner in
which that instruction should be communicated and enforced.
1. The instructions which you communicate must flow from the heart.
Unless you feel a love of the truth
and a zealous concern to impart it
your
lessons will be delivered in a manner so cold that your children will hear them
with no interest. They easily discern
when you speak from conviction and
feeling. Instructions which are marked by parental affection and pious
solicitude will awe the giddiest into attention
and soften the most stubborn.
2. The lessons of religion and morality should be taught with
diligence. Much attention will be requisite to find out the evil principles
which are most likely to influence your children
and the quarter in which they
are most vulnerable by temptation; and when you are aware of these
you must
labour to mortify their corrupt propensities
and to guard what is most exposed
to danger.
3. The young must be instructed frequently. In walking with them on
the highway or through the fields there are many objects which call your
attention to these lessons; and in teaching them to contemplate the scenes of
nature in the spirit of devotion
you will cherish in them a relish for the
purest pleasures
and open to them a source of unfailing entertainment during
the whole of life. Your duty requires many of you to leave your dwellings early
in the morning
yet go not forth till you have given
if it is possible
a
serious counsel to the young. It may work in their minds during your absence
and will probably suggest such a thought as this
“My father’s heart must be
strongly set on my being wise and good
since he can never leave me without
urging me to it.” In the evening
ere you retire to rest
forget not to ask how
they have spent the day
and what improvement they have made since you left
them. The idea of such an inquiry will be a powerful incitement to the
diligence of your children. On the morning of the Lord’s day your instructions
should commence as early as possible. Improve every incident that happens in
the family
or in the neighbourhood
to enforce religious instruction. I shall
only state further on this topic this short maxim
“Let instruction be your
daily task
and it will be your daily pleasure.”
4. Instruction should be communicated in a familiar manner. Your
ideas must be expressed in simple language
and illustrated from objects with
which they are acquainted.
5. Your instructions must be enforced by a suitable example. Piety
appears most venerable in a father’s devotion
and love to Christ most
delightful in a mother’s praise. Nowhere does integrity seem so noble as in a
father’s abhorrence of all that is base and deceitful; nor charity so lovely as
in a mother’s sympathy with the mourner. Nowhere does patience appear more
amiable than in their silence while in agony; nor faith more triumphant than in
the support which it gives them in their last struggle
and in their last
farewell.
6. Prayer to God must accompany all your instructions. You must pray
that your children may be enlightened by the spirit of wisdom; that their
tempers may be softened by the grace of meekness; that their hearts may be
sanctified by the washing of regeneration; that their education may be blessed
by the care of heaven
and their lives adorned with the fruits of holiness. Let
these prayers be sometimes put up before them. In such a situation the young
will be led to such reflections as these
“Can I continue an enemy to that God
whose mercy a parent is now imploring for me? Can I cherish these evil
propensities
the destruction of which he now supplicates? Shall I despise
those graces which he entreats the Father of goodness to work in me? or turn
away my ear from that law which he wishes may be written on my heart?”
III. Some motives.
1. Let parents consider that the vows of God are upon them. When your
children were baptized you acknowledged that it was your duty to train them up
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
and solemnly engaged before God and
His Church to perform it. And can your conscience permit you to be inattentive
to the best interests of the children of your vows?
2. Consider the examples which are set before you to direct and
encourage you in this duty (Genesis 18:19; Psalms 34:11).
3. Consider how much the success and the happiness of your children
in life depend on your early care. Nothing is so likely to secure success in
any business or profession
as industry and sobriety
justice and truth. And
you know how much happiness depends on the state of the mind
and on the nature
of the habits. Evil passions will make the heart wretched in the midst of
honours and abundance
while piety and contentment will keep the soul in peace
in every affliction. Habits of fickleness and indolence
precipitance and
indecision
will involve men in perplexities
losses
and disgrace. By the
counsels of religion
you secure for them a companion and a monitor
who will
abide with them when you depart to the Father
and who will talk with them when
you are silent in the grave.
4. I appeal to your regard to the Church
and to your country. Can
you bear the thought that the institutions which you delighted to support will
be deserted by your children?
5. I may plead with you from the regard which you feel for your own
credit and happiness. Impious
profligate
and thriftless children will be the
bitterest of your sorrows. On the other hand
virtuous children are the honour
of their parents. There is no friend on whom the old man can lean with such
pleasure as on the son in whom the kind affections are strengthened by
Christian principle; and nowhere is the aching head so easy as on the pillow
which filial piety has smoothed.
6. The common neglect of this duty should excite you to perform it.
7. Think on the efforts which are now made to corrupt the rising
generation. If the lessons of religion are not taught
vice and folly will
seize on the unoccupied mind
and acquire an influence there which no future
exertions may be able to subdue.
8. Consider what comfort the discharge of your duty will yield you in
the death of children.
IV. Reflections and
exhortations.
1. What a blessing
to the young has the Bible been! Happy are the families
which dwell under its shadow.
2. Let parents lay up in their memories the counsels and motives
which they have heard. Listen to no suggestions that would detach you from your
duty.
3. Let little children be thankful to God if they have parents who
teach them the good ways of the Lord. Endeavour
by your meekness and docility
to render their duty more and more pleasing.
4. Let the young
whose parents are still continued with them
beware
of imagining
that because they are now near to manhood they are above their
counsels. Solicit their advice in your perplexities
and open your hearts to
them in your sorrows. Give them the satisfaction of seeing in your temper and
conduct the fruit of their early toils; and let them have reason to say that
so
far from disappointing them
you are wiser and better than they hoped. (H.
Belfrage.)
Religious education
What is the true idea in the religious instruction of the young?
It is that they have in them a moral and spiritual nature to be unfolded
or
in other words
an original capacity for religious thought
feeling
faith
and
affection. It is indeed a great idea
to be realised only by a long and arduous
process
carrying the soul not only far away from
but infinitely above
its
original rudimental state
where the powers of good and evil
as yet unstirred
slumber together. To the negative care of not hurting the child must be added
the positive
of helping him according to his great
pressing want. We need not
fear to lay a vigorous hand upon his spirit in prosecuting this work. For that
spirit is not the already delicately shaped
perfect excellence some suppose
like beautiful frostwork
which a breath may mar; or frail porcelain
exquisitely fashioned
which is easily shattered; but an undeveloped ability to
fear and love and serve God
which we are by all means
and with all our might
to stimulate and bring forth. It is a work of difficulty. As the apostle says
“First is that which is natural
and afterwards that which is spiritual.”
Leaving out extraordinary eases of those
on the one hand
apparently
sanctified from birth with singular tenderness of conscience and nobleness of
feeling
or
on the other hand
of a strangely stubborn and incorrigible
temper--the being we have to deal with
beheld not as transfigured by our
imagination
but in his real condition
is a being of undeveloped spiritual
nature. Nor is this all. While the germ of the spirit is in him
the germ of
what in Scripture is called the flesh is in him too. He is capable
not only of
religion
but of selfishness
irreverence falsehood
unkindness
impurity. You
may have seen the German drawing of “the game of chess
” in which a youth plays
with the devil
the stake being his soul; while the guardian angel bends as a
good genius over the contest. That game is in the heart: our task is to
encourage and assist the good principle against the bad. But the difficulty is
not only within. From the evil that is in the world too
from the general level
of human conduct
flows a mighty stream of influence
tending to carry the
child either into sin or a mean mediocrity of character. How lift him out of
that stream? How get him above the unworthy temper that not only arises within
but predominates around and insinuates itself into him
like an unwholesome
atmosphere
at every pore? I have but one comprehensive means or instrument to
propose
and that is Christian truth--which Christ in His own prayer relies
upon to sanctify His disciples. Truth is the magazine and armoury
by winning
which into our possession and vigorously bringing to bear upon our object
we
can effect our threefold object of developing the spiritual nature
subordinating the animal nature to its right place and proportions
and giving
a check or antidote to the corruptions of the world. But it must be truth
taught and exemplified; for otherwise it is hardly the truth
but only its body
without the soul--truth flowing audibly from the lips and silently from the
character--truth in our conduct
feelings
affections
and principles
as well
as in our patient speech and persuasion. In the religious education of a child
you aim at a great effect. Do you complain that you see little fruit from your
exertions? But have you put in motion a power or cause
great in correspondence
to the effect you would produce? If not
you are as unreasonable as the man
spoken of in Scripture who would build a tower without counting the cost
or as
it would have been to expect the fountain of refreshing waters to gush up in
our sight
before the rock had been bored and the quicksand bridged to conduct
the stream. The moral faculty
in an immortal soul
is not a flower like that
which opens in the morning to shut at night
but nearer resembling the
century-plant; and we must be content to nurse it through grade after grade of
growth
slowly approximating the bright consummation
which
even in the saint
is but partially revealed in this earthly life. Only for our good cheer
in
this gradual and perhaps tardy process
let us have faith in the law of cause
and effect
as operating no less surely in the moral than in the material
world. No more certainly will the sonorous church bell answer to its clanging
tongue
calling us to worship
or the liquid water spread its successive
circles from the falling stone
or our own voice penetrate the listening ear
than
sooner or later
will the sincere and vital truth we utter or practically
manifest produce an influence upon all within our sphere
especially upon the
susceptible young. As the engineer in the steamship or at the locomotive
if he
observe the wheels slacken
increases the speed by increasing the power
acts
on the circumference by first acting on the centre
and quickens the pulsations
of that great heart of brass and iron which he wields
that he may hasten the
motions of his car or vessel; or as the aeronaut
if his balloon will not carry
the given weight into the atmosphere
does not sceptically sit down to repine
but only sets to work to generate more of the buoyant force; so are we not to
be dispirited and unbelieving
when our moral ends in the minds and lives of
the young are not accomplished as rapidly as we desire
and they do not rise to
the height of purity above the world we would fain see them maintain: but we
are to replenish our own spiritual stores
and clear a new passage for the
perhaps obstructed waters of that well within
which springeth up into
everlasting life. If the explosion
the precipitate
or the transparency does
not follow upon the mingling of the chemist’s ingredients
as he expects
he
attributes the failure of his experiment
not to any mysterious fatality or
insuperable hindrance
but at once to his neglect of some of the requisite
conditions; for nature does not lie
or ever prove treacherous. If the
architect’s roof settles or his tower leans
he judges he has made some mistake
in his foundation
his materials
or construction. If the artist’s canvas
presents an untrue portraiture
his eye has been at fault as to the colouring
or his hand in the proportions. If a political movement
business plan
worldly
speculation
or trial in husbandry
turns out badly
there has been some want
of discernment
contrivance
or forecast. So the failure of our moral
experiment upon the hearts of the young indicates the absence of some necessary
ingredient. The weakness of our spiritual building proves that we have taken
the sand for our basis
instead of having been at the pains to penetrate to the
rock. And if there be no success
no return
no fruit
from our religious
calculation and culture
the first and most likely inference is
that we have
not endeavoured wisely
anticipated prudently
grappled with the real
difficulties
taken advantage of favouring circumstances
or well prepared this
living soil for the seed of God’s Word. I know
and do not forget the
peculiarity involved in the fact
that we are not working in gross matter
as
wood or stone
or dealing with such things as the wind and the rain in our
planting
or wielding the mechanical elements of any earthly economy; but
trying to impress a spiritual substance
essaying to guide a self-moving and
free being
whose liberty and inclination and individuality of nature
whose
situation and exposure to change and temptation beyond our reach
give a
singular character to the terms upon which we can stand with or approach him.
But all this does not make void
or even for a moment bring into the slightest
question
the principle that has been laid down. Whatever may be done to the
child by others
or whatever he may do to himself
our action upon him will
nevertheless tell the full tale of its own quality and amount. The ship sailing
across Atlantic seas may be retarded by the shellfish that fastens on her
smooth sides
or be swept out of her course by the Gulf stream; nevertheless
the breezes of heaven
that have blown upon her
have produced their entire
effect; and she would have been more retarded or further diverted
had those
breezes intermitted their constancy
or abated their stress. Much of the force
in all machinery is lost in friction; but the artisan does not therefore doubt
the virtue of the central motive power
however much of it may be neutralised
on the way. So our exertions
whether cancelled by hindrances or producing
their free results
are fully reckoned in a positive or negative way. And we
know that God Himself conspires with our enterprise; that we are humble
privileged co-workers with Him; setting our action in the line with His
friendly providence; fulfilling what will ever more reveal itself
as dearer to
Him than the making of worlds
kindling of suns
and balancing of
constellations; sowing our seed
and preparing its tender sprout and blade for
the dew He promises of His Spirit
and the rain that will descend of His grace.
Said a wise elder in the ministry of the Gospel to a younger labourer in the
vineyard
“If you want to save the souls of your people
you will.” So
if it
be the real absorbing object of your desire and devotion to lead your little
flocks into the ways of pleasantness and peace
you will at least set them in
that blessed direction. And what reward of your labours greater than even their
partial and commencing success? What should one so desire to do in the life he
lives in this world
as to give to a soul the tendency of virtue
and inflame
it with the love of God? (C. A. Bartol.)
On the religious instruction of the young
I. To discourse of
the cluster of admonitions contained in the words of my text.
1. These admonitions are addressed to the children of Israel and to
everyone who professes to be an Israelite indeed.
2. That little children must be instructed with patience and
perseverance.
3. That the statutes and judgments of the Lord should habitually be
the conversation of His people
in the presence of their children and
domestics.
4. That the statutes and commandments of the Lord should be
constantly kept in view
habitually read and remembered.
5. That the doctrines of Divine revelation and the laws of heaven are
to be perpetually practised.
II. To specify some
of the reasons why great attention is to be paid to the duty recommended in my
text.
1. The authority of heaven binds you to this duty.
2. The love of God and of Christ should constrain you to the
discharge of these duties.
3. The near relation in which you stand to them
and the engagements
under which you have come for them
should excite you to the discharge of this
duty.
4. You are obliged to discharge this duty
that the entail of
religion may not be cut off from your family.
5. The consideration that this is the way to be a blessing both on
the rising Church and the rising State
should excite you to the discharge of
this duty.
Lessons:
1. From what has been said
let such as have been negligent in
teaching their children and the rising generation in the knowledge of the
statutes of the Lord
be convicted and reclaimed.
2. Learn to begin this pleasant and important task as soon as you
possibly can.
3. Consider that this is the leading duty which you ought to
discharge towards your children and the rising generation.
4. Learn from this subject to expect difficulties and discouragements
when instructing your children in the ways of the Lord.
5. That you must not think of rolling the burden of the religious
instruction of your children from off your own shoulders. (John Jardine.)
Parental obligations
I. The command.
1. It emanated from the highest authority
the Lord Jehovah.
2. Fraught with the utmost importance; extending both to the
cultivation of personal religion and to the furtherance of youthful piety by
the special inculcation of Scripture truth.
3. Demands implicit obedience.
II. To whom given.
To Moses
as the temporal head
legislator
and judge of Israel
was confided
the solemn and important charge of carrying into execution the commands of
Jehovah. Thus
as a wise and faithful legislator
he “spake unto the people all
that the Lord God had spoken unto him” (verse 27
etc.); to the intent “that
they should make them known to their children
that they might set their hopes
in God
and not forget the works of God
but keep His commandments” (Psalms 78:5-7).
III. How far the
conduct of Moses is worthy of our imitation. Although the Divine command
delivered to Moses was intended for the Israel of God collectively
he regarded
it as having reference to them also individually; and consequently
as
obligatory upon himself
and intended
like every other Divine command
for the
real happiness of man. Oh
ever let us receive the Word and command of God
first for our own individual instruction; for it behoveth us
amid all our
anxiety to impart
by personal exertions or by pecuniary supplies
the Word of
God to others
to take good heed that we ourselves have “received that Word
with pure affection” into our own hearts. Thus received
it will be the grand
stimulus to personal holiness and to individual activity in the service of God.
And besides
being brought through grace to “hope in God’s Word
” it is also a
source of unspeakable comfort; and it furnishes the believer’s plea with
God--“Remember the Word unto Thy servant
upon which Thou hast caused me to
hope.” And when his hope is beclouded
or his faith is “faint and sickly” in
the hour of languishing and depression
the believer can say
“This is my
comfort in my affliction: Thy Word hath quickened me; Thy statutes have been my
song in the house of my pilgrimage.” Nay
more
he can say
with the written
Word of God in his heart--with Christ
the Eternal Word
formed therein “the
hope of glory
” “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside Thee” (Psalms 73:25). This gracious and happy
state of mind
we shall do well to imitate the conduct of Moses
in regarding
the command as specially obligatory upon ourselves. But is not the conduct of
Moses in his social or domestic character also highly worthy of our imitation?
Parents
do you love your children? I know that you do. Availing himself
therefore
of the period of childhood and youth (when the mind is most
impressible
and impressions
good or bad
most permanent)
the Christian
parent seizes upon every opportunity for the inculcation of those principles
which will best regulate the affections of the heart and guard against
temptations to outward sin; nay
more--“which are able to make wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” But what was worthy of
imitation in the judicial and legislative conduct of Moses? All should respect
the authority of God as revealed in His Word--the one grand standing statute
book of the King of heaven
which ought to be the basis of every law enacted by
the kings of the earth. The perfection of human law is the measure of the
approximation of its principle to the Divine. The real prosperity and happiness
of a nation will
therefore
always be in exact ratio with its practical
knowledge of the Word of God. Lawgivers
and all who are entrusted with the
administration of the law--magistrates
and all who bear office under
them--would do well to imitate the zeal and fidelity of Moses
in enforcing by
precept and example the inculcation of the Word of God as a national concern. (M.
Seaman
D. D.)
The necessity and advantages of early religious education
I. What need there
is of the earliest instructions
with the most constant care afterwards to
reinforce them
in order to make and keep men wise
virtuous
and religious. To
express this to us by similitudes both just and beautiful
some philosophers
compare a human soul to an empty cabinet of inexpressible value for the matter
and workmanship
and particularly for the wonderful contrivance of it
as
having all imaginable conveniences within for treasuring up jewels and
curiosities of every kind. But
then
we ourselves must collect and sort them
and we shall ill deserve such a present from the Maker if we keep it empty or
fill it with trifles; nay
if we do not
as we have opportunity
furnish and
enrich it with whatsoever is of use or worth in art or nature. This ought indeed
to he the main business of our lives. Others
with equal truth and justice
have likened the minds of children to a rasa tabula
or white paper
whereon we may imprint or write what characters we please
which will prove so
lasting as not to be effaced without injuring or destroying the beauty of the
whole; even as experience shows
and the son of Sirach advises
“My son
gather
instruction from thy youth up” so shalt thou find wisdom till thine old age” (Sirach 6:18). These first characters
therefore ought to be deeply and beautifully struck
and the learning they
express should be of great price. And this
if timely care be taken
may be
done with ease
because the mind is then soft and tender
and because truth and
right are by the nature of things as pleasant to the soul as light and
proportion to the eye or as sweet as honey to the taste (Proverbs 11:10; Proverbs 24:13-14).
II. What advantages
are likely to follow from such instructions and such care
as well to the
persons who are objects of them as to the communities wherein they live.
1. As to persons themselves. Without a good education the best
natural parts would profit little
and could never exert and show themselves to
advantage. Men would be raised thereby no higher than savages in knowledge or
virtue
and might degenerate into that ignorance and brutality which travellers
relate of Hottentots. Good natural parts are indeed like jewels
which in their
natural state show little of their worth and few of their inherent beauties
till the skill and labour of the artist have taken off their roughness
decked
them with light
discovered their different waters and colours
and spread
through every part an amazing brightness and glory. Education
after like
manner
if it have its perfect work upon a human soul
will throw out to view
and give a lustre to every latent virtue and perfection which otherwise might
never have made an appearance
much less a figure
in the world. Thus
likewise
to speak in vegetable metaphors
the choicest seeds will prove of no
value if we sow or plant them in bad ground where they will decay or die; and
if they fall into good
they will be overrun and choked with weeds
which are
ever most rank in the richest soils
unless constant care be taken to root them
out. They certainly can never grow and flourish in any soil so as to bring
their natural fruit to perfection
without cultivating
manuring
watering
pruning
and all the other arts of skilful management that the best of
gardeners or husbandmen can exercise.
2. Without having any view to the good and happiness of private
persons
a religious and wise education of children is of so great concern to
the communities wherein they live
that in all the best ordered governments of
old time
public care was taken of it; and in some of them it was thought right
and necessary to take them wholly out of the hands of bad
ill judging
or
over-fond parents
and to place them in public schools and seminaries. And
though the natural claim of parents may
all things considered
be the best
yet we shall see great reason for the other practice if we consider too that
religion and virtue is the only true cement of all society; that the principles
of both must be conveyed by education; and that (as private vices spread their
poison through the whole community) most of the disorders
mischiefs
and
confusions which disturb and harass any state
or the members of it
may be
justly charged upon the want of it. (John Donne
D. D.)
Child trained for Christ
A father whom I knew had a son who had long been ill and whose end
was approaching. One day when he came home the mother told him that their child
was like to die
and the father went at once to his bedside. “My son
do you
know that you are dying?” said he. “Then I will be with Jesus tonight
” was the
answer. “Yet
father
’ he added
“don’t you grieve for me
for when I get to
heaven I will go straight to Jesus and tell Him that you brought me to Him when
I was a child.” (D. L. Moody.)
The Bible the standard of education
If we do not adopt the Bible as our standard in training the
young
combined training is impossible. If in moral principles every man is his
own lawgiver
there is no law at all
and no authority. You may train a fruit
tree by nailing its branches to a wall
or tying them to an espalier railing;
but the tree whose branches have nothing to lean upon but air is not trained at
all. It is not a dispute between the Scriptures and some other rival standard
for no such standard exists or is proposed. It is a question between the Bible
as a standard and no standard at all. But training without an acknowledged
standard is nothing--is an empty form of words
by which ingenious men amuse
themselves. There are some who would borrow from the Bible whatever moral
principles they have
and yet are unwilling to own the Scriptures
in their
integrity
as an authority binding the conscience; because
if it is binding in
one thing
it is binding in all. (W. Arnot.)
A whole family trained for God
I happened to know two aged ministers of the Gospel. One of
them told him that he prayed that he might never have a child who was not a
child of God by faith in Jesus Christ. God gave him ten children
and he said
to me
on his dying bed
“Nine of my children are God’s children
and I am
dying full of faith that the tenth will be also His.” It was my privilege to be
the instrument in God’s hands of leading the tenth to the Saviour. (W.
Grant.)
Training of children
The first thing to be instilled into the minds of children is to
fear God. This is the beginning
the middle
and the end of wisdom. Next
they
ought to be induced to be kind to one another. Great care ought to be taken to
guard against speaking on improper subjects in their presence
since lasting
impressions are made at a very early age; on the contrary
our conversation
ought to be on good and instructive topics. Imperceptibly to themselves or
others
they derive great benefit from such discourse
for it is quite certain
that children take the tinge either of good or evil
without the process being
discovered. (Philip de Mornay.)
Religious training
“It is already a hard case with me
” the Queen says
when she
speaks of the pressure of public business which prevented her from giving to
the little Princess-Royal all the attention she wished
“that my occupations
prevent me from being with her when she says her prayers.” And we may quote
entire the note of instructions in respect to religious training which the
young mother of twenty-five put down for the guidance of her deputies in this
important work: “I am quite clear that she should be taught to have great
reverence for God and for religion
but that she should have the feeling of
devotion and love which our Heavenly Father encourages His earthly children to
have for Him
and not one of fear and trembling; and that the thoughts of death
and an after life should not be presented in an alarming and forbidding view
and that she should be made to know as yet no difference of creeds.”
Training of children
Be very vigilant over thy child in the April of his understanding
lest the frost of May nip his blossoms. While he is a tender twig
straighten
him; whilst he is a new vessel
season him; such as thou makest him
such
commonly shalt thou find him. Let his first lesson be obedience
and his second
shall be what thou wilt. Give him education in good letters
to the utmost of
thy ability and his capacity. Season his youth with the love of his Creator
and make the fear of his God the beginning of his knowledge. (F. Quarles.)
Training children for God at the start of life
I do not think I was ever so much impressed by a picture as I was
by one
although it was only a rough woodcut
that I saw in Chamouni
Switzerland. It was a representation of a group of people that had been trying
a few months before to climb the Alps. You know that people who climb the Alps
have a rope put around the waist
and guides go first and guides come after.
The rope connects them all together
so that if one slips the others may save
him from fatality. Well
this group of eight or ten people were on the side of
the mountain
all tied together
passing along on a very slippery place
and
one slipped and dropped
and the others slipped and were going down this
precipice
when one man with more muscular power than the others
halted on the
ice--stuck his feet into the iceberg and halted; but; the rope broke! Fifty
years from now
at the foot of that glacier
the rest will be found. Here is a
whole family bound together by a cord of affection wandering on the slippery
places of worldliness and sin. All given up to the world. No Christ in that
family. All bound together and on the slippery places. Passing on down
the
father
at fifty years of age
strikes his foot on the Rock of Ages
and halts.
But the rope broke! the rope broke! A ship carpenter in New York walks up and says:
“That vessel has been gone three days at sea. Why
there is a timber in that
vessel that ought not to have been there. It was worm-eaten.” Or
“I had a
timber put in that ship that was the wrong kind of wood. Oh! I am so sorry
about it
I am so very sorry. I will correct it. I have another piece of timber
to put in the place of it.” Correct it! That ship went down last night in a
cyclone. Oh! the time to train our children for God and for heaven is at the
start; it is at the start. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Write them upon the posts
of thy house.--
God’s laws to be remembered
1. At the time this command was given there were few written copies
of the whole law
and the people had it read to them only at the Feast of
Tabernacles. God
therefore
seemed to have appointed
at least for the
present
that some select sentences of the law should literally be written upon
their gates and walls
or on slips of parchment to be worn about their wrists
or bound upon their foreheads.
2. The spirit of the command
however
and the chief thing intended
undoubtedly was that they should give all diligence
and use all means to keep
God’s laws always in remembrance; as men frequently bind something upon their
hands or put something before their eyes to prevent forgetfulness of a thing
that they much desire to remember. But the Jews
forgetting the spirit and
design of this precept
used these things as superstitious people do amulets or
charms. They used also to put these slips of parchment into a piece of cane or
other hollow wood
and fasten that to the door of their houses
and of each
particular door in them
and as often as they go in and out they make it a part
of their devotion to touch the parchment and kiss it. (J. Wilson.)
Cities which thou buildedst not.
The Divine transference of man’s property
I. God’s right to
the secular property of men. Not merely the and
but also all productions of
labour
belong to Him.
II. The fate of all
earthly possessions. The only property that we can retain
that we can carry
with us
and which can bless us wherever we go
is moral--the property of a
holy character.
III. The principle
of entail in God’s government of man. One man labours
and another man enters
into his labours. So it has ever been
so it is now.
1. It is so politically.
2. Socially.
3. Religiously.
IV. A type of a
good time that is coming. The Church shall take the property of the world.
V. The primary
condition of man’s well-being in every age. “Beware lest thou forget the Lord.”
1. That forgetfulness of the Lord is an immense evil.
2. That worldly prosperity exposes us to this immense evil. (Homilist.)
Beware lest thou forget
the Lord.
The dangers of prosperity
and the means of avoiding them
I. The dangers of
prosperity. One danger to be apprehended from prosperity is
that a man may
thereby be led to forget God as the Author of his blessings
and the Sovereign
Disposer of those events which have issued in success. Alienation of heart from
God is the result of our fallen state. Should prosperity come upon us
unexpectedly
without any previous effort on our part
there is fuel
as it
were
applied to the unhallowed fire within
which causes the natural carnality
of our hearts to exhibit itself with a force before unknown. Should
however
man’s prosperity in this world be the result of well-directed efforts of his
own
there is a temptation lest we should forget God who has given us power to
succeed in our endeavours
lest we should attribute to our own strength or
wisdom what is due chiefly to Him of whom we have received our all
and to whom
all the praise is due. But we may notice other dangers connected with worldly
prosperity. There is a security sometimes issuing out of it which is altogether
inconsistent with man’s frail and uncertain tenure (Psalms 30:6; Psalms 49:11; Job 29:18; Luke 12:16; Luke 12:19; Luke 12:21). We should not undervalue the
blessing of temporal welfare; it is God’s gift
and ought to be enjoyed with
thankfulness in Him. It is then sweetest when it is possessed as the fruit of
His goodness towards us
and when we consider ourselves as accountable to Him
for the use of it. But dependence upon our worldly treasures is at once
irreligion and folly. To look for happiness
as issuing out of anything in this
present world independent of God
is to search for bright colours in the
dark--is to mistake the end of our being
and to occupy ourselves with a
fruitless toil.
II. Methods by
which these dangers may be counteracted.
1. First and chiefly: God must be before our eyes. We should enshrine
Him in our heart and memory
not only as our omnipotent Creator
but as our
Protector--as our Governor--as “the Author and Giver of all good things”--as
the Sovereign Disposer of all events--by whom the ravens are fed
and thy
lilies of the field do grow and clothe themselves with beauty.
2. Another means for avoiding the danger of prosperity is this:
meditation upon God. Our danger arises from thinking too much of ourselves. To
overcome this danger we must meditate often upon God; upon His goodness
glory
and majesty.
3. But last of all
that we may not be overwhelmed by the dangers
which threaten us from worldly prosperity
we must meditate much and deeply
upon the superior glory of eternal realities. Our hearts must be imbued with the
love of Christ. Our hearts must dwell on His matchless grace in dying for us.
In this way we must endeavour to form some estimate of the glorious salvation
which is in store for us hereafter. Against the riches
honours
and comforts
of this present world we must set the riches which no moth corrupteth
the
honour which cometh only from God; the consolations of His Spirit
and the
happiness of the redeemed. (H. J. Hastings
M. A.)
Sudden prosperity fatal to religion
I. That a just
sense of the Supreme Being is the best security for a man’s virtue. I say a
just sense
because wrong apprehensions of the Deity have generally had a very
unhappy influence on the interests of virtue; as is evident to everyone who
compares the religion and manners of the heathen world. This was probably the
reason why Moses was so solicitous to suppress all personal representations of
the Deity through his whole economy; he knew very well that the people would
naturally borrow their idea of God from the representations they saw of Him
and that the idea of their God would be the measure of their morality. There
are few things that have contributed more to the extent of vice than the hope
of secrecy
which vanishes at the very apprehension of a Being who seeth in
secret. But our idea of the Deity stops not here; we consider Him not barely as
a spectator of our actions
but as a judge of them too; and he must be an
insolent offender
indeed
who will dare to commit a crime in the sight of Him
who he knows will judge him
who he is sure will condemn him for it. The hope
of reward and fear of punishment add fresh vigour to the cause of virtue.
II. This sense of
God is often much effaced
sometimes absolutely lost
in a state of ease and
affluence. The observation of Moses has its foundation in nature
is evident to
experience
and confirmed by a greater than Moses
who tells us how difficult
it is for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God; and we
find how difficult it is for those who have them not to trust in them. When we
are under any immediate presence of affliction
when we are despised and
deserted by men
we look upon God as a present help in trouble; but that
exigence is no sooner over than we begin to see Him at a great distance. We no
longer call to heaven for that satisfaction which we can now find from earth
but depend upon the second cause for that support which can never be attained
but from the First. We begin to fancy ourselves established even beyond the
reach of providence
or the possibility of change. There is something in the
very nature of ease which is apt to enervate the mind and introduce a languid
effeminacy into all its faculties. The senses
by an habitual indulgence
gain
ground upon the understanding and usurp the province of reason
which must
inevitably decline in proportion as the sensual affections prevail; the spirit
becomes less willing as the flesh grows more weak; we sink into an indolent
oblivion of our Maker
and fall amongst the number of those who are “lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God.” It is obvious to observe here
that as
every corruption in our principles is followed by proportionate decay in our
practice
so every corruption in our practice is attended with an equal decay
in our principles; from whence it appears that religion and virtue are
inseparably united
they must flourish and fall together; they are lovely in
their lives
and in their deaths they cannot be divided.
III. A state of ease
and affluence
as it tempts us strongly to lose
so it lays us under greater
obligations to retain and improve that sense of God upon our minds. You
who
inhabit great and goodly cities which you did not build
who inherit houses
full of all good things which you did not fill; you
whose fortunes seem to be
showered upon you directly from heaven
while others are forced by the sweat of
their brows to raise them from the earth; as you are blessed with higher
degrees of the bounties of God
so are you more eminently obliged to preserve a
stronger sense of them. Your duty increases with the eminence of your station
and your obligations to it are multiplied by the number of your advantages.
IV. I shall now
point out to you
in the last place
some of those means which seem most likely
to preserve and improve those conceptions upon our minds. And I think there can
be no better than those which Moses recommends to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:6-7. When you thus begin
and end sour day
when you thus open your morning and close your evening
you
cannot absolutely forget the Lord
especially if you make Him the subject of
your conversation too. The next direction is
to teach the commandments of God
to your children; but a man cannot well teach that to another of which he is
ignorant himself. And every time you endeavour to imprint a sense of God upon
the minds of your children
you must necessarily make so strong an impression
of it upon your own that you can never be able to forget the Lord. (T.
Ashton
D. D.)
Forgetfulness of God
It is remarkable how frequently in the Book of Deuteronomy
when
God is giving His final summary of instructions to the Israelites
the warning
is repeated
that the Jewish Church forget not God and His dealings with them
in connection with their deliverance from Egypt. Such warnings strike us the
more forcibly
because the people to whom they were addressed had come into the
closest contact with God
and had been favoured with the clearest visible
evidences of His presence. To have seen Jesus in the flesh
to have witnessed
His miracles
these would have been privileges the memory of which could have
never passed away. Now
all such reasonings are mere self-deception. That there
is a deep fallacy involved therein is manifest from the fact that the Jewish
Church
which had the most abundant ocular demonstration of God and of His
power
is so repeatedly cautioned against this forgetfulness of God. With this
fact impressed upon our minds it will be profitable to consider the ways in
which forgetfulness of God displays itself.
1. This tendency will be perceived in respect to God Himself. We
acknowledge that it is in God that we live and move and have our being; yet we
rarely find a sustained recognition of God. We do not walk day by day as seeing
by the eye of faith Him who is invisible. What an importance would it give to
life could we attain to that deep sense of the consciousness of God’s immediate
presence and majesty which is implied in the brief but full description of the
spiritual life of those of whom it is recorded
that they walked with God.
2. But besides this forgetfulness of God in His abstract nature and
perfections
we trace this evil in a similar forgetfulness of Him in His
operations. God in His glorious majesty dwelleth in the highest heavens
but in
His operations and providential dealings He is ever
as it were
coming down to
earth and meeting us closely and continually in the pathway of our lives. Every
comfort is held out to our acceptance by the hand of God; in every trial we may
trace the discipline of God. But this we over’ look: human agency
second
causes
personal effort
self-dependence
come in between us and God.
Backsliding Israel at length reached this point
that they knew not that it was
God who gave them their corn and wine and oil
and multiplied their silver and
gold
which they prepared for Baal.
3. Forgetfulness of God also displays itself in respect to that
covenant which He has made with us in Christ. The Jewish Church had a special
warning upon this head: Take heed unto yourselves
lest ye forget the covenant
of the Lord your God which He made with you. A covenant with man is not
disregarded nor trifled with. We are less scrupulous with respect to God. Our
covenant with God goes beyond that of the Jewish Church
in that it brings
Christ before us in His finished work
and no longer veiled in types and
shadows. All that God can give to sinful man is our covenant portion in the Son
of His love
the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Another painful feature of this infirmity is to be found in the
forgetfulness of the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. It is noted as one point in the
sinfulness of Israel
that they forgat God their Saviour
who had done great
things in Egypt. The Passover was to be the means of maintaining a devout remembrance
of this deliverance. In like manner the Lord’s Supper was to be a commemorative
ordinance to keep ever before the minds of His people a lively remembrance of
their greater deliverance by the death and sufferings of the Redeemer. Do this
says our Lord
in remembrance of Me. The grace and condescension
the tender
love and never-failing compassion of the Saviour
His sufferings
and agony
and death
fade from our recollection.
5. We may notice one other form of this forgetfulness of Divine
things. In addition to those ordinary influences of the means of grace upon the
soul which the believer experiences
there are some occasions of special
blessing. Some striking or alarming providence of God brings us
as it were
into His immediate presence; under the preaching of the Word
or in the
prayerful study of it
the mysteries of spiritual truth are opened to the mind;
it is a time of bright light
of quickened affections
of holy aspirations
of
heavenly communion with God. In the moment of such ecstasy we feel how good it
is to be here
and imagine that we shall go forth with the holy influence of
such a season abidingly with us. It is a new era in our spiritual life. We can
never be again engrossed
as in times fast
with the vanities of time. Yet the
memory here again betrays its trust. Forgetfulness of the heights which we have
reached lowers the tone of our spiritual life; coldness creeps over the soul;
and it is well if we escape the state of backsliding Israel
when she “went
after her lovers
and forgot Me
saith the Lord.”
6. This forgetfulness of God cannot be confined to any one period of
life; it meets us everywhere. As we look back upon the sins of our youth
this
rises up as one of the most overwhelming. Amidst the buoyant spirits of our early
days
and the cheerfulness of home
and the freshness of our first affections
where was God? What place did He occupy in our minds and in our hearts.
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. But as years pass on
and
manhood succeeds to youth
other objects engross the thoughts to the exclusion
of God. The cares and anxieties attendant upon the start in life
the turmoil
of business
the engrossing and ensnaring contact with the world
--these
present no atmosphere favourable to the cultivation of habitual converse with
God. Nor
if we follow on our search into advanced life
do we find it
otherwise. Grey hairs and decreasing strength would seem to give a sufficiently
solemn warning to prepare to meet God; but it is remarkable how entirely indifference
and insensibility to Divine things mark an old age which succeeds a manhood of
worldliness and a youth of thoughtlessness. Thus does forgetfulness of God
accompany the worldly man through every period of his earthly life; and
in the
case of the believer
the danger is equally present
and forms a main element
in the severe conflict of his inner life. But though sin has introduced this
infirmity into our fallen nature
God has not left us without a remedy.
The evil may
through grace
be counteracted and overcome; and in
order to this
the following suggestions are offered to the earnest Christian.
1. Realise the danger. Understand that the memory has a tendency to
betray its trust
and neglect its duty in that which relates to God. There are
many circumstances in our ordinary life which never pass away. Let a man be
exposed to shipwreck
or to a railway accident
the horrors of the scene would
be ever before him. There are many scenes of domestic interest which never lose
their freshness. But it is otherwise in our spiritual life; and we should know
it and feel it. Many an Israelite probably thought that he never could forget
the passage through the Red Sea
or the terrors of Mount Sinai; but they did
forget them. And so we think that the strong impression and deep conviction is
to abide with us. Or we think
perhaps
that though gone for a while
it is
only hidden in some secret place of memory’s storehouse
and when needed will
be produced again. But we are mistaken; and when we sit down to recall the past
dealings with God
memory retains little beyond the bare fact; all the lesser
yet perhaps more striking and instructive peculiarities of the dispensation are
lost.
2. With this danger realised we next observe the need of much
diligence and pains to counteract it. The natural faculty of memory differs
greatly in its power in different individuals; but when weak
either generally
or in any particular respect
we have recourse to certain means and helps for
assisting and strengthening it. A careful and systematic classification of
events
or the aid of a Memoria Technica
or a well-arranged commonplace book
will go far to supply the deficiencies of memory. Men will think no pains too
great which will enable them thus to master the events of history or the facts
of science. But when we pass from the subjects of human learning to the record
of God’s dealings with the Church and our own souls
all such efforts on our
part are deemed useless and superfluous. We must be careful
too
in carrying
out into corresponding action any impressions which have been made upon our
minds
so as to fix them in the character by habits resulting from them. And we
must note any dealings of God with us in providence or in grace which seem
calculated to bring us nearer to Himself
in patient dependence or in grateful
love.
3. In the use of these and like helps it is necessarily implied that
the soul will be seeking by earnest prayer the effectual aid of the Holy
Spirit. We have viewed this forgetfulness of God as an inseparable consequence
of our fallen nature
and one which no amount of outward and sensible evidence
or impression can of itself obviate
as the case of the Israelites hilly
proves. A similar
and even stronger
proof is presented in the case of the
apostles. They had enjoyed unrestrained intercourse with our blessed Lord for
several years. His conversation
His teaching
never could be forgotten. Yet
the mere moral and physical effects of this teaching would be counteracted by
the weak and treacherous nature of human memory; and hence our Lord promises a
direct operation of the Holy Spirit to remedy this infirmity: “The Holy Ghost
whom the Father will send in My name
He shall teach you all things
and bring
all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you.” (Christian
Observer.)
The danger of forgetting God
I. The tendency
that there is in us to forget God.
1. Forgetting the presence of God.
2. Forgetfulness of God in worship.
3. Forgetting the commandments of God.
4. Forgetting God’s redeeming love.
II. The cause of
forgetfulness of God. Prosperity.
III. The danger of
this forgetfulness. Now
just let me show you that the Scripture tells us that
they “shall be turned into hell” who forget God. “Now consider this
ye that
forget God
lest I tear you in pieces
and there be none to deliver!” But the
danger of living without God is the danger of dying without God; and the man
that dies without God dies without hope. You will recollect that God in a
special manner complains of this with reference to His ancient people. In the
first chapter of Isaiah we are told that He had nourished and brought up
children
but that Israel bad rebelled against Him; that the ox knew his owner
and the ass his master’s crib
but Israel
God’s own people
did not consider. Are
there not many amongst you that do not consider? Are there not some amongst us
that have forgotten God? But so strongly has the Scripture laid down the danger
which awaits the forgetters of God
that we find that God in a special manner
has condescended to help us that we may remember Him. For instance
let us look
at the very text
and at that part of the text to which I was referring just
now. “Beware lest thou forget the Lord
which brought thee forth out of the
land of Egypt
from the house of bondage. Why
what great things God has done
for us to remind us of redeeming love? What a blessing it is that we have a
special ordinance
which it is impossible to approach with any light in our
minds
without reflecting that it represents the dying love of Jesus
and is
as it were
bidding us ask ourselves whether we have a thankful remembrance of
the death of Christ! What a blessing it is that God has appointed men in a
special manner to go forth and to preach that Gospel which shall remind their
fellow sinners of that same redeeming level God has done everything to prevent
our forgetting Him
and lead us to consider our ways
and consider our personal
relationship to Him
to consider our daily dependence upon Him for the things
of this life
and to consider our complete dependence upon Him for the things
of the life to come. (Bp. Villiers.)
Beware of prosperity
Mark the conception which Moses formed of all advancing
civilisation. How much we have that we have not done ourselves! We are born
into a world that is already furnished with the library
with the altar
with
the Bible. Men born into civilised countries have not to make their own roads.
We are born into the possession of riches. The poorest man in the land is an
inheritor of all but infinite wealth
in every department of civilisation. In
the very act of complaining of his poverty he is acknowledging his resources.
His poverty is only poverty because of its relation to other things which
indicate the progress of the ages that went before. Young men come into
fortunes they never worked for; we all come into possessions for which our
fathers toiled. We could not assemble in God’s house in peace and quietness
today if the martyrs had not founded the Church upon their very blood. Men
today enjoy the liberty for which other men paid their lives. Coming into a
civilisation so ripe and rich
having everything made ready to our hands
the
whole system of society telephoned so that we can communicate with distant
friends and bring them within hearing
the table loaded with everything which a
healthy appetite can desire--all these things constitute a temptation
if not
rightly received. Moses drew the picture
and then said
“Beware.” In the time
of prosperity and fulness
“then beware lest thou forget
” etc. Prosperity has
its trials. Poverty may be a spiritual blessing. The impoverishment and
punishment of the flesh may be religiously helpful. There are anxieties
connected with wealth as well as with poverty. The high and the mighty amongst
us have their pains and their difficulties
as well as the lowliest and weakest
members of society. Ever let men hear this word of caution
“Beware.” When the
harvest is the best harvest that ever was grown in our fields
then “beware.”
When health is long-continued and the doctor an unknown stranger in the house
then “beware.” When house is added to house and land to land
then “beware.”
Men have been ruined by prosperity. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Danger of prosperity
Many are not able to suffer and endure prosperity; it is like the
light of the sun to a weak eye; glorious
indeed
in itself
but not
proportioned to such an instrument; Adam himself (as the Rabbins say) did not
dwell one night in paradise
but was poisoned with prosperity
with the beauty
of his fair wife
and a beauteous tree: and Noah and Lot were both righteous
and exemplary
the one to Sodom
and the other to the old world
so long as
they lived in a place in which they were obnoxious to the common suffering; but
as soon as the one of them had escaped from drowning and the other from
burning
and put into security
they fell into crimes which have dishonoured
their memories for above thirty generations together
the crimes of drunkenness
and incest. Wealth and a full fortune make men licentiously vicious
tempting a
man with power
to act all that he can desire or design viciously. (Bp.
Taylor.)
Forgetfulness through prosperity
Strolling along the banks of a pond
Gotthold observed a pike
basking in the sun
and so pleased with the sweet soothing rays as to forget
itself and the danger to which it was exposed. Thereupon a boy approached
and
with a snare formed of a horsehair and fastened to the end of a rod
which he
skilfully cast over his head
pulled it in an instant out of the water. “Ah
me!” said Gotthold
with a deep sigh
“how evidently do I here behold shadowed
forth the danger of my poor soul! When the beams of temporal prosperity play
upon us to our heart’s content
so grateful are they to corrupt flesh and blood
that
immersed in sordid pleasure
luxury
and security
we lose all sense of
spiritual danger
and all thought of eternity. In this state many are
in fact
suddenly snatched away to the eternal ruin of their souls.”
Forgetfulness of God but too easy
The solemn possibility is the possibility of forgetting God and
God’s providence in human life. We may not have endeavoured to expunge
as by
an express and malicious effort; but memory is treacherous; the faculty of
recollection is otherwise than religiously employed
and before we are quite
aware of what has been done
a complete wreck has been wrought in the memory of
the soul. There will settle upon the intellectual faculties themselves
and
upon the senses of the body
a stupidity amounting to sinfulness. The eye is
meant to be the ally of the memory. Many men can only remember through the
vision; they have no memory for things abstract
but once let them see clearly
an object or a writing
and they say they can hold the vision evermore. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Thou shalt not go after other gods.
The forbidden path
In all our hearts there is a tendency to depart from God
to
forget what He commands
“to go after what He forbids. This forbidden path is described.
1. It is entered by many. The path of “the people
” “the gods” of the
age. Idolatry of every kind is the root and nourisher of error and
superstition--the expression and epitome of human nature--the foul dishonour to
God and His supremacy. “Go not after other gods to serve them and to worship
them” (Jeremiah 25:6).
2. It is offensive to God. It stirs up God’s anger and rouses His
jealousy. Bishop Patrick observes that we never find in law or prophets
anger
or fury
or jealousy
or indignation attributed to God
but upon occasion of
idolatry.
3. It is destructive in its end. “Destroy thee from off the face of
the earth.” Idolatry corrupts the body and petrifies the heart. Like a
withering mildew it overspreads the earth and blights the nations. The warning
voice from above should be heard: “Ye shall bear the sins of your idols
and ye
shall know that I am the Lord God.” (J. Wolfendale.)
Jealousy the shadow of love
All sin is a caricature of virtue
and sin never looks so shameful
as when we put it beside the virtue which it caricatures. The Bible seems to
attribute human passions to God. He is a jealous God
an angry God. But
jealousy and anger are distortions of virtue
as the face of the man in anger
is a distortion of the same face in repose. The very passions of men
rightly
inspired and rightly guided
are Divine. For this very reason
wrongly caused
wrongly inspired
wrongly guided
they are the more detestable. What is worse
than jealousy? Read of it in Othello. But is jealousy always wicked? Was it
wicked in Elijah when
looking out upon a devastated and desolate kingdom
with
Israel’s allegiance swept away from God
he cried out in agony of prayer to
Him
“I have been jealous for Thy name
O Lord of Hosts”? Was it wicked in Paul
when
writing to the Corinthians
who had at one time held firmly to their love
for Christ
and had been swept away from their allegiance
the apostle cries
out
“I am filled with a godly jealousy for you”? Jealousy is the shadow love
casts; and the greater the love the greater the possibility of the shadow.
Jealousy is the revulsion of feeling against that which assails love. And as
the musician
full of keenness of ear and ecstasy of pleasure in fine music
revolts against a discord
so the soul that is rich in love and sensitive to
all the pulsations of love revolts against whatsoever impinges upon and
violates love. (Lyman Abbott.)
Ye shall not tempt the Lord.
Christ tempted through unbelief
We know that though God cannot be tempted with evil
He may justly
be said to be tempted whenever men
by being dissatisfied with His dealings
virtually ask that He will alter those dealings
and proceed in a way more
congenial to their feelings. Suppose a man to be discontented with the
appointments of Providence
suppose him to murmur at what the Almighty allots
him to do or to bear: is he not to be charged with the asking God to change His
purposes? And what is this if it is not tempting God
and striving to induce
Him to swerve from His plans
though every one of those plans has been settled
by Infinite Wisdom? Or again
if anyone of us
notwithstanding the multiplied
proofs of Divine loving kindness
question whether or not God do indeed love
him
of what is he guilty
if not of tempting the Lord
seeing that he solicits
God to the giving additional evidence
as though there was a deficiency
and
challenges Him to a fresh demonstration of what He has already abundantly
displayed? In short
unbelief of every kind and every degree may be said to
tempt God. For not to believe upon the evidence which He has seen fit to give
is to provoke Him to give more
offering our possible assent if proof were
increased as an inducement to Him to go beyond what His wisdom has prescribed.
And if in this
and the like sense
God may be tempted
what can be more truly
said of the Israelites than that they tempted God in Massah? Was there ever a
people for whom so much had been done
on whose behalf so many miracles had
been wrought
or for whose protection there had been such signal displays of
Omnipotence? And
indeed
we are perhaps not accustomed to think of unbelief or
murmuring as a tempting God
and therefore we do not attach to what is so
common
its just degree of heinousness. Yet we cannot be dissatisfied with
God’s dealings
and not be virtually guilty of tempting God. It may seem a
harsh definition of a slight and scarcely avoidable fault
but nevertheless it
is a true definition. You cannot mistrust God
and not accuse Him of want
either of power or of goodness. So that your fear
or your despondency
or your
anxiety in circumstances of perplexity or peril are nothing less than the
calling upon God to depart from His fixed course--a suspicion
or rather an
assertion
that He might proceed in a manner more worthy of Himself
and
therefore a challenge to Him to alter His dealings if He would prove that He
possesses the attributes which He claims. But it is now in His mediatorial
rather than His Divine capacity that we would wish to show you how Christ may
be tempted. There is a great general similarity between the two cases
for in
both the Supreme Being is tempted if we practically undervalue what He has done
for us--throw scorn upon the proofs already given of His love
and thus
virtually challenge Him to do more or give greater. Ah
this may be putting
neglect of Christ and His Gospel under an unusual aspect; but prove to us
if
you can
that it is not just. We affirm
that by every refusal to turn from
your sins
and to seek that repentance and remission which Christ died to
procure
and lives to bestow
you are as literally guilty of tempting Christ as
were the Israelites in the desert
when they provoked God by their repining and
unbelief. You tempt Him precisely in the sense in which the Israelites tempted
God
by practically denying that what has been done on your behalf has bound
you to His service; and therefore
by practically demanding that He interfere
again and again
and with mightier tokens of supremacy and compassion. And how
little had been done for the Israelites by God in comparison with what has been
done by Christ Jesus for us! It was much that God had wrenched from the neck of
a captive people the yoke of an oppressor; but think of your emancipation from
the thraldom of Satan! By plague and prodigy had the Egyptians been
discomfited: but what is this to death vanquished
the grave rifled
and heaven
opened by the triumphs of the Mediator? God gave the people manna from heaven;
but what is this to Christ giving the true bread--His own flesh--for the life
of the world? The tabernacle was set up
and Aaron
with the Urim and Thummim
on his breast
could intercede with God
and gain oracular response; but what
is this to our having a High Priest within the veil
having at His disposal all
the gifts of the Spirit? Ay
if it show great hardness of heart
great
ingratitude
great perverseness
that men who had seen waters turned into
blood
and the sea divided
and the food brought in profusion by the stretching
forth the rod of the lawgiver
should have been fretful and mistrustful in
every new trial
what is evidenced by our conduct if we continue to be careless
and unbelieving--we before whose eyes Christ Jesus is evidently set forth
crucified amongst us? I dare no longer compare that tempting of God with which
the Israelites were charged
with that tempting of Christ of which numbers
amongst ourselves are continually guilty. It were to say that a temporal
deliverance and a temporal Canaan gave as great evidence of the love of the
Almighty towards men
and of infinite power being engaged in their succour
as
redemption from everlasting death
and an inheritance that fadeth not away. Oh
no! there is sameness in the mode of temptation
but there is vast difference
in the degree of guiltiness. Yet the Israelites were terribly visited. And “how
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation”? (H. Melvill
B. D.)
Fear the Lord thy God
and serve Him.
Moses’ serious and affectionate charge to Israel
I. A solemn charge
given.
1. Hear the Word of the Lord. This message is neglected or abused--
2. Observe the Word of the Lord. Observe--
respecting
our obligation to obedience
from gratitude
fear
hope
etc.
3. Obey the Word of the Lord. “Observe to do it.” This refers to what
in Deuteronomy 6:1
Moses called “the
commandments
the statutes
and the judgments which the Lord your God
commanded.”
II. Important
benefits proposed. As a stimulus to the Israelites to devote themselves to the
service of Jehovah
Moses proposes--
1. Their safety; their well-being--“that it may be well with thee.”
By way of contrast
look at Deuteronomy 4:23-26; Deuteronomy 27:26; Deuteronomy 28:16-20. Disobedience always
exposes to danger
to destruction. But “say ye to the righteous” - the obedient
believer - “it shall be well with him. He shall be well instructed” (Psalms 25:9; 1 John 2:20); well defended (Deuteronomy 32:9-11); well provided (Psalms 34:10; Philippians 4:19). It shall be well with
such
not only through life
but also at death (Psalms 116:15); at judgment (Matthew 25:34; 2 Thessalonians 1:10); and forever (Psalms 16:11). But we must return to
observe that Moses proposes--
2. Their prosperity--“that ye may increase mightily.” This may have
respect--
1. Individually
we may be blessed with a sense of pardoning love
and fellowship with God through His Son (1 John 1:3); may be enriched with
the fruits of the Divine Spirit
“love
joy
peace
” etc. (Galatians 5:22-23); strengthened with
“might in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16); and continue to “grow in
grace
” etc. (2 Peter 3:18). Hence we shall be
enabled to bear temptation more easily; and in our conflict with Satan and his
servants
our having prospered “mightily” will appear in our effectual
resistance and our final triumph. And hence--
2. While the members of churches adorn their profession
we may hope
that the churches collectively will receive an accession of members who
won by
our Christian deportment
shall glorify God on our behalf. (Sketches of Four
Hundred Sermons.)
Serve God
I. What is it to
serve God?
1. To dedicate ourselves wholly to Him.
2. To make His laws the rule of our lives.
3. To endeavour to please Him in all things.
II. Why serve God?
He is our Maker
Preserver
Redeemer
etc
III. Exhortation.
“Serve God”--
1. Spiritually.
2. Obediently.
3. Willingly.
4. Cheerfully.
5. Faithfully.
6. Humbly.
7. Thankfully. (W. Stevens.)
When thy son asketh thee.
Remembrances of holy privileges
We are also favoured with Divine ordinances
as were the Israelites;
and for the same purpose
for a pious testimony to keep alive upon the earth a
remembrance of God’s surpassing love. As to them pertained “the adoption and
the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God
and the promises
” so to us pertain the gracious promises of life and
salvation
and all the privileges and ordinances of the Christian covenant. So
that when children
as reason begins to dawn
and they find themselves growing
up amid certain religious ordinances
shall ask the meaning
we may always be
able to point
with humble gratitude
to the origin and intent of every duty
and service. The lisping babe is given to hear
perchance is taught to sing
of
the cross which was traced on its forehead in infancy; and the pious mother is
asked
What did it signify? She will point with tenderness to the Cross of
Christ
to the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb; and the holy emblem
thus
stamped upon the youthful mind and heart
may be there forever fixed by the
Holy Spirit of God
as a living image of the truth in Jesus
as an everlasting
memorial of His dying love. The child lifts up its hands in prayer; and
wherefore lifted up? To its Father in heaven; to the mercy seat at which a
Saviour pleads; and from which the Holy Spirit
with His manifold gifts
is
sent down
gifts for childhood and youth
for manhood and age: and this in
obedience to that Saviour’s word (Matthew 7:7; John 14:13; John 15:16). The child learns to read;
the Bible is opened; and every page is fraught with grace
is glowing with
mercy. Here are tender invitations which the youngest can understand and feel.
And thus our youth have in their hand a constant remembrancer of God Almighty’s
goodness; the Word written by the Spirit
and taught by the Spirit
to each
obedient heart of old and young. The points are but few
respecting children
upon which we can now touch; but there is yet another
which marks rather the
transition state between the child and the man
at least where greater
responsibility beans. The children of the Church are brought to the bishop to
be confirmed and here is a mighty memorial. All the privileges of holy baptism
are then placed in view
and impressed powerfully on the heart. And over the
whole of our Christian life and walk the tokens and reminiscences of God’s
goodness are plentifully spread; in all our Divine ordinances and services
and
in all our providential experiences. Every Sabbath
what a blessed memorial!
How does it remind us of the great Creator
and of His resting from all His
works! how of our own rest in Him and in heaven! There is likewise that holy
rite and service which the Lord Himself appointed with His dying breath as the
sacramental emblem of His love. This is the most perfect of all the
testimonies: a perpetual representation of the sacrifice before the Church
for
the benefit of the faithful
for the conviction of all; a perpetual application
of it
through the power of the Spirit
to the believer’s heart and soul. And
our faithful Church
in all her constitution and services
has acted upon this
monitory plan; has sought to stir up continually the pure minds (of her
children) by way of remembrance; and to keep the wonders of Divine grace
one
after another
always before our eyes. At various seasons of the year she sets
before us the marvellous acts of redeeming love
all that Jesus has done and
suffered on our behalf: the mystery of His holy incarnation; His holy nativity
and circumcision; His baptism
fasting
and temptation; His agony and bloody
sweat; His cross and passion; His precious death and burial; His glorious
resurrection and ascension
and the coming of the Holy Ghost. And besides her
faithful dealing on these great occasions
she is continually bringing to view
other objects also
other tokens of love
other means of grace
of high
importance to be borne in mind and diligently observed. The lives and deaths of
her apostles and martyrs are set in order
as so many patterns of
righteousness
so many beacons of grace
etc. And there are other dealings of
God with us to be treasured in the memory; the mercies of His providence and of
His grace experienced in our own persons. We have been cast on a bed of
sickness; who raised us up? in danger
who delivered us? in the deep of
affliction
who sent the Comforter? We have sinned: we have been alarmed; we repented
prayed
promised
and were spared; and should not that holy season
should not
all these days of grace
be kept in mind? Let us not unfrequently shut up the
busy present
and muse upon the solemn past. God give us grace to deal
faithfully; to prize the privileges
to look upon the blessings showered down
upon us
to keep them in grateful remembrance
and so fix our affections upon
the one thing needful. (J. Slade
M. A.)
Questions and answers
Suppose that one wholly uninstructed as to Christian faith and
doctrine and practice should ask us--What mean ye?--account for yourselves;
what are you doing? and why do you act as you do?--it would be pitiful to the
point of unpardonableness if in the presence of such an inquiry we were dumb;
our speechlessness would show that our piety is a mere superstition. It is
surely
therefore
incumbent upon us to be able to give some reason or
explanation for the faith and the hope that are in us. We cannot adopt a better
reply than the answer suggested by Moses. No originality of answer is required.
The leader of Israel gave the only reply that will stand the test of reason and
the wear and tear of time. All we need is in this paragraph. Adopting this
reply
what answer should we make to the kind of inquirer now supposed? We
should
first of all
make the answer broadly historical. We are not called to
invention
or speculation
or the recital of dreams: we do not want any man’s
impressions as a basis of rational and universal action; we call for history
facts
realities
points of time that can be identified
and circumstances that
can be defined and have a determinate value fixed upon them. We could enlarge
the answer which Israel was to give
and ennoble it. We
too
were in a house
of bondage. That must be our first point. The house was dark; the life of the
prison was intolerable; no morning light penetrated the dungeon; no summer
beauty visited the eyes of those who were bound in fetters. Human nature had
gone astray. The Christian argument starts there. All Christian doctrine is
founded upon that one fact
or bears direct and vital relation to it. We
too
could add with Israel
human nature was Divinely delivered. The action began in
heaven. No man’s arm delivered us; no man’s eye could look upon us with pity
that was unstained and unenfeebled by sin. God’s eye pitied; God’s arm was
outstretched to save. Then we could change
but their inner meaning is an
eternal truth: it abides through all the ages
for every purpose of God in the
miracles which were wrought was a purpose of life
growth
holiness
transformation into His own image. The purpose is in reality the miracle. That
being so
the miracles never cease
for today the Gospel performs nothing less
than the miracle of making the dead live
and the blind see
and the dumb speak
in new and beauteous eloquence. In the next place
still following the idea
laid down by Moses
we must make this answer definitely personal:--“thou shalt
say unto thy son” (Deuteronomy 6:21). Speak about
yourselves
about your own vital relation to the historical facts. The history
is not something outside of you and beyond you: it is part and parcel of your
own development
and your development would have been an impossibility apart
from the history; let us
therefore
know what this history has done for you.
The answer will be poor if it be but a recital of circumstances and occurrences
and anecdotes--a vague
although partially reverent
reference to ancient history.
The man who speaks must connect himself with the thing which is spoken. The
answer is still incomplete. It is broadly historical
and therefore can be
searched into by men who care for letters and events and ancient occurrences;
the answer is definitely personal
and therefore the character of the witness
has to be destroyed before any progress can be made with his particular view of
the history; now the answer must
in the third place
be made vitally
experimental. The twenty-fifth verse thus defines this conclusion: “And it
shall be our righteousness
if we observe to do all these commandments before
the Lord our God
as He hath commanded us.” One targum says
“it shall he our
merit.” The general meaning would seem to be--“it shall be accounted unto us for
righteousness”: the attention and the service shall not be disregarded or put
down into any secondary place
but what we do in the way of attention and
observance and duty and service shall be reckoned unto us as a species of
righteousness. What is the meaning to us in our present state of education and
our present relations to one another? The meaning is that out of the history
and out of the present relations to that history there will come a quantity
which is called character. God is all the while forming character. His object
has been to do us “good always
that He might preserve us alive
as it is at
this day.” Without the righteousness where is the history? Without the
character what is the value of our personal testimony? We may be speaking from a
wrong centre--from mental invention
from intellectual imagination
from
spiritual impulse
from moral emotion; we may not be standing upon vital facts
and spiritual realities. The outcome
then
is righteousness
character
moral
manhood
great robustness and strength
and reality of life. The Christian
man’s history is to himself worthless if it be not sealed by character. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Children’s questions
Children often break upon their parents with very tough questions
and questions that wear a considerable looking towards infidelity. It requires
in fact
but a simple child to ask questions that no philosopher can answer.
Parents are not to be hurried or flurried in such cases
and make up extempore
answers that are only meant to confuse the child
and consciously have no real
verity. It is equally bad if the child is scolded for his freedom; for what
respect can he have for the truth when he may not so much as question where it
is? Still worse
if the child’s question is taken for an evidence of his
superlative smartness
and repeated with evident pride in his hearing. In all
such cases a quiet answer should be given to the child’s question where it can
be easily done
and where it cannot
some delay should be taken
wherein it
will be confessed that not even his parents know everything. Or
sometimes
if
the question is one that plainly cannot be answered by anybody
occasion should
be taken to show the child how little we know
and how many things God knows
which are too deep for us--how reverently
therefore
we are to submit our mind
to His
and let Him teach us when He will what is true. It is a very great
thing for a child to have had the busy infidel lurking in his questions
early
instructed in regard to the necessary limits of knowledge
and accustomed to a
simple faith in God’s requirement
where his knowledge fails. (H. Bushnell.)
Let the Bible speak
The mother of a family was married to an infidel
who made a jest
of religion in presence of his own children; yet she succeeded in bringing them
all up in the fear of the Lord. I one day asked her how she preserved them from
the influence of a father whose sentiments were so openly opposed to her own.
She answered: “Because to the authority of a father I did not oppose the
authority of a mother
but that of God. From earliest years my children have
always seen the Bible upon the table. This Holy Book has constituted the whole
of their religious instruction. I was silent that I might allow it to speak.
Did they propose a question; did they commit any fault; did they perform any
good action; I opened the Bible
and the Bible answered
reproved
or
encouraged them. The constant reading of the Scriptures has alone wrought the
prodigy which surprises you.” (A. Monod.)
The significancy of the Jewish passover
The ordinances of Israel were the ordinances of a redeemed people
and they were the signs and memorials of the fact of their redemption.
Selecting the passover
then
as the most prominent of these ordinances
let us
inquire what it was designed to teach.
1. In the first place
we see in it a memorial of Divine sovereignty.
Could the Jew look back upon the history of his forefathers
and doubt that it
was not their own might nor their own wills that carried them forth from the
land of tears?
2. Again
we see in it a memorial of Divine goodness and truth. It
was a promise that God would not forget
that Abraham’s seed should inherit the
land of Canaan; and now that he was in possession of all this
was it not well
that Abraham’s child should be reminded of what had been done for him? In the
passover
then
he learned how true and gracious the Lord had been to him and
to his fathers. What would he trace but mercy and faithfulness in all His ways?
3. These were the aspects of the ordinances as they looked Godward;
but there were others which reminded him of his own personal position. Could
the Jew
for example
forget the Egyptian yoke
as he stood up
year after
year
his loins girded and staff in hand
to eat the Lord’s passover? Is it not
a little remarkable
that though they have lost the Sacrifice
this is the only
ordinance the Jews celebrate to this day? Even in a strange land
and at such
an interval of time
they fail not to call to remembrance the bondage of
Pharaoh. How often does God set this before His people in the course of His
dealings with them! “Thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt.” He frequently
reminds them. He would have kept them in a due subordination
that they might
not be lifted up to their own destruction.
4. But we see in the passover
lastly
a memorial of present
deliverance. As long as the Jew could celebrate it in his own land
he was
reminded of his deliverance from Egypt. In this respect the redemption of
Israel from the house of bondage has been always a present blessing. As a
nation
and therefore as a type of the Christian Church
they have never been
enslaved a second time in Egypt. Once delivered
they were delivered forever
from that bondage. Most truly
therefore
could the Jewish parent teach his
son--“We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt.” That was a past history of terrible
suffering and disgrace
and the remembrance of it could call up nothing in the
heart of a faithful Jew but thankful
peaceful joy. The passover
consequently
was eminently a joyous festival; it was a feast upon a sacrifice; it was a
celebration of Divine mercies
and of the entire destruction of the Egyptian
yoke. And is not the Christian ordinance and history a counterpart of this? (W.
Harrison
M. A.)
The Lord brought us out of
Egypt.--
Deliverance from Egypt
It has been said that the earth is but the shadow of heaven
and
that things therein are each to other like
more than on earth is thought. This
may be a great truth
for in the Scriptures earthly things are used as types
and symbols of heavenly. It is so in the words that I have read to you. Egypt
was the symbol of captivity
darkness
and death; and the land of promise
the
type of heaven
where there is freedom
light
and life without end. And so
the deliverance of the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt by the mighty
hand of God
and their entrance into the land of Canaan
are typical of our
deliverance from the bondage of sin and the devil
and entrance into the
kingdom of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Hence we shall consider
these words: first in their literal sense; and
secondly
in their spiritual
meaning.
I. First
we shall
consider these words in their literal sense. Nearly four thousand years ago
a
period soon after the deluge
Egypt appears to have had its kings and princes
and to have been great as a kingdom of this world. Nor is it only remarkable
for its antiquity
but also for its physical phenomena
its worldly wisdom
its
idolatry
and its monuments. It was peopled by the descendants of Ham
and was
dedicated to him
and therefore
from the earliest times
in the hieroglyphics
and Scripture
it was called “the land of Ham.” Now Ham
as a deity
was
reverenced as the sun
and no doubt he was the sole introducer of the worship
of the sun after the deluge. That Egypt was addicted to sun-worship there can
be no doubt; for it is not only seen in the hieroglyphics or sacred writings
but also by means of several of its most ancient names. The theology of Egypt
however
being so closely connected with astronomical principles
underwent as
many changes as the planets themselves. Hence it is that there are so many and
various opinions upon it. One thing is clear
that they paid great honours to
brute animals
and employed them as representatives of their deities. Thus God
manifested His power
and mercy
and faithfulness. His power in delivering a
defenceless people from the oppression of one of the greatest military nations
of the ancient world; and His mercy in giving them the land of Canaan; and His
faithfulness in performing the oath which He sware unto Abraham
that He would
give them.
II. We shall now
consider the spiritual meaning of the words of our text. And here it will
assist us very much to know that Egypt had several names; and we have found
after much research
that under whatever name we contemplate this land of
spiritual darkness
we perceive the same root and source of post-diluvian
idolatry--Ham associated with the sun; and along whatever line we pursue our
investigations in the etymology of this land of spiritual wickedness
we arrive
at the same goal. Here let us learn a lesson on worldly wisdom and human power.
1. Egypt was the mother of learning and of gross idolatry; of worldly
light and spiritual darkness. It was sacred for a time to the physical sun
the
source of light and life in the natural world; but it will be forever an emblem
of darkness and death. It reared its pyramidical temples to the sun
symbolising its worldly greatness and light; but it was as full of darkness and
dead men’s bones as the pyramids themselves. In human language
Egypt
with its
various names
means light; in the language of heaven
darkness; in the
language of earth
life and fruitfulness; but in the language of heaven
death
and corruption. Hence it is that Egypt in the Scriptures symbolises the present
world. It was the source of worldly wisdom and gross idolatry. The Egyptians
professing themselves to be wise
became fools; for the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God. We read the wisdom of this world in the ruins of Egypt
Assyria
Palestine
Greece and Rome. The kingdoms of this world may build their
nests in the rocks
as the Kenite of old; nevertheless they shall be wasted
and their palaces shall be for beasts to lie down in.
2. Egypt is synonymous with the world
and we know that the world is
enmity against God. Let us
therefore
cast off the world
and its Egyptian
darkness
and its enmity to God and truth. Let us turn from the world
so full
of error
darkness
folly
and death; let us come out of it; let us walk worthy
of our high calling; let us walk as children of light and children of the day.
Now the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage was typical of our
deliverance from sin and Satan. We know very well how great the oppression of
Egypt was. We know that their cries pierced the clouds
and found their way to
the throne of God
and He came down to deliver them; and He accomplished this
by His own power
and wisdom
and mercy
and gave them the land of Canaan
and
a code of Divine laws. Now this faintly shadows forth the deliverance of all
mankind from the slavery of sin and the devil
than which a more cruel slavery
never oppressed the family of man. Our text admits a still higher development
namely
that the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan was typical of the
entrance into heaven of all true believers. Of that glorious place
the
brightest scenes of earth are but shadows dim and dark. The Israelite in Egypt
never looked to the land of Canaan with the earnest longing of the disciples of
Jesus for the heavenly Canaan; and why? Our title to it is clearer. It is our
heavenly inheritance
purchased for us with the precious blood of Christ; and
it is kept for us by the power of God through faith. We dwell on earth; but our
heart and our life are there
hid with Christ in God. (A. Jones.)
He brought us out from thence
that He might bring us in.
The outbringing and the inbringing of Israel
There were many things in the history of ancient Israel which
repeat themselves in the history or experience of the Christian Church. Our
text may be regarded as--
1. God’s answer to man’s question: What is the meaning of human life?
Everywhere we see beginnings and advances
but where are the issues or ends?
Human life in general has its beginnings or outgoings
but who can foresee its
incomings? We may regard human life as a promise or as a prophecy
but to many
it is also an insoluble problem. Throughout the kingdom of nature we find
everything comparatively plain. We find nothing of the nature of chance or
caprice. Certain causes are invariably followed by certain definite effects.
“From the greatest planets to the tiniest plants
all things are under the
operation of fixed laws. Everything comes to pass in its time
and with all the
beauty of that “order which is heaven’s first law.” Things in the natural world
are thus ordered in all things and sure. Are they not equally so before God in
the moral and spiritual worlds? Verily He knows all our outgoings and
incomings
our sittings down and risings up; He is entirely acquainted with us
in all our ways. He knows the end from the beginning in every case. There are
no accidents with Him
and He is never taken by surprise. God has no new
thoughts
and He makes no new discoveries; the darkness and the light are both
alike to Him always.
2. This reveals God’s purpose. God’s purposes may be far beyond the
scope of human vision
but they are fixed as the laws of the material universe;
they may lie far beyond the hills and mountains of man’s higher thoughts and
best conceptions
but they are realities and pregnant with good
and they are
always being fulfilled in the experience of His own people. God has done something
that man might do something else
and that something else man must either do or
perish. What has God done?
3. God’s work. “He brought us out from thence.” It was not Moses that
brought them out. Moses himself was only a weak instrument. In wisdom he might
be greater than Lycurgus
in skill greater than Alfred
in efficiency more
powerful than Cromwell
in patriotism greater than Washington; but the work to
be done required Divine wisdom and power. Moses was an efficient agent because
God’s Spirit was in him to will and to do as God required.
4. Man’s work. Man must ever be regarded as left to the freedom of
his own will
for he was so created. When God completed the work of creation
He said in effect
“It is finished. Take the earth
Adam
as I have made it;
till it
and live on it; make the best of it; have dominion over it.” When God
completed the work of man’s redemption on the Cross
He said
“It is finished.
Take it
ye children of men
and work out your own salvation.” When God took
the Hebrews out of Egypt
He said in effect
“Follow My servant Moses through
good and evil report
and I’ll take you into the land which I sware unto your
fathers.” In other words
God promised to save them only if they were willing
and obedient. But alas l they were neither willing nor obedient
and hence we
read
“they entered not in
because of unbelief.” They were willing to go out
because of their bitter bondage
but they were not willing to go on
because of the trials and sorrows of the wilderness. They were discouraged
because of the way.
5. The Hebrews were a typical people--
Profit and loss
Israel
brought out of Egypt
for awhile wandered in the
wilderness. But they were not left in the wilderness; it was no part of God’s
purpose to leave them there; He brought them out from the house of bondage that
He might give them the land large and good.
I. The text has
direct teaching for us when the Divine Spirit leads us out of the carnal life.
“He brought us out from thence.” The redeeming God finds us in the Egypt of the
fleshly
mind and the worldly life; finds us under a harsh
debasing rule;
finds us full of bitterness; and by His good Spirit He moves us to go forth to
a freer
brighter life. Let us be sure that we permit Him to bring us
thoroughly out of the sordid
sensual past. To a large extent it was the
ruinous mistake of Israel that they never truly and fully got out of Egypt.
They remembered it too frequently
they talked about it too much
they recalled
far too often and too vividly its coarse pleasures. Conversion
regarded
etymologically or Scripturally
means a total change
an emphatic turning of
the back on the far country
the steadfast setting of the face to Jerusalem.
See to it that you cast no lingering look behind; drop the entangling friendships
the compromising habits
the unseemly tempers of the old guilty
godless life.
But be absolutely sure that if you heartily renounce the carnal life God will
bring you into a rich inheritance. The first experiences of the wilderness were
very strange to the Israelites. All their habits of life had been suddenly
changed: they had lost the leeks without getting the pomegranates; and in those
days of transition they became impatient and disobedient. Had they persevered a
little all would have come gloriously right. It is often thus with
newly-converted men and women; there is an intermediate state in which the old
world has been renounced
and in which the new world has not been realised
and
this intermediate state is full of peril to the pilgrim soul. Wait
trust
hope
persevere
and the inheritance shall grow upon you. It is grand enough to
be worth a little waiting for. We are all familiar with a certain class of
emigrants who go forth with rosy expectations to distant lands
and who soon
return utterly disappointed. In starting the higher life we have need of
patience
patience that will not make us ashamed. Following on to know the
Lord
new interests will spring up
new friendships will inspire
new hopes
will dawn
new activities absorb and delight
new charms will disclose
themselves in work and worship
new and richer meanings will shine through all
things.
II. The text is a
message for us when the Divine providence suddenly and radically changes our
circumstances. Life is continually changing
but in some periods its whole
aspect is changed by some unexpected event
and we go out as Israel went out of
Egypt
as their father went out not knowing whither he went. Some event occurs
breaking up the business which seemed so well established
and the merchant
driven from his old anchorage is in fear of quicksands amid strange waters. The
working man with the least ceremony is discharged from the berth in which he
has been able to secure for himself and others daily bread
and in the crowded
labour market must find himself a fresh job as best he may. We are familiar
with facts like these in this world of vicissitude
but who can express all the
uncertainty and solicitude and sorrow they imply? It is a time of peculiar
exposure
suffering
and peril to the creatures of the sea who have shed their
old shell
and not yet got a new one; and birds of passage often perish in
multitudes on their journey from one land to another. So the Christian
turned
out of his nest
stripped of his shell
experiences a phase of life full of
peril to faith and temper and character. The disruption of our circumstances is
frequently followed by serious and even fatal moral and religious consequences.
But be sure that if you fear God and follow His leading He has brought you out
of the familiar life that He may give you a richer inheritance. “When one door
shuts another opens.” But you say
“Will the door that opens
open upon a
situation as pleasant as the old?” It may open upon one a great deal better.
Most men who have found their way to fortune owed their success to the fact
that some door or other was once slammed in their face; but even should the
opening door open on a more sombre situation
be sure that it opens up to you
possibilities of far grander character and experience. I say
then
if God is
leading you out of the old set of associations
do not be afraid; He is
preparing you for something better
preparing something better for you. When
God brought the Pilgrim Fathers out of this country they tasted to the full the
bitter sorrows of dispossession; for dreary months they were tossed in the
Mayflower
and then found it hard work to get foothold upon the strange coast.
But in due time God brought them into the good land
giving them liberty of
conscience and all else that makes life worth living. Whatever else may come to
pass you shall finally acknowledge that disinheriting you
transporting you
God has brought you into a deeper faith
a stronger character
and set your
feet in a large place of moral wealth and spiritual blessing.
III. The text is
full of encouragement as though the Divine grace we pass into a new year. Time
is even a greater leader than Moses
conducting us out of the familiar into the
unknown. “We attempt to settle ourselves in what we conclude to be a fairly
happy condition of things
to adjust our ideas
interests
and hopes to a fixed
and permanent environment
but it is all in vain. But let us not repine. He
brings us out from thence that He may bring us in to give us the land.
Dispossessed so many times
it is that we may be made meet for an inheritance
incorruptible
undefiled
and that fadeth not away. Sir Samuel Baker writes in
his diary as he penetrates the great unknown land
“It is curious in African
travel to mark the degrees of luxury and misery; how one by one the wine
spirits
bread
sugar
tea
etc.
are dropped like the feathers of a moulting
bird
and nevertheless we go ahead contented.” And despite the fact of their
constantly dropping the conveniences of civilised life they might well go ahead
contented
for were not their eyes every day looking upon the wonders of a new
land of surpassing wealth and splendour? Our earthly losses are richly
compensated in the growing wealth of our spirit. Let us take care that by our
discontent and unbelief and disobedience we do not permit some painful and
perilous hiatus to come between the losses of the material life and the
accessions of the grace and glory of the higher life; let us grow into the
diviner as we grow out of the coarser.
IV. The text has gracious
consolation for us when the Divine Will ends this mortal life. We do not take
kindly to that last dispossession. “We brought nothing into this world
and it
is certain that we can carry nothing out.” We cannot take out as much as Israel
took out of Egypt. But let not our faith fail us. He brings us out from this
terrestrial life that He may bring us into the celestial. Cicero tells of a
prisoner who had always lived in prison; he had never once seen the outer
world. And so when he had become an old man
and they began for some reason or
other to pull down the walls of his prison
he broke into bitter lamentings
because they would destroy the little window through whose bars he had got the
only bit of light that had ever gladdened his eyes. He did not understand that
the falling of the walls would let him into a broad
bright world
would open
to him the wide glories of sun and sky and summer. And so when we see the body
sinking ruinous in decay it seems as if we were about to lose everything
forgetting that the senses are but the dim windows of the soul
and that when
the body of our humiliation is gone the walls of our prison-house are gone
and
a new world of infinite light and beauty and liberty bursts upon us. (W. L.
Watkinson.)
Coming back again
We are face to face with a great providential plan. Men do not go
out and in by haphazard if they be wise men
true in heart
obedient in will.
There are no outlying provinces and colonies on which the Sovereign’s eye does
not rest. We must not bring ourselves out. How prone man is to do this! He will
handle himself. It is comforting
it is self-elevating
it has a look of
business and energy about it; as who should say
I am awake
I will do this
with mine own hand. Why bring yourselves out? You cannot take yourselves back
again. A continual restraint of the appeals and voices and seductions that
would carry us from the providential way is part of the discipline of life. Do
not take yourselves out of anything; for God’s sake and your own
let your
lives alone. If you are always taking up the tree to see whether it is growing
you will make growth impossible. Only when God brings us out will God bring us
in. We are too much given to tempting God
saying
We will make a bad bargain
and ask God to complete it and make it up to us as if we had done nothing
foolish; we will adventure ourselves down this unfamiliar road ten miles
and
when we find we are on the wrong path we can begin to pray. Why will not men
look at both ends of a covenant
an arrangement
or action? Give your whole
life every day
and every hour
and every moment
to God
saying
“Jesus
still
lead on”; saying
Except Thy presence
Thou covenant God
go with me
take me
not up hence: I weary for something else
I pant for some new opportunity; but
if it be Thy will that I should not go
then make me glad
if not with rapture
yet with quiet content of soul. God brought His people out of bondage that He
might bring them into liberty. Bondage is a large word
signifying a large
experience
and signifying also an experience that is necessary--that is to
say
an essential part of any true solid and perpetual growth. We are all in
the bondage of littleness. God is continually leading us out of littleness that
He may bring us into largeness. We shall know whether God brought us out of our
littleness by the largeness into which we have entered. If our charity is
larger
if our impulses are nobler
if our prayers take upon themselves a new
grandeur of desire
then know that it was God
whose key turned the lock
it
was God whose voice called us out of our dwarfed estate into largeness of
manhood. There is a bondage of darkness
a bondage of bigotry
a bondage of
thinking that we are the people
and the temple of the Lord are we; and all
people who do not go with us are wrong
benighted
and foolish. God will lead
us out of these misconstructions of others that He may lead us into a true
appreciation of our brethren. Sometimes God leads us out of wealth that He may
lead us into it. If God takes away our wealth He means to give us more and
more; if God is at the beginning of Job’s distresses He will be at the
completion of Job’s fortunes; if Job shall take the case into his own hands he
shall fight it with his own hand
but if God begin to strip him and to bruise
him we must wait until the latter end comes and then interpret the purpose and
the scheme of heaven. Things must not be judged in their fermenting processes;
they must be judged when God says concerning each of them
It is finished. God
brings us out of youth that He may bring us into manhood. That is His purpose.
Youth itself is good and beautiful
excellent
but not enough. God leads us out
of the letter that He may bring us into the spirit. Most of us are prisoners of
the letter. At the first it is necessary that literal bondage should test us;
but we are not under God’s guidance fully and consentingly unless we are daily
growing away from the letter--not to make the letter a stranger or to isolate
ourselves from it
but growing away from the letter as the edifice grows away
from the foundation
and as the tree grows away from the root; not leaving it
but carrying it up to higher significance
into blossom and fruitfulness. We
have a familiar saying amongst us which is not true; we say of certain things
“As easy as A B C!” Now there is nothing in all literature so hard as these
letters; there is no reading in all the world so hard as the alphabet. It is in
the alphabet that we find the difficulty; the years will come and go
and then
the mechanical will be forgotten
because we have entered into a spiritual
consciousness
and now everything that is mechanical and arbitrary is under our
feet; we are masters of that department of the situation. It is even so with
God’s Book; it is even so with God’s own Son. The Apostle Paul says
“Henceforth we know no man after the flesh
yea
though we have known Christ
after the flesh
yet henceforth know we Him no more.” The reader does not know
the alphabet in the sense of that alphabet being an irritation or an exasperation
to him. He knows it so well that he is not conscious of knowing it. Thus the
letter may be translated into the spirit; thus the creating Hand and the
redeeming blood may be carried up into what is called the Holy Ghost--the
final
the eternal Personality. Have ye received the Holy Ghost? God thus leads
us out of law that He may bring us into grace. The law is hard
the law is
graven on stone or written in iron. We must pass through that school of the
law
we must obey; but obedience makes law easy and gracious. “Practice
” we
say
“makes perfect.” That little maxim has its application to things
spiritual; doing the will
we learn the doctrine; obeying the law
we come into
the grace. We shall know how far we have grown in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
by the ease and the delight which we realise in obedience and service and
sacrifice. God has led some of you out
and you do not know where to. There is
no need for you to know. Let God alone. Did He place you where you are? Have
you reason to believe that you are in your providential position? Then stop
there. But by taking one step across the road I could do wonders! So you may:
how long will the wonders last? What are these yellow wonders
these rocket
blazes of earth? Better have a crust with God than try to banquet on the wind.
How sweet it is to realise the providence of life; how comforting to know that
everything we say
think
or do
is of consequence to God! (J. Parker
D. D.)
The eternal purpose
A glance at the text will suffice to show that the honour of
Israel’s redemption
from beginning to end
is due to Israel’s God. No mention
is made of any other power; God and God alone is responsible for Israel. ‘Twas
He that brought His people out
‘twas He also that led them in. So may it be
with us
for our salvation
too
is of the Lord. The other thought is almost as
manifest
namely
that God’s redemptive work
from its initial stage to its
glorious consummation
is a scheme or plan which He conceived in His loving
heart
and wrought out by His mighty hand. It is not the result of haphazard
nor of casual thought. It is no experiment
no afterthought
but the outcome of
a settled and unalterable purpose. “He brought us out
that He might bring us
in.”
I. Salvation is of
God. Israel’s redemption
from first to last
was Jehovah’s doing. Notice this
will you
that the Lord our God in the matter of our salvation both brings us
out and brings us in. From Him we received our first convictions; ‘tis He that
wakes within the slumbering soul the earliest desire for better things. And
just as certainly as that God works in us those earliest aspirations and
desires
so certainly does He crown the work at last.
1. Note
first
that He brings us out. How was it with these people
in the early days? We have here a short record of their wonderful experience.
“We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt.” “The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a
mighty hand.” They would have tarried still among the brick kilns if the Lord
had not interposed on their behalf. He heard their cry. The things that
accompany our salvation are not less remarkable than the wonders God wrought in
the land of Ham. He has had pity
and shown His mighty power to us-ward. His
compassions have not failed in our case
and He has wrought miracles that eclipse
altogether the wonders that Zoan saw.
2. Equally true is it that He brings us in. Canaan was a long way
from Egypt
but the Lord had determined to do the work thoroughly. It was not
enough to cross the Red Sea
nor even to pass the desert; the chosen people
must ford the Jordan
and enter the promised land. Oh
believe me
the Lord is
prepared to do just this in the realm of spirituals for all His believing
people. Whom He justifies them He also sanctifies
and whom He sanctifies them
He also glorifies. He is all our salvation and all our desire. At the first He
gives us by His Spirit all needed grace that we may come repentingly
look
believingly
and go on our way rejoicingly. ‘Tis He produces joy
and peace
and hope
and love.
II. And this
salvation is the result of planning. God’s purpose and God’s power go together.
As I have told you already
there was a scheme at the back of this. They did
not happen or come to pass by chance; they were all devised and designed by the
loving Father. I do not think that we should marvel particularly at this. We
ourselves have plans and purposes. They do not always come off
it is true; too
often we fail to see what we have hoped to view
and our best laid plans
deceive and disappoint us. Not so with God; all that He arranges for surely
comes to pass
for His power and His purpose go hand in hand. Now apply this to
our case and to spiritual things.
1. Thank God there was a loving thought in His dear heart. I know not
when it first sprang up. God has never been aught but love
and I cannot
conceive that there could ever have been a time when He had not set His heart
upon the salvation of men whom He would yet create
and who He knew would sin.
You do not wonder either
that
having such a thought in His heart toward us
it found expression in words.
2. The gracious promise proclaimed the loving purpose.
3. Then came the mighty deed
the baring of his arm
the showing of
His mighty power
the deliverance of His people from the heel of the tyrant--a
deliverance so complete that they did not leave so much as a hoof behind them.
Not they and their children merely
but their cattle and their chattels were
all delivered from the house of bondage.
4. Then began the ceaseless care of Jehovah towards His people. He
did not lead them over the Red Sea that He might forsake them in the desert
nor did He conduct them across the desert that He might see them drown in the
Jordan. No
no! He led them all the way; nothing interfered with His purpose;
there were obstacles
but He overcame them. He did not bring them out from
Egypt merely as a demonstration of His power; as one of the great powers
for
instance
will make a naval demonstration
and secure a certain result
and
then it is all past and over. This was only the first step and stage in the
glorious process of complete deliverance for Israel
and of the fulfilling of a
gracious promise ratified by oath to Abraham. He did not bring them out that He
might slay them in the wilderness
as the enemies of Israel insinuated when
they heard how He punished them. Certainly He did not bring them out that they
might go back again
as they themselves
alas! were prepared to do when they
got into difficulties. Grace is glory in the bud. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes.
The moral significance of God’s laws
The doctrine of this text is that God’s laws are for the good of
His subjects; that the basis of all His laws is benevolence; that their
foundation is love.
I. This fact is
well attested.
1. In the nature of the commands.
2. In the experience of His subjects. The loyal have ever been the
happiest.
II. This fact
reveals the divine character.
1. Unbounded love.
2. Complete wisdom.
3. Absolute independence.
III. This fact
explains the condition of all human happiness. What is it? Not the search for
it as an end. “He that seeketh his life shall lose it.” Obey
because it is
right to obey the Infinitely Holy and the Supremely Good. (U. R. Thomas.)
Obligation
nature
and advantages of religion
I. The obligation
of religion. “The Lord commanded us.”
1. The will of God is the proper ground of moral obligation.
2. The will of God
as made known to us
is the statement and rule of
religion.
II. The particular
nature of religion.
1. “To fear the Lord our God”--the mind constituted so as that
certain affections may be produced by certain objects. The true knowledge of
God will produce reverence
admiration
and dread. At first this
with a deep
sense of guilt
will be the spirit of bondage unto fear. When the Spirit of
adoption is received the fear is filial
reverential
producing hatred to sin.
2. “To do all these statutes.” Religion is to be practical and
external
as well as experimental and internal.
III. Value and
advantages of religion.
1. “It shall be our righteousness.” Mercy comes only through merit
and intercession of Christ. Is at first received only by faith. Still
He is
Author of eternal salvation only to them that obey Him. For Christ’s sake
continued obedience to the law of our dispensation is the channel of continual
acceptance.
2. “For our good always.” We enjoy the favour of God
and the light
of His countenance is our happiness. His providence takes care of us. His glory
will receive us. (G. Cubitt.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》