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Jeremiah
Chapter Five
Jeremiah 5
Chapter Contents
The Jews' profession of religion was hypocritical. (1-9)
The cruel proceedings of their enemies. (10-18) Their apostacy and idolatry.
(19-31)
Commentary on Jeremiah 5:1-9
(Read Jeremiah 5:1-9)
None could be found who behaved as upright and godly men.
But the Lord saw the true character of the people through all their disguises.
The poor were ignorant
and therefore they were wicked. What can be expected
but works of darkness
from people that know nothing of God and religion? There
are God's poor
who
notwithstanding poverty
know the way of the Lord
walk in
it
and do their duty; but these were willingly ignorant
and their ignorance
would not be their excuse. The rich were insolent and haughty
and the abuse of
God's favours made their sin worse.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5:10-18
(Read Jeremiah 5:10-18)
Multitudes are ruined by believing that God will not be
so strict as his word says he will; by this artifice Satan undid mankind.
Sinners are not willing to own any thing to be God's word
that tends to part
them from
or to disquiet them in
their sins. Mocking and misusing the Lord's
messengers
filled the measure of their iniquity. God can bring trouble upon us
from places and causes very remote. He has mercy in store for his people
therefore will set bounds to this desolating judgment. Let us not overlook the
"nevertheless
" verse 18. This is the Lord's covenant with
Israel. He thereby proclaims his holiness
and his utter displeasure against
sin while sparing the sinner
Psalm 89:30-35.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5:19-31
(Read Jeremiah 5:19-31)
Unhumbled hearts are ready to charge God with being
unjust in their afflictions. But they may read their sin in their punishment.
If men will inquire wherefore the Lord doeth hard things unto them
let them
think of their sins. The restless waves obeyed the Divine decree
that they
should not pass the sandy shores
which were as much a restraint as lofty
mountains; but they burst all restraints of God's law
and were wholly gone
into wickedness. Neither did they consider their interest. While the Lord
year
after year
reserves to us the appointed weeks of harvest
men live on his
bounty; yet they transgress against him. Sin deprives us of God's blessings; it
makes the heaven as brass
and the earth as iron. Certainly the things of this
world are not the best things; and we are not to think
that
because evil men
prosper
God allows their practices. Though sentence against evil works is not
executed speedily
it will be executed. Shall I not visit for these things?
This speaks the certainty and the necessity of God's judgments. Let those who
walk in bad ways consider that an end will come
and there will be bitterness
in the latter end.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 5
Verse 1
[1] Run
ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem
and see now
and know
and seek
in the broad places thereof
if ye can find a man
if there be any that
executeth judgment
that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
Run —
God gives leave to all the earth to look into the state of Jerusalem
by which
he vindicates himself in the face of the whole world from all severity towards
his people
whatever he brings upon them.
In the broad places —
Even there
where men meet from all quarters.
A man — It
seems worse than Sodom and Gomorrah
for God condescends to pardon Jerusalem
if there be but one righteous man found in it; there he came no lower than ten.
A man might walk the streets of Jerusalem long enough before he could meet with
any one truly religious.
Executeth —
Among the magistracy.
Seeketh —
Among the commonalty
that deal faithfully and uprightly.
Verse 2
[2] And though they say
The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.
Though —
Though when they swear
they use the form of an oath
and say
the Lord liveth
or by the living God: yet it is neither in truth nor righteousness.
Verse 3
[3] O
LORD
are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them
but they have
not grieved; thou hast consumed them
but they have refused to receive
correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to
return.
O Lord —
Dost not thou approve truth and faithfulness.
Grieved —
They have not repented.
Consumed —
God had not only lightly chastised them
but wasted them by several enemies
yet they have profited nothing by it.
Verse 4
[4]
Therefore I said
Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not
the way of the LORD
nor the judgment of their God.
Poor —
The vulgar
that understand but little
of less conscience than the better
sort.
Judgment —
The methods or ways of his providence.
Verse 5
[5] I will get me unto the great men
and will speak unto them; for they have
known the way of the LORD
and the judgment of their God: but these have
altogether broken the yoke
and burst the bonds.
But —
These are more refractory than the other; no law of God is able to hold them.
Verse 6
[6]
Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them
and a wolf of the evenings
shall spoil them
a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth
out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many
and
their backslidings are increased.
A lion —
Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army are here pointed at under the metaphor of
beasts of prey of three kinds; compared to a lion
which denotes his great
power
courage
and pride.
A wolf —
For their greediness and unsatiableness.
A leopard —
The Chaldean army is compared to a leopard
not for its speed only
but for its
vigilancy and subtilty.
Verse 7
[7] How
shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me
and sworn by them
that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full
they then committed
adultery
and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.
They then — Such
is the natural effect of unsanctified prosperity.
Verse 10
[10] Go
ye up upon her walls
and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her
battlements; for they are not the LORD's.
Ye — Ye Babylonians
go
execute my vengeance on them.
Battlements — Lay
her and all her fortifications level with the ground.
For — I
disown them.
Verse 12
[12] They
have belied the LORD
and said
It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us;
neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Belied —
Not believing that these words of the prophet were God's word.
Verse 13
[13] And
the prophets shall become wind
and the word is not in them: thus shall it be
done unto them.
Became wind — A
proverbial expression
all the prophet's threats shall come to nothing.
The word —
The prophet's words are not from God.
Thus — It
shall fall upon their own heads that have thus threatened us.
Verse 14
[14]
Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts
Because ye speak this word
behold
I will make my words in thy mouth fire
and this people wood
and it shall
devour them.
It — The Chaldean army
shall consume and eat them up like fire.
Verse 15
[15] Lo
I will bring a nation upon you from far
O house of Israel
saith the LORD: it
is a mighty nation
it is an ancient nation
a nation whose language thou
knowest not
neither understandest what they say.
Israel — By
these are meant Judah; for Israel were in captivity before: called the house of
Israel
not only because they descended from Jacob
but because they were the
chief of that stock.
Verse 18
[18] Nevertheless
in those days
saith the LORD
I will not make a full end with you.
Nevertheless — I
have not done with you yet.
Verse 20
[20]
Declare this in the house of Jacob
and publish it in Judah
saying
Judah — By
Judah and Jacob we are to understand the two tribes only.
Verse 21
[21] Hear
now this
O foolish people
and without understanding; which have eyes
and see
not; which have ears
and hear not:
And hear not —
They are wilfully blind
and obstinately deaf
will neither see
nor hear the
word
will
or works of God
of which he giveth two instances in the two
following verses.
Verse 22
[22] Fear
ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence
which have
placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree
that it cannot
pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves
yet can they not
prevail; though they roar
yet can they not pass over it?
The sand —
That need not make rocks for walls unto it
but can give a check to it by so
small a matter as the sand.
Verse 23
[23] But
this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and
gone.
Gone —
From me.
Verse 24
[24]
Neither say they in their heart
Let us now fear the LORD our God
that giveth
rain
both the former and the latter
in his season: he reserveth unto us the
appointed weeks of the harvest.
The former rain —
The former to prepare the ground for sowing
and the latter to prepare the corn
for ripening.
Reserveth — He
gives seasonable harvests according to his appointment. God would let them know
what a foolish
as well as wicked thing it is to set themselves against that
God
that keeps the whole order of nature at his own disposal
which he can
order as he sees men behave towards him.
Verse 26
[26] For
among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait
as he that setteth snares;
they set a trap
they catch men.
They catch —
Such a trap did Jezebel lay for Naboth
1 Kings 21:9
10. Such an one was that conspiracy
of more than forty men against Paul
Acts 23:13-15.
Verse 27
[27] As a
cage is full of birds
so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are
become great
and waxen rich.
Their houses —
They fill their houses with the goods of those they deceive
and over-reach.
Verse 28
[28] They
are waxen fat
they shine: yea
they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they
judge not the cause
the cause of the fatherless
yet they prosper; and the right
of the needy do they not judge.
Overpass —
They go beyond the Heathens themselves in wickedness.
Verse 30
[30] A
wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
The land —
Heb. This land: aggravating the greatness of the wonder
that such a thing
should be in such a land.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
05 Chapter 5
Verses 1-31
Verses 1-9
Run ye . . . and see . . . if ye can find a man.
A man; or
The Divine ideal unrealised
I. The Divine idea
of a man. One “that executeth Judgment
that seeketh the truth.” This
involves--
1. A righteous working out of the Divine will so far as it is
apprehended.
2. An earnest endeavour for further knowledge of the Divine will.
3. How different is the Divine ideal of a man from that which
popularly prevails.
II. The lamentable
rarity of a man.
1. A sad revelation of the moral condition of Jerusalem in the days
of the prophet. Such corruption amongst a people who had such religious
privileges
and in the very scene where the temple stood
shows the wonderful
forbearance of God and the terrible perversity of the human heart!
2. The condition of our own age. Verily
we are a fallen people.
III. The social
value of a man. “And I will pardon it.” For the sake of a man
God promises to
pardon Jerusalem. The value of a man to society
to the race
is everywhere
represented in the Bible.
1. A man is a condition on which God favours the race. Sodom and
Gomorrah.
2. A man is an agent by which God improves the condition of the race.
He educates
purifies
saves man by man. (Homilist.)
The sinfulness of Jerusalem
1. Deliberate and wilful perjury (Jeremiah 5:2). So familiarised with oaths
as not to care whether the matter sworn to was true or false.
2. Idolatry. Strange to see how madly this people ran after the lying
vanities of the Gentiles
after they had received such manifold and undeniable
proofs of the power
wisdom
and goodness of a living God
who was present with
them; after so many laws enacted against idolatry
so many signal judgments
inflicted on them for falling into this sin
such a hedge set about them to
keep them from mingling with other nations
lest they should learn their ways.
3. Adulteries and fornications. This was a crime of a high nature
a
complication of sins
and productive of so many sad consequences that death was
the just punishment allotted to it.
4. Their shameful prevaricating with God’s Word
and torturing it to
make it speak contrary to its genuine meaning. To this end they encouraged
false prophets
who would prophesy smooth things
etc.
5. They were very unthankful to God
and insensible of His blessings
conferred upon them.
6. They were very fraudulent in their dealings one with another
both
in word and deed.
7. That which portended the extirpation of these Jews was
that not
only all the fore cited iniquities were notorious in practice
but were
moreover approved of
as it were
and settled among them by common consent.
8. This is enough to prove that it was fit for nothing but the fire
and it hath received that just recompense of reward. And the history of it is
recorded for the instruction of all other cities who have the sacred Scriptures
to instruct them. They may hear Jerusalem warning them
saying
“Look upon me
and learn to fear God. Will ye steal
murder
commit adultery
swear falsely
and sacrifice to the idols of your own imagination
and hope to escape the
wrath of God better than I have done? Let my calamities conduce to your
salvation
and put away those sins from among you which have laid me in ruinous
heaps
and turned me into a monument of the Divine fury. Look upon me
and
learn to fear God.”
9. Those who are enemies to religion
and help to banish the fear of
God out of the world
by denying the authority of His Word
or by putting a
wrong sense and construction upon it
are as bad members as can be found in any
society of men
because they do what they can to subvert the very foundations
of truth
and deprive us of the last remedy which is left to repair the
breaches of piety and virtue in a sinful world. (W. Reading
M. A.)
A man
We all know the two meanings of the word man--the one which
distinguishes a human being from a beast
the other which is applied only to
those who possess the highest qualities of manhood. Such are the salt of the
earth
such would have been the saviours of Jerusalem. Ay
such an one was the
Saviour of this world
the man Christ Jesus. A union of qualities is needed to
make up a man in this high but true sense. These qualities are partly physical
partly mental
and partly spiritual. We know what false ideas are attached to
manliness. It is often entirely associated with brute strength. He is a man
think many
who has the greatest strength of arm and power of body. But though
beneficial
and often beautiful
this manly strength does not make the man. In
some of the most splendid specimens of bodily physique you have the mind of a
child and the weakness of a fool
or
still worse
the unrestrained appetites
of the beast
or the desperate wickedness of a fiend. How often
too
are the
views of men taken as the stamp of manhood. Too often the youthful ideal of
manliness is not self-restraint
but self-indulgence
to abandon duty
to
pursue pleasure
to wreck the happiness of others
to be lord of one’s self
that heritage of woe--how many cherish these as the highest functions of a man!
There may be other false ideals
but I wish to come to the scriptural ideal of
the man who
if he could be found
would have saved the city and state of
Jerusalem. What are the leading characteristics? To do justly
to seek truth.
How commonplace
how stripped of the glory and pride dear to young imaginations
how possible for all to reach.
I. The first test
whether we are worthy to be called men
is the rightness of our actions
the
integrity or justice of our doings. What is our conduct in life? Are we
conforming ourselves to the Divine standard? Let us look at detail in
right-doing in the different positions which we are called to fill. A deal of
our lives is spent in our homes. There
if anywhere
we are genuine. We cannot
seem to be what we are not before those who know us best
and who can read us
through and through. How often there we fail to be men! The man who does justly
is eminently tender
willing to enter into the feelings of others
to deal
justly with them
to extend to them the sympathy of his strong nature. He is
also helpful. The very presence of some men is helpful; you may not ask their
advice
but to know they are near you is in itself a strength; and in the home
relationships is it not the special province of the father
the husband
the
son
the brother
to be helpful
to lift burdens
to smooth difficulties
to
unravel the knots of this tangled existence? Do you not know homes where they
who should be helpful only hinder the family life
where they are burdens and
disgraces
taxing not only the family love
but wasting means all too narrow
and depriving their own kindred of their due share of life’s blessings? Such
are not men
still less are they men who presume on others’ weakness. Many a
husband shelters himself under his wife’s love from the penalties of his
neglect
if not of worse treatment. Many a lad
who
above all
wants to be
thought manly
takes advantage of his parents’ fondness
and wastes their
hard-earned money in riotous living
while they believe it is being usefully
spent on his education or advancement in life. Such men will never save a
State
will never rise to such a height of nobility that they can leaven with
the true spirit of goodness and righteousness the mass around them.
II. The second test
of manhood is seeking truth. Truth is
in the Old Testament
not only mental
but moral
is not only intellectual knowledge
but the knowledge of God and of
His will. We need in this present day men equally ready to seek truth in all
spheres of knowledge--in science
in philosophy
in politics
in religion. We
cannot be too earnest in seeking all light
wherever it comes from. We should
remember the words of the poet: “Truth is the strong thing; let man’s life be
true
” and we should pursue our search in humility
in reverence
and in
faith--above all
in regard to Divine things. That is a duty laid upon us
all--to seek God
who is truth; to cleave to Him at all costs; to do His will
whatever it be. We may be mistaken as to what His will is; we may be troubled
by doubts and difficulties
moral or intellectual; but we must remember that if
we try to do justly we shall know the doctrine whether it be of God.
III. In doing
justly
in seeking truth
you will be men because you will be followers of the
man Christ Jesus. When we think of Christ as man we too often think only of His
sorrow
of His persecution
of His death. True man He was in all these points
and nothing soothes us more in our time of trouble than that blessed knowledge.
But I wish you to realise Him as man not only in the weakness but in the
strength of humanity. I wish you to recognise in Him the ideal man
who did
justly and sought truth. Think of His life
of His tenderness to His mother
of
His helpfulness to His friends. Think of the ideal which He set before men. “Is
not the life more than meat
and the body more than raiment?” is His counsel to
the multitude eager for the outward. “Lay not up treasure upon earth” is His
warning to the rich and over-careful. “One thing is needful” is His reply to
the cumbered housewife. Read these Gospels
and tell me if there ever breathed
a purer
more righteous
more unselfish spirit. (J. R. Mitford Mitchell
D.
D.)
The courage of the true prophet
“It is difficult
” says a great historian
“to conceive any
situation more painful than that of a great man condemned to watch the
lingering agony of an exhausted country
to tend it during the alternate fits
of stupefaction and raving which precede its dissolution; and to see the
symptoms of vitality disappear
one by one
until nothing is left but coldness
darkness
and corruption.” Such was the fate of Jeremiah. His writings are
among the saddest in Scripture. He was no Elijah
no Isaiah
no John the
Baptist
no Savonarola
not a man of mighty thunderings
whose strong spirit
can face corrupted nations and never quail. There are some men whose courage
seems to rise in proportion as they have to face insensate fury of opposition.
Such was the spirit of Phocion. “Have I said anything wrong then?” he
exclaimed
when the Athenians cheered his speech. Such was the spirit of Coriolanus.
Such was the spirit of the great Scipio. Christians who believe that Christ
really did mean something when He said
“Woe unto you when all men shall speak
well of you
”--Christians
a few of them
have also believed that there is a
beatitude of insolence and of malediction. “Heavens! what mistake have I made!”
was the answer of a strong governor when told that he was beginning to get
popular. But Jeremiah was not naturally a man of this strong fibre. Timid
shrinking
sensitive
he was yet placed by God in the forefront of a forlorn
hope
in which he was
as it were
predestined to failure and to martyrdom. In
this chapter Jeremiah is striving to bring home to his people that things are
not as they should be. Diogenes
in Athens
searched the streets with a lantern
at noonday to find a man; Jeremiah
in Jerusalem
says that neither in its
streets
nor in its broad places
can he find one man
one just
strong servant
of the Lord. He thought
perhaps
that had there been such
God might pardon
Jerusalem as He had once pardoned Sodom. But he could not find them. He found
profession
but not sincerity; chastisement
but not amendment; remorse
but
not repentance. Then he thought
“I have been too much among the multitude
who
are ignorant and foolish; I will go to the upper strata of society; I will get
me to the great men
to the priests
the statesmen
the men of culture; they
surely have had leisure to learn the way of the Lord and the judgment of their
God.” But the prophet was utterly disappointed; the upper thousands were worse
and more helpless than the lower myriads; they had altogether broken the yoke
and burst the bands
and so he adds--“Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall
slay them
a wolf of the evening shall spoil them
a leopard shall watch over
their cities.” What was the exact idea of the threatened punishment we do not
know. The general meaning is clear; the days were evil alike among high and
low; there were carelessness
unbelief
self-seeking
insincerity
and
amid
all
men were completely at their ease; they were quite secure that no evil
could happen to them. Jeremiah thought differently; he knew that greed
falsity
unreality
corruption
cannot last. God cannot forever bear with them;
men cannot forever endure their burden; they may be long-lived
but doomsday
comes to them in the end. Has it not always been so? The great world empires of
idolatry--what could once have seemed more secure than they were in cruel
strength? Where are they now? In any age
whenever any true prophet has spoken
the world has always been thrown into violent antagonism; it denies him every
quality he possesses; he may be the humblest of men
but he will assuredly be
charged with pride
Whom makest thou thyself? If he be hopeful
he will be
called Utopian and unpractical; if he be despondent
he will be called maudlin;
if he feels strongly
he is excited and an enthusiast; if he speaks strongly
he is gushing and hysterical; in the one case he is a Samaritan
and in the
other “he has a devil.” A sneer has been made on the very name of the prophet
of whom we are speaking
and the world thinks it has effectually depreciated
any warning about present evil or future peril
when it has called it a
Jeremiad. Neither the world nor the Church can tolerate a prophet until they
have killed him: kings cannot away with him. Ahab imprisons Micaiah
Joash
kills Zechariah
Herod slays John in prison
Eudoxia banishes Chrysostom
Sigismund burns Huss. Priests hate him with still more perfect hatred; the
priests of Jerusalem ridicule Isaiah; the priest Pashur put Jeremiah into the
stocks; the priest Amaziah expels Amos; the priests Annas and Caiaphas slew the
Lord of glory; the priest Ananias bid them smite Paul over the mouth. The true
prophet
if God ever give us one again
must face all this. He
like St. Paul
must be weak and despised for Christ’s sake. But
besides this
he will
especially have to bear the one charge which has always been brought against
all prophets since the world began--that what he says is exaggerated
and that
what he says is uncharitable. Doubtless
the impatient Amaziahs and the Pashurs
of Jeremiah’s day said
“What business has this man to bring such sweeping
accusations? Look at our priests
how active they are
how many services they
have
how careful they are to burn exactly the two kidneys with the fat; look
at the scribes
how accurate they are in counting the very letters of
Scripture; look at all the eminently respectable persons who go to church and
pay their tithes of mint and of anise and of cumin. And as for danger
that is
all hysterical nonsense. This is not the Lord’s messenger; evil shall not come
upon us.” Yes
but it did come before Jeremiah was hurried to his death; it
came as with a deluge; it came as with a thunder crash; it came as with a
hurricane. On these conventional priests
on these careless aristocrats
on
these money-making middle classes
on these immoral multitudes the flash fell
and the glory and freedom of Israel were hurled forever into the dust.
Thousands who are not prophets might draw a very flattering picture of this
age
which might be represented as nearly all that could be wished; they could
point to its placid comfort
its domestic virtues
its slightly expanded
egotism
and say there never was an age so respectable; they would point to all
the threepenny pieces
and even to all the shillings in the plate
and say
there never was an age so charitable; they would point to the endless
multiplication of sermons and services
and say there never was an age so deeply
religious they would point to the mushroom growth of fussy organisations
and
say that the Church never was so vigorously
zealous. I fear that the truth
would force the prophet to speak; he would point out the great gulf fixed
between true religion and sentimental formalism; he would say that the sums
that the nation dribbles in charity are in relation to its wealth no proof of
our magnanimity
but the measure of our indifference; he might say that in
spite of all our organisation
all the religious machinery in London is put
into play on Hospital Sunday with the result of collecting some £20
000
which
you will see perhaps in the paper the next day has been given in a two days’
sale for china and bric-a-brac. He might say that sermons and services
day after day
may perhaps only be treading into deader callosity the
self-satisfaction of Pharisaic hearts; he might say that the praise of our
languid virtues was the best opiate to lull our souls into indifference and let
them rot asleep into the grave. (Dean Farrar.)
True manhood
We are to set before us an ideal of manly character and life
and
practically to seek its realisation. Of the elements of true manhood
let us
specify the following:--
I. Integrity.
There are statesmen who tell us that morals have no place in politics. But the
true statesman makes a conscience of politics. Again
there is perhaps a higher
moral sentiment developing in business; yet one still hears of an undue
advantage being taken of profiting by a man’s ignorance or necessities
and that
even by religious tradesmen.
II. Purity. Some
men boast of foul passions as the marks of manhood. It is effeminate to be
pure. Initiation into vice is the baptism of manhood. But moral determination
is altering that. A total abstainer is no longer jeered at.
III. Religion. I do
not mean the religion of monks
or of ecclesiastics
or of sentimentalists
but
the religion of Jesus Christ
a reverent recognition of God
of holiness
of
human life. Can anything be more noble than fidelity to the noblest things we
know T Has the world any nobleness like the nobleness of holy character? (H.
Allon
D. D.)
Right kind of men
I. In the
estimation of God the true excellence of man is moral and religious.
1. A strict obedience to the Divine will as far as it is known.
2. An earnest endeavour to attain an accurate acquaintance with the
Divine Word.
II. There are
states of society in which men of this description are exceedingly rare.
1. They may be removed by death.
2. They may be withdrawn into concealment.
3. They may be reduced in numbers by the progress of degeneracy.
III. In the worst
states of society such men are very valuable.
1. They avert Divine judgments
2. Draw down Divine blessings.
3. Promote the work of reformation. (G. Brooks.)
Wanted-A man
Philosophers in all ages have complained that human creatures are
plentiful
but men are scarce. But philosophers made their ideal too high
their conception of what man ought to be too lofty. I have no sympathy with the
cynic of whom history informs us
that
being ordered to summon the good men of
the city before the Roman censor
proceeded immediately to the graveyard
called to the dead below
saying he knew not where to find a good man alive; or
that gloomy sage
that prince of grumblers
Thomas Carlyle
who described the
population of his country as consisting of so many millions
“mostly fools
”
and who could speak in praise of no one but himself and Mrs. Carlyle
the
latter deserving all the praise she got for enduring him. When anyone
complains
as Diogenes did
that he has to hunt the streets with candles at
noonday to find an honest man
we are apt to think that his nearest neighbour
would have quite as much difficulty as himself in making the discovery. If you
think there is not a
true man living
you had better
for appearance
put off
saying it until you are dead yourself. In looking for a man
look for a man
with a conscience--a man who
like Longfellow’s honest blacksmith
can “look
the whole world in the face
and fear not any man.” Look for a being that has a
heart. A warm
loving nature is true manliness. In looking for a man
look for
a magnanimous man; a broad mind
that not only observes what passes in the
limited range of its own sphere
but is not afraid to look abroad; is
far-sighted and not afraid of excellence in others. In your search for “a man
”
look for a being that has a soul--the capability of solemn thought. Thousands
today worship Bacchus and Venus. Their hearts are set on “having a good time.”
Others apply themselves so intensely to their business that they find pleasure
only in worshipping the mighty dollar. The man who so inordinately loves money
for its own sake
and becomes insensible to all refined enjoyments
after a
while ceases to be a man. Faith in Jesus Christ makes manly men. He is our
model--a model containing all the elements of true manhood; a model of sympathy
and love; a model of purity and uprightness. Christ-men are wanted. (M. C.
Peters.)
A man
Two things
according to this text
are needed to make a man:
practice and principle--principle sought out with a view to practice
practice
conform to principle
and both according to what is right and true; both are
morally
mutually helpful
both are necessary. You may be as strong as a lion
fleet as a deer
brave as a bulldog
beautiful as a gazelle
clever as Satan
but unless you seek the truth
and do the right first and foremost in the face
of day
you have not yet come up to the mark of a man. Is that what the world
says and thinks? Oh no. Its heroes
perhaps yours
are too often not the
morally good
but daring adventurers
successful soldiers
lithe athletes
quick-witted speculators
fortune-making merchants
subtle-tongued declaimers
gifted writers
skilful artists
politic statesmen
wearers of titles
and so
on. These are the men that too often the world takes its praises and its prizes
to
heedless of character and principles
pleading its own large-mindedness in
putting truthful and righteous men behind and below mere physical and
intellectual power and agility. These are the favourites that the base and
meaner sort go gaping after and copying
and thus it is that it often happens
that real men are comparatively rare and hard to find. (J. S. Drummond.)
The value of one true man to the State
What have men and women to look to for the defence and prosperity
of nations? Astute diplomatists
enlarged navies and armies
and forts and
guns
scientific discoveries
commercial treaties
cultivation of art
legislative enactments? Think of these what you please. I tell you that these
are not
any nor all of them
the true shields and saviours of nations; these
do not form the backbone and centre of a strong body politic. It is not for
these that God is sending upon us any blessing; not the providing of such that
will lead Him to say
“I will pardon Jerusalem and scatter the swollen storm
clouds” What was it then? It was a man. Goethe says no greater good can happen
to a town than for several educated men thinking in the same way about what is
good and true living in it. But Goethe’s standard is insufficient; it falls
short of the Divine. The defenders and the benefactors of nations and of their
fellow men are the morally and religiously good in them; men whose lives are
regulated by the teachings of God; men who seek to act as Christ did are the
men that are worthy
and that are looked upon by God as blessings to the
nations. Ay
and even one such is a mighty pillar
and on occasion even one
such may be the saviour and mainstay of the State. (J. S. Drummond.)
Make yourself a man
When President Garfield was a boy
and was asked what he would be
his reply was: “Well
first of all
I must make myself a man; for
if I do not
succeed in that
I shall not succeed in anything.”
Godly men the preservative of society
One of the greatest services which a man can render society is to
believe the truths of God sincerely
and maintain them steadfastly. It is the
happiest state for a community when there exists within it a vigorous
Christianity--a phalanx of strong minds
fully persuaded as to the revealings
and requirements of the Most High. Like the willows by the water courses which
are not only green
but whose roots
penetrating and interlacing in the soft
and spongy soil
prevent it from being swept away by the rushing torrent
these
men of gentle manners
but profound convictions
are the living network
the
rampart of roots unnoticed and unthanked
who keep society from crumbling
piecemeal into the gulf of licentiousness and atheism and crime
which is
forever surging and foaming past it Like the metallic clamps and rivets
the
bands and girders
which
in a region of earthquake
keep the precarious houses
from tumbling to pieces
law and police magistracy are a mere mud masonry
and
but for the binding power of such consciences
but for the fastening force of
their convictions who believe in God
in the upheavings of man’s passions
in
the volcanic throes of his lust and violence
the framework of society would
soon be shaken all to pieces. Like the fragments of iron in a mass of stone
which
draw it towards the magnet
it is the “faith which He finds in the earth
”
which at any period draws the earth towards its Maker
or makes a community “a
people near to God.” (James Hamilton
D. D.)
A hero is a real man
What is it to be a “hero”? A “hero” is simply the English form of
the Greek “heros
” which primarily meant a “man
” a real man
a
separate and unmistakable man
as distinct from “anthropos
” or mankind in
general. By a recognition of this very truth
that a man’s distinctness as a
man among men works and measures his exceptional character and capabilities
the Greeks came to call a grand man
or a great or preeminent man
a hero
as
another way of saying that he was “distinguished” man. “Dost thou know what a
hero is?” asks Longfellow and then gives answer
“Why
a hero is as much as one
should say--a hero.” A hero is a man. There is heroism in all real manliness. A
real man is a real hero. This it is which gives force to Carlyle’s question
“If hero means sincere man
why may not every one of us be a hero?” The answer
is
that it requires character
exceptional character
to make one willing to
be a man. Most men are afraid to be themselves. They shrink from being
“distinguished.” Their preference is to conform themselves to the common standard
of their sphere--to be like others
rather than to be like themselves alone.
Where this feeling prevails
heroism is an impossibility. One acting on this
preference cannot be distinguished. He who is unwilling to exercise and assert
his character
in spite of all the world
cannot be recognised as the possessor
of character. He cannot be measured apart from the common standard to which he
of choice
conforms himself. (Great Thoughts.)
Manliness
Ask a young woman what quality in a man she admires most
and the
answer you are sure to get is manliness. The answer is highly creditable to the
feminine taste. God also puts a great value on true manhood.
I. True manhood.
Many spurious standards of manhood are met with in the world. By many young
men
unfortunately
it is thought manly to be a proficient in swearing
in
gambling
in drinking
in forbidden pleasure Not to “toe the line” in these
evil customs is to be pronounced no man at all According to this breed of
youth
piety is held at a considerable discount; it is not a thing for men
however it may suit parsons
Sunday school children
and old women of both
sexes. Now look at the type of manhood spoken of in our text. According to our
text a man is one who doeth righteousness and seeketh after the truth. Not the
man of great muscularity and great physical power. Not the man who has seen
much of the world
so called
which too often means a man who has worked for
the wages of sin
which is death; neither of these is the true type of manhood
according to Scripture. Let no one
misled by a popular confusion of ideas
dislike our text because it brings a man’s own imperfect righteousness before
our attention. It is most true that no measure of human righteousness can ever
avail the sinner as a substitute for the righteousness of Christ by faith. A
sinner’s heart resembles Lady Macbeth’s hands
stained beyond all human
cleansing. We cannot and we need not by our own efforts establish a
righteousness able to justify and make reconciliation for the ungodly. Yet that
does not mean that we may be callous about the sovereign claims of God’s
eternal laws of righteousness. It is of the essence of Christian duty and
Christian manhood to love righteousness and hate wickedness. The true man is he
that executeth judgment
that seeketh the truth. See where the true man should
be found
in the broad places
in the streets
in the thoroughfares
the market
places; the spot where the struggle of daffy life is fought out. In other
words
the true man is contemplated under the character of a man right in the
whirl of the stream--a merchant
a craftsman
a trader. And as every varied
situation in life has its own special temptations and virtues--as the virtue of
the soldier is courage and his temptation faint-heartedness. There are graces
and virtues that belong to the home
domestic virtues
cloister
graces--gentleness
forbearance
devoutness; and these
too
form part of a
true man’s outfit in life. But the virtue of the marketplace is right dealing
and integrity
and he who in the competition of the marketplace
in its
barterings and changes
keeps his hands clean
his name honourable
his
character honest
is
according to the verdict of Scripture
a true man. From
these words it would appear that such men were scarce in Jeremiah’s day. Are
they more plentiful now? Yes
I believe they are. A dreadful state of society.
Multitudes of males
but not one mare Multitudes of gentlemen
but not one
honest man. Yes
surely we are better today
thank God. Yes
we all know men
who would rather empty their pockets of shillings than fill their mouths with
lies. And what are they? They are men. They are the saviours of society
they
are the salt of the earth. But unrighteousness is still
as it ever has been
man’s chiefest sin.
II. The value of
true manhood. The value of true manhood is seen
not in its scarceness
but in
the splendour of its reward. What is true manhood’s reward? God does a
wonderful thing
all because a true man or two are found in the wicked city.
What is that? He forgives the wickedness of the corrupt and unfaithful city (Jeremiah 5:7-9; Jeremiah 5:23-31). Could it be easy for God
to overlook the errors Of such a people? You think so? Easy for God Almighty
though not for us. Well
perhaps you are right. If so
why stand aloof from
such a forgiving and merciful God? Let us not fail to see that here in
Jeremiah’s time God expresses Himself willing to pardon the wicked for the sake
of the righteous few
as He undertook to do in the time of the patriarch
Abraham (Genesis 18:23). See
then
the nature of
true manhood’s rewards. God does not promise that when the true man is found He
will honour and reward him. Surely in being a true man he has honours and
rewards that cannot be exceeded. Jerusalem is to enjoy the reward. She is to be
spared for his sake. Something like this happens in the experience of our great
military heroes
our Wellingtons
our Wolseleys
our Robertses. No doubt some
of these splendid captains have
at duty’s call
covered the battlefield with
their men and scored brilliant fighting victories that had very little meaning
or importance to us as a nation But putting aside these cases--take the case of
wars in which both great heroism has been shown and the cause has been worth
fighting for when the great captain comes home
what does he find awaiting him:
stars and stripes
treasure and titles? Ay
all that
but more than that. Not
only has his heroism won all these more or less precious honours for himself
but what is better
because it concerns more people than himself
he has
secured for his country a standing
a place
a position
which it may be she
never enjoyed before. And that to a true man is reward more sweet and
satisfying than all the poor personal honours that can be put upon his head.
The worst calamity to a people is not when its trade and commerce decline
but
when its supply of true men fails. Our thoughts
when we think of truest
manhood
cannot help turning to the Lord Jesus Christ
that man who is our”
hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest.” For the sake of this
one Man
all our sins are freely pardoned. (H. F. Henderson
M. A.)
Verses 3-8
O Lord
are not Thine eyes upon the truth?
Truthfulness
The allusion is not to doctrinal truth
or truth in the abstract
but to practical truth as it should exist in the hearts and lives of men. The
Lord bade them produce a single truthful man in all Jerusalem
and Jeremiah
answers that if truth were to be found the Lord Himself best knew where it was
for His eyes were ever upon it. Look well at this picture of the progress of
the deceitful. They begin with being dishonest to their fellow men
and at last
they become Satan’s commission agents
trappers for the devil
fowlers who ensnare
men as bird catchers take the winged fowl. This was the state of affairs in
Jeremiah’s time. We have not
I trust
quite such a condition of things among
us today
as a plague universally prevalent
but we have much of the disease of
deceit in all quarters
high and low
and to what a head it may come time alone
can show.
I. The utter folly
of all pretence.
1. Hypocrisy is useless altogether
for God sees through it. The
instantaneous imagination which flits across the mind like a stray bird
leaving nor track nor trace
God knows it altogether.
2. Nor is it only useless: it is injurious. You spoil your sacrifice
if there be any tincture of the odious gall of hypocrisy about it. Everything
about you and me that is unreal God hates
and hates it more in His own people
than anywhere else.
3. Moreover
pretence is deadening
for he that begins with tampering
with truth will go on from bad to worse. Once begin to sail by the wind of
policy and trickery and you must tack
and then tack again and again; and as surely
as you are alive
you will yet have to tack again; but if you have the motive
force of truth within you
as a steamboat has its own engine
then you can go
straight in the teeth of wind and tempest.
4. Falsehood and pretence before God are damnable. I cannot use a
less forcible word than that. I have constantly seen almost all sorts of people
converted--great blasphemers
pleasure seekers
thieves
drunkards
unchaste
persons
and hardened reprobates
--but rarely have I seen a man converted who
has been a thorough-paced liar. The heart which is crammed with craft and
treachery seems as if it had passed out of the reach of grace.
II. The great value
of truthfulness. The great value of it is this--that it alone is regarded by
God in matters of religion: His eyes are upon that which is truthful about us.
For instance
suppose I say “I repent.” The question is--Do I really and from
my heart sorrow for sin! The same holds good in reference to faith. A man may
say
“I believe
” as thousands say their creed
--“I believe in God the Father
Almighty
maker of heaven and earth
” and so on. Ah
but do you trust in God
with your whole heart! Are you sincerely believing in God and God’s Word
and
God’s Son
and God’s Gospel?--refer
if not
all your professed faith is useless.
As to love to Christ
you know how very easy it is to sing sweet hymns about
love to Jesus
and yet how few are living so as to prove their attachment to
the Redeemer. The same truth bears upon all the ordinances of religion. When we
professed to worship God
how much praise was there in the song? As much as the
heart made. As to prayer. “A large prayer meeting.” Yes
but the largeness of
the number of attendants is not always a gauge of the quantity and power of
prayer. The quantity of heart in the prayer decides its quality. This is
equally true of all your private worship. That daffy reading of the chapter is
a very excellent thing; but do you read with your soul as well as with your
eyes? That morning prayer and that evening prayer
those few minutes snatched
in the middle of the day--these are good. I will not wish you to alter the
regularity of your devotion
but still it may all be clockwork
godliness with
no life in it. Oh
for one single groan from the heart!
III. The influence
of truthful men.
1. It is so great with God that one of them can save a city from
destruction. Hence the value of good men in bad localities. When you go into a
hamlet or village where there is no religion
do not be so very sorry at your
position
for God may have great ends to be served by you. All light must not
be stored up in the sun; scatter it over earth’s poor lands that need it
lest
all the trees of the field die in perpetual night. God blesses us to make us
blessings. Ask of God that you may be so sincere
so truthful
that He may
bless those round about you for your sake.
2. This influence is such that it never was attributed to any man on
account of his riches. No. The Lord is no respecter of persons
and He seeth
not as man seeth. Sincerity before God is approved; true reliance upon Christ
the Lord accepts: and for this He blesses us
and others through us.
3. And
mark you one other thing. If you are upright before God
and
you should happen to fall among people that despise you and reject you--it is a
sad thing to have to say
but it is true
and a proof of the great influence of
truthful men
--your word
when you speak for God
shall be like fire
and those
round about you shall be wood
and it shall devour them. If you are not a
savour of life to life to men
you will be a savour of death to death to them.
IV. The necessity
and the means of our being true and sincere before Him whose eyes behold
truthfulness.
1. These times require it. This is an age of tricks and policies. Oh
the lying puffs you meet with everywhere in books and broadsides innumerable.
Meet the prince of darkness with the light; he cannot stand against it. Our
times require our sincerity.
2. So does our God also require it. I have already spoken to this
and I need not repeat the solemn strain.
3. So do our souls require it. Our eternal welfare demands it. Oh
there must be no mistake about our being true before God
for when it comes to
dying work
nothing will stand us then but sincerity. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Thou hast stricken them
but they have not grieved.
God’s chastisements designed for man’s conversion
I. Turning to the
Lord presupposes a deep conviction that you have gone astray
both from way of
duty and of safety. That all your highest interests have been neglected.
1. The exceeding sinfulness of sin.
2. The purity and strictness of God’s law
the equity and terror of
its penalty.
3. Your obligations to Him as Creator
Preserver
Redeemer.
II. Turning to God
supposes a pull conviction of the necessity of immediate response.
1. If you die in your present condition
you will certainly be lost.
2. You have no time for delay.
3. It will wound your heart to think this work has not been done long
ago.
III. If afflictions
should prove the means of turning you to God
they will rouse you to most
earnest persevering endeavours that you may truly find Him.
1. Pray without ceasing.
2. Accustom yourself to solemn meditation.
3. Seek the society of those who know the Lord.
IV. If afflictions
should turn you to God
you will be made deeply sensible of your inability and
the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s grace to your conversion.
1. Your endeavours avail to avoid hindrances and seek helps.
2. Yet your own heart is against you
and the disease of sin is
irrecoverable but by Divine grace.
V. If ever you
turn to the Lord
you will realise that Christ is the only way of access to
God. You will come as criminals upon the footing of grace
not merit; will
renounce all your righteousness; a broken-hearted rebel. Till then
you have
nothing to do with Jesus.
VI. If you are
turned to God
you will experience a great change in temper and conduct.
1. Heart and mind will take a new bias; thoughts and affections
towards God; aspirations towards heaven; Jesus dear to you; all things become
new.
2. Your practices will follow the inward impulse and principle of
religion.
VII. If turned to
the Lord
your mind will habitually retain that turn. Your religion not a
transient fit
but permanent and persevering. (President Davies.)
Unsanctified affliction
I. Some of the forms
of unsanctified affliction.
1. Insensibility.
2. Hardihood.
II. Some of the
means by which this evil may be kept away.
1. By seeking ascertain and to accomplish the design of our
affliction.
2. By repressing every tendency to murmuring or impatience.
3. By avoiding immoderate sorrow. (G. Brooks.)
Fruitless chastisement
Chastisement is designed by God to bear fruit in a purged
and penitent heart; but it may be so neglected
resisted
or abused
as to
become fruitless.
I. The sign of
fruitless chastisement is impenitence.
1. Chastisement is the red lamp warning of danger
and urging us to
stop in the course we are pursuing.
2. But
that it may serve this purpose
there must be--
II. The cause of
fruitless chastisement is hardness of heart.
1. Insensitiveness. The sufferer may feel the smart of the lash on
his back
and yet be dead to the sting of shame in his heart.
2. Wilful resistance. The evil is in the will that refuses to yield
to the mercy that comes disguised in bitterness.
III. The consequence
of fruitless chastisement is an aggravation of future evils. The rebellious
sufferer may imagine that he is free to do as he will with his sufferings; but
even they are talents for which he will be called to account. For observe--
1. God’s searching watchfulness. “O Lord
are not Thine eyes
” etc.
God searches the heart He chastises. He sees the rebellious thought
the
stubborn self-will.
2. Man’s increased guilt. The more there is done to awaken a
consciousness of sin
the more culpable is the indifference still persisted in.
IV. The remedy for
fruitless chastisement is to be found in the grace of the Gospel. This will
give--
1. The new heart;
2. The promise of forgiveness. Christ brings love and hope
and thus
He brings also the tears of repentance. (W. F. Adeney
M. A.)
Unsanctified affliction
This might not unfitly be called one of the lamentations of
Jeremiah. The words may suggest to us the consideration of a subject more or
less belonging to all of us
namely
the danger of unsanctified or unimproved
afflictions. The remedies of heaven cannot be inoperative; they must aggravate
the maladies which they are not allowed to heal
and will make the face harder
than a rock
if they induce not a tender and softened heart.
I. Unsanctified or
unimproved chastening.
1. The first impression in the text seems to set forth that misuse of
it which comes of insensibility. “Thou has stricken them
but they have not
grieved; Thou hast consumed them
but they have refused to receive correction.”
The language may be taken to describe
not so much the receiving of correction
in the spirit of defiant and avowed contempt
as the act of setting lightly by
affliction
of not bestowing upon it the attention it deserves
having no
reverence for its Author
and no consideration for its design or end. A
calamity may visit us
but we think only of its human author; sickness may lay
us prostrate
but science is sufficient to explain how it came
--it is chance
or a skilled hand that causeth the shaft to pierce between the joints of the
harness
and there is some poison in the atmosphere which has caused the
withering of our favourite gourd. Thus
placing secondary agencies before our
eyes
we can see no further
and look no higher. We see
then
why God was
angry with the Jews
and why He will be angry with us
when His chastisements
are received with unreflecting indifference. It is that
whether avowedly or
not
such insensibility amounts to atheism. On this view--unavowed
of
course--is based the indifference of unconverted men under chastisement: they
feel that it is not correction
but the natural result of some law which no one
can help. Why should they grieve at that which comes of an unhindered
self-governing
moral necessity
2. But the text adverts to a yet more offending and presumptuous
deportment under affliction
namely
when the chastisements of God are received
in a stouthearted
rebellious
defying spirit. Not only have they refused to
receive correction
but they have made their faces harder than a rock. In this
case
as we see
God is net left out of sight. On the contrary
He is believed
and felt to be the Author of all permitted sufferings. The awful impiety is
that He is regarded as the unjust Author. We stand amazed at the impiety of
that Roman emperor
who
because the lightning flash interrupted the pleasures
of his banquet
feared not to hurl his blasphemous reproach against the powers
of heaven. But let us consider how much of the spirit of these men is in us
when we indulge in angry chafings at the arrangements of Divine Providence;
full of fury
like a wild bull in the net
or fretting as a bullock
unaccustomed to the yoke. How often do you find people under bitter reverses
angry and out of humour with everybody about them; with friends who have had
nothing whatever to do with their trouble
nay
who perhaps are trying all in
their power to lighten them; but the fire of anger is in their bosom
and it
must vent itself somewhere; it would vent it on God if it dared
but this is
too dreadful to think of; yet it is with Him that they are at anger
and the
thought of the heart is as much theirs as ever it was Jonah’s
that they do
well to be angry. Extreme
therefore
as the ease of the text may seem to be
it is an extreme to which any rebellious thoughts may ultimately lead us
if
not watched over and prayed against in their first beginnings.
II. How these
dreadful effects may be prevented and the chastenings of God turned to a
sanctified account.
1. First
we must he careful to acknowledge the design of God in
sending our trials
and do all we can to bring that design about. Our trials
may be of different kinds
one man being afflicted with this and another with
that. Every heart has its own plague
and every soul its own leprous spot
and
the Great Physician mixes our cup accordingly; that is
as pride lifts up the
heart
or covetousness enslaves the will
or as vanity fills the mind
as human
idols are exalted to Christ’s throne
or the love of this present world makes
us slothful in the ways of God
does He apportion to each His remedial sorrow
to each His purging fire. Now this being so
can it be otherwise than
displeasing unto God
if we take the smiting patiently
but still refuse the
correction; if we submit to the discipline
but disregard the profit; if we
allow the ploughshare of affliction to go over us
and yet cheek the springing
up of those peaceable fruits of righteousness which chastisement yieldeth to
them that are exercised thereby? The rod has a voice
and you must hear what it
says.
2. Again
in order that chastening may be blessed to us
we must have
a care that we do not become weary under it
however long it may continue. He
who faints under the Divine correction first makes sure that he shall faint
and then
by casting off all effort
brings about the fulfilment of his own
prophecy. He makes himself helpless. The feebleness of his graces arises from
want of exorcise. He has hung up his shield of faith
he has cast off his
helmet of hope
he wields the sword of the Spirit with an unsoldierly and trembling
hand
and then he wonders that he faints in the day of battle. Chastisement
thus received will yield no peaceable fruits of righteousness. So far from our
trials being designed to supersede the exercise of our spiritual graces
the
great battle of our faith is to be fought on this field.
3. In like manner we are in danger of losing the benefit of
chastening
when
through immoderate grief
we unfit ourselves for the active
duties of life. The connection between our bodily and mental states is so
intimate
that long-continued disturbance of the one will always be followed by
serious derangement of the other. Hence it is that protracted and cherished
griefs are found to produce a general disturbance in our active and
intellectual powers; duties are neglected
a state of apathy is induced
and
all the higher demands of our social position are made to wait on a sinful and
unprofitable grief. Conceive rightly of Him from whom that chastening comes
as
of infinite holiness to do nothing unjust
of infinite love to do nothing
unkind
of infinite wisdom to do nothing unsuitable to your best
truest
everlasting interests. And then conceive rightly of yourselves
as
transgressors from the womb
as children of disobedience
as outcasts by nature
from light and hope
and enemies by works from truth and godliness. And then
consider what God sends trials for
and the certainty that
received aright
they shall all work together for good. The arrows of God can never miss their
aim; with Him there are no bows drawn at a venture; His shafts speed home
infallibly. Taken from the quiver of infinite love
winged with purposes of
unerring mercy
they make no heart wounds which they do not more kindly heal
and kill nothing in us which were not better dead. (D. Moore
M. A.)
They have refused to
return.--
Decided ungodliness
I. Who have
refused to return?
1. Those who have said as much. With unusual honesty or presumption
they have made public declaration that they will never quit their sinful ways.
2. Those who have made a promise to repent
but have not performed
it.
3. Those who have offered other things instead of practical return to
God--ceremonies
religiousness
morality
and the like.
4. Those who have only returned in appearance. Formalists
mere
professors
hypocrites.
5. Those who have only returned in part. Hugging some sins while
hanging others.
II. What this
refusal unveils.
1. An intense love of sin.
2. A want of love to the great Father
who bids them return.
3. A disbelief of God: they neither believe in what He has revealed
concerning the evil consequences of their sin
nor in what He promises as to
the benefit of returning from it.
4. A despising of God: they reject His counsel
His command
and even
Himself.
5. A resolve to continue in evil. This is their proud ultimatum
“they have refused to return.”
6. A trifling with serious concerns. They are too busy
too fond of
gaiety
etc.
III. What deepens
the sin of this refusal?
1. When correction brings no repentance.
2. When conscience is violated
and the Spirit of God is resisted.
Repentance seen to be right
but yet refused: duty known
but declined.
3. When repentance is known to be the happiest course
and yet it is
obstinately neglected against the plainest reasons.
4. When this obstinacy is long-continued
and is persevered in
against convictions and inward promptings.
5. When vile reasons are at the bottom: such as secret sins
which
the sinner dares not confess or quit; or the fear of man
which makes the mind
cowardly.
IV. What is the
real reason of this refusal?
1. It may be ignorance
but that can be only in part
for it is
plainly a man’s duty to return to his Lord. No mystery surrounds this simple
precept--“Return.”
2. It may be self-conceit: perhaps they dream that they are already
in the right road.
3. It is at times sheer recklessness. The man refuses to consider his
own best interests. He resolves to be a trifler; death and hell and heaven are
to him as toys to sport with.
4. It is a dislike of holiness. That lies at the bottom of it: men
cannot endure humility
self-denial
and obedience to God.
5. It is a preference for the present above the eternal future. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Refusal to return
Lord Byron
a short time before death
was heard to say
“Shall I
sue for mercy?” After a long pause he added: “Come
come
no weakness; let’s be
a man to the last!”
Surely these are poor;. .
.I will get me unto the great.--
The ignorance of the poor and the insolence of the great
I. The character
of many of the poor as here described.
1. Their obstinacy in sin was owing to their ignorance.
2. Their ignorance was in great measure occasioned by their poverty.
II. The character
of the great as here described.
1. They had a better knowledge of religion than the poor.
2. They acted as bad as the poor
or worse.
3. Their conduct was chiefly owing to their greatness.
Application--
1. Learn what is the most important and profitable knowledge.
2. The advantages of being placed in the middle condition of life (Proverbs 30:8).
3. What an excellent charity it is to furnish the poor with the means
of knowledge. (Job Orton
D. D.)
Verse 9
Shall I not visit for these things?
Unsanctified affliction followed by heavier judgments
The physician
when he findeth that the potion which he hath given
his patient will not work
he seconds it with one more violent; but if he
perceive the disease to be settled
then he puts him into a course of physic
so that he shall have at present but small comfort of his life. And thus doth
the surgeon
too: if a gentle plaister will not serve
then he applies that
which is more corroding; and to prevent a gangrene
he makes use of his
cauterising knife
and takes off the joint or member that is so ill-affected.
Even so God
when men profit not by such crosses as He hath formerly exercised
them with
when they are not bettered by lighter afflictions
then He sends
heavier
and proceeds from milder to sharper crosses. If the dross of their
sins will not come off
He will throw them into the melting pot again and
again
crush them harder in the press
and lay on such irons as shall enter
more deep into their souls. If He strikes and they grieve not
if they be so
foolish that they will not know the judgment of their God
He will bring seven
times more plagues upon them
cross upon cross
loss upon loss
trouble upon
trouble
one sorrow on the neck of another
till they are in a manner wasted
and consumed. (J. Spencer.)
Verse 10
Go ye up upon her walls
and destroy; but make not a full end:
take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord’s.
Storming the battlements
I. I shall regard
this text as spoken concerning the Church. The Church has very often gone to
king Jareb for help
or to the world for aid; and then God has said to her
enemies
“Go ye up against her; but make not a full end: take away her
battlements; for they are not the Lord’s. She shall not have them. I am her
battlement. She is to have none other.”
1. The Church of God has sometimes sought to make the government its
battlements.
2. There are churches who make battlements out of the wealth of their
members. Now
we do love to have wealth and rank in our own midst; we always
thank God when we have brought among us men who can do something for the cause
of truth; we do bless God when we see Zaccheus
who had abundance of gold and
silver
giving some of his gifts to the poor of the Lord’s family; we like to
see the princes and kings bringing presents and bowing before the King of all
the earth:--but if any church bows before the golden calf
there will go forth
the mandate
“Go ye upon her walls; but make not a full end: take away her
battlements; for they are not the Lord’s.”
3. There are some other churches relying upon learning and erudition.
The learning of their minister seems to be a great fort and castle. Never let
it be said that I have despised learning
or true knowledge. Let us have as
much as we can. We thank God when men of learning are brought into the Church
when God renders them useful. But the Church nowadays is beginning to trust too
much to learning; relying too much on philosophy
and upon the understanding of
man
instead of the Word of God.
4. But I think that the worst battlement the churches have now is an
earthwork of great and extreme caution. It is held to be improper that certain
obnoxious truths in the Bible should be preached; sundry reasons are given why
they should be withheld. One is
because it tends to discourage men from coming
to Christ. Another is
because certain persons will be offended on account of
these rough edges of the Gospel. God’s Church must be brought once more to rely
upon the pure truth
upon the simple Gospel
the unalloyed doctrines of the
grace of God. Oh
may this Church never have any bulwark but the promises of
God!
II. We shall now
address the text to the Christian--the real child of God. The true believer
also has a proneness to build up sundry “battlements
” which “are not the
Lord’s
” and to put his hope
his affection
in something else besides the word
of the God of Israel.
1. The first thing whereof we often make a fortress wherein to hide
is--the love of the creature. The Christian’s happiness should be in God alone.
He should be able to say
“All my springs are in Thee. From Thee alone I ever
draw my bliss.” We fix our love on some dear friend
and there is our hope and
trust. God says
“What though ye take counsel together
ye have not taken
counsel of Me
and therefore I will take away your trust. What though ye have
walked in piety
ye have not walked with Me as ye should. Go ye no against her
O Death! Go ye up against her
O affliction! Take away that battlement--It is
not the Lord’s.”
2. Many of us are too prone to make battlements out of our past
experience
and to rely upon that instead of confiding in Jesus Christ. There
is a sort of self-complacency which reviews the past
and says
“There I fought
Apollyon; there I climbed the hill Difficulty; there I waded through the Slough
of Despond.” The next thought is
“And what a fine fellow am I! I have done all
this. Why
there is nothing can hurt me. No. If I have done all this
I can do
everything else that is to be accomplished.” What does God say whenever His
people do not want Him; but live on what they used to have of Him
and are
content with the love He once gave them? “Ah! I will take away your
battlements.” He calls out to doubts and fears--“Go ye up upon his walls; take
away his battlements
for they are not the Lord’s.”
3. Then again we sometimes get trusting too much to evidences and
good works. We often get a pleasing opinion of ourselves: we are preaching so
many times a week; we attend so many prayer meetings; we are doing good in the
Sabbath school; we are important members of the Church; we are giving away so
much in charity
and we say
“Surely I am a child of God. I am an heir of
heaven. Look at me! See what robes I wear. Have I not
indeed
” a righteousness
about me that proves me to be a child of God?” Then we begin to trust in
ourselves
and say
Surely of your graces
Christians!
III. Now
to bring
the text to the young convert
to the man in that stage of our religious history
which we call conversion to God.
1. In the forefront of the city of Mansoul frowns the wall of
carelessness--an erection of satanic masonry. It is made of black granite
and
mortal art cannot injure it. Bring law
like a huge pickaxe
to break it: you
cannot knock a single chip off. At last a gracious God cries out--“Take away
her battlements
they are not the Lord’s.” And at a glance down crumbles the
battlement. The careless man becomes tender-hearted; the soul that was hard as
iron has become soft as wax; the man who once could laugh at gospel warnings
and despise the preaching of the minister
now sits down and trembles at every
word.
2. The first wall is surmounted
but the city is not yet taken: the
Christian minister
under the hand of God
has to storm the next wall--that is
the wall of self-righteousness. How hard it is to storm this wall! it must be
carried at the point of the bayonet of faithful warning; there is no taking it
except by boldly climbing up with the shout of
“By grace are ye saved through
faith
and that not of yourselves
it is the gift of God.”
3. Thus the double rampart is passed
but another still opposes our
progress--Christ’s warriors know it by the name of self-sufficiency. Oh!
blessed day when God directs His shots against that.
IV. I take this
passage as it respects the ungodly and the sinner at last. How many there shall
be at the last great day who will sit down very comfortably behind certain
battlements that they have builded! There is one man--a monarch: “I am irresponsible
says he; “who shall ever bring anything to my charge? I am an autocrat: I give
no account of my matters.” Oh! he will find out at last that God is Master of
emperors
and Judge of princes; when his battlements shall be taken away.
Another says
“Cannot I do as I like with my own? What if God did make me
I
shall not serve Him. I shall follow my own will. I have in my own nature
everything that is good
and I shall do as my nature dictates. I shall trust in
that
and if there be a higher power He will exonerate me
because I only
followed my nature.” But he will find his hopes to be visionary
and his
reasons to be foolish
when God shall say
“The soul that sinneth it shall
die”; and when His thundering voice shall pronounce the sentence--“Depart ye
cursed into everlasting fire.” Again
there is a company of men joined hand in
hand
and they think they will resist the Eternal
yea
they have a plan for
subverting the kingdom of Christ. They say
“We are wise and mighty. We have
fortified ourselves. We have made a covenant with death and a league with
hell.” Ah! they little think what will become of their battlements at the last
great day
when they shall see it all crumble and fall. With what fear and
alarm will they then cry: “Rocks
hide us! Mountains
on us fall!” (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Man’s battlements or God’s battlements
These words show us that if we would ensure safety we must embrace
God’s plan of salvation.
I. Man’s
battlements.
1. Some build battlements without Christ as the corner stone. To read
His history
admire His character
wonder at His miracles; but to leave out all
the mystery of the Incarnation
to deny the efficacy of the bloodshedding
to
substitute reason for faith
is to build battlements which are not “the
Lord’s.”
2. Some build battlements with their own merits. As in the former
case the foundation was faulty; so here is the superstructure. The “good heart”
and the “good life” and the “good intentions” will not bear scrutiny. Salvation
is of grace
and not of debt.
3. Others build battlements of external forms and ceremonies. They
are like that foreign people who rear walls of painted canvas
guarded by
painted sentinels
and armed with painted guns. There is no reality in such a
religion.
II. What
then
are
God’s battlements?
1. Repentance. No one strikes the penitent who confesses error
and
asks forgiveness with many tears.
2. The second line of defence is Faith. Repentance does not save. We
are saved by grace
through faith.
3. There is a third range
higher still
Holiness. A man may tremble
behind the battlements of faith
even as the devils believe and tremble. That
man only is safe and happy who is penitent
believing
and holy. (J.
Batsman
M. A.)
The danger of false confidences
Oh
that England would learn that increased wealth and swollen
fortunes and material prosperity are no signs of a nation’s strength. Pagan
Rome was never richer than when she had scarce a freeman left. In the Middle
Ages
Papal Rome stood raking into chests the countless gold of her jubilee
just before she suffered her most humiliating shame. Spain was dropping to
pieces of inward decay when all the gold of the New World was flowing into the
treasure of her kings. “Your glory
” said Oliver Cromwell
“is the ditch which
guards your shores. I tell you your ditch will not save you if you do not
reform yourselves.” Some nations have had a false ideal of absolutism
many
and especially modern nations
have had a false ideal of liberty. (Dean
Farrar.)
The removal of false trusts and defences
It was a great mercy for our city of London that the great fire
cleared away all the old buildings which were the lair of the plague
a far
healthier city was then built; and it is a great mercy for a man when God
sweeps all his own righteousness and strength
when He makes him feel that he
is nothing and drives him to confess that Christ is all in all
and that his
only strength lies in the might of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes in a house of
business an old system has been going on for years
and it has caused much confusion
and allowed much dishonesty. You come in as a new manager
and you adopt an
entirely new plan. Now try if you can
and graft your method on to the old
system. How it will worry you. Year after year you say to yourself
“I cannot
work it; if I had swept the whole away and started afresh
clear from the
beginning
it would not have given me one-tenth of the trouble.” God does not
intend to graft the system of grace upon corrupt nature
nor to make the new
Adam grow out of the old. Salvation is not of the flesh
but of the Lord alone.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
False refuges
I. Worthless
refuges trusted in.
1. Infidelity. Such a rampart is nothing more than a deliberate
closing of the eyes to danger. It is like the sand in which the foolish ostrich
hides its head and thinks himself safe. It is like watching an avalanche
descending upon us and consoling ourselves that we are only led by a fanciful
vision.
2. Personal merit. There are those who exercise far higher thoughts
of human nature and of their own particular abilities than the case justifies.
And they estimate their good qualities so highly that they think they surely
ought to obtain some recognition from the Almighty.
3. Divine Fatherhood. Some think that because God made man He is
therefore a universal Father
and they assume that a Father could not
be so
unkind to His children as to let justice overpower mercy.
II. Worthless
refuges denounced. “Go ye up and destroy.”
1. The Author of this destruction. The immediate instrument may be
man’s natural enemies
but the real author is God. He will cast down all false
hopes and crush all evil anticipations.
2. The reason assigned--“For they are not the Lord’s.”
3. The limitation--“Make not a full end.” The object is not
destruction of the soul
but the taking away the false hopes which lull it into
fancied security. God takes away earthly hopes
so that He may bestow heavenly
ones. He crushes worthless props
so that He may lay under us His eternal arms.
(J. J. S. Bird
B. A.)
Verse 14
I will make My words in thy mouth fire.
The potential word
Three elements of the power of the Gospel are here found.
I. The I will of
the Almighty. That will is an ocean deep and wide as eternity and infinity. In
that shoreless deep all the mighty orbs
suns
systems floated first by mere
will of Jehovah. To that will every line of inspiration becomes either a ray of
light
law
and peace
or a thunderbolt of justice.
II. “the words of
thy mouth.” The language is human
but Divine in its source. In all the
dealings of heaven with our race
created instruments have been used. A long
line of prophets and patriots have been guided with the authority and power
from the eternal throne. So that whether Jehovah will to rouse all the stormy
elements of clouds above
and waters beneath
as by a shepherd’s staff
and
styled the rod of God
on the kingdom of Egypt
or drive a broad dusty highway
through the waves of the sea
--it is the same glorious God that is present in
this sacred book. Ten thousand angels of the lifeguard around heaven’s throne
could not change the heart of the weakest child. But aided by the will of the
eternal majestic “I” of the text
a babe in the manger at Bethlehem will awaken
a song that shall ring out in anthem heard far up among the golden spheres of
heaven
and echo round and round our redeemed and regenerated world.
III. A fire purifies
but consumes the chaff. (W. H. Van Doren
D. D.)
God’s Word as fire
seems to me that the Word of God in our churches is too much like
a sight which you not infrequently see in our streets in winter: a heap of
coals cast down from a cart in front of a house upon the frosty ground
with
the snow lying all around it
and falling upon it from the bosom of the storm.
It is a remarkable conjunction when you come to think of it--a heap of coals
and a heap of snow. The snow lies upon the heap of coals as cold and unmoved as
it could lie over a heap of granite stones; and yet that heap of coal contains
a vast quantity of potential heat
heat enough to melt all the snow in the
street and convert for the time being the winter around into summer. But so
long as the coal is as cold as the snow
so long does it produce no effect.
Supposing you were able to apply a burning coal from your kitchen fire to the
cold coal outside
what a wonderful change you would produce. You would let
loose the potential heat; you would transform that cold inert mass of coal into
a fiery furnace
which would melt and evaporate all the snow around it. And
more marvellous still would the effect of the Word of God be upon you
coming
to your cold
hard
frost-bound heart
with power from on high kindled with the
fire of God’s Holy Spirit. The potential heat in it would be set free
and it
would transform your whole nature and life. (H. Macmillan.)
Verse 19
When ye shall say
Wherefore doeth the Lord our God these things
unto us?
In the time of tribulation
I. Acknowledgment
of God as that Supreme Ruler of all from whose hand afflictions come. It is one
great secret of that peace which passeth all understanding to mark the hand of
God in all the changes and sorrows of this ever-varying scene of things; the
want of this it is which so frequently leaves the men of the world a prey to
vexation and despair. Secondary causes are but the links in the chain of
providence; follow them by the light of God’s Word and the guidance of a simple
faith
and you will find that chain depending from the very throne of God
Himself
held in His own hand; every part of it adjusted as He sees it best to
permit
according to the counsel of His own will.
II. A conviction
that when God sends affliction He has a reason for what He does.
1. God often uses affliction for the purpose of correcting His
children’s faults
and bringing them to a sense of their guilt.
2. The promotion of our growth in grace is another reason of God’s
afflictive dispensations. Holy men are by trial weaned from a vain and evil
world; are brought more and more to realise experimentally what religion is;
and are enabled to enjoy in a peculiar manner the consolation of the Gospel of
Christ.
III. A wish to know
what that reason is. Not that we may be satisfied that God is just in what He
does. But that understanding what the reason of His dispensation is
we may ask
ourselves
have
then
those dispensations wrought in us the result designed?
But how is he to ascertain it? I apprehend that we shall generally be guided to
it when depending on the Holy Spirit for direction; we simply look at the
nature of the trial
and the state of our own hearts. (J. Harding.)
Verses 20-25
O foolish people
and without understanding.
God’s judgment of self-will
The text is part of a message which was to be declared in the
house of Jacob
and published in Israel. It shows that three results were
produced by self-assertion against the rule of God; will the same cause produce
the same effect? Let us see the results of self-will as shown in the text
and
compare them with the testimony of our own experience.
I. Self-will in
relation to the Divine government destroys the natural capacities and faculties
of man. “Foolish people
without understanding
” etc. How different this
description to the original portraiture of man! Foolish
blind
deaf--such is
man when he has turned his back upon God
and taken life into his own hands. It
would seem as if all the faculties of our nature were dependent for continuance
upon their religious use; moral paralysis is equivalent to intellectual
stagnation; not to pray is to die. Is it not much the same as if a flower
should be shut out from the light and dew? The soul is
so to speak
withdrawn
from the source of its being--cut off from the fountain of life
and allowed to
exhaust its little resources
to languish in loneliness
and to die of hunger.
If
then
we leave God
how soon does our poverty come as an armed man
and our
want as one that travaileth? We shall most clearly see how the natural
faculties of man are impaired
and indeed destroyed
by irreligion
by
considering that the same truth holds good in the ordinary business of
life
--separation from God means folly
blindness
and general incapacity
even
in earthly things. Take the case of our daily bread
and see how the doctrine
is sustained. Let any man set aside God’s plan of obtaining daffy bread
and
call upon his own genius to supply it; let the earth remain uncultivated; let
the seed remain unsown: can it be doubted that the insane man would soon be
taught by famine what he would not learn from reason or infer from revelation?
There is no violence in transferring the argument from the body to the soul: on
the contrary
such transference would seem to be a logical necessity; for if
God is essential to the inferior
is He not essential to the superior? If man
cannot do the less
how can he do the greater? A man who would not eat bread
because he could not make his own will dominant through every detail of the
process of germination would be pitied or despised; yet men who cannot by their
own will or power make one grain of corn for the support of the body are often
found resenting God’s offers of enlightenment and guidance of the soul! What
wonder that God should call upon the heavens to be astonished and the earth to
be horribly afraid? And what wonder
repelled and dishonoured as He is
that He
should say: “Behold
the days come
saith the Lord God
that I will send a
famine in the land
” etc. Think of God sending a famine upon the soul
--of
minds pining and dying because Divine messages have been withdrawn! We know
what the effect would be if God were to withhold the dew
or to trouble the air
with a plague
or to avert the beams of the sun: the garden would be a desert
the fruitful field a sandy plain
the wind a bearer of death
summer a stormy
night
and life itself a cruel variation of death
--so penetrating
so
boundless is the influence of God in nature. Is it conceivable that the
withdrawment of God’s influence would be less disastrous upon the spirit of
man? Out of God there is no true being; the spasm
the convulsion
which is
mistaken for existence is an impious sarcasm upon life.
II. Self-will in relation
to the Divine government plunges the soul into irreverence. The “fear” spoken
of (Jeremiah 5:22) may be taken as expressive
of homage
veneration
and
in fact
everything that enters into a complete
idea of worship. The destruction of veneration may be regarded as the final
triumph of self-will. There is a very simple philosophy of spiritual
retrogression. It turns upon man’s self-magnifying power
and his consequent
ambition for self-government. He says: “If there be a God
He is at all events
unseen; I am the highest power that comes within the cognisance of my own
senses; other beings
such as demons and angels
have been spoken of; but they
are fictions of genius
dreams of ill-regulated minds; I am king
I am god.”
This is the natural creed of Sight
and it has many virtual subscribers. Now
it is to the senses themselves that God addresses the appeal of the text. He
would appoint the ocean as umpire in the great controversy. Look
He says in
effect
at the sea: it is bounded by the sand; its great fury cannot prevail
against the limit which I have appointed: can you enlarge the decree which
determinates the movement of the deep? Can you beat back the waves
or silence
the roar of the billows? Stand by the seashore
then
and learn that there is a
will higher than your own
a power which could crush your puny arm; listen
and
let your soul hear a voice mightier than man’s; incline your ear
and let the
spirit hear the going of God upon the quiet or troubled waves; reflect
wonder
bow down
and worship.
III. Self-will
dissociates the gifts of nature from the Giver (Jeremiah 5:24). Revolted man will accept
the rain because he cannot live without it
but the Giver will not be so much
as named; the corn will be gathered
but those who bear the sheaves will have
no harvest hymn for God. How rapid
tumultuous
fatal is the course of moral
revolt! The purpose of God was evidently to have His Name identified with the
common mercies of life
that our very bread and water might remind us
constantly of His gentle and liberal care. He was not to be confided to purely
spiritual contemplation
to be the subject of the soul’s dream when lost in
high reverie
or to be thought of as a Being far off
enclosed within the
circle of the planets
or throned in the unapproachable palaces of an
undiscovered universe: He desires to be seen spreading our table in the
wilderness
causing the earth to bring forth and bud for our benefit
turning
our weary feel towards the water springs
and nourishing us in the time of
weakness. Men may eat unblessed bread
and be bodily the stronger for it
but
it is a sore and lasting reproach to the soul. The course of moral revolt ends
in this
ends in the deposition of God and in the worship of self. Man ploughs
sows
reaps
and considers all the influences which cooperate in the production
of results as mere features of inanimate nature existing and working apart
altogether from intelligent or moral will. The universe becomes a stupendous
machine; they who get good crops have used the machine skilfully
and they
whose fields are fruitless have misunderstood or misapplied the machine. The
universe was designed to be the temple
the very coveting
of God; but the
worship of self has wrought a bad transfiguration upon it
and now the thief
the unclean beast
and the lying prophet prevail on every hand. The
demoralisation of man may have a mischievous effect upon nature itself. We
sometimes speak of a bad harvest: what if behind it there has been a bad life?
When the heart is right towards God
God will not withhold His blessing from
the earth: “Let the people praise thee
O God; let all the people praise Thee:
then shall the earth yield her increase.” Physical blessing will follow
spiritual worship; no good thing will be withheld from them that walk
uprightly. In the light of these statements we have a double view of the unity
of the moral and material systems of government. One view is from the human
side: when man sins
commits a trespass in the spiritual region
he finds the
result of his sin in the physical department; the reflection of his spiritual
misrule is seen in dried fountains and fruitless fields
in devastating storms
and fatal plagues; the universe takes up arms in defence of law. Another view
is from the Divine side. God shows favour upon the earth for reasons derived
from the spiritual character of the people
and demonstrates the superiority of
the soul over the body by making its condition the measure of His material
benefactions. How terrific
how hopeless
then
is the condition of the sinner!
(J. Parker
D. D.)
Indifference
I. What God has
done to produce pious consideration.
1. He has given powers of mind adapted to it. Eyes--to see
discern
read
etc. Ears--to hearken
messengers of truth. Understanding--to know
weigh
reflect
etc.
2. He has given us the means to answer to these powers. His Word
His
servants
His providence
etc.
3. He has given us His Holy Spirit--to strive
convince
etc.
II. The
indifference men often exhibit.
1. The indifference of some is total
without any concern. Live
stocks and stones.
2. Others are considerate only of the externals of religion.
3. The consideration of some is only to the intellectual parts of the
truth. A mental study; philosophical attention; such as they give to
literature.
4. The consideration of others is occasional. Under very arousing
discourses
providences
sickness
bereavements
etc.
III. The
consequences of this indifference.
1. It is extremely foolish. Moral insanity.
2. Detrimental to the soul. Makes it blind
deaf; robs it of
spiritual food and enjoyment; degrades it.
3. Specially offensive to God. Rebellion. Gratitude.
4. Must end in the soul’s ruin. No moral fitness without devout
consideration.
Application--
1. Examine and test yourselves.
2. Seek the quickening influences of the Divine Spirit.
3. Be resolved and wise now
lest you perish. (J. Burns
D. D.)
Fear ye not Me? saith the
Lord.--
Solemn reasons for fearing the Lord
I. Argument from
God’s government of the sea.
1. Suited to impress man with an idea of--
Two fold--
(a) Negatively
in checking the threatening invasion of the sea;
(b) Affirmatively
in giving rain
etc.
2. Man’s revolting tendencies.
(a) Man has a heart
the sea has not; a will power.
(b) This power in man has been prostituted to evil.
II. Argument from
God’s bestowment of the harvest.
1. Until the Gospel was communicated to the world
attentive observance
of the dispensation of providence was the principal means whereby God’s Spirit
drew the Gentiles to Himself
and led them to piety and obedience.
2. Although we enjoy the full light of the glorious Gospel
we can
never too closely keep in mind the fact that all things we see and enjoy are
ordained by God.
3. From the natural events around us we may--
Persuasives to the fear of God
I. He complains of
the shameful stupidity of this people.
1. Their understandings were darkened. Possessing intellectual faculties
and capacities
they did not employ and improve them.
2. Their wills were stubborn: not submit to rules of Divine law.
II. He ascribes
this to the want of the fear of God.
1. If you keep up awe of God you will be observant of what He says.
2. Because we neglect to stir up our wills to holy awe of God we are
so apt to rebel.
III. He suggests
some things proper to possess us with a holy fear of God.
1. We must fear the Lord and His greatness. He keeps and manages the
sea.
2. We must fear the Lord
and His goodness.
Which have placed the sand
for the bound of the sea.--
Adoration of God in nature
1. The more blessings they enjoyed
the more thankful they should
have been.
2. Having rejected God spiritually
He yet continued to manifest
Himself to them in nature.
3. Gratitude to God for the fruits of the seasons is a common ground
on which to argue effectually even with the darkest heathen.
4. The heathen are denied excuse for their ignorance and idolatry
because of the marks of God’s love and power in the world around them.
5. Yet the heathen
in outward forms at least
surpassed Jews and
Christians.
6. There was
then
great sin on the part of Israel when
even as
natural men
they ignored the mercies of God’s ordinary providence
and were
not softened and converted by His unmerited goodness.
7. A bounteous season ought to awaken love and thankfulness to God.
8. God is exceedingly jealous of the honour due unto His name.
9. The eye is blind to God in natural wonders
and the ear deaf amid
His works
because the heart has not embraced Him in the Gospel of His Son. (J.
Garbett
M. A.)
God’s government of the sea and man’s revolting tendencies
1. God is the Author and Governor of the sea.
2. God binds the sea within certain limits by law.
3. God’s laws are permanent till He wills a change “by a perpetual
decree.”
4. God is ever prevent in His laws and contrivances.
5. God’s presence in the laws of the sea
as well as in every other
law
should have a restraining and reverencing influence upon men.
I. God’s government
of the sea. Suited to impress man with an idea of--
1. Infinite power.
2. Consummate wisdom.
3. Special goodness.
II. Man’s revolting
tendencies.
1. God has prescribed the bounds of man’s actions and thoughts by
befitting laws. Love to God and man.
2. To overstep these limits is rebellion against the great Lawgiver.
When thoughts are unholy and imagination irreverent
the soul has overstepped
its proper limits
and is in rebellion against its Creator.
3. Man has overstepped his proper limits
and therefore rebelled.
“They are revolted and gone.” Differing in this from the sea.
4. Man can do what the sea can not
namely
overstep his proper
limits and transgress the laws of his being.
1. God must govern heart and will by heart and will influences.
2. It is easier for God to rule suns and systems and oceans than one
man
because he has a heart
and a rebellious one.
3. Man
as a rebel
contrasts unfavourably with the material
creation--the earth and sea
etc. God notices this with a painful emotion. “Fear
ye not Me
” etc. (Homilist.)
The sand barrier
Take a handful of sand up; and how easily it filters through the
fingers. This slippery sand is part of God’s wall against the sea. By
agglomeration it is strong. The restraining of the waters has made the earth
habitable. Every coastline
however indented
flat
or rocky
has been traced
by that Hand which “gave to the sea its decree.”
I. There are
natural laws which are
like the boundaries of the sea
not to be passed. We
all know what would be the result if the force of gravitation did not hold us
in our place on the earth’s surface
or if we determined to ignore the law by
leaping from a precipice. There are also laws of health which restrain us. We
can easily damage our physical frame by neglect. Pains we must then endure
compelling to obedience.
II. In society we
have limits
bounds and restraints which are of greatest value. The opinions of
our fellows are restraints. Laws are the bounds within which the moral would
secure the immoral. The good man fears them not
because he has no wish to
break them. He values them
because they protect him from the lawless.
III. There are in
knowledge certain limits and bounds which are of great value. Those who think
deeply are the most conscious of this. Let us be thankful for such bounds. Let
us remember what ennui and pride would follow if we could know all. Further
where would be the need for faith--that noblest act of the soul? Let us be
humble. What is all we know
compared with what God has to reveal to us? Let us
seek to become more fitted to pass beyond the limitations of the present
and
to appreciate more the widening of our sphere of knowledge in the future world.
IV. As the sea has
its bounds
so has life its limits. Decay and death must come sooner or later.
Hearts can beat only a determined number of times
even as a watch
when once
wound up
can go only a certain time. Every tick brings it nearer to the last
beat. When the spring runs down
another beat cannot be got out of it. What are
man’s years to immortality? (Job 14:5). There is wisdom in this
decree. If men were to live beyond a certain point they would be hindrances;
and if there were no death
men would be altogether forgetful of God their
Judge.
V. We may apply
the text to the trials to which man is subjected. God sets bounds to them. He
will not allow us to be crushed or swamped. He knows what we can bear
and how
much is good for us. Murmur not. Trust in Him. He can deliver
check
remove
the restraints
hindrances
and trials
and even bring blessing out of them. (Homiletic
Magazine.)
God the ruler of the waves
God rules the waves
not Britannia. (John Newton.)
Sea and soil; Divine providence
By the mouth of His prophet
Jeremiah
God upbraids His people for
their impiety; but it is worthy of notice that He reproaches them not for their
forgetfulness of His miraculous deliverances
but for their heedlessness of His
regular kindness to them. It is not that they are neglecting Him who saved them
from the wrath of the Egyptians by the marvels of the Red Sea passage; it is
that they are failing to honour Him who has always been keeping the sea in its
bed.
I. God’s constant
kindness to us.
1. In keeping in check the destructive forces upon the earth (verse
22). The sea at rest
kept within its bounds
is an object of surpassing
beauty; its surface is the great highway of the nations. But when it breaks its
bounds
it causes terrible destruction. As with the sea
so with the air. The
pure air we breathe is life itself; the soft breeze is refreshment and
invigoration; the wind aids us in our industries and carries our ships across
the water. But the cyclone
the hurricane
is danger
destruction
death. The
occasional storm reminds us of the continuance from week to week of that
balance in the atmospheric forces which the wisdom and the power of God
sustain
and which makes possible and practicable our pleasant lives. This also
holds with the interior of the earth. Beneath a thin crust of rock are stored
and hidden great central fires. What if they were loosened! The earthquake and
the volcano are the reminders that there are forces beneath our feet and of
which we have no control whatever; but a mightier hand than ours has shut them
in
and keeps us in safety and in peace.
2. In putting into exercise productive powers (verse 24). God has
been fulfilling His promise
and neither seedtime nor harvest has failed from
the earth. There have come droughts and storms: our trust and our patience have
been tried; our intellectual resources have been developed
and our character
has been disciplined thereby; adverse material conditions have been
strengthening and quickening our manhood; the culture of the field has been the
culture of the race; the method of God’s giving has greatly enhanced the value
of His gift. Divine wisdom has accompanied Divine bounty at every step.
II. Our human
response. Too often it has been--
1. That which is our reproach. Men have taken everything from the God
of their life
and they
have--
2. Which is becoming and acceptable.
God’s barriers against man’s sin
The majesty of God
as displayed in creation and providence
ought
to stir up our hearts in adoring wonder and melt them down in willing obedience
to His commands. The almighty power of Jehovah
so clearly manifest in the
works of His hands
should constrain us
His creatures
to fear His name and
prostrate ourselves in humble reverence before His throne. The contemplation of
the marvellous works which He doth upon “the great and wide sea
” where He
tosseth the waves to and fro
and yet keepeth them in their ordained courses
should draw forth our devoutest emotions
and I could almost say
inspire us
with homage. Have these great things of God
these wondrous works of His
no
lesson to teach us? Do they not while declaring His glory reveal our duty? Our
poets
both the sacred and the uninspired
have feigned consciousness to those
inanimate agents that they might the more truthfully represent their honourable
service. But if because we are intelligent beings
we withhold our allegiance
from our rightful Sovereign
then our privileges are a curse
and our glory is
a shame. We might learn
even without the written oracles of Scripture
that we
ought to obey God
if our foolish hearts were not so darkened; thus unbelief of
the Almighty Creator is a crime of the first magnitude. If it were a petty
sovereign against whom ye rebelled
it might be pardonable; if He were a man
like yourselves
ye might expect that your faults would easily find
forgiveness; but since He is the God who reigns alone where clouds and darkness
are round about Him
the God to whom all nature is obedient
and whose high
behests are obeyed both in heaven and in hell
it becomes a crime
the terrible
character of which words cannot portray
that you should ever sin against a God
so marvellously great. The greatness of God enhances the greatness of our sin.
I believe this is one lesson which the prophet intended to teach us by the
text. But while it is a lesson
I do not think it is the lesson of the text.
There is something else which we are to learn from it. God here contrasts the
obedience of the strong
the mighty
the untamed sea
with the rebellious
character of His own people. The doctrine of the text seems to be this--that
without supernatural means God can make all creatures obedient save man; but
man is so disobedient in his heart
that only some supernatural agency can make
him obedient to God
while the simple agency of sand can restrain the sea
without any stupendous effort of Divine power more than He ordinarily puts out
in nature: He cannot thus make man obedient to His will. Now
look back into
history
and see if it has not been so. What has been a greater problem
if we
may so speak concerning the Divine mind
than that of restraining men from sin?
How many restraints God has put upon man! “But what of this fact?”--you
say--“we know it is true; verified in your own ease. Come
now
I want to ask
of you
whether it cannot be said of you truly
“The sea is bound by sand; but
I am one of those people who are bent on revolting from God
neither can any of
His restraints keep me from sin.” Let us review the various restraints which
God has put upon His people to keep them from sins which
nevertheless
are
altogether ineffectual
without the accompanying power of grace.
1. Then
remember there is a restraint of gratitude which
to the
lowly regenerated heart
must necessarily form a very strong motive to
obedience. I ask thee
O saint
viewing thy sins as sins against love and
mercy
against covenant promises
covenant oaths
covenant engagements
ay
and
covenant fulfillments
is not thy sin a desperate thing
and art not thou
thyself a rebellious and revolting being
seeing that thou canst not be
restrained by such a barrier of adamant as thy soul acknowledges? Next notice
that the saint has not only this barrier against sin
but many others.
2. He has the whole of God’s Word given him by way of warning; its
pages he is accustomed to read; he reads there
that if he break the statutes
and keep not the commandments of the Lord
his Father will visit his
transgressions with a rod
and his iniquity with stripes. And yet
O Christian
against all warning and against all precept
thou darest to sin. Oh! art thou
not a rebellious creature
and mayest thou not humble thyself at the thought of
the greatness of thine iniquity?
3. Again
the saint sins against his own experience. When he looks
back upon his past life he finds that sin has always been a loss to him; he has
never found any profit
but has always lost by it. Will you put the poisoned
goblet to your lips again? Yes
you will; but because you do so in the teeth of
your experience
it ought to make you weep
that you should be such desperate rebels
against such a loving God
who has put not merely a barrier of sand
but a
barrier of tried steel to keep in your lusts
and yet they will break forth;
verily
ye are a rebellious and revolting people.
4. Then again
God guards all His children with providence
in order
to keep them from sin. Ah! strange things happen to some of us. It was only a
providence which on some solemn occasion
to which you never look back without
regret
saved you from sin which would have been a scab on your character. Bless
God for that! But remember
notwithstanding the girdlings of His providence
how many times you have offended; and let the frequency of your sin remind you
that you must indeed be a rebellious creature.
5. Yet
once more let me remind you
that the ordinances of God’s
house are all intended to be checks to sin. Bow down your heads with shame
while ye consider your ways
and then lift up your hearts
Christians
in
adoring love
that He has kept you when your feet were making haste to hell
where you would have gone
but for His preserving grace. Will you not pray
that God should not cast you away
nor take His Holy Spirit from you
though
you are a rebellious creature
and though you have revolted against Him?
II. Apply it to
sinners. Come
then
sinner; in the first place
I bid thee consider thy guilt.
The mighty ocean is kept in obedience by God
and restrained within its channel
by simple sand; and thou
a pitiful worm
the creature of a day
the ephemera
of an hour
thou art a rebel against God. The sea obeys Him; thou dost not.
Consider how many restraints God has put on thee: He has not checked thy lusts
with sand but with beetling cliffs; and yet thou hast burst through every bound
in the violence of thy transgressions. Perhaps He has checked thy soul by the
remembrance of thy guilt. Thou hast felt thyself a despiser of God; or if not a
despiser
thou art a mere hearer
and hast no part nor lot in this matter. Dost
thou not remember thy sins in the face of thy mother’s counsels and thy
father’s strong admonitions? Thou knowest the threatenings of God; it is no new
tale to thee
when I warn thee that sinners must be condemned. Consider
then
how great is thy guilt; thou hast sinned against light and knowledge; thou art
not the Hottentot sinner
who sins in darkness; thou hast not sinned
ignorantly
thou hast done it when thou knewest better. Some of you have had
other things. Don’t you remember
some little time ago
when sickness was rife
you were stretched on your bed? Methinks I see you; you turned your face to the
wall
and you cried
“O God
if Thou wilt save my life
I will give myself to
Thee!” Perhaps it was an accident; thou didst fear that death was very near;
the terrors of death laid hold of thee
and thou didst cry
“O God
let me but
reach home in safety
and my bended knees and my tears pouring in torrents
shall prove that I am sincere in the vow I make!” But didst thou perform that
vow? Nay
thou hast sinned against God; thy broken vows have gone before thee
to judgment. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 23-24
But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are
revolted and gone.
Israel’s apostasy
Our state of heart and mind toward God is shown
not by those
emotions which are kindled in us on receiving any extraordinary mercy
nor by
what we do under the influence of those emotions
but by the habitual condition
of our hearts and minds toward God as concerned in His everyday gifts and our everyday
doings.
I. The accusation
made.
I. God complains
of revolt and rebellion against Him. The only rightful ruler over all: whose
power is absolute and independent
whose wisdom is unerring
whose justice
perfect
and whose goodness infinite: whose “statutes are” all “right
”
rejoicing the right-hearted
whose commandment is all pure
enlightening the
eye that is single.
2. And what thought was it in their hearts
which God construed as
rebellion against Him? It took in Israel’s heart the simple and familiar form
of mere unthankfulness to God for “common mercies.”
II. The proof of
their rebellion and revolt.
1. They did not in the gift of a good harvest discern God at all.
2. If
as I feel too much afraid it is
this part of the proof of a
rebellious heart be in us
of necessity the other part will not be wanting: and
as God saith in the text of His people of old
“Neither say they in their
hearts
Let us now fear the Lord our God
” so neither shall we say the same.
The goodness of God is meant to lead men to repentance. (F. C. Clark
B. A.)
Sin is revolt and rebellion against Christ-our King
One day
over in Australia
at Maryboro’
an unusually
fine-looking man came in and said
“I want to talk with you. I don’t know about
your preaching. I am a moral
upright man
and nobody can deny it. I should
like you to tell me what you have got against me.” I said
“Are you a
Christian? No
sir.” “Well
then
I charge you with high treason against your
King. God made Him so
and I charge you”--and I looked him right in the
eye--“with the crime of high treason against your King.” An awful cloud came
over the man’s face. He got up and walked out of the room. Months passed away.
We had been over to Tasmania
and got back to Australia
and were preaching at
Ballarat
about forty miles
I think
from Maryboro’. At the close of one of my
meetings
a fine-looking man came and said
“Do you remember me?” I replied
“I
have seen you somewhere but 1 cannot trace you.” “Do you remember charging a
man with high treason?” I said
“I have charged many a man with high treason.”
He said
“Do you remember charging a specific man?” and he narrated the
circumstances. “Yes
” I said
“I do.” He replied
“I am the man. You will never
charge me with it again.” He held out his hand and I held out mine. He took me
in his mighty grip
and dropped on his knees and I on mine. He looked up and
said
“Lord Jesus
I hand in my allegiance; I give up my treason and take Thee
as my King.” You men ought to do it tonight. (A. Torrey.)
Verse 24
Let us now fear the Lord our God
that giveth rain
both the
former and the latter
in his season: He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks
of the harvest.
The former and the latter rain
Such are the climate and soil of Palestine
that all agricultural
operations are most manifestly dependent upon the periodical rainfall. Hence
the people speak of the weather and the crops with a more immediate reference
to God than is usual with us. It is said that the common expressions of the
peasantry are such as quite strike travellers with their apparently devout
recognition of the Almighty agency. Certainly we may account for a very large
number of what may be called the agricultural promises of the Old Testament
from the fact that little of the food of the people was gained by manufacture
or commerce
and the whole population depended upon the field
and the field
upon the rain. Although our climate does not so immediately remind us of our
dependence upon God
yet it would be well if we remembered whence all our
blessings come
and looked up to the hand from which our daily bread is
distributed. When He giveth seasons propitious for the harvest
let us thank
Him for it; and if at any time He restraineth the blessings of the elements
and leadeth the air with blight and mildew
let us fear and tremble before Him
and humble ourselves before His chastening hand. Gratitude for providential
mercies is not
however
the subject of this discourse. I intend to use the
text rather in a spiritual sense. As it is in the outward world
so is it in
the inward; as it is in the physical
so is it in the spiritual: man is a
microcosm
a little world
and all weather and seasons find their image in him.
The earth is dependent upon the rain from heaven
so are the souls of men
and
so are their holy works
dependent upon the grace shower which cometh from the
great Father of Light
the giver of every good and perfect gift.
I. The work of God
as it is carried on without. It is needful
whenever any holy enterprise is
commenced
that it should be early watered by the helpful Spirit of God.
Nothing beginneth well unless it beginneth in God. It cannot take root
it
cannot Spring up in hopefulness
except the Holy Spirit shall descend upon it;
it will wither like the grass upon the housetops if the celestial dew of the
morning fall not early upon it. The like grace is equally needful after years
of growth; there is urgent need of the latter rain
the shower of revival
in
which the old work shall be freshened
and the first verdure shall be restored;
for without this latter rain
the period of harvest
which is the end aimed at
will be disappointing.
II. Apply the text
to our spiritual life within us.
1. Here note that usually the spiritual life
as soon as it is
commenced
experiences a former rain
or a delightful visitation of grace. So
blessed was our first conversion to some of us
that those first days are as
green and fragrant in our memories as if they were but yesterday; they are as
fresh and fair as if they had but just budded in the garden of time. To hear
anyone talk of a precious Christ and of pardon bought with blood
and of full
and free salvation
was heaven to us. If
in those days
we had to suffer anything
for Jesus
we only regretted we could not suffer more. That was the early rain.
The seed had just been sown
and the Master to make it take deeper root and
spring up faster into the green blade
gave us the sacred shower of His loving
presence. There was much tender wisdom in this gentleness
for the newborn soul
is very weak then. Besides
our Master at that time gave us the early rain
as
it were
to give our young plant a start in commencing our heavenly growth--a
growth to which we might look back in after years. How often have we been
refreshed since then in our times of sorrow
by recollecting the months past
when the candle of the Lord shone round about our head! Beloved Christian
if
thou art now this day in the dark
pluck a torch from the altars of yesterday
with which to kindle the lights of today. The faithful Promiser was with thee
then; thou hadst His love to cheer thee then: go to Him yet once more
and thou
shalt receive the latter rain of renewed grace from Him who giveth grace upon
grace.
2. It is very usual in the life of grace
for the soul to receive in
after years
a second very remarkable visitation of the Holy Spirit
which may
be compared to the latter rain. Believe me
the life of grace is no dead level
it is not a fen country
a vast fiat. There are mountains
and there are
valleys. There are tribes of Christians who live in the valleys
like the poor
Swiss of the Valais
who live in the midst of the miasma
where fever has its
lair
and the frame is languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the lowlands of
unbelief are forever doubting
fearing
troubled about their interest in
Christ
and tossed to and fro; but there are other believers
who
by God’s
grace
have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion. Their
place is with the eagle in his eyrie
high aloft. They are like the strong
mountaineer
who has trodden the virgin snow
who has breathed the fresh
free
air of the Alpine regions
and therefore his sinews are braced
and limbs are
vigorous; these are they who do great exploits
being mighty men
men of
renown. The saints who dwell on high in the clear atmosphere of faith
are
rejoicing Christians
holy and devout men
doing service for the Master all
over the world
and everywhere conquerors through Him that loved them. And I
desire
oh
how earnestly I desire you to be such men!
3. The text speaks of a third thing. There is the former rain
and
the latter rain
and then he says
“He has reserved for us the appointed weeks
of harvest.” Yes
if we shall get this latter rain--and may we have it!--it
will then be time to be looking forward to our harvest. Consider well that the
harvest begins in the field
though it ends in the garner. Going to heaven
begins upon earth; and as the text tells us of weeks
so may I add that going
to glory is often a long work. We are like a balloon while it is tied to the
earth
it cannot mount; even so our ascent to heaven is delayed by a thousand
detaining cords and bands
and the process of setting us free is cutting the ropes
one by one. The wheat may well rejoice for the sharp cuts of the sickle
because it is the sign of going home to the garner. After the wheat is cut it
stands in shocks
shocks of corn fully ripe
not growing out of the earth
but
merely standing on it. The shock is quite disconnected from the soil. How happy
is the state of a Christian when he is in the world but is not linked to it!
His ripeness drops here and there a grain into the soil
for he is still ready
to do good
but he has no longer any vital connection with aught below
he is
waiting to be in heaven. Here comes the wain. The corn is put into it
and with
shoutings it is carried home. Soon will our Heavenly Father send His chariot
and we who have been ripened by the latter rain
and separated from earth by
His Spirit’s sickle
shall be borne in the chariot of triumph
amidst the
shoutings of the angels
and the songs of thrice blessed spirits
up to the
eternal garner. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The God of harvest
I. Some of the
aspects of the operations of the God of harvest. The artist will not be called
a painting
or the poet an ode
although it is his production; neither will God
allow creation to stand for Himself. But the artist’s painting
and the poet’s
ode
reveal perception
and genius
and feeling
and inspiration
which lead us
to the threshold of their personality. So creation is brimful of the power
wisdom
and goodness of its Maker
and providence teems with evidences of care
beneficence
and tenderness on the part of its Author.
1. The God of harvest is the God of life. Take upon the palm of your
hand one grain of corn
and examine it. We are told that it is one leaf folded
up tightly. Whether it is strictly so or not
there is an outer garment to ward
off the severity of the weather
and there is a finer inner garment
with
underclothing. But where is life? Is it between the folds
or is there some
small particle of matter in the centre which is its secret cell? What is the
action which takes place when life springs forth? What are light
and heat
and
moisture in relation to life? How does life appropriate to itself substances
that have in them no life? And lastly we ask
How does life rise up a
hundredfold from the ashes of its own death? These are questions which we
cannot answer. To answer them would destroy their very design
for they are
there to conduct an inquiry which ends not in themselves but in God.
2. The God of harvest is the God of progress and beauty. There is a
process which appears to us to be death
and not any step towards the expansion
of life. When the grain has been in the earth some time there is a dissolving
of its compactness
as if it could not hold its own against contending forces.
It bursts also
as if its girdles were broken. The next step which might be expected
to follow is its reduction to the consistency of the clod in which it is
lodged. But we are not correct in our estimate of that process. Life has found
in the earth what she delights to find at all times--a secret spot to unfold
her powers. Silently and unobserved she unfolds the leaf
and sends it forth
into the blade and the ear. The process we have alluded to is one of repulsion
without a single comely feature to relieve it. But the fact is
nature is there
in her laboratory preparing to send forth life dressed in magnificent beauty.
The cornfield
width its golden crop
is one of the loveliest sights in nature.
Progressive steps develop the hidden beauties of life. If we further continue
our observation
that which we consider to be the termination of all life is
its real commencement. The present is the time of ploughing and sowing
the
reaping will come by and by.
3. The God of harvest is the God of final and beneficent issues. God
works in cycles
but providence is not without intermissions in the turn of the
wheel. Periods of action are sharply marked off. Summer and winter may be said
to reverse each other
although their revolutions accomplish but one end. These
changes prove the existence of a guiding hand
as much as the tacks which the
ship makes prove that the man is at the wheel. The thought that all these
changes
with a direct and a reversible action
bring about ends transcending
in goodness and beauty everything of the kind in the actions themselves
ought
to influence us not to seek in labour the joy of harvest. The husbandman does
not grind and bake all his corn
but is as careful to keep the best of it for
seed
as he is anxious the other part should be wholesome food for his family.
So we cannot hope for future joy if no present seed is sown. Good seed cast
into good ground--the Word of God sown in the heart--will be watered by His
Spirit
Words spoken from the heart
and actions prompted by love
sown in the
breasts of others
will grow into a plenteous harvest. The Lord has reserved a
period of rejoicing for Christian workers.
II. Reverence and
gratitude are due to the God of harvest.
1. A due regard for His honour. Reverence is a state of feeling
produced by a sense of the majesty of God
and is the principal element in true
worship. This holy passion is better felt than described. It is not a passion
wholly created by a sense of sinfulness
which would be simply a dread of His
displeasure
but an intense regard for God’s glory. His name is never
pronounced except with a feeling of awe
and His works with a sense of
reverence. His Word is holy
and His presence sought in the deepest humility.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
2. A deep sense of gratitude. Reverence for God does not crush the
love of the soul. It has no frowns
but a smile. We worship and look up. We
read the heart of the Giver in the gifts. All His servants are loaded with
gifts for us. “The earth has He given to the children of men.” Its
magnificence
its attractions
its beauties
its riches
its harvests
are all
ours. More than the earth
yea
and more than the heavens
hath He given unto
us
“Who gave His only begotten Son.”
3. An earnest desire for service. The hurry must be fed
and the
naked clothed. The widow needs a friend and the orphan a father. Have we
nothing to lend to the Lord by giving to the poor? Is there not a holy ambition
in our souls to emulate Him who went about doing good? (T. Davies
M.
A.)
Voices of God in the harvest
I. There are
voices of God in the yearly harvest. God has mercifully set our lot in an age
when the perils of famine and of desolating wars are very seldom known
and in
very limited degrees. In past ages the yearly harvest was much more hazardous
than it is now that countries are more settled and agricultural science so much
farther advanced. Yet in those days God did not withhold His promised harvests
from the world
only from parts of it. Not one single year of the world’s
history has passed by without a gathered harvest somewhere; only the imperfect
communication between distant countries did not then permit the surplus of one
land to supply the deficiencies of another. Can any true soul look upon the
“valleys covered over with corn
” and fail to hear them “shouting for joy and
also singing” of the goodness of God? What merciful care of His creatures is
thus displayed! How surely a moment’s failing interest on the part of God would
leave our harvest only “a heap in a day of sadness and of desperate sorrow”!
There are many who can discern something of the goodness of the God of
providence
who yet try to persuade themselves that it is another kind of God
who deals with men as sinners--another God
and this God only a God of stern
demands
severities
and vengeance. It is not so. The God of redemption is the
very God of bounteous nature. His yearly mercy is designed to carry home to our
hearts the very call made by Christ
and by the Word--the call to repentance
and trust. In the salvation by Jesus Christ we ought to see in sublime glory
that very goodness that spreads our fields with waving corn. In the yearly
harvest there is also a voice speaking out God’s faithfulness. Every year He is
only doing what He promised our forefather He would do for him and for his
descendants; He is only keeping His word. God’s faithfulness to His promise is
painted in splendid colours right across the sky in every sun-glinted shower.
God’s faithfulness to His promise is sung out by every cloud-flecked
waving
cornfield
every gathered sheaf
and every loaded barn.
II. The special
voices of God in this year’s harvest.
III. The voices of
God in the scripture use of the harvest.
1. In Scripture
and by the Lord Jesus Christ
the harvest is used as
an illustration
and employed to impress Christian duty
especially the duty of
working diligently and earnestly in Christ’s work
the ingathering of sinners
to His love
salvation
Church
and heaven.
2. Harvest is also used in Scripture to point a call to us to prepare
for the judgment day
and the eternal world. (R. Tuck
B. A.)
Harvest thoughts
The harvest
with its long train of preparatory works--ploughing
and seed time
spring and autumn rains
the rest of winter and the heat of
summer--is not only the great support of our life in this world--the great
business of the year
as far as bodily health and strength are concerned; but
it is throughout an instance of our Heavenly Father’s teaching us
without
book
many of the truths which it most concerns us to know.
1. He meant us to take notice
first
of His continual presence and
power in bringing forward the fruits of the earth. We are not so stupid as to
imagine that corn will spring up of itself in our fields
whether it be sown at
all or no. When we see a piece of land well stored with it and free from weeds
we do not ascribe it to chance
but we acknowledge that the hand of man has
been busy in that place. But consider how much more skilful the work is
to
form out of a dry seed
by mixture with a little earth and water
the several
parts of an entire plant--the root
the stalk
the blade
the flower
the
grain--and be ashamed to recollect how seldom you have thought of that infinite
skill and wisdom
in comparison with the notice you have taken of man’s part
so very fax inferior
in the work of bringing food out of the earth. Man does
his portion of labour and goes away
and sets about something else: but the
work of God is forever going on
and therefore we may be sure the workman is
forever present.
2. It is the more shameful not to take notice of this; because the
growth of corn is
from beginning to end
a work of God’s mercy as well as of
His power. It is a sort of token
to our very outward senses
that He has not
left us nor forsaken us
for all we have done to provoke Him; and who is there
that has a just sense of his own sin and unworthiness
who will not thankfully
receive every thing
both in nature and in Scripture
which encourages him to
meditate on so cheering a truth as this?
3. Then
the manner in which the harvest is made available for the
supply of our wants may offer abundance of useful instruction although He does
so much for us
in forming
watching over
nourishing
and ripening the plant
yet it is not His will we should enjoy the benefit of it without exertion on
our own part. “In the sweat of our face we must eat bread”: we must put it in
the ground in the first instance: we must fence
manure
weed
and reap
or all
God’s mercy in giving us the fruits of the earth
will at last be thrown away
upon us. It is no otherwise in what concerns our spiritual happiness and eternal
salvation. We must do our part by faith and prayer and sincere obedience
or we
cannot expect God to do His. We must employ so much common sense
as to look
forward to another world
and not to mind trifles any more than we can help
while eternal things are open before us. The cultivation of the earth
like the
other employments of this life
is not blessed alike to all; and it very often
may happen
that God sends prosperity on a bad man’s harvest
while the crop of
the righteous fails. This
to unbelieving dispositions
is another excuse for
irreligious thoughts
and practices; as if God had not warned us beforehand
“that He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good
and sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust.” God does not think so much of the good things
of this world
as to account them a sufficient reward for His faithful
servants; by them
or by the want of them
He is trying us in this world
to
fit us for our real reward in the next: and to murmur because good harvests
or
any other worldly goods
are not bestowed on men according to their behaviour
is as if a man on a journey should be angry and discontented
because he does
not find all the comforts of repose and home whilst he is moving along the
road. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times.”)
The God of nature
I. The doctrine
asserted. “The Lord our God giveth
” etc. He is the immediate bestower of what
we call natural benefits.
1. The Giver of rain.
2. The Appointer of harvest. “He reserveth
” etc. Important and
interesting season. God has appointed it--
II. The duty
inferred.
1. Cultivate continual acknowledgment of God.
2. Exercise entire dependence upon God.
3. Render perpetual thanksgiving to God.
4. Devote ourselves to the faithful service of God. (H. Parr.)
Harvest voices
Is there not a modern tendency to exclude God from the harvest
field
to put an atheistic trust in secondary causes--subsoil ploughing
artificial manures
the rotation of crops and the like? Nature to the seeing
eye and listening ear is sacramental. “Earth is crammed with heaven
” and the
air is redolent with a celestial music.
1. The prophet would have us cherish that filial
reverent and
thankful fear towards the great Giver of all which will save us from perverting
His gifts. Without a due recognition of God our temporal prosperity becomes a
curse. Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked. An engraving by Retseh illustrating a
great poem gives us the angels dropping roses from the skies on the heads of
denizens in Inferno. Reaching them these fragrant gifts turn to molten lead but
to scorch and burn. Is it not thus when the blessings of a kindly providence
fall on selfish and ungrateful hearts? The intended boon becomes a bane and the
perverted gift a corrosion and a blight. Such is the characteristic sign of
worldliness. It is a profanation of life’s gifts to basest uses
and a missing
of the higher good. But the bounteousness of each glad harvest time should
remind us that we are pensioners on the lavish goodness of our Heavenly Father
in order that we may use it as He alone wills
for we are beneficiaries every
one
and
as such
trustees of heaven’s manifold mercies and gifts.
2. The thought of “life out of death” is conveyed to the spiritual
mind. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die
it abideth alone:
but if it die
it bringeth forth much fruit.”
3. Another suggestion from the harvest is that of cooperation with
God. Take a field of corn; it has not come of itself. Geologists never find
amid the fossilised remains of primeval vegetation a trace of corn. It is
specifically a human product. Wild wheat is unknown. Corn is the product of
civilised man. It implies tillage
and this in a sense not true of many other
products that minister to man’s need. So also is it in the development of
Christian character. We are “workers together with God.” We do not attain to
eminence by accident
or
as it were
automatically. It is true that “salvation
is of God”; we are “saved by grace through faith; and that not of ourselves: it
is the gift of God.” But there is sense in which salvation is a process
a
diligent culture
a strenuous warfare
a glad but real obedience. We must work
out what God works in if we are to come to a real possession of truth and of
Christian excellence. The graces of Christian life are not like pictures thrown
on a screen by a magic lantern
they are rather like the strands woven in a
costly fabric by the weaver at his loom. To change the figure
finished
husbandry of soul involves sedulous and patient culture
prayerful self-examination
and a mastery of that inner realm of our being where desire
motive
volition
play their determining part in human character. Truth is real
something
trowed
when it has become a working and victorious principle in the life.
Other than this
it is like so much unused capital locked up in a bank
or so
much unworked land on a farm. The Chinese
it is said
discovered the magnetic
needle centuries before it was known in the western world. But it was a mere
toy. They did not use it for new voyages of discovery or for enterprise in
commerce. Its practical utility was nil. May not we commit a similar futility
in Christianity?
4. Again
“Everything in its season
” the harvest seems to say
“First the blade
then the ear
then the full corn in the ear.” So each period
in human life has its appropriate work. We cannot postpone duty and expect the
reward of honest diligence. A pious
well-instructed youthhood should go before
the active responsibilities and burdens of mid life
as both of these must precede
and determine the mellow ripeness of advanced age. No one period in life can do
the work of another period. Each has its own function and opportunity. Religion
is a sublime forecast to be made use of in life’s early season
and not an
afterthought darkened only with unavailing regrets when the summer has ended
and the harvest we had wished is forever beyond our reaping. “Know thy
opportunity” was written on the temple of Delphos. It is written deep on the
face of time.
5. Let us remember that as the grain of one harvest is the seed of
the next
so our life is reproductive
and its influence far-reaching and
beyond our power to compute. Moreover
there is a wondrously cumulative power
in Christian work and influence; the reaping is larger than the sowing. A
self-multiplying process is ever going forward
and the results lie beyond our
reckoning. We think of the beginning of things
the initial stages of great
reform movements
the so-called forlorn hopes of the past
and with grateful
wonder we greet today their fruitful
immeasurable issues. It is difficult for
even the most sceptical and slow of belief to resist the lesson of history
that moral and spiritual forces rule and shape the destiny of this world
and
that humanity and Christianity are meant the one for the other. (Aldersgate
Magazine.)
Lessons from the harvest
I. In reference to
God.
1. Admiration.
2. Dependence. We can only lay the seed down in the ground and cover
it with the soil. God does all the rest.
3. Gratitude. Remember how many difficulties are in the way of every
harvest
and how nicely He must adjust the balance of all the influences
required to produce it. Too much rain or too little; too powerful and constant
sunshine
or too unfrequent; too violent winds
or too dell and general calm
would render our autumn unfruitful. Consider
also
how many arrests there are
which we have seen
and of whose fruits we have partaken.
4. Confidence. The sun may fail to ripen the corn
the seed may lose
its germinating power
the rain may spoil it
or the wind may shake it; but God
has said we shall have harvest
and we always have it. But nothing can by any
possibility deprive the blood of Christ of its purifying and saving efficacy:
how much more
then
may we expect that promise to be accomplished which says
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life”?
II. In reference to
ourselves.
1. Activity. Although the corn may be ripe in the fields
it will be
useless unless gathered into the barn. So is it with God’s blessings through
Christ. Our Saviour has died; but what will this avail unless we use the means
by which we may obtain the benefits He has purchased?
2. Death.
3. Judgment. (W. Dickson.)
Reflections on harvest
I. The regular
return of harvest is an obvious proof of the existence and providence of God.
The fruits of the earth
so necessary to the support of animal life
depend on
causes beyond the reach of human power. The whole management of the natural
world is in hands superior to ours
in the hands of an invisible
almighty Being.
II. The time of
harvest naturally calls us to pious meditations and reflections.
1. The seasons are so ordered
as to remind us of the shortness of
human foresight. From past experience we expect a harvest in its appointed
weeks
and rarely is our expectation frustrated. But the event is not always
adjusted to the measure of our hopes. It often falls short
and often exceeds
them. The management of the seasons
however
is in unerring hands. Rational
beings
in the care of infinite wisdom and goodness are always safe
while they
proceed in the line of their duty
and never ought they to indulge anxiety.
With Him who governs futurity
they may calmly trust all events.
2. Our dependence is apparent
as in many other things
so especially
in the return of harvest. If God sends His blessing
none can revoke it. If He
withhold His smiles
our toil is fruitless.
3. Scripture speaks of harvest as a season of gratitude and joy.
4. Harvest teaches diligence and frugality.
5. Harvest inculcates benevolence. Religion consists in an imitation
of God’s moral character
especially of His diffusive and disinterested
goodness.
6. Harvest reminds us of the shortness of life
and calls us to the
diligent improvement of our time. Food and raiment are needful for the body;
seek them you may; but rather seek the kingdom of God
and these things will be
added.
7. Harvest should be a season of self-examination. We are God’s
husbandry. Much has He done for us. What could He have done more? Have we
answered His cost? The field
which bringeth forth herbs
meet for Him by whom
it is dressed
receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and
briars
is nigh unto cursing
whose end is to be burned.
8. Harvest reminds us of our obligation to faith and patience. We
have a kind of natural faith
which
standing on the ground of past experience
looks forward with expectation of a future harvest. Let Christians
enlightened
by revelation
look beyond this world to things unseen; and
relying on the
promise
truth
and grace of God
anticipate the blessings of the heavenly
state. (J. Lathrop
D. D.)
Lessons from the harvest
I. The blessings.
Fruitful showers
and brilliant suns
and azure skies
and earth covered with
its bright green clothing
are
indeed
in themselves
blessings; but this
character is much more emphatically applied to them when we remember that they
are not only beautiful spectacles to delight our eyes and to minister to our
senses of enjoyment
but that they yield that sustenance
without which
the
globe would soon be thinned of the tribes which inhabit it
and there would be
no human eye to rejoice in its beauties. Yes
the great blessing is
that human
life is to be sustained by the produce which the fruitful seasons have thus
secured to us. What blessings
then
are “the former and the latter rain” and
“the appointed weeks of the harvest
” which supply this food. But it is chiefly
on account of our never-dying souls that the fruitful seasons are a blessing.
There is this and that person who now
perhaps
are but cumberers of the
ground
bus who are upheld in life one year longer
that the seed of eternal
life may be now sown in their hearts--that they may
at length
be made
fruitful unto God
and become heirs of a glorious immortality.
II. The source of
these blessings.
1. Man
when he would account for any event
in his ungodliness
frequently ascribes is to chance or good luck. But there is no such word in a
Christian man’s vocabulary. We must carefully distinguish between the agency of
“the Lord our God” and second causes. There is a sad tendency in man to put the
instruments which God makes use of to bring to pass all His will in the place
of God Himself.
III. The return
which God requires.
1. As individuals
let the undeserved goodness of the Lord lead you to
fear Him. Ask the gift of the Holy Ghost
to impress your heart with a deep and
abiding sense of God’s goodness
at the present time--to humble you under a
sense of your own ingratitude; to lead you to Jesus Christ for pardon
peace
and acceptance with God.
2. As heads of families
“let us fear the Lord our God.” “As for me
and my house
we will serve the Lord.”
3. As subjects of our beloved Sovereign--as members of the
commonwealth--“let us fear the Lord our God.” The national character is made up
of the aggregate of individual character. (H. Caddell
M. A.)
Verses 26-31
As a cage is full of birds
so are their houses full of deceit:
therefore they are become great and waxen rich.
Wicked professors the bane of the Church
I. God has a
people on earth.
1. His creation.
2. Called by Him from darkness to light.
3. Privileged
pardoned
regenerated
adopted.
II. In the Church
there is an unhappy admixture of wicked men. This applies to--
1. Those religious establishments whose constitution and discipline
offer no restraints to the admission of such characters.
2. Mere hearers of the Gospel.
3. Those who have entered the Church without real conversion.
4. Those wilfully inactive in the Church.
5. Those who interrupt the peace and harmony of the Church.
III. This mixture of
the wicked with the godly is a fact. “Are found”--by whom?
1. Frequently by themselves (1 John 2:19).
2. Persecution has
and so has temptation.
3. By Christians
to whom their unholy course is a grief.
4. By God (Revelation 3:18). Odious to Him.
5. Some will not be found till the day of judgment (Matthew 3:12; Matthew 13:28-30).
IV. The injurious
influence of the conduct of such professors.
1. They bring reproach upon religion (Romans 2:24).
2. The hearts of the godly are grieved and their hands weakened (Joshua 7:12; Joshua 7:25; 1 John 2:7; Philippians 3:18).
3. The Church is in danger of being injured by them (Hosea 5:3).
4. It frequently prevents accessions to the Church.
5. The guilt of such persons is highly aggravated
and their
punishment will be awful. (Helps for the Pulpit.)
Wickedness rampant in the city
We have
in this chapter
a most melancholy set of pictures of
untruthful men
which are drawn to the life with a grimly graphic touch which
strongly reminds one of the series of Hogarth’s sketches known as the “Rake’s
Progress.” They hold the mirror up not only to the life
but to the heart of
the men of the times. Jerusalem was rotten at the core: the nation was
deceitful through and through. “As a cage is full of birds
so are their houses
full of deceit.” They had schemes without number
plots without end
and tricks
without limit
moving about in their minds like birds herded together in a
little cage. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
My people love to have it
so.--
God’s people love to have it so
Earnest people like to believe that the world is growing better
all the time. They look upon the bright side of things; they behold the spread
of the spirit of Christianity more and more in the affairs of nations; wars are
discouraged; a higher standard of personal obligation obtains; the wrongs of
the wretched and oppressed are being championed
and in many very important
particulars redressed; man everywhere in civilised lands seems possessed of an enthusiasm
to make the best of himself.
1. All of this sort of thing had its counterpart in the story of
Israel in the olden time. We have gone beyond the ancient people of God in all
sorts of ways; nevertheless
human nature is strangely akin still to what it
was in those days.
2. It is a very common temptation to rail at the degeneracy of our
own time
at the shortcomings of our own Church. We are all of us apt to fancy
ourselves prophets of the Lord when we know that we are in earnest
and the
reason we fancy ourselves so strong in that role is because one cannot easily
see all sides of a question at one time. Most earnest people are very
one-sided
often very unfair in their judgments. So I would not have you fancy
for a moment that I wish to pose as a Jeremiah denouncing and endeavouring to
reform the abuses of the Church of his time. We have an impersonal Jeremiah to
utter the solemn warnings of the Lord in our ears. It is the voice of the
Church herself. Well
we are very much concerned with the rest of the verse
“My people love to have it so.” Is that true?
And what will ye do in the
end thereof?--
What will ye do in the end?
I. There is an
end. Every step is getting nearer to the termination.
II. It would seem
to be of great importance at the end
what has been the character of the
course. It is not so much a question with God how the man died
as what the man
was when he came to die.
III. It is the part
of a thoughtful and wise man
often to consider the connection between the
present and the anticipated result. Every one admits this in matters of worldly
experience.
IV. This question
should be frequently and earnestly entertained by young men. It is most
important how you begin
so that as you go on habit may be on your side and
become your friend. (T. Binney
D. D.)
A question for the beginning
A large part of the wise conduct of life depends on grave
consideration of consequences. It is a sharp pointed question
that pricks many
a bubble
and brings much wisdom down into the category of folly.
I. A question
which every wise man will ask himself. The consideration of consequences is not
the highest guide
or always a sufficient one; or
by any means
in every case
an easily applied one. Do right! and face any results therefrom. He who is
always forecasting possible issues will be so afraid of results that he will
not dare to move; and his creeping prudence will often turn out the truest
imprudence. But whilst many deductions must be made from the principle laid
down
that the consideration of circumstances is a good guide in life
yet
there are regions in which the question comes home with illuminating force. I
believe that
in the long run
condition is the result of character and of
conduct
and
for the most part
men are the architects of their own condition
and that they make the houses that they dwell in to fit the convolutions of the
body that dwells within them. That being so
there can be nothing more
ridiculous than that a man should refrain from marking the issue of his
conduct
and saying to himself
“What am I to do in the end?” If you would only
do that in regard of hosts of things in your daily life you could not be the
men and women that you are. If the lazy student would only bring clearly before
his mind the examination room
and the unanswerable paper
and the bitter
mortification when the pass list comes out and his name is not there
he would
not trifle as he does
but bind himself to his desk and his task. If the young
man that begins to tamper with purity could see
as the older of us have seen
men with their bones full of the iniquity of their youth
do you think the
temptations of the streets and low places of amusement would not be stripped of
their fascination? “What will you do in the end?” Use that question as the
Ithuriel spear which will touch the squatting tempter at your ear
and there
will start up
in its own shape
the fiend. But the main application that I
would ask you to make of the text is in reference to the final end
the passing
from life. Death
the end
is likewise death
the beginning. Surely every wise
man will take that into consideration. Surely
if it be true that we all of us
are silently drifting to that one little gateway through which we have to pass
one by one
and then find ourselves in a region all full of consequences of the
present
he has a good claim to be counted a prince of fools who “jumps the
life to come
” and
in all his calculations of consequences
which he applies
wisely and prudently to the trifles of the present
forgets to ask himself
“And
after all that is done
what shall I do then?”
II. A question
which a great many of us never think about. “What will you do in the end?” Why!
half of us put away that question with the thought in our minds
if not
expressed
at least most operative
“There is not going to be any end; and it
is always going to be just like what it is today.” Did you ever think that
there is no good ground for being sure that the sun will rise tomorrow; that it
rose for the first time once; that there will come a day when it will rise for
the last time? The uniformity of nature may be a postulate
but you cannot find
any logical basis for it. Or
to come down from heights of that sort
have you
ever laid to heart
that the only unchangeable thing in this world is change
and
the only thing certain
that there is no continuance of anything; and that
therefore
you and I are bound
if we are wise
to look that fact in the face
and not to allow ourselves to be befooled by the difficulty of imagining that
things will ever be different from what they are? Another reason why so many of
us shirk this question is the lamentable want of the habit of living by
principle and reflection. They tell us that in nature there is such a thing as
protective mimicry
as it is called--animals having the power--some of them to
a much larger extent than others--of changing their hues in order to match the
gravel of the stream in which they swim or the leaves of the trees on which
they feed. It is like what a great many of us do. Put us into a place where
certain forms of frivolity or vice are common
and we go in for them. Take us
away from these
and we change our hue to something a little whiter. But all
through we never know what it is to put forth a good solid force of resistance
and to say
“No! I will not!” or
what is sometimes quite as hard to say
“Yes!
though”--as Luther said in his strong way--“there were as many devils in Worms
as there are tiles on the housetops
I will!” If people would live more by
reflection and by the power of a resisting will
this question of my text would
come oftener to them. And there is another cause that I must touch on for one
moment
why so many people neglect this question
and that is because they know
they durst not face it. What would you think of a man that never took stock
because he knew he was insolvent
and yet did not want to know it? And what do
you think of yourselves if
knowing that the thought of passing into that
solemn eternity is anything but a cheering one
and that you have to pass into
it
you never turn your head to look at it?
III. A question
especially directed to you young folk. It is so because with your buoyancy
with your necessarily limited experience
with the small accumulation of
results that you have already in your possession
and with the tendencies of
your age to live rather by impulse than by reflection
you are specially
tempted to forget the solemn significance of this interrogation. And it is a
question especially for you
because you have special advantages in the matter
of putting it. We older people are all fixed and fossils
as you are very fond
of telling us. The iron has cooled and gone into rigid shapes with us. It is
all fluent with you. You may be pretty nearly what you like. You have not yet
acquired habits--that awful thing that may be our worst foe or our best
friend--you have not yet acquired habits that almost smother the power of
reform and change. You have perhaps years before you in which you may practise
the lessons of wisdom
the self-restraint which this question fairly fronted
would bring.
IV. A question
which Jesus Christ alone enables a man to answer with calm confidence. As I
have said
the end is a beginning; the passage from life is the entrance on a
progressive and eternal state of retribution. And Jesus Christ tells us two
other things. He tells us that that state has two parts: that in one there is
union with Him
life
blessedness forever; and that in the other there is
darkness
separation from Him
death
and misery. These are the facts as revealed
by the incarnate Word of God on which answers to this question must be shaped.
“What will you do in the end?” If I am trusting to Him; if I have brought my
poor
weak nature and sinful soul to Him
and cast them upon His merciful
sacrifice and mighty intercession and life-giving Spirit
then I can say: “As
for me
I shall behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I
awake with Thy likeness.” (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
What will ye do in the end thereof
This is the message of God to sinful men in all times; and its
characteristics are the same now as they were when it was first uttered.
I. An unwelcome
question. As the bankrupt does not dare investigate his affairs
and the man
who is contracting intemperate habits or tampering with his employer’s property
does not dare think of the ruin and disgrace to which he is hastening
so the
man whose conscience is not easy
who suspects there is something wrong
dreads
to look into the future
and counts that man his enemy who ventures to insist on
his doing so. The whisper of this question sometimes comes into the heart of
the procrastinator--the worldling--the trifler--the backslider; and
with one
horrified glance forward
he too often shrinks back and tries to forget all
about it.
II. An unanswerable
question. The moment a man stands in thought in the midst of the degradation
ruin
and misery he has brought on himself
all his excuses fly; like the man
without the wedding garment
he is “speechless.” How mad to persevere in a
course that has such an end!
III. An imperative
question.
1. Because no forgetfulness of consequences will prevent them coming.
A man may put to sea in a leaky vessel and refuse to consider the remonstrances
of friends--he may even be ignorant of the facts; but that will not prevent his
foundering in the storm.
2. Because it furnishes the direct antidote to the seductions of sin.
The burnt child dreads the fire. The sailor avoids the sunken rock.
3. Because the end may be avoided. “Now is the accepted time.” (J
Ogle.)
Think about the end
Lange translates as follows: “What will they do when the end of
the song comes?”--I wonder if you are like some people whom I know: do you ever
turn to the end of the book in order that you may see how it finishes? It is
not a good method of reading
but this is what the prophet wished the Jews to
do: he desired them to think about the end of life. So many people forget all
about the end until it actually comes upon them. The farmer does not do so
for
while he sows he thinks about the harvest that will end his toil; it is good
for us all to consider often what the future will be. In the East there are men
who have most wonderful power over serpents. They play music and the snakes
remain quite still and obedient all the time that the song lasts; but what when
the song is done? While people are well and prosperous in doing evil they do
not think much about God
but what will they do when the song is all over? Then
they will find that they have been deceived. There were some wicked men who
once induced a large number of people to come together. These people paid their
money to the men and they came into the hall; but the men ran away with the
money. The people found then that they had been deceived. Some people do worse
for they deceive themselves; they hope that they are all right with God
they
hope that they shall reach heaven at last
and do no more. Others are deceived
by the opinions or books of those who seek to harm them. All sinners
we know
will one day find that they have been deceived
unless they repent at once and
believe on Jesus. And then they will also learn that they are unhealed. What a
dreadful thing it will be
if
when we die
we find that our hearts are evil
still! When people are in very great pain the doctors sometimes give to them
medicines that make the sick people sleep. They are not cured because they
sleep
but they do not feel the pain quite so much. So business and other
things deaden the feelings
but they do not cure the soul
for only Jesus can
do that. There is a fable that illustrates what I mean. A piper once played
such sweet music that all the children enjoyed it very much. While the piper
played upon his pipe the children were delighted. They followed him from their
homes until they were enticed into a cavern
and thus the song ended. This is
what Satan does: he entices us by his promises
but when the song is done we
shall find out that he has led us away from happiness and into suffering and
pain. Think about the end when you are tempted
and think also about the end
when it appears to be hard to do good. Ask yourselves
what will come after the
end? (J. J. Ellis.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》