DISCARD
 
 LIVING MESSAGES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
 
 By G. CAMPBELL MORGAN 
 
 Categorical Imperative* of the Christian 
 
 I :u..i 91.25 
 
 Studies In the Prophecy of Jeremiah 
 The Gospel According to Lube . 
 The Gospel According to Matthew . 
 The Gonpel According to Mark . . 
 The Acts of the Apostles ... 
 Searchlights from the Word . . 
 The Teaching of Christ . . 
 The Crises of the Christ. Popular Edition 
 
 92.50 
 $3.75 
 93.50 
 92.50 
 93.75 
 93.75 
 93.OO 
 93.00 
 
 Living Messages of the Books of the Bible 
 
 Now Complete In Two Volumes. Each 92.00 
 
 Vol. I, O. T. Genesis to Malachi. 
 
 Vol. II, N. T. Matthew to Revelation. 
 The Analyzed Bible. (Introductory) 
 
 Introductory Volumes. Vols. I, II. Ill, 
 
 3 Vols., Each 91.75 
 
 The Analyzed Bible. Each . . . 91-75 
 
 The Gospel According to John. 
 
 The Book of Job. 
 
 The Prophecy of Isaiah I. 
 
 The Prophecy of Isaiah II. 
 
 Genesis. 
 
 The Gospel of Matthew. 
 
 The Parables of the Kingdom. Exposi- 
 tions of Matt. XIII 91.75 
 
 The Spirit of God 91.50 
 
 The Ministry of the "Word . . . 91.50 
 
 God's Perfect Will $l.OO 
 
 Wherein Have We Robbed God? . . .75 
 
 The Study and Teaching of the English 
 
 Bible 75 
 
 The Ten Commandments .... .75 
 The Hidden Years at Nazareth . . .40 
 
 The Bible In Five Years. . . . Net .35 
 
 DEVOTIONAL 
 The True Estimate of Life and How to 
 
 Live 91.OO 
 
 Behold, He Cometh!" 75 
 
 The Practice of Prayer ... .75 
 
 .75 
 .75 
 .75 
 
 .50 
 
 The Simple Things of the Christian Life 
 
 Life Problems 
 
 Dlscipleship 
 
 The Christ of To-Day. What? Whence' 
 
 Whither? 
 
 Mountains and Valleys In the Ministry of 
 
 Jesus ....... .40 
 
 Christ and the Bible Paper-Boards Net .35 
 " All Things New." A Message to New 
 
 Converts. Paper .... Net .20 
 G. Campbell Morgan: The Man and His 
 
 Ministry 92.50
 
 Living Messages 
 
 of the 
 
 Books of The Bible, 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D. D. 
 f 
 
 GENESIS TO MALA CHI 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH
 
 Copyright, 1912, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 Now Complete in Two Volumes 
 izmo, cloth, each $2.00 
 
 The Living Messages 
 
 of the Books of the Bible 
 By G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, D.D. 
 
 Dr. Morgan here presents in a most scholarly 
 series of Expositions the truly Spiritual Messages 
 or Key-notes of each of the separate books of the 
 Bible, applying their various messages to the in- 
 dividual, the Church and the nation to-day in a 
 practical and convincing manner. Carefully ar- 
 ranged detailed charts accompany each of the 
 sixty-six divisions, showing their essential mes- 
 sages and applications. 
 
 United Presbyterian ; " They are messages 
 from God to man, to men of the time to which 
 they were written, but beyond them to men of 
 every age messages of sin, judgment, divine 
 love and salvation." 
 
 VOL. I. GENESIS MALACHI. (Old Testament 
 Complete in One Vol.) 
 
 VOL. II. MATTHEW REVELATION. (New Tes- 
 tament Complete in One Vol.) 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 WITH regard to the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament, Paul wrote, "Whatsoever 
 things were written aforetime were 
 written for our learning, that through patience 
 and through comfort of the Scriptures we might 
 have hope." 
 
 He thus clearly revealed the true mission of 
 these sacred writings in our day, as he declared 
 that they " were written for our learning, that 
 
 . . we might have hope." Their mission 
 is that of teaching, in order to the inspiration 
 of hope. 
 
 This view of the value of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures reveals a most important conception 
 of their nature. The apostle did not suggest 
 that the writers of olden times wrote with the 
 men of later ages in their thought. They wrote 
 for their own age, and for the men by whom 
 they were surrounded. Nevertheless the apostle 
 declared that these things were written for us. 
 It is evident, therefore, that he believed that be- 
 hind the authors there was an Author; that 
 
 i
 
 2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 encompassing the minds of the men who wrote 
 in different places, and at different times, was 
 one master Mind ; and that this Author had in 
 view not only the age in which these things 
 were written, but all successive ages. 
 
 The peculiar value of these ancient writings 
 for the present time is that they inspire hope in 
 those who read. Hope is an attitude of mind 
 in the midst of conflict, danger, and difficulty. 
 In the age of God's ultimate victory, hope will 
 be changed into sight and possession. What a 
 man sees, he no longer hopes for. The sacred 
 writings of the Hebrew people contain the 
 stories of men in the midst of conflict and peril, 
 reveal the confidences that filled them with 
 hope, tell of the victories they won, of the de- 
 feats they suffered ; and the supreme value of 
 these Scriptures is that they create hope for 
 those who are still upon the pilgrimage, who 
 are still in the thick of the battle, who are still 
 carrying on the work of building. The words 
 and works of God in ancient times, the victories 
 men won, and the defeats they suffered, all 
 serve to fill the heart with hope, as they reveal 
 the way of victory, and utter the word of warn- 
 ing.
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 The apostle with equal clearness revealed the 
 fnethod by which the Scriptures of the old 
 economy fulfilled this mission. This is indi- 
 cated by the words patience and comfort, which 
 with equal accuracy might be rendered endur- 
 ance and encouragement. 
 
 The meaning of endurance is perhaps best 
 illustrated for us by the eleventh chapter of the 
 letter to the Hebrews. To read that chapter 
 is to pass in review the whole of the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures. The great outstanding names 
 are mentioned, and others are referred to, whose 
 names are not given. Throughout the whole 
 chapter, faith is revealed as the principle of 
 victory. All these men are seen passing 
 through circumstances of difficulty and of 
 danger, with their eyes set upon an ultimate 
 purpose, which they supremely desired to be 
 accomplished. None of them reached the ulti- 
 mate goal, but they died contented, having seen 
 it from afar, and having endured, in their move- 
 ment towards it, " as seeing Him Who is in- 
 visible." The final declaration of the chapter 
 shows that the men of faith to-day are in the 
 same process. Referring to those named, the 
 writer said, " These all, having had witness
 
 4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 borne to them through their faith, received not 
 the promise, God having provided some better 
 thing concerning us, that apart from us they 
 should not be made perfect." Thus the things 
 written aforetime produce in the minds of those 
 who are continuing the conflict the quality of 
 endurance. 
 
 The word encouragement is perhaps even 
 more full of suggestiveness. It is closely allied 
 to the word in the New Testament which is used 
 of the Holy Spirit, the word Paraclete. All the 
 spacious value of the word Paraclete, as used of 
 the Holy Spirit, is contained in the word encour- 
 agement when used in reference to the Scriptures 
 of truth. It suggests appeal and advocacy. 
 The things written aforetime make their per- 
 petual appeal to men as they advocate the true 
 principle of life in the midst of conflict. 
 
 To summarize, the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament were written by many men in varied 
 circumstances. These men were thinking in all 
 probability, for the most part, of their own age. 
 They wrote songs of their own sorrows and 
 aspirations. They wrote the history of their 
 own times, declaring the faults and sins of the 
 people, as well as their victories. These things
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 they wrote for their own age. That, however, 
 is not all the story. Encompassing them, teach- 
 ing, guiding, instructing, was the One Who 
 knew all the ages, and saw the long process 
 clearly to the consummation ; and therefore 
 they contain living messages to us. In these 
 writings of the old economy the final message 
 is not to be found, " God, having of old time 
 spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by 
 divers portions and in divers manners, hath 
 at the end of these days spoken unto us in His 
 Son." The final message is the word of the 
 Son, and in it all those of the past merge into 
 perfect harmony ; yet these things written afore- 
 time help us to understand more perfectly the 
 all-inclusive message of the Son. 
 
 From this general study we may now make 
 certain deductions which will have a direct bear- 
 ing upon this series of studies in the messages 
 of the Old Testament. 
 
 As to origin we believe the Old Testament 
 Scriptures to be human in workmanship, but 
 Divine in compulsion. The holy men of old 
 wrote with perfect naturalness things of their 
 own age, but they wrote better and more com- 
 prehensively than they knew. Any careful study
 
 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the New Testament will show how these writers 
 perpetually quoted from the Old in such a man- 
 ner as to show that its statements were more full 
 of meaning than the men who wrote them knew. 
 The quotation immediately preceding the pas- 
 sage which we have been considering is a re- 
 markable illustration of this fact. "The re- 
 proaches of them that reproached thee fell upon 
 me " was a human statement describing a then 
 present experience. Yet the writer was guided, 
 perhaps all unconsciously, by the great master 
 Mind, in order that ultimately the final and 
 supreme suffering should be more perfectly 
 understood. Wherever there is Divine com- 
 pulsion behind human workmanship, that work- 
 manship becomes more than human ; it is Divine. 
 As to history, we believe the Old Testament to 
 be accurate in statement and faithful in presenta- 
 tion. Again, to take one illustration, we believe 
 that the Hebrew race, which, having lost its 
 nationality, has never been overwhelmed by, or 
 absorbed into, other races, sprang from that one 
 man who was the friend of God, and who at His 
 call went forth from his own land a pilgrim of 
 faith. We moreover believe that the present 
 "scattered and peeled " condition of that race is
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 the direct outcome of the sins and failures 
 chronicled accurately and faithfully in the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 As to religion, we believe the Old Testament 
 to be a foreshadowing of, and process towards, 
 the ultimate revelation which is contained in the 
 New Testament. Christ Himself is the Goal 
 towards which all the religious thinking of the 
 Old Testament Scriptures moves. Finality in 
 religion is not found in the things written afore- 
 time. The symbolism of the ancient worship is 
 a foreshadowing of that which is to come after. 
 The messages of the prophets and psalmists are 
 whispers which merge into perfect music only 
 when the Son Who is in the bosom of the Father 
 declares the God Who has never been seen. 
 All the highways through the centuries lead on 
 towards the city, but the city itself, the city of 
 God, can only be built by the King Himself. 
 From the darkness, through the twilight, men 
 moved towards the perfect light. Through all 
 the ages God followed His perpetual method, 
 line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little 
 and there a little. Through all the centuries He 
 said in effect to men what Christ actually said to 
 His disciples : " I have yet many things to say
 
 8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Thus, 
 quietly and surely, if slowly, God moved on to 
 the final Word, Who was made flesh. We do 
 not go back to the Old Testament to find the 
 religion of to-day. We do go to it to discover 
 the highways which led to finality in religion. 
 
 As to value, we therefore believe the Old 
 Testament Scriptures to be a revelation of God 
 and man preparatory to the final revelation of the 
 New. To read the Old Testament writings from 
 Genesis to Malachi, and to have no acquaintance 
 with the New, is still to be imperfectly acquainted 
 with God and man. 
 
 At the heart of the Old Testament may be 
 found the insignificant " What is man ? " At the 
 heart of the New is the great exclamation, " Be- 
 hold the Man." Yet the Old is of value as it re- 
 veals clearly the true principle of human life, the 
 real reason of human sorrow, all the highways 
 that lead towards human redemption. 
 
 So also the revelation of God in the Old Testa- 
 ment is valuable, but incomplete. He is in- 
 troduced by the simple statement of His infinite 
 Majesty as Creator. In the presence of that first 
 statement man stands a submissive worshipper, 
 but yet without any intimate knowledge of God
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 The Word must become flesh, must be seen, be 
 looked upon, be handled, be touched, ere man 
 will know God. 
 
 The chief value of the revelation of man and of 
 God in the Old Testament is that it makes per- 
 fectly clear man's need for God, and God's 
 method with man. Yet it leaves us crying with 
 Job for a " Daysman " able to put His hand upon 
 man in his helplessness, and upon God in His 
 holiness, and make them both one. 
 
 Recognizing these values and limitations of the 
 Old Testament Scriptures, we proceed to our 
 study, upon the assumption that every book has 
 some direct and living message having applica- 
 tion not to its own age merely, but to every suc- 
 ceeding one. The principles abide ; their ap- 
 plications vary with the varying ages. We 
 desire, then, in our new series to discover in each 
 book the central truth, and to make application 
 of it to the age in which we live. The method 
 to be followed, therefore, will be that of stating 
 the permanent values, and from these deducing 
 the living message.
 
 OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 BOOK ONE 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF 
 
 GENESIS 13 
 
 EXODUS ..;... 29 
 
 LEVITICUS 47 
 
 NUMBERS 65 
 
 DEUTERONOMY .... 83 
 
 JOSHUA 99 
 
 JUDGES 117 
 
 RUTH 133 
 
 I SAMUEL .... 147
 
 CONTENTS 
 THE MESSAGE OF- 
 
 II. SAMUEL 161 
 
 I. KINGS 177 
 
 II. KINGS 193 
 
 I. CHRONICLES 209 
 
 II. CHRONICLES .... 223 
 
 EZRA 237 
 
 NEHEMIAH 251 
 
 ESTHER 267
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. Theology 
 
 The Science of God. 
 
 II. Cosmogony 
 
 The Science of the Universe. 
 
 III. Anthropology 
 
 The Science of Man. 
 
 IV. Sociology 
 
 The Science of Society. 
 
 V. Hamartiology 
 
 The Science of Sin. 
 
 VI. Ethnology 
 
 The Science of Races. 
 VII. Soteriology 
 
 The Science of Salvation. 
 
 NOTE. These subjects are dealt with 
 in Genesis fundamentally, and not 
 finally. 
 
 I. God and Man are Intimately related 
 
 i. God created Man in His own Image, 
 ii. God governs Man for Man's own 
 
 Good, 
 iii. God loves Man. 
 
 II. Man realizes his own Life by Faith ID 
 God 
 
 i. Faith the simple Law of Life, 
 ii. Failure in Faith is Failure in Life, 
 iii. Faith may differ in expression. 
 
 Abraham, Obedient. 
 
 Isaac, Passive. 
 
 Jacob, Restless. 
 
 NOTE. Faith is the basis upon which 
 God can work out His will in man, 
 and man can work out his salvation 
 from God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 IT is perpetually being asked to-day whether 
 there are any permanent values in the book 
 of Genesis. In the light of later revelation 
 is there any reason for retaining this book, ex- 
 cept, perhaps, that of interest in an ancient writ- 
 ing which has yet no vital relationship to our 
 own times ? In answer to that enquiry it may 
 at once be stated that the whole system of the 
 Christian religion depends upon the accuracy of 
 certain statements made in this book. Without 
 them that system is an erection without a foun- 
 dation, conclusions without premises. These 
 declarations, at once the simplest and the pro- 
 foundest in the book, constitute its permanent 
 values, not merely because all subsequent Scrip- 
 ture depends upon them ; but also because it 
 there were no other writings, these statements 
 supply us with answers to questions which must 
 arise to the thinking mind. 
 
 The permanent values may be stated briefly 
 and concisely, in order that the living message 
 
 13
 
 14 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 may be deduced therefrom. There can be little 
 doubt that there are very many people who have 
 no particular desire to destroy the book of Gene- 
 sis, who are interested in it as a collection of 
 stories, having been familiar with it from child- 
 hood, who have, nevertheless, never realized of 
 what vital importance it is, and how much it con- 
 tains of supreme value. 
 
 Its values may thus be technically tabulated. 
 The book contains the foundation truths of the- 
 ology, cosmogony, anthropology, sociology, 
 hamartiology, ethnology, soteriology. These 
 words are used with the express purpose of indi- 
 cating the profound conviction that Genesis is 
 preeminently a scientific book. None of these 
 subjects are dealt with finally, but all are pre- 
 sented fundamentally. Genesis supplies men 
 with the rudiments of the science of God. It 
 offers a theory of the origin of the universe. It 
 says the first thing concerning the science of maa 
 It lays the foundations of the science of society. 
 It reveals the simplest matters of the science of 
 sin. It introduces the study of the science of 
 races. Finally, it presents the initial truths con- 
 cerning the science of salvation. 
 
 The essential value of the book is the funda-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 15 
 
 mental character of its teaching on all these mat- 
 ters. Its declarations meet us at the point where 
 knowledge, proceeding along the line of investi- 
 gation, fails ; and present truths undiscovered by 
 investigation. Investigation is a perfectly proper 
 exercise of the human mind. All that men are 
 doing in their attempt to discover the underlying 
 secrets of nature and life is in harmony with the 
 purpose of God in the creation of human intel- 
 lect. It is nevertheless conceded that man ever 
 arrives at a point beyond which he is unable to 
 go. It is at this point that Genesis speaks in 
 the terms of revelations made to man, rather 
 than a record of discoveries made by man- 
 Processes and consummations will be dealt with 
 in subsequent revelation, or discovered by fur- 
 ther investigation. To possess the book of 
 Genesis alone is not to be acquainted with the 
 final truth on any of the subjects named. It is 
 to have the initial word which no subsequent 
 discoveries contradict, and without which all 
 later declarations are meaningless. In order to 
 illustrate this let us pass over the ground in 
 briefest statement by enquiring what the book 
 supplies in each department, and what are the 
 things lacking.
 
 16 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 As to theology. Genesis presents God as 
 Creator, King, and determined Redeemer ; and 
 upon these fundamental facts all Christian the- 
 ology depends. The nature of God is not re- 
 vealed. His methods are not declared. His 
 ultimate purpose is not stated. 
 
 As to cosmogony. Genesis declares that the 
 whole universe has come into being by the will 
 and act of God. The hall-mark of the Divine 
 handiwork is upon every blade of grass and upon 
 every flaming constellation. Nothing is stated 
 in detail concerning the process of creation, or the 
 period occupied, or the ultimate purpose. 
 
 As to anthropology. Genesis teaches that 
 man is a mingling of dust and Deity by the will 
 and act of God ; a being placed under authority, 
 and having dominion over all things beneath 
 him : a being responsible, therefore, to God. 
 Nothing is said concerning the laws which regu- 
 late the interaction of the physical and the 
 psychical. Nothing is declared concerning man's 
 ultimate destiny. 
 
 As to sociology. Genesis reveals the truth 
 that the first circle of society is the family, based 
 upon the marriage relationship ; and that the 
 true nation is made up of families which rec-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 17 
 
 ognize their inter-responsibility under the 
 Divine government. The application of these 
 principles to varied and complex conditions is 
 not to be found in this book. 
 
 As to hamartiology. Genesis affirms that sin 
 in the case of man is failure of faith in the good- 
 ness of God, and consequent rebellion against 
 His government. The ultimate issues of sin in 
 individual destiny are not declared. 
 
 As to ethnology. Genesis records the break- 
 up of the unity of the race, following upon an 
 attempted confederacy of godlessness. The 
 ultimate issue in its scattering is not described. 
 
 As to soteriology. Genesis makes it perfectly 
 plain that human salvation must come from 
 God, and through man. In whispers and 
 symbols and shadows, man is taught that hav- 
 ing sinned, his only hope is that God will be his 
 Redeemer. Nothing is distinctly said concern- 
 ing the method or finality. 
 
 To deny the accuracy of these fundamental 
 statements is to lose the meaning of all sub- 
 sequent teaching. If God is not Creator, King, 
 and Redeemer, there is no resting place for man 
 other than the restlessness of agnosticism. On 
 the way to agnosticism, human speculations
 
 i8 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 may retain the name of religion ; but the logical 
 outcome of the denial of these fundamental as- 
 sertions concerning God is denial of the exist- 
 ence of God. 
 
 To deny what this book teaches concerning 
 the origin of the universe is to be compelled to 
 attempt to account for the things seen by some 
 undefined action and interaction within the 
 universe, which has behind it no personality. 
 
 To deny that man is a mysterious mingling of 
 dust and Deity by the will and act of God is 
 necessarily to be compelled to think of him as 
 the last product of animal evolution ; and there- 
 fore as himself an animal, and nothing more. 
 
 If the teaching be denied that human society 
 is founded on the family, and based upon the 
 marriage relationship, then sociology becomes 
 chaotic, and spurious socialism denies the 
 sanctity of or necessity for the marriage relation- 
 ship. 
 
 If the teaching be incorrect that sin is rebel- 
 lion against God, based upon unbelief, then 
 necessarily the terms in which it has been 
 described by the Christian faith must be modi- 
 fied, until eventually it is declared to be non- 
 existent, none other than the under side of good
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 19 
 
 Failure to accept the teaching that national 
 divisions are finally the outcome of a false at- 
 tempt at unity, based upon self-sufficient rebel- 
 lion against God, must ultimately result in affirm- 
 ing those divisions to be good which, neverthe- 
 less, have been productive of all wars and kindred 
 evils. 
 
 To deny the suggestions concerning human 
 salvation as possible only through the interven- 
 tion of God is ultimately to abandon the idea of 
 salvation as either unnecessary or altogether 
 impossible. 
 
 There is a sense in which these things do not 
 constitute the message of this book to our own 
 age, although they do constitute its permanent 
 values. For the sake of argument, let us sup- 
 pose that this book is the only inspired word 
 ever given to man. What is its ultimate mes- 
 sage? It teaches with unvarying definiteness 
 first, the immediate relation between God and 
 man ; and secondly, that the great principle for 
 the realization of human life is such faith in God 
 as expresses itself in obedience to His throne. 
 
 This book of first things declares the imme- 
 diate relation between God and man. It is per- 
 *ectly true that subsequent books state this more
 
 20 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 fully, and deal with it more explicitly. When 
 we pass from the sublime stateliness of these 
 original statements, through the giving of the 
 law, the establishing of worship ; through the 
 thunder of the prophets, and the wailing minor 
 threnody of their pleadings with humanity ; and 
 still on to the matchless and final splendour of 
 the brief words spoken by the Man of Galilee ; 
 through the unveiling of the meaning of these 
 words by the Spirit, in the apostolic writings, we 
 find this truth wrought out in greater detail and 
 with mightier force. Nevertheless, all that the 
 law indicated, all that the prophets enforced, all 
 that Jesus said, and all that the apostles ex- 
 pounded, depend absolutely for accuracy upon 
 the teaching of this truth as contained in this 
 book. If that first fact of man's relationship to 
 God is not established, then everything that fol- 
 lowed was false dreaming, mistaken enthusiasm, 
 or mischievous vapourizing. 
 
 Remembering the three main divisions of the 
 book, as indicated in the study of its content, 
 Generation, Degeneration, Regeneration, it is at 
 once evident that the supreme message every- 
 where is that God has to do with man ; man has 
 to do with God. In the first division we see the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 21 
 
 story of creation, tracing everything from the 
 material order to man, and then describing man 
 as to his nature and office ; and behind all the 
 processes of creation suggested, God is declared ; 
 and immediately presiding over the final move- 
 ment by which man appears, God is seen. That 
 is the first great truth. Man is related to God, 
 for He created him, and He alone perfectly un- 
 derstands him, and consequently He only can 
 govern him. The message of Genesis to our 
 own age is, first of all, that of man's immediate 
 relation to God. We need Genesis because it is 
 difficult sometimes to believe that any such rela- 
 tion exists. We look into the faces of men and 
 women, the flotsam and jetsam of our great 
 cities, at both ends of the social scale, and there 
 seems to be no trace of Deity. If in that state- 
 ment there seems to be something of personal 
 satisfaction, it is by no means intended. There- 
 fore let a personal word be spoken. To look 
 into one's own heart is to find it most difficult to 
 believe that man is " offspring of God." Never- 
 theless, when this book affirms that God said, 
 " Let us make man in our image, after our 
 likeness," and that He made him to have domin- 
 ion ; that He placed him in circumstances where
 
 22 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 he should be reminded of his relation to God, 
 and called upon to respond thereto ; I know that 
 I am reading the deepest truth of my own life. 
 This conception of the relation between man and 
 God creates that consciousness of what sin is, 
 which fills the soul with fear. The determined 
 prostitution of powers which are akin to God, to 
 purposes of evil, is terrible indeed ; and this 
 message concerning the true nature of man must 
 create a profound conviction of the awfulness of 
 sin. It is, nevertheless, a message of hope, for it 
 suggests the possibility of renewal. To be with- 
 out God is indeed to be without hope. To 
 believe the truth that man is related to God 
 is to know the renewal of hope. In this first 
 message then, there is thunder, but in it there 
 are also tears. It is because man loses his sense 
 of essential relation to God that sin and sorrow 
 continue. If we could say to the men of this 
 age, In His image, after His likeness, as we 
 ought, there would necessarily follow the pro- 
 foundest and deepest conviction of sin, and the 
 most genuine return to Him ; and therefore to 
 holiness of character, and righteousness of life. 
 
 The second message is an inevitable sequence 
 of the first. It is, indeed, a corollary, something
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 23 
 
 which is inseparable therefrom. As man is re- 
 lated to God by creation and government, it fol- 
 lows that the true secret for the realization of his 
 life is that of faith, which expresses itself in obe- 
 dience. This is at once taught as we pass into 
 the second division of the book, that dealing 
 with Degeneration. Man's confidence in God 
 was first shaken when the enemy said, " Yea, 
 hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of 
 the garden ? " and declared, " Ye shall not surely 
 die." He called in question the goodness and 
 truth of God, and thereby attacked the confidence 
 of a human being. When faith wavered, through 
 listening to a slander upon God, the issue was an 
 act of disobedience. Faith and obedience are 
 always joined together. 
 
 " Trust and obey, 
 For there's no other way " 
 
 may be so simple a statement as to be con- 
 sidered doggerel rather than poetry. It is, 
 nevertheless, the philosophy of Genesis, and of 
 the Christian religion. When trust failed, obedi- 
 ence ceased ; and immediately there passed over 
 all life a blasting and a mildew, and humanity 
 failed to realize itself. Thus the fundamental
 
 24 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 truth is taught that man can only realize his own 
 God-created life by trusting God, and walking in 
 the way of His commandment. 
 
 In the final division of the book, that dealing 
 with the beginnings of Regeneration, the prin- 
 cipal subject is that of the life stories of individual 
 and representative men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. 
 Throughout all these the supreme revelation is 
 that of God seeking to restore men to obedience 
 by restoring them to the main principle of human 
 life, that of faith in Himself. Faith is seen hav- 
 ing different methods of expression. In the case 
 of Abraham, seven communications were made 
 to him, and his faith was always obedient with- 
 out questioning. Two communications were 
 made to Isaac, whose faith was passive. To 
 him God spoke merely by way of ratification. 
 Five communications were made to Jacob, whose 
 faith was restless ; and these always came after a 
 period of wandering, in order to restore him. 
 The one principle is found in all ; in Abraham 
 obedient, in Isaac passive, in Jacob restless ; and 
 because that principle was present, God was able 
 to work for the remaking of these men, and they 
 were able to find their way back into conscious 
 relationship with Him.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 25 
 
 Thus the book reveals the fact that faith is the 
 basis upon which God can work His will in man, 
 and upon which man can realize the will of God. 
 All this is carried out in greater detail in subse- 
 quent books of the Bible, but this is the simple 
 and almost overwhelming message of Genesis to 
 the men of this age. First, that man is not 
 wholly of the dust, but that between him and 
 God there is immediateness of relationship ; and 
 secondly, that man only finds himself, and 
 realizes the true meaning of his own life as he 
 places his confidence in God, and obeys Him 
 with unquestioning loyalty. 
 
 Hear, then, the final message of the book. 
 Oh, man, thou art of God. Thou canst only 
 enter into thine own life and realize it as thy con- 
 fidence is reposed in Him, and thy obedience is 
 yielded to Him. That is the truth which this 
 book utters to all men as a philosophy of life. 
 To those who have fallen, and are excluded 
 from their own life because they are out of fel- 
 lowship with God, it declares that as they return 
 to the principle of faith in God, they will find 
 their feet placed again upon the highway that 
 leads them home. Not that they will be able to 
 rebuild the ruined temple, or reconstruct the
 
 26 THE MESSAGE OF GENESIS 
 
 wasted years, but He will be able to do these 
 things when they trust and obey. The book of 
 Genesis declares that the just shall live by faith. 
 Without faith it is impossible to please God. 
 These principles underlie every story, and con- 
 stitute the living message of the whole book.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 L The Divine Method with the Race, 
 and the Responsibility of the 
 Race 
 
 L The Method. 
 
 a. The Creation of a Testimony. 
 
 b. The Guarding of the Testimony, 
 ii. The Responsibility. 
 
 a. Created by the Testimony. 
 
 b. Limited by the Testimony. 
 
 II. The Divine Method with the Instru- 
 ment, and the Responsibility of 
 the Instrument 
 
 i. The Method. 
 
 a. A progressive Revelation of Him- 
 
 self. 
 
 b. A direct and minute Administra- 
 
 tion of Affairs. 
 ii. The Responsibilities. 
 
 a. Worship. 
 
 b. Obedience. 
 
 fll. The Divine Method with the Indi- 
 vidual, and the Responsibility of 
 the Individual 
 i. The Method. 
 
 a. Opportunities for Choice. 
 
 b. Ratification of Choice. 
 ii. The Responsibilities. 
 
 a. Choice. 
 
 b. Creation of Destiny. 
 
 I. The Sovereignty of God 
 i. His Righteousness. 
 
 a. In Purpose. 
 
 b. In Plan. 
 
 ii. His Judgment. 
 
 a. Wisdom. 
 
 b. Power. 
 
 II. The Salvation of Man 
 
 i. Worship. 
 
 a. God at Centre. 
 
 b. Life concentric. 
 ii. Obedience. 
 
 a. Simple and complete. 
 
 b. Against Opposition.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 IN the book of Exodus nothing is commenced, 
 nothing is finished. To read it, having no 
 acquaintance with the book preceding it, or 
 with those following, would be to be conscious of 
 incompleteness. The first word "Now "might 
 with equal accuracy be translated " And " ; 
 which immediately suggests relation to some- 
 thing which has gone before. The last phrase, 
 "Throughout all their journeys," connects with 
 what is to follow, for the book contains no ac- 
 count of the journeys referred to. 
 
 These facts help us to understand the message 
 of the book. It is a part of a larger whole, and 
 its supreme value is its revelation of the procedure 
 of God in human history. There are two ways 
 in which we may consider the story it tells. We""\ 
 may think of it as a record of the doings of men, \ 
 or as the record of the doings of God. To adopt 
 the former method is to be impressed with the J 
 sense of failure. The story of Moses is one of 
 
 failure and weakness, save when he was victori- 
 
 29
 
 30 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 ous and strong as the result of his relationship to 
 God. The greatness of the man can only be 
 accounted for in that illuminative word of the 
 psalmist, " Thy gentleness hath made me great." 
 Aaron is a perpetual revelation of weakness. 
 The story of the people is one of unceasing 
 failure, caused by their inability to rise to the 
 height of the revelations they received, and 
 manifest in their eager haste to confess them- 
 selves able to keep the commandments of God, 
 and their equally eager haste to break those 
 commandments. 
 
 To take the other standpoint, that of the Di- 
 vine procedure, is to discover the line of prog- 
 ress, and to observe the method by which God 
 was moving forward towards the accomplish- 
 ment of an ultimate purpose. Thus the chief 
 value of the book is its revelation of the fact that 
 human progress has ever been the result of the 
 grace and the patience of God. Its permanent 
 values, then, are its revelations of the methods of 
 God, and the responsibilities of man. Let us 
 consider these values, and from them deduce the 
 living message of the book. 
 
 The principles of the Divine procedure are 
 eternally the same. His methods change as
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 31 
 
 they follow the law of adaptation to new ages, 
 and consequently new requirements. In this 
 book we are observing these methods in their 
 earliest stages ; and we shall notice them in three 
 particulars which may thus be stated. The Di- 
 vine method with the race, and the responsibility 
 of the race in the light thereof. The Divine 
 method with the instrument, and the responsibil- 
 ity of that instrument. The Divine method with 
 the individual, and the responsibility of the in- 
 dividual. 
 
 As to the Divine method with the race. This 
 book is the story of the nation. In our analysis 
 it has been termed The emergence of the nation. 
 In the final division of Genesis, that of Regen- 
 eration, we have the account of the calling of a 
 man, the creation of a family, and the multiplica- 
 tion of the families ; until at its close we see a 
 multitude of people in the land of Goshen, their 
 moral fibre being tempered by suffering ; as yet 
 without national consciousness or national power. 
 In Exodus the story of the emergence of this 
 multitude into a nation is told. Its first division 
 reveals a people in bondage ; its second tells the 
 story of deliverance from bondage, by the hand 
 of God ; and its last gives an account of their
 
 32 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 organization into national life. It is important 
 that we should understand the meaning of 
 the creation of this nation. It cannot be too 
 often emphasized that it was not the election of 
 a nation from among others in order that upon 
 that nation God might lavish His love while He 
 abandoned the others. The purpose of God was 
 far wider than that of the creation of this nation ; 
 it was that of the creationof a testimony through 
 this nation, for the sake of the others. The Di- 
 vine intention was the creation of a people who 
 under His government should reveal in the 
 world the breadth and beauty and beneficence of 
 that government ; a people who, gathered in / 
 
 **s^ 
 
 their national life about His throne and His altar, 
 obeying His commands and worshipping Him, 
 should reveal to outside nations the meaning of 
 the Kingship of God. It was not the selection of) 
 a pet, but the creation of a pattern. The story, 
 then, of the nation is that of the creation of a 
 testimony, and the Divine ensurance of its procla- 
 mation through both the failure and the success 
 of the people. The method is to human seem- 
 ing a long and tedious one, but it is the only 
 one possible. It is that which God has ever fol- 
 lowed. He constantly embodies a truth in an
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 33 
 
 instrument ; either a man, a society, or a nation ; 
 in order that other men, other societies, other 
 nations may understand it. The responsibilities 
 of the races, in the midst of which the testimony is 
 borne, are created and limited by that testimony. 
 The method of God with the instrument was 
 that of progressive revelation of Himself. That 
 movement is clearly marked in this book of Ex- 
 odus. The first distinct revelation was that 
 made to a man by the mystery of the burning 
 bush and the declaration, " I AM " ; the vision 
 of a bush ablaze with fire, and yet not consumed : 
 a voice declaring essential being, and giving no 
 explanation. A little further on there was a fur- 
 ther unveiling of the meaning of the first word, 
 14 1 AM," in the exposition of the values of the 
 name Jehovah. That great name had been 
 known as a name, but its intention had not been 
 understood. This truth was revealed to Moses 
 in a passage full of beauty, which opens and 
 closes with the simple declaration, " I am Jeho- 
 vah " ; and in its course affirms His power to 
 lead His people out, and to bring them in. That 
 is to say, the name was explained as revealing 
 the fact of God's ability to become to His people 
 whatever their need demanded. For a clear
 
 34 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 statement of the values of the name Jehovah the 
 student may with profit turn to the article in the 
 Emphasized Bible by Mr. Rotherham. This was 
 the second stage of Divine Self-revelation to this 
 people. The " I AM " of the burning bush, full 
 of infinite majesty, in the presence of which man 
 could only worship, was now seen to be the One 
 who becomes what His people need, the One 
 who enters into all their circumstances with 
 them, in strong ability. Later on, after the de- 
 liverance, and as the work of organization was 
 about to commence, God revealed Himself to 
 them as the God of grace in His declaration, 
 " Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from 
 among all the peoples . . . and ye shall be 
 unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy na- 
 tion." Almost immediately following, and with 
 startling suddenness there is a further revelation 
 as He manifested Himself as the God of law. 
 The people imagined they were able to keep the 
 covenant He proposed to make with them. 
 They did not know their own weakness, and 
 consequently, almost immediately after He had 
 spoken of making them His own peculiar treasure, 
 the word went forth which commanded that they 
 should not be allowed to touch the mountain
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 35 
 
 from the midst of which the thunder of His law 
 was to be uttered. Yet again, Moses and the 
 elders were permitted to go into the very pres- 
 ence of God. There is perhaps no more won- 
 derful chapter in the whole book than that which 
 gives the account of how these men saw God 
 while " He laid not His hand " upon them. 
 There is no description of what they saw, but 
 they saw Him. Thus they came one step further 
 along the line of revelation, and discovered that 
 the infinite mystery of the Being of the burning 
 bush was also personal, in some such way that 
 they might see and eat in His presence, while they 
 were unable to describe what they had seen. The 
 personality of God was not there fully unveiled. 
 All its deepest meaning was not yet revealed ; 
 but the fact was declared and made real to the 
 consciousness. Still later to Moses, on behalf of 
 the people, Jehovah proclaimed the glory of His 
 essential nature, in that matchless passage : " Je- 
 hovah, Jehovah, a God full of compassion and 
 gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy 
 and truth ; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiv- 
 ing iniquity and transgression and sin ; and that 
 will by no means clear the guilty : visiting the 
 iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and
 
 36 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 upon the children's children, upon the third and 
 fourth generation." Finally, the overwhelming 
 and stupendous fact of the glory of God was 
 demonstrated in the hour when, the tabernacle 
 having been reared according to pattern, the Di- 
 vine presence filled it, and the priests were un- 
 able to stand and minister in His presence. 
 
 This rapid survey helps us to see that while all 
 the details, such as the technicalities of the legal 
 code, and the minutiae of the instructions con- 
 cerning the construction of the tabernacle, are 
 important, the supreme method of God in deal- 
 ing with the instrument through which He should 
 reveal Himself among the nations was that of 
 unveiling the truth concerning Himself to them, 
 ever leading them a little deeper into the mys- 
 tery, giving them some new gleam of its light, 
 offering them fresh unveilings, and so conduct- 
 ing them into higher realms of spiritual appre- 
 hension. 
 
 Side by side with this unveiling of Himself, 
 His method is seen to be that of direct and 
 minute administration of the affairs of their lives. 
 
 The responsibility of the instrument may now 
 be stated in the briefest way as twofold ; that, 
 namely, of worship and obedience.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 37 
 
 Finally, Exodus reveals the Divine method 
 with, and the consequent responsibility of, the 
 individual. There are two notable illustrations 
 Pharaoh and Moses. God's method with 
 each was the same, while the issue was different. 
 
 The case of Pharaoh is that of a man strong, 
 acute, but rebellious a man who acted wholly 
 by sight and upon the basis of policy. God's 
 attitude towards him was that of giving him 
 every opportunity to make his own choice, and 
 work it out into destiny. 
 
 His method with Moses was the same. He 
 / was a man strong, capable, and obedient. In- 
 / stead of acting by sight, and on the basis of 
 policy, he " endured as seeing Him who is in- 
 visible," and thus lived and triumphed by faith. 
 With him the dealings of God were ever those of 
 a great patience as He led him on, step by step, 
 until His gentleness had made him great. God's 
 patience condemned Pharaoh. God's patience 
 crowned Moses. The Divine method with these 
 two representative men, both of them notable 
 leaders, was that of giving each man his oppor- 
 tunity of choice ; not leaving him wholly to the 
 dictates of his own lust and desire, but attempt- 
 ing, by patience and persuasion, to direct his
 
 38 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 choice. Therefore human responsibility is clearly 
 revealed to be that of choice, and ultimately, 
 therefore, that of the creation of destiny. The 
 history of these two men is indeed a remarkable 
 revelation of abiding truth. One faulty, failing, 
 sometimes even cowardly, rose into a strange 
 dignity and nobleness of character, because he 
 chose to submit to the government of God. The 
 other strong, astute, moved with determination 
 towards destruction, not because God elected him 
 to destruction, but because he refused God's 
 ministry and patience, and the prolonged oppor- 
 tunity which was given to him. 
 
 The living message of Exodus is twofold. It 
 reveals the fact of the sovereignty of God, and 
 the true method for the saving of men. In 
 Genesis we found the fundamental revelation of 
 man's immediate relationship to God, and the 
 declaration that faith is the one principle by 
 which man may realize his life. These same 
 truths are in Exodus, but with a changed empha- 
 sis. The God to whom man is related is de- 
 clared to be Sovereign. Man in his failure is 
 taught that his faith must express itself in wor- 
 ship and obedience. 
 
 The whole truth concerning God revealed in
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 39 
 
 the book of Exodus may be expressed concisely 
 in the stately language of the psalmist : 
 
 " Clouds and darkness are round about Him : 
 Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His 
 throne." 
 
 The two words by the use of which the psalm- 
 ist describes the throne of God are most suggest- 
 ive " righteousness and judgment." These are 
 the two elements in the method of God with His 
 people which are clearly revealed in the book of 
 Exodus, and which in combination constitute the 
 foundation of His throne. The meaning of 
 righteousness is so apparent as to need little ex- 
 planation. Perhaps its value in this connection 
 may be more clearly seen by abbreviating the 
 word. To omit the central syllable is to have 
 the word, Tightness ; and once again, to drop 
 the final one is to have the simple word, right. 
 As a matter of fact, this is the simple and essen- 
 tial meaning of the Hebrew word. Right, then, 
 is one element in the strength of the foundation 
 of the throne of God. This whole book delivers 
 that message with unvarying insistence. The 
 government of God is right, in purpose and in 
 method. In its operation there is no deviation
 
 40 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 from that which is strictly, absolutely, eternally, 
 essentially right. 
 
 The other word " judgment " helps to an un- 
 derstanding of the word right. We are in per- 
 petual danger of misinterpreting the meaning of 
 judgment by emphasizing only one of its values. 
 The Hebrew word translated " judgment " liter- 
 ally means verdict. That by no means ex- 
 presses all the values which by use it came to 
 represent. It does, however, suggest the root 
 principle that lies within it that, namely, of dis- 
 crimination. This particular word signifying 
 verdict comes from another which means to 
 judge, to come to a decision, to find a verdict, to 
 pronounce sentence. For our understanding of 
 the intention of the great declaration we may with 
 advantage make use of a word which at first 
 seems to be entirely foreign, but which in reality 
 catches the very heart of the meaning the word 
 method. Righteousness and method are the 
 foundation of His throne. We all use the word 
 judgment in that sense in regard to our fellow 
 men, and in so doing are more true to its real 
 intention than we are when we use it in regard 
 to God, as though it simply indicated His punish- 
 ment of man. Of some man whom we hold in
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 41 
 
 high esteem we say that he is a man of rare 
 judgment. That is the true use of the word. 
 We do not mean by that that his one character- 
 istic is that of visiting evil with punishment, al- 
 though we do know that the man of true judg- 
 ment will be angry with wrong. The fact that 
 God is a God of judgment does most certainly 
 include within it the truth that He is angry in 
 the presence of wrong ; and moreover, that He 
 will visit upon sin His hot indignation. The 
 supreme demonstration of this truth, as of all 
 others, is to be found in Christ, who was ca- 
 pable of saying, " Depart, ye cursed," as surely as 
 " Come, ye blessed." Judgment, however, means 
 that, and infinitely more. Taken in conjunction 
 with righteousness, it shows that in His govern- 
 ment all His activity is that of method, based 
 upon right. As the God of judgment He led 
 and exalted Moses, and led and cast down 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 In this book of Exodus we see the govern- 
 ment of God based upon righteousness and 
 judgment, illustrated in His dealing with His 
 people. His government is that of wisdom. 
 This is revealed in His selection of time, places, 
 and instruments. In the first five verses of
 
 42 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 Exodus is a list of names of those who went intc 
 Egypt with Jacob, followed by these words, 
 " And Joseph was in Egypt already." It is per- 
 fectly true that he was there through the hatred 
 and crime of his brethren, but this book reveals 
 the deeper reason of his being there ; and God is 
 seen seated high upon His throne of righteous 
 method, selecting a man, and a time, and a 
 place. This surely was Joseph's understanding 
 of all the painful story, for when his brethren 
 came eventually into his presence, he said, " It 
 was not you that sent me hither, but God." 
 Throughout the whole of this book it is manifest 
 that no contingencies surprise Him, no exigencies 
 find Him unprepared; but that in all circum- 
 stances and in all conditions, He is perfect in 
 wisdom and in power ; and that in His operation 
 the largest and smallest things are taken account 
 of, and pressed into service. 
 
 One illustration of this will suffice. Ere the 
 / people could become a nation it was necessary 
 that their moral fibre should be stiffened. For this 
 God was strong and patient enough to wait four 
 centuries. The hour approaching for their de- 
 liverance, He opened a door through the cry of 
 \ a baby, as that cry touched a woman's heart,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 43 
 
 and admitted a Hebrew to the cmirt of Pharaoh. 
 This God is the God we adore, manipulating 
 ages and events, and compelling them to min- 
 ister to things of a moment ; and at the same 
 time, touching the tiniest and simplest things of 
 life, and compelling them to issues which include 
 centuries. 
 
 As to the saving of man, Exodus teaches that 
 faith expresses itself in worship and obedience. 
 This is not a haphazard choosing of words. 
 Thou shalt worship and obey is the all-inclusive 
 command of the sovereign God. Worship con- 
 sists in putting God at the centre of the life ; and 
 service in seeing to it that all the life is centred 
 in Him. That was the supreme revelation to the 
 men of this nation. At its centre there was an 
 ark. The nations knew eventually that there was 
 something strange and mystic connected with 
 that ark ; and attempted to capture it, with what 
 difficulty and trouble to themselves subsequent 
 books reveal. It was only an ark, but it was the 
 symbol of the truth that at the centre of human 
 life God must be enthroned. That is worship in 
 its first movement. It is not, however, completed 
 until it expresses itself in obedience. To place 
 the ark beneath the curtains at the centre of the
 
 44 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 
 
 encampment, and then to go away to break the 
 law is not worship ; it is blasphemy. The ark 
 being placed there, and God being recognized, 
 He must be obeyed in every department and 
 activity of the life. To study the ethical code of 
 this book is to discover that in all the minutest 
 matters of food and raiment and habits and 
 friendship, the will of God must be discovered 
 and obeyed. Moreover, the story teaches that 
 obedience must be persistent even against oppo- 
 sition. This is perhaps most remarkably re- 
 vealed in the story of how Moses persisted in his 
 determination to obey the command of God 
 in spite of the opposition raised by Pharaoh. 
 Pharaoh attempted to prevent their going away 
 to worship. He first declared they should not 
 go. Then under compulsion, in effect he said, 
 You may worship in your own way, but you must 
 do it in the land. The answer of Moses declared 
 their determination to go three days' journey, 
 according to the Divine command. Then 
 Pharaoh suggested compromise as he urged that 
 if they must go outside his land, they should not 
 go far away. Again the answer was one which 
 insisted upon the three days' journey. Yet again 
 Pharaoh proposed that if they must go them-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EXODUS 45 
 
 selves they should leave their children behind. 
 To this they refused to give one moment's atten- 
 tion, and again the declaration was made, " We 
 and our children." Finally, Pharaoh's last ap- 
 peal was made, to leave their cattle ; and to that 
 the ultimate answer was given, " There shall not 
 an hoof be left behind." 
 
 This story is indeed a living message to our 
 own age revealing the necessity for absolute and 
 uttermost obedience. The call of God is to sep- 
 aration, and the world urges us to remain in the 
 land, and be neighbourly. It is ours to reply 
 that friendship with the world is enmity against 
 God. Then we are told that if we insist upon 
 being peculiar it is not necessary to compel our 
 children to be so. God grant that our answer 
 may ever be, " We and our children." The last 
 suggestion of the enemy is that we should leave 
 our cattle, that it is necessary for us to conduct 
 our business according to the spirit of the age. 
 The final answer of the Christian is ever that 
 which declares that not a hoof shall be left be- 
 hind.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 Recognition of Sin, and Revelation of its 
 Nature 
 
 Man and his Need. 
 
 The Fact of Sin recognized by the whole 
 Book. 
 
 a. Offerings. 
 
 b. Priests. 
 
 c. People. 
 
 d. Feasts. 
 
 e. Signs. 
 
 The Nature of Sin revealed, in that all 
 these things indicate Relationship be- 
 tween God and Man ; and thus reveal 
 that by Sin Man is excluded from 
 Nearness. 
 Knowledge. 
 Communion. 
 
 The revealing Light, the Holiness of God. 
 (The Hebrew Word 159 times.) 
 
 Recognition of Redemption, and Revelation 
 of its Nature 
 
 God and His Provision. 
 The Fact of Redemption, the Key to the 
 whole Book. 
 
 The Nature of Redemption revealed in 
 the Method. 
 
 Substitution. 
 
 Imputation. 
 
 Death. 
 The unnamed Love revealed. 
 
 1. Concerning Sin 
 
 i. Sin is Unlikeness to God. 
 ii. Sin is Distance from God. 
 iii. Sin is Wrong done to God. 
 
 II. Concerning Redemption 
 
 i. Redemption is founded on 
 Righteousness. 
 
 ii. Redemption therefore is only 
 possible by Blood i. e. by 
 Life poured out. 
 
 iii. Redemption is in order to Holi- 
 ness.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 THE opening words of Leviticus reveal 
 the necessity for acquaintance with the 
 book of Exodus. " And Jehovah called 
 unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tent 
 if meeting." If we had read this statement 
 without such acquaintance we should at once 
 enquire, Who is Jehovah ? Who is Moses ? 
 What is the tent of meeting? Having read 
 Exodus, we have no need to ask these questions. 
 
 The book of Exodus ends with the story of 
 the covering cloud ; and there is really no break 
 between the close of that book, and the begin- 
 ning of Leviticus. 
 
 The book of Leviticus deals with the first half 
 of the second part of the message of Exodus, 
 having to do wholly with worship. In common 
 with the books already considered, Leviticus has 
 no final teaching. Its instructions leave us 
 unable to worship in the way in which it de- 
 clares we ought to worship. It reveals the 
 underlying necessities of the case, and thus 
 prepares the way for all that fuller unfolding of 
 
 47
 
 48 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 the true method of worship, which came in the 
 fullness of time by the mission of Christ. 
 
 We shall follow the method adopted in dealing 
 with Genesis and Exodus, and ask first, what are 
 the permanent values* of the book ; and from 
 these deduce its living message to our own age. 
 
 There are two supreme values. First, a rec- 
 ognition of sin, and a revelation of its nature; 
 and secondly, a recognition of redemption, and a 
 revelation of its nature ; or, more briefly, sin and 
 redemption, the fundamental matters concerning 
 man and his need, and God and His provision. 
 
 On the subject of sin there is much with which 
 Leviticus does not deal. Indeed, there are mys- 
 teries connected therewith which the Bible does 
 not attempt to explain. We have no final teach- 
 ing in the Scriptures of Truth concerning the 
 genesis of sin in the universe. I use the word 
 sin rather than evil, because it indicates a moral 
 wrong, whereas evil includes not only the moral 
 wrong, but all suffering and sorrow resulting 
 therefrom. The Bible makes it perfectly clear 
 that suffering and sorrow are the result of sin. 
 It gives us, however, no explicit teaching con- 
 cerning the origin of sin. Neither does the Bible 
 enter into any details concerning the ultimate
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 49 
 
 issues of the presence of sin in the universe. We 
 do find, however, all that it is necessary for man 
 to know, and the simplest thing stands revealed 
 upon the pages of this book of Leviticus. The 
 fact of sin is recognized from beginning to end. 
 If there be no such thing as culpable moral per- 
 version, then this book is a farrago of nonsense. 
 To pass in review its five divisions is to be con- 
 scious of sin. The offerings described were ren- 
 dered necessary by the sin of those who were com- 
 manded to bring them. The mediation of the 
 priests as between the soul and God was called 
 for as the result of sin. The laws of separation 
 recognized the sin from which the people must 
 be separated, in order that their separation from 
 God might be cancelled. The feasts of consecra- 
 tion emphasize the benefits gained as the result 
 of escape from sin. 
 
 The nature of sin is revealed in that in all 
 these things the fundamental relationship be- 
 tween God and man is taken for granted ; and 
 yet the necessity for man's redemption and res- 
 toration to God is revealed. Sin is, therefore, so 
 far as man's experience is concerned, exclusion 
 from nearness to God, from knowledge of God, 
 from communion with God. In the light of the
 
 50 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 New Testament we know far more of these mat- 
 ters than the book of Leviticus reveals ; but in 
 this book they are stated in their first simplicity, 
 and fundamental values. The whole economy 
 of worship, as herein set forth, emphasized the 
 fact of the distance of God from man, because of 
 sin ; and of man's consequent need of some proc- 
 ess by which he might be brought back to God. 
 The creation of a way of entrance indicates the 
 necessity for its making. The necessity for its 
 making reveals the fact that sin separates be- 
 tween man and God. 
 
 The truth stands out in clear and awful relief 
 by virtue of another fact. The revealing light 
 throughout the book of Leviticus is that of the 
 holiness of God. The awful word is stamped 
 upon its page, occurring more often in this than 
 in any other book of the Divine Library, either 
 in the Old or the New Testament. The Hebrew 
 word, translated " holy " more often than in any 
 other way, but sometimes by other words, occurs 
 over one hundred and fifty times in the course of 
 the twenty-seven chapters. This is a mechanical 
 and technical suggestion, but if the word be 
 marked in the reading of the book with a blue 
 pencil, it will be seen how the thought is inter-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 51 
 
 woven with the texture from first to last. The 
 superlative instance of its use occurs in the midst 
 of the commandments which have to do with the 
 ordinary and every-day cleanliness of the people. 
 In connection with matters so apparently prosaic, 
 the great word is spoken, "Be ye holy ; for I am 
 holy." The holiness of God shines like a white, 
 fearful light upon the whole book. It is in con- 
 trast with that holiness that the sin of man is 
 seen and understood. Because of the absolute 
 holiness of God, man in his sin is excluded from 
 His presence. According to the teaching of this 
 book, sin is fundamentally, essentially, wrong 
 done to God. 
 
 This recognition of the fact of sin, and revela- 
 tion of its nature, constitutes the background 
 which throws up into clear relief the teaching 
 concerning redemption. The whole scheme of 
 worship as set forth in Leviticus serves to place 
 before the mind of humanity, first, the idea of 
 redemption, as existing in the purpose and econ- 
 omy of God ; and secondly, that in process of 
 time it would be wrought out into visibility and 
 actuality in the history of man. The supreme 
 value of the book, therefore, is its revelation to 
 man of the Divine purpose of redemption. The
 
 52 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 offerings constituted provision for approach. 
 The mediation of the priest was the method for 
 the appropriation of the provision. The laws of 
 separation revealed the conditions upon which 
 such appropriation might be made. The feasts 
 of consecration revealed the benefits of approach ; 
 and the symbols of ratification were the signs of 
 restored relation. The thought running through- 
 out the whole economy is that of man, who has 
 sinned, and so been excluded from God, being 
 brought back to Him. 
 
 / The offerings indicated the provision of a 
 method by which man might be brought back 
 into nearness to, and knowledge of, and com- 
 munion with God. The first three revealed the 
 ideal relationship ; the burnt, speaking of com- 
 plete devotion ; the meal, of established com- 
 munion ; and the peace, of the experience grow- 
 ting therefrom. The final two suggested the 
 method by which those away from communion 
 might be restored ; both the sin and the trespass 
 offerings in different applications teaching the 
 possibility of the cancelling of sin, and the res- 
 toration of the soul to God. Whether our inter- 
 pretation of the individual significance of the 
 offerings agrees or not, we shall all agree that
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 53 
 
 the underlying teaching is that of the possibility 
 of restored approach to God. The priesthood 
 was that by which it was possible for man to ap- 
 propriate the provision. No man was permitted 
 to bring his own offering to God. It was neces- 
 sary that there should be one to stand between 
 the sinner and God, and present the offering. 
 The thought is still that of the possibility ; and 
 the fact that a mediating ministry is created, by 
 which the provision for approach can be appro- 
 priated, is a revelation of the purpose of God. 
 The same underlying thought is discoverable in 
 the conditions laid down, upon which conditions 
 man might avail himself of the mediation of the 
 priests ; and also in the feasts which symbolized 
 restored relationship, and the signs which ratified 
 the same. It is of the utmost importance that 
 this one unifying revelation of the book of Levit- 
 icus should never be lost sight of. While there 
 is great value in a minute and detailed examina- 
 tion of all the ancient economy of worship, we 
 need to be most careful that, while attending to 
 details, we do not lose sight of the consistent 
 revelation of the fact of redemption as provided 
 by God, existing in His purpose, and wrought 
 out in His plan.
 
 54 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 A general survey of the book with that unify- 
 ing truth in mind will reveal the nature of that 
 redemption by which sinning man is brought back 
 to God. Three words indicate the consistent 
 method. They are, substitution, imputation, 
 death. For the moment I am not discussing the 
 question as to whether this is the true method of 
 human redemption, but am simply endeavouring 
 to emphasize what this book suggests. The first 
 thought is undoubtedly that of substitution. 
 Every sacrifice was that of a life standing in the 
 place of another. In order to the restoration of 
 a sinning man to God, some one must take his 
 place as a sinning man. This substitution is 
 closely associated with imputation. In the cere- 
 monies of this ancient ritual there were constantly 
 included acts which suggested the transference 
 of the guilt of man to the life which stood in his 
 place. Finally, the one substituted, and to whom 
 the guilt was imputed, must die. That was the 
 one and only way of redemption suggested by 
 all the economy of the Hebrew worship. 
 
 It is well that we should remember that all the 
 sacrifice of animals was that of sinless life. No 
 animal has ever sinned. It is moreover true, and 
 to be considered most carefully, that all the con-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 55 
 
 sciousness of the animals who died through the 
 long years of the Hebrew observance of these re- 
 ligious rites was, in the last analysis, conscious- 
 ness homed in God. No animal feels pain of 
 which God is unconscious. "The whole creation 
 groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
 now. . . . The Spirit Himself maketh inter- 
 cession for us with groanings which cannot be 
 uttered." To put God away from His universe, 
 as distant from it, and unconscious of it, and then 
 blame Him for asking for the slaughter of ani- 
 mals, is to break in upon the teaching of unity 
 obtaining in the universe. Of all the suffering 
 of sinless life God was more conscious than the 
 life that suffered, or the men who watched the 
 suffering. Whether the devout souls of those 
 bygone days were conscious of it or not, through 
 all that ancient economy there was a revelation of 
 the awful truth of the passion of God in the presence 
 of human sin, which had its final manifestation 
 and method in the suffering and death of Christ. 
 Therefore, in this book of Leviticus there is 
 most evidently present, though unnamed, a rec- 
 ognition of the love out of which the work of 
 redemption proceeds. It is unnamed, for the 
 word love does not occur in the book; but it
 
 56 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 is present, for the whole economy is evidence 
 thereof. The only sufficient reason for redemp- 
 tion, and the only sufficient impulse for suffering, 
 is love. I am aware that this is a theological 
 question, and that other reasons have been as- 
 signed for God's work of redemption. I am 
 only able to state that which is the profound 
 conviction of my own heart, that the final expla- 
 nation of the Divine provision of redemption is 
 to be found in the all-inclusive statement of the 
 New Testament, "God is love." The holiness 
 of God might have been vindicated, and the last 
 demand of His righteousness satisfied, by the 
 absolute annihilation of everything that had 
 failed. The deepest meaning in the mystery of 
 redemption, as shadowed in the book of Levit- 
 icus, is expressed by the prophet Hosea, " How 
 shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? " Though love 
 is not mentioned in Leviticus, if I study it until I 
 am overawed by the white light of infinite holi- 
 ness, overwhelmed by the insistence upon right- 
 eousness, indicated by the blood and suffering, 
 by fire and ashes, I am being taught that God's 
 heart of love compelled Him to make a way back 
 to His home and heart for sinning man, even 
 though the process was one of infinite cost
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 57 
 
 The living message of the book is already 
 declared, in some senses, when its permanent 
 values are recognized. This book speaks to us 
 of sin and of redemption. Concerning sin it 
 has a threefold declaration. Sin is unlikeness to 
 God. Sin is distance from God. Sin is wrong 
 done to God. 
 
 Sin is unlikeness to God. That is taught in 
 Leviticus by all the economy of worship, which 
 insists first of all upon the fact that God may 
 only be thought of as distanced from man. 
 While we have already declared that the supreme 
 teaching of Leviticus is that of God's determina- 
 tion to bring man near to Himself, it is perfectly 
 evident that such determination is in itself an 
 evidence of existing distance. The ceremony 
 which commenced with the erection of the taber- 
 nacle, and continued through all the ritual, is 
 one that emphasizes the fact that God is unlike 
 man. God is thought of as within the holy of 
 holies, protected from the approach of man by 
 veils, and by laws so stringent, that any viola- 
 tion of them has the death penalty attached to 
 it. Man is thus excluded from God, because 
 of the dissimilarity in character between them. 
 Man made in the image and the likeness of God
 
 58 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 is a being on whom the image is defaced, and in 
 whom the likeness is unrecognizable. 
 
 Sin is distance from God. We have dwelt on 
 the one aspect of that truth in emphasizing the 
 teaching of the book concerning the distance of 
 God from man, by the unlikeness of man to 
 God. There is another side to this, however, 
 that, namely, of man's distance from God in 
 experience. Because he is excluded from inti- 
 mate fellowship he does not know God, does not 
 love God, does not serve God. All this, more- 
 over, is a condition out of which it is impossible 
 for him to rise, save by the way of redemption, 
 according to the purpose and power of God. 
 
 Sin is wrong done to God. This is the su- 
 preme message of the book of Leviticus con- 
 cerning sin. The sinfulness of sin is always 
 emphasized in its aspect of relation between 
 man and God. While it is perfectly true that 
 it is difficult for the finite mind to comprehend 
 the fact that wrong can be done to God, it is 
 nevertheless true that the whole teaching of the 
 Hebrew economy of worship emphasizes the fact 
 that wrong done to man is ultimately wrong 
 done to God. Thus sin is wrong done to God 
 in Himself, and in His creatures. If it be held
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 59 
 
 that sin consists only in wrong done to our fel- 
 low men, it will inevitably ultimately weaken the / 
 sense of sin, and its degree will be decided by \ 
 the character of the man wronged. The only j 
 uray in which the keen sense of the heinousness / 
 of sin against our brother can be kept alive in the 
 heart is by the perpetual recognition of the fact 
 that he also belongs to God. If upon every face 
 is seen the impress of the Divine relationship as \ 
 revealed in Genesis ; and if, therefore, it is per- 
 petually remembered that to hurt my brother is 
 to harm God, the sinfulness of sin against man 
 will be recognized. On the other hand, if this 
 be lost sight of, men will be seen everywhere as 
 separated units ; and distinctions will be made 
 as between sin against one man, and sin against 
 another. To recognize the truth of what Leviti- 
 cus teaches, that sin is finally wrong done to 
 God, will be to get the only sense of its awful- ~ 
 ness, which has in it anything calculated to pro- 
 duce repentance in the presence of wrong done, 
 and a motive for the doing of right. The whole 
 truth was ultimately summarized by Christ in 
 His epitome of the law and the prophets, by 
 quotation from the ancient writings, "Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
 
 60 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And 
 . . . thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy- 
 self." The book of Leviticus says little about 
 wrong to the neighbour ; not that it is forgotten, 
 but that its true meaning is only recognized, as 
 sin is known as wrong done to God. The 
 psalmist saw deeply into the true meaning of sin 
 when he said, " Against Thee, Thee only have I 
 sinned." It was that fundamental conviction of 
 the meaning of sin which created his keen con- 
 sciousness of the wrong he had done to Bath- 
 sheba and to Uriah. Take away from the heart 
 of man the sense that when he sins it is against 
 God, and he will grow careless about Bathsheba 
 and Uriah. 
 
 The message of Leviticus concerning redemp- 
 tion is naturally connected with this message 
 concerning sin. This also is threefold. Re- 
 demption is founded upon righteousness. Re- 
 demption is only possible by blood that is, by 
 life poured out. Redemption is in order to holi- 
 ness. 
 
 Redemption is founded upon righteousness. 
 It is not the operation of a pity which says that 
 sin is of no consequence. There can be no res- 
 toratiop of man to God, save upon the basis of
 
 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 61 
 
 right; and the activity of tenderness is always 
 that of the severity of righteousness. 
 
 Redemption is only possible by blood. The 
 writer of the letter to the Hebrews gathered up 
 the whole message of the Levitical economy in 
 the words, " Apart from shedding of blood there 
 is no remission." The shedding of blood is life 
 given up. It is necessary to make this statement 
 emphatically, because it is now sometimes asked 
 whether it is not permissible to say that we are 
 saved by life, rather than by blood, seeing that 
 the old economy declared that " the blood is the 
 life " ? While that is perfectly true, it would still 
 be utterly false to say that the teaching of Levit- 
 icus is that a man is saved by life. It teaches 
 rather that he can only be saved by life given up, 
 given up through suffering not by blood, but 
 by blood-shedding. The ancient symbolism was 
 indeed awful and appalling, but the final weight 
 of awe and horror ought to be that of the sin 
 which made such symbolism necessary, in order 
 to teach its real meaning to God. There are those 
 who speak of the doctrine of salvation by the 
 shedding of blood as being objectionable and 
 vulgar. The shedding of blood is objectionable; 
 it is awful, it is dastardly ; but it is the ultimate
 
 62 THE MESSAGE OF LEVITICUS 
 
 expression of the activity of sin ; and the whole 
 meaning of the appalling truth is that sin, in the 
 universe, touches the very life of God with 
 wounding. 
 
 I know the book of Leviticus is terrible read- 
 ing ; it is a tragic story of blood and fire. It is 
 time that this living message was heard anew, 
 that sin smites God in the face, and wounds Him 
 in the heart ; and that redemption is the outcome 
 of the tender compassion, which receives the 
 wounding, and bends over the sinner, pardoning 
 him by virtue of that infinite and unfathomable 
 mystery of which the shedding of blood is the 
 only equivalent symbolism. 
 
 Redemption is in order to holiness. The final 
 note of the message of Leviticus is that redemp- 
 tion does not excuse man from holiness, but that 
 it is the method by which man is made holy. 
 To fulfill all the requirements of the external rit- 
 ual, and yet continue in sin, would be to commit 
 the most heinous sin of all. 
 
 Leviticus speaks forevermore of the awfulness 
 of sin in the light of the holiness of God, of the 
 plenteous redemption springing from the love of 
 God, and of the possibility of holiness of life, cre- 
 ated by communion with God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. Warning. The Paralysis of Doubt 
 
 i. The Facts. 
 
 a. Discontent due to lack of Confidence 
 
 in God. 
 t. Disaster due to distorted Vision of 
 
 Circumstances and God. 
 ii. The Secrets. 
 
 a. Mixed Motives. 
 
 b. Mixed Multitudes. 
 tii. The Results. 
 
 a. A narrowed Outlook produced Discon- 
 
 tent. 
 
 b. The Judgment of Sight produced Panic. 
 
 II. Comfort. The Patience of Jehovah 
 
 i. Provision. 
 
 a. Order arranged. 
 
 b. Purity demanded. 
 
 c. Worship provided for. 
 
 d. Movement ordered. 
 . Patience. 
 
 a. The Methods. 
 
 b. The Fact. 
 fii. Persistence. 
 
 a. Back to Kadesh-Barnea. 
 
 b. The whole Process to Messiah assured. 
 
 I. Of Comfort 
 
 i. God cannot be defeated. 
 ii. God's Methods are perfect, 
 iii. God's Provisions are sufficient. 
 
 II. Of Warning 
 
 i. The Crisis of Kadesh-Barne* 
 comes. 
 
 To the Individual. 
 To the Church, 
 ii. Everything depends upon our 
 
 Attitude to God. 
 
 iii. Our Attitudes towards the Op- 
 portunity reveal our Attitude 
 towards God. 
 
 iv. If we are failing, why ? 
 Mixed Motives. 
 Mixed Multitudes.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 AGAIN it is necessary to draw attention to 
 the close connection between this book 
 and those which have preceded it. The 
 story is a continuation of that which has gone 
 before. In order to see this clearly, let us read 
 two verses in close connection, the former being 
 the seventeenth verse of the fortieth chapter of 
 Exodus, and the latter the first verse of the first 
 chapter in Numbers. 
 
 " And it came to pass, in the first month in 
 the second year, on the first day of the month, 
 that the tabernacle was reared up." 
 
 " And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wil- 
 derness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the 
 first day of the second month, in the second year 
 after they were come out of the land of Egypt." 
 
 The tabernacle was finished, and the glory of 
 the Lord descended and filled it on the first day 
 of the first month of the second year ; and the 
 command to Moses to number the people with a 
 view to their passing over into possession of the 
 land was given in the same year in the second 
 
 65
 
 66 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 month on the first day. Thus there was a month 
 between the story with which Exodus ends and 
 that with which Numbers begins. 
 
 The book of Numbers opens and closes in the 
 same region geographically. In the opening 
 part of the book we find the Israelites on the 
 margin of the land. At the close of the book we 
 find them again on the margin of the land. In 
 the first part of the story they were perfectly pre- 
 pared, so far as organization was concerned, for 
 passing into the land. At the close of the book 
 they are seen perfectly prepared, so far as organ- 
 ization is concerned, for passing into the land. 
 Between the beginning and the end of the book 
 there is an interval of about forty years. These 
 were years of arrested progress in the history of 
 the nation, and of definite progress in the Divine 
 Self-revelation ; and therefore in the Divine 
 process. 
 
 Let us carefully note the connection of this 
 book of Numbers, not merely as to its record of 
 historic facts, but in its relation to the process of 
 revelation. 
 
 Genesis teaches two principal truths ; first, the 
 essential relation between God and man ; sec- 
 ondly, that faith is the principle upon which man
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 67 
 
 lives, for the pleasing of God, and the realization 
 of his own life. 
 
 Exodus takes up that principle of faith, and ex- 
 pounds it more fully ; giving us a vision of God 
 in government, and of those human attitudes to 
 that government which are inclusively expressed 
 in the word " faith." Divine government is seen 
 as proceeding upon the foundation of righteous- 
 ness and judgment. The human attitudes of the 
 life of faith are those of worship and obedience. 
 
 The book of Leviticus deals with worship, re- 
 vealing, first, the fact of sin as constituting the 
 need of man ; and finally, the fact of redemption 
 as constituting the provision of God for meeting 
 that need. Thus, while Exodus reveals the hu- 
 man attitudes of worship and obedience, Leviti- 
 cus deals with worship, and Numbers with 
 obedience. 
 
 While Numbers tells a sad story of disobe- 
 dience, its message is one concerning the im- 
 portance of obedience. It shows how, under the 
 government of God, disobedience was overruled 
 to obedience by discipline. The message of 
 Numbers we shall endeavour to discover, as on 
 previous occasions, by dwelling first upon the 
 permanent values of the book, which consist in
 
 68 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 its revelations of the paralysis of doubt, and the 
 patience o! Jehovah. It is a book of warning, as 
 it deals with the former ; and a book of comfort, 
 as it reveals the latter. 
 
 In considering the warning of the book, we 
 begin with the second division, which consists of 
 the story of exclusion and wandering. The first 
 fact recorded is that of the incipient discontent 
 existing among the people. One month after the 
 filling of the tabernacle with the glory of God, 
 that marvellous revelation of His actual presence 
 amongst them, Jehovah heard their murmuring. 
 At first there was no definite statement of com- 
 plaint. The unrest had not broken out into or- 
 ganized manifestation. That came later. There 
 was wide-spread discontent due to doubt, which 
 was really lack of confidence in God. We must 
 not underestimate the difficulty of the position 
 those people occupied. The process of organiz- 
 ing a disorganized people into national conscious- 
 ness is never an easy one to the people them- 
 selves. There is a freedom in slavery which men 
 miss when they emerge into the freedom which 
 abolishes slavery. When the slaves were set 
 free in the United States of America, the Govern- 
 ment had to face a problem which they have not
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 69 
 
 solved until this moment. The negroes came 
 out of slavery, in which there was freedom evil 
 freedom, pernicious freedom, freedom from the 
 necessity for thought, or planning, or organiza- 
 tion into a liberty in which there was necessity 
 for organization and order. The process is not 
 an easy one, and the work is not yet accom- 
 plished. So the Israelites had been slaves in the 
 land of Goshen ; their tasks were appointed, and 
 their taskmasters compelled their obedience. 
 Their difficulties had been great, their bondage 
 cruel, but they were free from the necessity for 
 thought and arrangement. Having escaped from 
 the taskmaster, they imagined that freedom meant 
 escape from rule. They had been taught in the 
 year of their encampment under the shadow of 
 the mountain that they had to submit to law, 
 and it was irksome to them, and they became 
 discontented. This discontent resulted from lack 
 of perfect confidence in God. 
 
 Then follows the story of Kadesh-Barnea and 
 the disaster that overtook them there. The spies 
 were sent, the minority and majority reports were 
 submitted ; and as is almost invariably the case, 
 the minority report was the true one. The ma- 
 jority declared the land to be fair and beautiful,
 
 70 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 but impossible of possession, because of the giants 
 and the walled cities. The men of the minority 
 also saw the giants, and the walled cities, but 
 they saw God. The majority had lost the clear 
 vision of God, and therefore were filled with fear 
 by the Anakim and the walled cities. With the 
 loss of clear vision there was the loss of perfect 
 confidence. 
 
 The secrets of this failure were mixed motives 
 and mixed multitudes. Murmuring is the ex- 
 pression of selfishness. Selfishness is due to a 
 lack of singleness of motive. Had these people 
 perfectly appreciated the fact that they were 
 being created a nation to fulfill the purpose of 
 God in the world, and had they been utterly 
 abandoned to that as the one single motive, 
 there had been no murmuring. When they 
 murmured, it was for the fleshpots, for "the 
 leeks and the onions and the garlic." They at- 
 tempted compromise between being a nation of 
 Jehovah, and a people seeking their own comfort. 
 These mixed motives issued in murmuring. 
 
 There were not only mixed motives, there 
 were mixed multitudes. They are found first in 
 Exodus, and last in Nehemiah. When coming 
 out of Egypt, the Israelites were accompanied
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 71 
 
 by mixed multitudes. In Leviticus we find one 
 graphic picture of the result, a mixed marriage 
 between an Israelitish woman and an Egyptian 
 man, with offspring which violated the law of 
 God, and brought fresh punishment in conse- 
 quence. These mixed multitudes fell to mur- 
 muring. The results were a narrowed outlook 
 producing discontent, and the judgment of sight 
 producing panic. Such is the first permanent 
 value of the book of Numbers. It reveals to us 
 the fact that when men lose their vision of God, 
 doubt produces discontent and disaster. 
 
 When we turn to the other side of the story, 
 we find the comfort of the patience of Jehovah. 
 That is an all-inclusive definition. Notice first 
 the provision that Jehovah made for these people, 
 as recorded in the first ten chapters. Notice next 
 the patience of Jehovah, as revealed in chapters 
 eleven to twenty-five. Notice finally the per- 
 sistence of Jehovah, as manifested in chapters 
 twenty-six to thirty-six. 
 
 The provision of Jehovah consisted in the 
 order of the camp arranged ; the purity of the 
 camp demanded ; the worship of the camp pro- 
 vided for ; and the movement of the camp ordered, 
 immediately under Divine guidance by the cloud.
 
 72 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 The patience of God is the supreme revelation 
 of the book. This patience is not incompetent 
 carelessness, but powerful carefulness. Its meth- 
 ods are many. He punished the people for 
 wrong-doing, but always towards the realization 
 of purpose. He placed them in circumstances 
 which developed the facts of their inner life, until 
 they knew them for themselves. That is the 
 meaning of the forty years in the wilderness. 
 They were not years in which God had with- 
 drawn Himself from the people and refused to 
 have anything to do with them. Every year 
 was necessary for the teaching of a lesson, and 
 the revealing of a truth. As Moses declared to 
 them, " Thou shalt remember all the way which 
 the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years 
 in the wilderness, that He might humble thee, to 
 prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, 
 whether thou wouldest keep His commandments 
 or no." 
 
 His method was also that of the adaptation of 
 laws to new surroundings. The story of the 
 daughters of Zelophehad illustrates this. God 
 listened to the complaint of these women, and 
 made provision for them, adapting His laws 
 do not misunderstand that phrase, never lower-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 73 
 
 ing the standard of righteousness adapting His 
 laws to meet the requirements of the people, as 
 they passed on their way. 
 
 Finally, His patience was evidenced by the 
 supernatural protection of these people. The re- 
 sources of God were all at their disposal. What- 
 ever they needed, He supplied. Thus through 
 all the years we see the overruling of the patient 
 God ; not patient in the self-centred method of 
 abandoning a failing people, leaving them, if 
 possible, to work out their own salvation ; but 
 with the patience that refused to abandon them, 
 and thus enabled them to work out their own 
 salvation. 
 
 The patience of God was persistent. He led 
 them back finally to Kadesh-Barnea ; and thus 
 the whole process necessary to the ultimate com- 
 ing of the Messiah, and the full realization of the 
 Divine purpose, was assured. 
 
 Thus we find, as we read the book of Num- 
 bers, two things forever sounding in our ears 
 the paralysis of doubt, and the patience of 
 Jehovah. 
 
 From these I deduce the living message of 
 the book to our own age. I begin with the last 
 first. Numbers speaks to this age a threefold
 
 74 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 message of comfort. It declares that God can- 
 not ultimately be defeated. It reveals the fact 
 that His methods are perfect. It says to all 
 trusting souls that His provisions are sufficient, if 
 they will but appropriate them. 
 
 It declares that God cannot be defeated. We 
 saw in Exodus that God cannot be defeated by 
 the opposition of enemies, as we studied His 
 majestic procedure against the obstinacy of 
 Pharaoh. There are those who believe this, but 
 who are not quite sure that He cannot be de- 
 feated by the failure of His instruments. The 
 book of Numbers corrects this false impression. 
 It is the story of a failing people. At the very 
 outset, one month from the descent of the glory, 
 they murmured through lack of faith. Was the 
 purpose of God defeated ? By no means. There 
 are senses in which those who bear His name, 
 and deliver His message may measuring al- 
 ways by human standards postpone the issue ; 
 but they can never finally prevent it. As I read 
 this book, I watch the movements of God, and 
 my heart sings a song of joy as I see that He 
 cannot ultimately be defeated. 
 
 It teaches me, in the next place, that God's 
 methods are perfect. Note some of the emphases
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 75 
 
 of that revelation. God will not spoil the result 
 even by sparing Moses. There is no greater 
 comfort than that to be derived from the convic- 
 tion that God will never allow His love to inter- 
 fere with His absolute loyalty to the principles of 
 His own Being. It is, however, equally true that 
 He will not fail to recognize fidelity in the midst 
 of infidelity. The men who bore the majority 
 report died in the wilderness; but Caleb and 
 Joshua were preserved, and finally entered the 
 land. Yet again, God will not cast off the frail- 
 est, while there remains any opportunity for 
 bringing them into harmony with His mind and 
 will. While there is the remotest chance of my 
 remaking, He waits for me, and bears with me in 
 tender love through the processes of pain, by 
 which He works to purge me from dross, 
 and realize in me that upon which His heart is 
 set. 
 
 God ordinarily works through natural proc- 
 esses, but interferes by supernatural means 
 whenever it is necessary for Him to do so. It is 
 the fashion of the hour to deny the stories of past 
 supernatural interventions, on the ground that 
 there are no such operations of God to-day. It 
 would be more correct to say that men are so
 
 76 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 blind that they do not see the goings of God. 
 We still speak of remarkable coincidences which, 
 if we did but view from the true height, we 
 should discover were remarkable interpositions of 
 God. 
 
 The final note of comfort is the revelation of 
 the book that God's provisions are sufficient for 
 the fulfillment of all the needs of life and service. 
 He has always proved Himself sufficient in 
 resource for such souls as have really put their 
 trust in Him, for the needs of their own life, and 
 the demands of their service. 
 
 Turning to the warning message of the book 
 of Numbers, the first point of emphasis must be 
 that the crisis at Kadesh-Barnea always comes to 
 the individual, and to the Church of God. Per- 
 sonally I think we are justified in carrying that 
 statement further, and saying that it comes also 
 to the nation, and that Russell Lowell was right 
 when he sang, 
 
 " Once to every man and nation 
 Comes the moment to decide." 
 
 We, however, will confine ourselves to its applica- 
 tion to the individual, and to the Church. With 
 regard to the individual, I only pause to say that
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 77 
 
 the crisis inevitably comes when faith is con- 
 fronted by walled cities and Anakim, and is 
 called upon to proceed against them in simple 
 confidence in God. What we do in the crisis al- 
 ways depends upon whether we see the difficulties 
 in the light of God, or God in the shadow of the 
 difficulties. 
 
 The crisis comes over and over again to the 
 Church of God. In the past she has sometimes 
 passed into possession, but too often has passed 
 back to the beggarly experiences of the wilder- 
 ness. At this hour the whole Church is at 
 Kadesh-Barnea. God is calling her to go out 
 and possess the nations in the name of the Christ, 
 with a new urgency, created by the opening of 
 all the doors of opportunity. At this moment 
 in very deed the whole land is before us. What 
 are we going to do ? Everything depends upon 
 whether we see the walled cities and the giants, 
 or God. Nothing less than a triumphant faith, 
 born of a clear vision of God Himself, will enable 
 us to go forward. It is only faith which can co- 
 operate towards infinite issues. Sight can do 
 small things. Faith alone is equal to infinite 
 things. Sight can build a coffee-tavern in a 
 slum, and perhaps it is worth doing; but to
 
 ;8 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 suggest to sight the building of the city of God 
 is to fill it with panic in the presence of all the 
 difficulties. The question of the hour for the 
 Church is one as to her relationship to God. 
 The question of the hour in foreign missions is 
 not a question of finance ; it is not a question of 
 men. It is only whether the Church is prepared 
 to obey in faith. If we listen to the reports of 
 men who judge by sight, we shall do nothing. 
 We shall be told that the task of evangelizing 
 Japan is hopeless, because the ethic of its own 
 religion is sufficient for its need. We shall be 
 told that it is a perilous thing to enter China, be- 
 cause revolt is incipient everywhere, and pres- 
 ently will manifest itself in rebellion. We shall 
 be told of unrest in India, and that missionaries 
 ought not to imperil their lives by going there. 
 In brief, we shall hear only of the walled cities 
 and the Anakim. 
 
 Oh, for Calebs and Joshuas, who are prepared 
 to say, Anakim, yes ; walled cities, certainly ; 
 hindrance upon hindrance ; but these all in the 
 light of God. Oh, for the spirit of Paul, who 
 wrote : " I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, 
 for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, 
 and there are many adversaries." He saw the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 79 
 
 open door, and the adversaries ; and both of 
 them combined to constitute the reason of his 
 determined tarrying- at the post of duty. 
 
 The living message of this book of Numbers 
 is that everything depends upon our attitude 
 towards God. Let that, however, be stated, for 
 the purpose of heart investigation, in another 
 way. Our attitude towards opportunities re- 
 veals our attitude towards God. Are we mur- 
 muring and discontented with the method of the 
 Divine government ? Let us beware lest the fire 
 of God break forth upon us in anger. Are we 
 afraid in the presence of the problems at home, 
 and the tremendous opportunities abroad ? Then 
 let us remember that our fear is born of our lack 
 of faith. The man discontented with all that the 
 life of faith means looks back to the land of 
 bondage, and sighs for the leeks and onions and 
 garlic. His lust for these is evidence of his lack 
 of fellowship with God. The man who is look- 
 ing at the lands to be possessed, and recognizing 
 all the glory of the fruitage, and the beauty of 
 the pasture, but will not go up because of the 
 difficulties, has lost his vision of God. 
 
 They were discontented and afraid why? 
 The answer of Numbers is the answer of to-day.
 
 80 THE MESSAGE OF NUMBERS 
 
 False attitudes are created by mixed motives and 
 mixed multitudes. 
 
 Mixed motives. I speak, as God is my wit- 
 ness, to my own heart. Art thou afraid of the 
 toilsome pathway, and the weary battle, and the 
 bruising ? Then it is because selfishness is still 
 dominant. When the eye is single, the heart 
 undivided, and love unified upon the one prin- 
 ciple of winning God's victory, there is no halt- 
 ing, no turning back. The old Hebrew phrase, 
 " a pure heart," more truly translated, is " an un- 
 divided heart." In order to do God's work in 
 the world, we need the undivided heart. 
 
 Turning from the individual to the Church ; 
 the reason of her halting is the mixed multitudes. 
 We shall always be paralyzed as long as we con- 
 sent to be patronized by worldliness inside the 
 Church. We shall never be strong while into 
 the assemblies, where we consider our mission- 
 ary obligation, we admit the counsel of men of 
 sight. 
 
 God is ready. Are we?
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. God's Love of Man the Motive of His 
 Government 
 
 This the Burden of the Retrospective 
 
 and Prospective Sections. 
 L The Retrospective. 
 
 a. History. Deut. iv. 37. 
 
 b. Law. Deut x. 12-15. 
 i. The Prospective. 
 
 a. The Song. 
 
 b. The Blessing. 
 
 (I. Man'g Love of God the Motive of His 
 Obedience 
 
 This emphasized in the Retrospective 
 as to Law ; and in the Introspec- 
 tive as to Covenant-keeping. 
 i. Law. Deut. v. 10. Quoted from Ex- 
 
 odus. 
 ** vi. 5. The Comprehen- 
 
 sive. 
 
 " x. 12. Relation to Love 
 of God. 
 
 d. Covenant. 
 
 Deut. xxx. 6. The circumcized Heart. 
 " " 15, 1 6, 19, 20. The 
 Principle of choice. 
 
 I. The Affirmations 
 
 i. God's Laws are the Expression of 
 His Love. 
 Necessarily. 
 Perfectly. 
 
 ii. Man's Love is demonstrated b} 
 Obedience. 
 
 Only Love will submit to their 
 
 Severity. 
 
 Obedience the final Proof of 
 Confidence. 
 
 II. The Arguments 
 
 i. The Revelations of History, 
 ii. The Issues of Law. 
 
 III. The Appeal 
 
 i. Know God. 
 ii. Love God. 
 iii. Obey God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 THE opening and closing statements of 
 Deuteronomy constitute the boundaries 
 of the book, and give us the key to its 
 interpretation. Its opening words are: "These 
 be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel, 
 beyond Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah 
 over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, 
 and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab." Its 
 closing declaration, written in all probability by 
 the hand of Joshua, is, " There hath not arisen a 
 prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom 
 Jehovah knew face to face ; in all the signs and 
 the wonders, which Jehovah sent him to do in 
 the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his 
 servants, and to all his land ; and in all the 
 mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which 
 Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel." 
 
 The book contains the final words of Moses to 
 the chosen people, and they are words resulting 
 from his " face to face " friendship with Jehovah. 
 This friendship, with its intimate knowledge of 
 
 83
 
 84 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 God a knowledge which gleams through all 
 these final words was the result of the process 
 and progress of revelation. Moses could not 
 have delivered these prophecies on the day after 
 he had escaped from Egypt. He had much to 
 learn. The messages recorded in Deuteronomy 
 repeat things already said, but with a new tone 
 and a new emphasis, and there is felt a new at- 
 mosphere in their utterance. The tone, emphasis, 
 and atmosphere are due to the fact that progress- 
 ively Moses had come to such full knowledge of 
 God that the man who wrote the last page of 
 the book of Deuteronomy had to say of him that 
 he was a prophet who knew God " face to face." 
 It would be an interesting theme to trace care- 
 fully the development, and to notice the progress 
 of Moses' knowledge of God. I shall content 
 myself with two or three brief sentences, indicat- 
 ing not so much his progress, as the processes 
 which resulted therein. 
 
 When three months old, the child was com- 
 mitted to the Nile, by faith in God, as the writer 
 of the letter to the Hebrews tells us. By sweet 
 art the mother contrived to nurse the boy. How 
 long that continued, we do not know. Quite 
 long enough, in all probability, for her to have
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 85 
 
 soothed him to sleep with stories of his own 
 people, and to have implanted in his mind 
 thoughts of God which could never be obliter- 
 ated. His training in the Egyptian court played 
 no unimportant part in his discovery of truth 
 concerning God. It was training by contrast. 
 In the Mosaic economy the influence of Egyp- 
 tian forms of worship is to be discovered. For 
 instance, Egypt in its religious rites made use of 
 sacred arks, but they contained a piece of stone, 
 a serpent, water from the Nile, or something 
 material, and often base. In the loneliness of 
 the wilderness God taught His servant that in 
 all these things there were the form, the possi- 
 bility, the principle ; but that they needed to be 
 corrected at the centre. When he constructed 
 the sacred ark according to pattern, it received 
 holy things, the symbols of a holy God, who 
 could only be approached by sacrifice. Thus at 
 the court of Pharaoh, he was prepared for the 
 contrasts which were to follow. 
 
 Then came the forty years in the wilderness. 
 I do not sympathize with those who pity Moses 
 as he left the court of Egypt, and went down 
 into the wilderness. There was far more gran- 
 deur in the rough, rugged mountains, and God's
 
 86 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 overarching sky, than in anything Egypt pos- 
 sessed. In the quiet meditation of those forty 
 years he came nearer to God, gazing upon the 
 wonders of nature, touching the fringes of His 
 force, aid baring his soul to the influences of 
 His JMajesty. Next in order came the more 
 dire'.t visions and revelations which were neces- 
 sary for his work. First, that at the burning 
 'msh, and the uttering of the unutterable fact, " I 
 \M THAT I AM." For forty years he had been 
 in the presence of God, had seen His might dif- 
 fused through mountains and plains, in storms 
 and calms, in stars and stones, until at last, in 
 one solitary scrub bush in the wilderness, there 
 gleamed the Glory that he had never seen a 
 Presence spoke, and the voice said : "I AM THAT 
 I AM." 
 
 A little later the word " I am " was linked with 
 the great name of Jehovah. Then Moses dis- 
 covered that the God, the fringes of whose gar- 
 ments he had touched for forty years, and whose 
 glory had burned in the bush, and whose voice 
 he had heard out of the mystic splendour, was 
 a God ready to become everything His people 
 needed. 
 
 After a while he longed for a fuller revelation,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 87 
 
 and cried out of the depth of his heart hunger, 
 " Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory," and God 
 answered, " I will make all My goodness pass 
 before thee." Then he learned that God's glory 
 is His goodness. 
 
 Then followed another forty years of wilder- 
 ness wandering, during which he discovered that 
 the foundation of the throne of God was right- 
 eousness and judgment, saw the goodness of 
 God, marked His patience, learned His heart; 
 and finally, out of that full knowledge, delivered 
 his last messages to his people. 
 
 These discourses constitute a survey of the 
 whole economy of God in relation to His people. 
 There are six of them, falling into three groups. 
 The first two are retrospective ; the second two 
 are introspective ; the last two are prospective. 
 Through all, there runs a new note of love. The 
 former facts are repeated ; the sovereignty of 
 God is insisted upon ; the obedience of man is 
 called for ; but these facts are now set in relation 
 to love. This is no mere piece of imagination. 
 The word love, as indicating relationship be- 
 tween God and man, occurs only once in Exodus, 
 when God declares that He shows " mercy unto 
 thousands of them that love Me and keep My
 
 88 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 commandments " ; and as indicating relation- 
 ship between man and man, once in Leviticus: 
 " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The 
 word love is a lonely stranger in the first four 
 books. 
 
 Everything is changed in the book of Deu- 
 teronomy. Its supreme and overwhelming mes" 
 sage is that of love. To understand this will 
 enable us to state the permanent values, and to 
 deduce the living message. 
 
 The permanent values are two ; first, that 
 God's love of man is the motive of His gov- 
 ernment ; and secondly, that man's love of God 
 is the motive of his obedience. 
 
 God's love of man is the motive of His gov- 
 ernment. This is the special burden of the retro- 
 spective and prospective sections. In the close 
 of the first discourse, which was a retrospect of 
 the history of the people, Moses declared : " Be- 
 cause He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose 
 their seed after them, and brought thee out with 
 His Presence, with His great power, out of 
 Egypt." By that statement he revealed his con- 
 viction that the inspiration of God's government 
 was His love. 
 
 The next discourse was a resume of laws, in
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 89 
 
 which there was no lowering of the standard of 
 righteous requirement, but remarkable interpreta- 
 tion of the meaning of the laws upon which He still 
 insisted : " And now, Israel, what doth the Lord 
 thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy 
 God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, 
 and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart 
 and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments 
 of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command 
 thee this day for thy good ? Behold, unto the 
 Lord thy God belongeth the heaven, and the 
 heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that therein 
 is. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers 
 to love them, and He chose their seed after them, 
 even you above all peoples, as at this day." In- 
 sisting upon the necessity for their obedience to 
 the laws which he had reviewed, he declared that 
 they were the outcome of the love of God. 
 
 Thus, as he looked back over the history, he 
 said that it was a history of the government of 
 love ; and as he recapitulated the laws, he de- 
 clared that they were the outcome of love. 
 
 The last two discourses consist of the song and 
 the blessing. In that song, love is never men- 
 tioned ; but it breathes the spirit of love from be- 
 ginning to end. It is a song of God's triumph
 
 90 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 over unfaithfulness. Paean and dirge alternate 
 throughout ; the story of the Divine faithfulness, 
 and of human unfaithfulness. Is there any love 
 song ever sung so mighty as that which tells of 
 love, which triumphs over the unfaithfulness of 
 the loved one ? That is the deepest truth about 
 God, and Moses celebrated it in his final song. 
 These people were to be dispersed, and Moses 
 foretold the dispersion ; and then, at the com- 
 mand of God, wrote the song, and taught it to 
 the people. A song will linger in the heart long 
 after a code of ethics has been forgotten. Many 
 a man who has broken all the laws of his country 
 and his God, in some distant land, has been wooed 
 back to mother and to God by some old song. 
 So Moses wrote the song of a love that through 
 pain, if necessary, will proceed towards the fulfill- 
 ment of its own high purpose. 
 
 The last words of Moses were of blessing only. 
 His eyes were fixed upon the far distant day 
 when the tribes should be restored, and fulfill the 
 first Divine ideal. In the midst of the blessing 
 is a great declaration," He loveth the peoples." 
 Thus, whether it be a review of history, a resume 
 of laws, a song for the future, or a foretelling of 
 restoration, the last great message of the man
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 91 
 
 who knew God " face to face " was that God's 
 love was the motive of His government 
 
 The other fact is equally true, and equally 
 manifest. Man's love of God is the motive of his 
 obedience. This is emphasized in the retrospec- 
 tive and introspective divisions of the book ; and 
 in each case in one discourse preeminently. 
 Man's love of God as the motive of obedience is 
 declared in the repetition of laws, "Showing 
 mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and 
 keep My commandments. . . . Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And 
 these words, which I command thee this day, shall 
 be upon thine heart." The tremendous truth 
 which Israel was destined to teach the world was 
 that of the unity of God : " Hear, O Israel, the 
 Lord our God is one Lord." The outcome of 
 that truth of the unity of God is the command, 
 " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine 
 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 might." The nation and the individual were to be 
 unified by the love of one God. Further on in 
 this discourse promises are made, and the condi- 
 tion was ever, "If ye shall . . . love the 
 Yx>rd vour God." The expression of love is
 
 92 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 obedience to law. Man's love of God is the only 
 sufficient motive for his obedience to the laws of 
 God. 
 
 In dealing with the covenant, Moses declared 
 " The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, 
 and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy 
 God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, 
 that thou mayest live," and so revealed the secret 
 of its keeping. Then in his last prophetic utter- 
 ance he again insisted upon the fact that the 
 only motive sufficiently strong to enable a man 
 to keep the law of God is that of love to God. 
 
 The permanent values in this case constitute 
 the living message. To repeat the values is to 
 utter the message. God's love of man is the 
 motive of His government Man's love of God 
 is the motive of his obedience. In order to em- 
 phasize these truths, let us hear again the affir- 
 mations of this book, listen to its arguments, and 
 attend to its appeal. 
 
 What, then, are the affirmations ? The first is 
 that God's laws are the expressions of His love, 
 and that for two reasons. Because God is love, 
 He cannot make a law that is not an expression 
 of His love ; and because man needs law, God, 
 being love, must provide it. To make man. and
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 93 
 
 put him down in the world without government, 
 would be to leave him to work out his own ruin. 
 He needs law because he is finite, and infinite is- 
 sues lie all about him ; and it is necessary that he 
 should know the laws of the infinite in order to 
 obey them. Love, then, is the inspiration of 
 God's government of a nation, or of a man. 
 
 The affirmation of the book, on the other side, 
 is that man's love of God is the motive of his 
 obedience. Nothing but love will submit to the 
 severity of God's law. It is a severe law. It be- 
 sets me behind and before, and will not allow me 
 to escape. 
 
 " O Love, that will not let me go." 
 
 There is a stern ring in that word as well as a 
 tender tone. So severe is the law of God that 
 nothing but love will submit to it. Obedience is 
 the final demonstration of confidence ; and con- 
 fidence is never perfect unless it is the confidence 
 of absolute love. So that obedience to law on 
 the part of man is demonstration of his love of 
 God ; and the love of God is the motive of his 
 obedience. 
 
 The arguments of this book are those of all 
 human history. The historian needs an inter-
 
 94 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 preter. The singers are the interpreters of his- 
 tory. In this song Moses argued for the love of 
 God by reviewing His methods. In our own 
 times, Browning has sung in other words the 
 same great theme : 
 
 " I have gone the whole round of Creation : I saw and I 
 
 spoke ! 
 I, a work of God's hand for that purpose, received in my 
 
 brain 
 And pronounced on the rest of His handiwork returned 
 
 Him again 
 His creation's approval or censure; I spoke as I 
 
 saw. 
 I report, as a man may of God's work all's love, yet 
 
 all's law ! 
 Now I lay down the judgeship He lent me. Each faculty 
 
 tasked 
 To perceive Him has gained an abyss where a dewdrop 
 
 was asked, 
 Have I knowledge? Confounded, it shrivels at wisdom 
 
 laid bare. 
 Have I forethought ? How purblind, how blank, to the 
 
 Infinite care ! 
 
 Do I task any faculty highest to image success ? 
 I but open my eyes and perfection, no more and no 
 
 less, 
 In the kind I imagined, full-fronts me, and God is seen 
 
 God 
 In the star, in the stone, in the flesh, in the soul and the 
 
 clod.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 95 
 
 And thus, looking within and around me, I ever renew 
 
 (With that stoop of the soul which, in bending, upraises 
 it too) 
 
 The submission of Man's nothing-perfect to God's All- 
 Complete, 
 
 As by each new obeisance in spirit I climb to His 
 feet." 
 
 All's love, but all's law. The seers are always 
 the singers. I have already referred to one of 
 George Matheson's hymns. Let us not miss the 
 strength of that hymn, while we glory in its ten- 
 derness. 
 
 " O Love, that will not let me go." 
 
 Do not let us sing that as though love only knew 
 the method of a tender caress. We must sing 
 all the hymn if we would know what the first 
 line means. 
 
 " O Love, that will not let me go, 
 I rest my weary soul in Thee ; 
 I give Thee back the life I owe, 
 That in Thine ocean's depths its flow 
 May richer, fuller be. 
 
 ' O Light, that followest all my way, 
 
 I yield my flickering torch to Thee j 
 My heart restores its borrowed ray, 
 That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day 
 May brighter, fairer be.
 
 96 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 
 
 " O Joy, that seekest me through pain, 
 I cannot close my heart to Thee ; 
 I trace the rainbow through the rain, 
 And feel the promise is not vain 
 That morn shall tearless be. 
 
 " O Cross, that liftest up my head, 
 
 I dare not ask to fly from Thee ; 
 I lay in dust life's glory dead, 
 And from the ground there blossoms red 
 Life that shall endless be." 
 
 Love, then, is law gripping me, binding me to the 
 cross, compelling me to lay life's glory in the 
 dust of death, and so ensuring the blossoming of 
 red life. 
 
 The first appeal of the book is to love of God. 
 It is objected that love cannot be commanded. 
 That is true. Love is born when least expected. 
 We love, because He first loved. On the other 
 hand, love can be refused. We may not love, 
 even though He first loves. The message then 
 is, "Harden not your heart." Do not blind 
 yourself to God's love. Detect it in the rainbow 
 and in the rain, in the cross and in the red life 
 that blossoms from the ground. Having de- 
 tected it, answer it. The final appeal of Deuter- 
 onomy shows how love is answered. It is by
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DEUTERONOMY 97 
 
 obedience. In answer to love, and in the power 
 of love, obey. There is a reflex action in this 
 sacred matter. To obey in answer to love is to 
 come to love the One obeyed ; and so more per- 
 fectly to obey, out of more perfect love.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. " Jehovah is a Man of War " 
 
 i. Its Reason. His perpetual War with Sin. 
 
 a. The Extermination of the Canaanites. 
 
 1. After Probation. Gen. xv. 16, xviii., xix. 
 
 2. Because of Corruption. Lev. xviii. 24, 
 
 25. 27- 
 
 b. His dealing with His Own. 
 
 ii. Its Instruments. 
 
 a. Men loyal to Him. 
 
 b. The Forces of the Universe. 
 
 til Its Methods. 
 
 a. Restraint of natural Powers, within the 
 
 Bounds of His Government. 
 
 b. Restraint of the Lust of a conquering 
 
 Army. 
 
 II. "The Just shall live by Faith " 
 
 i. Acceptance of the Standard of God's Holiness. 
 
 ii. Abandonment to the Government of God's 
 Will. 
 
 iii. Achievement in the Strength of God's Might. 
 
 I. " Jehovah is a Man of War " 
 
 The Foe of Sin to-day as 
 ever. 
 Personal. 
 Social. 
 Civic. 
 National. 
 
 II. "The Just shall live by 
 Faith " 
 
 Personally. 
 Relatively. 
 
 To exercise righteous in- 
 fluence, and produce 
 the result of righteous 
 conditions, faith is nec- 
 essary.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 THE second division of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, designated The Prophets, 
 fell into two sections. The first was 
 called The Earlier Prophets, and comprised 
 Joshua, Judges, I. and II., Samuel, and I. and II. 
 Kings. In some arrangements the book of Ruth 
 was included with that of Joshua. In others it 
 was counted as one of the five rolls constituting 
 the Hagiographa, or book of Psalms. The plac- 
 ing of the historical books of the Old Testament 
 in the division known as The Prophets indicated 
 the fact that they were considered to be pro- 
 phetic in the full sense of the word. History is 
 prophetic in that it has a teaching value. To 
 read from the true standpoint is to observe the 
 method of God, and to learn the principles of 
 human life. 
 
 The book of Joshua is a link between the death 
 of Moses and the death of Joshua, and covers a 
 period of from forty-five to fifty years in the his- 
 tory of the ancient people. Joshua was born in 
 slavery, and the first years of his life were spent 
 
 99
 
 ioo THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 in the midst of the hard and terrible conditions 
 in which his people lived in Egypt. He was 
 about forty years of age at the time of the exodus 
 and was one of the minority who brought the 
 true report of the land, when the spies were sent 
 forth. The book bearing his name tells the story 
 of the coming of the chosen people into the land 
 and their settlement therein. 
 
 In order to the discovery of its permanent 
 values, we must again presuppose acquaintance 
 with its content, and proceed to enquire what 
 are the impressions which as a whole it makes 
 upon the mind. It is a book crowded with in- 
 cident, and there are general impressions inevita- 
 bly resulting from its study which I propose to indi- 
 cate by two quotations, one taken from an earlier 
 book, and the other from a later one. The first 
 is from the song the Israelites sang on the 
 borders of the Red Sea, after they had crossed, 
 "Jehovah is a Man of war." The other is from 
 the prophecy of Habakkuk, " The just shall live 
 by his faith." 
 
 In the song sung upon the banks of the Red 
 Sea by the delivered people, there emerges into 
 definite statement a great truth, never lost sight 
 of through the whole Bible, " Jehovah is a Man of
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 101 
 
 war." In the prophecy of Habakkuk, the truth 
 which emerged as a principle in Genesis is crys- 
 tallized into a definite statement. The perma- 
 nent values of the book of Joshua, then, are that 
 it illustrates these two truths, thus impressing 
 them upon the mind, and revealing the intimate 
 relationship between them. 
 
 Let us take the first of these statements and 
 examine it carefully. This book is criticized by 
 those who declare that its teaching concerning 
 the attitude of Joshua, and the activity of the 
 people under his command, are out of harmony 
 with the truth concerning God revealed by our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. It is hardly necessary for me 
 to say that I join issue with that conclusion alto- 
 gether. I hold, on the contrary, that this book, 
 rightly read, interprets the meaning of that side 
 of truth concerning Jehovah which we sometimes 
 find it difficult to understand. 
 
 Let it first be recognized that this conception 
 of God runs through the whole Bible. It 
 emerges into clear statement in the song after the 
 crossing of the Red Sea. It is manifest in all 
 the history of the Hebrew people, as written for us 
 in this book, and in the book of Judges, in I. and 
 II. Samuel, in I. and II. Kings, and in that
 
 102 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 priestly repetition of the story of the Kings which 
 we have in I. and II. Chronicles. The people 
 were commanded to battle, led in battle, punished 
 in battle, under the direct government of God. 
 This conception of God is celebrated by the Old 
 Testament writers. One supreme instance is 
 found in that matchless twenty-fourth psalm, 
 
 " Jehovah strong and mighty, 
 Jehovah mighty in battle." 
 
 It was held, moreover, by the prophet Isaiah, 
 who declared, " By fire will Jehovah plead, and 
 by His sword, with all flesh." The thought runs 
 through the new Testament in spiritual fervour, 
 though material forms of expression are absent. 
 The underlying fact is manifested in the anger of 
 Jesus, and suggested in the phrase " the wrath of 
 God." The same conception obtains in the last 
 book of the Bible, when material symbolism and 
 spiritual truth so wonderfully merge in the pas- 
 sage, " I saw the heaven opened ; and behold, a 
 white horse, and He that sat thereon, called 
 Faithful and True ; and in righteousness He doth 
 judge and make war. And His eyes are a flame 
 of fire, and upon His head are many diadems ; 
 and He hath a name written, which no one
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 103 
 
 knoweth but He Himself. And He is arrayed in 
 a garment sprinkled with blood : and His name 
 is called The Word of God. And the armies 
 which are in heaven followed Him upon white 
 horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. 
 And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, 
 that with it He should smite the nations : and 
 He shall rule them with a rod of iron : and He 
 treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the 
 wrath of Almighty God." 
 
 This conception of God as a warlike One, a 
 God of battles, capable of anger, moving forth 
 ever and anon in definite punishment by the 
 sword, runs through all the Bible. It has been 
 questioned and criticized, always through partial, 
 and consequently false views of God. It is 
 affirmed that this conception of God is out of 
 harmony with the truth declared emphatically 
 by the revelation of Jesus Christ, and in the 
 words " God is love." I affirm, on the contrary, 
 that if this conception be inaccurate, if in certain 
 given circumstances, and in the presence of cer- 
 tain conditions, God is not a God of war, then 
 He cannot be a God of love. All the references 
 to Him as a God of war in the Bible, and all the 
 activities attributed to Him, spring from one
 
 104 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 simple fountainhead ; and that is the eternal and 
 undying love of His heart. In this book of 
 Joshua that supreme fact is clearly manifest and 
 explained. 
 
 God is perpetually at war with sin. That is 
 the whole explanation of the extermination of the 
 Canaanites. The story of that extermination 
 must be read in connection with the things 
 chronicled in previous books, and in the light 
 of the actual facts as to the condition of the 
 people in Canaan. In a vision recorded in 
 Genesis, Abraham was told of the captivity of 
 his descendants, and that they should suffer 
 hardship in a strange land for four hundred 
 years, and then be brought back into the land to 
 possess it. In the course of that declaration it 
 was said, "The iniquity of the Amorite is not 
 yet full." In that incidental word we have the 
 key to the situation. The people who dwelt in 
 Canaan, when Joshua led God's people in, had 
 rilled to the full the cup of iniquity. Their cor- 
 ruption is revealed in Leviticus, in the warnings 
 uttered to the Hebrews against the evil things 
 they would find in the land; "Defile not ye 
 yourselves in any of these things : for in all these 
 the nations are defiled which I cast out from be-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 105 
 
 fore you : and the land is denied : therefore do I 
 visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land 
 vomiteth out her inhabitants." And again, in a 
 parenthesis which flashes its light upon the whole 
 story, (" For all these abominations have the 
 men of the land done, which were before you, 
 and the land is denied"). These are distinct 
 declarations of God, that the people were to be 
 exterminated because of the evils existing in the 
 land. There was absolute immorality and 
 atrocious cruelty. The Assyrian records, which 
 have comparatively recently been brought to 
 light, reveal the condition of Phoenicia. The 
 whole truth concerning the purging of the land 
 by the Hebrew people under the command of 
 God is stated by Dr. Moorhead thus, "It was 
 terrible surgery this ; but it was surgery and not 
 murder the excision of the cancer that the 
 healthy part might remain." That exactly ex- 
 plains what happened when the Hebrew people 
 dispossessed the corrupt peoples who occupied 
 the land of Canaan. 
 
 Then it must be remembered that this was not 
 done until after long probation. The land had 
 not been without definite teaching and warning. 
 Melchizedek had lived in Canaan, king of right-
 
 106 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 eousness and king of Salem. Abraham had 
 dwelt there. Solemn warning had been given 
 in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the 
 fame of which had spread through the length 
 and breadth of the land. Blind to the light, deaf 
 to the voice, these people had persisted in sin, 
 until they had become absolutely immoral and 
 atrociously cruel ; and for the sake of succeeding 
 generations and the surrounding nations, it was 
 necessary to excise the cancer, and give the op- 
 portunity of healthy life. 
 
 God is seen in this book of Joshua as a war- 
 like One proceeding to battle, not for a capricious 
 purpose, not for the enlargement of territory, for 
 the whole earth is His ; but in order to change 
 and end the corrupt condition of affairs in the 
 larger interests of the oncoming centuries, and 
 of the whole human race. It was a conflict as 
 between truth and liberty on the one hand, and 
 lying and licentiousness on the other. One or 
 the other had to go down in the struggle, and 
 God moved forward as a warlike One, using 
 these people as His scourge to purify the land, 
 and to plant in that little strip of country a 
 people who, whatever their faults were, should 
 yet become the depository of the truth which
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 107 
 
 should at last permeate the world, and give men 
 everywhere the opportunity for life, which it was 
 necessary they should have. 
 
 Moreover, it must be observed that God was 
 not merely clearing a land in order to find a 
 home for people upon whom He had set His 
 heart. Solemn warnings were given to the 
 Israelites perpetually by word and by deed, that 
 if they turned to the sins of the people they had 
 exterminated, they in their turn should be cast 
 out. That is precisely what happened. They 
 did turn, in spite of the law, in spite of the lead- 
 ing of God, to the abominations which they 
 found in the land, failed to bear the testimony 
 which they were created to bear, and conse- 
 quently to-day are a people " scattered and 
 peeled." God was as surely against Israel as 
 against Canaan when, in the person of one 
 member of the nation, she turned with lusting 
 eyes to the things of evil. That solemn halt 
 and awful defeat at Ai teach the lesson of the 
 meaning of God's warlike nature as surely as 
 did the stories of the sweeping out of the men 
 who were already in the land. As a matter of 
 fact, the dealing of God with His own is almost 
 severer than His dealing with the Canaanites.
 
 io8 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 One man had coveted a Babylonish garment 
 and a wedge of gold, had grasped something of 
 the spoil for the enrichment of himself, and had 
 hidden it in his tent ; and the whole march of 
 Israelites was halted by defeat ; and until the evil 
 thing was found and destroyed, and the sinning 
 man had expiated his offense by the very death 
 that the Hebrew people were inflicting upon the 
 sinners of the land, there could be no going for- 
 ward. God is the terrible foe of sin, refusing to 
 make truce with it, after probation and long 
 patience visiting in judgment corrupt peoples, 
 and punishing with severity the very instrument 
 raised up for the carrying out of His work, when- 
 ever it becomes contaminated by sin. God's 
 rule is ever the expression of His righteousness, 
 impulsed by love. Supposing these people had 
 been allowed to remain and retain their power ; 
 supposing there had never been brought into 
 existence the people who were to receive the 
 oracles of revelation, what would have been the 
 history of the world by now ? By that very 
 purging, by those drastic measures of wrath 
 against iniquity persisted in after long probation, 
 God gave the race its new opportunity, as He 
 prepared the way for the coming of the One in
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 109 
 
 whom His love was to be incarnate, and His 
 anger to be most perfectly manifest. 
 
 God used as His instruments men so far as 
 they were loyal to Him. He also pressed into 
 service the forces of the universe, in so far as 
 they were necessary for the carrying out of His 
 purpose ; the restraint of a river while His hosts 
 crossed over, the trembling of the earth until the 
 walls of the city fell, the lengthening of the day 
 until the battle was won. It may be said that 
 God does not to-day divide rivers, or cause 
 mountains to tremble, or stay the sun in his 
 going. These interventions were but representa- 
 tive of a method. God does not repeat Himself 
 unless there be absolute necessity for it. Yet 
 who shall say that the earthquake is not still His 
 minister, the lightning His sword, and the hurri- 
 cane His chariot. Is it not possible that, if we 
 had the illuminated eye, we should discover that 
 the things we describe as catastrophes are but 
 evidences of the goings of God in supernatural 
 strength, for the accomplishment of some far-off 
 purpose upon which His heart of love is set ? 
 
 Once more, notice the methods which are re- 
 markable in relation to these people. Notice the 
 peculiar restraint of the natural force of His ap-
 
 I io THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 pointed soldiers, within the bounds of His govern- 
 ment. Is it possible to conceive of anything 
 much more foolish than attempting to take a city 
 by the blowing of rams' horns and the marching 
 of men ? Yet that is not the way to state the 
 case. Let us rather enquire whether it is pos- 
 sible to conceive of anything more heroic than 
 the ability to walk seven days round a city, with- 
 out striking a blow, after having won a battle by 
 the sword on the other side of Jordan ? I can- 
 not laugh at the story as being unlikely. I am 
 rather amazed at the picture of the restrained 
 soldiers of God, content to do His bidding, while 
 leaving to Him the issues. When at last the 
 walls trembled, no one imagined that the blast of 
 the rams' horns had shaken them, no one im- 
 agined that the tramp of feet round them had 
 made them tremble. They knew, and we know, 
 that these men were being taught that God 
 operates for the accomplishment of His purposes 
 through the obedient and heroic faith of men 
 who will obey Him, however foolhardy their 
 action may appear in the eyes of men. The 
 restraint of the lust of a conquering army is 
 equally remarkable. Compare the Assyrian rec- 
 ords, to which we have already made reference,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA in 
 
 and see what the men of that very district did in 
 the day of victory, how they treated their captives. 
 The contrast is almost startling. Jehovah is a 
 Man of war. His purpose is righteous. His in- 
 struments are controlled by righteousness. His 
 methods are righteous. I see Him in this book 
 of Joshua moving in resistless fury against sin, 
 in the interests of the nations, of the race at 
 large, and of the unborn centuries, in order that 
 truth might have its opportunity in the world, in 
 the interests of man. 
 
 The other truth that " the just shall live by his 
 faith " has become patent by this statement of the 
 first permanent value of the book. This truth 
 emerged in Genesis, was expressed in clear state- 
 ment by Habakkuk, and enforced by threefold 
 citation in the apostolic writings. The declara- 
 tion means that the power of the righteous life is 
 faith. It is by faith in God that the righteous 
 lives. With a fine sense of accuracy the writer 
 of the letter to the Hebrews has rendered the 
 passage " My righteous one shall live by faith " 
 that is, he shall live the righteous life, by faith. 
 The power of righteousness is faith. The book 
 of Joshua is a remarkable interpretation of this 
 fact, and it is especially valuable to notice the in-
 
 112 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 terpretation of faith which this book offers. The 
 writer of the letter to the Hebrews declares " By 
 faith the walls of Jericho fell down," and that 
 statement touches the keystone of the victories of 
 Joshua. The first strategic battle was won at 
 Jericho. Beyond that, the whole land stretched 
 out before them. This being granted, carefully 
 observe what this history of the conquest of the 
 land teaches concerning faith. Faith is the ac- 
 ceptance of God's standard of holiness. Faith is 
 abandonment to the government of God's will. 
 Faith is achievement in the strength of God's 
 might 
 
 It is first acceptance of God's standard of holi- 
 ness. In the first words of Joshua addressed to 
 these people, he warned them of the perils which 
 awaited them in the land to which they came, 
 and charged them that they must be pure and 
 strong. In his last discourse the same passionate 
 abandonment to the standard of God's holiness is 
 manifest. That is faith. Faith is not an attitude 
 which asks for mercy, and professes to receive it, 
 while careless about holiness. Faith finds the 
 grip of its anchorage in the holiness of God. That 
 is the underlying secret of the strength and vic- 
 tories of Joshua.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 113 
 
 Faith is also abandonment to the government 
 of God's will. We have already referred to this, 
 as revealed in the story of the taking of Jericho. 
 The men who were content to do such things as 
 they did were men of faith. In the stirring 
 days of the evangelical revival, when the Wes- 
 leys and Whitefield were passing like flames of 
 fire through the country, they sang : 
 
 " Fools and madmen let us be, 
 Yet is our sure trust in Thee." 
 
 That is faith ; to be willing to do things at 
 which the wisdom of the world scoffs, if God 
 command. In that way God's victories are won, 
 and in no other. 
 
 Faith finally, therefore, is achievement in the 
 strength of God's might. All the victories of 
 righteousness through the centuries testify to this 
 fact. 
 
 The permanent values of the book of Joshua 
 constitute its living message, and therefore I 
 need but repeat them in a few final sentences. 
 
 To-day " Jehovah is a Man of war." At this 
 hour He is the foe of sin in personal, social, civic, 
 and national life. At this moment, in this in- 
 dividual life of mine and in the world at large,
 
 114 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 
 
 He is moving forward in unabated, undeviating, 
 unceasing hostility to sin. Blessed be His 
 name ! Thank God that He will not make 
 peace with sin in my heart. How I have tried 
 to evade some issue with Him, to plead the 
 excuse, " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, 
 and the children's teeth are set on edge " ; to 
 urge the difficulty of the circumstances in which 
 I am ; to plead my infirmity. All the while God 
 is a Man of war, smiting sin, refusing to make 
 truce with it, accepting no white flag of sur- 
 render offered to Him, except that of the aban- 
 donment of sin, and all because He loves me. 
 The moment you can persuade me that God 
 Almighty will excuse sin in my life, I cease to 
 believe in His love. He is the foe of sin in me, 
 in London, in England, in the world. If in 
 these days His methods are not exactly the 
 methods of the past, let it never be forgotten 
 that even to-day every army that marches is 
 under His control ; that He girds Cyrus outside 
 the covenant as surely now as in the days of 
 old. I bless His name for the thunder of His 
 authority, and for the profound conviction that 
 He is fierce and furious in His anger against sin, 
 wherever it manifests itself.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOSHUA 115 
 
 Today also, as in the ancient days, " My 
 righteous one shall live by faith." Personally 
 that is true. If a man is to have the victory of 
 the righteous life he must win it by faith, by ac- 
 cepting God's standard of holiness, by abandon- 
 ing the life to the government of God's will. 
 Then and then only, will he achieve victory in 
 God's power. It is equally true relatively. To 
 exercise a righteous influence, and to produce 
 the result of righteous conditions, we must have 
 faith in God. Blot God out of your propaganda, 
 refuse to have His name and the name of His 
 Christ mentioned, when you gather together to 
 discuss the amelioration of social conditions, and 
 confusion is written across your assembly. It is 
 only as God is recognized in His holiness, and 
 obeyed in His law, that righteous conditions can 
 obtain in personal, or social, or national life. 
 May we hear the message, and answer it with 
 all our hearts to the glory of His name.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 L The Deterioration of a Nation 
 L Its Manifestation. 
 
 a. Cause. Religious Apostasy. 
 
 t. Course. Political Disorganization. 
 
 c. Curse. Social Chaos. 
 ft. Its Characteristics. 
 
 a. Blindness. Religious. 
 
 b. Folly. Political. 
 
 c. Immorality. Social. 
 
 II. The Administration of God 
 
 i. Its Methods. 
 
 a. Punishment. 
 
 b. Mercy. 
 
 c. Deliverance. 
 ii. Its Purpose. 
 
 a. The last Statement, xxi. 25. 
 
 {xvii. 6. 
 xviii. I. 
 xix. I. 
 
 b. The next Book. 
 
 e. Its Ultimate. David. 
 JESUS. 
 
 I. As to the Nation 
 
 A Warning. 
 
 i. The Process of Deterioration. 
 ii. The Process of Restoration. 
 
 II. As to the Administration of God. 
 
 A Message of Hope. 
 i. He forever moves towards Purpose, 
 ii. His Methods are still the same. 
 
 Punishment. 
 
 Mercy. 
 
 Deliverance.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 THE central division in the lecture on the 
 content of this book gives the history 
 of the Hebrew people from Joshua to 
 Samson, in a series of seven cycles. Each one 
 runs the same course of sin, of punishment, of 
 deliverance. 
 
 The permanent values must be deduced from 
 this division. That is not to undervalue the in- 
 troduction or the appendix. These are necessary 
 for the complete picture, but for our present pur- 
 pose we shall confine ourselves to these seven 
 cycles. 
 
 The permanent values may be summarized un- 
 der two heads. The book reveals to us first, the 
 deterioration of the nation ; and secondly, the 
 administration of God. 
 
 In considering the book of Joshua, we found 
 that its first revelation was summarized in that 
 ancient declaration "Jehovah is a Man of war," 
 and we saw God in perpetual conflict with sin ; 
 while its second value was expressed in the state- 
 ment " the just shall live by faith," faith being 
 
 117
 
 ii8 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 the acceptance of God's standard of holiness, 
 abandonment to the government of God's will, 
 and achievement in the strength of God's might. 
 In dealing with the first of these values, we saw 
 that the hostility of God to sin was manifested 
 not only to the sin of the people who were to be 
 exterminated, but also to the sin of the people 
 who were to be the instruments of that exter- 
 mination. That fact is brought out into clear 
 relief in this book. Here we see God in constant 
 conflict with the sin of these people, and yet as 
 constantly working for their deliverance. 
 
 The lessons of this book, then, may be sum- 
 marized by the quotation of two Scriptures, 
 
 " Righteousness exalteth a nation : 
 But sin is a reproach to any people," 
 
 and, 
 
 " Jehovah executeth righteous acts, 
 And judgments for all that are oppressed.' 
 
 Take the first, " Righteousness exalteth a na- 
 tion : But sin is a reproach to any people." The 
 meaning of the first half of the verse is plain 
 " Righteousness exalteth," lifteth up, setteth on 
 high. The meaning of the second part has been 
 somewhat obscured by the use of the word " re-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 119 
 
 proach." The Hebrew word is nowhere else so 
 translated. Its usual translation seems to sug- 
 gest no possible connection with reproach. In 
 the refrain of Psalm cxxxvi., " His mercy endur- 
 eth forever," the word " mercy " is the same as 
 that translated " reproach " in this text I am 
 not suggesting that we should read this text 
 " Righteousness exalteth a nation : but sin is a 
 mercy to any people." I have rather drawn at- 
 tention to the peculiarity of the word in order to 
 say that I believe there is the profoundest sig 
 nificance in its use. The word is derived from a 
 root which means to bow or bend the neck. It 
 is a pictorial word, and its meaning must always 
 be interpreted by the setting in which it is found. 
 The neck may be bent in condescension, the 
 bending of superiority to inferiority. It may be 
 done in courtesy, the bending of a friend to a 
 friend. It may be done in submission, the bend- 
 ing of a slave to the yoke. I believe that when 
 this word was written by Solomon, he employed 
 it for its root value, rather than for its generally 
 accepted value. The thought then would be, 
 Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin bends 
 the neck of any people. Thus the word stands 
 in direct contrast to the word "exalteth."
 
 120 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 Righteousness makes erect ; sin bows the neck. 
 Some may object that one word can have two 
 opposite meanings. I will tell you a story. A 
 boy said to his father, "Father, what does cleave 
 mean ? " " To cleave means to cut into two," 
 replied the father. "Why, father," exclaimed 
 the boy, " I thought that a man must cleave to 
 his wife!" Forgive the homely illustration oi 
 the fact that this word must be interpreted by 
 the context. To cleave is either to make one of 
 two, or to make two of one. 
 
 The other text reveals the truth that fills our 
 heart with hope, "Jehovah executeth righteous 
 acts, And judgments for all that are oppressed." 
 1 place the emphasis for my present purpose 
 upon the word " executeth." God is an Admin- 
 istrator as well as a Lawgiver. 
 
 The seven cycles of this book show how sin 
 bows the neck of a nation, as they reveal the 
 cause, the course, and the curse of deterioration. 
 The cause of deterioration was religious apos- 
 tasy. Its course was political disorganization. 
 Its curse was social chaos and crime. 
 
 The first movement of religious apostasy was 
 toleration of things that were out of harmony 
 with the holiness of God. In the earlier chap-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 121 
 
 ters the declaration is made five or six times, 
 " they drave them not out." They tolerated the 
 presence in the land of the corrupt peoples, 
 whom they had been commanded to extermi- 
 nate. That was the first evidence of religious 
 apostasy. It always is. Religious apostasy never 
 begins with intellectual questioning. I have the 
 profoundest respect for the man who is face to 
 face with intellectual doubt and difficulty. Let 
 him alone. If he be true, he will " beat his music 
 out," and " find a stronger faith his own." Re- 
 ligious apostasy begins with toleration for the 
 things that are out of harmony with the holiness 
 of God. This was followed by admiration of 
 the things tolerated, until admiration became 
 conformity ; and in that strip of land which 
 ought to have been swept clean of corruption, 
 altars to Baal, and idol places of worship were 
 erected by the people raised up to end these very 
 abominations. 
 
 Religious apostasy is always the first move- 
 ment in national deterioration, and it is inevi- 
 tably followed by political disorganization. This 
 manifested itself in the case of Israel almost 
 immediately. After the passing of Joshua they 
 ceased to act as one people. They began to
 
 122 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 live in their own small territory and to fight for 
 their own selfish ends. Civil war almost exter- 
 minated the tribe of Benjamin. The nation was 
 broken up into factions, and so was no longer 
 able to act in perfect unity of thought and pur- 
 pose ; and consequently was weak in the pres- 
 ence of enemies, and suffered defeat. 
 
 The curse was experienced in internal lawless- 
 ness. One graphic touch tells how the highways 
 were deserted, and men walked along the by- 
 ways, which means that lawlessness was so ram- 
 pant that men had to find their way by stealth to 
 evade the highway robbers who filled the land. 
 Crimes were committed everywhere, while stub- 
 bornness of heart characterized the people. 
 
 Mark their strange blindness. One of the 
 most startling things in the book of Judges is 
 the speed with which they forgot They seem 
 to have forgotten the taking of Jericho, and the 
 victory on the other side of the Jordan. They 
 seem, moreover, to have forgotten their earlier 
 history, the deliverance from Egypt, and the 
 wonderful years in the wilderness in which they 
 were taught that the throne of God must be 
 recognized as the centre of their life. They were 
 blind, moreover, to the present activity of God,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 123 
 
 hardly recognizing the hand of His judgments. 
 This blindness and their religious apostasy were 
 related to each other, as effect to cause. 
 
 Mark the folly of these people. This was 
 evidenced by their limited survey, and by their 
 selfishness. Religious apostasy is always limited 
 survey. To have a home policy and a foreign 
 policy which leave God out of the reckoning is 
 to be blind indeed. The outcome of such blind- 
 ness is selfishness. These people sought their 
 own personal aggrandizement when they forgot 
 God. 
 
 Finally mark the immorality, which was the 
 inevitable outcome of their blindness and folly, 
 and to which we have referred in speaking of 
 the curse of social chaos 
 
 Thank God, however, there is something more 
 in the book of Judges than all this, or it would 
 be a heart-breaking picture. The administration 
 of God is revealed throughout, and concerning 
 it there are three matters to be specially noted ; 
 punishment, mercy, and deliverance. 
 
 This is one of the books of the Bible which we 
 must burn and fling away if we deny that God 
 does directly, immediately, and definitely punish 
 sin. It nevertheless reveals matters of supreme
 
 124 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 importance, in order to a correct appreciation ol 
 the method and purpose of punishment The 
 punishment of God is poetic. That which fell 
 upon these people was the necessary result of 
 their own sin. They bent the neck to low ideals 
 of religion, and were compelled to bend the neck 
 to the rule of the people to whose immorality 
 they had stooped. The people they ought to 
 have driven out, but whom they tolerated and 
 admired, and to whom they conformed them- 
 selves, became their tyrants. God visited them 
 by bringing upon them the scourge of an idol- 
 atrous people, because they had stooped to 
 idolatry. 
 
 The punishment of God is severe. During the 
 years before Gideon was raised up, these people 
 with so great a birthright were compelled to take 
 refuge in caves, not daring to show themselves, 
 being hunted upon the mountains of their own 
 land, and having to hide their heads for very 
 fear. That is an illustration of the severity of 
 God's punishment. 
 
 Yes, but there is another word to be uttered. 
 Not only was the punishment poetic and severe, 
 it was remedial. It always aimed at bringing the 
 people back to a consciousness of sin and of God
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 125 
 
 Through all these processes Jehovah is seen 
 watching and waiting in mercy for His people, 
 hearing them the moment they cry to Him, and 
 answering them immediately with deliverance. 
 
 That brings us to the final matter in the admin- 
 istration of God His deliverance. Deliverance 
 was wrought at the right moment, by the right 
 instrument, to the right issue. I do not pause to 
 dwell upon the fact that it was wrought at the 
 right moment, for we have already seen that He 
 acted, directly the people turned to Him in peni- 
 tence. It is intensely interesting, however, to 
 notice how the deliverance was wrought by the 
 right instrument. To look at the conditions in 
 the midst of which the judges were raised up is 
 ever to see how the right man was found for the 
 accomplishment of the work. 
 
 The story of Shamgar is told in one verse. 
 He was a rough, rugged hero, fitted to his times, 
 accomplishing revolution, and so correcting the 
 people. 
 
 Then there was the wonderful alliance between 
 Deborah and Barak in an age which lacked en- 
 thusiasm and enterprise. Deborah was a woman 
 of poetry and flame, and with a fine scorn laid a 
 whip of scorpions round the men who skulked,
 
 126 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 when they ought to have been fighting. Barak 
 was a strategist and adviser. Deborah without 
 Barak would have kindled enthusiasm, but would 
 have accomplished nothing. Barak would have 
 done absolutely nothing without Deborah. 
 
 Then came Gideon in the most strenuous hour 
 of all the period, and proved his heroism first by 
 his fear. Never criticize Gideon for demanding 
 proof on proof. He was a man so afraid of him- 
 self, that he must have proof on proof ; but so 
 sure of God, that he was content with three hun- 
 dred men, and lamps and pitchers and trumpets, 
 to lead an attack upon a great host. 
 
 The story of Jephthah is full of power. I am 
 always sorry for Jephthah. He was a man with 
 the iron in his soul, born into the world not in the 
 proper way, and therefore despised by his legiti- 
 mate brethren, he had become a freebooter and 
 an outlaw. Yet he was a man of remarkable, 
 honest, rugged strength. When God wanted a 
 leader in those days of lawlessness, He took this 
 man, whom his brothers had despised, and made 
 him the instrument of deliverance. 
 
 The story of Samson is full of sadness, as it re- 
 veals a nation utterly deteriorated, and a man 
 unable to deliver. A most significant word is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 127 
 
 written concerning him, " He shall begin to save 
 Israel." He never succeeded. One of the most 
 tragic things in the Bible is written of him, a 
 statement that makes the soul blanch with fear 
 as nothing else does, " He wist not that the Lord 
 was departed from him." Oh, the tragedy of it. 
 It may come to you, it may come to me, if we 
 play with evil things, when we ought to be fight- 
 ing the Lord's battles. 
 
 We should not have looked for any one of 
 these men where God looked for them. They 
 who wear soft raiment are in kings' palaces. 
 When God wants a prophet, He takes a herd- 
 man ; when a leader, He finds a shepherd ; when 
 apostles, He calls fishermen. 
 
 In order to see the purpose of the administra- 
 tion of God, look at the last verse in the book of 
 Judges, " Every man did that which was right in 
 his own eyes." The same thing is written four 
 times in the appendix. It is said that this re- 
 veals nothing more than that the book of Judges 
 was written in the time of the kings ; and that the 
 writer, looking back, accounted for the chaos by 
 the fact that there was no king. That is truly 
 the human side of it ; but there is the Divine side 
 of it.
 
 128 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 " Every man did that which was right in his 
 own eyes " ; that is, religious apostasy, political 
 disorganization, social chaos. The book of Ruth 
 follows that of Judges, and may be described as 
 the idyll of the king. How does it end ? With 
 David the king. What is its issue ? Jesus, far 
 off down the centuries. So at last there came a 
 King, and no man is any longer to do that which 
 is right in his own eyes, but is to crown Him and 
 obey Him. That is the ending of religious apos- 
 tasy, of political disorganization, and of social 
 chaos. So the lines run out from this book of 
 Judges, through the idyll of the king, to the com- 
 ing of the King. 
 
 Again, the permanent values constitute the 
 living message. The book of Judges is full of 
 teaching for this day, and for this nation. It 
 first of all utters a warning, revealing to us, if 
 we have eyes to see, and ears to hear, and hearts 
 to understand, the process of deterioration. It 
 is as true of our own nation as of Israel, that if 
 there is religious apostasy, there must be polit- 
 ical disorganization, and this issues in social 
 chaos. In other words, social failure is rooted 
 in religious apostasy. Therefore the process of 
 restoration must begin with the cause, and so
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 129 
 
 change the course, and remove the curse, 
 When I am told that I am to leave my pulpit, 
 and give myself to social propapanda, I say, No, 
 I have no time and no right, however much my 
 heart may break in the presence of social con- 
 ditions, to waste time and energy fooling with 
 the fringe of things. It is for the Christian 
 preacher and the Christian Church to cry aloud, 
 Back to God, and so back to political emancipa- 
 tion, and to social order. 
 
 Then there is in this book a message full of 
 hope as to the administration of God. He is for- 
 ever moving towards the ultimate goal, and never 
 loses sight thereof. His methods are still the 
 same. He still punishes by war, catastrophe, 
 reaction. Take up the newspaper to-day, and 
 read the sad and awful story of suicide after sui- 
 cide on the other side of the sea. What does it 
 mean? The nemesis of impure commercial 
 methods. God is surely abroad in the world, 
 making men their own executioners, when there 
 is no other way of checking the floods of vice. 
 Yet He is forevermore a God ready to pardon. 
 If this nation could but be turned back to Him, 
 He would visit us again with His own salvation 
 and uplifting.
 
 130 THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES 
 
 Finally, let us remember that God always finds 
 the providential man at the right moment 
 When the punishment has done its work, and 
 the discipline has wrought a sense of wrong in 
 the heart of the people, He finds the deliverer. 
 We cannot produce him. Let us be careful lest 
 we stone him when he comes, for he will not ap- 
 pear where we are looking, but from some un- 
 expected quarter.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 L The Secrets of Saintship 
 
 God, the Sufficiency of the Trusting. 
 i. The Difficulties. 
 
 a. Ruth. 
 
 1. A Moabitess. 
 
 2. Seeing God's People in Circum- 
 
 stances of Suffering and Want. 
 
 3. Coming in Poverty to a People 
 
 hostile. 
 
 b. Boaz. 
 
 1. Living in Times of Degeneracy. 
 
 2. " A mighty Man of Wealth." 
 
 3. Legal difficulties threatening Love 
 
 for Ruth, 
 ii. The Characters. 
 
 a. Ruth. A Woman in all the Grace and 
 
 Beauty of Womanhood. 
 
 b. Boaz. A Man in all the Strength and 
 
 Glory of Manhood. 
 fd. The Secret 
 a. Ruth. 
 
 1. An open Mind. 
 
 2. A personal Choice. 
 
 3. Loyalty. In spite of Difficulties. 
 *. Boaz. 
 
 1. Loyalty. In midst of Difficulties. 
 
 2. His Relation to God and his Fellow- 
 
 men. 
 
 3. Caution and Courage. 
 
 11. The Values of Saintship 
 
 The Trusting ; The Instruments of 
 God. 
 
 Boaz and Ruth. Obed. Jesse. 
 DAVID. 
 
 1. Circumstances neither make nor 
 mar Saints 
 
 II. The one Principle of Victory U 
 Faith 
 
 The Laws of Faith. 
 An open Mind. 
 A personal Decision. 
 Practical Application. 
 Persistent Courage. 
 
 III. The Value of one Life to God 
 only known in the fuller Life 
 beyond
 
 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 NEVER measure the value of a book by 
 its bulk. This little brochure of a few 
 pages is one of the rarest and most 
 beautiful idylls in literature, even after transla- 
 tion. In seeking for its living message it is most 
 necessary that we should have in mind a well- 
 defined outline of the picture it represents. 
 
 The background is revealed in the opening 
 words, " And it came to pass in the days when 
 the judges judged." That places the story in 
 that period in the history of the Hebrew people 
 which we considered in our lecture on the book 
 of Judges. The events chronicled transpired in 
 troublous, stormy, and difficult times ; in the 
 midst of religious apostasy, political disorganiza- 
 tion, and social chaos. That in itself is suggest- 
 ive, reminding us that God has never left Him- 
 self without witness. In the darkest days, the 
 light has never been totally extinguished. 
 
 The subsidiary foreground of the book pre- 
 sents the persons of Elimelech and Naomi, 
 Mahlon and Chilion, and Orpah ; and the events
 
 134 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 of famine, emigration, and the sorrows follow- 
 ing ; the return of only one of those who had de- 
 parted, accompanied by a stranger to the land ; 
 and finally the story of the wooing and the wed- 
 ding. 
 
 In the immediate foreground two figures stand 
 out in bold relief, Ruth and Boaz. The picture 
 is of the Rosa Bonheur type, only a few lines, 
 strong, clear, definite ; yet full of light and shade. 
 To think of the book of Ruth is to think of Ruth 
 and Boaz. Ultimately, observing the historic 
 movement and the processes of God, it is seen 
 that these two in their union constituted a high- 
 way for God, through perils, for the accomplish- 
 ment of purpose. 
 
 Taking the book thus, there are two perma- 
 nent values which I shall suggest. First, the 
 book teaches the secrets of saintship ; God is the 
 sufficiency of trusting souls. Secondly, it teaches 
 the values of saintship ; trusting souls are the in- 
 struments of God. 
 
 I must not be tempted into a long discussion 
 of what is meant by saintship, but content my- 
 self with a simple yet inclusive definition. A 
 saint is a person separated to the will of God. 
 Ruth and Boaz lived the life of saintship in cir-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 135 
 
 cumstances of the utmost difficulty, finding their 
 sufficiency for such life in God. 
 
 Ruth was a Moabitess, of an accursed race, 
 who according to the law of Moses was not al- 
 lowed to enter the congregation of the covenant. 
 While this story finally teaches that no such dis- 
 ability remains when faith in God is exercised, 
 we must not forget the difficulty as it existed 
 for Ruth ; how the people would be likely to 
 look at her, how she herself, as she came into 
 contact with the religion of the Hebrew people, 
 would realize the greatness of her distance. 
 Again, there was nothing calculated to allure 
 her, from the standpoint of material prosperity. 
 Those she had known of the people of Jehovah 
 had been compelled to leave their land on ac- 
 count of famine. From them she knew of the 
 perils of those who had remained in the land, 
 and all the sadness of their condition. She came 
 back with Naomi into poverty, and to people 
 who in all probability were hostile to them both. 
 Thus the saintship of Ruth was in spite of diffi- 
 culties, and flourished amid circumstances calcu- 
 lated to discourage her. 
 
 Boaz lived amid people of privilege in times 
 of degeneracy. Perhaps there are no circum-
 
 136 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 stances in which it is harder to live the life of the 
 saint It is to-day easier to live a godly life in 
 the midst of worldly men and women, than in 
 the midst of worldly Christians. Then again, he 
 was a mighty man of wealth, and consequently 
 able to procure whatever would contribute to the 
 ease of his material existence. That condition is 
 always perilous to the life of faith. It is to-day 
 easier to live an out-and-out Christian life in 
 circumstances of stress and strain, than in those 
 of ease and luxury. 
 
 Once more notice carefully the legal difficulties 
 threatening his love for Ruth. There was a 
 nearer kinsman than he, who had first right ; and 
 appeal must be made to him ere Boaz could 
 claim Ruth. There is a fine loyalty to principle 
 manifested in this man's dealings in this partic- 
 ular. How easy it would have been for him to 
 sacrifice principle in order to win. 
 
 Thus both Ruth the Moabitess, and Boaz the 
 man of Judah were saints, in spite of difficulties 
 peculiar to each. 
 
 How full of beauty they were. Ruth was a 
 woman capable of love, characterized by mod- 
 esty, of fine gentleness, of splendid courage; 
 woman in all the grace and beauty of woman
 
 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 137 
 
 hood. Boaz was a man of integrity, of courtesy, 
 of tender passion, of courage ; a man in all the 
 strength and glory of manhood. 
 
 The secret in each case was that of the suffi- 
 ciency of God for such as trust Him. In the case 
 of Ruth three things are dearly manifest First, 
 she was a woman of an open mind, willing to 
 receive the teaching of Naomi. Secondly, she 
 was a woman who at a crisis made her own 
 choice against all the prejudices of her nation- 
 ality, against the persuasion of Naomi, to whom 
 she owed the very light of her religion ; sepa- 
 rating herself of her own free will from Moab, 
 and transferring herself to Judah and to Jehovah. 
 Finally, she was persistently, patiently, and def- 
 initely loyal to her choice. She turned her back 
 upon the land of her birth and childhood, with 
 all its associations and acquaintances, and fol- 
 lowed Naomi until she had put the waters of 
 Jordan between herself and Moab. To this 
 woman of open mind, God revealed Himself; 
 and she, answering in obedient faith, found Him 
 sufficient through all dangers and difficulties, 
 and lived the life of a saint, full of beauty. 
 
 In the case of Boaz also three things are 
 worthy of notice. First, his loyalty to God in the
 
 138 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 midst of difficulties. In the hour when men took 
 the name of God upon their lips, while their lives 
 were out of harmony with their profession, here 
 was a man absolutely loyal ; a man true in the 
 midst of untruth ; a man of faith in the midst of 
 an age of faithlessness. Secondly, he was a man 
 who made application of his relation to God in 
 his relation to his fellow men. He greeted the 
 men who worked for him in terms which dis- 
 closed his relation to God. Yet he was neither 
 a slovenly nor a careless man. He saw immedi- 
 ately the stranger in his fields. He took per- 
 sonal oversight of all his affairs, yet he lived a 
 life so godly as to be able to greet his workmen 
 in terms which revealed his relationship to God. 
 Finally, he was a man of caution and of courage. 
 The two things are never far apart. Caution is 
 the very soul of courage. Courage is the true 
 expression of caution. All these things reveal 
 the fact that, trusting God, Boaz found Him suf- 
 ficient to enable him to live a goodly life in cir- 
 cumstances of difficulty. Thus the secret of the 
 grace and beauty of Ruth, and the strength and 
 manliness of Boaz lie in the fact that in differing 
 circumstances, they both lived upon the same 
 principle of simple yet sublime faith in God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 139 
 
 Such souls as these are the instruments 
 through which God is ever able to move towards 
 the accomplishment of His purposes. The story 
 of the ultimate values of the faith of Ruth and 
 Boaz is told in the ending of this book. Boaz 
 and Ruth, Obed, Jesse, David. So we see the 
 very footsteps of Almighty God. Boaz the 
 Hebrew, and Ruth the Moabitess in union, be- 
 come the highway for God towards the ultimate 
 realization of His purposes. 
 
 The living message may be stated in three 
 propositions. First, circumstances neither make 
 nor mar saints. The difficulty of the life of 
 saintship to the wealthy man is answered by the 
 story of Boaz. The difficulty of the life of faith 
 to a poor woman is answered by the story of 
 Ruth. 
 
 The difficulty of living a godly life when the 
 early training has been in the atmosphere of 
 godliness is often affirmed, and that with a 
 great amount of reason. There have been hours 
 when I have envied the loyalty, the devotion, the 
 splendour of the Christian life of some man 
 whose conversion was a volcanic eruption, after 
 which he left behind him forever the vulgarities 
 ^ the old life, and entered into the graces of the
 
 MO THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 new with surprising fullness of experience. It is 
 possible to have been brought up in the atmos- 
 phere of Christianity and so to lack the reason 
 for that ceaseless watchfulness which exists in the 
 case of those who have lacked such training. 
 How shall we answer those who urge this diffi- 
 culty ? By telling the story of Boaz. 
 
 Some, on the other hand, urge quite another 
 reason, that of irreligious training. They lack 
 the advantages that others had. They were 
 never sung to sleep in infancy with songs of the 
 Christ After conversion they came into a strange 
 atmosphere, and have to learn the way, and there- 
 fore so much cannot be expected from them as 
 from others. How shall we answer those who 
 thus speak ? By telling the story of Ruth. The 
 difficulties of privilege in the case of Boaz. The 
 difficulties of limitation in the case of Ruth. Yet 
 by faith they were non-existent, they were can- 
 celled, they did not obtain. The privileged man 
 shines with the lustre of sainthood ; the woman 
 lacking all such privilege, flashes in the beauty 
 and glory of saintship. Why ? Because God is 
 the mightiest environment of any human life. 
 Because God is an inheritance, possessing which, 
 all poverty is cancelled, and all other wealth is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 141 
 
 made as of no account. So I repeat my first 
 proposition. Circumstances can neither make 
 nor mar saints. If we cannot begin our saintship 
 in the land of Moab, we shall never be saints in 
 the land of Judah. If a man cannot be a saint as 
 a wealthy man, though he lose all his wealth, 
 poverty will not make a saint of him. If a man 
 cannot be a saint as a poor man, wealth, if it 
 comes to him, will in all probability damn him. 
 
 Therefore as a necessary sequence to the first 
 proposition, I make the second. The principle of 
 victory is faith. "Faith is the assurance of 
 things hoped for, the proving of things not seen." 
 Faith is the principle that takes hold upon God, 
 and appropriates all His resources. Faith takes 
 hold of that in God which man needs, and 
 enables God to take hold of that in man which 
 He needs. From both of these people I learn 
 something of the laws of faith. An open mind ; 
 a personal decision ; direct application of the 
 things believed to the details of every-day life ; 
 persistent courage in the face of all difficulty. 
 Faith is not a sentiment about which we sing. It 
 is an attitude of life, based upon the conviction of 
 the soul. 
 
 Finally the book teaches the value to God of
 
 142 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 that life, which makes the great surrender, and 
 follows Him in faith. The value of such a life 
 can never be known until we pass within the veil. 
 Remember again the sequence with which this 
 book closes ; Obed, Jesse, David. Boaz and Ruth 
 had passed into the light ere David came, the 
 king for whom the nation was waiting, yet the 
 sequence did not end with David. A little later 
 a prophet from some height of vision broke into 
 a great song. "Thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, 
 which art little to be among the thousands of 
 Judah, out of thee shall One come forth unto Me 
 that is to be ruler in Israel." Far down the cen- 
 turies there shone a light at midnight, and songs 
 were heard, and in the direct line of the man of 
 Judah and of privilege, and the woman of Moab 
 and of limitation, to Bethlehem came the King. 
 They did not see the issues. They did not live 
 to reap the ultimate harvest of their fidelity, but 
 God found foothold in the man and woman of 
 faith, and in their united lives. That is the prin- 
 ciple of which I think we need to be re- 
 minded, in order to encourage our hearts in the 
 midst of work. We talk about results. If all 
 the results of my ministry can be statistically 
 stated, it is a dire failure.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 143 
 
 Paul was a saint, cribbed, cabined and con- 
 fined in prison. It is impossible to read his 
 letters without being conscious of a certain 
 amount of restlessness as he made appeal to his 
 loved ones, "remember my bonds." A man 
 whose motto was, The Regions Beyond, whose 
 piercing eye saw the far distances, and who was 
 profoundly conscious of the value of the evangel, 
 who knew and wrote " I am debtor ... I am 
 ready ; " was yet imprisoned, and had to content 
 himself with writing letters. To-day those letters 
 are of greater value than all his work. He did 
 not know that presently they would be gathered 
 together, and would constitute the great exposi- 
 tion of the evangelical faith for all the centuries. 
 
 Robert Morrison wrote in his diary, " This day 
 I entered with Mr. Laidler to learn Latin. I paid 
 ten shillings and sixpence, and am to pay one 
 guinea per quarter, I know not what may be 
 the end. God only knows." That ten shillings 
 and sixpence was the beginning of that linguistic 
 education which made Morrison the translator of 
 the Bible, and opened the way for all the work 
 which has been done in China during the past 
 century. 
 
 These are but instances, yet take the comfort
 
 144 THE MESSAGE OF RUTH 
 
 of them. May this be my last word. Remem- 
 ber that of the work you do to-day you cannot 
 see the issue, if it is work wrought by faith in 
 God. It may be in the great city of London, or 
 in some hidden hamlet among the hills that your 
 life will be lived, small, unknown, never published, 
 never noticed either in the religious or irreligious 
 press, and yet you may be God's foothold for 
 things of which you cannot dream, which if told 
 you now you would not possibly believe. The 
 one cry of my heart and of thy heart, comrade of 
 faith, according to this book, should be a cry for 
 out-and-out abandonment to Him, in order that 
 by our loyalty He may win the victories of His 
 royalty.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 A 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. Jehovah Reigning by Adaptation and Advance 
 
 h The Absolutism of God 
 
 t Samuel. 
 
 i. Revealed. 
 
 UK J A Woman's Faith Jehovah's Foothold. 
 
 No Territory out of 
 
 . M lan. -j A Woman 's Song His Interpretation. 
 
 His Jurisdiction. 
 
 >. The New Order. The Prophet. 
 
 No Persons beyond His 
 
 fi. Preparation. 
 . His Work. < a. Reformation. 
 (3. Foundation of Kingdom. 
 
 Control. 
 No Event escaping Hit 
 Overruling. 
 
 <i. Saul. 
 
 ii. Interpreted. 
 
 
 i. Physical Strength. Fitful and Failing. 
 
 Operating towards Ac- 
 
 a. The Man. 
 
 2. Mental Acumen. Moods and Madness. 
 
 complishment. 
 
 b. The Kingdom. 
 
 3. Spiritual Life. Torpor and Death. 
 Disaster. 
 
 Including adverse 
 Forces and Facts. 
 
 iii. David. 
 
 Creating its own 
 Agents. 
 
 
 i. A Shepherd in the Fields. 
 
 
 a. The Training. 
 
 a. A Courtier at the Palace. 
 
 
 
 3. An Outlaw in Exile. 
 
 
 k. The Progress. 
 
 
 II. Man Co-operating by Failure and by Loyalty 
 
 II. The Relation of Man 
 
 i. Samuel. 
 
 i. The ultimate Victory of 
 
 
 Parentage. 
 
 God is independent of 
 
 a. Opportunity. 
 t. Response. 
 
 Call. 
 Appointment. 
 Loyal. 
 
 the Attitudes of Indi- 
 viduals or Peoples 
 towards Him. 
 
 c. Issues. 
 
 Messages of God delivered. 
 Work of God advanced. 
 
 ii. The place of Individuals 
 or Peoples in that ulti- 
 
 ii. Saul. 
 
 mate Victory is de- 
 
 ( Call and Anointing. 
 . Opportunity. < Friendship for Samuel. 
 
 pendent upon their At- 
 titude towards Him. 
 
 ( Popularity and personal Equipment. 
 
 
 ( Vacillation. 
 b. Response. \ Self-will. 
 1 Disobedience. 
 
 
 . 
 
 His Failure a Revelation. 
 
 
 c . Issues. 
 
 His Death a Warning. 
 
 
 iii. David. 
 
 
 
 Call and Anointing. 
 
 
 a. Opportunity. 
 
 Waiting and Suffering. 
 
 
 
 Crisis of Battle with Amalek. 
 
 
 
 Obedience. 
 
 
 t. Response. 
 
 Patience. 
 
 
 
 Action. 
 
 
 e. Issues. An Instrument in Jehovah's Progress. 

 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 THE two books of Samuel constitute one 
 story. The first gives the history of the 
 transition from Theocracy to Monarchy. 
 The inwardness of that transition is revealed by 
 a paragraph in the eighth chapter " Then all the 
 elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and 
 came to Samuel unto Ramah : and they said 
 unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons 
 walk not in thy ways : now make us a king to 
 judge us like all the nations. But the thing dis- 
 pleased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king 
 to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the 
 Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken 
 unto the voice of the people in all that they say 
 unto thee : for they have not rejected thee, but 
 they have rejected Me, that I should not be King 
 over them." Two brief statements from that 
 passage, " Make us a king to judge us like all 
 the nations," and "They have rejected Me, that 
 I should not be King over them," tell the story 
 of the transition, as to the human desire which 
 produced it, and as to the Divine attitude towards 
 it The nation asked for " a king to judge us 
 
 147
 
 148 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 like all the nations." The reason for their ex- 
 istence as a nation was that they should be unlike 
 the nations. The unlikeness consisted in the 
 {act that this nation had as its only King Jehovah. 
 The real meaning of their request is therefore 
 interpreted by the language of Jehovah to 
 Samuel, " They have rejected Me, that I should 
 not be King over them." The days of the 
 judges were days of religious apostasy, political 
 disorganization, and social chaos ; and religious 
 apostasy in the case of these people meant that 
 they refused to obey the King eternal, immortal, 
 invisible. This attitude expressed itself in the re- 
 quest they brought to Samuel, " Make us a king 
 to judge us like all the nations." Sin ever issues 
 in an attempt to substitute the false for the true. 
 That is the history of idolatry. Every idol is 
 witness to man's need of God. The lack of God 
 creates the necessity for putting something in 
 His place. These men, turning from God as 
 King, desired a king like the nations. The 
 first book of Samuel tells the story of the immedi- 
 ate issues of this desire. 
 
 The permanent values of the book may be 
 exclusively expressed in two statements. Its 
 supreme revelation is that of Jehovah reigning
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 149 
 
 by adaptation, in order to advance. Its second 
 value is that it reveals the fact that, under this 
 government of God, men cooperate with Him 
 towards the final issues, either by failure or by 
 loyalty. It would appear as though the first of 
 these statements namely, that Jehovah reigns 
 by adaptation in order to advance contradicts 
 His declaration concerning the people, "They 
 have rejected Me, that I should not be King 
 over them," and yet it is by no means a contra- 
 diction. It is one thing to reject Jehovah, but it 
 is quite another to dethrone Him. The first is 
 possible. The second is impossible. This is the 
 supreme lesson of the book. The people, chosen 
 to exhibit the breadth, the beauty, and the benefi- 
 cence of His government, rejected Him from 
 being King, but they did not dethrone Him. As 
 I watch the movement of this story, gathering 
 around the three central figures, Samuel, Saul 
 and David, the supreme revelation is not of 
 these men, but of Jehovah reigning by the adap- 
 tation of His method to the requirements of the 
 hour, and so through disobedience or obedience, 
 through success or failure, through men loyal or 
 rebellious, moving quietly, steadily, and surely 
 on. As our analysis of the book suggests, the
 
 150 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 whole movement gathers round three personali- 
 ties, and centring our attention upon them for 
 the purpose of this study, we must yet keep in 
 mind the prevailing conditions. 
 
 The story of Samuel is introduced by that of 
 Hannah. Hannah was a woman whose faith 
 became Jehovah's foothold, and whose song be- 
 came Jehovah's interpretation. While it is the 
 glad thanksgiving of a woman whose prayer has 
 been heard and answered, it is infinitely more. 
 All the values of the book are gathered up into 
 this song of the God who reigns, and concern- 
 ing whom she affirms : 
 
 " The Lord killeth, and maketh alive : 
 He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. 
 The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: 
 He bringeth low, He also lifteth up. 
 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, 
 He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill, 
 To make them sit with princes, 
 And inherit the throne of glory." 
 
 The song moves on : 
 
 " They that strive with the Lord shall be broken to 
 
 pieces ; 
 
 Against them shall He thunder in heaven : 
 The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth ; 
 And He shall give strength unto His king, 
 And exalt the horn of His anointed."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 151 
 
 Samuel was a prophet. Peter, speaking in 
 the presence of the assembled multitude in Jeru- 
 salem, said, "The prophets from Samuel and 
 them that followed after." In that reference he 
 included the whole of the Hebrew prophets, be- 
 ginning with Samuel. There is a sense in which 
 there had been prophets before him; indeed, 
 Moses himself was a prophet of whom it is said 
 there never arose another like him. Yet, in one 
 particular respect, Samuel was the first of the 
 prophetic order. The kings were never media- 
 tors between God and man. The people rejected 
 Jehovah from being King, and so passed out of 
 close communion and intimate relationship with 
 Him ; and He consented in order to the fulfilling 
 of His purpose, but He never recognized the 
 king as standing between Himself and them 
 He chose their kings for them, He allowed the 
 lust for a king to work itself out in the ultimate 
 disaster of the centuries, but He never spoke to 
 men through the king, but always through the 
 prophets. 
 
 With Samuel, then, the prophet emerges as the 
 authoritative representative of Jehovah. Samuel, 
 as prophet, became the king-maker, finding Saul, 
 and anointing him; finding David and anoint-
 
 152 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 ing him ; and henceforward, when a Divine mes- 
 sage had to be delivered to the people, it did not 
 come directly from God to the king, but to the 
 king and all the people, through the prophet. 
 In the economy of God, the prophet's office was 
 always superior to that of the king. Thus, when 
 Jehovah was rejected by the will of the people, 
 and they clamoured for a king like the other 
 nations, He took this man, the child of a woman's 
 simple faith, trained him through quiet days in 
 the temple courts, called him while yet a boy, 
 and gave him a strange message to deliver, and 
 made him at last the one to anoint Saul a king 
 after the people's own heart, and David a king 
 after God's own heart. The prophets became 
 the mediators, the messengers, the interpreters 
 of the law. They stood between God and the 
 people. Thus Jehovah reigned ; and adapting 
 His methods, found Samuel, equipped him for 
 his work, and delivered His message through 
 him. 
 
 The history of Saul is one of the most tragic 
 recorded in the Bible, full of fascination and of tre- 
 mendous power in its appeal to individual life. 
 In placing this man upon the throne, God an- 
 swered the prayer of the people's rebellion,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 153 
 
 " Make us a king to judge us like all the na- 
 tions." Consequently, in the economy of God, 
 Saul became a revelation, an interpretation, and 
 a discipline. The meaning of the psalmist's word 
 is revealed in the method, 
 
 " He gave them their request j 
 But sent leanness into their soul." 
 
 Saul stands out upon the page of Israel's his- 
 tory, an object lesson in the real meaning of their 
 choice. He was a man of enormous physical 
 strength, yet fitful and failing from first to last ; 
 a man of undoubted mental acumen, yet a man 
 of moods, who presently became a madman ; a 
 man as to spiritual life characterized from the 
 very beginning by torpor and slowness, and at 
 last, so devoid of spiritual illumination and power, 
 that he turned his back upon Jehovah, and con- 
 sulted a witch who muttered and worked incanta- 
 tions. He was a revelation to the people of what 
 the possession of a king like the nations really 
 meant. 
 
 Then look at the kingdom under Saul. After 
 he was chosen, for a time they were practically 
 without a king. He manifested his weakness by 
 hiding among the stuff when he ought imme-
 
 154 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 diately to have taken hold of the sceptre. I am 
 perfectly well aware that others interpret that 
 story differently. They affirm that Saul was a 
 man of such extreme modesty that after he was 
 appointed he went back to work in quietness, 
 without taking the kingdom. Such modesty is 
 sin. It is as great a sin to urge modesty, and 
 keep in the background when God calls to the 
 foreground as it is to go to the front, when God's 
 appointment is in the rear. Then came the period 
 of the wars wars ending ultimately in the most 
 terrible disaster. Under Saul's reign the king- 
 dom became disorganized. 
 
 When we come to David again we see adapta- 
 tion and advance. Once again God gave His 
 people a king, but this time a man after His own 
 heart. The king of God's choosing was a shep- 
 herd, whose youthful days had been spent in the 
 fields ; a courtier who, passing from the fields to 
 the palace, became Saul's son-in-law ; an outlaw 
 for long years, to use his own graphic descrip- 
 tion, hunted like " a partridge in the mountains." 
 Through all these processes God was preparing 
 him for a kingdom, not merely to reign over it, 
 but to realize it. As a shepherd, he loved the 
 sheep under his care, and rescued them from the*
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 15$ 
 
 paw of the lion and the bear. In the king's pal- 
 ace he became accustomed to courtly ways. As 
 an outlaw he was prepared through discipline, 
 and created a new type for the future strength of 
 the kingdom. Thus God was remaking the king- 
 dom in a cave, while the nation was going to 
 pieces round the king after their own heart. The 
 kingdom itself was thus being prepared for re- 
 newal through disaster. The special note in all 
 this is that of Jehovah reigning, moving definitely 
 forward, pressing into the service of His own 
 progress, towards the fulfillment of His purpose, 
 Samuel, Saul, David ; governing by adaptation ; 
 taking hold of the child of faith and making him 
 a prophet ; taking hold of physical magnificence, 
 and by its failures making it a revelation of the 
 sin that had been committed ; taking hold of the 
 shepherd lad, and by processes making him 
 king. Thus God ever sits high enthroned, and 
 moves in victory across disaster towards ultimate 
 purpose. 
 
 The second value of this book is but the ob- 
 verse side of the first, teaching that man coop- 
 erates with God by failure, and by loyalty. Again 
 our examination centres round the three person- 
 alities, and its purpose is not so much to show
 
 156 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 the result of their attitude as the process of 
 God. 
 
 Samuel found his opportunity in his j^rentage, 
 his call, his appointment. He responded to his 
 opportunity by loyalty. The issues were that 
 the messages of God were delivered to the peo- 
 ple, and the work of God was advanced. 
 
 Saul found his opportunity in his call and 
 anointing, in Samuel's friendship for him, and in 
 his popularity and personal equipment. He 
 responded by vacillation, by self-will, by diso- 
 bedience. The issues were the revelation of his 
 failure and the warning of his death. 
 
 David's opportunities were his call and anoint- 
 ing, his long waiting and suffering, and finally 
 the crisis of the battle with Amalek in the hour 
 of Saul's death. He responded by obedience 
 and patience, and at the decisive moment by 
 definite action. The issues were that he became 
 the instrument of Jehovah's progress, a man 
 through whom God moved forward towards 
 ultimate realization. 
 
 That rapid survey shows that each man had 
 his opportunity ; each man made his response 
 thereto ; two of them the response of obedience, 
 one that of disobedience ; but whether by failure
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 157 
 
 or by loyalty, men cooperate with God towards 
 the final winning of His victory. If a man does 
 not cooperate with God loyally, he is compelled 
 by the supremacy of His throne, by the sov- 
 ereignty of His government, to cooperate even 
 through his own disaster and defeat. 
 
 I may quite briefly state the living message of 
 this book. The permanent values constitute 
 that living message. Let me state them in other 
 terms. In this book I see the absolutism of God, 
 and the relation of man to that absolutism. It 
 first reveals the absolutism of God. There is no 
 territory outside His jurisdiction ; no person be- 
 yond His control, or who finally escapes His 
 government; no event outside His conscious- 
 ness, or beyond His overruling. This book not 
 only reveals these things, it interprets them. It 
 shows that this absolutism of God is operating 
 towards accomplishment, includes in its operation 
 all adverse facts and forces, and creates its own 
 agents whenever it is necessary so to do. It is 
 this living message that we need supremely to- 
 day. 
 
 What, then, is the relation of man to this ab- 
 solutism of God ? The ultimate victory is inde- 
 pendent of the attitudes of individuals or peoples
 
 158 THE MESSAGE OF I. SAMUEL 
 
 towards Him. Through Samuel, Saul and David, 
 He moved right on towards the Anointed and 
 the ultimate Kingdom. The ultimate destiny of 
 individuals is dependent upon their attitude 
 towards Him. Samuel was obedient, and was 
 used and saved. Saul was disobedient, and was 
 used and destroyed. David was obedient, and 
 was used and saved. It does not at all matter 
 what my attitude towards God is, as to His ulti- 
 mate victory. It matters everything as to my 
 ultimate destiny. Everything depends upon me 
 as to my own destiny. Nothing depends upon 
 me ultimately as to His victory. He will press 
 into His service for His final victory all souls who 
 are loyal to Him, and they will share in the rap- 
 ture of His victory. He will press into the serv- 
 ice of His ultimate victory all souls in rebellion, 
 and they will share in the wrath of His victory. 
 So my responsibility must be, so far as my own 
 destiny is concerned, the responsibility of obe- 
 dience. This book inspires a great song, which 
 can best be uttered in the words of the psalmist, 
 "The Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 L God's Opportunity is created by the Attitude of 
 
 Man towards Him 
 
 i. The Statement of the Principle, xxii. 26-28. 
 ii. The Illustration. 
 
 a. The Attitudes of David. 
 
 1. Conception of Supremacy, xxii. 1-16. 
 
 2. Conviction of Righteousness, xxii. 17-27. 
 
 3. Confidence in Mercy, xxii. 28-46. 
 
 4. Conformity of Desire, xxii. 47-51. 
 
 b. The Answers of God. 
 
 1. The Exercise of Sovereignty, xxii. 1-3. 
 
 2. The Exercise of Righteousness, xxii. 21-28. 
 
 3. The Exercise of Mercy, xxii. 35-36. 
 
 4. The Exercise of Salvation, xxii. 51. 
 
 |ii. All the Resources of God operative in the life of 
 a Man in right Attitude. Thus the Man be- 
 comes the Instrument of God. 
 
 II. Mao's Opportunity is created by the Attitude of 
 
 God towards him 
 
 L The Statement of the Principle. 
 ii. The Illustration. 
 
 a. The Attitudes of Jehovah. 
 
 1. Purpose, xxiii. I. 
 
 2. Power, xxiii. 2. 
 
 3. Principle, xxiii. 3-4. 
 
 4. Persistence, xxiii. 5. 
 I. The Answers of David, 
 
 1. Consent. 
 
 2. CoSperation. 
 
 3. Conformity. 
 
 4. Confidence. 
 
 lii. All the possibilities of Man realized, because of 
 the Attitude of God. Thus God is able to 
 operate through him. 
 
 I The Lesson of 1. Samuel 
 recognized 
 
 That the ultimate Vic- 
 tory of God is inde- 
 pendent of the At- 
 titudes of Individuals 
 or Peoples towards 
 Him. 
 
 II. The supreme Matter for 
 Service is the Attitude 
 of the Soul 
 
 III. The Triumph of a Man is 
 the Triumph of God 
 over him
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 A | ^HE first book of Samuel closes with the 
 introduction of David. We saw him in 
 
 1 
 
 preparation for his life-work ; in the fields 
 as shepherd ; in the palace as musician and 
 courtier ; in the wilderness as outlaw. He was 
 fitted for the position to which he was appointed, 
 and for which he had been anointed. In the 
 second book, we have the history of his specific 
 contribution to the purpose of God. The ques- 
 tion of preliminary preparation for service is not 
 in view here, but rather the service resulting 
 therefrom. We have already seen the threefold 
 process of preparation in the fields, in the palace, 
 in exile. In the fields, the essential spirit of a 
 king, that of the shepherd, had its training. In 
 the palace, the incidentals of kingliness were 
 cultivated. In the exile, fibre was toughened, 
 and the king was prepared for government. All 
 these values are in this story. David is here the 
 shepherd of his people, the centre of his court, 
 
 and the strong ruler. The story of the book be- 
 
 161
 
 162 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 gins with the crisis that brought David into his 
 specific work. Our attention, then, is fixed upon 
 him fulfilling the office of king under the direct 
 government of God, and from that standpoint 
 there are two permanent values in the study. 
 The book teaches us first that God's opportunity 
 is created by the attitude of man towards Him ; 
 and secondly, that man's opportunity is created 
 by the attitude of God towards him. 
 
 In the appendix to this book are two psalms 
 which are of great use, as they state the prin- 
 ciples which the story illustrates. As in the first 
 book of Samuel the whole of its values are sug- 
 gested in Hannah's song, with which it opens ; 
 so in the second book the values are crystallized 
 in David's songs, with which it closes. 
 
 Let us begin with the first statement, that 
 God's opportunity is created by the attitude of 
 man towards Him. That principle emerges into 
 clear declaration in the first of the two psalms : 
 
 " With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful, 
 With the perfect man Thou wilt show Thyself perfect ; 
 With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure ; 
 And with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself froward. 
 And the afflicted people Thou wilt save : 
 But Thine eyes are upon the haughty, that Thou mayest 
 bring them down."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 163 
 
 All of which means that God is to a man what 
 the man is to God. That is the principle. The 
 story of David perfectly illustrates it. The atti- 
 tude of David towards God is revealed as four- 
 fold. There is manifested first, his conception of 
 the supremacy of God ; secondly, his conviction 
 of the righteousness of God ; thirdly, his confi- 
 dence in the mercy of God ; and finally, his con- 
 formity of desire to the will of God. There were 
 times when faith faltered, and he did foolish 
 things, when his passion mastered him, when he 
 fell into fearful sin ; but underneath the faltering 
 faith I find faith which never faltered ; deeper 
 than the passion was the passionate desire for 
 holiness; profounder than any sin, however 
 heinous, was the attitude of soul which could 
 say, " My soul followeth hard after God." 
 
 David's conception of the Divine supremacy I 
 need not stay to illustrate. It may be stated su- 
 perlatively. There is no instance recorded in 
 which he called in question the crown rights of 
 Jehovah. His conviction of the righteousness of 
 God never wavered. Foolish things he did, aw- 
 ful sins he committed, but he never doubted 
 the righteousness of God's dealing with him. 
 Charged with sin by the prophet of God, he con-
 
 164 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 fessed it, and bent himself to the stroke of God, 
 convinced of the absolute Tightness of the Divine 
 character and method. He had perfect confi- 
 dence in God's mercy. If there is one demon- 
 stration of confidence in mercy more powerful 
 than another, it is willingness to be punished. 
 " Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord ; for 
 His mercies are great : and let me not fall into 
 the hand of man." That submission to the 
 stroke of God is the finest revelation of his con- 
 fidence in the tenderness of the Divine heart. 
 His deepest desire perpetually was for conform- 
 ity to the will of God. A man of passion, he fell 
 into dark deeds of crime ; yet through all the long 
 processes of punishment, through the sin of his 
 children, and the breaking of his heart in conse- 
 quence, he never murmured against the stroke 
 of God, but in perfect confidence in His mercy, 
 and unceasing conformity of desire after His 
 will, he endured. 
 
 That attitude created the Divine opportunity. 
 Over a man who had a conception of His su- 
 premacy, God was able to exercise His sover- 
 eignty, taking him up, setting him upon the 
 throne, and leading him in the administration of 
 his kingdom. Towards the man convinced of
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 165 
 
 His righteousness, it was possible for God to 
 exercise that Tightness in all His dealing with 
 him. To the man with desire conformed to as- 
 piration after Himself, God was able to come as 
 Saviour. Thus all the forces of God are seen 
 operating in the life of a man in right attitude 
 towards Him, and so this man became the in- 
 strument of God through whom He accomplished 
 His wider purpose. How I thank God that it 
 was written of David that he was a man after 
 God's own heart. There are men in the Bible of 
 whom had it been written, it could never have 
 helped me as it does when I see it written of 
 David a man who did so fall and fail and stoop 
 to sin. Why does it help me ? Because it ex- 
 cuses sin ? A thousand times no ! but because 
 it shows me that God's measurement of a man, 
 and God's ability to deal with a man, depend 
 upon the deepest aspiration in that man's heart ; 
 and that God takes the measurement of a man 
 by what he wills to be, and not by the faltering 
 and failing of the moment. Even David could 
 look up into the face of God, and say, "The 
 Lord will perfect that which concerned! me." 
 This is the first great revelation of the book, that 
 God's opportunity to make me and use me is
 
 166 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 created by the deep, underlying, positive attitude 
 of my life towards Him. 
 
 Now we may turn to the other side. Whence 
 came these attitudes of David towards God? 
 How is it that they came to be such, as I have 
 attempted to epitomize as a conception of su- 
 premacy, a conviction of righteousness, a confi- 
 dence in mercy, a conformity of desire. The at- 
 titude of God towards David created David's 
 attitude towards God. This attitude David de- 
 scribed in the second of the two psalms already 
 referred to. Let us rapidly survey it It first 
 declares the purpose of God : 
 
 " David, the son of Jesse, saith, 
 And the man who was raised on high saith, 
 The anointed of the God of Jacob, 
 And the sweet psalmist of Israel." 
 
 It then reveals a secret of power : 
 
 " The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, 
 And His word was upon my tongue." 
 
 It then affirms a principle of kingship : 
 
 " The God of Israel said, 
 The Rock of Israel spake to me : 
 One that ruleth over men righteously, 
 That ruleth in the fear of God,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 167 
 
 He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun 
 
 riseth, 
 
 A morning without clouds ; 
 When the tender grass springeth out of the earth, 
 Through clear shining after rain." 
 
 It finally declares the Divine persistence : 
 
 " Verily my house is not so with God ; 
 
 Yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, 
 Ordered in all things, and sure : 
 For it is all my salvation, and all my desire, 
 Although He maketh it not to grow." 
 
 These are the attitudes of God towards David as 
 he understood them purpose, power, principle 
 and persistence, and they created his attitude 
 towards God. 
 
 The purpose of God as manifested. The singer 
 evidently recognized that his appointment to 
 kingship was Divine, and poetically he describes 
 that, both as to the man upon whom the choice 
 of God rested, and the ultimate issue of the 
 choice. He did not sing of the anointed of the 
 God of Israel, but of the anointed of the God of 
 Jacob ; that is, the God of the man Jacob in all 
 his meanness chose David to be king ; and in 
 the fact as stated there is a suggestion of his
 
 168 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 consciousness of his own unworthiness. The 
 man so anointed became not the sweet psalmist 
 of Jacob, for songs cannot proceed out of mean- 
 ness, but the sweet psalmist of Israel, for God 
 can change Jacob to Israel, and so make pos- 
 sible all songs. That was the Divine purpose, 
 and David's assurance of it created his attitude 
 towards God. 
 
 The power of God as known. The state- 
 ment " The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and 
 His word was upon my tongue," is poetically 
 true to his previous description of himself as 
 " the sweet psalmist of Israel," but it contains 
 the whole philosophy of godly life. It is not 
 merely a statement that he was inspired when 
 he sang his song, but that the inspiration of his 
 life was that of the Spirit of the Lord, and the 
 expression of it was the word spoken. The 
 New Testament equivalent of the verse is, 
 "Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling ; for it is God which worketh in you 
 both to will and to work, for His good pleasure." 
 Thus the singer was assured, in the second 
 place, that God's power was commensurate with 
 all His purpose. 
 
 The principle of God for his guidance. The
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 169 
 
 king who rules righteously and in the fear of 
 God is a benediction to his people ; the benedic- 
 tion of the rising sun in the morning, when 
 there are no clouds. The king who rules his 
 people righteously is like sunlight after rain. It 
 is somewhat difficult in this country to appreciate 
 the beauty of the figure. In the country of 
 David all the land is parched and burned and 
 brown after the summer drought. Then there 
 comes a day of sweet, silent rain, followed by 
 clear shining ; and suddenly, like a flash of 
 emerald, all the earth is green. This was the 
 singer's picture of the result of the exercise of 
 kingship in the fear of God, and in righteous- 
 ness. This does not seem to help us, yet the 
 principle is applicable to all. When God would 
 prepare David for the exercise of kingship, He 
 did so by giving him a picture of the final King ; 
 and whatever He wills that we should be, and do 
 for Him, He reveals to us the pattern in His 
 Son. 
 
 The persistence of God. Notwithstanding 
 this threefold revelation of purpose, power, and 
 principle, David was compelled to say, " My 
 
 house is not so with God ; yet " Thank God 
 
 for that " yet " ! There is all the Gospel in it
 
 i/o THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 for my heart ! " Yet He hath made with me an 
 everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and 
 sure." Thus David affirmed finally his con< 
 fidence in the persistence of Jehovah. 
 
 How did he answer these attitudes of God, 
 which created his opportunity? He heard the 
 purpose, and consented to it. Saul the anointed 
 king hid behind the stuff. David the anointed 
 king moved right on with his eye upon the goal, 
 never turning back. Conscious of the Divine 
 power, he answered it, and cooperated with it. 
 He felt the power, and responded to it. " The 
 Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word 
 was upon my tongue." Mark well the intimate 
 relationship between these things. Whittier 
 sang beautifully of men who die with all their 
 music in them. I do not criticize Whittier. 
 There are people who die with all their music in 
 them, who never had their chance to sing. But 
 if we have music in us, and can express it, we 
 have no business to die with it in us. "It is 
 God which worketh in you . . . work out" 
 That is the principle of salvation. 
 
 The principle of kingship is revealed, and 
 while David certainly failed, he yet conformed 
 thereto. Think of the condition of the kingdom
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 171 
 
 when he came to it ; then see it as he left it. 
 From utter political and social chaos he had 
 brought it to its highest realization. Solomon 
 stands out upon the page of Bible history in 
 lonely and wonderful splendour in certain direc- 
 tions ; but as king he was a disastrous failure, so 
 much so that when he died the kingdom was 
 rent in twain. Solomon was the Lorenzo de 
 Medici of Hebrew history, solacing the people 
 for lack of liberty with shows and pageantry ; 
 and God help the people when they are so se- 
 duced. David lifted Israel to its heroic age, to 
 its finest and its best. He was imperfect, and 
 his kingdom was imperfect, but by comparison 
 he answered the revelation of that principle so 
 that it was fulfilled in measure in his history. 
 
 His answer to the persistence of God was that 
 of his perfect confidence in it. It was that confi- 
 dence which made him write his penitential 
 psalms. When we speak of David's sins let us 
 in all fairness speak also of his penitence. When 
 we would know how deep his penitence was, let 
 us hear his declaration, "Against Thee, Thee 
 only, have I sinned." That is the language of a 
 man dealing with the profoundest things of life. 
 Of course, if men deal with the surface ripples
 
 172 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 only, they will say that God is not harmed by 
 human sin ; but to know God is finally to ex- 
 claim of every sin, " Against Thee, Thee only, 
 have I sinned." Yet such a confession demon- 
 strates the consciousness of the persistence of 
 God in mercy. I would be overwhelmed by my 
 sin, and by my sin made careless of sin, and 
 ultimately by my sin made to continue in sin, 
 were it not that I know the infinite goodness of 
 God is set upon delivering me, if I will but stand 
 in right attitude towards Him. Thus God was 
 able to operate through David, His opportunity 
 being created by David's attitude towards Him ; 
 yet that attitude of David towards God was the 
 result of His attitude towards David. The 
 deepest truth of all in this revelation of inter-re- 
 lationship is that of God's attitude towards a 
 man. Man's responsibility is created thereby. 
 His responsibility is that of his attitude, and that 
 in turn decides the Divine action. 
 
 The living message of this book is patent. In 
 order to understand it, one of the lessons of the 
 first book of Samuel must be remembered, 
 namely, that the ultimate victory of God is inde- 
 pendent of the attitude of individuals or peoples 
 towards Him. With that clearly in mind, it will
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 173 
 
 be recognized that the supreme matter for co- 
 operation in service is the attitude of the soul 
 towards God. Fitness for service is created by 
 the conformity of the life to the will of God. 
 Conformity of the life depends wholly upon the 
 attitude of the soul towards God. The con- 
 formity of my life to the will of God does not 
 depend upon my ability, but upon my abandon- 
 ment ; not upon my persuading God to do some- 
 thing, but upon my allowing myself to be per- 
 suaded by God to be something. The attitude 
 of conformity is that of being willing to know, 
 to be, to do His will. By that attitude God 
 measures a man, and through that attitude acts 
 with a man. 
 
 That doctrine is a two-edged sword. God is 
 measuring me not as man would measure me. 
 I am prone to measure a man by the last sin he 
 has committed. God never does. He measures 
 by the attitude of his soul. This doctrine is full 
 of comfort, but it is awful in its severity. What 
 is my attitude towards God ? Have I lived a 
 clean life? Would I, if I had had the chance to 
 live a filthy one ? That is the question. Half 
 the purity in which some men boast is a ques- 
 tion of birth and of environment. We talk of
 
 1/4 THE MESSAGE OF II. SAMUEL 
 
 other men living in the underworld. The ques- 
 tion is, would we live there if we could ? If so, 
 God measures us as in the underworld. This is 
 fire. It scorches, it burns. God have mercy on 
 me, a sinner. 
 
 Yes, but are you down? Have you com- 
 mitted a sin? Are your Christian friends not 
 quite so friendly as they were, in consequence ; 
 yet all the while do you want to go right? 
 Then that attitude of your soul is God's meas- 
 urement of you. 
 
 Yes, but do not let us slip out by that door, if 
 all the while we want to do the evil thing. Let 
 us be careful. God help us to discriminate. 
 We need supremely to guard against dispropor- 
 tionate excuse or accusing. 
 
 Now do you not see the sin of the priestcraft ? 
 Who is to come in between the soul and God ? 
 I am only an interpreter of principles. I dare 
 not bare my soul to you, and would not have 
 you bare yours to me. David was a man after 
 God's own heart, because of the posture of his 
 soul ; and God at last fulfilled the underlying de- 
 sire of his heart. The triumph of a man is the 
 triumph of God over him, and man only wins 
 when he yields to Him.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The failing Government of Man 
 i. See Chart of Content. 
 ii. The successive Methods. 
 
 a. Solomon. Material Magnificence. 
 
 b. Rehoboam. Autocracy. 
 
 c. Jeroboam. Democracy. 
 
 d. Judah. Succession and Policy. 
 
 e. Israel. Intrigues, Murders, and Rebellion, 
 iii. Disruption. Disintegration. Disaster. 
 
 II. The unfailing Government of God 
 
 i. The prophetic Voices. 
 
 a. Ahijah. xi. 26-39. 
 
 b. Shemaiah. xii. 21-24. 
 
 c. " The Man of God." xiii. l-io. 
 
 d. Ahijah. xiv. 4-16. 
 
 e. Jehu. xvi. 1-4. 
 
 f. Elijah, xvii.-xxi. 
 
 g. Micaiah. xxii. 8-28. 
 ii. The direct Interference. 
 
 a. Appearances to Solomon, and Building of 
 
 Temple. 
 
 b. Adversaries raised up against Solomon. 
 
 c. Death of Abijah. 
 
 d. Withdrawal of Rain, and consequent Famine. 
 
 e. Carmel and Fire. 
 
 f. Appearance to Elijah in Earthquake. 
 
 g. Spirit of Lying in Prophets to entice Ahab to 
 
 Battle. 
 
 I. As to Human Government 
 
 If God be out of count, 
 every Method ends 
 in Disaster. 
 
 II. As to Divine Government 
 
 The abandonment of 
 the Thrones of 
 Earth. 
 
 The Witness of Truth. 
 
 Direct Interference.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 THIS book is bounded by death. Open- 
 ing with the death of David, and clos- 
 ing with the death of Ahab, it covers 
 a period of a little more than a century and a 
 half. The story which it tells is that of a nation 
 passing from affluence and influence to poverty 
 and paralysis. In order to discover the perma- 
 nent values of this book we must keep before the 
 mind two thrones that on earth with its succes- 
 sion of kings, and that in the heavens with its 
 one King. In looking at the former we see the 
 failing government of men, and in looking at the 
 latter we see the unfailing government of God. 
 
 In order that we may see the two thrones let 
 us glance at a very simple chart : 
 
 JEHOVAH. 
 
 
 
 Samuel. (Saul). 
 
 Nathan. 
 
 DAVID. 
 
 
 Ahijah. 
 
 Solomon. 
 
 
 Shemaiah. 
 
 Rehoboam. 
 
 Jeroboam. 
 
 A man of God. 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 
 Abijam. 
 
 Nadab. 
 
 Jehu. 
 
 Asa. 
 
 Baasha. 
 
 
 
 Elah. 
 
 
 
 Zimri. 
 
 
 
 Omri. 
 
 Elijah. 
 
 Jehoshaphat. 
 
 Ahab. 
 
 A son of prophet. 
 
 
 
 Micaiah. 
 
 
 
 Ahaziah, 
 
 177
 
 i;8 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 There Jehovah stands for the one Throne and 
 the abiding King. Deflected from the Throne is 
 the throne set up on earth, with the names of 
 the succeeding kings as far as Ahab, where our 
 present book ends. Beneath the name of Jeho- 
 vah are the names of the prophets through whom 
 He delivered His messages, and maintained His 
 connection with the people through this period in 
 which, to use His own words, the nation had re- 
 jected Him from being King. 
 
 Turning our attention first to the throne on the 
 earth, we observe the succession of kings. Jeho- 
 vah first gave them Saul, a king after their own 
 heart. Then with David, the man after God's 
 own heart, commenced the succession which 
 r*aHaed *jj e p O j n t of supreme darkness in Ahab. 
 THIS /s a story of disruption, disintegration, and 
 disaster. 
 
 On the other hand, in fixing our attention upon 
 the Throne in the heavens, we see the one King 
 maintaining His rule ; and, through the prophets, 
 from Samuel to Elijah, declaring His message. 
 This is a story of government, grace, and guid- 
 ance. 
 
 In this order let us consider the teaching of 
 the two thrones.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 179 
 
 Looking first at the earthly throne, we notice 
 the successive methods of government. In some 
 senses there is only one, that of monarchy ; but 
 monarchs have different methods. Our English 
 government to-day is described as a monarchy ; 
 so also is the Russian ; but no one will suggest 
 that their methods are the same. As a matter of 
 fact, the King of England has nothing like the 
 executive power of the President of the United 
 States of America. While in this book we have 
 the story of kings, their methods are quite dif- 
 ferent. As we look at these methods we shall 
 see a nation, having rejected Jehovah from being 
 King, attempting to govern itself. The people 
 named the name of Jehovah, built His temple, 
 sang His songs, and offered His sacrifices ; but 
 men may do all these, and be infidel. This 
 nation still used the terminology, and observed 
 the ceremonial of the worship of Jehovah, but 
 attempted to govern itself. 
 
 The story of David occupied our attention in 
 our last lecture. In observing the successive 
 methods, therefore, we commence with Solomon. 
 His method was that of material magnificence. 
 There may be some senses in which that descrip- 
 tion may seem incomplete, yet I think it in-
 
 i8o THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 eludes the whole story. Let the facts be recalled. 
 First there was the organization of the kingdom, 
 and the building of the temple. Through both 
 these processes there was the multiplication of 
 riches, and the manifestation of display. The 
 failure of Solomon began long before it became 
 outward, patent, manifest. From the beginning 
 there may be detected the activity of that sensual 
 nature which issued in such inevitable and 
 disastrous ruin. He was called Solomon the 
 Magnificent, the Wise, the Peaceful; but the 
 true story of his reign is told in one brief, almost 
 startling sentence, when " all the congregation of 
 Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying, 
 Thy father made our yoke grievous" For some- 
 thing like a parallel to the reign of Solomon, we 
 may go to Italy and look at Florence under the 
 sway of Lorenzo de Medici. Lorenzo was also a 
 magnificent man, a philosopher and a scholar; 
 but in cruel despotism he robbed the people of 
 Florence of their liberty, silencing and solacing 
 them with pageantry, shows, and pomp. Mrs. 
 Oliphant describes the condition of affairs in 
 graphic words when she writes, " Fair Florence 
 lying in bonds or, rather, dancing in them, with 
 smear of blood upon her garments and loath-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 181 
 
 some song upon her lips." It was against that 
 condition of affairs that Savonarola raised his 
 voice in protest. That is very largely the story 
 also of Solomon's reign. All that Samuel had 
 told the people concerning the effect of kingship 
 was fulfilled in even more marked degree under 
 Solomon than under Saul. He attempted to 
 govern the people by magnificent display and 
 material grandeur ; and failure is seen in the dis- 
 ruption of the kingdom, following upon long 
 continued disaffection, immediately Solomon was 
 removed. 
 
 To Rehoboam the people gathered in discon- 
 tent, saying, " Thy father made our yoke griev- 
 ous." To their complaint he replied, " My little 
 finger is thicker than my father's loins. And 
 now whereas my father did lade you with a 
 heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke : my father 
 chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you 
 with scorpions." Here a new method of govern- 
 ment emerges, that of autocracy. Rehoboam's 
 language was essentially that of the autocrat, 
 and he was the almost necessary offspring of 
 Solomon. 
 
 In Jeroboam another method is seen. Of 
 course, it must be remembered tnat he was
 
 1 82 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 Divinely called. God distinctly announced to 
 him by the prophet that He would rend the 
 kingdom in twain, because of the corruption of 
 the reign of Solomon ; that He would leave one 
 tribe for Rehoboam that a lamp might be main- 
 tained for the house of David ; and that the rest 
 of the people should gather to him, and he 
 should reign over them. Nevertheless, he imme- 
 diately turned aside from allegiance to Jehovah, 
 and attempted to govern on other lines. His 
 first act was that of political accommodation in 
 the realm of religion. " Whereupon the king 
 took counsel, and made two calves of gold ; and 
 he said unto them, It is too much for you to go 
 up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, 
 which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." 
 This is a revelation of his constant method of 
 appeal to democracy. Rehoboam was an auto- 
 crat, who believed that the people should trust 
 in princes. Jeroboam was a democrat, who be- 
 lieved that princes should trust in the people. 
 Neither of them trusted in Jehovah, and they 
 failed equally. The result of Rehoboam' s autoc- 
 racy was that the people said, " What portion 
 have we in David? . . . To your tents, O 
 Israel." The issue of Jeroboam's democracy was
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 183 
 
 that the people had their religion made easy, 
 were content with calves, and became corrupt. 
 
 As to the rest. In Judah, Abijam, Asa, and 
 Jehoshaphat constituted a succession of kings 
 reigning by policy, with God largely shut out 
 of their thoughts. Asa's reign was in many re- 
 spects better than that of Abijam, yet there was 
 manifest ultimately a fear and cowardice, which 
 led him to a base act of compromise. Jehosha- 
 phat walked timidly in paths of right, failing to 
 act with thoroughness, and finally entered into 
 an unholy alliance with the king of Israel. The 
 story of those kings of Judah is that of govern- 
 ment by policy. 
 
 Turning to Israel we find even more terrible 
 failure in a succession of men who cared nothing 
 for the welfare of the kingdom, and esteemed 
 the throne only as a prize for personal posses- 
 sion. There was succession by intrigue and 
 murder of men who absolutely ignored the 
 Throne of Jehovah, and led the people further 
 and further into evil. With Omri, a man elected 
 by popular acclaim, there was a new beginning, 
 but it was a new beginning of the old sin and 
 folly. Then we come to Ahab and Jezebel, a 
 marvellous combination of strength and wit ; in
 
 1 84 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 both, tremendous force of character was prosti- 
 tuted to base purposes, and the whole nation 
 groaned under the dominion, and was en- 
 slaved by it. At last Ahaziah succeeded, but 
 the story of sin and folly, of idolatry and disaster 
 ran on. 
 
 Government by man means disruption, disinte- 
 gration, and disaster. He cannot govern him- 
 self. Whether by material magnificence, or by 
 the assumption of autocratic power, or by appeal 
 to democratic desire, or in any other way, all 
 government of man by man is a disastrous fail- 
 ure. This is the story writ large upon the page 
 of the first book of Kings. 
 
 Turning to the Throne in the heavens we ob- 
 serve the unfailing government of God. This is 
 manifest first in the voices of prophecy which 
 break in upon the confused babel with sudden- 
 ness, in distinct proclamations. Ahijah declared 
 that after the death of Solomon the kingdom 
 would be rent in twain, and later foretold the 
 death of the son of Jeroboam. Shemaiah warned 
 Rehoboam not to fight against Jeroboam. A 
 nameless man of God appeared suddenly to 
 Jeroboam, and prophesied against the altar. 
 Jehu pronounced the doom to fall upon Baasha.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 185 
 
 Elijah, in the hour when the darkness was deep- 
 est, appeared suddenly as a flash of lightning at 
 midnight. He proclaimed Jehovah in tones of 
 thunder ; and vindicated Him at Carmel, and in 
 the matter of Naboth's vineyard. A son of the 
 prophets rebuked Ahab for allowing Benhadad 
 to escape. Micaiah, in spite of all that was done 
 to prevent him, declared the coming scattering 
 of Israel upon the mountains. In these appear- 
 ances of the prophets, and their testimony borne, 
 I see Jehovah governing independently of the 
 throne of earth, when that throne was occupied 
 by men who forgot Him. 
 
 The government of Jehovah was more than 
 that of testimony. It operated in direct inter- 
 ferences. He appeared to Solomon, and the 
 building of the temple resulted therefrom. The 
 story of Solomon's punishment begins with the 
 declaration, "The Lord raised up an adversary 
 unto Solomon." In the withdrawal of rain and 
 the consequent famine, and in the awe-inspiring 
 scenes on Carmel, Jehovah declared Himself by 
 direct interference in the affairs of the sinning 
 people. 
 
 Thus, high lifted above the forces of battle, 
 pressing into His service spirits of evil as well as
 
 i86 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 forces of good, bringing men from distant lands 
 as adversaries, manipulating history even while 
 men in history had rejected Him, is seen the One 
 enthroned Jehovah. The throne on earth never 
 rightly filled, occupied by a succession of men 
 who attempted all methods of government, each 
 in succession disastrously failing ; the Throne in 
 heaven filled, and never shaken. Over all the 
 chaos God reigned towards order. 
 
 The living message of this book is not about 
 the temple in its structure, interesting though 
 that story is. It is not merely a history of the 
 Hebrew nation. That also is interesting and im- 
 portant in some senses. This book has some- 
 thing to say to us about human government 
 and about Divine government, which it is well 
 for us to hear and heed. Concerning human 
 government it declares one thing. If God be out 
 of count, every method ends in disaster. In the 
 earlier part of Solomon's reign attention was 
 given to religious forms and ceremonies, to in- 
 ternal development, to commercial treaties, to in- 
 tellectual attainment. Yet all failed because God 
 was out of count Religious forms and ceremo- 
 nies are grave-cloths if the spirit be not right with 
 God. A nation cannot be governed by insisting
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 187 
 
 that it shall adopt religious forms or ceremonies. 
 Neither can a nation be governed by internal de- 
 velopment, or commercial treaties, or ships which 
 ply to Tarshish bringing back apes and pea- 
 cocks, and with them disaster and ruin. Govern- 
 ment based upon human autocracy must end in 
 revolution sooner or later, when the people, op- 
 pressed by one of their number who does not un- 
 derstand them, and cannot govern them in their 
 own interests but only in his own, begin to 
 straighten themselves in the power of an inherent 
 relationship to Deity. Shut God out of the ques- 
 tion, and democracy will be the most awful 
 tyranny the world has ever seen. We are to-day 
 dealing with forces we hardly understand. So- 
 cialism that is godless will be a reign of terror 
 indeed. Once teach men to consolidate and 
 combine for their own interests, without refer- 
 ence to the Throne of God, and the result will be 
 the utmost disaster. Man cannot govern him- 
 self, for he does not know himself. How then 
 can he govern others of whom he knows so much 
 less, or how can two govern a third, or a multi- 
 tude govern itself? It cannot be. There are 
 forces and facts in one human being that defy 
 the government of all human beings. If man put
 
 1 88 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 God out of count, I care not whether his method 
 of government be autocracy or democracy, 
 whether it be individualism or socialism, it will 
 fail disastrously. 
 
 On the other hand, the book of Kings has a 
 living message concerning Divine government. 
 Of course it cannot tell all the glorious issue of 
 such government, because it is in itself a story of 
 failure. We have to come a good deal further 
 on before we see the issue. The world has never 
 yet seen it realized, but it will see it. It is be- 
 cause we believe that, some of us love to revel 
 amid the mystic mysteries of the Apocalypse, 
 even though we do not profess to understand all 
 its suggestiveness. One man, the seer of the 
 Galilean lake, on the lonely island of Patmos, its 
 shores washed by waters, looked and saw the city 
 of God coming down out of heaven from God, 
 and heard the greatest chorus that poets have 
 ever sung, " Behold, the tabernacle of God is 
 with men, and He shall dwell with them, and 
 they shall be His peoples, and God Himself 
 shall be with them, and be their God." That 
 day has not yet come. It is coming. God help 
 us to share the travail which makes it come. 
 
 This book of Kings does not give us that vision
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 189 
 
 of the ultimate, but it does reveal God's method 
 in the midst of failure. It is first that of aban- 
 donment of the throne of earth. He acted in 
 separation from it. This abandonment was not 
 capricious. So long as the kings were in re- 
 bellion, so long as they forgot Him and His 
 Throne, and sought to establish government 
 without Him, He abandoned them in order that 
 their evil choice might work itself out into mani- 
 festation. This book, moreover, teaches us that 
 God bears perpetual witness to truth in the midst 
 of falsehood, and ever causes some measure of 
 light to shine in the midst of darkness. He 
 keeps alive in the consciousness of at least a 
 remnant the fact of Himself and of His govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Forgive me if I try to impress that final lesson 
 upon your memory in the simplest way. My 
 story constitutes a small picture, but it is a micro- 
 cosm of the problem. I knew a case of a woman 
 bereaved of her husband in the midst of the bat- 
 tle of life. The outlook to her was that of utter 
 and absolute disaster. Full of despair, she passed 
 days in silence and in weeping, until her girlie 
 about seven years old came one day to her side, 
 and looking into the tear-dimmed eyes said,
 
 190 THE MESSAGE OF I. KINGS 
 
 Mother, is God dead ? Putting her arms about 
 the child, the woman said, Darling, you are His 
 messenger to me. "The Lord reigneth." Do 
 not let us forget, however dark the outlook may 
 be, God is not dead. " The Lord reigneth."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The Failure of Mao 
 
 L Its Cause. The lost Sense of Jehovah. 
 
 a. Illustrated in their Kings. 
 
 b. Manifested in their Idolatries and Alliances. 
 <-. Evident in their Inability to detect the Hand 
 
 of Jehovah. 
 
 ti. Its Manifestations. The lost Ideal of Nationality. 
 
 a. Righteousness undervalued. 
 
 b. Sin lightly esteemed. 
 e. Pride of Nationality. 
 
 lii. Its Hopelessness. The lost Sensitiveness of Con- 
 science. 
 
 a. The prophetic Period. "Who hath be- 
 lieved . . . ? " 
 t. The Reformation. Superficial 
 
 c. The religious Order. Neglected. 
 IT. Its Issue. The lost Vision. 
 
 a. Conquered. 
 
 b. Captive. 
 
 c. Castaway. 
 
 II. The Victory of God 
 
 i. Its Cause. His Purpose. 
 
 ii. Its Method. His Persistence, 
 
 iii. Its Hopefulness. His Principles, 
 iv. Its Issues. His Power. 
 
 I. " Where there is no Vision 
 the People cast off 
 Restraint " 
 
 [Prov. xxix. 1 8. 
 
 The lost Vision of God. 
 Degraded Ideals. 
 Deadened Con- 
 science. 
 Defeated Purposes. 
 
 II. " He shall not fall nor be 
 discouraged " 
 
 [Isa. xlii. 4. 
 
 The enthroned Jehovah 
 Power. 
 Knowledge. 
 Activity.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 AS we have already said, the two books of 
 Kings appear in the Hebrew Bible as 
 one, and tell a continuous story. Our 
 second book, therefore, forms a sequel to the first. 
 In the first we have the history of about a cen- 
 tury and a half, and in the second of about three 
 centuries. 
 
 Once again the two thrones are in view. The 
 first steadfast, immovable, always abounding 
 in activity and in progress ; the second trem- 
 bling, failing, and at last abolished. The early 
 part of the history of this period, contained in 
 the first book of Kings, emphasizes the facts of 
 the failing government of man, and the unfailing 
 government of God. The latter part, contained 
 in the second book, emphasizes the results issu- 
 ing in each case. The permanent values of the 
 second book, then, are its revelations of the fail- 
 ure of man, and the victory of God. 
 
 I confess to the difficulty of an embarrassment 
 of riches in approaching this study. This was 
 the period of the prophets. All the great pro- 
 
 193
 
 194 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 phetic messages preserved for us were delivered 
 during this period. That fact creates the diffi- 
 culty of interpreting the message of this book. 
 Read the book apart from the prophecies, and it 
 is disappointing indeed. Read the book as the 
 background of the prophecies, and then we see 
 in the background man's failure, and in the fore- 
 ground God's great and overwhelming victory. 
 
 Let us notice what this book teaches concern- 
 ing the failure of man, as to its cause, its mani- 
 festations, its hopelessness, and its issue. 
 
 The cause of human failure was the lost sense 
 of Jehovah ; its manifestation was the lost ideal 
 of nationality ; its hopelessness was the lost 
 sensitiveness of conscience; and its issue was 
 the lost vocation. 
 
 The fact of the people's lost sense of Jehovah 
 is illustrated in their kings. There were excep- 
 tions. Joash, Amaziah, Jotham, Hoshea served 
 the Lord ; but even of them it is written, " not 
 like David," or that " the high places were not 
 taken away." These did not utterly fail, yet 
 failed partially, either by compromise, or some 
 measure of backsliding. Two names stand out 
 as the names of kings who followed the Lord 
 those of Hezekiah and Josiah ; yet even they
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 195 
 
 failed in some degree. Apart from these, the 
 story of the kings is that of men who had no 
 vision of God. They persisted in courses of evil. 
 They turned their back upon the principles of 
 righteousness. They multiplied transgression 
 through the length and breadth of the land. 
 Men occupied the throne on earth, who had lost 
 their vision of the Throne in the heavens. 
 
 This lost sense of Jehovah was manifested also 
 in the idolatries and alliances of the people. No 
 man who has a clear vision of God turns to an 
 idol. An idol is always a substitute for some- 
 thing else, an attempt to fill a vacuum. There 
 is a sense in which idolatry is a perpetual proof 
 of man's capacity for God. That is not to ex- 
 cuse idolatry. It is rather to show the heinous- 
 ness of its sin. At the back of every sin there 
 lies a possibility of good. That does not mean 
 that sin is something to be pitied, petted, pam- 
 pered. If man prostitutes something that is 
 good, hell is the proper result. Idolatry is a 
 demonstration of the capacity for God ; but when 
 a man turns to an idol, it is because he has lost 
 his vision of God. Hosea spoke of Ephraim as 
 " a silly dove," " a cake not turned," but he de- 
 clared that Ephraim would get back to God, and
 
 196 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 then would say, " What have I to do any more 
 with idols?" That is always the language oi 
 the man who sees God. The groves and the 
 Baalim, the worshippers of Moloch and the chil- 
 dren passing through the fire, all mean that the 
 people had lost their vision of Jehovah. 
 
 Once again, the fact that the cause of the fail- 
 ure was a lost sense of Jehovah is evident in the 
 inability of the people to detect the hand of God 
 as it fell upon them in punishment. Isaiah de- 
 clared that God had laid His hand upon them, 
 until they were a mass of bruises and sores from 
 head to foot, and enquired, " Why will ye be still 
 stricken ? " 
 
 The second fact grows immediately out of the 
 first. The result of the lost vision of God is the 
 lost ideal of national life ; righteousness is 
 undervalued, sin is lightly esteemed, and a false 
 pride of nationality exists. Jonah, the son of 
 Amittai, was a prophet to the people of God. 
 One brief verse tells of the fact that he proph- 
 esied. The burden of the prophecy is not 
 given. That of Jonah which lives is not the 
 prophecy he delivered, but the story he wrote 
 of his prophetic vision to Nineveh. It was not 
 written for the sake of Nineveh, but for the sake
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 197 
 
 of Israel. It was written for Israel in a 
 time when she was characterized by two 
 contradictory attitudes. The first was that 
 of a false exclusiveness ; she did not be- 
 lieve there could be any pity or mercy in 
 the heart of God for any other than herself. 
 The second was that of failure to be exclusive as 
 God meant her to be ; she was forming alliances 
 with other nations, contrary to the Divine 
 command and will. The story of Jonah and 
 Nineveh is the condemnation of exclusiveness. 
 These people had lost the true ideal of nation- 
 ality ; the ideal given by God to Abraham in 
 His first covenant ; the ideal repeated when the 
 nation emerged into national life ; the ideal con- 
 stantly kept before the mind by all the religious 
 economy and prophetic utterances ; the ideal 
 which was expressed in the words, " I will bless 
 thee and make thy name great ; and be thou a 
 blessing." When these people lost their clear 
 vision of God, they lost their understanding of 
 the meaning of their own national life. 
 
 Then look at the hopelessness of the situation. 
 Remember that this was the great prophetic 
 period. In order that we may see this I have 
 prepared a simple chart.
 
 
 
 JEHOVAH. 
 
 THE KINGS. 
 
 Samuel. (Saul) 
 
 
 
 Nathan. 
 
 David. 
 
 
 
 Ahijah. 
 
 Solomon. 
 
 A man of God. Rehoboam. Jeroboam. 
 
 
 
 Shemaiah. 
 
 
 
 
 Abijam. 
 
 Nadab. 
 
 Jehu. Asa. 
 
 Baasha. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elah. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Zimri. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Omri. 
 
 
 Elijah. Jehoshaphat. Ahab and ) 
 
 
 
 A son of prophets. 
 
 
 Jezebel. / 
 
 
 
 Micaiah. 
 
 Ahaziah. 
 
 Joel \ 
 
 Elisha. Jehoram. Jehoram. 
 A son of prophets. Ahaziah. Jehu. 
 Athaliah. 
 Joash. 
 Jehoahaz. 
 
 
 Amaziah. Jehoash. 
 
 Jonah. 
 
 
 
 Jonah. 
 
 Jeroboam II, 
 
 Amos. 
 
 (Interregnum.) 
 
 
 Ho'ca 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ~ 
 
 
 Uzziah. 
 
 Obadiah (?) 
 
 ~~~ 
 
 __ 
 
 
 
 (Interregnum.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 Zechariah. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Shallum. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Menahem. 
 
 Isaiah. 
 
 Mieah 
 
 
 
 
 Jotham. 
 
 Pekahiah. 
 D_j._k 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ahaz. (Interregnum.) 
 llsaiah. Hezekiah. Hoshea. 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Manasseh. 
 
 
 Nahum (?) 
 
 
 
 
 Captiv ty. 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 Amon. 
 
 Zephaniah. 
 
 
 Huldah. Josiah. 
 
 Jeremiah ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Habakkuk. 
 
 
 
 
 
 'ehoahaz. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 'ehoiakim. 
 
 (Daniel 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 ehoiachin. 
 
 Erekiel) 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 iedekiah. 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Captivity. 
 
 198
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 199 
 
 The two thrones are suggested and the two 
 processes are seen. On the one side a line 
 of prophets, on the other a succession of kings. 
 On that of the kings Saul, David, Solomon, the 
 division under Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and 
 then through Kings of Israel and Judah to the 
 captivity in each case. That is the throne on 
 the earth. 
 
 Now turn to the other side, and see the 
 Throne in the heavens. God dealt with His 
 people through the prophets. In the inner 
 column are the names of the prophets men- 
 tioned in the books of Kings. They are Samuel, 
 Nathan, Ahijah, a man of God, Shemaiah, Jehu, 
 Elijah, a son of prophets, Micaiah, Elisha, a son 
 of prophets, Jonah, Isaiah, and the prophetess 
 Huldah. 
 
 The outer column begins with the second book 
 of the Kings, and contains the names of men 
 who were speaking during the period, but who 
 are not named in the text : Joel, Jonah, Amos, 
 Hosea, Isaiah, Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, 
 Jeremiah, Habakkuk ; and in exile, Daniel and 
 Ezekiel. The immediate result of the ministry 
 of these men was almost nothing. Isaiah, in 
 that part of his prophecy in which he described
 
 200 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 the result of his own preaching, enquired and 
 it is the story of all the prophetic ministry 
 " Who hath believed our report ? and to whom 
 hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?" 
 Mark the hopelessness of the case, the lost sensi- 
 tiveness of conscience that could listen to such 
 messages as these, and yet continue in the sin 
 of rebellion and in forgetfulness of God. 
 
 Think of another fact. The reformations were 
 all superficial. Immediately Hezekiah had 
 passed away, the people returned to their old 
 ways of evil. Josiah conducted a remarkable ref- 
 ormation, and yet it is a significant fact that 
 Zephaniah never referred to it. The reason is to 
 be found in the story of Huldah the prophetess. 
 When the reformation was proceeding, and the 
 book of the law was discovered, they sent to 
 Huldah, and she, inspired of God to deliver her 
 message, said in effect that there was no real 
 value in the reformation ; that the king meant 
 well, and would be rewarded, but that the peo- 
 ple were not following God. The condition of 
 the religious life of the period is seen more 
 clearly in Chronicles, the two books that deal 
 with the life of the people from the Temple 
 standpoint. When Hezekiah began his reforma-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 201 
 
 tion he commenced with the Temple, and before 
 anything else could be done it took the whole 
 company of priests and Levites sixteen days to 
 carry rubbish therefrom, which simply means 
 that the Temple had become a lumber store. In 
 the days when Josiah carried out his reforma- 
 tion, the book of the law was found. Mark the 
 significance of this fact, that it had to be found ! 
 Moreover, its teaching so astonished Josiah that 
 he halted in the middle of his work to enquire 
 from the prophetess Huldah. The people had so 
 forgotten the law of their God that, when it 
 was found, they were absolutely unfamiliar with 
 it. 
 
 Finally the issue of the failure was that of the 
 loss by the nation of its vocation. I cannot tell 
 the story in detail, but three words sum it up 
 conquered, captive, castaway ! Is there a sadder 
 story in all the history of the world than that ? 
 
 But look at the other side, that of the victory 
 of God. The secret of that victory is discovered 
 by going back to the beginnings. When God 
 promised Abraham that He would bless him and 
 make him a blessing, and that through his seed 
 the whole world should be blessed, "He sware 
 by Himself." We have a light upon that ancient
 
 202 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 declaration in the letter to the Hebrews, when 
 the writer declared " He could sware by none 
 greater, He sware by Himself . . . that by 
 two immutable things, in which it is impossible 
 for God to lie, we may have a strong encourage- 
 ment," God entered into a covenant with Abra- 
 ham. He will fulfill His covenant. He will be 
 true to Himself. He will allow nothing ulti- 
 mately to thwart the purpose of His love. He 
 remembered His covenant throughout the whole 
 of the process. 
 
 Then notice the method of God. " The Lord 
 testified ... by the hand of every prophet, 
 and of every seer." In that method there was in- 
 cluded His judgments, the awful visitations 
 which these people never seem to have under- 
 stood ; and His tender mercy, directly the people 
 turned to Him, He turned to them, and was 
 ready to receive them. 
 
 The principle of the Divine activity was its 
 perpetual hopefulness. In the prophecy of 
 Hosea this is clearly revealed. In the wonderful 
 love song of Jehovah we touch the hidden spring 
 of everything, " How shall I give thee up, 
 Ephraim ? " That is the inspiration of God's 
 victory. It is that determination of love, and
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 203 
 
 that hopefulness of God, which issue in His 
 victory. 
 
 Finally observe the issues. The national ideal 
 was preserved in captivity, and is preserved until 
 this hour. There is no study more fascinating 
 than that of the Hebrew people. Scattered over 
 the face of the earth, and neutralized among 
 strange people, their nationality cannot be 
 destroyed. God preserves them wherever they 
 go. They are still His, and His mark is upon 
 them. Even in captivity the national ideal was 
 preserved. He preserved the seed for the fulfill- 
 ment of His purpose, until at last the promise to 
 Abraham was fulfilled. 
 
 The prophetic utterances constitute a literature 
 for the ages. There are senses in which the 
 Hebrew prophets have a more living message to 
 this age than the Christian apostles have. The 
 apostolic writings are for the Church. The 
 prophets speak still to the nations Joel, with his 
 far-flung vision of the Day of the Lord ; Jonah, 
 with his condemnation of exclusiveness ; Amos, 
 the herdman of Tekoah, who thundered concern- 
 ing national accountability; Hosea, who inter- 
 preted the sin of the God-forgetting people as 
 spiritual adultery ; Obadiah, with his curse on
 
 204 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 cowardice ; Isaiah, the prophet of the Theocracy ; 
 Micah, dealing with authority, false and true ; 
 Nahum, with his vindication of Jehovah's venge- 
 ance ; Zephaniah, with the message of the severity 
 and goodness of God ; Jeremiah, the prophet of 
 failure ; Habakkuk, with his problems of faith. 
 These constitute a literature for all time, and it 
 was made in the age when these people so 
 signally failed. 
 
 Let me state briefly what seem to me to be 
 the living messages of this book. I do so by 
 two quotations that come right out of the period. 
 This is the first, " Where there is no vision the 
 people cast off restraint" The second is, " He 
 shall not fail nor be discouraged." Let us see 
 the setting of these two quotations. The first 
 one is found in the Proverbs of Solomon, not in 
 the collection of proverbs which he collected 
 himself, but in the second collection which the 
 men of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied out 
 Mark the suggestiveness of this. Solomon, the 
 man by whom all the seeds of disruption were 
 sown, wrote down as a proverb, " Where there 
 is no vision the people cast off restraint" Go 
 to the beginning of the period in the first book 
 f Samuel, " The word of the Lord was precioua
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 205 
 
 in those days" that is, it was rare in those 
 days ; " there was no open vision" That is how 
 the period began. There was no vision of God. 
 Come to the end, the last period, the Lamenta- 
 tions of Jeremiah : " Her prophets find no vision 
 from Jehovah." That is the story of it all. 
 
 What, then, is the message of the book ? If 
 the vision of God be lost, the issue must be de- 
 graded ideals, deadened consciences, defeated 
 purposes. That is the national teaching of the 
 book. " Where there is no vision the people 
 cast off restraint," abandon observance of the 
 Sabbath, abandon themselves to their own appe- 
 tites, until a nation like our own becomes 
 drugged with drink, while it does not know that 
 it is drunk. 
 
 Thank God the book has another message. 
 Isaiah, the greatest prophet of the period, de- 
 clared of Jehovah, " He shall not fail nor be dis- 
 couraged." The man who said this was the 
 man whose writing commences, " The vision of 
 Isaiah, the son of Amos." This man could make 
 this declaration in the midst of all the decadence 
 of his age, because, to use his own words, " In 
 the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord 
 sitting upon a throne." That vision ultimately
 
 206 THE MESSAGE OF II. KINGS 
 
 enabled him to say : " Why sayest them, O 
 Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid 
 from the Lord, and my judgment is passed away 
 from my God? Hast thou not known? hast 
 thou not heard ? the everlasting God, the Lord, 
 the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, 
 neither is weary." That is power. "There is 
 no searching of His understanding." That is 
 knowledge. " He giveth power to the faint ; 
 and to him that hath no might He increaseth 
 strength. Even the youths," who seem as 
 though one never can tire them, "shall faint 
 and be weary, and the young men shall utterly 
 fall : but they that wait upon the Lord shall re- 
 new their strength ; they shall mount up with 
 wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not be 
 weary; they shall walk, and not faint." Noth- 
 ing finer than that was ever written, and it was 
 written in that awful period of human failure by 
 the man who saw the throne and Jehovah. That 
 is the living message of the hour. " The Lord 
 . . fainteth not, neither is weary." " He 
 shall not fail nor be discouraged." If we are to 
 serve our age, we must see God ; and seeing 
 Him, we shall ever be inspired by the certainty 
 of the ultimate victory.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 The Condemnation of Rationalism 
 
 The Revelation of the supreme importance of the 
 
 Recognition of God in the national Life of the 
 
 chosen People. 
 
 I. The Demonstration of the Genealogies 
 
 i. The Elections of God. 
 ii. Their Principles. 
 
 a. Of Exclusion. 
 
 b. Of Inclusion. 
 JU. Their Purpose. 
 
 a. The Ultimate in view. 
 
 6. AM Details towards the Ultimate. 
 
 IL The Illustration of David 
 
 i. David presented in his Strength. 
 
 a. The national Crowning. 
 
 b. The Capture of Jebus. 
 e. The mighty Men. 
 
 d. The Gathering of the People, 
 ii David's deepest Life. 
 
 a. His master Passion. / %** fo f th .** 
 \ Desire to build. 
 
 l>. His Submission. 
 
 e. His Service. 
 
 / The Method of God. 
 \ The Answer of David. 
 
 {The Gathering of Treas- 
 ure. 
 The Arrangements. 
 
 The importance of the Rec- 
 ognition of God in the Life 
 of a Nation 
 
 I. Because of the Pact of 
 the Divine Activity 
 
 i. That is a Reason. 
 ii. That is a Hope. 
 
 II. Because of the Effect 
 upon the National 
 Life 
 
 i. Moral Standards. 
 ii. Character of Individuals. 
 
 iii. Conception of Social Re- 
 lationships.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 
 
 IN order that we may understand this book, 
 and discover its permanent value and living 
 message, it is important that we should 
 know when it was written, for in the discovery 
 of the when, we shall in all probability find the 
 answer to the why. There is internal evidence 
 that it was written in close association with the 
 time of Ezra and Nehemiah. In the section at 
 the commencement which deals with the gene- 
 alogies, names occur which clearly indicate this. 
 In the sixth chapter it is written : " Azariah 
 begat Seraiah, and Seraiah begat Jehozadak ; 
 and Jehozadak went into captivity, when the 
 Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the 
 hand of Nebuchadnezzar." This was evidently 
 written by one looking back upon the captivity. 
 If that is borne in mind, we shall begin to see 
 the reason of the peculiarities of both this book 
 and the one which follows it There is the 
 closest connection between the story contained 
 in Chronicles and that told in the books of Ezra 
 
 and Nehemiah ; a much closer connection than 
 
 209
 
 210 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 
 
 that between Kings and Ezra and Nehemiah. 
 II. Chronicles ends with a proclamation of Cyrus, 
 King of Persia, which made possible the rebuild- 
 ing of the house of God in Jerusalem. That 
 proclamation is the commencement of the book 
 of Ezra. There can be little doubt that the story 
 in Chronicles was written at the return from cap- 
 tivity, in order to encourage the people to build 
 the house of God, for its central subject is the 
 temple of God. Thus we find the key to these 
 two books of Chronicles. Notice the peculiari- 
 ties without entering into details. In the books 
 of Chronicles, Israel, the Northern Kingdom, is 
 out of sight There are references to it, but 
 only when it is absolutely necessary to show re- 
 lationship to Judah. Judah is in view, only to 
 fix attention upon David. David is the central 
 personality. Judah the nation ; David the per- 
 sonality. Yet the purpose of the writer was not 
 that of dealing with Judah or with David, but of 
 dealing with the temple of God. David is re- 
 ferred to in order that there may be brought into 
 clear vision the master passion of his life, the 
 building of the temple. 
 
 It has sometimes been said that the books of 
 Kings are of prophetic origin, because of theii
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 211 
 
 prophetic outlook ; and that the books of Chron- 
 icles are of priestly origin, because of their 
 priestly outlook. That is quite true, but it is 
 only a secondary truth. The deeper truth is 
 that in Kings we have history simply, while in 
 Chronicles we see the relation of the nation to 
 religious life ; the writer's one object being to 
 bring into prominence all the facts concerning 
 the temple, in order to show how absolutely 
 important was that temple to the life of the 
 people. The sub-titles, which I suggested in 
 our previous study of the contents of the books, 
 suggest this ; the Temple desired and ap- 
 proached ; and the Temple possessed and aban- 
 doned. 
 
 The first book has one preeminent value. 
 It reveals the supreme importance of the recog- 
 nition of God in the national life of the chosen 
 people. Other books have taught the fact of 
 the relation of God and the nation, but this 
 book reveals the importance of the recognition 
 of that fact by the people. 
 
 We shall notice first how the genealogies 
 demonstrate the importance of recognizing God ; 
 and secondly, how the story of David illustrates 
 the same truth.
 
 212 THE MESSAGE OF 1. CHRONICLES 
 
 If we take the first ten chapters, and consider 
 them carefully, we see that their value does not 
 consist in the stringing together of names. 
 Through all there is evidence of a Divine move 
 ment, persistent and startling, which compels 
 us to pause and enquire. They begin with 
 Adam and end with Nehemiah ; and there is 
 constant selection, election, choice ; the turning 
 aside of the current ; the starting of a new 
 movement Beginning with Adam, we remem- 
 ber the names of his sons, Cain, Abel, Seth. 
 Of these, neither Cain nor Abel is mentioned. 
 There is selection, and the name chosen is that 
 of Seth. From him the Divine procedure moves 
 through Enoch to Noah ; then on through Shem 
 to Abram and Isaac ; then through Judah to 
 Jesse and David ; then Solomon and Rehoboam, 
 to captivity. Among the tribes of Levi there 
 is distinct selection to purpose. Three sons oi 
 Levi, Kohath, Gershon, Merari, are chosen. 
 
 From Adam to Zedekiah the writer reveals 
 the fact that God made successive selections, 
 ever starting the stream on a new course by 
 choosing individuals. The principle of inclusion 
 was always that of character, based upon obe- 
 dience ; and wherever there was such character
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 213 
 
 based upon obedience, all disability was can- 
 celled. The principle of exclusion was that all 
 rights and privileges are cancelled by disobe- 
 dience. Privileges of descent, of relationship, 
 never count in the economy of God. The one 
 thing that counts is obedience, and the character 
 that grows out of it. The purpose of selection, 
 as revealed in these genealogies, is that from 
 the beginning the ultimate is in view. It is 
 perfectly evident as one studies at all carefully 
 these new beginnings and new developments, 
 that the apparently crooked way is yet the 
 straight way to the goal. The straight way 
 would have followed the inheritance through 
 the first-born, and that would often have been 
 the straight way to failure and defeat. When- 
 ever God made a new selection, setting aside 
 rights and privileges in which men made their 
 boast, choosing men who were not in the line 
 of ordinary human expectation, He did so be- 
 cause His mind was set upon the ultimate goal. 
 All the details of Divine selection led to the ulti- 
 mate goal. 
 
 All this demonstrates the necessity for the 
 recognition of God in the national life. To 
 gather up the history suggested in the gene-
 
 214 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 
 
 alogies is to see confusion, disaster, failure. It 
 is a picture that fills the heart with heaviness, 
 and the spirit with sorrow. To look higher, 
 and see how through all, God is moving ; select- 
 ing, changing, making perpetual progress 
 towards His goal, is to see that the ultimate 
 fact in all the centuries is the fact of God ; and 
 these genealogies show that the way of per- 
 manence for human life, and the way of stability 
 for national life, is the way of recognition of 
 Him. God moved onward in spite of human 
 failure. Men were ruined or made, in propor- 
 tion as they recognized Him. Thus, before the 
 story of the king in whose heart was a passion 
 for the temple is told, there is this strange and 
 almost weird section of ten chapters, filled with 
 names. Through all the generations of men, 
 through century after century, God is seen select' 
 ing, changing, interfering, moving quietly on- 
 ward towards the ultimate goal. 
 
 Turn from this demonstration of the fact of the 
 Divine interference and government to the illus- 
 tration afforded by the story of David. The 
 king is presented in all his strength. There are 
 four pictures of him. The first is that of the na- 
 tional crowning. All the story of the prepara-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 215 
 
 tion has been told the shepherd life, the period 
 at the court of Saul, the long, weary exile as out- 
 law hiding in Adullam, the seven preparatory 
 years reigning over the Southern Kingdom of 
 Judah. Now at Hebron all Israel crowns him. 
 
 The next picture is that of the capture of 
 Jebus. David takes a stronghold which was 
 thought to be impregnable, and makes it for- 
 evermore the earthly centre of Hebrew national 
 life and aspiration. 
 
 The third picture is that of the mighty men, 
 in which is revealed David's influence on per- 
 sonal character. He had gathered to Adullam 
 men in debt, in danger, discontented ; and when 
 we read the story of the mighty men in Chron- 
 icles, we see the mightier man, David, who made 
 them what they were. 
 
 The last picture is that of the multitudes as 
 they march to the standard of the new king 
 They were men who " could use both the right 
 hand and the left," which speaks of the careful 
 training they had received. They were "mighty 
 men of valour, men trained for war," which sug- 
 gests disciplined strength. They were men who 
 " could handle shield and spear," which means 
 they were experts in offensive and defensive
 
 216 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 
 
 warfare. This is the picture of people influenced 
 by a great and mighty king. The book is not 
 so much dealing with the greatness of the peo- 
 ple in itself, as revealing it in order that the 
 greatness of David may be seen. 
 
 All this has been told in order to lead to some- 
 thing else. Beginning with the story of the ark, 
 there is revealed David's attitude towards the 
 temple. There we touch the deepest thing in 
 his life. He was a king, a warrior, a poet ; but 
 none of these tells the story of the deepest thing 
 in his heart, or reveals its master passion. No- 
 tice his care for the ark of God. Notice his de- 
 sire to build the temple of God. These are not 
 the master passions of his life, but they are ex- 
 pressions thereof. The master passion of this 
 king, warrior, shepherd is that of a profound 
 recognition of the relation of the nation to God, 
 and of the necessity that it should never forget 
 God. That is why he cared for the ark. That 
 is why he desired to build the temple. 
 
 The strength of that master passion is revealed 
 in his submission to God. When he said it was 
 in his heart to build a house for God, Nathan 
 the prophet said, " Do all that is in thine heart." 
 But neither King David, nor Prophet Nathan,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 217 
 
 great as was their desire for the temple, under- 
 stood the full meaning thereof. God forbade his 
 building, but revealed anew to him how he had 
 been led by God. 
 
 Immediately David began to do something 
 for God, and the very thing he wanted to do, 
 even though he did not build the temple. The 
 actual last work was, in the wisdom of God, 
 committed to Solomon, but from that moment 
 David was at the work he longed to do. His will- 
 ingness not to begin the building was a revela- 
 tion of his recognition of the importance of his 
 work, and of his absolute abandonment to the 
 will of God. Yet he worked in gathering treas- 
 ure, in making arrangements, in choosing the 
 site, in appointing the Levites, in setting in order 
 the service of song, in appointing the porters, 
 and the keepers of the treasure. 
 
 Ezra, or whomsoever the author of this book 
 may have been, wanted to show the importance 
 of that of which the temple was but the outward 
 symbol the nation's recognition of God. David 
 became for the moment in his eyes the embodi- 
 ment of the national idea, the national purpose. 
 The master passion of David was that of recog- 
 nizing God, and expressing the recognitioa
 
 218 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 
 
 Paul summarized the whole story of David's life 
 in the sentence so often quoted, " He . . . 
 in his own generation served the counsel of 
 God." He was shepherd, warrior, poet ; but in 
 all these things he answered the master passion. 
 As king he reigned always under the conviction 
 of the throne of God, and the supremacy of Je- 
 hovah. He was a warrior, carrying out the Di- 
 vine purpose. He was a poet, and " The Lord 
 reigneth" is the very key-note of his poetry. 
 Because he knew the national importance of this 
 recognition, he cared for the ark, and desired 
 the temple. 
 
 The living message of this book is quite 
 patent if we have discovered its permanent value. 
 With no uncertain sound it speaks to us to-day 
 of the absolute importance of the recognition of 
 God in the life of the nation. If you are inclined 
 to say that this book is applicable to the Hebrew 
 nation, and to no other, I pray you think again 
 of the wonderful prophecy of Amos. The mis- 
 take Israel made was that of thinking that God 
 governed the Hebrew nation, and had no care 
 for others. The message of Amos was that of 
 national accountability ; and ere he delivered his 
 message to Judah and Israel, he swept the ever-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 219 
 
 decreasing circles around them, beginning with 
 all the distant nations, and showing how God 
 governed them also. If that be true of the 
 nations long ago, it is equally true to-day. 
 
 It is important that the nation should recognize 
 God, because of the fact of the Divine activity. 
 Begin wherever you will, and look at the cen- 
 turies, and you discover the same principle at 
 work in all human history, God choosing, select- 
 ing, lifting up, casting down. The great word of 
 the prophet of old is the word of to-day. Speak- 
 ing to Cyrus, the man outside the covenant, He 
 said, "I will gird thee, though thou hast not 
 known Me." That is the story of all human 
 history. God is lifting up and casting down. 
 Another word of one of the old Hebrew prophets 
 declared, " I will overturn, overturn, overturn 
 . . . until He come whose right it is." God 
 has not given up overturning. The Divine 
 hand is at work now as surely as in the first ten 
 chapters of Chronicles, selecting a new man and 
 making a new start ; and if he fails, selecting an- 
 other, and again moving forward. If the first- 
 born son in the proper succession is not ready 
 for the work, he is flung aside ; and if the man 
 of privilege does not answer his opportunity, he
 
 220 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 
 
 is cast away upon the scrap-heap, and God finds 
 an obscure man, and marches on towards the 
 ultimate. That is a gospel to my heart. That 
 is comfort to my soul. That is the thing that 
 cures the heart of its panic. God is still choos- 
 ing, selecting, guiding, controlling. That is why 
 the nation should recognize Him. Oh, the mad- 
 ness of trying to arrange without Him, of shut- 
 ting Him out of view. 
 
 It is important that the nation should rec- 
 ognize God, not merely because of the fact of 
 His government, but because of the effect of the 
 recognition of God upon national life. Take 
 God out of the national life, and the national 
 thinking, and what will happen ? You will have 
 no moral standard at all. Talking quite re- 
 cently to one of the responsible Ministers of the 
 Crown on the subject of the teaching in the 
 Day Schools of this country, speaking not from 
 the standard of a Christian man, but from the 
 standpoint of a statesman, he said : " If there is 
 no Bible, where is your text-book of morals? 
 There is the supreme difficulty. We must teach 
 morals, and there is no text-book or standard in 
 the world if we take the Bible away." 
 
 When the nation has lost its moral standard,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF I. CHRONICLES 221 
 
 it has lost the strength of individual character ; it 
 has lost its conception of social relationships. It 
 is useless to talk of a new social order unless at 
 its very basis is the conviction and the conscious- 
 ness of the throne of God and the government 
 of God. That is the supreme message of this 
 book. 
 
 The thing of importance in any nation is the 
 building of the temple, the creation of the op- 
 portunity for the people to deal with God. The 
 political propaganda which begins by attacking 
 or neglecting God, and a national recognition of 
 Him, is absolutely pernicious. The man who 
 worships is the true patriot, whether he be a 
 king, a statesman, or a commoner. The man 
 who loves his nation and serves it, is the man 
 who serves God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 The Condemnation of Rationalism 
 
 The Revelation of the absolute Importance of the 
 Recognition of God which was merely formal in 
 the Life of the chosen People. 
 
 I. The Demonstration by Contrast. Solomon 
 
 i. Solomon's Inheritance. 
 
 a. The Conditions. 
 
 b. The supreme Inheritance, 
 ii. Solomon's Greatness. 
 
 a. In Relation to God. 
 
 b. In Relation to the People. 
 Hi. Solomon's Service. 
 
 a, The Temple built. 
 
 b. Administration from that Centre. 
 iv. Solomon's Failure. 
 
 a. Its Cause. 
 
 b. Its Course. 
 
 II. The Illustration in History 
 
 The Kings of Judah. Rehoboam to Zedekiah. 
 i. The Rending of the Kingdom. 
 
 a. Jeroboam. Substitution of false Form. 
 
 b. Rehoboam. Retention of the true Form, 
 ii. The Degeneracies. 
 
 a. Observance of the Form, and Neglect of the 
 
 Facts. 
 
 b. Growing Neglect of the Forms. 
 iii. The Reformations. 
 
 a. Always beginning at the House of God. 
 
 b. The appalling Revelations of each Beginning, 
 iv. The ultimate Disaster. 
 
 *. The House burned with Fire. 
 ^. The People carried away. 
 
 Tbe Importance of formal 
 Religion in the Life of 
 Nation 
 
 I. The Discovery of the 
 
 Point of Application 
 Cf. 2 Chron. v. 13-14 
 and Acts ii. 1-4. 
 
 II. The Manifestations of 
 Formalism 
 
 III. The Disaster of Form- 
 alism 
 
 Therefore, " Strengthen 
 the things that re- 
 main."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 THE general atmosphere of the second 
 book of Chronicles is the same as that 
 of the first. The temple of Solomon had 
 long been in ruins. At the time of writing, the 
 temple of Zerubbabel was about to be erected. 
 The books give one continuous story ; yet in the 
 two we have two phases of one great truth. In 
 the first we have the revelation of the impor- 
 tance of the temple to the national life. In the 
 second we have the revelation of how absolutely 
 useless the temple was. That is a paradox, a 
 contradiction ; and to recognize it is to be able to 
 understand the permanent value of this book. 
 
 The first book of Chronicles is the condemna- 
 tion of rationalism in national life. The second 
 book is the condemnation of ritualism in national 
 life. In the first book I see the necessity for a na- 
 tion's remembrance of God, and recognition of His 
 government in all its affairs. In the second 
 book I have a revelation of the absolute folly 
 
 and failure of the nation which recognizes God 
 
 223
 
 224 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 formally, but does not answer the symbolism of 
 its recognition by the actuality of its conduct 
 and character. That is the difference between 
 rationalism and ritualism. Rationalism says, 
 We can manage without God. Ritualism says, 
 We must adopt the terminology which suggests 
 God, and having done that, it is careless of that 
 actual dealing with Him, which is vital to national 
 life. 
 
 In the first division of the book we have the 
 story of Solomon, and it constitutes a demonstra- 
 tion by contrast of the impotence and useless- 
 ness of formal religion. In the second division, 
 which gives us the history of the Kings oi 
 Judah, we have illustration in history. Take 
 first this demonstration by contrast. In 
 looking at the details we notice four things : 
 Solomon's inheritance, his greatness, his service, 
 his failure. 
 
 As to Solomon's inheritance. A superficial 
 statement is that he came to the throne and the 
 kingdom. That is perfectly correct so far as it 
 goes. The throne and the kingdom created his 
 opportunity for fulfilling the supreme purpose of 
 bis life. Solomon's supreme inheritance was 
 that of the work of building the temple, for the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 225 
 
 recognition of God on the part of the nation. 
 He came to be king over a people recognizing 
 the supremacy of the throne of Jehovah. 
 
 His father David had prepared for the building 
 of the temple, the master passion of his life hav- 
 ing been that of the recognition of the relation of 
 national strength to submission to the throne of 
 God. The government of the people from the 
 beginning of their national existence was closely 
 associated with the formulae of worship. Moses 
 was the lawgiver. His first work was the build- 
 ing of the tabernacle, and the setting in the 
 centre of the nation of all the symbols of its re- 
 lation to God. When Solomon commenced to 
 reign he did not offer his first sacrifice at the 
 place where the ark was, the temporary tent 
 which David had erected, but at the old taber- 
 nacle, long neglected. That action of Solomon 
 was significant. The tabernacle had symbolized 
 the people's relationship to God, and by going 
 to it he expressed his conviction that their na- 
 tional greatness and strength depended upon 
 their relation to the throne of God. His temple 
 was to be the successor of Moses' tabernacle. 
 Solomon's inheritance, then, was the opportunity, 
 right, and privilege, of building that temple
 
 226 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 which was to remind the people of their relation 
 to God. 
 
 Then as to Solomon's greatness. The begin- 
 ning was a wonderful one. The greatness of the 
 man is revealed in the simplicity of his heart as 
 he made his plea for wisdom. It is seen, more- 
 over, in the fact that, as a king, he bore his peo- 
 ple on his heart in intercession before God. 
 
 His service consisted of the building of the 
 temple; and then in the administration of his 
 kingdom from that centre. That we need not 
 stay to describe. All the details are simply set 
 forth by the chronicler. 
 
 His failure was disastrous, and was caused by 
 the violation, in his own self-centred life, of the 
 truth the temple expressed. Even in the days 
 of prosperity there are evidences of weakness, as a 
 man of sensual passion is seen playing upon the 
 edge of the awful things that ultimately ruined 
 him. The whole failure of Solomon was due to 
 the fact that he answered the cry of his own self- 
 life, and in doing so violated the principle of 
 Divine government, to which the temple he had 
 erected bore witness before himself and his 
 people. 
 
 The temple became, in the case of Solomon, a
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 227 
 
 form and nothing more. Consequently, it be- 
 came not merely of no use, but a paralysis in the 
 life of the king, and a poison in the life of the 
 nation. 
 
 Turn to the second division of the book. It 
 tells the story of Judah from Rehoboam to Zede- 
 kiah, The sin of Jeroboam in Israel consisted of 
 the substitution of a false form of worship for the 
 true. Rehoboam retained the true form in Judah. 
 Throughout the history there is the observance of 
 the form, and the neglect of the fact. This 
 issued in growing neglect of the form. We nevei 
 find nations or men long observe a form when it 
 becomes devoid of power. Mere formalism must 
 die sooner or later. The issue is irreligion, in- 
 fidelity. It was so here. All the reformations 
 began at the house of God. Asa renewed the 
 altar, and restored the dedicated vessels to their 
 place. Jehoshaphat instituted a series of special 
 missions all through the country, sending men 
 to read and explain the book of the law through 
 the towns and villages. Joash restored the house 
 after Athaliah's destruction of it. Hezekiah 
 opened the doors, and assembled the people for 
 worship. Josiah repaired the house of the Lord. 
 
 In each case the revelations of the beginnings
 
 228 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 of the reformations are appalling. Asa renewed 
 the altar, and restored the dedicated vessels. 
 That implies a broken altar and desecrated ves- 
 sels. Jehoshaphat felt it necessary to send 
 special prophetic messengers through the coun- 
 try to interpret the book of the law, which re- 
 veals the prevailing ignorance of the law. Joash 
 restored the house of the Lord after Athaliah's 
 destruction. That means that the house had 
 been destroyed. Hezekiah opened the doors, 
 which means that while the house still stood, the 
 people had become so utterly weary of formalism, 
 that the doors had been closed. Mark the mar- 
 vel of the story of Josiah. In the midst of a ref- 
 ormation that must have been very partial, they 
 found the book of the law ; and finding it, and 
 reading in it, the king was so startled at the aw- 
 ful condition of his people that he halted the 
 whole reformation, in order to find out from the 
 prophetess Huldah the meaning of this law, and 
 the effect likely to be produced by his reformation. 
 Thus all through the story we see the people 
 getting lower, in spite of the fact that at the 
 commencement of this period of history the 
 temple was built and established, and became 
 the central symbol of their religious life.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 229 
 
 Finally there came the ultimate disaster. The 
 house was burned with fire, and the people were 
 carried away into captivity. In the first book 
 the story is told of the passionate desire of the 
 man after God's own heart to build the temple, 
 knowing as he did the importance of the recog- 
 nition by the nation of the fact of God. In the 
 second t book the aspiration of David becomes the 
 achievement of Solomon. The passionate de- 
 sire of the old man becomes the actual deed of 
 the young man. I stand in the earlier chapters 
 almost amazed at the splendour and beauty of 
 the temple, and I listen to the songs of the sing- 
 ers, and watch the worship of the worshippers, 
 and I thank God with David that the house is 
 built. Yet immediately I see the nation begin- 
 ning to fall, and gradually, stage after stage, 
 sinking lower, until the house is burned and the 
 chosen nation is cast away. If the first book 
 teaches that it was necessary that these people 
 should recognize God, the second teaches us 
 that when the recognition was that of form and 
 ceremony, it was worse than useless. That to 
 me is the permanent value of this book, which 
 thrills and throbs through all its history, and 
 upon all its pages.
 
 ^o THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 The living message of the book is that of the 
 impotence of formal religion in the life of a na- 
 tion. Let us first discover the point of applica- 
 tion. In the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter 
 I read, " It came even to pass, when the trump- 
 eters and singers were as one, to make one 
 sound to be heard in praising and thanking the 
 Lord ; and when they lifted up their voice with 
 the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of 
 music, and praised the Lord, saying, For He 
 is good : for His mercy endureth forever : that 
 then the house was filled with a cloud, even the 
 house of the Lord." It was a great moment. 
 The temple finished, its worship of song per- 
 fected, all the notes of the instruments and voices 
 merged into one great ascription of praise. 
 Then the glory filled the house. In the Acts I 
 read, "When the day of Pentecost was now 
 come, they were all together in one place. And 
 suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of 
 the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the 
 house where they were sitting. And there ap- 
 peared unto them tongues parting asunder, like 
 as of fire ; and it sat upon each one of them." 
 The connection between these two passages is 
 evident Doubtless there is disparity, but there
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 231 
 
 is also similarity. The two temples ; the first 
 was natural, the last spiritual. The temple in 
 the olden days, made according to the pattern of 
 God, in the unity of worship crowned with the 
 glory of God, and filled with His presence ; the 
 symbol in the centre of the nation of the pres- 
 ence and government of God. That is the Old 
 Testament picture. Observe the New Testa- 
 ment picture. Again the temple, no longer of 
 material things, but of living stones, merged into 
 the habitation of God by the baptism of the 
 Spirit, a perfect unity. 
 
 As the temple in Chronicles was the centre 
 and criterion of national life, so the Church of 
 God is the centre .and criterion of national life, 
 if she do but understand her vocation, and fill 
 her position. The application of the first book 
 of Chronicles is to the nation. The message de- 
 livered to the nation was this, If you think by 
 policy and diplomacy to maintain your strength 
 without recognizing God, you are doomed to 
 disaster. Now the message is to the Church. 
 It is a warning to the spiritual Church lest she 
 should become formal, and so fail to establish 
 the nation. I have no desire to use any phrase 
 in a controversial sense here, but I am bound, in
 
 232 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 the interpretation of truth as I see it in the Bible, 
 to say this, the Bible knows nothing of the estab- 
 lishment of the Church by the State, but it 
 teaches forevermore that the Church must estab- 
 lish the nation. In order to do this, formal re- 
 ligion is infinitely worse than none. By formal 
 religion I mean high Church doctrine without 
 full Church life. I mean Puritan philosophy 
 without Puritan experience. I mean a Noncon- 
 formist conscience without conduct conformed 
 to Christ. These things are the essence of 
 ritualism. 
 
 What is high Church doctrine without full 
 Church life ? The doctrine of the Church that is 
 forevermore arguing for the correctness of its 
 views, and cursing the man who does not share 
 them ! That is a formalism which curses a 
 nation. 
 
 What is Puritan philosophy without Puritan 
 experience? There are some who think the 
 Puritan philosophy consisted in a passion for des- 
 troying buildings. Nothing of the kind. The 
 Puritan philosophy is that man is spiritual, and 
 has the right of access to God who is Spirit, 
 without the intervention of man or ceremony. 
 Oh, the dignity of it \ But if that is our phi-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 233 
 
 losophy, and we do not go to God, our philos- 
 ophy becomes paralysis instead of power. 
 Sometimes I am a little tired of hearing about 
 the Puritanism of the Free Churches. I want to 
 see it in the life of those who know what it is to 
 have commerce with God. What do I care 
 about the accidentals in the Puritan movements 
 of long ago the speech, the dress, the icono- 
 clasm ? If a man looks at these things only, he 
 has never seen the Puritan movement The 
 Puritan movement was that of strenuous saints, 
 who refused to let any one come between them- 
 selves and God. Hold that philosophy to be a 
 fine one, and live six days a week as though 
 there were no God, and that is a ritualism which 
 is a peril to a nation. 
 
 What is a Nonconformist conscience without 
 Christian conduct ? The presence of the crowd 
 at the platform meeting when we show our su- 
 periority to other people, and its absence from 
 the service of worship, and its neglect of the 
 worship of work. We need the conscience sen- 
 sitive to the call of Christ ; the conscience that 
 worships, and then strips itself to serve. If I am 
 forevermore talking about my conscience, and 
 boasting in my freedom, and fighting merely for
 
 234 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 
 
 the shibboleths of freedom ; that is ritualism, and 
 I have no room to criticize the man who is a 
 ritualist in some other section of the Church. 
 
 The disaster of formalism. What is it ? It is 
 not merely that the Church is a failure. That, 
 of course, is a disaster. I am not, however, pre- 
 pared to shed tears over the failure of a system. 
 I am prepared to shed them over the fact that 
 when the system fails, the work is not done. 
 That is the supreme and final agony. If the 
 Church of God is not what it ought to be, we 
 have a nation without salt and without light, a 
 nation rushing headlong to Godlessness, charac- 
 terized by base ideals and ignoble conduct ; by 
 cowardice in the presence of a wrong, and care- 
 lessness about the importance of right. If that 
 be the national condition, the blame is with the 
 Church of God. I do not say the churches, but 
 the Church, the Catholic Church, which is the 
 Temple of God. If she were instinct with the 
 life of Christ, and allowed that life to fill and 
 flood and flow through her, the nation could no 
 longer be careless. 
 
 I go back to the creation of the temple, and 
 what followed in Jerusalem. The multitudes 
 were amazed, perplexed, critical. The tragedy
 
 THE MESSAGE OF II. CHRONICLES 235 
 
 of the hour is that the Church does not amaze 
 London, does not perplex London, does not 
 make London critical. Why not? Because of 
 her formalism. The world has done with form- 
 alism. Whether it be her theatres, her public 
 houses, or anything else, she means business ; 
 and a world that means business is never going 
 to be influenced by a Church that is playing. 
 What we need is the Church, the Temple, filled 
 with the Presence, flaming in its glory, flashing 
 in its light, communicating its fire. Then we 
 shall be able to say to the evil statesman, You 
 dare not ! We shall be able to say to vested in- 
 terests, Disgorge ! We shall cast out devils in 
 the name of Christ. But formalism can do none 
 of these things. What then is the message of 
 the second book of Chronicles? What is the 
 living word ? " Strengthen the things that re- 
 main.' 1
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 The Potter in His Activity. " He made it again 
 another Vessel." 
 
 L Jehovah's Instruments 
 L Outside the Covenant. 
 a. Cyrus. 
 
 t. Darius. 
 c. Artaxerxes. 
 iL Within the Covenant. 
 
 a. Zerubbabel and Joshua. 
 
 b. Ezra. 
 
 II. Jehovah's Might 
 
 i. Constructive. 
 
 a. Inspiring the Edicts. 
 
 b. Qualifying His Workers. 
 
 c. Gathering His People. 
 
 iL Destructive. Overcoming Opposition. 
 
 III. Jehovah's People 
 
 L A Remnant. Composed of Members of all the 
 
 Tribes. 
 A. A Testimony. To one Truth, the Unity of God. 
 
 IV. Jehovah's Work 
 
 i. The Things lost. 
 
 a. National Independence. 
 
 b. National Influence. 
 iL The Things gained. 
 
 a. A Place. 
 
 b. A Race. 
 
 I. Concerning God the liv 
 
 ing Message is that of 
 
 the Permanent Value 
 
 L The ultimate Word in 
 
 Sovereignty. 
 
 ii. The Revelation of the 
 Inspiration of Sover- 
 eignty. 
 
 iii. Sovereignty the Strength 
 of Hope. 
 
 II. To Man the living Mes- 
 sage consists of the 
 things resulting 
 
 [Hag. ii. 4. 
 
 i. Conviction in place of 
 
 Carelessness. 
 ii. Consecration in place of 
 
 Comfort, 
 iii. Courage in place of 
 
 Cowardice, 
 iv. Confidence in place of 
 
 Contempt.
 
 , THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 THE book of Ezra cannot be considered 
 alone. In order that we may study it, 
 and its message, it is necessary that we 
 should first recognize the connection between it 
 and the two following books. The three deal 
 with the history of the period in which one of 
 the prophecies of Jeremiah was fulfilled. Let us 
 read from Jeremiah, first, in the twenty-fifth 
 chapter, verses eleven to fourteen : 
 
 " This whole land shall be a desolation, and 
 an astonishment ; and these nations shall serve 
 the king of Babylon seventy years. And it 
 shall come to pass, when seventy years are 
 accomplished, that I will punish the king of 
 Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for 
 their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans ; 
 and I will make it desolate forever. And I will 
 bring upon that land all My words which I have 
 pronounced against it, even all that is written 
 in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied 
 against all the nations. For many nations and 
 great kings shall serve themselves of them, 
 
 237
 
 238 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 even of them : and I will recompense them ac- 
 cording to their deeds, and according to the 
 work of their hands." 
 
 Again in the twenty-ninth chapter, verses ten 
 to fourteen : 
 
 "Thus saith the Lord, After seventy years 
 be accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, 
 and perform My good word towards you, in 
 causing you to return to this place. For I know 
 the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the 
 Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to 
 give you hope in your latter end. And ye 
 shall call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray 
 unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And 
 ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall 
 search for Me with all your heart. And I will 
 be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn 
 again your captivity, and I will gather you 
 from all the nations, and from all the places 
 whither I have driven you, saith the Lord ; and 
 I will bring you again unto the place whence I 
 caused you to be carried away captive." 
 
 These words are taken from the prophecies 
 which were delivered before the fall of Jerusalem, 
 and on the occasion of Jeremiah's visit to Zede- 
 kiah. The king of Babylon and his army were
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 239 
 
 threatening Jerusalem ; and Jeremiah suffered 
 because he persistently declared that they would 
 successfully take the city, carry away the king, 
 and destroy the people. 
 
 Seventy years had elapsed from the fall of 
 Jerusalem. The power of Babylon had been 
 broken, and that forever. Cyrus the Elamite 
 was on the throne ; king of Persia, though not 
 a native of Persia, taking that name because 
 Persia was the strongest of the countries he had 
 mastered ; king of Babylon, because he had 
 broken the power of Babylon, in exact fulfill- 
 ment of Jeremiah's prophecy, after seventy 
 years. Thus, Persia had become the ruling 
 power. 
 
 We now come to the story of the events, the 
 first of which the two books of Chronicles were 
 written to inspire. The permanent value of the 
 three books lies in their revelation of the Divine 
 activity overruling human failure. 
 
 Before the messages actually delivered to 
 Zedekiah, Jeremiah had uttered two on the 
 supremacy of Jehovah ; the first describing a 
 visit to the potter's house, and the second deal- 
 ing with the vessel broken. The first of these 
 opens thus, " The word which came to Jeremiah
 
 240 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to 
 the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to 
 hear My words. Then I went down to the 
 potter's house, and, behold, he wrought his work 
 on the wheels. And when the vessel that he 
 made of the clay was marred in the hand of the 
 potter, he made it again another vessel, as 
 seemed good to the potter to make it." 
 
 That is the picture Jeremiah saw in the house 
 of the potter. He then applied it in these 
 words : 
 
 " Then the word of the Lord came to me, 
 saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you 
 as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the 
 clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in Mine 
 hand, O house of Israel." The house of Israel 
 is the clay. God is the Potter. He wrought 
 His work on the wheels ; the vessel was marred 
 in the hands of the Potter. That is the history 
 of everything from Abraham to the Captivity. 
 What next ? " He made it again another 
 vessel." Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are the 
 books that tell us the story of how God began 
 to make again the vessel that had been marred 
 in His own hand. God has not finished that 
 work yet. He will finish it. Israel is not cast
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 241 
 
 off forever. God has yet His work to do in 
 this world through His ancient people. In 
 Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther I see God's new 
 beginning. We are tempted to think that the 
 work is slow. Never let us descend to the 
 vulgarity of measuring God by man-made alma- 
 nacs. 
 
 In the light of what I have attempted to say 
 of its relation, we may consider the book of 
 Ezra. Let us first pass over it and notice four 
 things; Jehovah's instruments ; Jehovah's might ; 
 Jehovah's people ; Jehovah's work. 
 
 First, then, Jehovah's instruments. These were 
 found both outside and inside the covenant peo- 
 ple. The hour had come when the vessel was so 
 marred and spoiled that God began again, but 
 He began with the same piece of clay. The in- 
 struments outside were Cyrus, Darius, Artax- 
 erxes, each one of whom issued a decree which 
 was inspired of God, as surely as were the 
 messages of Isaiah. God laid the constraint 
 of His mighty power upon the heart of kings. 
 He girded Cyrus, although Cyrus had not 
 known Him. He took this man outside the 
 covenant, and pressed him into the accomplish- 
 ment of His own purpose. So also with Darius
 
 242 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 and Artaxerxes. God was beginning a new 
 thing, and He took hold of mighty kings and 
 warriors, and made the very marching of their 
 armies part of His progress, and used the sigh- 
 ing of captives under their control to touch their 
 heart and drive their will, so that they cooperated 
 with Him. 
 
 He found His instruments inside also ; Zerub- 
 babel, the man with the Babylonish name, a 
 grandson of Jehoiachim, and a prince of Judah 
 in the Davidic line ; and Joshua, the son of 
 Jehozadak. These two embodied the twofold 
 principle that had been manifest in all His deal- 
 ings with the people, that of the king and the 
 priest. These He placed in the midst of ruin 
 and degradation, and they began to inspire 
 other hearts, and so the new movement com- 
 menced. Then Ezra also, " A ready scribe in 
 the law of Moses," which does not mean merely 
 that he was a man who was able to write clearly 
 and accurately. This is the first place in which 
 the word "scribe" occurs in the Bible in the 
 sense in which we perpetually find it in the New 
 Testament. Jesus used the word at the close of 
 His parables concerning the Kingdom, when He 
 said : " Every scribe who hath been made a dis-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 243 
 
 ciple to the Kingdom of heaven is like unto a 
 man that is a householder, which bringeth forth 
 out of his treasure things new and old." The 
 scribe was the interpreter, the teacher, the un- 
 folder of the meaning of the will of God. In 
 that sense Ezra was " a ready scribe in the law 
 of Moses." 
 
 Thus God laid His hand upon Cyrus, Darius, 
 and Artaxerxes outside the covenant ; and upon 
 Zerubbabel, Joshua, and Ezra within the cove- 
 nant. The principle revealed is that God presses 
 into His service men who do not know Him, and 
 who are unconscious that they are carrying out 
 His will ; and inspires men who do know Him, 
 and compels them to constructive activity. We 
 cannot study the three edicts, recognizing that 
 they were the edicts of pagan kings, without 
 recognizing them as inspired of God. His 
 might was manifested, moreover, in the way in 
 which He qualified His workers for the work 
 they had to do ; gathered His people from far 
 and near not merely Judah, all the tribes of 
 Israel being represented. 
 
 That leads us to Jehovah's people, the clay, the 
 remnant composed of members of all the tribes. 
 " So the priests, and the Levites, and some of
 
 244 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 the people, and the singers, and the porters, and 
 the Nethinim, dwelt in their cities, and all Israel 
 in their cities." " And the children of Israel, the 
 priests and the Levites, and the rest of the chil- 
 dren of the captivity, kept the dedication of this 
 house of God with joy. And they offered at the 
 dedication of this house of God an hundred 
 bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs ; 
 and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he- 
 goats, according to the number of the tribes of 
 Israel." God, in remaking, did not merely 
 take two tribes, but representatives of all the 
 twelve. 
 
 When He brought them back from captivity, 
 He established one great truth in the world, and 
 in the midst of human history ; that of the unity 
 of Deity. They came back, having learned only 
 the first thing, but they never forgot it again. 
 The great word of Moses was, " The Lord thy 
 God is one Lord." The unity of Deity produces 
 the unification of humanity in the worship of the 
 one God. Believe that, and there can be no 
 idolatry. But they turned to idolatry, until 
 Israel was driven into captivity, and Judah also. 
 Seventy years passed over their heads, and they 
 came back, and never set up an idol again.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 245 
 
 Ephraim said, " What have I to do any more 
 with idols ? " They had a great deal more to 
 learn ; but from the hour in which they came 
 back under Zerubbabel, until this hour, call them 
 Jews, Hebrews or Israelites, as you will, this one 
 thing is certain ; they have never set up an idol. 
 They became a people, poor in many respects, 
 failing in many respects ; yet through crushing, 
 bruising, and discipline, a people who in human 
 history embody the truth that there is one God. 
 
 Finally, notice Jehovah's work. When these 
 people gathered back they had lost their national 
 influence. Never again did they so stand alone, 
 as to be able to bear their distinctive testimony, 
 in such a way as to produce conviction. Yet 
 there was gain in that hour when the remnant 
 came back. They began building, and built 
 with some interruptions for twenty years ; then 
 stopped, and for sixty years nothing was done. 
 But God was at work. He had found a 
 place for them, and as Jeremiah said, it was the 
 place from which He drove them out. They 
 were back at the geographical centre. Not 
 merely had He found a place. He had saved 
 that peculiar people and race from extinction by 
 absorption. The Pharisees were born in this
 
 246 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 period, and as a result of the Divine movement. 
 The Pharisees were first of all men who set 
 themselves against anything in the nature of in- 
 termixture with the nations around. At last that 
 exclusiveness became a bondage and a curse, as 
 every good thing does if it is not allowed to 
 expand and to express itself in new forms. 
 Pharisaism was a true thing in its inception, 
 being an endeavour to keep the race distinct 
 until He should come through it, and of it, after 
 the flesh, who by His coming was able to pro- 
 ceed to the larger things of which these people 
 had been the foreshadowing. God had begun 
 to make it again another vessel. 
 
 If that be the permanent value, what is the 
 living message of the book? Its living message 
 concerning God is the permanent value. " He 
 made it again." That is the ultimate word in 
 sovereignty. It is so different from anything 
 men had ever dreamed or done. The ultimate 
 word of sovereignty as man has misunderstood 
 it, and misinterpreted it in his own government, 
 is that if you have had an opportunity and failed, 
 sovereignty smites and crushes you and flings 
 you out. The last word of God's sovereignty is, 
 " He made it again." That helps me. Th*
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 247 
 
 same truth is found in the story of Jonah, " The 
 word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second 
 time." The clay is in the hand of the Potter, 
 but the vessel is marred, the ideal is not realized, 
 the clay that might have been a shape of ex- 
 quisite beauty is crushed. God's sovereignty 
 says, I will begin again. If that be the ultimate 
 word of sovereignty, it reveals the fact that its 
 inspiration is His love, His compassion, His pity. 
 Of course, if a man will not have it so, his blood 
 is upon his own head. If a nation will not have 
 it so, then its dust and ashes are of its own crea- 
 tion. But the very inspiration of Divine sover- 
 eignty is expressed there, " He made it again." 
 
 Therefore, the sovereignty of God is the 
 strength of hope on the darkest day that ever 
 comes. " He made it again." How it helps me 
 about my own life. How it helps me about the 
 things of my service, which are so poor and so 
 broken. How it helps me when I see the cause 
 of the peoples I serve falling to pieces in dis- 
 aster, when I see the chosen instruments of Je- 
 hovah failing in the day of catastrophe. When I 
 feel that which is most hopeful is blighted by 
 frost, then there is an anthem in my heart, " He 
 made it again." Take God off His throne, and
 
 248 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 
 
 my song ceases, the blossom of my hope withers, 
 and my heart is broken. 
 
 The living message of the book, therefore, con- 
 sists in the appeal consequent upon the fact of 
 the Divine government and sovereignty, and is 
 expressed in the word of Haggai : " Be strong, 
 O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord ; and be strong, O 
 Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and 
 be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the 
 Lord, and work : for I am with you, saith the 
 Lord of hosts." That is the message. Be 
 strong, because I am with you, says Jehovah, I 
 am still on the throne. God is still able to gird 
 Cyrus. Change your names. God still holds 
 in His hand the German Emperor, the Russian 
 Emperor, King George the Fifth. Do not get 
 back into these old centuries and miss the living 
 message. Do not imagine that God manipu- 
 lated Cyrus, and leaves the kings of to-day 
 alone. They are all within the hand of God. 
 
 Because I am with you, " Be strong . . . 
 and work." That is the message. Take the 
 book of Haggai, which is so intimately related to 
 Ezra. How were these people to be strong, and 
 work? They were to have conviction of the 
 throne of God in place of carelessness ; consecra-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZRA 249 
 
 tion in place of despair ; courage in place of cow- 
 ardice ; confidence in God's ultimate, instead of 
 contempt for the poverty of the day in which 
 they lived and served. 
 
 " God's in His heaven, all's right with the 
 world " ; but I must be strong, and work. There 
 must be the song in my heart that tells, " He 
 will make it again " ; but there must be agony 
 in my heart, travail in my life, the cross in my 
 service, so that I may march right onward to 
 the goal.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 The Clay in its Attitude. 
 
 " My righteous One shall live by Faith." 
 
 I. The Attitude 
 
 i. Concern. Expressed in Enquiry and Sorrow. 
 
 (i. 2, 4). 
 ii. Confidence. Expressed in Prayer and Sorrow. 
 
 (i. 5 ii. 4, iv. 9). 
 iii. Cooperation. Expressed in Activity. 
 
 II. The Activity 
 
 i. Caution. His Secret Examination. 
 
 His Arrangements for Division of 
 
 Labour, 
 ii. Courage. The Single-handed Start. 
 
 The Invincible Determination. 
 Iii. No Compromise. 
 
 a. With those outside. 
 
 Contempt. 
 
 Conspiracy. 
 
 Cunning. 
 
 b. With those inside. 
 
 The Nobles. 
 Those Disloyal 
 
 III. The Achievement 
 i. The City. 
 
 a. Walls. 
 
 b. People. 
 ii. The Law. 
 
 a. Expounded. 
 
 b. Enforced. 
 in. The Purpose. 
 
 A Highway flung up. 
 
 I. The Darkness 
 
 The Prophecy of Malachi. 
 
 The indifferent Multi- 
 tudes. 
 
 The wide-spread Disloy- 
 alty to Truth. 
 
 The Lack of Enthusiasm 
 
 II. The Life of Faith 
 
 Is sure of God. 
 
 Acts with Him, and for 
 
 Him. 
 
 Declines all Compromise. 
 Trusts God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 THERE is a very special interest attach- 
 ing to this book, from the fact that it is 
 the last fragment of inspired Hebrew 
 history. Both in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in 
 all the earlier manuscripts of the Christian Scrip- 
 tures, Ezra and Nehemiah appear as one book. 
 Subsequently they appear as two, under the 
 titles, the first and second books of Ezra. The 
 name Nehemiah was first given to the second 
 part of this one book in the writings of Jerome. 
 In the Wycliffe translation they are called the 
 first and second books of Esdras. In the Miles 
 Coverdale translation they are entitled, the first 
 book of Esdras, and the second book of Esdras, 
 otherwise called Nehemias. In the Geneva 
 Bible, published in 1560, they first appeared, 
 named as we have them in our Bibles, the books 
 of Ezra and Nehemiah. One story is com- 
 menced in the book of Ezra, and completed ic 
 this book of Nehemiah. The period covered by 
 
 the two books was about one hundred and tec 
 
 251
 
 252 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 years. Under Zerubbabel and Ezra, inspired 
 and influenced by the prophesying of Haggai 
 and Zechariah, the temple was rebuilt. We 
 have the story of the beginning, the delay and 
 the resumption of the work, the whole period 
 covering about twenty-one years. Then an in- 
 terval of sixty years was followed by the ref- 
 ormation under Ezra. Another interval of 
 thirteen years, and then Nehemiah and Ezra to- 
 gether built the walls. Yet another interval of 
 twelve years followed, of which we have no de- 
 tails, and then Nehemiah instituted the final ref- 
 ormation. The book ends as incompletely and 
 as unsatisfactorily in some senses as does the 
 book of the Acts. That is not to say that the 
 book is incomplete and unsatisfactory, but just 
 when we would like to know a great deal more 
 it ceases. Enough, however, is chronicled for 
 the purpose for which the book was written. 
 
 Now let us look at the history as seen in the 
 light of the Divine economy. As history merely, 
 it is the history of a decadent people, the story of 
 a ruined economy. It is pitiful in the light of the 
 former things ; their making ; that triumphal 
 deliverance, by which they emerged from a 
 mob into an organized people ; the conquests
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 253 
 
 under Joshua ; and the kingdom under David. 
 All that is left is a poor remnant, paying tribute ; 
 rebuilding the temple, frightened in the midst of 
 t.he work, leaving it for long years, taking it up 
 again and bringing it to such completion that 
 the old men wept as they remembered the 
 former glory ; passing away into formalism and 
 backsliding, until a new reformation called them 
 to return. Then a long, long period of silence ; 
 presently Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the 
 wall, a wonderful piece of work ; then a relapse, 
 until we see a new reformation made necessary 
 by the fact that they are failing to support the 
 Levites, are neglecting the Sabbath, and are 
 not bringing tithes to the house of God. It 
 is a dark and sorry page of human history. 
 
 If, however, we look at this history as in the 
 light of the Divine economy, there are three 
 points of supreme interest. First, the People ; 
 secondly, the Purpose ; and, finally, the Potter. 
 
 Look first, then, at the people. In the book 
 of Nehemiah they are seen without any conscious 
 national influence ; and it is a very interesting 
 and almost startling fact that in the books of 
 Ezra and Nehemiah and Esther there is no ref- 
 erence at all to any Messianic hope. Through
 
 254 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 all the former books there have been references 
 Malachi prophesied a century later than Nehe- 
 miah, and in his message there is the clearest 
 Messianic reference ; but there is no fragment in 
 these books to show that these people had any 
 Messianic hope at all. Nehemiah has con- 
 solidated a remnant in a city with walls. Long 
 centuries before, a man living in a city was dis- 
 contented with it, having had a vision of the 
 City of God. He turned his back upon Ur of 
 the Chaldees, because it was a city of men, with 
 all the characteristics of cities which men build, 
 and set himself out upon a pilgrimage to find the 
 City of God. The centuries have run their 
 course, and, in the last piece of inspired history, 
 the people coming from his loins, having been 
 governed by God, guided by God, and guarded 
 by God, are seen in a city. Is that Abraham's 
 hope ? Is that the ultimate ? 
 
 When they began to rebuild the temple, in 
 order to inspire them, Haggai and Zechariah 
 prophesied, and one of the visions of the 
 prophecy of Zechariah had reference to a city. 
 A young man is seen going to measure the city 
 in ruins, and he is warned that he cannot 
 measure the ultimate city which will be without
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 255 
 
 walls, not needing material defense, too large 
 to be enclosed within walls. Now I see the 
 city with the walls completed, a great victory 
 for the time being, for the shutting out of 
 certain enemies, and the creation of a sense of 
 citizenship and nationality in the hearts of this 
 poor remnant of people. That is the last pic- 
 ture. Yet though Nehemiah has built walls to 
 exclude enemies, the worst enemies cannot be 
 excluded. They are still inside. Somewhere 
 between fifty and one hundred years later 
 Malachi came, and we read his prophecy to 
 know the things inside the walls, the evil, fail- 
 ure and disaster that Nehemiah could not ex- 
 clude. 
 
 Thus, with all the background in long per- 
 spective, of victory after victory, deliverance 
 after deliverance, glory after glory, we see this 
 city that Nehemiah flings the wall around. It 
 is so poor a city that one of his enemies laughed 
 at his walls, and said a fox could break through 
 them. 
 
 Now what does all this mean ? In the letter 
 to the Hebrews we find the answer. "That 
 which is becoming old and waxeth aged is 
 nigh unto vanishing away." The writer of the
 
 256 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 letter was quoting the prophecy of Jeremiah, 
 the predictions of which are so closely associated 
 with the period at which we are looking, al- 
 though he prophesied at least one hundred and 
 thirty years before Nehemiah. Jeremiah had 
 declared that in seventy years there should be 
 restoration. At the end of the seventy years, 
 Zerubbabel and Joshua led back the remnant. 
 In the midst of the prophecy of Jeremiah there 
 are grouped the prophecies of hope, in which 
 he declared that at last there should be a new 
 covenant, not external, but internal, written upon 
 the heart. The writer of the letter quoted that 
 prophecy, and then proceeded to show why 
 there was need for a new covenant, " That which 
 is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto 
 vanishing away." That is the picture that the 
 book of Nehemiah gives of the people in the 
 economy of God. 
 
 Now let us turn to the purpose of God in 
 this period of Nehemiah. The central section 
 of the book tells the story of the reading of the 
 law. Following the reading of the law, the 
 great prayer of the Levites. Following the 
 prayer of the Levites, the covenant made with 
 the remnant. Malachi, from fifty to a hundred
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 257 
 
 years afterwards, uttered the last injunction to 
 these people, before the coming of John the 
 Baptist and Christ: "Remember ye the law of 
 Moses My servant, which I commanded unto 
 him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and 
 judgments." The last injunction of the last 
 prophet spoken to these people, spoken to the 
 very conditions described in the book of Nehe- 
 miah, was : " Remember ye the law." Once 
 again I turn to my New Testament, and, in 
 Paul's Galatian letter, read : " Before faith came, 
 we were kept in ward under the law, shut up 
 unto the faith which should afterwards be re- 
 vealed. So that the law hath been our tutor to 
 bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified 
 by faith." That is the key to the history which 
 begins with the reading of the law under Nehe- 
 miah. That is what the law was doing in 
 Nehemiah's day, and continued to do for four 
 hundred years. " The law hath been our tutor." 
 Tutor is a better word than schoolmaster, but 
 it is faulty. We have taken the Greek word 
 and Anglicized it, and we speak of a pedagogue 
 and pedagogy ; but the pedagogue was not the 
 teacher in Greece, and the law was not a teacher 
 in Judaism. The pedagogue was the man who
 
 258 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 saw to it that the boy went to school, not the 
 man who taught him. Paul used the word 
 correctly. He says we were kept in ward by 
 the law. He does not say the law is our school- 
 master or tutor, but the law is our jailer. So 
 that we might read "the law hath been our 
 policeman to bring us unto Christ." Policeman 
 may not be a perfect translation, but it is far 
 nearer the thought than either tutor or school- 
 master. 
 
 Now, mark what was happening in the city 
 under Nehemiah. The civil reformation as a 
 secondary thing to that wonderful reading of 
 the law. These people had utterly failed, in 
 spite of priest and prophet. The law was left, 
 and that law was enunciated among the broken 
 remnant, and became their custodian. It held 
 them in ward, kept them all the prisoners of 
 God through four hundred years, notwithstand- 
 ing their frivolity and triviality. When Christ 
 came there were no priests worthy the name ; 
 no king, save one who paid tribute, and was 
 himself corrupt ; no prophet, save His own im- 
 mediate herald ; but the law was there. The 
 Divine purpose, as seen in Nehemiah, was that 
 of putting the people under law, locking them
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 259 
 
 up, until the faith should come. That is the 
 Divine movement which is manifest in this 
 book. 
 
 The last matter is that of the Potter Himself 
 God still at work putting His hand upon His 
 people, making them again in spite of them- 
 selves. I need not enlarge upon that. I should 
 feel that we had disastrously failed in our at- 
 tempt to glean the messages of these books if 
 that truth of the overruling, reigning God had 
 not been clearly seen. What I do ask you to 
 notice is the instrument of the Potter. Nehemiah 
 was not a king, was not a priest, was not a 
 prophet. The three great orders through which 
 God had reigned and ruled are absent. They 
 have all failed. I think it is quite likely that 
 Nehemiah was of the royal line of David, but he 
 was neither king nor prince. He was a cup- 
 bearer at the court of an alien. He did not 
 reign over these people as king. He was not a 
 priest offering sacrifices. He was not a prophet, 
 so far as the Hebrew people were concerned. 
 He was a citizen, one of themselves, and withal 
 one into whose blood the iron of the captivity 
 had entered, one into whose heart the sorrows of 
 bis people's failures had come. The king had
 
 26o THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 failed and was set aside. The prophet I will not 
 say had failed as the king had failed, for he had 
 delivered his message, but it had not been per- 
 suasive. The priest was corrupt, though still in 
 the midst. Then God took a common man, and 
 made him neither king, nor priest, nor prophet, 
 but a plain, blunt man, who went right on and 
 flung up a wall in seven weeks, and made a 
 chance for the law to be read and expounded. 
 
 It is evident that the supreme interest centres 
 in Nehemiah. The nation had failed ; prophet, 
 priest and king had failed ; but here was a man, 
 and this man embodied the supreme principle. 
 
 The permanent value of the book is its illus- 
 tration of the truth, " My righteous one shall 
 live by faith." That is to return to the book of 
 Joshua, the first in the present series. Joshua 
 was neither king nor prophet nor priest, and 
 the lesson of his history is, " My righteous one 
 shall live by faith." The last fragment of the 
 historic portion of the Hebrew Bible has that as 
 its supreme message also, through Nehemiah. 
 but the circumstances are different. They may 
 be described by a quotation from Isaiah : " Who 
 is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth 
 the voice of His servant? He that walketh in
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 261 
 
 darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the 
 name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." 
 
 Nehemiah is a most radiant revelation of the 
 fulfillment of that charge. Nehemiah feared the 
 Lord, obeyed the voice of His servant, walked 
 in circumstances of darkness where there was no 
 light, yet trusted in the name of Jehovah, and 
 stayed upon his God. That is to say, " My 
 righteous one shall live by faith." In one man 
 the great principle is revealed. Notice, then, 
 in the midst of circumstances of darkness the 
 attitude of faith, the activity of faith, and the 
 achievement of faith. 
 
 The attitude of faith was that of perfect confi- 
 dence in God. From first to last Nehemiah's 
 faith in God never wavered. It was, moreover, 
 that of concern about the purpose of God. Hear 
 these brief words, " I asked . . . concerning 
 the Jews and Jerusalem." Hear these briefer 
 words, " I sat down and wept." Finally, it was 
 that of cooperation with God. That is clearly 
 revealed in our next consideration. 
 
 The activity of faith as illustrated in the case 
 of Nehemiah was, first, that of extreme caution. 
 He went up alone. He did not tell any one 
 what he was doing, but went silently round to
 
 262 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 see where the wall needed the most attention, 
 and in order to obtain at first hand all the facts 
 of the case. Then when he did declare himself 
 and began his building, with fine discriminative 
 caution, he divided the work among the people, 
 so that every man built over against his own 
 house. After caution, courage. A single-handed 
 start to build a ruined wall and restore a lost 
 order, and invincible determination. The book 
 thrills and throbs and pulsates with the tre- 
 mendous force of this man's will. Caution and 
 courage. The two things we revealed together in 
 one brief statement. Caution, " I consulted with 
 myself." Courage, " I contended with the nobles." 
 In the activity of faith as here illustrated there 
 was not only caution and courage, but no com- 
 promise. No compromise with the foes with- 
 out. The story of the opposition against Nehe- 
 miah from without can be told in three words : 
 Contempt, Conspiracy, Cunning. They spoke 
 of his work with contempt. He declared, in re- 
 ply, that the work would be done, but they would 
 not be allowed to help. Then they tried to 
 hinder him by conspiracy, but he proved himself 
 to be a man of keen eyes I Finally, they tried 
 to catch him with cunning, and he replied with
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 263 
 
 fine satire, I am doing a great work. Why 
 should I come down to you ? No compromise 
 with foes within. He found foes within, for the 
 nobles were exacting usury from the poorer 
 people. It was then he said, " I consulted with 
 myself," and " I contended with the nobles." 
 There came an hour when a priest allowed the 
 enemy lodging room in the temple, and Nehe- 
 miah flung his furniture out, and he " contended 
 with them, and cursed them, and plucked off 
 their hair." No compromise. That is the final 
 fact in faith's activity. 
 
 And once more, a glance at faith's achieve- 
 ment. The wall was built in seven weeks. He 
 gathered his people, and if some of them were 
 loath to go up to Jerusalem because of the diffi- 
 culty he compelled them ; others he scattered 
 through the towns and villages. Then followed 
 the greatest achievement, the exposition of the 
 law. 
 
 In the last analysis, Nehemiah's achievement 
 was that he flung up a highway for God, pro- 
 vided Him with vantage ground on which to 
 stand and wait, until, to quote Paul's great word, 
 " the faith," should come. It is a fine ending to 
 inspired history.
 
 264 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 
 
 If that be the permanent value, the living mes- 
 sage is stated in two quotations I have already 
 made : " My righteous one shall live by faith," 
 and " Who is among you that feareth the Lord, 
 that obeyeth the voice of His servant? He that 
 walketh in darkness, and hath no light, let him 
 trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his 
 God." The book of Nehemiah brings this mes- 
 sage to every period of darkness. I will not stay 
 to apply it to personal life, but to larger life. Is 
 this an hour of dark outlook ? I am afraid in all 
 honesty I must say to you that it does so seem 
 to me. I could certainly, so far as I am con- 
 cerned, take the prophecy of Malachi, and preach 
 it as it stands to this day and generation. I 
 think there is a wonderful and almost tragic sim- 
 ilarity between the last condition of the Hebrew 
 people and the hour in which we live. All about 
 us are indifferent multitudes. Far more wide- 
 spread than some of us think, is incipient, and 
 sometimes open disloyalty to the Truth of God. 
 On the other hand, there is a lack of enthusiasm 
 about the things of Christ languishing foreign 
 Missionary Societies. It is not my ordinary cus- 
 tom to speak thus of the age. I do it now to re- 
 veal why I do not very often do it. The true at-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NEHEMIAH 265 
 
 titude of faith, in any hour of darkness, hour of 
 peril, such as I believe we are in at the present 
 moment, is, first, that it is sure of God. It has 
 no hopeless dirge to chant upon the sunless air. 
 In the second place, faith acts with God, and for 
 God, in strenuous endeavour. The man who 
 nurses his orthodoxy, and does nothing for God, 
 is a liar and a hypocrite. If you believe in evan- 
 gelical faith, you are out upon the evangelistic 
 path ; whether it be at home or abroad mat- 
 ters nothing. The man who is evangelical 
 believes in the doctrines of sin and grace, be- 
 lieves that men will be lost, and lost irrevocably 
 unless saved through the Cross. If we believe 
 these things we must put blood and sweat into 
 the business of saving men. Faith is first sure 
 of God. It then acts with God and for God. 
 Finally, it declines all compromise with foes out- 
 side or inside. Faith trusts God as Nehemiah 
 did, does its own day's work, and leaves all the 
 future to Him. In the presence of this study, I 
 have only one thing to say : " Lord, I believe, 
 help Thou mine unbelief."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 God acting in Providence. 
 
 L The Method 
 
 L Hidden but Active. 
 
 a. Ruling to Issues, (x. 3.) 
 
 b. Using the Trivialities. 
 
 I i. Before the Peril. 
 \ 2. In the midst of the Peril, 
 ii. Inclusive. An all- pervading Atmosphere. 
 
 a. The Individuals. 
 
 b. The Events. 
 
 II. The Principles 
 i. Perfect Knowledge, 
 ii. Undeviating Righteousness, 
 iii. Absolute Power. 
 
 III. The Issues 
 
 i. To those recognizing. Confidence and Courage. 
 ii. To those in Rebellion. Panic and Punishment. 
 iii. Historic. Progress. 
 
 1. The Truth 
 
 i. God is. 
 
 ii. God acts in Providence, 
 iii. God is touching Life at 
 every Point. 
 
 II. The Application 
 
 i. Reckon with Him. 
 ii. Trust Him. 
 iii. Act with Him.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 THE events recorded in the book of 
 Esther took place in the sixty years be- 
 tween the work of Zerubbabel and that 
 of Ezra, of which we have no account save that 
 thus supplied. We can only speculate as to the 
 condition of affairs in Jerusalem. The reforma- 
 tion under Ezra, particulars of which are given 
 in the second part of the book bearing his name, 
 show how far the people had wandered from al- 
 legiance to Jehovah in that period. During 
 those years there was no king, and no prophet 
 
 The story told in Esther, however, has nothing 
 to do with Jerusalem, or with those who had re- 
 turned there under Zerubbabel and Joshua, but 
 with those who had refused to return. The 
 name Mordecai occurs in the lists given in the 
 book of Ezra, but it is not possible that this 
 should be the man bearing that name whose 
 story is told in the present book 
 
 Among the great visions of Zechariah, the 
 
 first was that of the myrtle trees in the shady 
 
 267
 
 268 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 place. It symbolized the condition into which 
 the chosen people were about to come. Israel in 
 the period of her degeneracy was foreshadowed 
 in that first vision of Zechariah. Believing that 
 Israel is still there, I nevertheless quite clearly 
 see that the description was partially fulfilled in 
 that period of sixty years. The symbolism of 
 the myrtle tree in Scripture is a very interesting 
 one. Isaiah was the first one who made use of 
 it The probability is that the tree had never 
 been grown in Palestine until it was brought 
 from Babylon. Then Isaiah seized upon it as 
 symbolic of the nation. No longer the tall 
 cedar, but the myrtle, with its beautiful star-like 
 flower. It is an interesting thing, though I do 
 not desire to base anything like a dogmatic inter- 
 pretation upon it, that Esther's original name 
 was Hadassah, which means myrtle, while Esther 
 is a Persian name which means " star," suggest- 
 ive of the form of flower that the myrtle tree 
 bears. The beautiful daughter of the Hebrew 
 race at the court of a Persian king, born in cap- 
 tivity, was called Myrtle. In all likelihood her 
 father named her Hadassah, because the myrtle 
 tree had become the sign and symbol of the race. 
 The Persians called her Star, to indicate that she
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 269 
 
 was the flower of the myrtle tree, full of beauty, 
 full of grace. 
 
 There are peculiarities in this story which have 
 raised doubts as to whether it ought to have any 
 place in the canon of Scripture. The name of 
 God is never mentioned. There is found no ref- 
 erence to the Hebrew religion. The temple 
 never appears. No ceremonial of the Hebrew 
 worship is referred to. No requirement of the 
 law is named from beginning to end. There is 
 one reference to Jerusalem in the second chapter 
 and sixth verse. That merely accounts for 
 Mordecai, and shows whence these people had 
 come. There is one reference to a fast, and one 
 to a feast, showing that the religious habit of the 
 Hebrews obtained among the Jews, but nothing 
 else from beginning to end. Perhaps the book 
 is a fragment of profane history captured for 
 sacred purposes ; perchance copied bodily from 
 Persian history and incorporated in the ancient 
 Hebrew Scriptures. While there is no name of 
 God, and no reference to the Hebrew religion 
 anywhere, no one reads this book without being 
 conscious of God. Its permanent value is that it 
 is a revelation of God acting in providence. 
 
 Now providence is a sadly abused word.
 
 270 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 Christian people talk about providence, and 
 special providences, in a way that reveals lamen- 
 table ignorance. The root meaning of provi- 
 dence is foresight ; and the acquired meaning is 
 activity resulting from foresight. In Hamlet, 
 when the King is discussing the madness of 
 Hamlet, he says, 
 
 " Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered ? 
 It will be laid to us, whose providence 
 Should have kept short, restrained, and out of haunt, 
 This mad young man." 
 
 There the meaning of the word is revealed, 
 "whose providence," that is our foresight, and 
 the activity resulting from foresight, ought to 
 have restrained this mad young man. If provi- 
 dence radically means foresight, and by usage 
 the activity resulting from foresight, it is evident 
 that providence can never perfectly be postulated 
 of man, but only of God. Man has no foresight 
 No man knows what a day will bring forth. 
 God alone foresees, and He alone is able to act 
 upon the basis of foreknowledge. In the intro- 
 ductory section of " Paradise Lost," when Milton 
 is writing the great argument, and is attempting 
 to prepare his own soul for the tremendous task 
 he has set himself, he says :
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 271 
 
 " What in me is dark 
 Illumine, what is low raise and support, 
 That to the height of this great argument 
 I may assert eternal providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to men." 
 
 That is a profound use of the word providence. 
 The doctrine of Divine providence is that God 
 both possesses and exercises absolute power over 
 all the works of His hands. If I want the supreme 
 Bible passage on providence, I find it in the 
 eleventh Psalm. The advice given to David was, 
 Flee, man, flee as a bird to the mountains, the 
 wicked are bending their bow, men are against 
 thee, the foundations are destroyed, and when 
 the foundations are destroyed, what can the 
 righteous man do? To which he replied, Why 
 do you tell me to flee ? The foundations are not 
 destroyed. The Lord is in His temple, His eyes 
 behold, His eyelids try the children of men. He 
 will try the righteous and He will rain brimstone 
 upon the wicked. In effect he said, The things 
 you call foundations are scaffolding. The foun- 
 dation has never been moved. I am not going 
 to run away. I believe in the Divine providence. 
 Esther is the book of pictures, and the teach- 
 ing of pictures is that of the Divine providence.
 
 272 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 God amid the shadows, but at work. God hid- 
 den, unrecognized by the vast majority, un- 
 detected, but at work. The book then reveals 
 the method of Divine providence, the principles 
 of Divine providence, and some of the issues of 
 Divine providence. 
 
 The book reveals first, the method of provi- 
 dence. It shows that God hidden is still active, 
 and that His activity is always the ruling event 
 towards an issue. At the end of the book 
 of Esther, these words are written, " Mordecai, 
 the Jew, was next unto the King Ahasuerus, 
 and great among the Jews, and accepted of the 
 multitude of his brethren ; seeking the good of 
 his people, and speaking peace to all his seed." 
 That is not the final issue, but the issue so far as 
 these pictures are concerned. Notice carefully 
 the contrast of that condition of affairs, with the 
 condition obtaining when the book opens. Then 
 the head man at the court of Ahasuerus was 
 Haman, and in the heart of Haman there was 
 enmity against Mordecai, and against the Jews ; 
 so that the whole of these people were in peril. 
 At the end of the book, the man in authority is 
 Mordecai, and he is seeking the good of his peo- 
 ple, and speaking peace to his seed. Between
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 273 
 
 the opening peril, incipient if not manifest, and 
 the closing safety, clearly manifest, you have all 
 the story of the book, and it is the story of " God 
 within the shadow keeping watch above His 
 own " ; preventing and providing ; taking care of 
 His people ; watching over them ; moving quietly 
 and surely on, until the peril is past and the peo- 
 ple are brought to the place of safety and peace. 
 Now notice the method of His activity while 
 hidden. He is seen using trivialities. Before 
 the peril becomes imminent, while it is still in- 
 cipient in the heart of Haman, the king's ca- 
 rousal issues in the removal of Vashti, and the 
 introduction of Esther. Here we need to make 
 a careful discrimination. God did not make 
 Ahasuerus drunk, and God did not put into his 
 heart the unholy desire that Vashti should be 
 presented to his drunken lords ; but God is in 
 the shadow while Ahasuerus and his crowd of 
 lords indulge in their carousal, while Vashti de- 
 clines to yield to the whim of the king ; and He 
 uses Esther for the deliverance. A little while 
 later, the peril is not merely incipient, it is im- 
 minent. Then the sleepless king is God's 
 method. The king could not sleep, and when 
 he could not sleep, he commanded that the rec-
 
 274 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 ords should be brought and read to him, and 
 when they were read in the loneliness of the 
 night, an entry was found of a service which one 
 Mordecai had rendered, which the king had for- 
 gotten, and he asked about him, and took 
 counsel with Haman as to what should be done 
 to any man whom the king delighted to honour. 
 Almost immediately Mordecai, who had been in 
 a place of peril, was raised to a place of power, 
 infidelity will say it happened that the king 
 could not sleep, and it happened that he had the 
 records read to him, and it happened that Mor- 
 decai's name was discovered in the reading. 
 Far simpler is the explanation, "Standeth God 
 within the shadow, keeping watch above His 
 own." There was a day when the Hebrew 
 Psalmist said, "Thou holdest mine eyes waking." 
 He charged his sleeplessness upon God, and per- 
 haps he was right. What is certain is that 
 through the sleeplessness of the king God 
 moved for the safety of His people. 
 
 Once again the method of the Divine provi- 
 dence is all-inclusive. God is an all-pervading 
 atmosphere. There is no individual presented 
 but that lives, moves, and has being in God 
 Ahasuerus, Vashti, Mordecai, Esther, and Ha-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 275 
 
 man are all in this atmosphere. The Divine 
 presence enwrapping all their being, they are 
 compelled to work out into manifestation the 
 deep facts of their inward life ; and all the while 
 they are compelled as they work these things 
 out into manifestation to cooperate in the Divine 
 purpose and Divine intention, as it works care- 
 fully for the preservation of His people, and 
 quietly forward to yet larger issues. Not indi- 
 viduals only are in this all-pervading atmos- 
 phere, but events also ; royal carousals and ban- 
 quets, royal proclamations ; the small family 
 interests in the life of Mordecai and Esther ; per- 
 sonal ambitions, such as that of Haman ; all 
 these things are seen in this Divine atmosphere, 
 in one case scorching, blasting, destruction ; and 
 in another healing, helping, deliverance. The 
 principles, as well as the method of the Divine 
 providence, are clearly revealed. God proceeds 
 upon the basis of perfect knowledge. " His eyes 
 behold. . . . His eyelids try." The Hebrew 
 Psalms are pictorial. God is spoken of under 
 the figure of a man, " His eyes behold." That 
 is the idea of intense looking. " His eyelids try." 
 That is the idea of close scrutiny and penetra- 
 tion, determination to see everything. That is
 
 276 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 the first principle of providence. It is based 
 upon intimate, accurate, absolute knowledge. 
 
 The second principle is that of the undevi- 
 ating righteousness of God. First, loyalty to 
 man's free will. One of the supreme values of 
 this book is that the name of God is left out of 
 it, although He is close at hand. Ahasuerus 
 sent out his invitations and entertained the aris- 
 tocracy of the nation for one hundred and eighty 
 days, and the democracy for seven days, which 
 is about the usual proportion. He did just as 
 he liked about it. He was not compelled to do 
 this, that, or the other. Haman entered into all 
 his own intrigues, made his own arrangements, 
 built his own gallows. No one compelled Ha- 
 man to build the gallows ; he wrought out of his 
 own free will. Mordecai did his own piece of 
 political manceuvering when he placed Esther in 
 the Court. They all went their own way, and 
 had their own will. They were left absolutely to 
 work out their own purposes. Yet, while they 
 were absolutely free to work out their own will, 
 the sphere of the operations of will is God, and 
 they could not escape Him. Ahasuerus got 
 drunk amid his lords, and followed out his 
 drunken mania to its issue, and then at the right
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 277 
 
 moment the great hand of God interfered. Ha- 
 man built his gallows, but at last God hung him 
 on it. In this tremendous revelation of provi- 
 dence I see the undeviating righteousness of 
 God in His loyalty to man's free will, and this 
 issues in poetic justice. All the way through 
 the punishment fits the crime. 
 
 Another principle of providence revealed is 
 that of the absolute power of God. Mark the 
 marvel of these revelations of the fact that 
 human freedom is made contributory to Divine 
 purpose. That is a matter we can never under- 
 stand entirely. Whenever we try to compress 
 the God of the Bible into a philosophy we break 
 down at that point. Nevertheless, it is actually, 
 simply, and entirely true to human experience. 
 It is seen not only in the book of Esther. It is 
 equally evident in our own lives. We look 
 back. We have wrought out our own will, yet 
 in the larger outlook we have wrought out in 
 perfect freedom of activity the purpose of God. 
 There is no possibility of escape. 
 
 Finally, look at the issues of providence. 
 To those recognizing this providence, this over- 
 ruling activity of God, there come a great con- 
 fidence and a great courage. To those in
 
 278 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 rebellion against it, who do not recognize it 
 and who deny it, there are panic and punish- 
 ment 
 
 The historic issue of providence is the prog- 
 ress of God towards the ultimate goal. Of this 
 the book of Esther is but one illustration in the 
 midst of others. All the way through the Bible 
 we see the same mighty, sure, onward move- 
 ment. 
 
 If this book of Esther illustrates I have 
 tried to use that word carefully, I do not say 
 it declares it as a theory but it illustrates the 
 providence of God, what is its living message ? 
 First, it is the illustration of a truth, demanding 
 an application. The truth is that of the exist- 
 ence of God. There are many arguments for 
 the existence of God, but the argument of 
 providence is not the least weighty. I know 
 it is the fashion to-day in theological circles, and 
 in Christian evidence work, to say that the 
 argument from design is played out. It has 
 never been answered, and when lifted on to its 
 highest level, and the evidence of human history, 
 mental, moral, and spiritual, is taken, one of the 
 supremest arguments for God is the marvellous 
 harmony of human events. Things that seem
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 279 
 
 to be far apart and even contradictory as we 
 watch them, are yet seen to contribute to the 
 same onward movement, to the reaching of the 
 same great goal. I say that the supreme mes- 
 sage of this book is that God is, and that God 
 acts. I have more than once quoted a couplet 
 from James Russell Lowell. Let me now quote 
 two verses out of the poem in the midst of which 
 the couplet occurs : 
 
 " Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but 
 
 record 
 One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems 
 
 and the word ; 
 Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the 
 
 throne 
 Yet that scaffold sways the future and, behind the dim 
 
 unknown, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above 
 
 His own. 
 
 ' We see dimly in the present what is small and what is 
 
 great, 
 Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm 
 
 of fate, 
 
 But the soul is still oracular ; amid the market's din, 
 List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave 
 
 within 
 
 1 They enslave their children's children who make com- 
 promise with sin.' "
 
 280 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 That final word of these two verses is based 
 upon Lowell's tremendous conviction that God 
 stands " within the shadow, keeping watch 
 above His own." He stands there to-day just 
 as much as He did in the olden days. The 
 Court of Ahasuerus characterized by ostentation 
 and voluptuousness was in the atmosphere of 
 God. So is every Court in Europe and the 
 world to-day. While men drink and forget 
 Him, like an all-pervasive atmosphere He is 
 moulding, governing ; burning or healing ; sav- 
 ing or damning ; according to what man is, in 
 his attitude towards Him. "Who among us 
 can dwell amid the everlasting burnings ? " was 
 the great question of Isaiah, and it was a recog- 
 nition of the fiery presence of God from which 
 men cannot escape, and of the activity of God 
 in every human life. Let us make this personal, 
 pertinent, immediate no man escapes God for 
 half an hour. We can change our destiny, but 
 we cannot escape God. We may make God a 
 blasting force, or a healing one, according to 
 our attitude towards Him. That is providence. 
 Providence is not a sweet sensational method, 
 by which God juggles to take care of a few 
 eccentric people. That is what I meant at the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 281 
 
 beginning by saying that providence is God's 
 foresight and God's activity based upon His 
 foresight. We are all hemmed in by it " In 
 whom we live and move and have our being." 
 That is providence. " The God in whose hand 
 thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast 
 thou not glorified." That is providence. I 
 cannot escape His influence. He is touching 
 my life at every point. 
 
 The application of a story like this is not 
 declared in its words, not even enunciated, but 
 it glows in letters of flaming fire upon all the 
 pages of the book. Reckon with God. Trust 
 in God. Cooperate with God. 
 
 Reckon with God. I put it so. You re- 
 member the Authorized Version read as a man 
 "thinketh within himself, so is he." The Re- 
 vised Version renders, as a man "reckoneth 
 within himself, so is he." At first it seems a 
 little disappointing, but weigh it out and think 
 out the enormous force of it, as a man " reckon- 
 eth within himself, so is he." Reckon with 
 God ; take Him into account, is the message 
 of the book of Esther to the court of the king, 
 to the palaces of the nobles, to the assemblies 
 <*i the people, to the rulers, to the nation. That
 
 282 THE MESSAGE OF ESTHER 
 
 is the message of Esther to every man and 
 woman. Reckon with God, for He stands 
 within the shadow and no man can miss His 
 fire or escape His hand. When you have de- 
 cided to reckon with Him, know this, that as 
 Cowper declared : 
 
 " Behind a frowning providence 
 He hides a smiling face." 
 
 At the back of all is the infinite love. 
 
 Then trust Him, and trusting Him act with 
 Him, and so demonstrate at last the truth of 
 the supremest word about providence in the 
 New Testament, " To them that love God all 
 things work together for good."
 
 OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 BOOK TWO 
 CONTENTS 
 
 THE MESSAGE OP- 
 JOB 9 
 
 PSALTER ...... 27 
 
 PROVERBS ...... 41 
 
 ECCLESIASTES 57 
 
 SONG OF SONGS .... 73 
 
 ISAIAH 89 
 
 JEREMIAH 109 
 
 EZEKIEL ..*... 127 
 DANIEL . . . .145
 
 6 CONTENTS 
 
 THE MESSAGE OF 
 
 HOSEA .165 
 
 JOEL 181 
 
 AMOS ....... 197 
 
 OBADIAH . . ; . . .213 
 
 JONAH 227 
 
 MICAH 243 
 
 NAHUM ; 257 
 
 HABAKKUK 273 
 
 ZEPHANIAH ....... 289 
 
 HAGGAI 303 
 
 ZECHARIAH 317 
 
 MALACHI . . . . .335
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 A. Revelation of Experience in fallen Human Nature. 
 L The Central Figure, Job 
 
 1L The Central Pact, Job Stripped 
 
 L Of Wealth. 
 ii. Of Children, 
 iii. Of Health, 
 iv. Of the Partner of his Love in Faith. 
 
 v. Of his Friends. 
 
 vi. Of the Sense of the Greatness of Personality, 
 vii. Of the Sense of Relation to Deity, 
 riii. Of the Sense of the Government of God over 
 Good and Evil. 
 
 III. The Central Value, Job's Consciousness 
 i. The Need. ix. 2, 3, 32, 33. 
 ii. The Enquiry, xiv. 14, 15. 
 iii. The Cry. xvi. 19-21. 
 iv. The Confidence, xix. 25-273.. 
 T. The Quest, xxiii. 3-9. 
 vi. The Challenge, xxxi. 35-37. 
 vii. The Awakening, xl. 4, 5. 
 viii. The Attitude, xlii. 1-6. 
 
 I. Fallen Humanity's Need 
 
 i. Intermediation, 
 ii. Light on Immortality, 
 iii. An Advocate in God. 
 iv. A Vindicator. 
 v. A Judge, 
 vi. An Indictment, 
 vii. A true Sense of Self, 
 viii. A Vision producing Re- 
 pentance. 
 
 II. The Answers of Jesus 
 f Meets the Need. 
 
 He-J Answers the Enquirer. 
 I Fulfills the Meaning.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 IN order to make a discovery of the perma- 
 nent value and the living message of the 
 book of Job, it is preeminently necessary 
 that we should breathe its atmosphere, the quali- 
 ties of which may perhaps be expressed by three 
 words sin, sorrow, silence. 
 
 It is not a book of solutions; it is rather a 
 revelation of human experience. The central 
 figure is Job. The central fact of the history is 
 that of his being deprived of everything. The 
 central value is the revelation of his experiences 
 resulting from the process. 
 
 Job is not an ideal man. He is real. The cir- 
 cumstances in the midst of which we find him are 
 not perfect circumstances. They are the ordinary 
 circumstances of human life, those of sin, of sor- 
 row, and of silence. The experiences, then, are 
 those of a real man, in such circumstances as 
 we are all familiar with in greater or less degree. 
 
 In our attempt to discover the living message 
 of the book we shall first observe the process of 
 
 9
 
 io THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 the stripping of this man to the nakedness of his 
 spiritual being. Secondly, we shall examine the 
 central words that he uttered as expressive of 
 his experiences. Finally we shall show that the 
 only answers to Job are given by Jesus. 
 
 First, then, let us recall the process of the strip- 
 ping of this man to the nakedness of his spiritual 
 being. Gradually he was divested of all the 
 things that clothe the spirit of a man ; or to 
 change the figure, all the things upon which a 
 man leans for help and strength were removed, 
 until we have the tremendous and awful spec- 
 tacle of a soul naked and alone in the universe 
 of God. First he lost his wealth. In a few brief 
 hours, or days at the most, he passed from wealth 
 to poverty, from plenty to penury. All the mate- 
 rial things upon which he had leaned were swept 
 away. The second stage in the stripping was 
 that of the loss of his children. Then he lost his 
 health. After that he lost the partnership of 
 love in the exercise of faith. Out of love for 
 him, and in order to make a way of escape out 
 of the tragedy of his pain, his wife said, " Re- 
 nounce God and die." There had existed the 
 partnership of faith between husband and wife, 
 but that ended, and Job was left to an awful
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB u 
 
 loneliness. The next event in the stripping was 
 that of the loss of his friends. His acquaintances 
 had already departed with the loss of his prop- 
 erty. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar proved the 
 sincerity of their friendship first, by the fact that 
 they came to see him in his sorrow ; secondly, 
 by the fact that they remained in silent sym- 
 pathy with him for seven days ; and thirdly, be- 
 cause when they spoke, they said everything 
 directly to him. He lost the comfort of their 
 friendship, however, because they misunderstood 
 him, and imputed to him sins of which he would 
 not confess himself guilty. 
 
 But we must look a little more closely for the 
 discovery of the last movements in the process 
 of stripping. At the end of the first and second 
 stages, when he had lost his wealth and his 
 children, he said, " Naked came I out of my 
 mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." 
 Notice very carefully the majesty of that declar- 
 ation. Even though he had lost wealth, ac- 
 quaintances, and children, he had not yet lost 
 the sense of the dignity and greatness of his 
 own personality. He still recognized that he 
 was more than all he possessed. When his 
 friends arrived, he poured out in their listening
 
 12 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 ears all the lamentation of his soul. As I read 
 that lamentation I find that this sense of the 
 greatness of personality was weakened by the 
 overwhelming agony of the suffering through 
 which he had passed. It is evident that he was 
 beginning to doubt the dignity of his own being, 
 and when a little later we come to his reply to 
 the first address of Eliphaz, not only is that sense 
 of the greatness of personality weakened, it is 
 lost. He cursed the day he was born, and cried 
 out for the darkness and desolation of the grave, 
 preferring death to life, wishing that he could 
 cease to be. 
 
 The stripping was not yet over. Bereft of his 
 children he had said, " The Lord gave, and the 
 Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of 
 the Lord." That was a declaration resulting 
 from a sense of his relationship to Deity. In 
 his lamentation that also was weakened, and by 
 the time we come to his answer to Eliphaz, he 
 cried out to God, " Why hast Thou set me as a 
 mark for Thee ? " He had lost his sense of re- 
 lationship to Deity as a gracious relationship. 
 
 Yet one step further. After the loss of health, 
 and the partnership of love in faith, he said, 
 " Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 13 
 
 shall we not receive evil?" In that question 
 there is manifest a conviction of the government 
 of God over good and evil. When we come to 
 his answer to Eliphaz, all the questions he asked 
 show that he doubted, if not the fact of God's 
 government, certainly the justice of it He had 
 lost his final anchorage. 
 
 Thus we see him, stripped of wealth ; ac- 
 quaintances ; children ; health ; the partnership 
 of love in faith ; friends ; his sense of the great- 
 ness of his own personality ; his sense of intimate 
 relationship to God ; and his sense of the gov- 
 ernment of God over good and evil. All the 
 things that men lean upon are gone. We now 
 stand watching the naked spirit of the man. 
 What was left to him ? God was left, and Job 
 never denied Him. Self was left, and he could 
 not escape. Between God and himself there 
 seemed to be no place of meeting, no reconcili- 
 ation. God and self were absolute certainties, 
 but he was in circumstances so full of agony, 
 that there seemed to be no place of rest, and no 
 possibility of relief. 
 
 In the course of his controversy with his 
 friends, he occasionally uttered cries out of the 
 vrv depths of his experience. Intensely inter-
 
 I 4 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 esting are his answers to his friends, full of satire 
 and thunder and tremendous invective poured 
 upon the men who were misinterpreting him. 
 Notwithstanding this the speeches of Job are 
 finally not so much an answer to these men, as 
 the wail of his own soul ; and the deepest things 
 of all were spoken to the God he could not find, 
 of the self that he could not understand, out of 
 the midst of anguish and conflict which had no 
 explanation. Let us attempt to gather up these 
 profoundest utterances. 
 
 I find the first in the ninth chapter. The 
 words were spoken in the course of an answer to 
 Bildad. 
 
 " How can man be just with God ? 
 If He be pleased to contend with him, 
 He cannot answer Him one of a thousand . . 
 For He is not a man, as I am, that I should 
 
 answer Him, 
 
 That we should come together in judgment. 
 There is no daysman betwixt us, 
 That might lay his hand upon us both." 
 
 That is not an answer to Eliphaz, Bildad, or 
 Zophar. It is the cry of a smitten soul. " How 
 can man be just with God?" does not mean, 
 How can a man be justified by God ? but rather, 
 How can a man argue his case with God, how
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 15 
 
 can a man contend with God? There is still 
 manifest his conviction of the existence of God, 
 and his certainty of himself, but he enquires, 
 How am I to find my way to God ? And if He 
 asks me questions, How am I to answer Him 
 one of a thousand ? Then he exclaims in com- 
 plaint, 
 
 "There is no daysman betwixt us, 
 That might lay his hand upon us both." 
 
 Said this man in effect, If I should find my way 
 to God, I could not argue with Him. Oh, that 
 there were some one in the universe who could 
 bring us together ; who could put his hand on 
 God, and on me ; who could represent God to 
 me, and me to God. 
 
 The next word occurs in the course of an 
 answer to Zophar. The opening words of that 
 answer were, 
 
 " Man that is born of a woman 
 Is of few days, and full of trouble." 
 
 Having made this general affirmation, he con- 
 tinued, 
 
 " For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it 
 
 will sprout again, 
 And that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
 
 16 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, 
 
 And the stock thereof die in the ground ; 
 
 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, 
 
 And put forth boughs like a plant. 
 
 But man dieth, and wasteth away : 
 
 Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? " 
 
 That was a wail of hopeless despair, in which he 
 declared that a tree has a better chance than a 
 man. But continuing he exclaimed, 
 
 " If a man die, shall he live again ? 
 All the days of my warfare would I wait, 
 Till my release should come. 
 Thou shouldest call, and I would answer Thee : 
 Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of Thine 
 hands." 
 
 That is as though Job had said, If I could but 
 believe that a man could live again, I would bear 
 all the conflict and would wait. This was hardly 
 the expression of a hope ; it was only a sigh. Yet 
 there was in it a gleam of light in the midst of 
 the terrible darkness. He could not find a days- 
 man able to put his hand on God and on himself. 
 He declared there was nothing for him but death. 
 A tree had a chance, but a man had not. Sud- 
 denly there flamed across his spirit a wonder, an 
 enquiry, which came out of his essential nature. 
 It was an affirmation of his consciousness of the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 17 
 
 need for more time and space for the realization 
 of life than life itself seemed to afford. 
 A little later he exclaimed, 
 
 " O earth, cover not thou my blood, 
 And let my cry have no resting place. 
 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, 
 And He that voucheth for me is on high. 
 My friends scorn me ; 
 But mine eye poureth out tears unto God ; 
 That He would maintain the right of a man with God, 
 And of a son of man with his neighbour 1 " 
 
 Notice carefully the marvel of this word. Job 
 was passing into deeper darkness, and yet sud- 
 denly uttered this most remarkable word. It was 
 the cry of his spirit ; it was prayer. It revealed a 
 profound conviction. 
 
 " Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, 
 And He that voucheth for me is on high." 
 
 This was an affirmation of his belief in the exist- 
 ence of God, and of the fact that He was in 
 heaven, on high, that is, enthroned. He believed 
 in God, but thought of Him as at a distance. 
 Upon the basis of this conviction he expressed 
 his desire that God would maintain the right of 
 a man with God, and a son of man with his 
 neighbour. He had said but a little while before, 
 There is no daysman who can put his hand upon
 
 18 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 God and upon me. Now he declared that ab- 
 solutely the only way for his case to be argued 
 with God would be for God to argue it with Him- 
 self, " That He would maintain the right of a man 
 with God." The passionate cry of his spirit was 
 that God would become an Advocate with Him- 
 self on behalf of a man who had lost everything, 
 and was conscious of his need. 
 
 A step further, and he uttered even more re- 
 markable words. 
 
 " I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
 And that He shall stand up at the last upon the earth : 
 And after my skin hath been thus destroyed, 
 Yet from my flesh shall I see God : 
 Whom I shall see for myself." 
 
 I would change the word " Redeemer " here to 
 Vindicator ; not that Redeemer is wrong but that 
 our use of it does not accurately convey the 
 thought of the Hebrew word, Goel. The busi- 
 ness of the Goel was always that of vindication, 
 when the one to be vindicated was unable to 
 vindicate himself. The vindication might be by 
 ransom or revenge. 
 
 Now said Job, " I know that my Goel liveth," 
 that is my present conviction ; " and that He 
 shall stand up at the last " not, in the latter day, 
 but at the end of this conflict This was the
 
 .THE MESSAGE OF JOB 19 
 
 language of the court of justice. Job was making 
 appeal for vindication, and affirmed his conviction 
 that his Vindicator would stand up at the end 
 upon the dust, that is, as a prevailing Advocate. 
 On the basis of this conviction he declared, 
 
 " And after my skin hath been thus destroyed, 
 Yet from my flesh shall I see God." 
 
 A question arises here as to whether " from" in 
 this sentence means, in my flesh, or, apart from 
 my flesh. It certainly may mean either. Dr. 
 Davidson gives an illustration from King Lear, 
 When one of his daughters said that it was neces- 
 sary for her to write a letter " from my home," 
 the context shows that she meant when she was 
 away from home. He holds therefore that Job 
 meant, When I have done with my flesh, I shall 
 see God in my spiritual life. I do not so under- 
 stand it. Whereas the context in King Lear may 
 demonstrate the fact that by " from my home " 
 his daughter meant when she was away from 
 home, the phrase itself might certainly have 
 meant that she wrote when she was at home ; 
 and I personally believe that Job used the word 
 in this sense. It was a tremendous affirmation 
 coming" up out of his spiritual nature, that even
 
 20 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 though his flesh seemed to be in process of de- 
 struction, yet from it, that is as still being in it, he 
 would see God. It is quite true that he immedi- 
 ately added, " My reins are consumed within 
 me," thus revealing the fact that he passed again 
 into consciousness of the darkness about him. 
 Nevertheless the affirmation was in itself a flash 
 of light out of his essential spiritual nature. I do 
 not suggest that Job could have interpreted it in 
 the full evangelical sense in which we understand 
 it to-day. 
 
 Still later he cried, 
 
 " Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, 
 That 1 might come even to His seat ! 
 I would order my cause before Him, 
 And fill my mouth with arguments." 
 
 When he said this, his confidence was overshad- 
 owed ; he was again in the region of despair ; he 
 declared the hopelessness of the search ; and yet 
 faith in God was tenacious, and he longed to find 
 Him, and stand before His judgment seat 
 Yet again he cried, 
 
 " Oh, that I had one to hear me ! 
 (Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me ;) 
 And that I had the indictment which mine adversary 
 hath written 1 "
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 21 
 
 The word " adversary " here was a legal term, 
 indicating an opponent in the case to be tried. 
 He thus challenged God to indict him, and in 
 pride declared that if such an indictment were 
 written he would carry it upon his shoulders, and 
 bind it unto him as a crown, going as a prince 
 into the presence of God. 
 
 Then followed a long period of silence so far 
 as Job was concerned. Elihu spoke, but Job did 
 not answer him. Suddenly, in the process of the 
 speech of Elihu, Jehovah spoke. God challenged 
 him to attend, and then made pass before him 
 visions of His power in the material universe, in 
 His dealings with animate and inanimate crea- 
 tion. In answer to this theophany occurred the 
 next word of Job, 
 
 "Behold, I am of small account; 
 what shall I answer Thee ? 
 I lay mine hand upon my mouth. 
 Once have I spoken, and I will not answer j 
 Yea twice, but I will proceed no further." 
 
 These words were the outcome of the awakening 
 of his naked spirit to the sense of the power of 
 God. God had said no word to him about sin. 
 God had uttered not a sentence about his sor- 
 row. He had not spoken a sentence in explana-
 
 22 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 tion of the mysteries that had enshrouded him. 
 Rather He made His glory pass before him, He 
 put the universe in relationship to Himself, and 
 made Job spectator. Job answered the unveiling 
 by exclaiming, I am nothing. The word " vile " in 
 our present use of it is a palpable mistranslation. 
 Job meant, I do not count, I have been answer- 
 ing and arguing, I will say no more. 
 
 Then there was a second unveiling of Jehovah, 
 in which with great tenderness and gentle satire 
 He challenged Job to take the seat of govern- 
 ment in the universe, giving two illustrations of 
 His purpose and power, those namely of be- 
 hemoth and leviathan. Then Job exclaimed, " I 
 abhor myself, and repent" 
 
 Let us group these words. We see this man 
 stripped of everything, but left with the certain- 
 ties of God, himself, and conflict. Out of these 
 circumstances of intense and utter spiritual lone- 
 liness he asked for a daysman, for intermediation 
 between himself and God ; suggested the ulti- 
 mate problem, " If a man die, shall he live 
 again ? " ; uttered a prayer to God that He 
 would argue with Himself about a man ; then 
 broke out into a great expression of confidence 
 from the depths of his nature, " I know that my
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 23 
 
 Vindicator liveth." This was almost immedi- 
 ately forgotten, and he proceeded in his quest, 
 " Oh, that I knew where I might find Him." He 
 challenged God to come out of hiding, and to 
 write his indictment. Then suddenly he was 
 brought into a sense of the presence of God in 
 the universe, and said, " I am of small account," 
 I will say no more. At last, without a word 
 about sin or salvation, 'but only as the result of 
 the unveiling of the power and glory of God, he 
 abased himself and said, " I repent." 
 
 Have these cries of a human spirit ever been 
 answered ? The question is important, for if it 
 were possible for us to pass into similar circum- 
 stances, these are the things we should say. 
 When all the things upon which men depend are 
 taken away, these are the essential cries of hu- 
 manity in its alienation and distance from God. 
 First there is the need of a daysman who can put 
 his hand on God and on man. That Daysman 
 has appeared, and we have felt the touch of his 
 hand. "If a man die, shall he live again?" 
 That is the surging, agonized cry of this mate- 
 rialized age. We treat it often with shocking 
 flippancy, but this is only an attempt to hide the 
 agony. We have the answer, He hath " brought
 
 24 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 
 
 life and incorruption to light through the 
 Gospel." Job said, Would that God would 
 argue my case with Himself. Jesus came to 
 declare that God has argued with Himself the 
 case of man. Then in beautiful sequence comes 
 the affirmation, " I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth." We take up Job's language with fuller, 
 richer meaning. Job demanded that he should 
 find his way to God as Judge. God hath ap- 
 pointed One Who shall judge the world, and 
 every man can come to that Throne, and argue 
 his case in the presence of Christ. Job asked 
 that his indictment might be written. That is a 
 most popular challenge to-day. Men are every- 
 where asking that God will write their indict- 
 ment, and prove them sinners. The answer of 
 God to that challenge is to be found in the reve- 
 lation of His law in the ethic of Jesus. In the 
 presence of the revealed glory of God, Job ex- 
 claimed, " I am of small account." The answer 
 of Jesus to that consciousness is that He first 
 agrees therewith, and demands that man shall 
 deny himself in order to find himself. He then 
 declares that no man is of small account, but in 
 the estimate of God he is worth the stoop and 
 suffering and dying to save him. Finally Job
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOB 25 
 
 said, " I repent in dust and ashes." Jesus gives 
 repentance unto life, and lifts out of the dust and 
 ashes into the dignity and glory of partnership 
 with Himself. 
 
 In Job we see a soul stripped naked ; and hear 
 the language of challenge, of need, and of 
 enquiry. I turn to the New Testament and I find 
 One Who answers the challenge, meets the need, 
 and replies to the enquiry. 
 
 Tear up your New Testament, and fling it to 
 the winds ; crucify the Christ of God, and let 
 there be no resurrection ; and the book of Job 
 still lives, the unanswered agony of a soul. 
 
 Retain the New Testament, and the agony 
 becomes an anthem, and the despair merges into 
 ultimate victory.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 The Revelations of the Troth about Worship 
 
 I. The Conception of God producing Worship 
 ii. i. J a ' Essential Being. 
 i. Jehovah. |, The becoming One. 
 
 i VIM,; / a - Essential Might. 
 li Elohnn. ,. operating in Power. 
 
 II. The Attitudes of Man in Worship 
 
 i. Submission. Answer to Sovereignty, {obedience' 
 
 1L Trust Answer to Might. 
 iii. Joy. Answer to Grace. 
 
 f Honesty. 
 \ Courage. 
 f Penitence. 
 \ Adoration. 
 
 III. The Activities of Worship 
 i. God. Calling Man to worship by Revelation. 
 ii. Man. Approach. 
 
 Laying bare of the Soul. 
 The Reception of Gifts. 
 The Offering of Praise, 
 tii. God. True and faithful Dealing in Love. 
 
 The Message of the Psalter 
 Psa. Ixvi. 
 
 Worship God 
 
 Know Him. 
 
 Reckon with Him. 
 
 Make all Circumstances 
 Opportunities of Wor- 
 ship. 
 
 The New Testament 
 mary 
 
 Phil. iv. 4-7. 
 
 Sum*
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 
 THE Psalter is a collection of sacred He- 
 brew poems, intended for use in wor- 
 ship. There can be no chronological 
 arrangement of these psalms. It is perfectly evi- 
 dent, as Eusebius long ago pointed out, that the 
 collection has been carefully edited, and the 
 psalms grouped on the principle of affinity. 
 
 The individual psalms are natural expressions 
 by many authors at various times under differing 
 circumstances of their consciousness of God. 
 The message of the book in its entirety has to do 
 with the subject of worship. 
 
 The Hebrew word translated worship literally 
 means prostration. It is used to indicate that 
 prostration which recognizes the supremacy of 
 the One before Whom the worshipper bows, and 
 therefore indicates the attitude of submission in 
 the presence of supremacy. As a matter of fact, 
 the word itself does not often occur in the Psalter. 
 As indicating the attitude of man in the presence 
 
 of God, it is found fifteen times only in the one 
 
 27
 
 28 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 
 hundred and fifty psalms. It occurs in other 
 places as indicating the attitude of man in 
 the presence of angels, and as indicating the at- 
 titude of one man in the presence of another. 
 
 In the grouping of passages in which the word 
 does occur as setting forth the attitude of the soul 
 in the presence of God, there are certain matters 
 full of suggestiveness. Even though it is impos- 
 sible to deal fully with each passage, seeing it in 
 its setting, and so gathering its full significance, 
 I propose to read the fifteen passages in which 
 the word occurs. 
 
 " In Thy fear will I worship towards Thy holy temple." 
 
 v. 7. 
 " All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto 
 
 the Lord : 
 And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
 
 Thee." xxii. 27. 
 
 " All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship : 
 All they that go down to the dust shall bow before 
 
 Him." xxii. 29. 
 " Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name ; 
 
 Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." xxix. a. 
 " He is Thy Lord ; and worship thou Him." xlv. u. 
 " All the earth shall worship Thee, 
 
 And shall sing unto Thee." Ixvi. 3. 
 " Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him : 
 
 All nations shall serve Him." Ixxii. it. 
 " All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and wor- 
 ship before Thee, O Lord ; 
 And they shall glorify Thy name." Ixxxvi. 9. 
 " O come, let us worship and bow down : 
 Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." xcv. 6.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 29 
 
 " O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." xcvi. 9. 
 " Worship Him, all ye gods." xcvii. 7. 
 " Exalt ye the Lord our God, 
 
 And worship at His footstool : 
 
 Exalt ye the Lord our God, 
 
 And worship at His holy hill." xcix. 5, 9. 
 " We will go into His tabernacles : 
 
 We will worship at His footstool." cxxxii. 7. 
 " I will worship towards Thy holy temple." cxxxviii. 2. 
 
 I am perfectly aware that the reading of these 
 passages seems to have very little coherence 
 or consistency, and very little helpfulness. I do 
 not suggest for a moment that there is any im- 
 mediate connection between the passages. I 
 have merely selected them because in them the 
 actual word worship occurs. There are, how- 
 ever, two or three deductions to be made, even 
 from such simple reading. Throughout the 
 whole of these the worship referred to is that of a 
 Person Who is described sometimes as Jehovah, 
 sometimes as God, and sometimes as Lord. 
 
 The worshippers are individuals, kings, na- 
 tions, all the earth. 
 
 There is a centre of worship, sometimes spoken 
 of as the temple, sometimes as the holy hill. 
 
 Finally there are certain attitudes indicated 
 those of fear, of holiness, and of song. I might 
 confine myself to that statement, and dwell upon 
 each of the points as suggested, but I am desirous
 
 30 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 
 of taking a still wider outlook upon this wonder- 
 ful collection. 
 
 Before doing so, let me ask you to remember 
 the marvellously constant use made of this book 
 of psalms in the life of faith for thousands of 
 years. I recently came across this very interest- 
 ing passage by Tholuck. "What a record it 
 would be if one could write it down all the spir- 
 itual experiences, the disclosures of the heart, the 
 combats and the conflicts which men in the course 
 of the ages have connected with the words of the 
 psalms. What a history, if we could discover 
 the place the book has occupied in the inner life 
 of the heroes of the Kingdom of God." It would 
 be impossible for any one to write such a record 
 as Tholuck there suggests, because the uses that 
 have been made of these psalms throughout the 
 centuries have been so varied. 
 
 Now, why is it that this book has been so per- 
 petually used ? First, because it is a collection 
 of simple, honest, human experiences. I very 
 much question if there be any circumstance 
 possible to human life but that some psalm 
 exactly expresses the experience thereof. The 
 Psalter contains anthems of prosperity and dirges 
 of adversity. It has major songs which cele-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 31 
 
 brate holiness, the experience that comes when 
 men are led to the heights and live above the 
 snow line. It has minor songs bewailing sin, the 
 experience that comes when men have wilfully, 
 persistently sinned and sunk to the depths. 
 Songs of hope, the experience when, in circum- 
 stances of difficulty, gleams of the coming day 
 are seen upon the distant horizon. Songs of de- 
 spair, the experience in hours of darkness, when 
 there seems to be no glimmer of light. I repeat, 
 it is impossible to think of any human circum- 
 stances which do not find expression in this 
 book. 
 
 But a mere collection of expressions of human 
 experiences would hardly be worth while, for the 
 profounder an experience is, the more capable is 
 a man of expressing it. Perhaps the first im- 
 pression made by that statement is one of doubt. 
 Think of it. It is in the moment of profound 
 experience that a man speaks freely. "Out of 
 the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," 
 not out of its emptiness ! Whether it be of wis- 
 dom or of folly, of sin or of triumph, it is in the 
 moment when the heart is fullest that man speaks 
 most easily. It is quite true that he will often, 
 under such circumstances, say things that he
 
 32 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 
 will wish he had not said, but he speaks freeiy. 
 There was a day when King Saul told the abso- 
 lute truth about himself, "I have played the 
 fool ! " No one could have persuaded him to 
 say that in the day when experience was super- 
 ficial ; but when he was in the depths, the con- 
 sciousness of all his unutterable folly broke upon 
 him, and he uttered all the truth. I repeat, there- 
 fore, that a man does not want another to write 
 for him expressions of experience. We have not 
 touched the deepest fact in the book of psalms 
 when we say that it is intensely human. The 
 deepest thing is that it is a collection of songs in 
 which human experiences are brought into the 
 presence of God. They show how man feels 
 and thinks and speaks and acts when he is con- 
 scious of God. That is why the psalms live 
 to-day. 
 
 The permanent values of the Psalter, then, are 
 its revelations of truth about worship. First it 
 reveals the conception of God that produces 
 worship ; secondly, it reveals the attitude of man 
 in worship ; and finally, it reveals the activities 
 of worship, initially on the part of God, respon- 
 sively on the part of man, and finally on the 
 part of God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 33 
 
 The Psalter reveals the conception of God, 
 which produces worship. This conception is 
 manifest in the names by which He is referred 
 to. Of these the three that stand out supremely 
 are Jehovah, Elohim and Adonahy. These re- 
 veal a conception of God which, wherever held, 
 compels worship. The name Jehovah stands for- 
 evermore as suggestive of the essential Being of 
 God, and of the fact that He becomes in grace 
 all that His people need. That name occurs 
 more often than any other. All these singers, 
 through different times and climes and circum- 
 stances, of different temperaments, worshipped 
 in the presence of Jehovah. The first thought is 
 that of His essential Being. It is never ques- 
 tioned, never argued, but taken for granted. 
 
 Perhaps the chief exposition of the fact that 
 He is, and of what He is, is found in the one 
 hundred and thirty-ninth psalm, with its stu- 
 pendous setting forth of the fact of the existence 
 of God, and of all that fact connotes of His pres- 
 ence and knowledge, and of the impossibility of 
 human escape therefrom. 
 
 If I were asked which of the psalms most per- 
 fectly sets forth the fact that God is the becoming 
 One, I should answer the twenty-third, which
 
 34 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 
 opens with the declaration, "Jehovah is my 
 Shepherd," and then celebrates His sufficiency 
 for the needs of man in all the circumstances of 
 time, until in the eternal habitation the soul is 
 perfectly satisfied in Him. The first conception 
 of God suggested by the prevalence of the name 
 Jehovah is that of the essential One Who be- 
 comes what His people need. 
 
 The second conception is suggested by the 
 great name Elohim, which we translate God, that 
 intensive plural which does not necessarily sig- 
 nify number, but something so infinite that no 
 singular can express it. This word suggests the 
 essential might of God and the fact that He 
 operates in power. His might is not only poten- 
 tial, it is also kinetic ; not merely might, but 
 might exercised. That is the perpetual reason 
 of awe in the soul of man in the presence of God. 
 
 Perhaps psalm sixty-eight most perfectly sets 
 forth the essential might of God, and psalm forty- 
 six the fact of its activity. 
 
 The third title is not so frequently used, but 
 the principle revealed by it is present from first 
 to last. Adonahy means Lord in the simplest 
 sense of the word. It is suggestive of the sov- 
 ereignty of God. This is the abiding conviction
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 35 
 
 of all the singers. It is, perhaps, most perfectly 
 set forth in psalm eighty-six, in which the first 
 word is Jehovah, immediately followed by the 
 title Adonahy, and throughout which the soul is 
 prostrate in the presence of the sovereign God. 
 
 The threefold revelation of God is that of His 
 essential Being, which becomes in grace what- 
 ever man needs ; His essential might, which oper- 
 ates in power on behalf of man ; and His essential 
 Lordship, which undertakes the government of 
 the affairs of man. That is the conception of 
 God which produces worship. Wherever an in- 
 dividual soul, or a king in official capacity, or a 
 nation or kindred or race, or the whole world 
 comes to that conception, the inevitable result is 
 worship. 
 
 Pass now to the second matter, that of the at- 
 titude of man in worship. That attitude is three- 
 fold submission, trust, joy. This threefold atti- 
 tude is the answer to the threefold revelation. 
 The final revelation is that of supremacy sug- 
 gested by the title Adonahy. Submission is the 
 answer of man to supremacy. The name Elo- 
 him suggests the might of God. Trust is the 
 answer of man to God's might. The name Jeho- 
 vah reveals that God becomes what His people
 
 36 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 
 need, which is but another way to declare the 
 fact of the grace of God. Joy is the answer of 
 the soul to grace. 
 
 The notes of submission are those of reverence 
 and obedience ; reverence in the outward form, 
 and which expresses itself ultimately in obedience, 
 is the attitude of submission. The notes of trust 
 are honesty and courage. Perfect honesty is 
 manifest in courage, and based on confidence in 
 God. That is the attitude of trust. The notes 
 of joy are penitence and adoration. Man 
 reaches the highest joy when he finds the con- 
 trite heart. It is out of the penitent and broken 
 heart that the sweetest music comes, and the 
 highest note in the anthem of praise is reached. 
 This does not apply to the songs of angels which 
 we do not know, and shall never sing. We shall 
 listen to them, but shall sing such songs as angels 
 cannot sing. 
 
 Finally, as to the activities of worship as re- 
 vealed throughout the book of psalms. The first 
 activity is not of man but of God. Worship is 
 always the outcome of something exterior to the 
 worshipper. God unveiled Himself before those 
 singers of the olden days, surprising them in the 
 day of darkness with a great light, breaking
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 37 
 
 upon them in the midst of sorrow with new 
 joy, as in the case of Job, when his heart was 
 broken, passing before him in the splendour of 
 His glory. By such unveiling He compels wor- 
 ship. I take the Psalter, and read it at any point, 
 and discover something of God's activity, con- 
 straining man to worship. The first note of a 
 psalm is that of praise. You follow the singer, 
 and enquire why he sings, and the answer is 
 always of something that God is, that God has 
 wrought, of some way in which God has revealed 
 Himself. The first activity in worship is always 
 that of God's self-revelation. 
 
 Then follow the activities of man. In answer 
 to the approach of God in love, man lays bare his 
 soul. The thirty-second psalm gives the story of 
 how a man failed in worship, and of how he was 
 restored to worship. It opens with an exclama- 
 tion, " Oh, the blessedness of transgression for- 
 given," and proceeds to declare that man blessed 
 in whose spirit there is no guile that is, no de 
 ceit, no cloking. The psalmist then tells of dayw 
 when it was different 
 
 " When I kept silence, ray bones waxed old 
 Through my roaring all the day long. 
 For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me : 
 My moisture was changed as with the drought of summer."
 
 38 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 
 Then he turned back to God : 
 
 11 1 acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity 
 have I not hid." 
 
 That is the soul baring itself in the presence of 
 God. The song was the outcome of the answer 
 of God. " Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." 
 There was no song while he was keeping silence 
 in an attempt to hide his sin. The activities of 
 man in worship are the laying bare of the soul, 
 the reception of gifts, and ultimately the offering 
 of praise. 
 
 The final activity of worship is that of God, 
 Who is true and faithful in His dealing with the 
 worshipping soul, becoming to that soul what 
 ever is needed. 
 
 The supreme message of the Psalter is, Wor. 
 ship God. Make all circumstances opportunities 
 of worship. Are you in sorrow? Worship! 
 Are you in joy ? Worship ! Are you in dark- 
 ness ? Worship 1 Are you in the light ? Wor- 
 ship! 
 
 I turn to my New Testament, and find the 
 message of the Psalter : " Rejoice in the Lord 
 alway: again I will say, Rejoice." "In every- 
 thing by prayer and supplication with thanks-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE PSALTER 39 
 
 giving let your requests be made known unto 
 God. And the peace of God, which passeth all 
 understanding, shall guard your hearts and your 
 thoughts in Christ Jesus."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The Fundamental Declaration, 1. 7 
 
 L The Presupposition. God the All-wise. 
 
 This fact expressed in all 
 
 His Works and Ways. 
 ii. The Deduction. Man. Wise. 
 
 II. The Argument in Illustration 
 L The Scheme. 
 
 a. Home. i. 8, 9. 
 
 b. Friendships, i. 10-19. 
 
 c. The World beyond, i. 20 ix. 
 ii. Consideration. 
 
 a. The First Sphere. Home. Father and Mother. 
 
 b. The Second Sphere. Companions. 
 
 f. The Third Sphere. The City symbolizing Life. 
 
 1. The First Call. Warnings. Promise. 
 
 2. The Call from Home, ii. vii. " My Son." 
 
 3. The Second Call. viii. 
 
 4. A Contrast, ix. 
 
 HI. The Final Applications 
 
 i. First Collection of Proverbs. Statements, 
 ii. Second Collection of Proverbs. Pictures, 
 iii. Words of Agur and Oracles of Lemuel. 
 
 I. Precepts 
 
 (iii. l-io.) 
 The Law of Wisdom. 
 
 II. Practice 
 
 (viii. 32-36.) 
 The Life of Wisdom. 
 
 III. Power 
 
 (James i. 5.) 
 The Lord of Wisdom.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 THE book of Proverbs is essentially di- 
 dactic, and consequently its content 
 constitutes its message. There are cer- 
 tain peculiarities about the books of Job, Prov- 
 erbs, and Ecclesiastes. While it is true that 
 the peculiarly Hebrew titles of God are found in 
 them, yet all the references to the law and ritual, 
 the sacrifices and ceremony with which the other 
 Old Testament books abound, are absent from 
 these. While preeminently religious, they are 
 yet primarily philosophic. They are the only 
 three books of the wisdom literature of the 
 Hebrew people in the Bible. The meaning of 
 wisdom as applied to these writings is exactly 
 what is intended to-day by the common use of 
 the word philosophy. That common use is not 
 strictly warranted by the real meaning of the 
 word. Philosophy does not mean wisdom, but the 
 love of wisdom. A philosopher is not necessarily 
 a wise man. He is a lover of wisdom that is, 
 one seeking after wisdom.
 
 42 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 There is a distinct difference between the 
 Hebrew philosophy revealed in these books and 
 all others. It starts with an affirmation. They 
 begin with a question. All philosophies other 
 than that of the Hebrew people result from in- 
 vestigation in order to the answering of Pilate's 
 question, " What is truth ? " I do not suggest 
 that that is an improper method, but it must be 
 recognized that the Hebrew philosophy begins 
 by affirming God. Hebrew philosophers be- 
 lieved that there could be no discovery of ulti- 
 mate truth save upon the basis of revelation, and 
 the revelation with which they began was that of 
 the existence of God. 
 
 The book of Proverbs is generally thought of 
 as though it were merely a collection of wise 
 sayings, lacking anything like system or order. 
 As a matter of fact, there is no book in the Old 
 Testament more systematic than this. A refer- 
 ence to our analysis of its content will demon- 
 strate the accuracy of this assertion. The first 
 verse constitutes a title page, " The proverbs of 
 Solomon the son of David, king of Israel." The 
 next six verses are occupied with the preface, in 
 which the purpose of the book and the method 
 of the writer are clearly stated. The preface
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 43 
 
 ends with the fundamental affirmation of the 
 Hebrew philosophy, 
 
 " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge : 
 But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction." 
 
 The book itself falls into three parts ; first, a 
 series of discourses in defense and application of 
 the fundamental affirmation ; secondly, a series 
 of proverbs collected and arranged by Solomon 
 himself, and lastly, a posthumous collection of 
 Solomon's Proverbs, made by the men of Heze- 
 kiah's day. All this is followed by an appendix 
 containing the words of Agur and the oracles 
 of Lemuel. 
 
 In dealing with the permanent values of other 
 books, we have been conscious of very much 
 local colour. In this book this is reduced almost 
 to the vanishing point. It is a singularly living 
 book. There are great passages of it which 
 may be read in the heart of any of the great 
 cities of to-day with perfect application to the 
 existing conditions. Therefore, whereas in deal- 
 ing with other books it has been necessary to 
 search for the underlying principle, here that 
 principle is plainly stated. In other cases we 
 have borrowed from other books some outstand-
 
 44 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 ing statement of principle, in order to see how 
 the book under consideration illustrated that 
 principle. In this case we find in the book itself 
 both the statement of its permanent value, and 
 the actual words of its living message. 
 
 The two permanent values of the book, there- 
 fore, are its fundamental declaration and its 
 argument of illustration. 
 
 The fundamental declaration is contained in 
 the seventh verse of the first chapter. The pre- 
 supposition and consequent deduction of this 
 declaration constitute the deepest note in the 
 Hebrew wisdom or philosophy. The presup- 
 position is that God is all-wise ; that in the final 
 meaning of the word, wisdom can only be postu- 
 lated of God. This conception is perpetually 
 present in the arguments of Job, in the remark- 
 able and contrastive method of the book of 
 Ecclesiastes, and in the systematic order of the 
 book of Proverbs. Moreover, it is taken for 
 granted and constantly insisted upon that the 
 wisdom of God expresses itself in all His works 
 ind in all His ways. The Hebrew philosophers 
 believed that all natural phenomena constituted 
 a revelation of the Divine Wisdom. Wherever 
 they looked, at the land or the sea, at the earth
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 45 
 
 or the heavens, they saw God. That philosophy 
 on the human side accounted for the magnificent 
 declaration with which the first book in the Bible 
 opens : " In the beginning God created." So 
 they ever thought of wisdom as final in God. 
 
 From this fundamental conviction a clear and 
 definite deduction was inevitable ; if wisdom is 
 perfect in God, wisdom in man consists in the 
 fear of the Lord. A man is wise in the measure 
 in which he apprehends and fears God. Fear in 
 the sense in which it is certainly used in this 
 fundamental declaration does not mean a cow- 
 ardly, servile dread which strives to hide from 
 God. There are two kinds of fear possible in re- 
 gard to God. There is the fear lest He should 
 hurt me. There is the fear lest I should hurt Him. 
 The first is selfish, and produces no fruit of 
 righteousness. The last is the fear of love, 
 which produces holiness of character and right- 
 eousness of conduct. This fear of the Lord is 
 emotional recognition of God. Do not let us be 
 afraid of the word emotional. The emotional 
 side of man's nature is as much a creation of 
 God as is the intellectual. The emotional fear 
 of God, then, is the answer of the soul in wonder 
 Ja the presence of infinite Wisdom. That is
 
 46 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 preceded by intellectual apprehension of God, 
 and consummated in volitional submission to 
 His will. 
 
 These Hebrew philosophers did not believe 
 that by such intellectual apprehension, emotional 
 exercise, and volitional submission, man achieved 
 the ultimate Wisdom. The declaration is rather 
 that in that fear, man comes into the condition 
 for being wise. " The fear of the Lord is the 
 beginning of wisdom." No man can begin to be 
 wise until his life is in proper relation to the 
 ultimate Wisdom. No man can become wise 
 save as there is in him the fear of the Lord. It 
 is a great word, mystical and philosophical. 
 There is never anything mighty or practical that 
 does not grow out of the mystical and philosoph- 
 ical. It is equally true that everything pro- 
 foundly mystical and philosophical issues in that 
 which is mighty and practical. 
 
 We now turn to the arguments in illustration. 
 Beginning with the eighth verse of the first 
 chapter, all that remains of the book is of prac- 
 tical value and of present application as a per- 
 manent value and a present message. There is 
 no single proverb in either of the two collections, 
 the antithetical proverbs of the first, or the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 47 
 
 pictorial proverbs of the second, which has not a 
 present value and a living message. For the 
 purpose of this study we shall confine ourselves 
 to the discourses of the first division of the 
 book. 
 
 In these discourses the philosophy deals first 
 with the child, then with the youth, and finally 
 with the man. The whole world for the child is 
 its home. The first movement outward is made 
 in the finding of a friend, a companion. The 
 boy finds his chum, the girl another girl to whom 
 she can tell her secrets. Finally the youth passes 
 out into the wonderland of the life of the city. 
 
 The first circle is that of the home. There 
 wisdom must be learned. The next circle is that 
 of friendship, companionship formed outside the 
 home. There wisdom must be applied. Finally 
 there come " the street . . . the broad places 
 . . . the chief places of concourse . . . 
 the entering in of the gates the city." In the 
 midst of the rush, and hurry, and hurly-burly of 
 life wisdom must be obeyed. 
 
 The fundamental proposition is, " The fear of 
 the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." In these 
 discourses that declaration is applied to practical 
 life. We begin in the home.
 
 48 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 " My son, hear the instruction of thy father, 
 And forsake not the law of thy mother : 
 For they shall be a chaplet of grace unto thy head, 
 And chains about thy neck." 
 
 That is a beautiful picture of wisdom the fear 
 of the Lord taught to children at home. The 
 subject of the responsibility of father and mother 
 is not dealt with here, but it is taken for granted, 
 and set upon the highest plane. The children 
 are to hear the instruction of their father, and 
 forsake not the law of their mother, in order that 
 they may live in the fear of the Lord. Children 
 are not able to grasp the thought of the Infinite. 
 For them God is incarnate in father and mother. 
 That is the meaning of fatherhood and mother- 
 hood. I say that with all care. God created 
 man in His own image male and female created 
 He them. Both are needed to reveal God. Jesus 
 expressed the fact of motherhood in God, when 
 He said : " How often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
 chickens under her wings." We need not be 
 anxious to teach our children theology. Let us 
 live in the fear of the Lord, and presently, by the 
 ladder of their perfect confidence in us, they will 
 climb to that apprehension of, and faith in God, 
 which will be the rock of their strength to the end
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 49 
 
 of time. Wisdom for children is contained in the 
 instruction of father, and the law of mother. 
 
 The day must come when the child, in the 
 realization of its own life, moves out into the 
 wider circles of experience. The command to 
 obey parents is not of force to the end of life. 
 There are two very distinct words in the Bible 
 about the duty of children to parents. Obedience 
 is for the days of childhood. Honour is forever. 
 There will come a day when the child has no 
 longer to obey. It must begin to make its own 
 choices, guided at first by parental council, but 
 ultimately quite alone. When the child enters 
 this second sphere, Wisdom is particularly careful 
 to give instruction : 
 
 " My son, if sinners entice thee, 
 Consent thou not." 
 
 Then follows a list of friendships which are 
 not to be made. The principles may thus be 
 stated. Those who seek to enter into com- 
 radeship upon the basis of selfish interest, and by 
 unscrupulous methods, are to be refused. All not 
 excluded by that negative description are in- 
 cluded. The glory and beauty of friendship is 
 recognized by the very warnings uttered against 
 those who are not true friends. There is no
 
 50 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 more important hour in the life of youth or 
 maiden than that in which they begin to choose 
 their companions. If that wisdom, which begins 
 in the fear of the Lord, master the life, then such 
 choices will be made as will contribute to strength 
 of character. 
 
 At last there comes the day when the youth 
 passes out into the street, the broad place, the 
 chief place of concourse, at the gates, into the 
 city itself. To him 
 
 " Wisdom crieth aloud in the street ; 
 She uttereth her voice in the broad places ; 
 She crieth in the chief place of concourse ; 
 At the entering in of the gates, 
 In the city, she uttereth her words." 
 
 The first word of wisdom to the youth going out 
 from home, and beyond his first circle of friend- 
 ships, into the wide world with its bustle and 
 turmoil is a word of solemn warning against the 
 evil of the way of those who have no fear of the 
 Lord, who do not live in right relationship with 
 Him, and a word of gracious promise : 
 
 ' Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell securely, 
 And shall be quiet without fear of evil." 
 
 Wisdom does not call the youth back from the 
 street and the place of concourse, and the crowd*
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 51 
 
 and busy life ; but warns him of the fate of those 
 who enter those circumstances in forgetfulness of 
 God, and declares that if he hearken to her, and 
 live in the fear of the Lord, he will be quiet and 
 safe, even in the turmoil of the city. 
 
 If the youth do not learn wisdom from father 
 and mother, how terrible the start in the city is. 
 He does not understand the voice of wisdom ; he 
 cannot hear it. We must teach our children the 
 language of wisdom before they pass out into the 
 hurly-burly of life, or there they may fail to detect 
 it One, taught by father and mother, who has 
 made his first friendships upon the basis of that 
 instruction, passing into the city, hears and under- 
 stands the cry of wisdom as through the ruin and 
 failure she warns him, and declares that he shall 
 be quiet and safe if he will be true to that fear of 
 the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. Let 
 those who live in the villages, from which young 
 lives are ever pouring into the cities, see to it that 
 they are instructed in the fear of the Lord. If 
 they come, having learned wisdom in the home, 
 and having practiced it in the choosing of their 
 first companions, all hell cannot ruin them. I am 
 no more afraid for the young man who comes 
 into London with the fear of God in his heart.
 
 52 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 than I am if he stays in the village. When I see 
 young people entering the city from professing 
 Christian homes, who yet have never been in- 
 structed, and do not know the secrets of strength, 
 then I tremble. 
 
 Then follows a series of discourses, all begin- 
 ning with the words " My son." These constitute 
 the voice of home sounding in the soul of the 
 youth who has departed into the midst of life's 
 hurry and bustle. The father tells how his father 
 had taught him, and how he had been saved by 
 the teaching, and had proved it true in the self- 
 same rush of life. Then exhortation follows 
 exhortation against impurity, against indolence, 
 against bad companionships, against adultery. 
 
 Finally, I see the young man not merely 
 facing the excitement of the city, but climbing 
 towards high position ; and wisdom comes to 
 him again in the most wonderful appeal the 
 Bible utters, except that of the Voice which 
 speaks the very language of humanity when at 
 last Wisdom is incarnate. 
 
 The discourses close with a contrast most vivid 
 and most remarkable. Wisdom and folly are 
 each personified as a woman ; the first as a 
 woman of virtue and beauty and glory, and the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 53 
 
 second as a woman of vice and ugliness and 
 shame. In that superlative contrast there is 
 figuratively set before young life the value and 
 victory of wisdom, and the disaster and defeat of 
 folly ; in other words, the wisdom of the fear of 
 the Lord, and the folly of forgetfulness of God. 
 
 The living message is to be discovered in the 
 permanent value. It finds its complete expres- 
 sion in words as fresh as the day in which we 
 live, though they come to us from the long gone 
 centuries. 
 
 The precepts are stated thus : 
 
 " My son, forget not my law ; 
 But let thine heart keep my commandments : 
 For length of days, and years of life, 
 And peace, shall they add to thee. 
 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee : 
 Bind them about thy neck ; 
 Write them upon the table of thine heart : 
 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding 
 In the sight of God and man." 
 
 The practice is enjoined thus : 
 
 " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, 
 And lean not upon thine own understanding : 
 In all thy ways acknowledge Him, 
 And He shall direct thy paths. 
 Be not wise in thine own eyes ; 
 Fear the Lord, and depart from evil : 
 It shall be health to thy navel, 
 And marrow to thy bones.
 
 54 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 
 
 Honour the Lord with thy substance, 
 And with the firstfruits of all thine increase : 
 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, 
 And thy fats shall overflow with new wine. ' ' 
 
 That is not out of date. I remember well the 
 date when I first left home for school. The last 
 thing my father said to me was this : I want to 
 give you a motto for life. "In all thy ways 
 acknowledge Him, And He shall direct thy 
 paths." One cannot give any boy a better 
 motto. That is the beginning of wisdom. It is 
 the qualification for becoming wise. A man in 
 right relationship to God holds the key of all 
 secrets. 
 
 I turn to the New Testament for the final 
 words : " If any of you lacketh wisdom, let him 
 ask of God, Who giveth to all liberally and 
 upbraideth not." The word " wisdom " in that 
 passage is the exact equivalent of the Old Testa- 
 ment word. There are different words translated 
 " wisdom " both in the Old and New Testaments, 
 but the Hebrew word in Proverbs is translated 
 in the Septuagint by that actual word of which 
 James makes use. The Hebrew philosophy is 
 illuminated by the Christian conception in the 
 writing of James. A little later, in his letter, 
 he described the " wisdom that is from above "
 
 THE MESSAGE OF PROVERBS 55 
 
 as "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to 
 be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, 
 without variance, without hypocrisy." 
 
 The selfsame word is used by Paul in the 
 crowning epistle of his system. Concerning the 
 Christ of God, he affirms : " In Whom are all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." 
 And again concerning the Church, he declares : 
 " And in Him ye are made full." 
 
 Thus to-day we begin according to the ancient 
 philosophy : " The fear of the Lord is the begin- 
 ning of wisdom " ; but the light about us is 
 brighter than it was in the olden time. God has 
 been manifest in flesh. By that unveiling we 
 have had a revelation of God's wisdom ; and 
 now for all time at home, in our friendships, 
 and in the midst of the city's rush and hurry 
 we listen for the voice of the Son of God ; and 
 following the track of His footsteps, we come 
 into the ultimate Wisdom slowly, for we also are 
 ofttimes fools and blind, but surely, for He is 
 forever the All-wise and the perfectly patient 
 One.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 V., VI. 
 
 vii., viii. 
 
 L The Revelation of Folly 
 
 L An oblique Outlook at the Universe. L 4 ii. 
 M. A Misconception of God. iii., iv. 
 
 I Government of Forces. 
 
 | Abandonment of People. 
 
 Jehovah absent. 
 
 iii. A Religion of Fear and Fatalism. 
 iv. An Attitude of cynical Indifference. 
 v. A narrow Outlook. Self-shadowed. 
 vi. A false Earnestness. 4 ix. xi. 8. 
 
 vii. A hopeless Pessimism. 
 
 II. The Statement of Wisdom 
 i. The True Order, xi. 9, 10. 
 ii. The True Beginning, xii. i, 12. 
 iii. The True Wisdom, xii. 13, 14. 
 
 I. A Principle Recognized 
 
 Conviction affects Char- 
 acter through Conduct. 
 
 Conduct untrue to Con- 
 viction is Disaster. 
 
 Conduct guided by Con 
 viction is Fulfillment. 
 
 II. An Application 
 
 To dethrone God is to 
 lose the Key of Life. 
 
 To enthrone God is to 
 enter into Life.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 THE book of Ecclesiastes is the third and 
 last of the wisdom books of the Old 
 Testament. Its ultimate message is 
 that of the book of Proverbs, which is epitomized 
 in the words : 
 
 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, 
 And lean not upon thine own understanding : 
 In all thy ways acknowledge Him, 
 And He shall direct thy paths." 
 
 In the last chapter and the closing verse of the 
 book of Ecclesiastes, these words occur : - 
 
 " Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the 
 whole of man." 
 
 The word " duty " in our version is italicized, and 
 we do well to omit it It has no existence in the 
 Hebrew text. The whole of man, then, is to 
 "fear God, and keep His commandments." 
 That expresses the same philosophy as that of 
 Proverbs, though in different words. 
 
 What then is the difference between these 
 two books ? In Proverbs wisdom is first defined, 
 and then her voice is heard throughout 
 
 57
 
 58 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 In Ecclesiastes we have something quite dif- 
 ferent. Wisdom is still essentially the same. In 
 God it is His ultimate knowledge. In man, 
 therefore, it is the result of right relationship to 
 God. While in Proverbs the way of wisdom is 
 described, in Ecclesiastes the results of disobedi- 
 ence are set forth. In this book we have the rev- 
 elation of the experience of a man who failed to 
 fear the Lord, and therefore lost the key to the 
 ultimate knowledge and wisdom. In the study 
 of this book we must be clear in our own mind 
 as to the difference between the time whes. it was 
 written, and the time when the writer passed 
 through the experiences he describes. 
 
 Ecclesiastes is not a diary. It is, as we saw 
 when we studied its content, a sermon ; that is, 
 one set discourse. The text is first given ; the 
 introduction is in proper place ; and then the 
 main body of the discourse proceeds in regular 
 sequence to mass the evidence to the truth of the 
 proposition of the text. 
 
 The attitude of the preacher must be under- 
 stood, or we shall miss the value of the book. 
 Through all his experiences he never lost his in- 
 tellectual conviction of the existence of God. He 
 was neither infidel nor agnostic. Unless a man
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 59 
 
 profoundly believe in the existence of God, he 
 will never say " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity " 
 when he is trying to live without God. There is 
 a deadly satisfaction possible to a man if he can 
 once rid himself of his belief in the existence of 
 God. It is deadly because it is similar to the 
 satisfaction resulting from the use of an opiate. 
 All the restlessness of humanity is cause for 
 thankfulness in that it reveals the underlying 
 sense of God. All the sob and agony of Eccle- 
 siastes is the outcome of the fact that the man 
 whose experience it describes never questioned 
 the existence of God. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, the answering atti- 
 tude of fear described in the book of Proverbs 
 was absent He believed in God, but lacked the 
 fear which is the beginning of wisdom. He did 
 not trust in Jehovah with all his heart. He did 
 lean upon his own understanding. Believing in 
 the existence of God, he did not in all his ways 
 acknowledge Him, and consequently his paths 
 lacked direction, and he wandered over trackless 
 deserts in an agony of desire without satisfaction. 
 The book of Ecclesiastes, therefore, is a mirror in 
 which we see what life becomes when it is lived 
 without submission to intellectual conviction.
 
 60 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 The permanent values of the book are two. 
 The first is that of the revelation of the vanity of 
 life unyielded to God ; and the second is that of 
 a brief statement of what true wisdom is. 
 
 The revelation of the vanity of a godless life is 
 sevenfold. In studying the preacher's account 
 of his own experiences, we observe in him an 
 oblique outlook upon the universe, a misconcep- 
 tion of God, a religion of fear and fatalism, an 
 attitude of cynical indifference, a narrow concep- 
 tion of life, a false earnestness and hopeless pes- 
 simism. 
 
 He had an oblique outlook upon the universe. 
 This is the euphemistic method of expressing the 
 truth. A friend of mine, discussing with me the 
 brilliant articles which appeared in the Spectator 
 in former days from the pen of Hutton, declared 
 that while they still are full of fascination, as rev- 
 elations of the times in which they were written, 
 they are of no use to-day. When I asked him 
 how he accounted for it, he bluntly replied, 
 " Hutton squinted at everything." Not perfectly 
 catching his meaning, he explained by saying 
 that Hutton saw only one aspect of things, and, 
 therefore, while his articles appealed to men who 
 lived in the midst of the circumstances with
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 61 
 
 which he dealt, at the distance of a quarter of 
 a century they are valueless. The book of 
 Ecclesiastes gives us the picture of the uni- 
 verse, which results from this kind of outlook. 
 This man saw its machinery, but not its motive. 
 He looked intently, and discovered things the 
 scientific accuracy of which it has taken centuries 
 to discover such as the fact that the winds 
 move in circuits ; that rivers rising in the moun- 
 tains flow to the sea and return again. When 
 he declared that all was vanity, he was oppressed 
 with the constant grind of the machinery of the 
 universe, and that because he had no commu- 
 nion with the Master Spirit controlling the ma- 
 chinery, or, as we have said, had no consciousness 
 of the motive. If one having no knowledge of 
 machinery should be placed in the midst of the 
 flying spindles and turning wheels of a Lanca- 
 shire cotton mill, he would in all probability be 
 oppressed by the monotonous movement ; but if 
 that machinery is understood from the stand- 
 point of the counting-house where the masters of 
 the movement are directing, in order to the com- 
 pletion of the fabric which is to serve the pur- 
 poses of countless multitudes, he would discover 
 the music of the machinery. The outlook of the
 
 62 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 man whose life is not one of fellowship with God 
 is oblique, and the result must inevitably be that 
 of depression. 
 
 This outlook resulted in a misconception of 
 God. Neglecting the primary matter of personal 
 dealing with God, he looked out upon the world ; 
 and observing its natural phenomena and its 
 social conditions, attempted to discover God 
 through them, and thus came to his misconcep- 
 tion. His observation did not allow him to deny 
 the Divine government of the universe, but he 
 only saw it as the government of forces, and so 
 God became to him merely the presiding genius 
 maintaining the movement of the machinery 
 without any high purpose. Not recognizing that 
 God has dealings with man in the highest things 
 of his life, failing to discover the issue towards 
 which all things are working, looking merely at 
 them in their motion, he came to the conclusion 
 that there was no advantage in wickedness or in 
 goodness. All things happened to all men in the 
 same way, whether they were wicked or good. 
 His conception of God is clearly evidenced in the 
 fact that the name Jehovah is never found in the 
 book. Elohim, the word which indicates majesty 
 and might, is the only one he made use of. He
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 63 
 
 had no conception such as that indicated by the 
 word Jehovah, which suggests the fact that God 
 draws near in grace to human life, becoming to 
 each individual what it needs for its perfecting. 
 As the result of this misconception of God, this 
 man's religion was a religion of fear and fatalism. 
 He tried everything knowledge, mirth and 
 licentiousness. He had considered the mecha- 
 nism of the universe ; he had observed the social 
 oppression existing on every hand ; then he de- 
 clared his religious position. " Keep thy foot 
 when thou goest to the house of God." It is per- 
 fectly true that there is an application of that word 
 which we often make, and which is necessary and 
 proper, that, namely, of insisting upon the neces- 
 sity for reverence in the hour and the place of 
 worship. It is perfectly certain, however, that 
 the writer meant a great deal more than that. 
 Having put God out of practical account in per- 
 sonal life, and having therefore come to a false 
 conception concerning Him, the only thought of 
 worship which remained to him was that of fear in 
 a slavish sense. It was not that he was afraid of 
 hurting God, but rather fear lest God should hurt 
 him. His only idea, then, of religion was that, in 
 the presence of the relentless might of God, it was
 
 64 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 wise to be careful. The whole truth is revealed 
 in his sense of the distance of God ; " God is in 
 heaven, thou upon earth." 
 
 The outcome of all this was that he at last 
 adopted an attitude of cynical indifference. He 
 declared that it was best never to be amazed at 
 anything. He urged men not to be troubled by 
 the conditions of life existing around them. His 
 whole philosophy may be expressed in the terms 
 of advice with which we are familiar in our own 
 day. Do not be surprised at anything ; never 
 be anxious ; and above everything, do not be ex- 
 tremists. Notice well the calculating cynicism 
 of the advice, "Be not righteous over-much. 
 . . . Be not over-much wicked." Strike the 
 happy medium, and let things alone. It was the 
 attitude of cultivated indifference to conditions 
 which have troubled, and it resulted from the fact 
 that life was not considered in its personal, direct, 
 immediate relationship to God. 
 
 The inevitable result was that his outlook was 
 narrow. Wherever he looked he saw the shadow 
 of his own personality. He had no vision of any- 
 thing beyond the present world. Consequently 
 he dreaded death for the simple reason that it 
 ended life. He considered that beyond death he
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 65 
 
 would not be able to remember the things he had 
 left behind. His conception of life was narrowed 
 by geographical boundaries, and the limitations of 
 the calendar. 
 
 Contentment with such a conception was im- 
 possible, and the outcome was false earnestness. 
 This is expressed in the words, " Whatsoever thy 
 hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for 
 there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor 
 wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." 
 Again we have a quotation which we constantly 
 make use of in an entirely different way from that 
 intended by the writer, neither is it wholly unjus- 
 tified. If there be the larger outlook on life, it is 
 well that we do with our might whatever we find 
 to do ; but in the case of this man it was the last 
 advice of pessimism. In view of the fact that 
 there was nothing beyond the present life, he de- 
 cided that the best thing possible was to make the 
 most of the present life, to put all the forces of life 
 into present realization. 
 
 The ultimate consequence of the process was 
 that of the hopeless pessimism expressed in the 
 text, " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." 
 
 Here, then, is the permanent value of the book. 
 It reveals the fact that if a man put God out of
 
 66 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 count in the actuality of his conduct, no matter 
 how accurate his intellectual conviction may be, 
 these things inevitably follow. His outlook 
 upon the universe is oblique ; he comes to a 
 misconception of God ; his religion becomes 
 that of fear and fatalism ; he presently assumes 
 an attitude of synical indifference ; his concep- 
 tion of life is narrow ; into the activities of the 
 near things he puts deadly and disastrous ear- 
 nestness ; until at last, weary of everything, he 
 exclaims : " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." 
 
 The second supreme value of the book is its 
 statement of what true wisdom is. " This is the 
 end of the matter ; all hath been heard ; fear 
 God, and keep His commandments ; for this is 
 the whole of man." The section which culmi- 
 nates in this declaration commences : " Rejoice, 
 O young man, in thy youth ; and let thy heart 
 cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in 
 the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine 
 eyes : but know thou, that for all these things 
 God will bring thee into judgment." This pas- 
 sage again has received interpretation which is 
 startlingly out of harmony with its simplest inten- 
 tion. In my study I have an old Encyclopaedia of 
 Sermonic Literature, and it is interesting to note
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 67 
 
 the titles of sermons preached on this text, all oi 
 them more that thirty years ago. One will 
 suffice as illustration: The Ironical Permission. 
 As a matter of fact, there is no irony whatever in 
 the text It is a plain call to a young man to 
 rejoice in his youth. The final declaration, 
 " For all these things God will bring thee into 
 judgment," is not intended to fill the heart with 
 terror, but rather to indicate the true line of wis- 
 dom. God intends the young man to rejoice, 
 and to enter into the world of hope and joy, but 
 he must ever remember that all these capacities 
 of his being must not be abused, because God 
 will require account of the way in which His 
 gifts have been used. The intention is exactly 
 the same as that contained in the words of Prov- 
 erbs : 
 
 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, 
 And lean not upon thine own understanding. 
 In all Thy ways acknowledge Him, 
 And He shall direct thy paths." 
 
 Finally, in the words of Ecclesiastes, already 
 quoted : " This is the end of the matter ; all hath 
 been heard ; fear God, and keep His command- 
 ments." To forget God is to enter into life, and
 
 68 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 to fail of all its profoundest value, until the heart 
 cries out, " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." To 
 " fear God, and keep His commandments " is to 
 enter into life, and to live in all the fullest sense 
 of the word. 
 
 What, then, is the living message of this book ? 
 Surely it is declared when the permanent value 
 is discovered. Yet let me attempt to state it 
 briefly in other words. The first note of the 
 message is that conviction affects character 
 through conduct. We cannot escape from that, 
 whether we be Christian or not. It is an eternal 
 principle. Conduct untrue to conviction is de- 
 structive. Conduct guided by conviction is con- 
 structive. Conviction of God yielded to by the 
 conduct of obedience produces the character of 
 contentment and of strength. The same con- 
 viction disregarded in conduct issues in char- 
 acter of discontent and weakness. 
 
 In the book of Proverbs I find the white light, 
 indicating the direction of wisdom. 
 
 In the book of Ecclesiastes I have the red 
 light, revealing the way of vanity. 
 
 To dethrone God is to lose the key of life. 
 Man may try knowledge, he may turn to mirth, 
 he may employ wealth, he may to use the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 69 
 
 thought of the writer, and the language of this 
 century see life ; but if he attempt to enter into 
 these things without God, he has lost the key, 
 and the innermost shrines he cannot discover. 
 
 On the other hand, if in all his ways he ac- 
 knowledge God, count Him, enthrone Him ; 
 then answering his intellectual conviction, he 
 will find the key of life, and knowledge will be- 
 come power, mirth a perpetual refreshment, 
 wealth a means of helpfulness, and in all fullness 
 he will see life. 
 
 These Old Testament teachings are all fulfilled 
 in the New Testament. The whole philosophy 
 is expressed in the words of Jesus : " This is life 
 eternal, that they should know Thee the only 
 true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, 
 even Jesus Christ." To know and obey Christ, 
 and so to know and obey God, is to find all the 
 doors of life open : 
 
 "In Thy presence is fullness of joy ; 
 In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever- 
 more." 
 
 Whatever may be the circumstances of the pass- 
 ing hours, wealth or poverty, adversity or pros- 
 Tritv. sunshine or shadow ; out of all. the true
 
 70 THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES 
 
 values are obtained if God is enthroned. If not, 
 then whatever path be chosen or course pursued, 
 the ultimate language of experience will be: 
 " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The Revelation of the true Nature of human Love 
 
 i. The Foundations of Love. 
 
 Mutual Satisfaction, ii. 2, 3. 
 Complementary. 
 Exclusive. 
 ii. The Strength of Love. 
 
 Indestructible, viii. 6, 7. 
 
 An unquenchable Flame, 
 iii. The Methods of Love. 
 
 f Intense. 
 \ Protective, 
 j Answering. 
 | Trusting. 
 
 a. Male. Irresistible. 
 
 b. Female. Yielding to such. 
 
 iv. The Experience of Love. 
 
 a. Rest. 
 
 b. Joy. 
 
 c. Courage. 
 
 II. The Unveiling of religious Experience 
 
 i. The Vindication of this Value. 
 
 a. The Old Testament. 
 
 1. Chaldee Targum. 
 
 2. Psalm xlv. 
 
 3. Hosea. Isaiah. Jeremiah. Ezekiel. 
 
 b. The New Testament. Eph. v. 25-32. 
 ii. The Application. 
 
 <z. The Foundations of Love. 
 
 b. The Strength of Love. 
 
 c. The Methods of Love. 
 
 d. The Experience of Love. 
 
 I. The Greatest Is Love " 
 
 i. In human Interrelation- 
 ships. 
 
 ii. In the ultimate of human 
 Life, which is Re- 
 ligion. 
 
 II. Therefore 
 
 i. Sanctify your human 
 Love by the Ultimate. 
 ii. Interpret your religious 
 Life in Terms of hu- 
 man Love. 
 Passion. 
 Abandonment 
 Fidelity.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF THE SONG 
 OF SONGS 
 
 THERE is no book in the Old Testament 
 more easy to deal with in regard to its 
 message than the Song of Songs, if we 
 accept one very simple canon of interpretation. 
 That is to be found in our lecture on the content 
 of the book. Let me, therefore, repeat the 
 words of one brief paragraph therefrom : 
 
 " The songs should be treated first as simple 
 and yet sublime songs of human affection. 
 When they are thus understood, reverently the 
 thoughts may be lifted into the higher value of 
 setting forth the joys of the communion between 
 the spirit of man and the Spirit of God, and 
 ultimately between the Church and Christ." 
 
 To take this view of the Song of Solomon is 
 to recognize the supremacy of love. Human life 
 finds its highest fulfillment in the love of man 
 and woman. The supreme thing in religion is 
 love between the soul and God. The highest 
 realization of that supreme experience of love 
 between God and the soul is created by Christ. 
 
 73
 
 74 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 In Him, God came near to man in order to woo 
 him. In Him, man came to know God and to 
 love Him. Therefore I can sing the songs of 
 Solomon, as did the mystics, as setting forth the 
 relationship between Christ and His bride. 
 
 Still to my amazement I hear the Bridegroom 
 singing : 
 
 " As a lily among thorns, 
 So is my love among the daughters." 
 
 Still I hear the bride replying : 
 
 " I sat down under his shadow with great delight, 
 And his fruit was sweet to my taste. 
 He brought me to the banqueting house, 
 And his banner over me was love." 
 
 Still I hear the mystic language both of bride 
 and bridegroom as each of the other declares, 
 " My beloved is mine." 
 
 In the first place, this was undoubtedly an 
 earthly love-song, but it was very pure and very 
 beautiful. There are men and women who would 
 find indecencies in heaven if they ever got 
 there but they would take them in their own 
 corrupt souls. To those who live lives of simple 
 purity, these songs are full of beauty, as they 
 utter the language of human love ; and finally,
 
 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 75 
 
 in spiritual experience, they express the relation 
 of such as have been wooed by God in Christ, 
 and thus have come to know and love Him. 
 
 The permanent values of the Song are two. 
 It is, first, a revelation of the true nature of 
 human love. It is, secondly, an unveiling of the 
 highest religious experience. 
 
 The mode of expression is peculiarly Eastern. 
 There are no neutral tints. My artist friends 
 must be patient with me if I declare myself 
 Philistine enough to believe that neutral tints are 
 evidences of a decadent age. This Song of 
 Solomon is magnificent in its gorgeous colours, 
 in its high figures of speech, in the prodigality 
 of its protestations. If there be no mystical 
 value in the book, it is yet full of human interest. 
 It is only in the atmosphere created by such 
 flaming colour, superlative utterance, and over- 
 whelming audacity, that it is possible ultimately 
 to appreciate the strength of love. The cool, 
 calculating, mechanical man who dislikes this 
 book has never been in love, and probably never 
 will be. 
 
 Beginning, then, with this acceptance of the 
 book as a collection of human love-songs, I find 
 that it reveals much concerning the nature of
 
 76 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 love which is of supreme importance. The 
 foundation of love is laid bare. The strength of 
 love is revealed. The methods of love are indi- 
 cated. The experience of love is described. 
 
 Through all the words which Solomon and the 
 Shulammite utter, each to the other, there 
 breathes the spirit of mutual satisfaction. In 
 that the very foundation of love is laid bare. 
 Those standing without may be unable to see 
 the reason why each finds perfect rest in the 
 other. That inability does not alter the fact. 
 And that fact is the fundamental one in love. 
 Joseph Cook, of Boston, in his second lecture on 
 " Infidel Attack on the Family," declared that a 
 supreme affection is the only natural basis of 
 marriage, and that supreme affection can only 
 exist between two. In all the songs of bride and 
 bridegroom throughout this book that supreme 
 affection is manifest. In this fact they illuminate 
 the original Divine purpose of love between man 
 and woman as the basis of marriage. As we 
 have said, the fact is evident through all the 
 songs. One or two brief quotations by way of 
 illustration will suffice. 
 
 " As a lily among thorns, 
 So is my love among the daughters."
 
 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 77 
 That is the language of a man in love. 
 
 " As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, 
 So is my beloved among the sons." 
 
 That is the answer of the woman's love. The 
 whole passage finely illustrates the meaning of 
 supreme affection between two. In each case 
 love is absolutely exclusive. Each sees the other 
 as the only one. By the side of the lily, to the 
 spirit of the man, all others are as thorns. To 
 the vision of the woman one tree is supreme in 
 glory and beauty, while all the rest are massed 
 as "the trees of the wood." This kind of love is 
 not born amid the feverish excitement of a Lon- 
 don season. Neither does it result from inane 
 trifling with the subject of love and marriage. 
 Love at its highest is supreme affection between 
 two. Love at its deepest is the unreasoned but 
 absolute mutual satisfaction of one woman and 
 one man in each other. 
 
 The strength of love is fully revealed through- 
 out the songs. One passage will suffice by way 
 of illustration : 
 
 " Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine 
 
 arm : 
 
 For love is strong as death ; 
 Jealousy is cruel as the grave : 
 The flashes thereof are flashes of fire,
 
 78 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 A very flame of the Lord. 
 
 Many waters cannot quench love, 
 
 Neither can the floods drown it : 
 
 If a man would give all the substance of his house for 
 
 love, 
 He would utterly be contemned." 
 
 No exposition is needed of this passage, so clear 
 and forceful is it in its setting forth of the over- 
 whelming and all-victorious strength of true love. 
 In Paul's classic description of love there is one 
 simple statement into which all this teaching is 
 concentrated, so that it flashes with the lustre of 
 diamonds : 
 
 " Love never faileth." 
 
 That supreme and all-inclusive truth of the 
 strength of love is illustrated throughout the whole 
 of these songs. 
 
 The methods of love are revealed, as through 
 the idyllic nature of the book the story of the 
 wooing and betrothal, the marriage and the after 
 life is told. Inspired by love, Solomon is irresist- 
 ible, and to the strength of that appeal of love 
 the Shulammite yields, not weakly, but with a 
 strength that is only overcome by the supremacy 
 of love. In every sentence that falls from his 
 lips, Solomon reveals the intensity of his devo- 
 tion, to the appeal of which the Shulammite
 
 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 79 
 
 answers with intensity more quiet but none the 
 less strong. Finally, in all his attitude, Solomon 
 is overshadowing and protective, and the Shulam- 
 mite rests in his shadow with great delight, in 
 perfect security. 
 
 The experience of love is that of rest, joy, and 
 courage. Each finds in the other the place of 
 that perfect content which is of the essence of rest, 
 and which cannot be disturbed by storm or 
 tempest. In the fullness of love there is abiding 
 gladness, which fills the heart with songs, and 
 flings its light upon all circumstances, so that 
 the grayest day is illumined, and the roughest 
 sackcloth is transfigured into the glory of the 
 purple. In the union of the strength of the love 
 of each there is courage, which enables both to 
 face all circumstances without faltering, and side 
 by side to win every contested field, or even out 
 of defeat to gather values which are of the es- 
 sence of victory. 
 
 If this, then, is only a human love song, would 
 to God that those who know its strength would 
 sing it in the highways and byways, to recall 
 men and women from superficial and frivolous 
 thinking about love, to a true conception of its 
 height and depth and beauty.
 
 8o MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 Three times the singer breaks in upon the songs 
 of the bride and bridegroom, and always with 
 the same words : 
 
 " I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, 
 By the roes, and by the hinds of the field, 
 That ye stir not up, nor awaken love 
 Until it please." 
 
 Thus suddenly, in the midst of the music, there 
 is a pause, and the voice of the singer is heard in 
 interpretation and warning. The method is not 
 that of melody or of harmony, but rather that of 
 recitative, in which at the end of the marriage, 
 between the wooing and the betrothal, and in the 
 midst of the united life the revealing caution is 
 uttered. I would that the interrupting charge 
 might be inscribed in letters of fire, and hung 
 in every hall where young people assemble. In 
 the presence of the glory of love it warns them 
 not to trifle with the most sacred thing in life. 
 Thus, as a song of human love only, it is chief of all 
 the songs of human life, in very deed the Song 
 of Songs. 
 
 It is when we thus see the beauty of it in its 
 first application that we discover how wondrously 
 it flashes its light upon the vaster spaces, and
 
 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 81 
 
 inevitably becomes the unveiling of religious ex- 
 perience at its highest and best. I do not hesitate 
 to affirm that I believe this was the ultimate in- 
 tention of the writer. It is an interesting fact 
 that the Chaldee Targum contains a Jewish com- 
 mentary on the book, the title of which reads : 
 " The songs and hymns which Solomon, the 
 prophet-king of Israel, delivered by the spirit of 
 prophecy before Jehovah, the Lord of the whole 
 earth." That title being, as we have said, not 
 Christian but Jewish, is most suggestive. It 
 describes Solomon, not as a king merely, but as 
 a prophet-king, and justly affirms that the songs 
 and hymns were delivered by the spirit of 
 prophecy, and, moreover, that they were de- 
 livered before Jehovah, the Lord of the whole 
 earth. If Solomon wrote of human love, he 
 nevertheless sang before Jehovah. The un- 
 doubted thought of that ancient title is that the 
 songs had a spiritual significance. 
 
 This interpretation is warranted, moreover, by 
 the fact that the writers of the Old Testament 
 dealt with the relationship between God and His 
 ancient people as that between husband and wife. 
 In the psalm which bears the title " A song of 
 loves," in which the writer declares that he speaks
 
 82 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 of the things which he has made touching the 
 king, both the king in his glory and the queen in 
 her beauty are described. The whole of the 
 prophecy of Hosea is based upon this great con- 
 ception, and in some of the greatest passages in 
 the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, the 
 same illustration is used. 
 
 If we pass from the Old Testament Scriptures 
 to those of the New, we find in the crowning letter 
 of Paul's system a passage in which, in order to 
 state the marriage relationship on the highest 
 plane, the apostle applies the same thought to 
 the relation between Christ and His Church : 
 
 " Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ 
 also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for 
 it ; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it 
 by the washing of water with the Word, that He 
 might present the Church to Himself a glorious 
 Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such 
 thing ; but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish. Even so ought husbands also to love 
 their own wives as their own bodies. He that 
 loveth his own wife loveth himself : for no man 
 ever hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and 
 cherisheth it, even as Christ also the Church ; 
 because we are members of His body. . . .
 
 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 83 
 
 This mystery is great : but I speak in regard of 
 Christ and of the Church." 
 
 Thus the Hebrew writers used the figure 
 to indicate the relation between God and His 
 people ; and the great exponent of Christian 
 truth shows how the ideal is perfectly realized in 
 the relation between Christ and His Church. 
 
 If then we are justified in discovering in these 
 songs language which may be used as setting 
 forth the relationship between Christ and His 
 people, we may take the revelations of human 
 love which they convey, and use them as both re- 
 vealing and expressing the perfections of that 
 communion. The foundation of the love existing 
 between Christ and His own is that of mutual 
 satisfaction. As to our satisfaction in Him noth- 
 ing need be written. We constantly give ex* 
 pression to the truth : 
 
 " Thou, O Christ, art all I want, 
 More than all in Thee I find.'' 
 
 The thought that He finds satisfaction in us is 
 one which must fill us with perennial astonish- 
 ment, but it is none the less true. Even if to-day 
 we fail to see the glory of His perfected work in 
 us, it is nevertheless true that in His redeemed at
 
 84 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 last He shall see of the travail of His soul, and 
 be satisfied. That mutual satisfaction is the very 
 foundation of love. Let each express it in indi- 
 vidual language. I am satisfied in Him, and He 
 is satisfied in me ; not in me as I now am, but in 
 that which He will make me, in that which I shall 
 be, when His work is perfected in me. 
 
 Of the strength of the love nothing finer can be 
 said than by quotation of the actual words of the 
 song : 
 
 " Love is strong as death. . . . 
 Many waters cannot quench love, 
 Neither can the floods drown it." 
 
 As to His love for us, the Cross is the literal and 
 actual proof of these words. As for us, in pro- 
 portion as we yield ourselves to the constraint of 
 His love, it becomes true that 
 
 " Many waters cannot quench love, 
 Neither can the floods drown it." 
 
 The methods of love suggested in the song 
 perfectly interpret the methods of Christ with us, 
 and our methods with Him. All who know Him 
 are conscious of the irresistible nature of His love. 
 It was and is to that we yield ourselves as we 
 sing :
 
 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 85 
 
 " Nay, but I yield, I yield, 
 I can hold out no more; 
 I sink, by dying love compelled, 
 And own Thee Conqueror." 
 
 Moreover, of the intensity of His love it is im- 
 possible to speak ; but in its approach, in its 
 constant method, we are forever conscious of it. 
 Our love to Him has the same note of intensity in 
 proportion as we yield in whole-hearted abandon- 
 ment to the appeal of His. His love of us is ever 
 that of the overshadowing and protective One. 
 All the words of the song only find their perfect 
 fulfillment in those who know and trust Him, and 
 are able to say : 
 
 " I sat down under his shadow with great delight. . . . 
 He brought me to the banqueting house, 
 And his banner over me was love." 
 
 Finally, in this mutual love of Christ and His 
 people, there is the same threefold experience of 
 rest, joy, and courage. Zephaniah, in the sweetest 
 song of the Old Testament, which sets forth the 
 love of God for His people, declared : 
 
 "He will rejoice over thee with joy; 
 He will rest in His love, 
 He will joy over thee with singing." 
 
 Thus, as we let this song sing to us in all its
 
 86 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 
 
 purity and strength, the story of human love on 
 its highest level, it inevitably lifts us on wings 
 into a more perfect understanding of the relation- 
 ship between Christ and His own. 
 
 If these be the permanent values, what is the 
 living message of this book ? This may be stated 
 in few words. The book declares to-day the 
 truth embodied in the word of Paul : " The great- 
 est of these is love." Love is the greatest fact in 
 all human interrelationships. It is the greatest 
 experience in the spiritual realm. It is religion. 
 That surely was the meaning of our Lord's words, 
 when He said : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
 with all thy mind. This is the great and first 
 commandment. And a second like unto it is this, 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 
 
 The final living message of the book is twofold. 
 First, human love should ever be sanctified by 
 the thoughts of the ultimate love which it illus- 
 trates. All things on earth have relationships 
 stretching out into the infinite and eternal. There 
 should be and, indeed, there can be no perfect 
 human love which does not harmonize with the 
 spiritual and the Divine. 
 
 Secondly, we must attempt to interpret our re-
 
 MESSAGE OF THE SONG OF SONGS 87 
 
 ligious life in the terms of our human love. Its 
 terms are those of passion, abandonment, and 
 fidelity, the burning flame which pours life right 
 out in service, and keeps it true. If we may but 
 come to such realization of our fellowship with 
 the Lord as to express our love to Him on this 
 wise, what a change will be wrought in all our 
 experience, and in all our service. 
 
 Thus we admit that the Song of Solomon is an 
 Eastern love song, and if no more than that, it is 
 full of beauty, and full of value ; but because it is 
 so perfectly a human love song, and because 
 human love is offspring of the Divine love, the 
 song reaches out and carries us with it to higher 
 heights, forever helping us to understand the 
 final experiences of the soul in religion, those of 
 the love of God for us, and our love for God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. Government 
 i. The Principles. 
 
 a. Holiness. The Inspiration. 
 
 b. Righteousness. The Activity. 
 
 c. Justice. The Method. 
 ii. The Methods. 
 
 a. Revelation. 
 
 b. Explanation. 
 
 c. Application. 
 
 iii. The Characteristics 
 
 a. Patience. 
 
 b. Persistence. 
 
 c. Power. 
 
 II. Grace 
 
 i. The Principle of the Principles. 
 
 Human Sin violates the Principles. 
 That is the Cross in the Experience of God. 
 The unutterable Sorrow of God. 
 ii. The Method of the Methods. 
 
 Human salvation depends upon Submission to 
 
 the Method. 
 
 That is the Cross in the Activity of God. 
 The unsearchable Grace of God. 
 iii. The Character of the Characteristics. 
 
 Human Destiny determined by Response to 
 
 the Characteristics. 
 That is the Cross in its effect on man. 
 The unquenchable Love of God. 
 
 I. Fundamental 
 
 i. Submission to Govern* 
 
 ment. 
 ii. Salvation by Grace. 
 
 II. The Interrelation 
 
 i. To Government for 
 Grace. 
 
 ii. In Grace for Govern- 
 ment
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 THE section of the Divine library con- 
 taining the prophetic writings speaks 
 with no uncertain sound to our own 
 age. 
 
 We begin with the prophecy of Isaiah. Its 
 message concerns the Throne, and was spoken 
 to the nation. 
 
 Isaiah, in common with all the prophets, had 
 practically nothing to say to men about in- 
 dividual relationship to God. Of course he 
 never lost sight of the importance of individual 
 life in order to the strength of national life ; but 
 he was preeminently dealing with the nation as 
 a nation. 
 
 The content of the first section of the book 
 reveals the fact that, in the economy of God, 
 judgment ever proceeds to peace. It is important 
 to recognize that judgment beyond this life is 
 not in view. The prophet deals with judgment 
 here and now. Let no one misunderstand this 
 statement. I am not denying the fact of judg- 
 
 89
 
 90 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 ment beyond this life, but only pointing out that 
 such judgment is not that to which the prophet 
 refers in this book. It is rather the judgment 
 of God in this world proceeding to the establish- 
 ment of peace in this world. 
 
 So also in the final section of the book, which 
 teaches that peace is ever based on righteousness, 
 the application of the teaching is to a peace ex- 
 perienced in this world, upon the basis of right- 
 eousness established in this world. The prophet's 
 outlook is never upon the life that lies beyond. 
 
 The permanent value of the book then is that 
 it reveals the abiding Throne of God ; and the 
 principles of its activity in the affairs of men. 
 The living message of the book is immediately 
 dependent upon this revelation. As we stand in 
 the light of the unveiled Throne, we are brought 
 to an understanding of man's relation to that 
 Throne ; not merely a revelation of what his re- 
 lation ought to be, but a revelation of what it is, 
 for no man can escape the government of God 
 either in this life or in that which is to come. 
 
 If I were asked to choose from this prophecy 
 the two chapters which are supreme, because 
 they fling their light upon all the rest, I should 
 choose the sixth and the fifty-third, which respect-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 91 
 
 ively bring us into the presence of the Throne ; 
 and reveal to us the suffering of the Servant of 
 God in Whom the authority of the Throne is 
 vested. 
 
 The vision of the Throne was given to Isaiah 
 in the year in which King Uzziah died. He had 
 lived in the consciousness of that Throne before, 
 but when the earthly throne became vacant, there 
 came to him a new unveiling of the Throne 
 which is never vacant. All the life of Isaiah had 
 been lived in the reign of Uzziah. He had never 
 known another king. Those of us who lived all 
 the first part of our lives in the reign of Victoria 
 can a little understand the prophet's experience. 
 I well remember that there came a strange and 
 almost weird sense of emptiness into my life 
 when I saw on the placards that Victoria had 
 passed away. I had never known any other 
 sovereign on the throne, and it was with a 
 strange sense of loss that I thought of the nation 
 bereft of its queen. So Isaiah must have felt at 
 the death of Uzziah. Then God gave him a 
 special vision of the Throne that is always filled. 
 That vision lifted his ministry on to a higher 
 plane, and its central note and perpetual message 
 became that of the unveiled Throne.
 
 92 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 Concerning that Throne there are two great 
 facts which this prophecy presents to us. First, 
 that of government, and secondly, that of grace. 
 These are evident, and the statement savours 
 of the commonplace ; but Isaiah was preemi- 
 nently the prophet of the commonplace. That 
 was the complaint which the men of his day 
 made against him. In words full of contempt 
 they enquired, " Whom will he teach knowledge ? 
 and whom will he make to understand the mes- 
 sage? them that are weaned from the milk, and 
 drawn from the breasts ? For it is precept upon 
 precept, precept upon precept ; line upon line, 
 line upon line ; here a little, there a little." All 
 this was the language of satirical contempt. The 
 prophet's answer was, in effect, a declaration of 
 the fact that they needed this very teaching and 
 this method, and their failure resulted from their 
 forgetfulness of the simplest first facts of their 
 national existence. 
 
 This in itself creates the pertinence of the mes- 
 sage of this book to our own age. There is 
 nothing we need more than a restatement of the 
 first principles of life ; and these are those of the 
 Throne of God in its government and grace. 
 
 The study of the book reveals the principles*
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 93 
 
 methods, and characteristics of government ; and 
 the principle, method, and character of grace. 
 This phrasing in itself suggests that while the su- 
 preme teaching is that of the government of 
 God, the profoundest revelation is that such gov- 
 ernment is inspired and unified by His grace. 
 From first to last we hear from the Throne the 
 thunderings of authority, and also the tender 
 dominant note of love. If I were asked to select 
 from the New Testament some one passage 
 which would give expression to the inclusive 
 revelation of the prophecy of Isaiah, I should 
 quote from the revelation of John, "A throne 
 . . . and ... in the midst of the 
 throne ... a Lamb." In the sixth chap- 
 ter of the prophecy we see the throne ; in the 
 fifty-third, the Lamb. 
 
 First, then, as to government. The first read- 
 ing of the book of Isaiah would inevitably leave 
 upon the mind the impression of government 
 rather than that of grace. By that I do not in- 
 tend to suggest that grace is a secondary matter. 
 It will certainly be admitted that the deepest 
 meaning of any book which is really worth read- 
 ing is not discovered at the first. It is equally 
 true that that profounder meaning can only be
 
 94 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 reached by the reception of the first impression, 
 and the investigation which such an impression 
 compels. I repeat then, that the stately imagery, 
 the finished rhetoric, and the overwhelming splen- 
 dour of this prophecy must necessarily impress 
 the mind in the first place with the fact of gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 As we have indicated, a consideration of the 
 teaching of this book concerning the Divine 
 government reveals its principles, its methods, its 
 characteristics. 
 
 As to the principles, three words will cover the 
 ground : holiness, righteousness, and justice ; 
 holiness being the inspiration, righteousness the 
 activity, and justice the result. It may be ob- 
 jected that we have omitted mercy. As a mat- 
 ter of fact, in the economy of God, justice and 
 mercy are synonymous terms. Their separation 
 is a violation of the true moral order. When 
 justice and mercy meet together, and righteous- 
 ness and peace kiss each other, it may be a sur- 
 prising thing to those who have had long ac- 
 quaintance with injustice, but the meeting in each 
 case is really the restoration of a lost harmony. 
 In the midst of the chaos of social conditions to- 
 day, absolute justice is the mercy for which the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 95 
 
 world waits. All who know what it is to rejoice 
 in the mercy of God which has brought salva- 
 tion, know also that their rejoicing is based upon 
 the fact that mercy acts in justice. God is 
 " just, and the Justifier of him that hath faith in 
 Jesus." 
 
 The revelation of holiness in the book of Isaiah 
 is fundamental. The expression, " The Holy 
 One of Israel " is almost peculiar to this book. 
 The song of the seraphim as they worshipped in 
 the presence of the King Who occupied the up- 
 lifted Throne celebrated the profoundest fact of 
 His being, " Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of 
 hosts." That holiness is the ceaseless inspira- 
 tion of His government. The word holiness was 
 not peculiar to the Hebrew people. It obtained 
 in the language of all forms of idolatry, but it 
 did not suggest in them what it does in Isaiah's 
 use of it. Its root significance is that of separa- 
 tion, distance. Isaiah's conception of God was 
 one which revealed the deepest significance of 
 this fact of separation, that, namely, of the essen- 
 tial, unquestioned purity of God. This is proved 
 by the effect the consciousness produced in the 
 mind of the prophet which drew from him the 
 cry, " I am a man of unclean lips." Holiness
 
 96 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 then, as purity, is the inspiration of the Divine 
 government. 
 
 Therefore the activity of that government is al- 
 ways that of righteousness. All conduct is the 
 outcome of character, and where the character is 
 holy, the conduct is righteous. Because God is 
 holy, He does righteously. 
 
 The inevitable result is that of justice. In all 
 the dealings of God, both with His own people 
 and with the surrounding nations there is clearly 
 manifest a fine and poetic justice. In the great 
 impeachment of the nation contained in the first 
 chapter this fact is really involved in words 
 which do not at first seem to suggest it. Je- 
 hovah appealed to His people, " Come now, and 
 let us reason together," and thereby claimed 
 that His dealing with them was that of justice. 
 The prophet described the people as bruised and 
 broken from the crown of the head to the sole of 
 the foot by the chastisements of Jehovah, and 
 cried to them, " Why will ye be still stricken, 
 that ye revolt more and more ? " 
 
 The reason of their chastisement was their 
 revolt, and therefore their chastisement resulted 
 not from arbitrary, capricious punishment, but 
 from the necessity of eternal justice. If they
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 97 
 
 could but have been brought to such conscious- 
 ness of this fact as would have resulted in the 
 ending of their revolt, the chastisement would 
 have been removed, and healing would have fol- 
 lowed. That was the significance of the Divine 
 call, " Come now, and let us reason together." 
 
 Thus the principles of government are seen to 
 be those of holiness as inspiration, righteousness 
 as activity, and justice as result. 
 
 Turning to the consideration of the methods of 
 the Divine government, we find them to be those 
 of revelation, explanation, and application. The 
 complaint of the prophet against the chosen peo- 
 ple was, as we have seen, that they had been dis- 
 obedient. Disobedience is only possible where 
 there is knowledge of law, and knowledge of 
 law involves revelation. The nation had been 
 created by revelation. God had unveiled Him- 
 self to them through all their history, and made 
 known His will by words and by messengers. 
 Throughout the whole of his ministry Isaiah kept 
 this fact of the Divine method before the mind of 
 those to whom he spoke. The study of this 
 book has, as one of its supreme values, the 
 presentation of the Servant of God, first in dim, 
 shadowy, mysterious outline ; finally in clear and
 
 98 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 accurate manifestation. So remarkably is this 
 true that if we study the portraiture of the Serv- 
 ant of Jehovah as we have it in the prophecy of 
 Isaiah, and then that which we find in the 
 Gospel stories, we find they coincide line for line, 
 glory for glory, beauty for beauty. God's first 
 method of government is that of revealing Him- 
 self to men by voices, by visions ; and ultimately 
 in the one inclusive manifestation of that Servant 
 Who is the final Speech of God. 
 
 His method is not only that of revelation, it is 
 also that of explanation. It is impossible to 
 study the messages of this book without being 
 impressed with the fact that God is ever at in- 
 finite pains to explain to men what He is doing 
 with them either in punishment or in healing. 
 He comes to the level of man in order that there 
 may be no misconception of His purpose. It is 
 quite conceivable that it may be declared that 
 this is exactly what God does not do to-day. He 
 seems strangely silent, and there is no immediate 
 explanation of His meaning or of His method. 
 As a matter of fact, He is working and explain- 
 ing, but men are neither looking for Him nor 
 listening to Him. Perhaps an illustration from 
 another of the prophets may help us at this point
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 99 
 
 When Habakkuk was filled with trouble because 
 it seemed to him that God was silent and in- 
 active, God said to him in effect, I am at work, 
 but if I told you what I am doing you would not 
 believe it. When God declared that He was 
 girding Cyrus, and using him for the accomplish- 
 ment of His purpose, the prophet was more than 
 ever astonished. All of which suggests that 
 God is always at work, and, moreover, makes 
 known His ways to such as listen. As well as by 
 His acts, God is directly speaking to men and 
 explaining to them His purposes in the daily 
 newspapers, but they do not dream of seeking 
 His messages therein. We do not read our 
 newspapers from that high standpoint. We read 
 them rather from the midst of dust, and the dust 
 gets in our eyes and on their pages. Thus, all 
 the while we do not see the flaming letters of 
 God's revelation for looking at the lying letters 
 of men's printing. In those days Isaiah was ex- 
 plaining the method of God, and yet men 
 declared that he had nothing to teach them. 
 
 The final fact in the method of God is that of 
 application. He is seen as actively interfering. 
 One illustration of this will suffice. It is that of 
 the word spoken to Cyrus, a man outside the
 
 ioo THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 covenant, " I have called thee. ... I will 
 gird thee, though thou hast not known Me." 
 This is a clear instance of this supreme truth 
 that God has in no sense abandoned the world ; 
 but that for the fulfillment of His purpose, He 
 takes hold of men and makes them all, if uncon- 
 sciously, yet definitely, contribute to its carrying 
 out. He makes the wrath of men to praise Him, 
 and the remainder He restrains. 
 
 Finally, we come to the characteristics of the 
 Divine government as revealed in this prophecy. 
 The first is that of patience. God ever gives 
 His people opportunity to return to loyalty. The 
 second is that of persistence. He never makes 
 terms with sin by condoning it, excusing it, or 
 signing a truce with it. The third is that of 
 power. He is forevermore revealed as irresist- 
 ibly moving forward towards the accomplish- 
 ment of His will. All these characteristics are 
 revealed most forcefully in the description in- 
 volved in the great passage, " Who among us 
 shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among 
 us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" A 
 study of these enquiries in the light of their con- 
 text will show that to the mind of the prophet, 
 God, full of patience, was persistent and power-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 101 
 
 ful ; and he saw the cities of sin, and the foes of 
 right, and the enemies of God, being consumed 
 in the fire of His presence, even in the hour when 
 they imagined they were strong. To the clear 
 vision of this man, God was everywhere as a fire, 
 irresistible, searching, burning, destroying, even 
 though men were unconscious of the fact 
 
 Turning from this consideration of the revela- 
 tion of government, to seek for that of grace, 
 we find it everywhere. It is the principle of the 
 principles, the method of the methods, the char- 
 acter of the characteristics. All the principles 
 with which we have dealt in the consideration of 
 the government of God are but the manifesta- 
 tions of this one inclusive principle. The 
 supreme reason of the Divine holiness is the 
 Divine love. The supreme inspiration of the 
 Divine righteousness is the Divine love. The 
 supreme certainty of the Divine justice is the 
 Divine love. As we carefully study the prophecy 
 and listen to the complaints of Jehovah, while 
 they reverberate in thunder, they thrill with the 
 tenderness of tears. In the first impeachment 
 we find the words, "I have nourished and 
 brought up children, and they have rebelled 
 against Me." "They have rebelled against
 
 102 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 Me," that is the word of thunder. " I have 
 nourished and brought up children." In that 
 there is the tenderness of tears. It is the wail of 
 the heart of the Father. It is the revelation of 
 the Cross in the experience of God, the language 
 of unutterable sorrow. May I dare to illustrate 
 by quotation of a word from literature on an 
 infinitely lower level ? 
 
 " How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 
 To have a thankless child." 
 
 God's use of the word " children " is eloquent of 
 the deepest fact in all the processes of His gov- 
 ernment. As I behold the activity of the Throne, 
 whether in its inspiration of holiness, its activity 
 of righteousness, or its result of justice, I dis- 
 cover that which lies deeper and makes necessary 
 all this, the grace of God, the love of God. It is 
 when this is most clearly seen that sin is known 
 to be most damnable, because in the light of 
 this revelation we understand that sin causes 
 sorrow to the heart of God. That declaration 
 cannot be contradicted in the light of New Testa- 
 ment teaching. One of the supreme injunctions 
 to the saints is "Grieve not the Holy Spirit," and 
 it is well that we remind ourselves of that which 
 has been so often pointed out, that the literal and
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 103 
 
 more expressive translation of that passage is 
 Cause not sorrow to the Spirit of God. Thus, at 
 the very beginning, before the awful thunder of 
 the Throne is heard, or at least with its first 
 reverberation, we hear the tone of infinite grace 
 and infinite love. 
 
 Not only is grace the principle of the prin- 
 ciples, it is also the method of the methods. 
 Grace is the cause of revelation, the reason of 
 explanation, and the perpetual motive of applica- 
 tion. On the uplifted Throne is the One Whose 
 worship in the songs of the seraphim causes the 
 very foundations of the temple to shake ; but He 
 is One Who hears the sigh of the sinning soul 
 above the music of the seraphim, and the knowl- 
 edge of the deepest fact of His being causes one 
 of the flaming ones to cease his singing that he 
 may catch the live coal from the altar, and swiftly 
 pass with it to touch the lips of the sinning man 
 in order to their cleaning. Thus, all the methods 
 of His government are the result of the method 
 of His grace. 
 
 Finally, grace is the character of the charac- 
 teristics. The characteristics of government are 
 those of patience, persistence, and power ; and 
 these result from the essential character of love.
 
 104 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 Grace is the reason of patience, the inspira- 
 tion of persistence, and the passion of power. 
 Human salvation must result from response to 
 that love which first expresses itself in a veri- 
 table sob of anguish in the presence of sin, 
 and then through suffering which cannot be 
 measured makes possible the return and renewal 
 of the sinner. If one is tempted to suggest that 
 I am reading into this prophecy of Isaiah the reve- 
 lation of the New Testament, I would reply, I am 
 but retaining in the prophecy its own fifty-third 
 chapter. In the New Testament itself there is no 
 passage more full of flashing and revealing light 
 concerning the grace of God than that wonderful 
 chapter. 
 
 In this book, then, I see the Throne high lifted, 
 and know that it is the Throne of active and de- 
 termined government ; but I also know that the 
 inspiration of its government is love. 
 
 The living message of this book to our own 
 age is that submission to the government of 
 God is the one sufficient condition for the fulfill- 
 ment of all human life, whether it be social, 
 national or racial. It declares, moreover, that the 
 only hope of the restoration of man, bruised and 
 broken by sin, is centred in the grace of God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 105 
 
 The message of the book, therefore, is finally 
 that of the revelation of the interrelation between 
 government and grace. It makes it impossible 
 for us to separate these, or to consider them as 
 though they were opposed to each other. In 
 order to reap the benefits of the grace of God, it 
 is necessary to submit to His government. In 
 order to submit to the .government of God, we 
 must be prepared to receive the benefits of His 
 grace. Grace is not an activity of God whereby 
 He vacates His Throne. All the riches of grace 
 are at our disposal as we kiss the sceptre and 
 bow to the Throne. 
 
 Having been brought by grace into right rela- 
 tionship to government, through submission to 
 government in order to the reception of the gifts 
 of grace, we live henceforth within that govern- 
 ment in the power of that grace. We submit to 
 His government and enter into His grace. We 
 stand in His grace in order to obey His govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The revelation of this book is that of the 
 Throne of God. It matters not where we open 
 it, whether we read the message of fiery denuncia- 
 tion, or the song of the coming deliverance ; 
 whether we hear the chariot wheels of swift and
 
 106 THE MESSAGE OF ISAIAH 
 
 awful judgment, or listen to the song that heralds 
 the dawning of the day of restoration ; in every 
 case, message or song comes from the Throne. 
 The Presence occupying the Throne cannot be 
 defined, but in the midst is a Lamb as it had been 
 slain. "He was wounded for our transgressions, 
 He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastise- 
 ment of our peace was upon Him."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. Jehovah's Judgment oi Sin. Denunciation 
 
 L The Impeachment ii. 8, 19, 35. 
 ii. The Process. Failing Kings and Policies, 
 iii. Jeremiah Jehovah's Spokesman. 
 
 Alone, unheeded, persecuted, but persistent. 
 
 II. Jehovah's Suffering for Sin. Lamentation 
 
 L The Man of His appointing shrinking. 
 ii. The Man of His making identified with the 
 
 Sorrow. 
 
 The Interpretation in Jesus. 
 tfi. Jeremiah Jehovah's Spokesman. 
 
 Shrinking, sorrowful, in profoundest Fellow- 
 ship with God. 
 
 (II. Jehovah's Victory over Sin. Sustentation 
 
 i. The Activity of Supremacy. (See Isa. Ixiii. 1-7.) 
 
 The House of the Potter, 
 ii. The Prophecies of Hope. 
 Uttered in Prison. 
 Through Trouble to Triumph. 
 The Days of the Branch. 
 iii. Jeremiah Jehovah's Spokesman. 
 
 Uttering out of the midst of Sin and Sorrow, 
 the Songs of sure Victory. 
 
 I. Sin is sure Destruction 
 
 No Policy can out- 
 manoeuvre God. 
 
 National Rebellion is 
 National Ruin. 
 
 II. The Heart of God I 
 wounded by Sin 
 
 Judgment is His 
 
 strange Act. 
 He weeps over the 
 
 Doom Sin brings. 
 
 HI. The Victory is with God 
 
 He will make it again. 
 His Branch is ap- 
 pointed.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 THERE is no prophetic book concerning 
 which it is more necessary that we have 
 in mind the times and the man if we are 
 to discover its permanent value and its living 
 message. 
 
 These general facts are indicated in the open- 
 ing sentences of our lecture upon the content of 
 the book, "Jeremiah was Jehovah's spokesman in 
 days of darkness and disaster." That is a very 
 brief, but all-inclusive sentence reminding us of 
 the times in which these words were uttered, and 
 revealing the authority of the man who uttered 
 them. The times were days of darkness and 
 disaster. The man was Jehovah's spokesman. 
 Let us then remind ourselves of the times which 
 in a sentence are described as days of darkness 
 and disaster. Jeremiah exercised his prophetic 
 ministry in Judah about a century after Isaiah 
 had delivered his last message. The Northern 
 kingdom of Israel had passed away, and the 
 
 whole attention is centred upon Judah. Two 
 
 109
 
 no THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 nations affected her at the time ; on the south, 
 Egypt, and on the east, Assyria. During the 
 time that Jeremiah exercised his ministry Judah 
 was attempting either to play these off one 
 against the other, or was hesitating as to which 
 she should make an alliance with, in order to 
 protect herself from the enmity of the other. A 
 recognition of these facts will enable us to under- 
 stand the reason of the terrible condition in 
 which she found herself. Her vision of God was 
 dimmed, if she had not lost it altogether. Her 
 hope lay not in Him, her one and only King, 
 but in her ability either to stir up strife between 
 these two nations, or to secure the aid of one 
 against the other. Her internal condition was 
 equally terrible. Isaiah had delivered his great 
 messages in Hezekiah's reign. Immediately 
 succeeding Hezekiah Manasseh came to the 
 throne. Notwithstanding the fact that there was 
 a place of repentance found for him, his reign 
 was characterized by reaction from the influence 
 of Hezekiah ; he set up altars and idolatry even 
 in the courts of the house of the Lord. The 
 nation sank lower and lower. The brief reign 
 of Amon was a failure. Then followed the period 
 of Josiah. When he had been upon the throne
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH in 
 
 for twelve or thirteen years Jeremiah commenced 
 his ministry, which lasted at least forty-six years, 
 being exercised through the reigns of Josiah, 
 Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, 
 and during the early part of the exile. It is but 
 to name these kings to be reminded of the dark- 
 ness of the days. The national movement was 
 downward, the people sinking ever lower. The 
 reform under Josiah was entirely upon the sur- 
 face of things so far as the people were con- 
 cerned. There was no vital change wrought in 
 their character. Jehoahaz reigned for thirteen 
 months in the midst of evil of every description. 
 Under Jehoiakim, evil became even more wide- 
 spread, and deeper. Jehoiachin reigned briefly 
 and was deposed. Then came Zedekiah, a man 
 meaning well, but preeminently weak, and the 
 vassal of another nation. Never for one single 
 moment during the forty or more years of his 
 ministry did Jeremiah arrest the downward prog- 
 ress of the people ; never by anything he said, 
 never by anything he suffered, never by any- 
 thing he did was he able to check that de- 
 terioration. The description of the darkness 
 of the times has thus been given by Dr. Moore- 
 head :
 
 112 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 " It was Jeremiah's lot to prophesy at a time 
 when all things in Judah were rushing down to 
 the final and mournful catastrophe ; when polit- 
 ical excitement was at its height; when the 
 worst passions swayed the various parties, and 
 the most fatal counsels prevailed ; ... to 
 . . . see his own people, whom he loved 
 with the tenderness of a woman, plunge over 
 the precipice into the wide, weltering ruin." 
 
 No words could more graphically portray the 
 times. The prophesying of other men always 
 seems to have produced periods of reformation. 
 Even if Isaiah had at last to say, " Who hath 
 believed our report? and to whom hath the arm 
 of the Lord been revealed ? " his influence was 
 nevertheless manifest in Hezekiah, and in the 
 reformation under him. Jeremiah, on the other 
 hand, watched the ruin of his people, saw them 
 rush headlong to the final calamity, constantly 
 uttering the word of God to them out of a heart 
 filled with despair. 
 
 Then also we must look at Jeremiah himself. 
 It is not carelessly that I have described him as 
 the spokesman of Jehovah. It is quite impos- 
 sible to lay any great emphasis on the full mean-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 113 
 
 ing of his name simply because no one knows 
 exactly what its real significance was. There is, 
 however, one quantity included in it concerning 
 which there can be no question. It has been 
 suggested that the name means Jehovah ap- 
 pointed. Hengstenberg affirmed that it signified 
 Jehovah throws, the idea being that of God 
 throwing and overthrowing, Jeremiah being the 
 instrument of His activity. It has also been de- 
 clared that the name means Jehovah exalts. 
 Yet again there are those who maintain, and I 
 personally incline to this view, that the name 
 signified Jehovah founded. Without laying un- 
 due emphasis upon that, however, it is noticeable 
 that every suggestion relates the man to Jeho- 
 vah, whether the thought be appointed, or 
 throws, exalts, or founded. Moreover, that dec- 
 laration is made in the opening chapter of the 
 prophecy : 
 
 "Now the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 
 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before 
 thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; I 
 have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations." 
 
 That is a distinct declaration that he was fore- 
 ordained to the ministry exercised. To that 
 declaration Jeremiah replied, " Ah, Lord God J
 
 114 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child," and 
 continuing his story the prophet declares : 
 
 " Say not, I am a child : for to whomsoever I shall send 
 thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee 
 thou shalt speak. Be not afraid because of them : for I 
 am with thee to deliver thee, saith Jehovah. Then Jeho- 
 vah put forth His hand, and touched my mouth ; and 
 Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put My words in 
 thy mouth ; see, I have this day set thee over the nations 
 and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, 
 and to destroy and to overthrow ; to build, and to plant." 
 
 Thus it is evident that he was foreordained, per- 
 fectly equipped, and Divinely appointed to that 
 long, forlorn ministry which he so heroically and 
 graciously fulfilled. 
 
 We may also look at the man as to his per- 
 sonal character, for there is no prophet who has 
 given us so clear a revelation of himself as Jere- 
 miah, and yet there was no other who shrank 
 from publicity as he did. Because his message 
 was of the very bone and fibre and sinew of him, 
 because he entered both into the life of his 
 people and into that of Jehovah, and because he 
 spoke to them in such disastrous circumstances, 
 the picture of the man is clearly stamped upon 
 the page of his prophecy. There are three 
 things apparent, his simplicity, his sensitive- 
 ness, and his strength. His absolute simplicity
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 115 
 
 manifested itself when the command first came to 
 him, " Ah, Lord God 1 Behold I cannot speak : 
 for I am a child." He never lost the child heart 
 and the child nature. His sensitiveness is seen 
 in the way in which he shrank from his work. 
 Even in hours of sacred fellowship with Jehovah 
 he protested against having to deliver the mes- 
 sages of judgment. He felt all the pain of the 
 judgments falling upon his people. He was, 
 moreover, a man of absolute and overwhelming 
 strength. If his nature was so simple that he 
 had to say, " I am a child " ; if his sensitiveness 
 of soul was such that he constantly shrank from 
 delivering his messages, his strength was such 
 that he spoke every word that God gave him to 
 speak. 
 
 No prophet in the long line was more like 
 Christ than Jeremiah. He was a fit instrument 
 for uttering the truth of the throne in days when 
 its government was rejected and its grace 
 neglected. It is most necessary in days when 
 government is rejected and grace neglected that 
 the voice of the Throne should be heard. Jere- 
 miah was the fitting spokesman of that Throne. 
 Chosen and known before his birth, equipped by 
 the touch of God upon his lips, in his simple
 
 ii6 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 nature he was a perfect instrument through 
 whom God was able to speak ; in the sensitive- 
 ness of his heart he was a revelation to men of 
 the !ove of God ; and in the strength that dared 
 he was able to cooperate with God. 
 
 All this brings us to an understanding of the 
 permanent value of the book. It is the reve- 
 lation of God in the midst of an age of unutter- 
 able failure. That revelation is threefold. 
 
 First, it is that of Jehovah's judgment of sin. 
 Jeremiah saw in all the destruction, and devasta- 
 tion, and sweeping ruin, God's activity revealing 
 God's attitude towards sin. Secondly it is that 
 of Jehovah's suffering for sin. In the story of 
 Jeremiah's shrinking and pain and tears we have 
 a picture of a man in such perfect fellowship with 
 God, that through him God was able to reveal 
 His own suffering in the presence of sin. 
 Thirdly, it is that of Jehovah's victory over sin. 
 In Jeremiah's moral and hopeful triumph over 
 sin even in prison, we have evidence of the cer- 
 tainty of God's ultimate victory. 
 
 First, then, this book reveals through the min- 
 istry of Jeremiah, God^s judgment of sin. In the 
 second chapter is recorded the prophet's impeach- 
 ment of the nation. Let us recall some of his
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 117 
 
 statements. A graphic picture of the degrada- 
 tion of those in authority is found in the eighth 
 verse : 
 
 " The priests said not, Where is Jehovah ? and they that 
 handle the law knew Me not : the rulers also transgressed 
 against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and 
 walked after things that do not profit." 
 
 In the nineteenth verse the prophet declares the 
 relation between wickedness and judgment : 
 
 " Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy 
 backslidings shall reprove thee : know therefore and see that 
 it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken Je- 
 hovah thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith the 
 Lord, Jehovah of hosts." 
 
 In the thirty-fifth verse the most sinful of all sins 
 is revealed : 
 
 " Yet thou saidst, I am innocent ; surely His anger is 
 turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment 
 with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned." 
 
 Thus the message of Jeremiah to his own people 
 was one which persistently declared that their 
 ruin was the result of their sin. Politicians would 
 have attributed the national trouble to the diffi- 
 culty of their position, having Egypt on the
 
 u8 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 south and Assyria on the east. The prophet de- 
 clared that the reason was in themselves. They 
 had forgotten God, and were discussing policy 
 and arrangement, instead of putting away sin. 
 
 Then observe the process of Divine judgment 
 as Jeremiah explained it. We read the history 
 merely and say, What an unfortunate succession 
 of kings ; how singularly these people failed to 
 produce statesmen who were able to cope with 
 the political situation. This lonely figure, ob- 
 serving the race to ruin, said, The failure 
 of your kings and the failure of your policy 
 prove that the hand of God is upon you in 
 judgment. It is He Who breaks down the 
 power of your king. It is He Who will bring to 
 nought your intrigue with Egypt, and hand your 
 city over to the Assyrian who is already at your 
 gates. He declared that the process of judg- 
 ment was that of the direct action of God. 
 Jeremiah stood, Jehovah's spokesman, alone, un- 
 heeded, persecuted, but insistent ; and events 
 moved on and vindicated him, as Jehovah 
 crushed and broke, and cast away the people 
 who had sinned against Him. 
 
 I would to God a voice like that of Jeremiah 
 might be heard to-day, calling men back to reo-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 119 
 
 ognltion of the fact that all ruin and loss and 
 national decay are due first to the fact that we 
 forget God, and then to the fact that God lifts up 
 or breaks down according to whether or not a 
 nation is living in right relationship to Himself. 
 
 This figure of Jeremiah is full of majestic 
 force. Though he spoke so long ago, his voice 
 is a living voice to-day. The things he said 
 during those years of hopeless ministry have ap- 
 plication to all nations through all time. The 
 root sin of national life is forgetfulness of God, 
 and consequent rebellion against Him. The 
 failure of kings and politicians, the matters of 
 which we speak as the misfortunes of the age, 
 are evidences that God has not abandoned the 
 Throne of supremacy. 
 
 I look again and see, through this man's suf- 
 fering, a revelation of the most overwhelming 
 and astonishing description ; that namely of 
 Jehovah's suffering for sin. Do not let us forget 
 the beginning of this story, those words we have 
 already read, " Before I formed thee ... I 
 knew thee." Jeremiah was formed by God ac- 
 cording to a pattern of Divine foreknowledge. 
 This man of God's formation and appointment 
 is seen shrinking, not from the delivery of the
 
 120 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 message, but because of the pain he saw coming 
 to his own people. He cried out in his anguish, 
 
 " Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a foun- 
 tain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain 
 of the daughter of my people ! " 
 
 The prophet's agony created his need of being 
 strengthened whenever he received the messages 
 of Jehovah. In the central lamentation he iden- 
 tified himself with the sufferings of his people, 
 expressing all the sorrows that he had described 
 in the earlier sections, as though they were his 
 own. We have read this prophecy very care- 
 lessly if we have simply seen in it the sorrows of 
 a man, " Oh, that my head were waters, and mine 
 eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day 
 and night for the slain of the daughter of my 
 people." Can we find anything to match that ? 
 We have already done so. We have travelled 
 through the centuries until we have stood upon 
 the slopes of Olivet with a Man more lonely than 
 Jeremiah, and have seen Him looking at Jeru- 
 salem, and have heard Him pronounce its doom, 
 weeping as He did so. That is the fulfillment of 
 the prophecy of Jeremiah. The stern denuncia- 
 tion that doomed Jerusalem was uttered in a voice
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 121 
 
 choked with emotion, while the eyes were suf- 
 fused with tears, as they saw the fire that soon 
 was to destroy it 
 
 The interpretation of Jeremiah's suffering is 
 to be found in the suffering of Jesus, and the 
 interpretation of the suffering of Jesus is to be 
 found in the suffering of God. Jeremiah stood 
 as Jehovah's spokesman, shrinking and sorrow- 
 ful, because he entered into the profoundest 
 fellowship with God. 
 
 A wonderful revelation is this. Stern denun- 
 ciation of sin continued through all the processes 
 of ruin, no truce with it, no excuse for it even 
 though such denunciation resulted in stripes, bru- 
 tality, and the dungeon ; never flinching, never 
 excusing, never condoning ; yet all the while the 
 message accompanied by the flow of tears and 
 uttered in tones of anguish. 
 
 Once again, there is revealed in this prophecy 
 the fact of Jehovah's victory over sin. There is 
 no figure in the Bible that sets forth the sover- 
 eignty of God so uncompromisingly as that of 
 the potter and the clay. 
 
 " O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter ? 
 saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, 
 so are ye in Mine hand, O house of Israel "
 
 122 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 How we have trembled in the presence of those 
 words. The potter moulds the clay as he 
 pleases, and the clay cannot object. It has no 
 right to object. That is the doctrine of absolute 
 sovereignty. It cannot fail to make the heart 
 tremble ; but let us carefully note the use Jere- 
 miah makes of this figure. In words full of 
 beauty he declares the ultimate activity of sov- 
 ereignty. 
 
 " When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred 
 in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, 
 as seemed good to the potter to make it." 
 
 If there were nothing but the figure of the potter 
 with its awe-inspiring revelation of sovereignty, 
 I should be broken and crushed with hopeless- 
 ness, but there is more. There is the declaration 
 of the ultimate activity of sovereignty, " he made 
 it again." That was the great message of Jere- 
 miah. Think of him as he watched the people 
 he loved rushing to ruin, feeling all the time in 
 his heart the very anguish of God in the pres- 
 ence of the disaster ; and then uttering this high 
 word which seemed as though it never could be 
 fulfilled, " He made it again another vessel." 
 Then come to the central chapters of the book
 
 THE MESSAGEiOF JEREMIAH 123 
 
 and listen to him in the darkest day, the day in 
 which he was in the innermost dungeon. It was 
 then that he wrote the prophecies of hope con- 
 tained in chapters thirty to thirty-three. When 
 he spoke of Jacob's trouble he declared it was 
 trouble that proceeded to triumph. He believed 
 that ultimately God would work out the purpose 
 of His love and the purpose of His grace. In 
 this aspect also, therefore, Jeremiah stood the 
 spokesman of Jehovah, and out of the midst of 
 sorrow and sin gave utterance to the songs of 
 certain victory. 
 
 The permanent values of this book constitute 
 its living message. I utter that in briefest sen- 
 tences. First, it teaches us that sin is its own 
 destruction. No policy can outmanreuver God. 
 National rebellion is national ruin. Sin carries 
 within itself the force of its own punishment and 
 its own retribution. Secondly, it affirms that the 
 heart of God is wounded by sin. Judgment is 
 His strange act. He weeps over the doom of a 
 city. Finally it declares that the ultimate victory 
 is with God, " He made it again." The Branch 
 is appointed. The King-Priest has come. 
 
 We are to learn that God must punish sin, 
 that the most awful fact of sin is that it wounds
 
 124 THE MESSAGE OF JEREMIAH 
 
 God ; and finally, that if we will but have it so, 
 if we will but turn to Him and listen to His call, 
 He overrules by cancelling, and breaking the 
 power of sin, makes again the vessel marred in 
 the hand of the potter.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The Vision of God 
 
 The embodied Attributes. 
 
 The Face of a Lion. Supremacy. 
 
 The Face of an Ox. Service. 
 
 The Face of a Man. Manifestation. 
 
 The Face of an Eagle. Mystery. 
 The Wheels of Procedure. 
 The Spirit of Life. 
 The Atmosphere of flashing Light and Fire. 
 
 II. The Bearing on Circumstances 
 
 i. These all present in Reprobation and Restora- 
 tion. 
 
 The Authority claimed. 
 The Actual Working through 
 
 Pain. 
 The Ceaseless Purpose. 
 
 " That ye may know." 
 The Reticence. 
 Of the first Vision. 
 Of the last Statement. 
 
 " The Lord is there." 
 ii. Progressively revealed. 
 
 a. Supremacy. Judgment 
 
 A <:.-;/.. / The Shepherd. 
 
 * ServlCe ' \ The Valley of Bones. 
 
 f. Manifestation. The new Order. 
 
 d. Mystery. The last Word. 
 
 III. Such a Vision of God the Reason of Hope 
 
 f Sin was most sinful. 
 In its Light. < Judgment was most sure. 
 ( Victory was most certain. 
 
 a. Supremacy. 
 
 b. Service. 
 
 f. Manifestation. 
 d. Mystery. 
 
 I. For a comprehensive 
 Outlook it is neces- 
 sary to pass beyond 
 Principles and Prac- 
 tice, to the Person 
 The Incarnation God's 
 Answer to that Need. 
 
 II. Having that Answer we 
 must know the Person 
 
 " Acquaint now thyself 
 with Him, and be at 
 peace." 
 
 "That I may know 
 Him. . . ." 
 
 HI. That Knowledge will 
 produce the Song of 
 Hope 
 
 i. We shall see the Sin. 
 ii. We shall proclaim the 
 
 Judgment. 
 
 iii. We shall rejoice in 
 Hope.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 OF the prophet Ezekiel it has been said 
 that "he was the prolongation of the 
 voice of Jeremiah " ; and it is certainly 
 true that no one can study carefully the prophe- 
 cies of these two men without discovering the in- 
 fluence of Jeremiah upon Ezekiel. It is evident 
 throughout that in his life, in his outlook and in 
 his conceptions Ezekiel had been affected by the 
 prophetic message of Jeremiah. This is perfectly 
 natural when we remember the circumstances in 
 which Ezekiel exercised his ministry. He com- 
 menced that ministry in the fifth year of the 
 captivity, and in the verse which chronicles this 
 fact for us in the opening of the book, a reference 
 is made to "the thirtieth year." It is almost 
 certain that the reference is to his age. He was 
 a priest, and in harmony with the Mosaic econ- 
 omy, at that age he should have entered upon 
 his priestly work ; but there was no temple, and 
 therefore no official work for the priest ; and he 
 
 was called to exercise a prophetic ministry. If, 
 
 127
 
 128 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 then, that ministry was commenced in the thirtieth 
 year of his age, and the fifth year of the captivity, 
 it is at once evident that during the first twenty- 
 five years of his life, Jeremiah was prophesying. 
 From his earliest childhood, and through the 
 formative and impressionable years of youth and 
 young manhood, he was familiar with the min- 
 istry of this lonely man. Familiarity with his 
 prophecy shows that his outlook on the corruption 
 of his people, on the judgments of God, and his 
 vision of light upon the Eastern sky which 
 predicted the dawn of a brighter day, was prac- 
 tically identical with those of Jeremiah. His 
 dealing with prevalent corruption was as severe 
 as was that of Jeremiah, and his messages of 
 judgment were equally stern. He never melted 
 to tears as did Jeremiah, but his vision of the 
 ultimate deliverance of the people by the triumph 
 of Jehovah was even clearer. His vision was 
 characterized by penetration, and perhaps the 
 word through best describes the quality of the 
 prophecy. His messages were addressed, in the 
 first place, to the exiles on the banks of the River 
 Chebar ; and yet it is evident that through them 
 he spoke to all Israel. Morever, he distinctly 
 affirms, in the course of his prophecy, that the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 129 
 
 application of the truths he enunciated is to all 
 men, so that he not only spoke through the exiles 
 to Israel, but through Israel to men of all nation- 
 alities and of all times. He saw the prevailing 
 conditions, the ruin of his people, the obstinacy 
 and rebellion even among the exiles in the midst 
 of whom he lived, but through all these he saw 
 the eternal verities as to their foundations and as 
 to their principles. 
 
 It was George Herbert who sang : 
 
 " A man that looks on glass, 
 On it may stay his eye j 
 Or if he pleaseth through it pass, 
 And thus the heaven espy." 
 
 Ezekiel saw the glass, but he saw through it. 
 Accurately observing the temporal, he as surely 
 perceived beyond it the eternal. He was sen- 
 sitively conscious of the material, but supremely 
 conscious of the spiritual. In all probability 
 Jeremiah's prophecies of hope were the inspiration 
 of Ezekiel's, but it may be that the absence of 
 tears and lamentation in the messages of Ezekiel 
 was due to the fact that his vision of God, and 
 His processes, and His ultimate victory was 
 clearer than that of Jeremiah. His recognition of 
 the reprobation of his people was acute, and yet he
 
 130 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 foretold the certainty of their restoration with a 
 note of profoundest assurance, and an outlook of 
 more spacious sweep than any other prophet of the 
 illustrious line. 
 
 The permanent value of the prophecy is that 
 of its revelation of the reason of this man's hope. 
 Jeremiah was not without hope. Moreover, the 
 messages in which he gave expression to his 
 hope were uttered in days when he himself was 
 in prison. Therein is a proof of the strength of 
 his hope. Nevertheless, at other times his mes- 
 sages seem altogether devoid of that element. 
 In the prophecy of Ezekiel the note of hope rings 
 clear and jubilant throughout. We would fain 
 discover the secret of this superabounding and 
 jubilant confidence. The present outlook in 
 some senses is dark enough, and we would fain 
 discover the secret of rejoicing in hope even ot* 
 the darkest day. It is an arresting fact that 
 a man in more hopeless condition, in some 
 senses, than that in which Jeremiah lived, being 
 himself a captive by the River Chebar, among a 
 band of exiles the most obstinate and rebellious, 
 seeing that his people were reprobate, cast away, 
 was nevertheless full of hope, and of the certainty 
 of ultimate restoration.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 131 
 
 The secret is revealed at the beginning 1 of his 
 book. That which filled his heart with hope, and 
 made him able to sing the song of coming vic- 
 tory on the darkest day, was his vision of Jehovah. 
 The peculiar quality of that vision was that of 
 manifestation. At first sight that statement 
 hardly seems as though it could possibly be cor- 
 rect. The first impression made by the account 
 which he gives of the vision he beheld is that of 
 mystery rather than of manifestation. While 
 recognizing the mystery, a quite simple examina- 
 tion of the prophet's description must inevitably 
 leave upon the mind the sense of manifestation. 
 The key-word to the vision is the word likeness. 
 Likeness means that which reveals something 
 else. The root idea of the Hebrew word is com- 
 parison. Its suggestion is exactly that of the 
 Greek word which we translate parable. I do 
 not say the root significance is the same, but the 
 suggestion is identical. A parable is something 
 placed by the side of, in order to explanation. It 
 is a picture intended to interpret something, 
 which apart from it might not be clearly under- 
 stood. That is the key-note to the vision. It 
 was a likeness, a similitude, a parable, a picture. 
 He did not see what no man has seen, but he
 
 132 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 saw visions of Jehovah in the form of a likeness. 
 It is not necessary for us to describe the visions 
 save in the broadest outline. What Ezekiel saw 
 began on the earth but it did not end there. If 
 for the sake of contemplation we may temporarily 
 forget the stately and wonderful language of 
 Ezekiel and see the vision in barest, almost 
 rudest, outline, we shall be helped to discover the 
 truth it suggested. On the earth the central 
 vision was that of four living ones, surrounded 
 by wheels moving in every direction, the whole 
 existing in an atmosphere, and actuated by an 
 energy which the prophet described as spirit. 
 The vision did not end there. Above the firma- 
 ment he saw a throne, and on the throne a Man. 
 The things on the earth were the manifestations of 
 that which was above the firmament, and beyond 
 the possibility of comprehension apart from such 
 manifestation. The supreme and central verity 
 upon which Ezekiel looked is to be discovered 
 by examination, not of the wheels which suggest 
 procedure, not of the Spirit which suggests 
 energy, but of the living ones. I do not say that 
 the other things are unnecessary, but it is not our 
 business now to deal with them, and their won- 
 derful and infinite suggestiveness. At the centre
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 133 
 
 were the four living ones, and they constituted a 
 revelation or manifestation of the infinite mystery 
 of the Being Who occupied the throne above the 
 firmament. This vision, and its bearing on the 
 circumstances in the midst of which Ezekiel 
 lived, constituted the reason of his hope. This 
 vision therefore creates the permanent value of 
 the book and its living message. 
 
 Let us retrace our steps in order that we may 
 see the relation of this book to those which have 
 preceded it, so far as their permanent values are 
 concerned. The permanent values of Isaiah are 
 its revelation of the throne, and the fundamental 
 principles of government and grace. The perma- 
 nent values of Jeremiah are its revelation of the 
 activities of Jehovah, His judgment on sin, His 
 suffering for sin, and His victory over sin. The 
 permanent value of Ezekiel is its unveiling of 
 the essential facts in the nature of God. 
 
 The central symbolism on the earth was that 
 of the four living creatures, each one of which 
 faced in four directions, each face suggesting a 
 different idea by the differing symbolism of a 
 man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. Moreover, 
 these four were so placed at the four corners of a 
 square that the face of a man looked every way,
 
 134 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 the face of a lion looked every way, tbe face of an 
 ox looked every way, and the face oi an eagle 
 looked every way. Thus in the unity of the four 
 the same truths were suggested as in the unity of 
 each. Each had four faces, and the whole square 
 had the same fourfold revelation. 
 
 Now we may enquire as to the suggest! veness 
 of this ancient symbolism. It has been affirmed 
 that it was borrowed from Babylon or Nineveh, 
 or from both. Personally I have no quarrel with 
 that contention. The making of an idol on the 
 part of man originated in an attempt, however 
 crude, however base, however mean, to embody 
 thought about Deity. The very highest results 
 of this process were reached in those pagan 
 civilizations outside the economy of Israel ; the 
 highest result, that is, of man's attempt to under- 
 stand, apart from the light of direct revelation. 
 Here is the difference between all such religions, 
 and that of Israel. The religion of Israel was 
 not the result of man's attempt to understand, 
 but of God's direct revelation. His method of 
 revelation was constantly that of seizing upon 
 an element of truth in a false system, redeem- 
 ing it, purifying it, and making it a medium of 
 revelation. As another illustration of the prin-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 135 
 
 liple, the ark of the covenant may be cited. It 
 has been affirmed that Moses was influenced by 
 things he had seen in Egypt, and it is perfectly 
 true that in certain systems of religion in Egypt 
 at the centre of a ritual was an ark ; and thus it 
 is seen that there was an element of truth in the 
 thinking of men. The final difference, however, 
 between the sacred arks of Egypt, and the ark 
 of the covenant, consisted first in what they con- 
 tained, and secondly and preeminently, in what 
 men were taught concerning them. 
 
 This symbolism of Ezekiel's vision may have 
 been Babylonish or Assyrian. Admitting that, 
 let us enquire of what these visions were sym- 
 bols. For the moment I am perfectly content to 
 enquire of Babylon, or to ask Nineveh, and I 
 shall attempt to state the answer in terms of the 
 abstract. The lion was the symbol of suprem- 
 acy. The ox was the symbol of service. The 
 man was the symbol of manifestation. The 
 eagle was the symbol of mystery. Supremacy 
 suggested kingship, and the lion was the symbol 
 of the king. Service suggested sacrifice, and the 
 ox was the symbol of the servant. Manifestation 
 suggested the unveiling of life at its best, and 
 man was the symbol of man. Mystery suggested
 
 136 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 the unfathomable, and the eagle was the symbol 
 oi Deity. 
 
 It has often been affirmed that Ezekiel was a 
 man saturated with pagan ideas, and that by the 
 River Chebar he passed through a certain psycho- 
 logical experience as the result of which he came 
 to imagine that the familiar symbols he saw 
 engraven on heathen temples were visions of 
 God. There is an element of truth in the state- 
 ment ; the fact being that God took hold of the 
 symbolism in the midst of which His captive 
 people lived, and made use of it for revealing to 
 the prophet the comprehensive truth that in His 
 Being, supremacy and service, manifestation and 
 mystery, are merged in awe-inspiring unity. If 
 in the prophecies of Isaiah we saw the Throne 
 and its fundamental principles, and in those of 
 Jeremiah we discovered the activities of the One 
 Who occupies the throne ; in those of Ezekiel we 
 have the unveiling of the nature of God. 
 
 Ezekiel was also conscious of the Throne and 
 the principles of the Divine government ; he dis- 
 tinguished clearly the activities of God ; but his 
 supreme vision was that of God Himself. He 
 saw Him manifest in the midst of the strange 
 revolving wheels of procedure, and the resistless
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 137 
 
 energy which he spoke of as the spirit. There 
 was revealed to him the embodiment of the 
 essential attributes of Deity, unqualified suprem- 
 acy and sacrificial service ; manifestation in the 
 highest form of life, and infinite, unfathomable, 
 and finally indefinable mystery. The deep 
 secret of Ezekiel's hope was more than a con- 
 sciousness of the Throne and the principles of 
 government, more than the conviction of the 
 actual activities of Jehovah, it was acquaintance 
 with God Himself. 
 
 I know that at this point I join issue with a 
 great many expositors who declare that the vision 
 of Isaiah was greater than that of Ezekiel. I am 
 compelled to say I cannot accept that view. If 
 it is necessary to speak of degrees, and measure- 
 ments, then here is the greatest vision of all, for 
 in it there is unveiled the very nature of God. 
 The issue of this is described in the last book 
 of the Divine library, for the very same sym- 
 bolism is used in describing the figures surround- 
 ing the throne. The seer of Patmos observed 
 the four living creatures, and his description of 
 them exactly coincides with the vision of Ezekiel. 
 
 This finally compels our recollection of the in- 
 spired presentation of the Son of God in the
 
 138 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 Gospels. In Matthew He is presented in His 
 supremacy as King ; in Mark in His sacrificial 
 service as Servant ; in Luke in His perfect mani- 
 festation as Man ; in John in His infinite and 
 fathomless mystery as God. When we have 
 seen the four we have seen the One. Finally, as 
 Ezekiel in the older vision looked above the 
 firmament and saw the Throne, and on the 
 Throne the likeness of a Man ; we look to-day 
 beyond the firmament, and exactly the same 
 vision meets the eye of faith. Thus this man in 
 the distant past, without knowing perfectly how 
 in the economy of God the manifestation would 
 be wrought out in the mystery of the Incarna- 
 tion, did nevertheless see the essential, vital, 
 eternal facts concerning God ; that He is su- 
 preme ; that He bends in service to the point of 
 sacrifice ; that He in Himself is all that man is, 
 for man is in His likeness ; and that He in Him- 
 self is more than man is, in the infinite mystery 
 of Deity. In view of this vision I no longer 
 wonder that Ezekiel was the prophet of hope. 
 
 Mark the bearing of this vision of God upon 
 all the circumstances in the midst of which he 
 found himself. In the great body of his prophecy 
 he described the results of reprobation in the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 139 
 
 devastation of the people, declaring the reason 
 of reprobation to be the sin of the people, 
 and affirming the righteousness of reprobation. 
 Looking through all this he saw restoration pro- 
 ceeding through judgment, until there broke 
 upon his vision the glory of that last temple, 
 which has never yet been built ; and the final 
 word of his prophecy is the declaration which 
 sets forth the ultimate glory thereof, " The Lord 
 is there." Throughout the whole of that 
 prophetic movement the facts of the Divine 
 nature are seen as he describes the processes of 
 God. The supremacy of Jehovah is manifest 
 whether in reprobation or in restoration. The 
 service of Jehovah is the one story, as God is 
 described as dealing with His people in order to 
 remake them. The manifestation of Jehovah is 
 perpetually revealed as to His purpose in the al- 
 most monotonous repetition of the refrain, 
 "That ye may know Jehovah." The mystery of 
 God is the supreme truth. Mark the fine 
 reticence of the first vision. There is no descrip- 
 tion of essential Deity. When we have gazed 
 upon the living creatures, watched the whirling 
 wheels, been conscious of the all-pervasive spirit, 
 lifted our eyes above the firmament and seen the
 
 140 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 Throne and on the Throne a Man, we are made 
 supremely conscious of the fact that the ultimate 
 truth is undiscovered, and the essential Being is 
 invisible. Again, when we come to the last 
 sentence of the prophecy, so simple that any 
 child can remember it, " The Lord is there," 
 mark the reverent reticence of it. We have 
 looked upon the temple. We have been con- 
 scious of things missing which were found in the 
 temple of Solomon. We have observed the 
 presence of things not found in that temple. We 
 have been made conscious of mystic movement ; 
 and have seen the glorious outflowing of a 
 gracious river which brings life wherever it 
 comes, but we have never seen God. The only 
 reference he makes to the actual presence of 
 God in the temple is in that simple word already 
 twice quoted, " The Lord is there." 
 
 It is not only true that these essential facts of 
 the nature of God are all recognized throughout 
 the processes of reprobation and restoration ; it is 
 also true that there is a progressive revelation. 
 In the early part of the prophecy which deals 
 with judgment, the overwhelming sense of God 
 is that of His supremacy. In the movement in 
 which the false shepherds are denounced, and the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 141 
 
 true shepherd character portrayed, Jehovah is 
 revealed as Himself the Shepherd of His peo- 
 ple, Who thus fulfills the true function of king- 
 ship. 
 
 Later in the course of the prophecy we have 
 that weird and amazing spectacle of the valley of 
 dry bones. We hear the moving of the wind 
 over the bones, and then watch them as they 
 come together and are clothed with sinew and 
 flesh and skin, until presently they stand a liv- 
 ing army ; and as we watch, we learn how God 
 stoops, King though He be, to serve in order to 
 save. Still further, in the new order, the new 
 law of life, and in the new consciousness of God, 
 we see the full manifestation of life at its highest 
 and best, not in an individual merely, but in a 
 remade race, gathered around the central fact of 
 worship. Until finally, we come to the last 
 word, and all the great unveiling enfolds itself 
 and announces that which cannot finally be 
 known, but in the presence of which the exercise 
 of worship is the only fitting activity of the soul. 
 
 In the light of this vision, sin was even more 
 sinful, judgment was even more sure, but the 
 victory was absolutely certain. So that in the 
 midst of a handful of exiles, stubborn and re-
 
 142 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 
 
 bellious, Ezekiel saw through to the ultimate be- 
 cause he knew God, not only as to the principles 
 of His government, not merely as to the activi- 
 ties thereof, but as to Himself. 
 
 If these be the permanent values of the book, 
 its living message may be briefly stated. 
 
 In order to a true and comprehensive outlook 
 we need to pass beyond the principles of the 
 Divine government, beyond the practice thereof, 
 to the very presence of God. If we think simply 
 of the principles we shall see them violated on 
 every hand. If we simply contemplate the ac- 
 tivities of Jehovah, though we worship in the 
 presence of them, admitting the righteousness of 
 His judgments on sin, being overwhelmed by 
 the fact of His sorrow on account of sin, believ- 
 ing that at last He will gain the victory ; the 
 postponement of that victory is so terrible an ex- 
 perience as to be almost unbearable ; but if we 
 can be brought into actual consciousness of His 
 nature we shall sing on the darkest day, because 
 over all the gloom of the present we shall detect 
 the glory of the coming victory. In order to 
 abiding hope and abounding joy, we must pass 
 beyond the principles and the practice, to the 
 Person.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL 143 
 
 In order that we may do so, God is manifest 
 in flesh. This is life eternal that we may know 
 Him, and Jesus Christ Whom He has sent. 
 Eliphaz said to Job, " Acquaint now thyself with 
 Him, and be at peace." Paul expressed the 
 deepest desire of his heart in the words, " That 
 I may know Him, and the power of His resur- 
 rection, and the fellowship of His sufferings." It 
 is a great thing to watch the goings of God in 
 the world ; it is a beneficent thing to know the 
 principles of His government; but if the heart 
 would find refuge and perpetual song, it must 
 become familiar with God Himself. 
 
 Finally, then, the book declares that the knowl- 
 edge of God is the perennial well-spring of joy 
 and the inspiration of hope. To know Him is 
 to see sin and hate it, to proclaim judgment 
 fearlessly ; but it is also to " rejoice in the hope 
 of the glory of God."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The Government of the Lord God in the Imme- 
 diate. (The Historic Night) Dan. ii. 20-22. 
 L The Fact of the Government. 
 
 a. Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 I. " The Lord gave Jehoiakim into his hand." 
 a. The Dream. 
 3. The Image. 
 
 b. Belshaizar. The Writing on the Wall. 
 
 c. Darius. The Decree and the Lions, 
 ii. The Instrument of Revelation. 
 
 a. Separation. The King's Meat 
 
 b. Inspiration. Understanding of the Mind of 
 
 God. 
 
 e. Adoration. The Worship of God, 
 ii. The revealing Facts. 
 
 a. God's Wisdom revealed through His Own. 
 
 b. God's Might manifest in His Care of His 
 
 Own. 
 
 IL The Government of the Lord God in Its Processes 
 
 to the End. (The Prophetic Light.) 
 L The Colossus. 
 
 a. The Head of Gold. Babylon. 
 
 b. The Bust of Silver. Medo-Persia. 
 
 c. The Belly of Brass. Greece. 
 
 d. The Legs of Iron. Rome. 
 
 Division. Deterioration. 
 The Stone. Destruction. 
 ii. The Visions. History unveiling Character. 
 Beasts. 
 
 a. The Wisdom of God. Knowing. 
 
 b. The Might of God. Overruling. 
 
 I. The Revealed Principles 
 
 i. The Wisdom and Might 
 
 of God. 
 
 ii. His actual Government. 
 Setting up and Casting 
 
 down. 
 
 Guiding Evil to De- 
 velopment and De- 
 struction. 
 Preserving Good, 
 
 II. The Hidden Things 
 
 Dan. xii. 9, 10. 
 Acts i. 7. 
 
 III. The Perpetual Responsi- 
 bility of His Own 
 i. Separation, 
 ii. Inspiration, 
 iii. Adoration.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 THE book of Daniel falls into two parts. 
 The first six chapters are historic, and 
 the last six are prophetic. By that I do 
 not intend to suggest that there is nothing of 
 prophecy in the first six chapters, nor that there 
 is no recognition of history in the last six ; but 
 that the main note of the content of the first six 
 is historic, and the principal value of the content 
 of the last six is prophetic. These two parts are 
 intimately related to each other, and in our study 
 of the content of this book we have attempted to 
 suggest the relation by the titles of the two 
 divisions. In the first we have the historic 
 night, and in the second the prophetic light. 
 This distinction needs to be maintained when 
 we turn to the consideration of the message of 
 the book. 
 
 If of any book among these prophetic writings 
 the description of Peter, " a lamp shining in a 
 dark place," is peculiarly true, it is so of this one. 
 
 The historic section of the book gives a 
 MS
 
 146 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 picture of the world when the national testi- 
 mony of the Hebrew people was lost even more 
 completely than in the time of Ezekiel. During 
 many of the years Ezekiel was in captivity, Jere- 
 miah was exercising his ministry in Jerusalem, 
 and it is evident that his ministry influenced that 
 of Ezekiel. 
 
 When we come to the book of Daniel we can 
 discover no such general influence. The kings 
 of the chosen people are only referred to in pass- 
 ing. The testimony of the people as a nation 
 was wholly at an end. We see the great world 
 powers of the time in the light shed on them by 
 the ministry of Daniel, a most remarkable man 
 in every way, a man who, loyal to the God of 
 his fathers, nevertheless rose to positions of 
 prominence in three empires ; and who in the 
 midst of circumstances, difficult and dangerous as 
 were those of a Gentile court at that time, re- 
 mained loyal to Jehovah. The prophetic section 
 of the book gives us a picture of the working 
 out of the Divine purpose through all human 
 history. 
 
 In attempting to discover the permanent value 
 and the living message of this book, we are aided 
 by the fact that such value lies deeper than the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 147 
 
 immediate application of any one of its parts, 
 and its living message is independent of any par- 
 ticular method of interpretation. 
 
 I desire first of all to set this book in relation to 
 those which have preceded it. We have con- 
 sidered the message of Isaiah, the message of 
 Jeremiah, and that of Ezekiel, and we shall now 
 find that there is intimate relationship between 
 these three and the message of Daniel. 
 
 There is an old division of these prophetic 
 books into major and minor with which we are 
 all familiar. We speak of Isaiah, Jeremiah and 
 Ezekiel as the major prophets, and of the twelve, 
 beginning with Hosea and ending with Malachi, 
 as the minor prophets. There has been doubt in 
 the minds of some as to whether Daniel should 
 be reckoned among the major or the minor. 
 There is a sense in which that division is in itself 
 false and misleading. I refer especially to the 
 designation of the twelve as the minor prophets. 
 They are minor in no sense save that of bulk ; 
 indeed, that was the meaning of the word in its 
 first application to them. For many reasons it 
 would be an excellent thing if we could abandon 
 the use of the words. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is an element of value in
 
 148 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 the division between the four and the twelve. 
 They constitute two sections. The principle of 
 the division is not chronological. I presume we 
 are all agreed now that Hosea's prophecy was 
 earlier than that of any of the four to which I 
 have already made reference. There is a divi- 
 sion, and I believe it is a spiritual one. When 
 we seek for the permanent values and the living 
 messages, we find in these first four a unifying 
 revelation. Speaking broadly, I should be in- 
 clined to say that the permanent value of the four 
 is that of the unveiling of the King, while the 
 permanent value of the twelve is that of the un- 
 veiling of the Kingdom. I recognize that to 
 make a division like that, and leave it as though 
 it were final, would be most unsatisfactory. Both 
 the Kingdom and the King are seen in the four ; 
 both the King and the Kingdom are discovered 
 in the twelve ; and yet undoubtedly there is this 
 distinction, that the supreme and overwhelming 
 revelation of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel 
 is that of the King Himself, while the particular 
 and special revelation of the twelve is that of the 
 conditions within the Kingdom which occupied 
 the attention of the prophetic voices as they de- 
 clared the word of the King. Therefore, for the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 149 
 
 purpose of a general examination, I should always 
 speak of the major prophets as revealing the 
 King, and of the minor prophets as revealing the 
 Kingdom. I have no difficulty, therefore, with 
 Daniel, but deliberately place him with the first 
 three. To use the word already referred to, I 
 number him with the major prophets. 
 
 Let us go back, then, in order that we may 
 place Daniel in relation to the messages already 
 considered, for in his prophecy we have the com- 
 pletion of the revelation. 
 
 Isaiah began his ministry in the reign of Uzziah, 
 one of the most prosperous as to material things 
 in the whole history of Judah. It was in the 
 year of his death that the prophet saw that new 
 vision which lifted the whole of his subsequent 
 ministry on to a higher plane. Jeremiah was the 
 prophet of failure, exercising his ministry during 
 the reign of the last of the kings of Judah. 
 Ezekiel delivered his messages not to the people 
 as a nation, but to a handful of exiles in captivity. 
 Daniel personally delivered no messages to the 
 chosen people themselves, but he exercised a 
 ministry of remarkable force in the midst of the 
 great world powers. 
 
 In the prophecy of Isaiah we saw the Throne
 
 ISO THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 His supreme revelation is that of the uplifted, 
 established Throne of Jehovah. He declares two 
 facts concerning it, the fact of its exercise of 
 government, and the fact of its method of grace. 
 These constitute the permanent value and living 
 message of Isaiah. As we said in our considera- 
 tion of the content of the book, the two great 
 passages in which this continuous purpose finds 
 clearest expression are the sixth chapter, which 
 gives an account of his vision, and the fifty-third, 
 which thrills with the message of the grace of 
 God. 
 
 In the prophecy of Jeremiah we have a vision 
 of the activity of Jehovah. That activity is three- 
 fold : that of judgment of sin, suffering for sin, 
 and victory over sin. 
 
 Ezekiel strikes a deeper note as he presents 
 the Person of Jehovah, and unveils four facts con- 
 cerning that Person, those, namely, of supremacy 
 and service, of manifestation and mystery. 
 
 Turning to the book of Daniel, we find none of 
 these things dealt with, though all are recog- 
 nized. The supreme revelation of the book is 
 that of the persistent government of God Al- 
 mighty over the whole earth towards the fulfill- 
 ment of the purpose of His grace. In that
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 151 
 
 sentence I express what I hold to be the perma- 
 nent value of this book. Let me state it more 
 carefully and in slightly altered phrasing. In 
 Daniel we have the revelation of the power and 
 wisdom of the Lord God in the government of 
 the world to the end of the days. 
 
 Throughout the whole of this book, with one 
 notable exception, God is described as Adonahy 
 Elohim : Adonahy, supreme or sovereign Lord ; 
 Elohim, Mighty God. The name of Jehovah is 
 only to be found in one chapter the ninth. 
 Therein we have Daniel presented to us bur- 
 dened with the failure of his people, and crying 
 out in intercession for them. In that great in- 
 tercessory prayer the name Jehovah occurs seven 
 times. The nation to which God revealed Him- 
 self as the Becoming One was scattered and 
 peeled, its testimony broken, its influence de- 
 parted. One man in whom all the principles of 
 God's intention for the nation were preserved, 
 and who was mastered by those principles, spoke 
 for God, lived for God, and worked for God in 
 three empires, but never spoke of God to those 
 Gentile kings by the great name Jehovah. He 
 always referred to Him by the titles Adonahy 
 Elohim.
 
 i$2 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 When, as a result of his study of the writings 
 of Jeremiah, and his consciousness of the passing 
 of time, Daniel came to the conclusion that the 
 seventy years were running out, his heart be- 
 came burdened for his own people, and as he in- 
 terceded for them, the old gracious name was 
 used, Jehovah my God, Jehovah our God. 
 
 That in itself is an interesting fact in the study 
 of this book. Its main value, however, is that it 
 affords a revelation of the power and wisdom of 
 the Lord God in the government of the world 
 unto the end of the days. These words, " the 
 end of the days," are the last made use of in the 
 book, Daniel being told to wait, and being prom- 
 ised that he should stand in his lot at the end 
 of the days. 
 
 Thus we discover the unifying principle of the 
 major prophets. In the first of them we find the 
 principles of government ; in the second, the 
 practice of government ; in the third, the Person 
 of the Governor ; and in the last, the persistence 
 of His government. 
 
 In the light of this unity of the four, the per- 
 manent values of Daniel are the more clearly ap- 
 prehended. In the first part of the book we see 
 the government of the Lord God in the immedi-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 153 
 
 ate circumstances in the midst of which Daniel 
 lived. In the second we see the government of 
 the Lord God in its processes to the end. In the 
 second chapter, verses twenty to twenty-two, 
 this declaration is found : " Blessed be the name 
 of God forever and ever: for wisdom and 
 might are His : and He changeth the times and 
 the seasons : He removeth kings, and setteth up 
 kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and 
 knowledge to them that know understanding: 
 He revealeth the deep and secret things : He 
 knoweth what is in darkness, and the light 
 dwelleth with Him." That passage affords the 
 key to the revelation of the book. Indeed, its per- 
 manent value is contained therein. Take the first 
 of these divisions, the government of the Lord 
 God in the immediate. It gives the account of 
 the victory of Nebuchadnezzar over Jehoiakim 
 in these words : " The Lord gave Jehoiakim 
 into his hand." It is not only recognition, but 
 definite declaration of the fact that Jehoiakim 
 passed into captivity by the act of God. If this 
 were human history, rather than inspired story, 
 we should read that Nebuchadnezzar defeated 
 Jehoiakim, and took him prisoner. That would 
 be perfectly true, but it would not be the pro-
 
 154 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 foundest truth, nor the truth that this book was 
 written to reveal. The writer was looking be- 
 yond secondary matters to primary ones, and he 
 therefore declared, "The Lord gave Jehoiakim 
 into his hand." 
 
 The next story is that of the strange, weird 
 vision of the colossus with its head of gold, its 
 breasts of silver, its belly and sides of brass, its 
 legs of iron, and its feet a mixture of iron and 
 brittle clay. The interpretation of the vision 
 could not be discovered by the magicians, and 
 Daniel was enabled both to recall the dream and 
 give its interpretation. However we may inter- 
 pret the vision as to detail, however far we may 
 wander from the simple interpretation of Daniel 
 himself, or however closely we may adhere 
 thereto, the master thought of it is that of God 
 reigning over the affairs of men ; and through all 
 the processes of deterioration or destruction, 
 moving towards the final victory of the establish- 
 ment of the true order amongst men. It is su- 
 premely a vision of the reigning, governing 
 God. 
 
 When Daniel interpreted the vision of the co- 
 lossus, he said to Nebuchadnezzar, " Thou art 
 the head of gold," and indicated the fact that
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 155 
 
 his appointment was made by the God of 
 heaven. 
 
 When the effect of the vision had passed 
 away, and the king made an image of gold, and 
 commanded that men should worship it, a hand- 
 ful of men refused to bend the knee, and conse- 
 quently were cast into the fiery furnace, but 
 passed through it unscathed and unharmed. 
 The words of Nebuchadnezzar following this de- 
 liverance prove that by its means he had discov- 
 ered the fact of the government of God. 
 
 We pass from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar to 
 that of Belshazzar ; and imagination can fill in 
 thfc details of his court its luxury, its licentious- 
 ness, its lust. In the midst of a drunken carousal 
 the mystic handwriting was seen upon the wall : 
 " Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." This was the 
 handwriting of God, and revealed most clearly 
 the great truth for which this book stands, that 
 God weighs kingdoms in balances, rejects kings 
 from kingship by His own will, and sets up or 
 flings down according to the purpose of His 
 own government. 
 
 The last of the series of stories is that of how 
 Darius flung Daniel into the den of lions at the 
 bidding of his courtiers, and then in the early
 
 156 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 morning enquired : " O Daniel, servant of the 
 living God, is thy God, Whom thou servest con- 
 tinually, able to deliver thee ? " Daniel answered 
 the enquiry in a word which affirms both the 
 power and activity of God : " O king, live for- 
 ever. My God hath sent His angel, and hath 
 shut the lions' mouths." 
 
 These stories reveal the instruments through 
 whom God made the fact of His government 
 known, to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and 
 Darius, and through them to others. As we turn 
 to look at these instruments we discover three 
 things concerning them. First of all, their 
 separation from all the things in the midst of 
 which they lived which were contrary to the will 
 of God. Secondly, their inspiration ; they lived 
 in fellowship with God, and thus came to an un- 
 derstanding of the mind of God, and were 
 enabled to interpret it to kings without fear or 
 faltering. Thirdly, their personal adoration of 
 God as they worshipped Him, and Him alone, 
 and that persistently. The interest centres in 
 Daniel, who lived in the midst of things contrary 
 to the will of God, but in separation from them ; 
 and in such close fellowship with God that it was 
 possible for him to receive the interpretation of
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 157 
 
 visions, and in such reverent and adoring wor- 
 ship as refused to be hindered by any form of 
 opposition. That man became the instrument 
 in the darkness through whom God was able to 
 flash His light upon kings, and make courts feel 
 the spell of His power. 
 
 Through Daniel and those associated with 
 him, certain facts of the Divine government 
 were forced upon the recognition of these kings. 
 They saw His wisdom revealed through His 
 own, in their ability to interpret. They saw His 
 might manifest in His care of His own. Thus, 
 standing back from this great book in order to 
 observe it in general outline, while leaving the 
 details, interesting and valuable as they are, we 
 see God enthroned high above the thrones of 
 men, governing in infinite wisdom and irresist- 
 ible might 
 
 Halting for one brief glance at the second 
 part of the book, we see the government of the 
 Lord God in its processes to the end. It is at 
 this point that we find ourselves in the midst of 
 widely differing interpretations. Notwithstand- 
 ing these, there are broad truths, suggested by 
 the vision of the image, upon which we are all 
 agreed. The words of the prophecy itself declare
 
 158 THE MESSAGE OE DANIEL 
 
 that the head of gold referred to Babylon, that 
 the bust of silver referred to the Medo-Persian 
 empire which followed Babylon, and interpreting 
 the symbolism of the vision by the facts of 
 history, the belly of brass must have referred to 
 the Grecian power which succeeded the Medo- 
 Persian, and the legs of iron to the Roman 
 Empire. Beyond that we see division and 
 deterioration, until a new movement from with- 
 out changes the whole course of history ; a stone 
 cut from the mountain smites the deteriorated 
 feet of the image, and the whole falls to the 
 ground. It is evident that much of this vision 
 was prophetic. Daniel lived in the midst of 
 some of the circumstances referred to. The 
 image itself was a revelation of God's knowledge 
 of the processes of the world powers, and pre- 
 eminently a revelation of the fact that He 
 remains enthroned above every empire as it 
 comes and goes ; and, moreover, that its rise and 
 fall is under His government. Beyond the vision 
 of the image we have those of the beasts, the 
 difference between them being that whereas in 
 the colossus we have the symbolism of external 
 manifestation, in the beasts we have that of 
 inward character. Dr. Scofield draws attention
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 159 
 
 to the significance of the fact that the national 
 symbols of the world powers to-day are all birds 
 or beasts of prey. 
 
 I take this book, then, with its mystic passages 
 and its strange figures ; with its days, and dates, 
 and dating, its times, half times, times missing, 
 and times found ; caring very little about these 
 things for the moment, I see that its living mes- 
 sage to this age is that of the wisdom and might 
 of God ; of the fact of His actual government, 
 setting up and casting down, guiding evil on the 
 one side to its full development and its ultimate 
 destruction and on the other, preserving good to 
 its full development and final victory. The 
 vision is that of the overruling God, in wisdom 
 knowing, and in might working ; of kings reign- 
 ing and passing, of dynasties and empires rising 
 and falling, while God, enthroned above them, 
 overrules their movements. 
 
 Looking through the visions of this book at 
 the government of God, there are two things im- 
 pressed upon the mind. The first is that God is 
 guiding evil to full development, in order to final 
 destruction. The second is that He is overrul- 
 ing" good to full development in order to ultimate 
 victory. There is untold value in the fact that
 
 i6o THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 both these movements are revealed. Sometimes 
 we are told that the days in which we live are 
 the most wonderful that the world has ever seen, 
 that the world is getting better every day ; on the 
 other hand, there are those who affirm that we 
 are in the midst of dreadful days, that the world 
 is getting worse every day. 
 
 What shall we do with these opposing views ? 
 The message of this book is that we shall only 
 discover the truth as we believe both of them. 
 Evil is to-day worse than it ever was more 
 subtle, more devilish, and more refined, and 
 therefore more dangerous and more damnable. 
 On the other hand, good is more abounding 
 than ever before. Men to-day have fuller revela- 
 tion than they had, and are growing towards 
 fuller realization. 
 
 If these two things be true, it follows that 
 jooner or later there must be a crisis, a final con- 
 flict between the two forces. That is exactly 
 what this book and the whole Bible teach. The 
 Scriptures never suggest that these two processes 
 will end by the reconciliation of good and evil, 
 or by the weakening of good until there is noth- 
 ing but evil, or the weakening of evil until there 
 is nothing but good. The crisis will come when
 
 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 161 
 
 the stone cut without hands smites the image, 
 and it breaks and crumbles, and the new king- 
 dom of goodness fills the world. 
 
 If that be the main part of the living message 
 of the book, there is another which must not be 
 neglected. Daniel said, " I heard, but I under- 
 stood not : then said I, O my lord, what shall be 
 the issue of these things ? And he said, Go thy 
 way, Daniel : for the words are shut up and 
 sealed till the time of the end. Many shall 
 purify themselves, and make themselves white, 
 and be refined ; but the wicked shall do wickedly ; 
 and none of the wicked shall understand : but 
 they that be wise shall understand." 
 
 It would be a great blessing if all students of the 
 book would be as honest as the author : " I heard, 
 but I understood not" Two things are certain 
 as to the process. First, " Many shall purify them- 
 selves, and make themselves white, and be re- 
 fined" ; secondly, " the wicked shall do wickedly." 
 
 It is impossible to construct an almanac on the 
 basis of that revelation. If we would have the 
 New Testament message which exactly coincides 
 with this, we turn to the last words of our Lord. 
 The disciples had asked Him : " Lord, dost 
 Thou at this time restore the kingdom to
 
 162 THE MESSAGE OF DANIEL 
 
 Israel ? " And He replied : " It is not for you to 
 know times and seasons, which the Father hath 
 set within His own authority. But ye shall re- 
 ceive power." 
 
 It is not our business to make a calendar. If 
 we attempt to set these things in chronological 
 order, we shall find a great gap, a space for 
 which we cannot account, an unmeasured period. 
 This at least is evident that we are living to- 
 day in that unmeasured period. 
 
 What, then, is the last word of this message ? 
 If we believe that God still reigns and rules in 
 might and wisdom, if we believe that we cannot 
 fix the date for the realization of His purpose by 
 human calendars, wherein lies our responsibility ? 
 
 It is that of this handful of exiles of long ago. 
 Separation from all the things that are unlike 
 God in the world in the midst of which we live ; 
 fellowship with God, which will enable us to de- 
 clare Him to the age in which we live, so that it 
 shall be compelled to recognition of Him ; and 
 finally, such adoration of Him as must express 
 itself in worship always, in spite of all diffi- 
 culties ; such worship as refuses to bow the knee 
 to any god save our one Lord God Almighty, as 
 He has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. A Revelation of the deepest Nature of Sin 
 
 i. Infidelity to Love. 
 
 God revealed as Love by His Actions. 
 God acting in Love towards His People. 
 They receiving the Gifts of Love. 
 They playing Traitor to the Giver. 
 This Sin against clearest Light. 
 
 II. A Revelation of the Inevitable Activity of Judg- 
 ment 
 
 Necessary result of Sin. 
 Man has no right to expect Escape. 
 God has no Alternative when Sin 
 sistent. 
 
 is per- 
 
 il. 
 
 A Revelation of the unconquerable Force of 
 Love 
 
 Love's Triumph lies through Suffering. 
 Love is unconquerable. 
 Love suffers when sinned against. 
 Love gathers the Result of Sin and bears it. 
 Love expiates Sin by Suffering. 
 Love pardons when it is submitted to. 
 
 I. Sin 
 
 The Notes of the Church's 
 Failure those of the 
 Failure of Israel, 
 i. Spiritual Adultery. 
 ii. The Harlotry of World- 
 liness. 
 
 iii. The Result. 
 
 Testimony silenced. 
 Name of God pro- 
 faned. 
 
 II. Judgment 
 
 i. Of Moth and Rust. 
 
 The Church speaks no 
 authoritative Word, 
 ii. Of the young Lion. 
 
 III. Love 
 
 i. Jehovah's constant Love, 
 ii. The Certainty of Christ's 
 
 second Advent 
 final Victory. 
 
 and
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 THE book of Hosea pulsates with power. 
 The ministry of this man combined 
 intellectual and emotional forces in a re- 
 markable way. These forces are discoverable 
 acting in partnership, in all the messages he 
 delivered. From the first chapter to the last we 
 are conscious of them. The book thrills with 
 emotion, and flames with light, from beginning 
 to end. 
 
 Hosea came to clear vision through deep 
 feeling. He passed to yet deeper feeling by 
 reason of the clarity of his vision. He saw to 
 the heart of the great subjects of which he treated, 
 and he did so because in his training for the 
 prophetic ministry his own heart was wrung 
 with anguish. He who has much to teach must 
 suffer much ; and he alone can speak of the 
 deepest things in the economy of God who hag 
 sooner or later entered into fellowship with the 
 suffering of God. Hosea passed into fellowship 
 with that suffering through his own suffering | 
 
 165
 
 i66 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 and out of that fellowship in suffering spoke to his 
 age. That, I think, is the key to all that is so ap- 
 pealing and powerful in this wonderful prophecy. 
 
 The book has three permanent values. They 
 are its unveilings of sin, of judgment, and of 
 love. In these pages we have first a revelation 
 of what sin is at its deepest and its worst ; sec- 
 ondly, we have a revelation of the nature of 
 judgment, and of its inevitable activity as the 
 result of sin ; and finally, we have a revelation of 
 the unconquerable force of love. 
 
 Hosea, while dealing incidentally and quite 
 definitely with certain forms of sin, was yet more 
 concerned with its deeper notes. He saw to the 
 very heart of it, saw it at its worst, and under- 
 stood the awful fact about it which makes it so 
 appalling. 
 
 In order that we may understand this, we must 
 remember that he was speaking to the chosen 
 people of God. It is often debated whether there 
 are degrees of sin. In some senses, No. In 
 other senses, Yes. When a man chooses in his 
 own life as between the little and the great in the 
 matter of sin, he is doing that for which he has 
 no warrant in the Scriptures of Truth. On the 
 other hand, when we compare as between the sin
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 107 
 
 of one man, and the sin of another, the sin of the 
 one may be less than that of the other. The 
 difference is caused by light. The measure of 
 light creates the degree of sin. In proportion as 
 men have light their sin becomes the more sinful. 
 That is the perpetual principle revealed through 
 all the Scriptures. We refer to it when deal- 
 ing with some of the great problems of the 
 peoples of the world, we declare that men will be 
 judged according to the light they have had. 
 That principle lies at the foundation of the proph- 
 esying of Hosea. His messages teach us that 
 sin reaches its deepest and most awful activity 
 and manifestation when it is sin against light, 
 and when it is sin against such light as reveals 
 the fact of love. Sin against love is the most 
 heinous sin of all. The people chosen of God to 
 be His own people, upon whom He had lavished 
 His love, had turned their backs upon Him, and 
 were spending the very gifts of love in lewdness ; 
 and the prophet adopted the most tragic and 
 awful illustration, as he declared that the sin of 
 Israel in her infidelity to love was that of spirit- 
 ual adultery ; and that yet more heinous sin, more 
 terrible even than spiritual adultery, the sin of 
 prostitution for hire.
 
 168 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 I can quite believe that in this age when we 
 are afraid to handle things as they ought to be 
 handled, there are those who dislike the prophecy 
 of Hosea. Nevertheless its message is a living 
 one, and needs emphatic statement. He declared 
 to the people of God that the relation existing 
 between them and God was most perfectly 
 symbolized in the sacred relationship of marriage ; 
 and therefore that their sin against God was that 
 of infidelity, unfaithfulness to love. The prophet 
 learned the truth through the tragic and awful ex- 
 perience of his own domestic life. He entered 
 into fellowship with God when his own heart was 
 broken, when there came to him the unutterable 
 and most appalling sorrow that can befall the 
 spirit of man. What the sin of Israel meant to 
 God, Hosea learned by the tragedy in his own 
 home and in his own heart ; and with fierce, hot 
 anger he denounced kings, priests, and people 
 alike. Thus while he dealt with the incidental 
 manifestations of sin, the real message of the 
 prophet had to do with the central sin of infidel- 
 ity to the covenant based upon love. This book, 
 therefore, brings us to the consciousness that the 
 deepest and most awful thing in the realm of sin 
 is that of doing despite to love.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 169 
 
 Then as to judgment. The prophet with de- 
 termined insistence emphasized the fact that 
 judgment is the necessary result of sin. He de- 
 clared that judgment must fall upon the sinning 
 people in awful force and completeness, and 
 positively affirmed that they had no right to ex- 
 pect pardon. In the last section of the prophecy, 
 dealing with the love of Jehovah, the movement 
 declaring that love falls into three parts ; the love 
 of Jehovah in the light of past love ; the love of 
 Jehovah in the light of present and continued 
 love ; and the love of Jehovah in the light of 
 future love. In our analysis we show how that 
 great love-song of Jehovah is interrupted by the 
 prophet's interpolations. We speak of them as 
 constituting a minor obligato accompaniment. In 
 those interpolations the prophet traced the his- 
 tory of the people downward, and the last word 
 of them was one in which he declared there was 
 no hope. That is to say, the prophet looked on 
 the sin, and saw it inevitably working out to 
 judgment ; and he wrote his message in letters 
 of fire, as undoubtedly he delivered it in words 
 that burned the men who listened. Such sin has 
 no right to expect mercy. 
 
 The man who sees most deeply into the heart
 
 i;o THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 of sin, and knows it at its worst, is the man who 
 sees most clearly how inevitable judgment is; 
 and how, therefore, man has no right to expect 
 anything other than judgment. 
 
 Yet the greatest revelation of the book is that of 
 love. In the midst of his own overwhelming sor- 
 row, God called Hosea, and commanded him to 
 seek again the sinning Gomer, and to bring her 
 back into the wilderness of seclusion for a while, 
 but ultimately into the place of love and privilege 
 at his own side. 
 
 As through her infidelity Hosea entered into 
 understanding of the sinfulness of sin ; so by 
 God's command to him and his obedience thereto, 
 he entered into understanding of how God loves 
 even in spite of sin. 
 
 These, then, are the three matters which stand 
 out upon the page of this prophecy. It reveals 
 sin as to what it is ; it reveals judgment as in- 
 evitable and necessary ; and it reveals love amaz- 
 ingly. These essential principles have present 
 application, and constitute the living message of 
 the book. I am profoundly convinced that we 
 need that these words should be rediscovered and 
 respoken in every successive age. The common 
 consciousness of the Christian Church to-day is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 171 
 
 weak on all these fundamental matters. It is 
 weak concerning the love of God, because it has 
 failed to understand the meaning of its own sin, 
 and the consequent necessity for, and inevitability 
 of judgment. I repeat, we supremely need that 
 the message of this book concerning sin, judg- 
 ment, and love, should be reconsidered. 
 
 Hosea teaches us that the most heinous and 
 damnable sin of which man is capable is that of 
 infidelity to love. This is the sin of all such as 
 have been brought into right relationship with 
 God ; and then, violating love's covenant, have 
 committed let us use the word which we fain 
 would not use, which is yet stamped upon the 
 pages of this prophecy spiritual adultery. Com- 
 pared with that, the animalism and brutality, and 
 consequent corruption of heathen nations is as 
 nothing. Hosea's message concerning sin leaves 
 no conclusion other than that it were infinitely 
 better never to have had the light, never to have 
 known love, than having had the light to disobey 
 it, and having known love to wound it by in- 
 fidelity. 
 
 Such sinning generates the form of judgment 
 which follows it. If this book teaches one thing 
 clearly on the subject of judgment, it is that judg-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 ment is never the stroke of God inflicted upon 
 man apart from man's sin. It is the outworking 
 of the seed of sin to harvest. Judgment lies 
 potentially in the act of sin. Infidelity to love can 
 lead nowhere save to the unutterable darkness 
 of pollution. No surface repentance, which is a 
 device to escape punishment, can be acceptable 
 to God. "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto 
 thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for 
 your goodness is as a morning cloud." The 
 penalties of apostasy are as irrevocable as are 
 the laws of purity. If a man walk in the ways of 
 purity, the harvest of blessing must follow ; but 
 if a man shall sin against love, the penalty must 
 fall. 
 
 Yet the permanent message is of love. Though 
 the pathway of love's triumph lies through suffer- 
 ing, of which no man can ever know the measure ; 
 though the cost of the restoration of the faithless 
 Jover be that of the bearing of judgment by the 
 faithful lover, still love moves right onward, sing- 
 ing ever the song of the victory that is to be. We 
 must never forget how this book of Hosea ends. 
 Ephraim says at last, " What have I to do any 
 more with idols ? " When that word is uttered, 
 the victory of love is won. The process of judg-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 173 
 
 ment was certain, and so clear was Hosea about 
 this, that he declared without any hesitation that 
 the generation to which he spoke would never 
 come to ultimate triumph ; but beyond the proc- 
 ess, indeed through it, he saw the ultimate tri- 
 umph of love. 
 
 These, as I understand them, constitute the 
 living message of the book. To emphasize 
 either of the thoughts apart from the rest is 
 to minimize the value of the whole. Each must 
 be pondered, and so far as the book has a mes- 
 sage to our age, it is one concerning sin, judg- 
 ment, and love. 
 
 I maintain that this message of Hosea cannot 
 be applied to the nation, to our own nation for 
 instance, because it is so peculiarly a message 
 delivered to men and women who had the per- 
 fect light, that is, to the people of God. More- 
 over, this message was not delivered to any one 
 tribe. Although Ephraim is often referred to, it 
 is as the dominant tribe, and the whole nation is 
 involved. It is a message, therefore, to the 
 peculiar people of God. Consequently no appli- 
 cation of its teaching can be fair except an 
 application to Christendom, I might say an ap- 
 plication of its teaching to the Church, if by the
 
 1/4 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 Church we mean all that organization of Christi- 
 anity which exists in the world to-day. I am, 
 however, increasingly inclined to differentiate 
 between Christendom and the Church, increas- 
 ingly inclined to believe that the Church of God 
 consists of those known only to God, rather than 
 of that of which we speak as the Churches or 
 the Church. A great many people who seem to 
 be outside all Churches are in the Church of 
 God. Consequently the message of this book 
 is a message to Christendom. 
 
 The first note has to do with sin. The causes 
 of the Church's failure are those of the failure of 
 Israel of old, spiritual adultery, spiritual harlotry, 
 and that self-centred life which is their outcome. 
 These are the sins which lie at the root of the 
 Church's weakness at the present hour. 
 
 Spiritual adultery is evidenced by the pagan- 
 ism which has become admixed with the things 
 of God. It is supremely manifest in the Roman 
 Church and the Greek Church, but is found in 
 all other communities in the degree in which 
 they are of the habit and spirit of these churches. 
 The things which result from the Church's alli- 
 ance with the world demonstrate her adultery, 
 and are due to her infidelity to love ; her failure
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 175 
 
 to remember that she is espoused to the Lord 
 Christ as His bride, and ought to be devoted to 
 Him and to Him alone. The harlotry of world- 
 liness is manifest in every direction. Thousands 
 who name the name of Christ are taking pos- 
 sessions which have been bestowed by God, and 
 are spending them in the pursuit of unworthy 
 ambitions and pleasures. Those by covenant 
 related to Christ are inflaming themselves with 
 carnality under every green tree. Through 
 these things the testimony of light and love 
 which the Church should bear to the nation is 
 failing, and the name of God is being profaned 
 among the heathen. 
 
 The judgment of God is already upon the 
 guilty, upon whom His love is set. Hosea deal- 
 ing with judgment made use of three figures. 
 He spoke of the judgment of the moth, then of 
 that of the young lion, and finally of that most 
 fearful form, the withdrawal of God from His 
 people, so that they are left desolate, without 
 testimony and without power. The judgment 
 of the moth and rottenness is that of the insid- 
 ious weakening of the strength of His people. 
 That judgment is evidently upon us to-day. It 
 is manifested in the failure of the hosts of God.
 
 i;6 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 The Church of God as a whole is unable to 
 speak any authoritative word in the councils of 
 the nations. Indeed the judgment of the moth 
 and rottenness is so prevalent, that often, instead 
 of helping the nation, the Church hinders it. 
 The Church is mourning the dearth of conver- 
 sions within her own borders, wondering at the 
 depletion in her theological schools, and lament- 
 ing the indifference of the world to her testi- 
 mony. Like Ephraim she turns to Egypt and 
 to Assyria for help, adopts worldly methods for 
 raising money, desecrates the temples of God 
 with bazaars, and attempts to attract the indif- 
 ferent multitude by sensational methods and 
 spectacular displays. The judgment of God is 
 upon us. It is not coming, it is here. It is first 
 manifest in the weakening of the spiritual forces 
 of the Church, and in her inability to fulfill her 
 mission in the world. 
 
 Let us remember, and quite solemnly, that 
 beyond the method of the moth and rottenness 
 is the method of the young lion, the fiercer anger 
 of God ; and beyond the method of the young 
 lion is that of the withdrawal of God from His 
 own people. It is just as certain that God will 
 cast off the organized Church, as that He cast off
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 177 
 
 Israel, unless she return to Him through the 
 Penitence of the wilderness, to the fullness of the 
 fellowship of His love. I am not now dealing 
 with eternal issues. Israel will yet be restored, 
 and God will surely accomplish His purpose in 
 and through the Church. But so far as we 
 are concerned, unless we repent in dust and 
 ashes of our harlotry and adultery, we shall be 
 abandoned from service, the solemn word will 
 surely be uttered, "Thou canst be no longer 
 steward." 
 
 Yet it is ours to make application of the last 
 of these great truths. Over all the failure, heart- 
 breaking and desolating though it be, there 
 still sounds the music of the love of Jehovah. 
 Though Ephraim be a cake not turned, flaccid 
 as dough on one side, and burned to a cinder on 
 the other, utterly useless and contemptible, we 
 may still hear the great cry out of the heart of 
 God, " How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? " 
 
 The only comfort that comes to the heart in 
 the days of the failure of the Church is that the 
 music of the love of Jehovah is still sounding, 
 and the soul is filled with the assurance that He 
 has not exhausted all His methods. Another 
 crisis is coming. The present dispensation was
 
 1/8 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 
 
 ushered in by the crisis of the first Advent, and 
 a new dispensation will be ushered in by the 
 crisis of the second Advent; and beyond that, 
 and through it He will realize the triumph of 
 love. " I will redeem ; I will bring back." At 
 the coming of Christ, love will triumph through 
 judgment, and over judgment Love must at 
 last accomplish its purpose. 
 
 But Hosea had to tell the men and women to 
 whom he spoke that the triumph was postponed, 
 and that they could never share in its ultimate 
 fulfillment, save in the case of such individuals as 
 by return to God would discover the real mean- 
 ing of His love for them. 
 
 I am not prepared to make that declaration. 
 I do not know that it is so. Of times and 
 seasons I have no right to speak ; they are not 
 within my knowledge or understanding. I do 
 say that the Church needs supremely to remember 
 that the highest, most wonderful, and most 
 inspiring figure of her relationship to God is 
 that which declares she is the bride of Christ. 
 If that be once recognized, the sinfulness of 
 spiritual adultery and harlotry with the forces 
 which are opposed to Him will be realized. 
 
 We need to remember that when the Church
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA 179 
 
 is guilty of these sins it is inevitable that the 
 judgment of God should rest upon her. 
 
 We may also remember that He loves her 
 yet ; and as the members of His body, His flesh, 
 His bones, turn back to Him in loyalty of spirit, 
 He will receive them in the fullness of His love, 
 and the great word may be spoken of all such, 
 " I will heal their backsliding."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The Illustration of Principles 
 
 i. The Principles. Government Grace. 
 
 a. Government. 
 
 1. Jehovah enthroned. 
 
 2. Presiding in Patience. 
 
 3. Pressing all Forces into His Service. 
 
 4. Finally asserting Himself. 
 
 b. Grace. 
 
 1. The Inspiration of Government 
 
 2. The Restraint on Judgment 
 
 3. The Issue of Government 
 ii. The Illustrations. 
 
 a. Of Government. 
 
 1. The Locust Plague. The Act of God. 
 
 2. The imminent Judgment, ii. II. 
 
 3. The final Movements. The Day of Jehovah. 
 6. Of Grace. 
 
 1. The Call to Repentance presupposes it 
 
 2. The Declaration announces it ii. 12. 
 
 3. The Patience and the Purpose declare it 
 
 1L The Revelation of a Plan 
 
 i. The Immediate. 
 
 a. Judgment. 
 
 b. The Promise of Deliverance. 
 
 ii. " Afterwards." The poured-out Spirit 
 liL The Day of the Lord. 
 
 a. Restoration of Judah and Jerusalem. 
 
 b. The Finding of Israel. 
 
 e. The Judgment of the Nations. 
 
 d. Restoration of Israel. 
 
 e. Supremacy of Judah. 
 
 I. The Principles 
 
 The Day of the Lord 
 always present and 
 always coming. 
 
 IThis is the Day of the 
 Lord. 
 It is also to come ! 
 Through all we are to 
 rejoice in and pro- 
 claim Grace. 
 Ever insisting on the 
 Conditions. 
 
 II. The Plan 
 
 We must recognize our 
 
 Place. 
 Proclaim the Fullness of 
 
 the Spirit. 
 Urge Men to call on the 
 
 Name of the Lord.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 TAKING it for granted that we are fa- 
 miliar with the contents of the book of 
 Joel, in order to the discovery of its 
 permanent values we need to remind ourselves 
 of the threefold vision of the prophet. 
 
 In the first place we have his vision of the 
 things that were nearest to him, the circum- 
 stances in the midst of which he and the men to 
 whom he spoke were living. An actual plague 
 of locusts had swept over the land, and the first 
 part of his message was delivered in view of the 
 desolation resulting from that plague. 
 
 The second vision was that of judgment of a 
 more serious character threatening the people, 
 that, namely, of the coming of an army which he 
 described, using the locust plague for purposes 
 of illustration. 
 
 The third vision was that of things beyond his 
 own day and generation. 
 
 Joel looked around and saw the results of the 
 
 locust plague. He looked ahead and saw the 
 
 181
 
 182 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 new judgment coming upon his people. Then 
 climbing to a yet higher height he saw the 
 things of the far distances. In each case he 
 recognized the activity of Jehovah, and spoke of 
 " the day of the Lord." The locust plague was 
 " the day of the Lord." The swift judgment 
 coming upon his people would be " the day of 
 the Lord." The far distant vision was also that 
 of " the day of the Lord." 
 
 The whole prophecy is the result of a vision 
 in perspective of the highway of Jehovah 
 through the centuries; while the burden of the 
 book is expressed in the phrase, " the day of the 
 Lord." Whether the prophet looked at the 
 things in the midst of which he lived, or whether 
 he looked at the judgment which was imminent, 
 or whether he looked to the final activites, he 
 saw " the day of the Lord." To him that day 
 had always come, and was always coming. It 
 was the burden of his prophesying. 
 
 The permanent values of the book are first, its 
 illustration of the principles of the Divine govern 
 ment ; and secondly, its revelation of the plan of 
 God in the ages. 
 
 Its illustration of the principles of Divine 
 government. I use these words quite carefully.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 183 
 
 I do not say its declaration of the principles, be- 
 cause those are to be found in the prophecy of 
 Isaiah, in which, after the vision of the established 
 throne, its active principles of government and 
 grace are declared. In this book of Joel those 
 principles are illustrated. 
 
 First as to the activity of the throne in govern- 
 ment. From first to last we are made conscious 
 of the enthroned Jehovah. Whatever were the 
 signs of the times, whatever the defection of the 
 people, whatever the perils threatening them, the 
 one main impression made upon the mind is that 
 of Jehovah enthroned, presiding in patience over 
 all the processes through which His people pass ; 
 pressing into His service all forces, the forces of 
 nature, the locusts ; human forces, the coming 
 army ; and finally asserting Himself in absolute 
 and unqualified victory. Every day to this man 
 was " the day of the Lord." The final " day of 
 the Lord " is postponed, but it is absolutely cer- 
 tain. That will be the day of His established 
 victory. The long-sightedness of this prophet 
 is evident when we remember that the things he 
 described at the close have not yet taken place. 
 He saw the near things, the sin of his people, 
 and the locust plague ; the imminent things, the
 
 184 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 coming of judgment, and the restoration follow- 
 ing it ; the far things, the day of the Spirit in 
 which we are living, and the things beyond. 
 
 Yet even this prophecy does not give the final 
 things ; but only the beginning, the ushering in 
 of that last dispensation of God when He will 
 have won His victory and taken to Himself the 
 reins of government, and demolished all other 
 authority and power. The Kingdom of the Son 
 which lies beyond the millennium is not in view 
 in this prophecy. 
 
 As we read this book then, the first impression 
 made upon the mind is that of the throne of 
 God, and of God ever active in government 
 
 The second fact illustrated is that at the heart 
 of government is grace. Grace is the inspiration 
 of government. It is seen acting as a restraint 
 upon judgment, so that the locust plague was 
 the occasion of the prophet's appeal to his peo- 
 ple to repent ; so that his declaration of the 
 judgment which he affirmed to be imminent 
 opened the way for him to make the appeal of 
 God to the people to return to Him, and rend 
 their hearts rather than their garments. When 
 we come to the ultimate triumph it is not that of 
 a conqueror who rejoices that he has broken and
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 185 
 
 crushed, but that of a conqueror who rejoices 
 that he gives peace, and honour, and deliver- 
 ance, and beauty. Looking at the issue of 
 government we understand its inspiration. That 
 issue is beneficent, glorious, and beautiful, and by 
 these things we are assured that its inspiration 
 is the tender grace of the heart of God. 
 Through all the processes of necessary judgment 
 leading to the establishment of His Kingdom ; 
 the locust plague, the coming army, the final 
 conflict, there is evident the restraint of grace, be- 
 cause grace inspires the process, and is the ulti- 
 mate triumph to wards which every thing is moving. 
 Let us observe how these principles of govern- 
 ment and grace are illustrated. Of the locust 
 plague men would say, This is a sore misfortune. 
 No one could foresee it, or prevent it. It has 
 swept over the country, and so devastated every- 
 thing, that no drunkard can obtain wine, that 
 there are no offerings for the temple, that the peo- 
 ple throughout the land are lacking bread. It is 
 a terrible devastation, but no one could prevent it ! 
 Then the prophet delivered his message, that the 
 plague had come by the will and act of God. The 
 age was forgetting God, and Joel stood in the 
 midst of the devastation and declared that the
 
 1 86 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 things of which men spoke as simple happenings 
 in the course of nature, were as a matter of fact 
 the immediate and direct acts of God in judg- 
 ment. He insisted upon the fact of the Divine 
 government as he declared that the day of dev- 
 astation and the plague was " the day of the 
 Lord." He called the old men and the drunkards, 
 the possessors of the land, and all the people to 
 observe the destruction, and to recognize that it 
 resulted from the immediate action of God. This 
 he declared also concerning the judgment which 
 was about to come. In his graphic description 
 of the destroying army he said, " The Lord 
 uttereth His voice before His army," thus 
 calling them to recognize the invading foe as 
 acting under the government of God. When we 
 come to the final movement no argument is 
 needed. It is most certainly a prophecy of the 
 going forth of God, turning the captivity of Judah 
 and Jerusalem, seeking and finding His scattered 
 people, breaking the power of the nations that 
 have oppressed them, restoring Israel, and rais- 
 ing Judah to the place of supremacy. 
 
 Thus whether Joel looked at the near, the im- 
 minent, or the distant, he insisted upon the pres- 
 ence and activity of God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 187 
 
 With equal clearness he illustrated the fact of 
 the Divine grace. The call to repentance in the 
 first place presupposes the grace of the Divine 
 heart. The declaration of the second is perfectly 
 clear, " Yet even now, saith the Lord, turn ye 
 unto Me with all your heart, and with fasting, 
 and with weeping, and with mourning : and rend 
 your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto 
 the Lord your God : for He is gracious and full 
 of compassion, slow to anger, and plenteous in 
 mercy, and repenteth Him of the evil." That is 
 to say, He will change His mind concerning 
 judgment, when men rend their hearts and not 
 their garments, and turn back to Him. He is 
 slow to anger. He halts the march of His wrath 
 in order that men may repent. 
 
 When we come to the final movement, the 
 grace is as clearly manifest. " I will show won- 
 ders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and 
 fire, and pillars of smoke." That is the descrip- 
 tion of the great and terrible day of the Lord ; 
 but even then His grace will wait and act, " for in 
 Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those 
 that escape, as the Lord hath said, and among 
 the remnant these whom the Lord doth call." 
 
 Thus throughout the prophecy, in the things
 
 1 88 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 that are near, in the things that are imminent 
 and in the things of the final movement of God, 
 the two facts plainly evident are those of the 
 Divine government and the Divine grace. These 
 constitute the first permanent value of the book. 
 
 Now as to the second ; we have in this book 
 the revelation of a plan. Looking forward Joel 
 saw beyond the circumstances in the midst of 
 which he lived, and beyond those immediately 
 following, another day of the Lord ; but ere its 
 dawning a period undated and unmeasured, yet 
 full of gracious and wonderful blessing. 
 
 " It shall come to pass afterwards, that I will 
 pour out My Spirit." We are not able to say 
 that we do not know where to place that period, 
 because we have the New Testament in our 
 hands, and therein the clearly spoken word of the 
 apostle on the day of Pentecost, "This is that 
 which hath been spoken by the prophet Joel." 
 We know now what it was that Joel saw in dim 
 outline, which he could not perfectly describe, 
 yet which he did so accurately describe. He 
 saw the glorious outpouring somewhere in the 
 distance. He was unable definitely to place it j 
 and referred to its distance by that indefinite 
 word " afterwards." We know that it lay at least
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 189 
 
 five centuries away from the day in which he 
 uttered his prophecy. 
 
 The vision was most remarkable as that of a 
 Hebrew prophet, because it foretold the outpour- 
 ing of the Spirit upon all flesh, not merely upon 
 Israel, not only upon the elect, but upon all 
 flesh. 
 
 He saw, moreover, that this outpouring of the 
 Spirit and its results were to be irrespective of 
 caste; not merely upon the favoured, kings, 
 princes, priests, and rulers, but also upon bond- 
 slaves. 
 
 Joel saw the strange and wonderful age in the 
 distance. We are living in that age. There is 
 no single statement in the Bible which enables us 
 to say how long it will last, not a single note to 
 enable us to measure it. 
 
 Beyond the age of the Spirit he saw other 
 activities of the Divine government. Looking 
 towards them he said, " I will show wonders in 
 the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and 
 pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into 
 darkness, and the moon into blood, before the 
 great and terrible day of the Lord come." 
 These are not the signs of the age of the Spirit. 
 They will indicate its close, and initiate a new
 
 190 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 age which is that of the final day of the Lord. 
 During the period of these signs " it shall come 
 to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of 
 the Lord shall be delivered " ; delivered, that is, 
 from " the great and terrible day of the Lord." 
 Thus we see the plan of the ages. Joel saw that 
 the age in which he lived continued to a certain 
 point, and its characteristics would be those of 
 sin, of judgment, and of repentance. Then he 
 saw that day of the Lord moving on towards an- 
 other day of the Lord, in which the characteris- 
 tics of government and grace would be even 
 more marked. Afterwards he saw something 
 new, the Spirit poured upon all flesh, a quiet hush 
 descending everywhere ; no longer the old mani- 
 festations, but a new order of prophesying, dream- 
 ing of dreams, seeing of visions, and breaking 
 down of caste so that slaves also would be among 
 the prophets. Then signs in the heavens and in 
 the earth, and beyond these, " the great and ter- 
 rible day of the Lord." 
 
 As to that great day the prophetic word was 
 far more definite. His words concerning the age 
 of the Spirit were to him full of mystery, but to 
 us are clear. Beyond that age of the Spirit his 
 vision was clearer, and he gave a definite descrip-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 191 
 
 tion of what would happen. Judah and Jerusa- 
 lem are to be delivered from captivity and from 
 scattering among the nations. God will search 
 among the nations for the lost and scattered 
 Israel, and gather them together ; He will judge 
 the nations, and the basis of His judgment will 
 be that of their attitude towards Israel. Israel 
 will be restored to privilege and power ; and the 
 supremacy of Judah will be established in the 
 midst of the restored order. 
 
 None of these things have yet been fulfilled. 
 As surely as they were written, they will be ful- 
 filled. Place Joel as late as we may, allow the 
 latest scholar to have his way, and declare that 
 he spoke only four centuries before Christ ; it is 
 still enough if we admit that so long before the 
 Pentecostal miracle this man saw it, to warrant us 
 in saying that none has the right to deny that the 
 things which our eyes have not seen will be seen. 
 So surely as Joel wrote, God will act, and in his 
 brief writing we have a remarkable unveiling of 
 the plan of the ages. 
 
 The living message results from these per- 
 manent values. From them we learn that " the 
 day of the Lord " is always present and always 
 coming.
 
 192 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 " Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold 
 While the Lord of all ages is here ? " 
 
 There are those who deny that there ever will 
 be a " day of the Lord " in which He will act in 
 judgment On the other hand there are those 
 who are ever looking towards the future " day 
 of the Lord," forgetting that this also is the " day 
 of the Lord." 
 
 God is active at this hour. If that be denied, 
 if it be true that God is doing nothing, then the 
 outlook is indeed hopeless. This is " the day of 
 the Lord," but it is not the final day. There is a 
 sense in which this is man's day. It is an age of 
 remarkable progress. Inventions are multiplied. 
 Human culture has reached a level never before 
 attained. Progress, inventions, culture are mak- 
 ing man imagine that he is independent of God. 
 There is a wide-spread tendency to the deification 
 of human reason and human ability. It is 
 peculiarly the age in which humanity is acting as 
 though there were no God, or as though it were 
 entirely independent of Him. The results are 
 disastrous to all that is highest and best in human 
 life. All our progress and inventions and culture 
 leave us infinitely less than the highest, noblest 
 and best possibilities of our being. But this is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 193 
 
 also " the day of the Lord " ; and the activities 
 in the midst of which we find ourselves, if our 
 eyes are but anointed to see, are activities bathed 
 in the fire of His presence. Let no man think he 
 escapes God because he denies Him. To go 
 back to the prophecy of Isaiah, " Who among us 
 shall dwell with the devouring fire ? Who 
 among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ?" 
 Isaiah saw the city and people of his age exist- 
 ing in fire. The everlasting burnings are not 
 postponed. We live in the midst of them. I 
 cannot tell how much Isaiah knew of what we 
 call modern science. It is, however, perfectly 
 evident that its teachings were apprehended by 
 him in the spiritual realm. Modern science has 
 revealed to us the fact that there is a slowly 
 burning fire everywhere in nature. We leave 
 iron in the dews of the night, and in the morn- 
 ing declare it rusted. Scientists tell us rust is 
 the evidence of the slowly burning fire. In the 
 autumn we watch the leaves turning to gold and 
 vermilion, and this also is the work of the same 
 fire. Isaiah recognizing such a fire in the spirit- 
 ual realm asked Who can dwell in it? and an- 
 swered his own enquiry, " He that walketh 
 righteously, and speaketh uprightly." Every-
 
 194 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 
 
 thing else it destroys. London is wrapped in 
 the fire of God's nearness. This is the day of 
 God. The throne of judgment is erected now. 
 
 That, however, is not all ; there is the final 
 judgment throne. Every age will repeat the 
 process until the last, in which He will finally 
 deal with the sinning earth, in order that through 
 the last fire baptism He may realize all the pur- 
 pose upon which His heart is set. Yet thank 
 God, there is committed to us also the ministry 
 of reconciliation. Through all the movements 
 there are evidences of His grace, and it is ours 
 to rejoice in, and proclaim that grace, always in- 
 sisting upon the only conditions upon which 
 grace can operate, " Rend your heart and not 
 your garments." 
 
 The final word of the living message is this. 
 We are to remember where we are in the plan of 
 the ages. We are in the midst of the age of the 
 outpoured Spirit. The message we have to de- 
 liver to men is that of the possibility of the full- 
 ness of the life of the Spirit. Our business is to 
 urge men to call on the name of the Lord, and 
 thus to be saved from the judgment of His im- 
 mediate day ; from the judgment of His immi- 
 nent day ; from the judgment of His final day.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JOEL 195 
 
 Let it be ours, who know anything of what it 
 is to have received the Spirit, to hand over to 
 that indwelling One all the keys of all the 
 chambers of the being, that He may fill us, and 
 use us as the instruments of both the govern- 
 ment and the grace of God.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 I. The Philosophy of the Di- 
 vine Government 
 
 As illustrated in the Nations. 
 i. The Fact Assumed and 
 
 Applied. 
 it The Method. 
 
 a. Divine Knowledge of 
 
 National Interrelation- 
 ship. 
 
 b. Light creates Responsi- 
 
 bility. 
 
 c. The Divine Patience. 
 
 iii. The Aim. Establishment 
 of Highest Conditions. 
 
 II. The Practice of the Divine 
 
 Government 
 As illustrated in Israel. 
 i. Privilege and its Issue, 
 ii. The Sins of the Privileged, 
 iii. The Judgment of the Priv- 
 ileged. 
 
 III. The Promises of the Divine 
 
 Government, ix. 11-15 
 As accomplished by Jehovah, 
 i. Preliminary Restoration. 
 11-13. 
 
 a. " I will." 
 
 b. " That they may." 
 
 ii. Progressive Restoration. 14. 
 
 a. "I will." 
 
 b. They shall." 
 
 iii. Permanent Restoration. 15. 
 
 a. " I will." 
 
 b. " They shall" 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. To the Nations 
 
 i. The national Sins which God punishes. 
 
 a. Cruelty. Sin of Samaria. 
 
 b. Slave Trade. Sin of Philistia. 
 
 c. Slave Agents in spite of 
 
 Covenant Sin of Phoenicia. 
 
 d. Determined and re- 
 
 vengeful Unforgive- 
 ness. 
 
 e. Cruelty based 
 pidity. 
 
 Cu- 
 
 f. Violent and vindictive 
 
 Hatred. 
 
 g. Jehovah's Laws de- 
 
 spised. 
 A. Corruption and Oppres- 
 
 Sin of Edom. 
 Sin of Ammon. 
 Sin of Moab. 
 Sin of judah. 
 
 son. Sin of Israel, 
 
 ii. Peoples chosen to be Depository of Truth mus* 
 
 be righteous, 
 iii. There is no escape from Doom but by way ol 
 
 Penitence, 
 iv. Yet let the hearts of the Loyal be established. 
 
 II. To the Holy Nation 
 
 i. No countenance to national sins, 
 ii. Rejoice in the final Victory which is assured
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 THE prophecy of Amos is unique in that 
 it differs in some ways from the others 
 in the Divine library. It is peculiar in 
 that the prophet himself was neither a prophet, 
 nor the son of a prophet. These terms, however, 
 must be understood technically. When he de- 
 clared " I was no prophet ; neither was I a proph- 
 et's son," he meant that he was not recog- 
 nized as a prophet, nor had he been to one ol 
 the schools of the prophets. In the language of 
 our own day, he was a layman, and an untrained 
 man withal. The prophecy is preeminently pe- 
 culiar in the matter of outlook. There is a 
 most significant omission from this book. Amos 
 never used the phrase so common in other writ- 
 ings, " the God of Israel." His outlook was a 
 far wider one. It is only as we recognize this 
 fact that we can appreciate the real value of the 
 book. 
 
 According to Amos, Jehovah roars over Zion, 
 
 and utters His voice over Jerusalem, but the 
 
 197
 
 198 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 things He has to say are said to Damascus, Gaza, 
 Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Judah, and Israel. 
 As we read these messages of Jehovah we are 
 impressed by the fact that there is no peculiar 
 and startling gap between the first six and the 
 last two. It is one continuous message begin- 
 ning with the word of Jehovah to Damascus and 
 ending with His word to Israel. Amos spoke as 
 one who saw God to be not the God of Israel 
 and Judah only, but also the God of Damascus, 
 Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab. 
 
 In this prophecy, therefore, God is seen as de- 
 tached, and yet directing ; detached from the 
 prophetic order, and yet directing through a man 
 who became in the fullest, finest sense of the 
 word a prophet ; detached from every nation, 
 and yet directing all, governing the affairs of 
 each. 
 
 The permanent values of the book are three. 
 First it gives us the philosophy of the Divine gov- 
 ernment in the comprehensiveness of its outlook. 
 Secondly it reveals the practice of the Divine 
 government in that while the prophet was care- 
 ful to begin with the distant nations in order 
 to show that the principles of government are 
 the same in all nations, his supreme illustration
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 199 
 
 is that of the application to Israel. Finally, in a 
 brief and yet suggestive paragraph with which 
 the book closes, we have the promise of the Di- 
 vine government. 
 
 First, then, as to the philosophy. The fact of 
 Divine government is recognized. Amos never 
 affirmed it, never argued it, but from the first 
 chapter to the last assumed it, and applied it. 
 The supreme atmosphere of the book is that of 
 the government of God. That fact being recog- 
 nized, we discover in the method of the prophet 
 a revelation of the method of God's government. 
 Amos reveals the standard of the requirement, 
 the principle of the administration, and the pa- 
 tience of the method of God. 
 
 As to the standard of requirement ; all the 
 denunciations of the nations are denunciations 
 called forth by the fact that they have harmed 
 other nations. The charge against Syria was 
 that of cruelty ; against Philistia, that of her slave 
 trade ; against Phoenicia, that she had acted as 
 slave agent in spite of a covenant made in which 
 she promised not to do so ; against Edom, that 
 of determined and revengeful unforgiveness ; 
 against Ammon, that of cruelty based upon 
 cupidity ; against Moab, that of violent and vin-
 
 200 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 dictive hatred ; against Judah, the only case in 
 which the description recognizes the relation of 
 the people to God Himself, the charge was dis- 
 missed in a brief word as that of having been 
 guilty of despising the laws of God. Finally, in 
 the case of Israel the charge was that she had 
 become corrupt, and had oppressed the poor and 
 needy within her own borders. Thus it will be 
 seen that the denunciations of the nations were 
 due to their having violated the rights of human- 
 ity ; and thus it is evident that the standard of 
 God's requirement in His government of the 
 nations is that of their attitude towards other 
 nations. 
 
 Then we have the principle of government re- 
 vealed. We see that principle as we watch the 
 method. The severest words of denunciation 
 were reserved for Israel. The judgment de- 
 scribed as falling upon her was far more terrible 
 than that upon either of the other nations. It is 
 impossible to read these messages without dis- 
 covering that the principle of government is that 
 light creates responsibility, and the nations are 
 judged by God according to the light they have 
 received. National privilege spells national 
 responsibility. If light be refused, then judg'
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 201 
 
 ment is far severer than when light has been 
 lacking. 
 
 Finally, we have the patience of the method 
 of God. As we read these messages we notice 
 how each one begins. " For three . . . yea, 
 for four." This is a figurative way of declaring 
 that God does not act immediately in judgment, 
 but that He waits in order to give every nation 
 the chance of repentance. 
 
 We have thus in this book not merely the 
 revelation of the requirements, and of the stand- 
 ard, and of the patience of the government of 
 God ; but through these things we clearly see 
 the aim of God in government. If cruelty 
 makes Him angry, it is because His heart is set 
 upon kindness. If oppression stirs up His wrath, 
 it is because His purpose for man is that he 
 should live in peace. If the sorrows inflicted 
 upon man by man call down His judgment, it is 
 because the one great desire of His heart for 
 humanity is that of its well-being and happiness. 
 His government always moves towards the es- 
 tablishment of the best and highest conditions. 
 God is angry with everything that mars ; strife, 
 cruelty, war, oppression, because these are 
 against the aim of His government. In the
 
 202 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 closing paragraph in which the prophet looks 
 on to the day of ultimate restoration of the 
 chosen people, his words are full of suggestive- 
 ness. " I will bring again the captivity of My 
 people Israel, and they shall build the waste 
 cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant 
 vineyards, and drink the wine thereof ; they shall 
 also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 
 And I will plant them upon their land, and they 
 shall no more be plucked up out of their land 
 which I have given them, saith the Lord." The 
 profits are to go to the toilers. That is a picture 
 of the perfect order ultimately to be established in 
 the world ; all oppression, wrong, and fruitless 
 toil forever done away. Thus whether we con- 
 sider the charges the prophet made against the 
 nations concerning their sin against God, or 
 whether we look at that last chapter, we see that 
 the aim of God's government is that of the es- 
 tablishment of conditions in the midst of which 
 it shall be possible for humanity to realize its 
 true life, and live in the full enjoyment thereof. 
 That is the first permanent value of the book. 
 
 The second value is found in an examination 
 of the practice of the Divine government as it is 
 specially illustrated in the case of the nation of
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 203 
 
 Israel. The prophet declared " Hear this word 
 that Jehovah hath spoken against you, O children 
 of Israel, against the whole family which I 
 brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, 
 You only have I known of all the families of the 
 earth : therefore I will visit upon you all your 
 iniquities." No people had ever had the light 
 which had been granted to Israel. No people 
 had ever been brought into such intimate rela- 
 tionship with God as they had. The prophet 
 moreover declared that God had definitely re- 
 vealed His mind to them through the prophets, 
 " Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He 
 revealeth His secret unto His servants the 
 prophets." In these two passages Amos in- 
 sisted upon the privileges of these people. 
 
 Now let us consider what he said concerning 
 the sins of the privileged people. When he 
 came to deal definitely and specifically with 
 these sins, he did so by describing the luxury 
 and wantonness of the women. " Hear this word, 
 ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of 
 Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush 
 the needy, which say unto their lords, Bring, and 
 let us drink." Isaiah in his sternest denunciation 
 of the people recognized the same corrupting
 
 204 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 influence, and in satire more biting, and irony 
 more bitter, denounced the sin of the women. 
 John Ruskin attempted to teach his age the same 
 lesson. He declared, and it has often been 
 smiled at as a superlative statement impossible 
 of belief, that in the day when a sanctified and 
 pure womanhood demands that war shall cease, 
 war must cease. It is a superlative statement, 
 but careful consideration will make contradiction 
 of it very difficult. 
 
 Thus when the prophet began to deal with the 
 sin of the privileged people, he recognized the 
 awful as well as the sublime influence of woman- 
 hood. In his view the sin of the privileged 
 people had its most fearful manifestation in its 
 degraded womanhood. 
 
 He then showed that these people had sinned 
 in that they had violated holy associations. In 
 a word full of irony he said, " come to Bethel to 
 transgress." Think of what Bethel stood for, to 
 these people, and so understand the force of his 
 message. 
 
 He further showed that their sin had been that 
 they had not yielded to chastisement. That is 
 the value of the phrase running through one 
 section of his prophecy, " Yet have ye not re-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 205 
 
 turned unto Me." In spite of blasting, and mil- 
 dew, and all the other methods of chastisement, 
 they had persisted in their sin. His final word 
 about the sin of the people was that of a denun- 
 ciation of their false confidence. He spoke to 
 two parties in Israel. First to the people who 
 were always talking about " the day of the Lord " 
 and sighing for it. These he told that they did 
 not know " the day of the Lord," for it would be 
 to them a day of vengeance, of punishment, of 
 judgment. Secondly to the people who never 
 sighed for " the day of the Lord," and were " at 
 ease in Zion," the indifferent people. 
 
 All this is the most graphic setting forth of the 
 sins of a privileged people. We do not see such 
 sin in all its darkness until we recognize the 
 greatness of the privilege of the sinning people. 
 They were the family God had known as He had 
 known no other. God had done nothing among 
 them but that He had revealed His secret to the 
 prophets. They had received immediate revela- 
 tion throughout their history, yet they were guilty 
 of the sins of wanton womanhood ; of the viola- 
 tion of holy associations ; of refusal to submit to 
 chastisement ; of professed desire for a day of 
 judgment which would be to them a day of
 
 206 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 fire, and of tempest, and storm ; and of indiffer- 
 ence to that day. 
 
 The prophet then pronounced the judgment 
 which would fall upon the privileged people in 
 five visions, of the locusts, of the fire, of the plumb- 
 line, of the basket of summer fruit ; and then all 
 symbolism failing, of the active Jehovah coming 
 by the way of the altar of judgment In these 
 visions judgment is seen determined upon, tem- 
 porarily restrained, and finally executed. This 
 message of the activity of the Divine government 
 must have caused great astonishment to the men 
 who listened to it. Jeroboam was on the throne 
 of Israel. It was a day of material prosperity in 
 which the people were saying in effect, See how 
 God loves us, how great is our prosperity I 
 Suddenly this herdman from Tekoa appeared, 
 and first declared that of them Jehovah had said, 
 " You only have I known of all the families of 
 the earth." So far, in all probability, they lis- 
 tened to him with preeminent satisfaction. They 
 were the privileged people. God had done every- 
 thing for them. 
 
 The moment of astonishment came when the 
 prophet continued, " Therefore I will visit upon 
 you all your iniquities." Because their light had
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 20; 
 
 been clear, their judgment was to be profound. 
 The measure of their privilege was the measure 
 of their responsibility. According to their fail- 
 ure to respond to responsibility in the days 
 of privilege, must be the depth of the ruin 
 and degradation which would inevitably befall 
 them. 
 
 Finally, as permanent value we find the promise 
 of the Divine government. It is specially to be 
 noted that the phrase " in that day," connects the 
 closing promise of restoration with all that has 
 preceded it The day referred to is the day of 
 judgment, the day of denunciation. " In that 
 day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that 
 is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof ; and 
 I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in 
 the days of old." That is the promise of govern- 
 ment. We have seen the philosophy of it. We 
 have seen the illustration of it in practice. In 
 the last paragraph we find the promise of its per- 
 sistence. Through all the processes we have 
 gleams of the ultimate restoration, and at last it 
 is definitely promised. 
 
 First preliminary restoration is promised, " I 
 will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, 
 and close up the breaches thereof ; and I wilJ
 
 208 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the 
 days of old." Then progressive restoration is 
 promised, "I will bring again the captivity of 
 My people Israel, and they shall build the waste 
 cities." Finally permanent restoration is prom- 
 ised, " I will plant them, . . . and they 
 shall no more be plucked up." 
 
 In this prophecy of Amos, then, we see the 
 governing of God. We discover His standard 
 of government, His principle of government, His 
 patience in government. The practice is illus- 
 trated in the case of the people who had more 
 light than any other nation, and gleaming 
 through all the processes is the light of the ulti- 
 mate victory. 
 
 The living message of this book is pre- 
 eminently applicable to national life. The first 
 note is that Jehovah still holds the balances of 
 even justice, and that He is against all the things 
 which He was against in the days of Amos. We 
 speak of the changes of the centuries. God 
 never changes. We say that the old order 
 changeth. The Divine order never changes. 
 The Divine methods change, the Divine dispen- 
 sations change, but the underlying principles of 
 the attitude of God towards man never change.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 209 
 
 Cruelty is as hateful to God on the Congo as it 
 was in Syria. 
 
 This book teaches secondly that the people 
 chosen to be the despository of truth have the 
 greatest responsibility. When we make our 
 boast in the Divine calling of the Anglo-Saxon 
 peoples, let us also howl for our sins, and cry 
 aloud and spare not against our corrupting of 
 the covenant. 
 
 The sins with which the prophet charged Israel 
 were those of injustice, avarice, oppression, im- 
 morality, profanity, blasphemy, and sacrilege ; 
 seven deadly sins. If Israel was guilty of them, 
 so are we. Moreover, we are in danger of doing 
 exactly what Israel did in the reign of Jeroboam. 
 We speak of the prosperity which God has 
 given us. We point to the greatness of our 
 empire as evidence of the Divine approval, and 
 all the while God is judging us for our sins. 
 Only as we turn from them in profound repent- 
 ance can we live. God has not changed. There 
 can be no escape from doom but by the way of 
 penitence. We are not yet independent of God, 
 our inventions, our policies, our armaments not- 
 withstanding. 
 
 Yet let the hearts of the loyal be encouraged.
 
 210 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 
 
 Not for utter destruction does He destroy a 
 nation, but for restoration and fulfillment of 
 promise. 
 
 If we have made application of the message of 
 Amos to national life, and particularly to our 
 own nation, there is a yet closer, more searching 
 application. There is a holy nation. The 
 Church of Christ is in very deed an elect race. 
 She is assuredly a royal priesthood. Most cer- 
 tainly she is a people for God's own possession. 
 But she is also a holy nation. In the economy 
 of God the Church is the Christian nation, and 
 there is none other. In the light of that fact the 
 Church needs carefully to ponder the solemnity 
 of the message of Amos. 
 
 The measure of light is the measure of respon- 
 sibility. The measure in which that respon- 
 sibility is not fulfilled, is the measure of the un- 
 utterable degradation which must come as God 
 visits in judgment. The holy nation, above all, 
 must give no countenance to the sins which are 
 hateful to Jehovah. Oppression, avarice, blas- 
 phemy, impurity, must not be named among the 
 saints, because the light in which the holy nation 
 lives is the most perfect light of all. Let her 
 above all others rejoice in the assurance of that
 
 THE MESSAGE OF AMOS 211 
 
 final victory of which she is most perfectly as- 
 sured, having had through her Lord " the word 
 of prophecy made more sure." Therefore in the 
 measure in which any of the sins denounced 
 have power in the lives of the saints let their 
 repentance be profound, and their return to Him 
 Whose will is good, and perfect, and acceptable, 
 be complete.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 The Unveiling of Animalism 
 The Revelation of Edom which is Esau. 
 
 I. The Essential Evil. Pride 
 
 i. Godlessness. 
 
 a. No spiritual Conception. 
 
 b. Simple Animalism. 
 
 ii. Defiance. " Who shall bring me down ? " 
 
 a. Self-Deitication. " Mount high as Eagle." 
 
 b. Self-Protection. " Nest among Stars." 
 
 II. The Supreme Manifestation. Violence 
 
 L Opposition to all Jacob represented. 
 
 a. Faith. 
 
 b. A spiritual Ideal, 
 ii. Manifestation. 
 
 a. Passive. 
 
 1. Day of Disaster. Look. 
 
 2. Day of Destruction. Rejoice. 
 
 3. Day of Distress. Speak proudly. 
 
 b. Active. 
 
 I. Day of Calamity. 
 
 I. Inclusive. "The King* 
 dom shall be Jeho- 
 vah's " 
 i. It is His. 
 
 ii. It is being made His. 
 iii. It shall be His. 
 
 II. The Application 
 i. The Restoration and 
 
 Perfection of Jacob, 
 ii. The Reprobation and 
 
 Destruction of Esau. 
 
 2. Day of Distress. 
 
 Enter Gate. 
 Look on Affliction. 
 Lay hands on Sub- 
 stance. 
 
 Cut off Escape. 
 Deliver up. 
 
 III. The Inevitable Issue. Retribution 
 
 i. By Act of the denied Jehovah, 
 ii. By Cooperation of Events. 
 
 iii. liy poetic Justice. " As thou hast done, it 
 shall be." 
 
 III. The Profane can be made 
 Sacred 
 
 IV. The Last Word. 
 hovah's " 
 
 " The Kingdom shall be Je-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 THIS prophecy occupies only one page 
 in our Bible, and is characterized by the 
 absence of many things with which we 
 are familiar in the Old Testament Scriptures. 
 Indeed, the first impression made upon the mind 
 by the reading of this very brief prophecy is that 
 it has very little in the nature of a message to 
 this age. We may lay it down, however, as a 
 principle always to be observed and acted upon, 
 that those passages or books of Scripture which 
 seem to have least in them need the most care- 
 ful attention, and invariably yield the most re- 
 markable results. Isidore, in his allegories of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, said of this book : 
 " Among all the prophets, he is the briefest in 
 number of words ; in the grace of mysteries he is 
 their equal." That is most certainly true. The 
 book contains one set message. The identity of 
 the prophet and the historic setting are matters 
 of minor importance. The message is quite in- 
 dependent of either. 
 
 213
 
 214 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 The peculiar value of this one brief page is 
 that the antagonism between Jacob and Esau is 
 brought into clearer view than in any other of 
 the prophetic writings. Edom was descended 
 from Esau, and Israel from Jacob. The antago- 
 nism between them is patent throughout the 
 Bible. In the book of Genesis occurs a simple 
 and yet most suggestive declaration: "The 
 children struggled together within her." From 
 that hint of the consciousness of Rebekah, the 
 story of the antagonism continues. It finds its 
 fullest expression in the declaration, " I loved 
 Jacob; but Esau I hated." In regard to that 
 statement we must remember that God's love of 
 Jacob and His hatred of Esau were not the causes 
 from which their characters resulted, but the in- 
 evitable results of what they were in character. 
 When we come to the New Testament these two 
 antagonistic principles are still seen, and they are 
 at last remarkably focussed in two persons. 
 
 The ultimate issue of all Jacob represented I 
 am not now referring to his meanness, his failure, 
 to that which gave God so much trouble with 
 him ; but to the underlying principle and aspira- 
 tion and spiritual conception for which he stood 
 is manifested in a person, and that Person is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 215 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth. He is the final fruitage after 
 the flesh of those principles embodied in Abra- 
 ham, expressed through Isaac and Jacob, and 
 preserved in the nation. 
 
 The ultimate issue of all that Esau represented 
 is also focussed in a person. The king of the 
 Jews at the time of the death of Jesus was an 
 Edomite. Herod was of the race of Esau. To 
 him Jesus never spoke. He once sent him a 
 message thus : " Go and say to that fox, Behold, 
 I cast out devils and perform cures to-day and 
 to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected," a 
 most remarkable revelation of the antagonism 
 between the two ideals. The words sound harsh 
 and strange from the lips of Jesus, but they afford 
 a startling revelation of the whole truth concern- 
 ing Esau. The background of the picture pre- 
 sented to us by Obadiah is Jacob ; the fore- 
 ground is Esau. Jacob and those descended from 
 him are seen passing through suffering, which is 
 of the nature of chastisement, to ultimate restora- 
 tion. Esau is seen proud, rebellious, defiant, 
 moving towards ultimate destruction. The per- 
 manent value of this book is that of its interpre- 
 tation of Esau. It brings out, in one single page 
 of the Divine library, into clear relief and vivid
 
 216 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 outline the meaning of that word already quoted, 
 " Jacob I loved ; Esau I hated." To quote again 
 from one of the fathers of the Church, this book 
 historically tells the story of the destruction of 
 Edom, and allegorically sets forth the destruction 
 of the flesh. 
 
 Edom is Esau enlarged into national life. In 
 the book of Obadiah we discover the essential evil 
 in Esau, the supreme manifestation of that evil, 
 and the inevitable issue thereof. Finally we find 
 that the stern> hard word of prophecy ends with 
 a gleam of hope even for "the mount of 
 Esau." 
 
 Let us summarize these matters before consid- 
 ering them in detail. The essential evil of Esau 
 was pride. The supreme manifestation of that 
 evil was violence, wrong done to others. The 
 inevitable issue thereof was retribution. The last 
 word in the book is the sum total of all prophetic 
 utterance : " Saviours shall come up on mount 
 Zion to judge the mount of Esau ; and the king- 
 dom shall be Jehovah's." 
 
 The essential evil is graphically set forth in 
 the words: "The pride of thine heart hath de- 
 ceived thee, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of 
 the rock, whose habitation is high ; that saith in
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 217 
 
 his heart, Who shall bring me down to the 
 ground?" "The pride of thine heart hath de- 
 ceived thee" is the revealing word. The result 
 of that pride of heart was expressed in Edom's 
 defiance : " O thou that dwellest in the clefts of 
 the rock, whose habitation is high ; that saith in 
 his heart, Who shall bring me down to the 
 ground?" We at once recognize that this is an 
 actual geographical description of the place of 
 the Edomite nation, those rocky fastnesses in 
 which they lived, and in the seclusion and 
 strength of which they seemed able to defy all 
 invasion, and did indeed for long years success- 
 fully defy all attempts to dislodge them. They 
 dwelt literally in the clefts of the rock in a district 
 which gained the name of Petra because of its 
 rocky nature. Hemmed in by rocks, they occu- 
 pied a tract of land which was considered im- 
 pregnable. 
 
 The difficulty of dealing with the declaration, 
 " The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee," is 
 due to the fact that we have lost our sense of 
 proportion when we deal with sin. There has 
 been so much dealing with specific sins that we 
 have ceased to tremble when essential sin is de- 
 scribed. If we speak of drunkenness, of lust, of
 
 218 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 theft, of lying, men pause for a moment awed by 
 the consciousness of the sinfulness of such things. 
 Yet, as a matter of fact, these are none other than 
 the necessary, natural outcome of something far 
 more deadly. In this sentence the sin of sins is 
 named, " The pride of thine heart hath deceived 
 thee." Pride of heart is that attitude of life which 
 declares its ability to do without God. I am not 
 prepared to say the Edomites had no gods, for I 
 think there are evidences that they had ; but the 
 nation springing from Esau imagined that it was 
 independent of God. 
 
 The New Testament flashes its light upon the 
 whole history of Esau and the Edomites in a 
 graphic and appalling description of Esau, " that 
 profane person, Esau." Superficial thinking as- 
 sociates the word with indecorous and lewd 
 speech. It has a profounder significance. A 
 profane person is a person against the temple. 
 A profane person is one who has no spiritual 
 conception, who sets no value on a birthright, 
 and will sell it for red pottage. A profane per- 
 son has no consciousness of the eternal, no com- 
 merce with the spiritual, is proud of animal ability, 
 and acts as though independent of God. Profan- 
 ity never prays, never worships, never speaks of
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 219 
 
 spiritual intercourse, has no traffic with the eterni- 
 ties, no commerce with heaven. 
 
 Then notice the words, " Though thou mount 
 on high as the eagle, and though thy nest be set 
 among the stars." That is God's description of 
 Edom. The eagle in Eastern symbolism is 
 always a type of Deity. It is as though the 
 prophet's message to Edom was, Thou having de- 
 throned God, hast deified thyself, and made thy- 
 self to be thine own and only god. The setting 
 of the nest among the stars high up in the rocky 
 fastnesses is a figure of self-protection. Thus, 
 the description is graphic portraiture. 
 
 If that be the essential evil, notice carefully 
 what is the supreme manifestation thereof. It is 
 that of violence ; that of wrong done to others, 
 and of rejoicing in the presence of their suffer- 
 ing. " For the violence done to thy brother Jacob 
 . . . in the day that thou stoodest on the other 
 side, in the day that strangers carried away his 
 substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, 
 and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as 
 one of them." The Edomites had looked upon 
 the suffering of the people of God, and had been 
 complacent in the presence of it ; more, had re- 
 joiced over it ; and yet more, had taken a defi-
 
 220 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 nite part in it. This was the supreme manifesta- 
 tion of the evil, and it was caused by the fact 
 that there was in the heart of Esau opposition to 
 all that Jacob represented. Jacob represented 
 faith in God. He stood for a spiritual ideal. 
 Perhaps I should more accurately express the 
 fact if I said that Jacob stumbled after a spiritual 
 ideal. The supreme matter is that he saw it. 
 In the deepest of his nature he desired it. He 
 set his face towards it notwithstanding all his 
 failure. There was in Jacob a principle upon 
 which God could work for the accomplishment 
 of His purpose. In spite of all his blundering 
 he believed in God, he believed in the spir- 
 itual. 
 
 That ideal Esau hated. When the day of 
 Jacob's calamity came, when Jacob was being 
 scourged, chastised, Edom was glad ; and 
 crossed over and entered into the gate, and 
 joined in unholy opposition, and snatched the 
 substance from his brother. 
 
 The inevitable issue of such hatred is retribu- 
 tion. Use any other word which seems more 
 accurately to fit the case punishment, judg- 
 ment, if you so will only remember that judg- 
 ment has many meanings and many applications,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 221 
 
 and that judgment as definite punishment even 
 to destruction, is the thought here. Edom said, 
 " Who shall bring me down to the ground ? " 
 and Jehovah replied, " Though thou mount on 
 high as the eagle, and though thy nest be among 
 the stars, I will bring thee down. . . . Shall 
 I not in that day . . . destroy the wise men 
 out of Edom, and understanding out of the 
 mount of Esau ? And thy mighty men, O Te- 
 man, shall be dismayed." The God without 
 Whom Edom declares it is able to live success- 
 fully, is the God Who visits Edom with destruc- 
 tion. Though Edom climb as high as the stars 
 and build its nests, and mount as the eagle in 
 self-deification ; the God above and around, from 
 Whom he cannot escape, will bring him down, 
 and prove to him the unutterable folly of his an- 
 imalism, and the heinousness of his pride. 
 
 God will do this by overruling the policies 
 and arrangements Edom can make: "The men 
 of thy confederacy have brought thee on thy 
 way, even to the border : the men that were at 
 peace with thee have deceived thee, and pre- 
 vailed against thee ; they that eat thy bread lay 
 a snare under thee." By the cooperation of the 
 very forces in which Edom takes pride, God is
 
 222 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 working for Edom's destruction. Edom de- 
 clares : I can do without God. I will be confed- 
 erate with other men, will enter into political ar- 
 rangements with them, and international treaties 
 shall exist between us, and thus I shall be safe. 
 God replies : I will bring thee to the dust, and I 
 will do it through the men in whom you are put- 
 ting your trust. The very forces on which you 
 depend are working together with Me, not for 
 your making, but for your destruction. 
 
 The judgment of God upon Edom is poetic 
 justice : " As thou hast done, it shall be done unto 
 thee." The New Testament states it thus : " Be 
 not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatso- 
 ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For 
 he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the 
 flesh reap corruption." That is the story of 
 Esau, sowing to the flesh, answering the passions 
 of the flesh, doing this in opposition to Jacob, 
 and rejoicing over Jacob's trouble. In the end 
 the flesh itself becomes the weapon of Edom's 
 destruction. " As thou hast done, it shall be 
 done unto thee." 
 
 We now come to the last word of this proph- 
 ecy, " The captivity of this host of the children of 
 Israel, which are among the Canaanites, shaU
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 223 
 
 possess even unto Zarephath ; and the captivity 
 of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess 
 the cities of the South. And saviours shall come 
 up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau ; 
 and the kingdom shall be Jehovah's." The last 
 word is the final one of all prophecy, " The king- 
 dom shall be Jehovah's." The preliminary 
 movement is that of the deliverance of the 
 despised Jacob. He is led through all the suffer- 
 ing towards the realization of the Divine pur- 
 pose, and as a result saviours appear on mount 
 Zion to judge the mount of Esau. I have al- 
 ready said we must be careful to remember that 
 judgment has many meanings and various ap- 
 plications. Judgment may mean administration 
 towards righteousness. I do not hesitate to say 
 that in this last word the truth is expressed that, 
 by the way of Jacob's redemption, restoration, 
 and realization of the Divine purpose, there is 
 hope for Esau. 
 
 The final word then is one concerning that 
 day in which all conflict will end, all factions pass 
 out of sight, and all racial divisions disappear, 
 " The kingdom shall be Jehovah's." The Seer 
 of Patmos saw the ultimate, and described it in 
 the words, " Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great
 
 224 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 
 
 . . . The kingdom of the world is become the 
 kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." 
 
 Inclusively the living message is to be found in 
 this last sentence, " The kingdom shall be Je- 
 hovah's." The conflict between animalism and 
 spirituality still continues, but " the kingdom shall 
 be Jehovah's." In spite of all difficulty, persecu- 
 tion, and opposition, Jacob will become Israel, and 
 Esau will have judgment by the way of saviours. 
 Restoration and perfection for Jacob ; retribution 
 and destruction for Esau. These are certain. 
 Yet the profane may become sacred, for saviours 
 appear upon the mount of Zion. 
 
 The living message of this book is to individ- 
 uals also, for all its principles are operating in 
 human life. What sort of man am I? Am I 
 profane as was Esau, or am I like Jacob ? I do 
 not think there are any other types. Even those 
 of us who believe in God, who in the deepest of 
 us have faith and real desire to fulfill the purpose 
 of God, are Jacobs. He has to take us to the 
 Jabbok, and cripple us in order to crown us. He 
 has to be patient with us ; and He is patient, or 
 we had been lost. The God Who chastises us 
 and leads us through trouble is set upon doing 
 ^is good at the latter end ; and all the discipline
 
 THE MESSAGE OF OBADIAH 225 
 
 and trouble, pain and punishment, are in order 
 that at last we may realize our own deepest pur- 
 pose, and satisfy His heart. 
 
 Are we profane, doing without God ? We may 
 be wonderfully successful materially ; we may 
 mount up as eagles ; we may be our own gods, 
 acting independently of heaven, of the spiritual 
 world, and building our nests among the stars ; 
 but already God is bringing us down. Our very 
 confederacy with flesh is working our ruin. 
 
 The profane man can be made sacred, and if 
 we will but recognize that " the kingdom shall be 
 Jehovah's," and will but kiss His sceptre and bow 
 to His control, and bend our proud necks in 
 worship, and our knees in prayer, yielding our- 
 selves to His revealed Saviour King, then He 
 will make again the vessels, and we also may be- 
 come His chosen. If not, all our boasting and 
 all our building cannot secure our salvation.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 L The Revelation of Jehovah 
 
 i. Jehovah and Nineveh. 
 
 a. His Attitude. Pity. iv. n. 
 
 b. His Activity. 
 
 1. The Message sent. 
 
 Against its Wickedness. 
 
 2. The Repentance of God. 
 
 Produced by Nineveh's Repentance, 
 ii. Jehovah and Jonah. 
 
 a. His Need of a Messenger. 
 
 b. His Persistence and Patience. 
 
 1. For Delivery of His Message. 
 
 2. For Fellowship of His Messenger. 
 
 II. The Revelation of the Responsibility of Represen- 
 tation 
 
 L The positive Statement. 
 
 a. To Represent. He only sends those to repre- 
 
 sent Him who know Him. 
 iv. 2. 
 
 b. Therefore to Obey. 
 
 1. His Purpose rather than their Desire. 
 
 2. Satisfaction in that Purpose. 
 ii. The negative Revelation. 
 
 a. The underlying Reason of Failure. 
 
 Hatred of Nineveh. 
 
 b. The resultant Manifestation. 
 
 Estrangement from God. 
 
 Everything of value in this 
 Book is embodied and 
 emphasized in Jesus, and 
 to us. 
 
 I. Jehovah and the Cities 
 
 Jesus and Jerusalem. 
 
 II. Jehovah and His People 
 
 Jesus needs us. 
 Jesus sends us. 
 
 IK. Our Failure 
 
 i. Not Ignorance of God. 
 ii. Hatred of our Brother. 
 
 a. The Foreigner. 
 
 b. The Pariah. 
 
 IV. How shall we overcome ? 
 
 i. Not by forcing Love to 
 
 them. 
 
 ii. But by Obedience to 
 God, which issues in 
 Love to Man.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 THE book of Jonah is peculiar among the 
 prophetic writings in that it contains no 
 message delivered to the people of God 
 by the prophet whose name it bears. The book 
 is a story, and the story is the message. It was 
 not written for Nineveh. It was written for 
 Israel, using that word in its narrower applica- 
 tion to the Northern kingdom, yet recognizing 
 that the moral values of the book have their ap- 
 plication to the whole nation. 
 
 In order, then, to discover the message of the 
 book, we must seek for the outstanding facts in 
 the story. In doing this it is of the utmost im- 
 portance that we distinguish between the in- 
 cidental and the essential. The incidental things 
 are the ship, the storm, the whale, the gourd, the 
 wind, and Nineveh. I need only pause here long 
 enough to say that the incidental things are not 
 necessarily things existing only in the imagina- 
 tion. These things are incidental because they 
 
 were the instruments in the hand of the master 
 
 227
 
 228 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 Workman. The essential matters of the book 
 are the transactions between Jehovah and Jonah. 
 It is when the attention is fixed upon these, and 
 all the other things are seen as incidental, that 
 we begin to find the permanent value of the book, 
 and to discover its living message. 
 
 Thus to concentrate the attention upon the 
 essential persons is to find that the book is su- 
 premely the one of missionary teaching in the 
 Old Testament. Whereas a missionary purpose 
 is to be found in the whole history of the Hebrew 
 people, this one brief book in the prophetic sec- 
 tion does more clearly set forth that missionary 
 purpose, both as to its source and its method, 
 than any other book in the whole of the Old 
 Testament library. It reveals the attitudes and 
 activities of God towards the nations, and towards 
 His own for the sake of the nations. It rebukes 
 the failure of those who should represent Him. 
 It recalls to worship those who have neglected 
 that responsibility of representation. We may 
 hold different opinions as to when and by whom 
 the book was written, but we cannot read it in 
 the way indicated without seeing that its first 
 intention was that of rebuking the exclusiveness 
 of the chosen people of God. Whether Jonah
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 229 
 
 wrote it himself or not, it purports to be the story 
 of events in his life, and there can be no reason 
 able doubt that the Jonah referred to is the one 
 named in the book of Kings as exercising his 
 ministry in the reign of Jeroboam II. If we 
 recall the prevailing conditions during that 
 period we find two things of the most strangely 
 contradictory character. Israel was attempting 
 to form alliances with the nations around her, 
 and at the same time was more exclusive relig- 
 iously than she had ever been. She had come 
 to hold the idea that the religion of Jehovah was 
 hers only, that God had made her His peculiar 
 people and cared nothing for others, and that 
 the only attitude of God towards the people out- 
 side the covenant was that of hostility. The 
 whole of the Hebrew contempt for, and antago- 
 nism to, surrounding nations is focussed in the 
 picture of Jonah. The whole of the Divine at- 
 titude towards the surrounding nations, the 
 Divine pity, the Divine patience, the Divine 
 power, is revealed as we see Jehovah dealing 
 with Jonah. Thus there are two permanent 
 values. First, the revelation of the attitude of 
 Tehovah ; and secondly, the revelation of th* 
 responsibilities of such as represent Him,
 
 230 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 We do not find the deepest note concerning 
 Jehovah until we arrive at the end of the book. 
 The story begins with a command to Jonah to 
 arise and go to Nineveh, and cry against it. 
 When we follow the story through, and come to 
 the last words, we touch the deepest note : 
 " Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which 
 thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow ; 
 which came up in a night, and perished in a 
 night : and should not I have pity on Nineveh, 
 that great city ; wherein are more than sixscore 
 thousand persons that cannot discern between 
 their right hand and their left hand ; and also 
 much cattle ? " 
 
 " Should not I have pity on Nineveh f " Here 
 we touch the fundamental truth of the whole 
 book. Everything else is the outcome of it. 
 The command to Jonah to go to Nineveh, the 
 patient persistence with which God compelled 
 him to obedience, are alike the outcome of what 
 is declared in that brief sentence. The relation 
 of this book of Jonah to the books we have 
 already considered is full of interest. It com- 
 pletes a remarkable triptych presenting three 
 pictures of Jehovah. In Amos His sovereignty 
 over the nations is revealed. In Obadiah He is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 231 
 
 revealed as the God of judgment. In Jonah the 
 supreme revelation is that He is a God of mercy, 
 a God of pity. 
 
 The word pity is significant. The Hebrew 
 word literally means cover. Should not I cover 
 Nineveh? The thought perfectly harmonizes 
 with the revelation of God suggested in the 
 words which Jesus uttered over Jerusalem : " How 
 often would I have gathered thy children 
 together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 
 under her wings, and ye would not" The idea 
 is that of covering them, and so shielding them 
 from danger. Should not I cover Nineveh, 
 brood over it, protect it, feel its sorrows in My 
 own heart, shield it from destroying forces? In 
 that word we have His attitude towards sinning 
 cities. That is the source of missionary en- 
 deavour in all the centuries, " Should not I have 
 pity?" 
 
 Out of that attitude all the activities of Jehovah 
 proceed. I think if I took up this book of 
 Jonah, and read it for the first time, I should 
 inevitably misread it, because I should put into 
 the first command to Jonah an emphasis wholly 
 of anger in the presence of the wickedness and 
 abounding iniquity of Nineveh ; but I cannot so
 
 232 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 read it after I have read, " Should not I have pity 
 on Nineveh ? " Not that the standard of holiness 
 is lowered, not that Jonah was sent to it with any 
 other message than that of judgment against its 
 sin ; but that I have now discovered that God's 
 anger with sin is born of His pity for the sinner. 
 When Nineveh repented, God repented, and 
 repented because He cannot change. The He- 
 brew word here has more in it than the sug- 
 gestion of change of mind. It suggests a sob, 
 a sigh, a breathing of agony. Yet it does also 
 suggest change, and therefore what He said He 
 would do, He did it not. In the moment when 
 Nineveh turned from its evil to Him, He straight- 
 way changed His purpose of judgment. Nine- 
 veh fulfilled its responsibility by obedience to 
 Him ; and His attitude was changed because He 
 cannot deny Himself, He cannot be untrue to 
 the central fact of His nature. Whenever we 
 read that God repented, and we study the con- 
 text, we shall find such statement either followed 
 or preceded by a declaration of the cause, and 
 the cause is always man's repentance. So that 
 when a man turns from or repents of his wicked- 
 ness, God turns from His purpose of judgment, 
 which in itself was love-inspired.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 233 
 
 In further examination of the essential things, 
 we notice God's need of a messenger. " How 
 shall they hear without a preacher ? " is the en- 
 quiry of the New Testament, and in that enquiry, 
 as in this story, there is manifest a great prin- 
 ciple of supreme importance. Out of that grows 
 the explanation of His persistent patience to 
 secure the fellowship of His messenger, " The 
 word of the Lord came to Jonah the second 
 time." The man who had failed at first had a sec- 
 ond opportunity of fulfilling the purpose of God in 
 Nineveh ; and beyond that, there is a third time, 
 a third time of attempt to bring this man into 
 sympathy with the purpose of God in mercy. 
 The methods were of the gourd provided and 
 withered, and the conversation between Jehovah 
 and His messenger. There was tender satire in 
 the question of God as the margin renders it, 
 " Art thou greatly angry ? " Jonah replied, " I 
 do well to be angry even unto death." Again 
 God asked the same question, and continued : 
 " Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which 
 thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow ; 
 which came up in a night, and perished in a 
 night : and should not I have pity on Nineveh ? " 
 Thus God appealed to Jonah, persuading him to
 
 234 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 fellowship in love. The story ends with the 
 picture of this man still in rebellion, still angry. 
 If he wrote the book, then I claim God won his 
 victory and brought him into sympathy with 
 Himself, for the story told reveals his folly and 
 his failure. 
 
 What, then, is the revelation of this book as to 
 the responsibility of those who represent God ? 
 Forgive me if I first state it in the most obvious 
 and apparently unnecessary way. The responsi- 
 bility of those who represent Jehovah is that they 
 represent Him. Now what was the trouble with 
 Jonah? Why, when sent to Nineveh, did he 
 find a ship and attempt to reach Tarshish? 
 Why, when commanded by Jehovah to deliver 
 a message, did he attempt to escape by resign- 
 ing his position as a prophet ? Why, after the 
 remarkable interposition and deliverance which 
 came to him, and after he had delivered his 
 message, did he sit in hot anger and rebellion 
 against God ? I think the answer we should be 
 inclined to give at first is that he did not know 
 God. That, however, is not true, for it is written 
 that when Nineveh was spared, " It displeased 
 Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he 
 prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray Thee, O
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 235 
 
 Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in 
 my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto 
 Tarshish : for I knew that Thou art a gracious 
 God, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and 
 plenteous in mercy, and repentest Thee of the 
 evil." Therein is revealed the tragedy of this 
 book. The flight to Tarshish and the hot 
 rebellion were expressions of something much 
 more serious. The things Jonah knew of Je- 
 hovah are the great truths contained in the most 
 wonderful words in the Old Testament, words in 
 which God had unveiled Himself to His servant 
 long before, " a God full of compassion and gra- 
 cious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and 
 truth." Jonah knew all this, and that is why he 
 did not go. Now we are finding the reason of 
 his anger. It was not caused by ignorance of 
 God, but by hatred of Nineveh. He did not 
 want Nineveh to be spared. On the human 
 plane I understand him perfectly. Nineveh was 
 guilty of cruelty and abominations for which 
 one hundred years later another prophet uttered 
 her doom. She was merciless and cruel, and 
 Jonah was in rebellion against her being spared. 
 God only sends those to represent Him who 
 know Him. The responsibility, therefore, of
 
 236 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 those who are called to represent God, is that 
 of obedience. His purpose, rather than their 
 desire, must be the master passion of their heart. 
 Their predjudice must be overruled by the pur- 
 poses of God, governed by them, and submitted 
 to them. The result of failure in this is estrange- 
 ment between the messenger and God. 
 
 What, then, is the living message of this book? 
 We have had this word of prophecy made more 
 sure in that all its suggestiveness has been em- 
 bodied for us in the Person and the mission of 
 One Whom we call Lord and Master. Every- 
 thing of value in this book is embodied and em- 
 phasized in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore its 
 teaching comes to us with even greater force, be- 
 cause with greater light than that with which it 
 came to ancient Israel. That final word, which 
 reveals the fount out of which all this story 
 springs, the word which announces the pity of 
 the Divine heart, flames for us in new light in the 
 picture of Jesus Christ in His attitude towards 
 Jerusalem. Do not let us, however, make that 
 picture of Christ weeping over Jerusalem the 
 picture of something in the past ; it is the picture 
 of His attitude at this moment towards this city, 
 and towards all the cities of the earth. Think of
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 237 
 
 all the cities, the habitations of cruelty, places 
 where humanity is manifesting its most awful 
 corruption, and then remember that God pities 
 them all. However we may fail towards our 
 own or other cities or lands, God has pity on 
 them. Do we care for the plant that comes up 
 and perishes? Then God says, "Should not I 
 have pity on Nineveh?" We shall never be mis- 
 sionary enthusiasts until we come into fellowship 
 with that pity. Once we do so, we shall find 
 the corrective to all our halting. When He be- 
 held the city He wept over it. That is a revela- 
 tion of the eternal fact in the nature of God. 
 
 All the picture of Jehovah in His dealing with 
 Jonah is fulfilled for us also in the New Testa- 
 ment revelation. If the Lord Christ pities men, 
 in order to send His messages to them, He needs 
 us. God always needs a man to stand in the 
 gap. The Word must be incarnate before it be- 
 comes powerful. We scatter our Bibles far over 
 the world, and thank God that we do so, but the 
 ordained method of reaching men is to send the 
 Bible with a man. It is by the human voice, the 
 actual living messenger, that the Word of God is 
 made powerful. Christ still needs messengers to 
 the cities, and He still sends us. There is no
 
 238 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 man, woman, or little child who really belongs to 
 Christ, who does not share the responsibility : 
 " Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry 
 against it ; for their wickedness is come up 
 before Me." That command comes out of in- 
 finite pity and infinite love. Why cry against 
 Nineveh's wickedness? Because it is damning 
 Nineveh ; because God would save Nineveh ; 
 because God's act of destruction is forever a 
 strange act. The act that comes out of His 
 heart is the act of construction, salvation, and 
 love. Therefore cry against the wickedness that 
 blights and spoils. 
 
 Before we criticize Jonah let us turn the light 
 on ourselves. How far have we obeyed ? There 
 are facts in the story of Jonah which show that 
 there was much of nobility about him, even in 
 the moment of disobedience. When he went 
 out from the presence of the Lord, he went down 
 to Joppa and found a ship waiting (it is remark- 
 able how accommodating circumstances seem to 
 be sometimes when we are trying to escape re- 
 sponsibility), then he paid his own fare. There 
 is a fine touch of honesty about that. We have 
 not always been so honest. Do not forget, how- 
 ever, that if we are really commanded by God,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 239 
 
 the fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, 
 Joppa, the ship, and the fine independence of 
 paying our own fare, will not ensure our reach- 
 ing- Tarshish. The hand of God is still upon us, 
 and we thank Him that it is so. 
 
 The secret of the Church's comparative failure 
 in missionary enterprise is not that we do not 
 know God and His compassion. We do know 
 Him. His love has been commended to us. 
 We have felt its warmth, its fire. We know its 
 victories in our own lives. Why, then, do we 
 halt ? For exactly the same reason which halted 
 Jonah. Because we hate Nineveh. The Church 
 does not want to see the world saved, does not 
 want to see the heathen nations brought to Christ. 
 She still speaks of her work as foreign missionary 
 work ; still describes men of other nationalities 
 and other climates and other colours as natives, as 
 foreigners; still adopts the attitude of supercili- 
 ous indifference to them. 
 
 If that statement seems too severe, come nearer 
 home. Why does not the Church reach the out- 
 cast people in London and save them ? Because 
 the Church does not like the outcast people, does 
 not want them saved. We write of the pariahs 
 of India in pity, but the submerged outside our
 
 240 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 
 
 own doors we prefer to keep outside. In how 
 many pews in the average church would the 
 outcast be welcome if he or she appeared on Sun- 
 day next ? Do we really want them ? Are we 
 ready to cooperate with God? 
 
 How shall we overcome this difficulty ? Not 
 by trying to love them. Never was a more 
 absurd thing said by any man than that he 
 would try to love some one. It is impossible. 
 We cannot try to love these people. What, 
 then, shall we do? Fall in line with the com- 
 mand of our Lord and what we know of Him, 
 and do what He bids. Such obedience will 
 create love even for those whom we cannot 
 compel ourselves to love. There are a great 
 many people in this city of whom we think with 
 revulsion. We do not want to get near them. 
 We are not really anxious they should be saved. 
 We have never stretched out a hand to help 
 them. Let us begin to do it, not out of love for 
 them, but out of love for the Lord. As surely as 
 we do, we shall find beneath the rough surface 
 gems with lustre as wonderful as any we have 
 discovered in any walk of life. We shall find 
 that they also are lovable. 
 
 The whole lesson of the book of Jonah is that
 
 THE MESSAGE OF JONAH 241 
 
 of the sin of exclusivism, the sin of imagining 
 that if we have received light, it is for ourselves 
 alone. Let us away to Nineveh because God 
 commands it, whether the going falls in with our 
 prejudices or not ; and as we go we shall come 
 into new fellowship with Him, and find a new 
 comradeship with humanity, and withal hasten 
 the coming of the day of His perfect victory.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. The Unmasking of false Authority, iii. u. 
 i. Civil Rulers. Judge for Reward, iii. 2. 
 
 a. Character. Hate good, love evil. 
 
 b. Conduct. Spoliation of the People. 
 ii. Spiritual Rulers. Teach for Hire. 
 
 a. Their Claim. They lean upon the Lord. 
 
 b. Their Corruption. The corrupted Motive. 
 
 iii. Moral Rulers. Divine for Money, iii. 5. 
 
 a. Their Influence. They make my People err. 
 
 b. Their Methods. 
 
 1. Fed. Thy cry peace. 
 
 2. Unfed. They make war. 
 
 II. The Unveiling of true Authority 
 i. The Coming One. 
 
 a. From human Obscurity. 
 
 b. From Everlasting, 
 ii. His Administration. 
 
 a. He shall stand. 
 
 b. He shall feed, 
 iii. The Issue. 
 
 a. Positive. This Man shall be Peace. 
 
 b. Negative. Destruction of all false Methods. 
 
 v. 10-14. 
 
 The Test of all Authority 
 is in its Motive 
 
 Civil, spiritual or moral 
 Selfishness is evil. 
 
 II. The Strength of Au- 
 thority 
 
 i. The Strength of Jehovah. 
 ii. The Majesty of the Name 
 of Jehovah. 
 
 III. The Hope 
 
 i. The One came to lay 
 
 Foundations. 
 
 ii. He will come to complete 
 the Work. 
 
 IV. The Duty 
 
 i. To Obey, 
 ii. To Enforce, 
 iii. To Wait.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 
 
 tHE position this book occupies in the 
 Divine library maintains an interest- 
 ing sequence. I do not suggest that 
 the placing of these books is inspired. In the 
 Septuagint the arrangement is entirely different. 
 I do, however, say quite seriously that I am a 
 Churchman, believing in the Catholic Church, 
 and believing in the Catholic Church as an in- 
 strument of God. As I study my Bible I am 
 more and more convinced that there is a reason 
 for the order in which the books are placed. 
 We have seen in our last two or three lectures 
 that there has been an evident sequence of 
 thought Let us call to mind the three im- 
 mediately preceding this one. In Amos the 
 burden was that of the Divine government of 
 nations, and of national accountability. In 
 Obadiah it was that of Divine government pro- 
 ceeding to judgment against sin. In Jonah it 
 was that of the Divine government proceeding 
 
 in mercy in answer to repentance. 
 
 243
 
 244 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 
 
 In Micah we have a picture of the administra- 
 tion of that government in the affairs of men. 
 The nations are addressed. There is, of course, 
 a sense in which this prophecy was not to the 
 nations outside ; but they are in view ; and as we 
 read, we find that the prophet's method was that 
 of calling upon the nations to observe God's 
 method with His own people. He recognized 
 that the chosen people were created in order that 
 through them the fact of the sovereignty of God 
 might be made manifest to the nations. There- 
 fore he called upon those nations to observe the 
 judgment of the chosen people. 
 
 When God has chosen a nation or called a 
 man, the truth of His government is made real 
 through the nation or through the man, either by 
 failure or by success. If the nation be obedient, 
 there follows the revelation to other nations of 
 the grace and tenderness of the Divine govern- 
 ment in the realization of life at its highest and 
 best ; such realization resulting from such obedi- 
 ence. Had Israel fulfilled the purpose of God in 
 the midst of the nations they would have seen in 
 her prosperity, in her blessing, how good and 
 gracious a thing the government of God is. 
 Israel failed to bear that testimony to the nations.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 24$ 
 
 Then is there no message for them through her 
 history ? Micah shows that in the judgment o! 
 God upon the failing people a truth of vast 
 importance is proclaimed to the surrounding 
 nations. Therefore he makes his appeal to 
 them, summons them to see the judgment of 
 God upon the people who failed, in order that 
 they may learn something of the meaning of 
 His government. 
 
 The fundamental conception of this book in 
 common with all the prophetic writings is that 
 of the sovereignty of Jehovah. Micah was 
 familiar with the condition of the people result- 
 ing from the misrule of Ahaz. He was first, and 
 last, and always, conscious of, and confident in, 
 the throne and the government of God. He wa? 
 undoubtedly during a large part of his prophetic 
 ministry contemporary with Isaiah, and their 
 conceptions are strikingly similar. There is, 
 however, a distinct difference between them, and 
 in the difference we discover the peculiar value 
 of this book. Isaiah saw the uplifted throne of 
 Jehovah ; and all through his wonderful min- 
 istry, whether in the prophecies of judgment 
 proceeding to peace, or in those of peace 
 proceeding to judgment, he dealt with men and
 
 246 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 
 
 affairs as having immediate relation to that 
 throne. 
 
 Micah recognizes the place of delegated au- 
 thority in the economy of God, and he spoke to 
 princes, priests, and prophets as to the represent- 
 atives of the Divine authority. " The powers 
 that be are ordained of God," declared the Chris- 
 tian apostle, and so also taught the Hebrew 
 prophet ; and that conception of God's sovereignty 
 as delegated and exercised through appointed 
 rulers is discoverable throughout the prophecy. 
 He traced the sin and corruption, the sighing and 
 crying, the agony and tears of the people, to 
 the misrule of the men in authority. 
 
 The permanent values of this prophecy of 
 Micah then are two ; first, the unmasking and 
 denunciation of false rulers ; and, secondly, the 
 unveiling and proclamation of the true Ruler. 
 In each case the authority is seen not in the 
 abstract, but in the concrete. False authority is 
 seen in the princes, priests, and prophets, by 
 whom Micah was surrounded ; true authority in 
 the One, Whose advent he saw in an hour of ex- 
 alted and holy vision, and of Whom he spoke 
 remarkable words which are evidently Messianic. 
 
 Let us first consider what this prophecy teaches
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 247 
 
 concerning false authority. It is completely un- 
 masked in one brief statement, " The heads 
 thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof 
 teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for 
 money." In these words Micah named the three 
 sections of rulers ; civil, the princes ; spiritual, the 
 priests ; and moral, the prophets. He showed 
 wherein lay the secret of failure to rule in each case, 
 and consequently the secret of the corruption of 
 the people over whom they ruled. There is more 
 satire in his last description than in the first two, 
 for in that he was dealing with men of his own 
 order, whom he understood more perfectly than 
 he did either princes or priests. When speaking 
 of the princes he used a word which characterized 
 their proper activity ; they judge, but they do it 
 for reward. When he spoke of the priests he 
 used a word which characterized their responsi- 
 bility ; they teach, but they do it for hire. When 
 he came to deal with the prophets he used a word 
 which did not characterize their responsibility, 
 but which revealed what they were really doing. 
 The prophets were not prophesying, they were 
 divining. The Hebrew word here translated 
 divining is one which indicates the activity which 
 God had forbidden, that of sorcery and witchcraft.
 
 248 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 
 
 He thus employed a word which showed how 
 deep their sin was. They divined for money. 
 
 Take each of these for brief examination. 
 " The heads thereof judge for reward." In the 
 earlier part of the chapter we find more particu- 
 larly what that means. The prophet described 
 their proper function, " Hear, I pray you, ye 
 heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel : 
 is it not for you to know judgment ? " Then he 
 described their character, " who hate the good, 
 and love the evil." Finally, he described their 
 conduct, " who pluck off their skin from off them, 
 and their flesh from off their bones ; who also eat 
 the flesh of My people ; and they flay their skin 
 from off them, and break their bones : yea, they 
 chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh 
 within the caldron." The men who ought to 
 know judgment, and exercise judgment, and rule 
 over the people, are men who hate the good and 
 love the evil, and the result is the spoliation of 
 the people. " The heads thereof judge for 
 reward." They are men who take bribes, men 
 who can be bought, men who make it impossible 
 for the poor and oppressed to find judgment and 
 justice. A corrupt ruler is one who exercises the 
 office to which he is appointed, not impartially,
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 249 
 
 and not as the representative of the throne oi 
 eternal judgment, but for reward. There is no 
 need that we should dwell upon the heinousness 
 of that sin. Men, whether Christian or not, know 
 theoretically how dastardly a thing it is for a 
 judge to receive a bribe. 
 
 "The priests thereof teach for hire." The 
 priests are the spiritual rulers, and one is almost 
 startled to find the word Micah used of them, 
 they teach. We have so far wandered from thi 
 Old Testament idea of priesthood as to imagine* 
 that teaching is not a part of its work. So far as 
 the relation of the priest to man is concerned, 
 this is the principal part of his work. So far as 
 his relation to God is concerned he had to carry 
 out the ceremonial instruction and sacrifices. 
 But towards men the priest was a teacher. 
 Moses in his final message had declared, " Thou 
 shalt come unto the priests the Levites . . . 
 and thou shalt enquire ; and they shall shew thee 
 the sentence of judgment, and thou shalt do ac- 
 cording to the tenor of the sentence, which they 
 shall shew thee from that place which the Lord 
 shall choose ; and thou shalt observe to do all 
 that they shall teach thee ; according to the tenor 
 of the law which they shall teach thee, thou shalt
 
 2$o THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 
 
 do : thou shalt not turn aside from the sentence." 
 When Micah denounced the priests he evidently 
 had in mind that ancient provision in the 
 economy of God. The true function, the spirit- 
 ual function of the ancient priesthood was that 
 of knowing the will of God and interpreting it to 
 men. The work of the priest was that of bring- 
 ing to bear upon material things the light and 
 force of spiritual things. That is the meaning of 
 teaching. The false priest holds out his hand for 
 hire, and so corrupts the people. 
 
 Then we have the last description, " the 
 prophets thereof divine for money." The true 
 word descriptive of the prophetic work should 
 have been proclaim. The prophets stood for the 
 moral standards of the people. Of these men 
 Micah declared, they " bite with their teeth and 
 cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into their 
 mouths, they even prepare war against him." 
 That is to say, the prophets were prepared to say 
 certain things to the people on certain conditions. 
 If the people would feed them they would say, 
 Peace; if they would not, then the prophets 
 would denounce them. 
 
 Thus in this brief description we have the 
 most complete unmasking of false authority.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 251 
 
 Wherever we find distressed and suffering peo- 
 ple the cause is to be discovered finally in the 
 rulers. " The powers that be are ordained of 
 God." If the powers that be are out of harmony 
 with God, if they love evil and hate good, if they 
 are mastered by pure selfishness, the people pass 
 into the place of suffering and corruption. I 
 care not whether the system of human govern- 
 ment be autocracy, limited monarchy, or repub- 
 licanism, we still find these orders referred to by 
 Micah ; there are the civil rulers, kings, princes 
 or presidents ; the spiritual rulers, the priests, 
 men who stand among the people to tell them 
 the things of the eternal world ; the moral rulers, 
 the prophets, the men who interpret to their age 
 the standards of right. These are the leaders of 
 men. Whatever may be the form of human 
 government, men are still under the threefold 
 rule of civil, spiritual and moral authority. When 
 the civil rulers enrich themselves out of their 
 office, the result is a demoralized people. When 
 the spiritual rulers are seeking hire, the people 
 are corrupted, and desolation ensues. When the 
 moral rulers are seeking for money, the people 
 are degraded. False authority is authority ex- 
 ercised on benalf of the men who exercise it
 
 252 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 
 
 When the reason why a man rules is that he may 
 get gain out of his ruling, the people suffer. 
 The right to rule is the right of a self-emptied 
 life, the right of a life that has no thought of its 
 own aggrandizement or enrichment. That is the 
 life that rises to a position of true power in the 
 economy of God. When men in positions of 
 authority in the spiritual, civil, or moral realms 
 work for reward, hire, money, the people become 
 demoralized, and corruption is the issue. 
 
 Through the mists, beyond the immediate, 
 Micah saw the coming Ruler. He saw Him com- 
 ing out of human obscurity, " Thou, Bethlehem 
 Ephratah, which art little to be among the thou- 
 sands of Judah, out of thee shall One come forth 
 unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel." The 
 prophet, borne along through the centuries, car- 
 ried away from the immediate surroundings in 
 the midst of which he found himself, sick at 
 heart of the false rule under which he lived and 
 under which the people groaned and suffered, 
 saw in the distance the one true Ruler to Whom 
 Jehovah delegated His authority. Micah did not 
 perhaps perfectly understand the things he saw, 
 or the things he wrote upon the page of his 
 prophecy, which we must date at least six or
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 253 
 
 seven hundred years before Christ ; but they are 
 the facts chronicled in the gospel story. He saw 
 One coming out of human obscurity, out of 
 Bethlehem Ephratah ; and yet not finally from 
 Bethlehem, but from everlasting. 
 
 He then described the administration of the 
 coming One in the words, " He shall stand, and 
 shall feed His flock in the strength of the Lord." 
 The false rulers, civil, spiritual, moral, were self- 
 centred men who governed in their own interest 
 and not in the interest of the people ; seeking for 
 reward, hire, money. The true ruler will stand 
 inflexible and invincible in authority, feeding His 
 flock in the strength of Jehovah. The true Ruler 
 will represent Jehovah and act in His strength. 
 The contrast is patent and forceful. 
 
 Micah finally described the effect of the rule of 
 the true Ruler, in one simple statement. "This 
 Man shall be our peace." That is the positive 
 issue. The prophet saw, moreover, in the estab- 
 lishment of the true rule, the destruction of all 
 the things in which the people had put their con- 
 fidence when they were under false rule ; horses, 
 chariots, cities, strongholds, witchcraft, images, 
 the Asherim. 
 
 The strength of a nation is never in its horses
 
 254 THE MESSAGE OF MICA I i 
 
 and chariots. The safety of a nation does not con- 
 sist in its adoption of a two-power standard. The 
 strength of a nation is not in its cities and strong- 
 holds, fortifications and armaments, soothsaying 
 and witchcraft. The strength of a nation is in its 
 Ruler. 
 
 The permanent values constitute the living 
 message. The test of authority is its motive. 
 If the motive of civil authority is the aggrandize- 
 ment of the ruler ; if the motive of spiritual au- 
 thority is the creation of power on behalf of the 
 priest ; if the motive of moral authority is the en- 
 richment of the prophet, then all such authority 
 is false in itself, and pernicious in its effect. 
 
 The strength of authority is in recognition of 
 Jehovah. We have seen it perfectly realized in 
 the One to Whom Micah looked on, Who came 
 from Bethlehem Ephratah, out of everlasting 
 into time, to lay the broad foundations of the 
 ultimate Kingdom. He will come again to com- 
 plete His work, and we shall never see perfect 
 government, authority, rule, by civil, spiritual, or 
 moral rulers, until that hour in which He Who 
 came shall come again, for the completion of His 
 work. 
 
 Our duty is to obey Him. for our eyes have
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MICAH 255 
 
 seen Him and our hearts know Him. We must 
 enforce His ideals by our living and by our teach- 
 ing. With loins girt about, and lamps burning, 
 we must wait for the flaming of the glory of His 
 advent feet ; and we must watch, not gloomily, 
 but with sunlight in the heart, and confidence in 
 the life, knowing that at last He will abolish 
 chariots and horses, cities, strongholds, and all the 
 things of the dust in which men put their confi- 
 dence ; and establish the Kingdom of God in the 
 eternal strength of righteousness.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 The Seven Words, i. a, 3. 
 
 An Explanation of the Anger of God 
 
 1. The Prophet's Vision of God 
 
 i. The general Impression. 
 
 a. Jealous. 
 
 b. Vengeance. 
 
 c. Wrath. 
 
 d. Anger. 
 
 e. Indignation. 
 
 f. Fierceness. 
 L g. Fury. 
 
 U. The careful Exposition. 
 
 a. The threefold Description, i. 2. 
 
 1. The Lord. Passion and Action. 
 
 2. The Lord. Action out of Passion. 
 
 3. The Lord. Discrimination. 
 
 b. The threefold Exposition, i. 3-8. 
 
 1. The Lord. Slow. 
 
 2. The Lord. Irresistible. 
 
 3. The Lord. Salvation. 
 
 Destruction. 
 
 !I. The Prophet's Vision of the Vengeance of God 
 i. The Reason. Why ? 
 
 a. Pride. A Godward Sin. i. n. 
 
 b. Cruelty. A Manward Sin. iii. I and on. 
 iL The Principle. When ? 
 
 a. Godward. After Patience. 
 
 b. Manward. Cup of Iniquity so full that Man 
 
 agrees. 
 iii. The Method. How ? 
 
 a. Destruction of the Corrupt. 
 
 b. Opportunity in Interest of Others. 
 
 I. Concerning God 
 
 i. To believe in His Love 
 is to be sure of His 
 Wrath. 
 
 ii. His Wrath must be in- 
 terpreted by His Love. 
 
 II. Concerning Man 
 
 i. The Sins against whic>- 
 the Wrath of God pro 
 ceeds. 
 
 a. Pride. 
 
 b. Cruelty. 
 
 c. Impenitence. 
 
 ii. The Conditions of Safety 
 "Them that put theii 
 Trust in Him."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 IT is impossible to read the book of the 
 prophet Nahum without an almost over- 
 whelming sense of solemnity. The story it 
 has to tell is that of the utter and irrevocable de- 
 struction of a great city and a great people. It 
 was first uttered by the prophet Nahum as a 
 prophecy. It is all the more solemn to-day be- 
 cause it has become history. When Nahum de- 
 livered his message, Judah was in grave peril, by 
 reason of the cruel oppression threatened by 
 Assyria. His name was suggestive to those who 
 heard it, signifying " full of exceeding comfort." 
 To people in such condition he uttered this start- 
 ling and remarkable prediction, that Nineveh, the 
 cruel, the terrible, the mighty, though proud and 
 defiant, should be utterly destroyed. 
 
 To-day the traveller finds his way to the 
 ancient site, and discovers that in the interval 
 which has elapsed since the uttering of the proph- 
 ecy, armies have positively marched over the 
 
 site of Nineveh, ignorant of the fact that beneath 
 
 257
 
 258 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 the dust on which they trod lay the ruins of a 
 great city. The ruins are now being laid bare, 
 and tablets and inscriptions have been discovered 
 which show that the book which was prophetic 
 when its message was delivered has become a 
 page of actual history. The descriptions of the 
 destruction of the city are no longer predictions ; 
 they are accounts of things which have actually 
 happened. I repeat, this fact adds solemnity to 
 the book. 
 
 The message of the prophet Nahum is closely 
 compacted together. It is clear in statement, 
 logical in argument, definite in its declarations. 
 The writer describes his message as a vision. It 
 is a vision, first, of Jehovah ; secondly, of Je- 
 hovah in anger ; and, thirdly, of Jehovah acting 
 in anger. The permanent value of the book is 
 that it sets before the mind as no other book in 
 the Old Testament does, indeed as no other book 
 in the Divine library does, the picture of the 
 wrath of God. 
 
 The vision is, first, a vision of Jehovah. 
 After writing the prefatory word, "The book 
 of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite," the 
 prophet immediately began to describe the 
 vision :
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 259 
 
 " Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth ; Jehovah 
 avengeth and is full of wrath ; Jehovah taketh vengeance 
 on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His 
 enemies." 
 
 It is a vision of Jehovah, and of Jehovah act- 
 ing in His wrath. The tendency of the day is 
 either to deny or to shrink entirely from any ref- 
 erence to that aspect of truth concerning God. 
 Therefore one comes to this book with an added 
 sense of solemnity, and with a very sincere and 
 earnest desire to discover what this prophet 
 teaches on so startling a theme as that of the an- 
 ger of God. In order to do this we must con- 
 sider two aspects of the one great vision which 
 this book contains ; first, the prophet's vision of 
 God ; and secondly, the prophet's vision of the 
 vengeance of God. 
 
 The prophet's vision of God. The Hebrew 
 prophets constantly delivered messages to men 
 under the constraint of some revelation of God. 
 Isaiah had gazed upon the throne, and discov- 
 ered the fundamental principles of government 
 and grace. Jeremiah had seen Jehovah, and had 
 watched His activities in the midst of perpetual, 
 willful failure on the part of his own people. 
 Ezekiel, the exile by the banks of the River Che- 
 bar, had seen the mystic unveiling of God in the
 
 260 THE MESSAGE OE NAHUM 
 
 strange imagery of living ones, amid wheels, and 
 the pervasive energy of the Spirit. Nahum also 
 saw Jehovah, and the revelation is one which 
 overawes the spirit. 
 
 In the first passage of the prophecy the 
 prophet makes use of no less than seven different 
 and distinct words to describe the one over- 
 whelming and awe-inspiring fact of the anger of 
 God. Let us cite the words : " Jealous venge- 
 ance wrath anger indignation fierceness 
 fury." The massing of these words in so 
 brief a passage is full of suggest! veness, sub- 
 duing the spirit, and compelling one to most 
 careful examination. Let us take each in turn. 
 
 "Jealous" The Hebrew word was derived 
 from a root, the underlying thought of which is 
 that of intensity. We might accurately express 
 it by our word " zealous." It is a word which 
 suggests an attitude of the emotional nature. 
 The Hebrew word, like our English word, if 
 carefully considered, presupposes love. We 
 need not be afraid of interpreting the real sug- 
 gestiveness of this word by the word "jealous" 
 in our ordinary speech. It grows out of the 
 thought of love. It is an attitude of the emo- 
 tional nature. It describes the wrath of God sub-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 261 
 
 jectively, that is, as to what He feels within Him- 
 self, and thus helps us to find the deepest fact in 
 His anger. There is a jealousy which is mean 
 petty, self-centred. That is not the suggestion 
 of this word. 
 
 " Avengeth" Here we have the quite simple 
 idea of definite punishment ; only we must re- 
 member that punishment is retribution, and 
 never retaliation in the economy of God. Venge- 
 ance on the part of man constantly means re- 
 taliation. Vengeance on the part of God always 
 means retribution. If the word "jealous" pre- 
 supposes the emotional nature, and indicates 
 the subjective fact, the word "vengeance" pre- 
 supposes the volitional nature, and indicates the 
 objective aspect of the same fact. 
 
 " Wrath" Here we have perhaps the 
 strangest thought of all. The Hebrew word 
 comes from another word which means to cross 
 over. This particular word was perpetually used 
 by the Hebrew people to indicate the other side 
 of Jordan, and almost invariably referred to the 
 eastern side thereof. Consequently this word 
 " wrath " suggests a change in the Divine atti- 
 tude. Judgment is " His strange act." God 
 willeth not the death of a sinner, but in certain
 
 262 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 conditions, discoverable in the prophecy of 
 Nahum, God inflicts the death penalty on a sin- 
 ner. In wrath He has crossed over necessarily, 
 and the resulting attitude is the opposite of ten- 
 derness, healing, and compassion. 
 
 "Anger . . . indignation^ We take 
 these two words together, for they are both 
 pictorial. Of anger the root thought is hard 
 breathing. Of indignation the suggestion is of 
 that formidable and terrible aspect of anger 
 which accompanies hard breathing, foaming at 
 the mouth. They are pictorial words, which 
 startle and alarm us when used of God. The 
 prophet employs them to indicate the outward 
 expression of essential anger. 
 
 " Fierceness . . . fury" Again we take 
 two words. " Fierceness " means burning. 
 11 Fury " means heat. They are words adding 
 intensity to every other word employed, and 
 thought suggested. 
 
 This is only a grouping of words. It is im- 
 possible, however, to read the paragraph contain- 
 ing them without recognizing that Nahum saw 
 God angry. Every Hebrew word found in the 
 Bible suggesting anger is packed into the com- 
 pass of that brief and awful description. Nahum
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 263 
 
 saw God jealous and exercising vengeance : saw 
 Him in wrath, having crossed over from that 
 attitude with which the prophets were familiar ; 
 saw Him with all the expressions of wrath, 
 anger, indignation ; saw Him in vengeance, 
 fierce in its burning, white hot in its intensity. 
 
 This, however, is not merely a piece of rhetoric, 
 in which a man under the sway of some personal 
 feeling of vengeance attributes to God the things 
 that are in his own heart. It is a most careful 
 and remarkable description of the anger of God. 
 The paragraph falls into two portions. We have 
 first a threefold description of the anger of God. 
 We have next an exposition of that threefold 
 description. The great name, unuttered by the 
 Hebrew, appearing upon the page as the tetra- 
 grammaton YHVH, occurs three times in the 
 second verse. It occurs again three times in the 
 following six verses. This is a systematic ar- 
 rangement. In the first case we have proclama- 
 tion. In the second case we have explanation. 
 We must put the explanation over against the 
 proclamation if we would understand what 
 Nahum teaches concerning the anger of God. 
 
 First examine the proclamation. " Jehovah is 
 a jealous God and avengeth." In that declara-
 
 264 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 tion the prophet tells us that passion preceded 
 action. 
 
 "Jehovah avengeth and is full of wrath." In 
 the second declaration the prophet makes the 
 same statement, but in the other order. He tells 
 us of action growing out of passion. 
 
 " Jehovah taketh vengeance on His adversa- 
 ries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies." 
 In that statement the prophet declares that the 
 wrath of God as passion and action is charac- 
 terized by discrimination, and is never capricious 
 or careless. 
 
 That verse is a general proclamation of the 
 fact that out of passion grows action, but that 
 action out of passion is always governed by 
 principle. I believe it was Pusey who declared 
 that in the case of man, wrath becomes his 
 master and drives him ; in the case of God He is 
 always Master of His wrath and uses it. It is a 
 most important distinction. 
 
 Now let us turn to the explanation, taking in 
 each case the proclamation in immediate connec- 
 tion with the explanation. 
 
 " Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth." 
 " Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will 
 by no means clear the guilty."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 265 
 
 " Jehovah avengeth and is full of wrath." 
 
 " Jehovah hath His way in the whirlwind and in the 
 storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He re- 
 buketh the sea and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the 
 rivers : Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of 
 Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at Him, and 
 the hills melt ; and the earth is upheaved at His presence, 
 yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand 
 before His indignation ? and who can abide in the fierce- 
 ness of His anger ? His fury is poured out like fire, and 
 the rocks are broken asunder by Him." 
 
 "Jehovah taketh vengeance on His adversaries, and He 
 reserveth wrath for His enemies." 
 
 "Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; 
 and He knoweth them that put their trust in Him. But 
 with an overrunning flood He will make a full end of the 
 place thereof, and will pursue His enemies into darkness." 
 
 That simple reading of proclamation and ex- 
 planation in relation in each case gives a result 
 which may thus be tabulated. 
 
 Jehovah's wrath is a passion born of love, which pro- 
 ceeds to action. 
 
 Jehovah is slow to anger. 
 
 Jehovah's wrath is an activity which proceeds out of the 
 passion of His love. 
 
 Jehovah is irresistible in anger. 
 
 Jehovah's anger is discriminative. 
 
 Jehovah's anger is not for those who put their trust in 
 Him, but for His enemies. 
 
 Do not let us imagine when we think of the 
 anger of God that it is anything like the hot, 
 passionate, blind, foolish blundering of a man 
 in a temper. He is slow to anger ; yet, having
 
 266 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 once crossed over in the presence of things 
 which demand the new attitude of vengeance, 
 He is irresistible as the hurricane that beats the 
 sea into fury, or the simoom that sweeps the land 
 with desolation. Nevertheless, He is forever 
 discriminative ; a stronghold to such as put their 
 trust in Him, while of His enemies He makes a 
 full end. 
 
 We turn now to the prophet's vision of the 
 vengeance of God. We look for Nineveh to- 
 day, and find that the prophecy has been ful- 
 filled to the letter. There are three questions I 
 propose to ask in the presence of this unveiling 
 of the vengeance of God. They are such ques- 
 tions as a child might ask. 
 
 Why does God act in vengeance ? 
 When does God act in vengeance? 
 How does God act in vengeance ? 
 
 The answers to these questions are given in 
 this prophecy and reveal the reason of the 
 Divine judgment; the principle of the Divine 
 judgment ; and the method of the Divine judg- 
 ment. 
 
 Why does God act in judgment? The answer 
 reveals the reason. That is stated in two pas- 
 sages which we will put into close connection.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 267 
 
 " There is one goeth forth out of thee, that imagineth 
 evil against the Lord, that counselleth wickedness." 
 
 " Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of 
 the house of Israel : is it not for you to know judgment? 
 who hate the good, and love the evil ; who pluck off their 
 skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones ; 
 who also eat the flesh of My people ; and they flay their 
 skin from off them, and break their bones : yea, they chop 
 them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the 
 caldron." 
 
 The reference in the first passage is to the sin 
 of Sennacherib described in Isaiah, the sin in 
 which the fundamental sin of Assyria had its 
 manifestation. It was that of the pride which 
 dared God. As to the second passage, it de- 
 scribes the sin of Assyria as manifested towards 
 man, that of oppression and cruelty. 
 
 Thus, there are two sins calling for the angel 
 of God : the Godward sin of pride and rebellion, 
 expressed finally by Sennacherib as he went 
 forth and challenged God ; the manward sin of 
 cruelty and oppression. These two are inter- 
 related. We never find one without the other. 
 A people proud and lifted up in rebellion against 
 God is a people cruel in its treatment of men. 
 The interrelation is inevitable and invariable. 
 Jesus summarized all the law in the words, 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
 
 268 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 thy mind. . . . Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bour as thyself." The man who says he loves 
 God, yet hates his neighbour, is a liar. That 
 description is not mine. It is the description of 
 the apostle of love, the man who laid his head 
 upon the bosom of the Christ, and listened to 
 the beating of His heart. So that when I am 
 asked what Nahum teaches concerning the 
 reason of God's vengeance, the reply is that 
 God acts in vengeance in the interest of others. 
 He smites out of the love which is in His heart 
 for those who are oppressed and stricken. 
 
 Let us take our second question. When does 
 God become a God of wrath towards a nation or 
 towards a man ? The answer to this question re- 
 veals the principle of the Divine judgment. God 
 destroyed Nineveh after long patience. One 
 hundred years before He had sent a reluctant 
 prophet to foretell its doom. Nineveh repented, 
 but afterwards repented of its repentance. Now 
 at last, Jehovah becomes a God that avengeth. 
 When God proceeds in judgment, man, observ- 
 ing from the standpoint of essential right, is in 
 absolute agreement with Him. " Thy shepherds 
 slumber, O king of Assyria : thy worthies are at 
 rest : thy people are scattered upon the moun-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 269 
 
 tains, and there is none to gather them. There 
 is no assuaging of thy hurt ; thy wound is griev- 
 ous ; all that hear the bruit of thee clap the 
 hands over thee ; for upon whom hath not thy 
 wickedness passed continually ? " When the 
 ruin of Nineveh came, the story of it came as 
 an evangel to the nations, because of Assyria's 
 cruelty and oppression. When God proceeded 
 in judgment, men who loved righteousness and 
 saw things in their true relation to the eternities 
 agreed in the necessity for His vengeance. 
 
 Our last question is, How does God act in 
 vengeance? The answer reveals the method. 
 That answer is discovered in Nineveh as she is 
 to-day. In the hour of her ruin, natural forces 
 and the enmity of men cooperated to bring about 
 the result. Deodorus Seculus had prophesied 
 that the ancient capital would never be captured 
 until her river turned against her. The actual 
 history tells how in the day when she was 
 hemmed in by enemies, suddenly the river swept 
 in, and by the great gap it made in her walls, the 
 enemy entered. The materialist will speak of 
 the way in which Nineveh happened to be 
 destroyed. The men of spiritual vision know 
 that through natural forces and the opposing
 
 2/0 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 
 
 
 
 army, God moved forward and blotted out a peo- 
 ple with whom He had long had patience. 
 
 What is the living message of Nahum to our 
 own age ? It is first a message concerning God, 
 which I propose to state in the briefest sentences. 
 To believe in His love is to be sure of His 
 wrath. In the hour in which you can persuade 
 me that God is never angry, you persuade me 
 that He cannot love. We are ofteii asked to-day 
 to interpret the Divine from the standpoint of 
 the human. I am quite willing, for the moment, 
 to adopt the method. Can you look at sin, 
 wrong, oppression, and never be moved ? If so, 
 it is because you are incapable of love. Have 
 you no care about China and the oppression of 
 her people ? Have you really no interest in the 
 Congo atrocities ? Have you no care for the 
 wronged multitudes of your own city ? As a 
 Christian worker, have you never longed to lay 
 violent hands upon some devil incarnate who has 
 wronged a woman ? Then you have no love in 
 your nature. If it be true that God cannot burn, 
 smite, destroy in vengeance, then He is a God 
 incapable of love. To believe in His love is to 
 be sure of His wrath. 
 
 Nahum teaches, moreover, that His wrath must
 
 THE MESSAGE OF NAHUM 271 
 
 always be interpreted by His love. Let us be- 
 ware how we commit blasphemy in thinking of 
 God as petulantly angry, selfishly ill-tempered. 
 Behind the wrath is the infinite mystery of 
 His love. His activity in vengeance in the last, 
 the final analysis, proves the depth of His love. 
 
 The message is also one concerning man. 
 Nahum reveals the sins against which the wrath 
 of God proceeds. I do but name them. 
 Whether they are national, social, or individual 
 the same truth applies. The sins against which 
 God acts in vengeance are the pride that neglects 
 Him ; the cruelty that is exercised towards our 
 fellow men ; the impenitence which persists, in 
 spite of the slowness of His anger ; or that most 
 awful repentance, which is repentance of repent- 
 ance, in the exercise of which man turns back to 
 the sin he professed to have abandoned. 
 
 There is one final note in the message. It is 
 that of the absolute justice of God, for His wrath 
 is forevermore discriminative. " Jehovah is good, 
 a stronghold in the day of trouble ; and He 
 knoweth them that put their trust in Him. But 
 with an overrunning flood He will make a full 
 end of the place thereof, and will pursue His 
 enemies into darkness."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 " Conceited." 
 
 ' The Crooked Soul." 
 
 Righteousness. 
 Faith. 
 
 Crystallized In one clear Statement, ii. 4. 
 
 I. The Declaration Itself 
 
 i. The actual Text. (See Translations.) 
 ii. The Contrast. 
 
 a. On the one Side. 
 
 1. The Manifest. 
 
 2. The Hidden. 
 
 b. On the other Side. 
 
 1. The Manifest. 
 
 2. The Hidden, 
 iii. The Affirmation. 
 
 a. Positive. " The Just shall live ! " 
 
 b. Negative. Of the Conceited, nothing is said. 
 
 f Faith the Principle of Life in spite of all Appear- 
 
 J ances. 
 
 I Pride destructive in spite of all Appearances. 
 
 II. The Illustrations 
 
 i Of the self consuming Nature of Life which is 
 Self-centred, ii. 6-19. 
 
 a. Its Manifestations. 
 
 b. Its Retribution. 
 
 ii. Of the triumphant Experience of Life which is 
 God-centred, ii. 2o~iii. 
 
 a. The Vision of God. 
 
 b. The Reward of Faith. 
 
 I. Of Habakkuk's Experi- 
 ence 
 
 i. The Problems recog- 
 nized. 
 
 ii. The Attitude adopted. 
 iii. The Answer vouchsafed. 
 
 II. Of the Principle 
 
 i. Recognize it 
 ii. Apply it. 
 
 III. The personal Word 
 
 i. Application to persona 
 
 Life. 
 ii. Application to Service. 
 
 IV. The central Word 
 Wait "
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 THE method of this book is peculiar. 
 While it constituted a message to the 
 people of God, its method was not that 
 of direct address. This is seen at once if we put 
 it into contrast with that of Hosea. In the 
 prophecy of Hosea we have the notes, or general 
 outlines, of a public ministry extending over 
 more than half a century ; and in all there are 
 the elements of public address, of messages de- 
 livered to men. These are absent from the book 
 of Habakkuk. Like the book of Jonah, it tells 
 the story of a personal experience. 
 
 The book of Jonah gives the account of a man's 
 failure to sympathize with God, and therefore of 
 his failure to sympathize with Nineveh. The 
 book of Habakkuk is the story of a believer's con- 
 flict of faith, and of the ultimate triumph of faith. 
 The very character of the book makes it easier 
 than usual to discover its permanent value. 
 That is crystallized in one definite statement 
 which lies at its heart : 
 
 273
 
 2/4 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 " Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him: 
 but the just shall live by his faith." 
 
 This statement in itself suggests difficulty 
 rather than declaration. Therefore, in order to 
 understand it, we need the whole background of 
 the prophet's experience. That background of 
 experience may, for the purpose of this study, 
 be stated by the repetition of a brief paragraph 
 from my previous lecture on the content of the 
 book : 
 
 " In this book we have a man of faith asking 
 questions and receiving answers. A comparison 
 of i. 2 with iii. 19 will give an indication of the 
 true value of the book. Opening in mystery 
 and questioning, it closes in certainty and affirma- 
 tion. The contrast is startling. The first is 
 almost a wail of despair, and the last is a shout 
 of confidence. From the affirmation of faith's 
 agnosticism we come to the affirmation of agnos- 
 ticism's faith." 
 
 That is the story of Habakkuk. At the begin- 
 ning, a man who believes in God is heard 
 declaring his agnosticism, " How long shall I 
 cry, and Thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto 
 Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save " ; or
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 275 
 
 to give the more literal and forceful translation, 
 " I cry, Violence, and Thou wilt not save." That 
 is faith's agnosticism, belief's problem. Every 
 man of faith faces a similar problem sooner or later. 
 
 Faith is the underlying principle of the life, 
 but it is bewildered by the circumstances, and it 
 says so. In answer to its challenge it receives 
 a declaration, and so is confirmed. The story of 
 Habakkuk is that of a movement from the ex- 
 perience of doubt and questioning, to that of 
 certainty and praise, and the doorway between 
 the two is found in the statement already quoted. 
 All the first part of the book leads to that door. 
 All the latter part of the book proceeds from that 
 door into ever widening experience. 
 
 Habakkuk does not end with a wail ; he ends 
 with a song. He does not end with enquiry ; he 
 ends with affirmation. He begins by saying, 
 There is violence and cruelty, and God does 
 nothing. He ends by saying : 
 
 " For though the fig tree shall not blossom, 
 Neither shall fruit be in the vines ; 
 The labour of the olive shall fail, 
 And the fields shall yield no meat ; 
 The flock shall be cut off from the fold, 
 And there shall be no herd in the stalls : 
 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, 
 I will joy in the God of my salvation."
 
 276 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 I want to discover the secret of this change, and 
 I do so in the central statement, which reveals 
 the contrasted principles or motives of false and 
 true life. 
 
 Let us first examine the declaration itself. We 
 recognize at once that there have been difficulties 
 in translating this particular verse. We are 
 familiar with the reading of the Revised Version. 
 Let us take four other translations in order that 
 we may recognize the difficulty, and yet see that 
 while there is difficulty, there is agreement also 
 in certain fundamental matters, which are the 
 matters of supreme importance. 
 
 Pusey translates thus : 
 
 " Lo, swollen is it, not upright is his soul in 
 him. The righteous by his faith he shall live." 
 
 Henderson translates thus : 
 
 " Behold the proud ! His soul is not right 
 within him ; but the righteous shall live by his 
 faith." 
 
 George Adam Smith translates thus : 
 " Lo, swollen ! Not level is his soul within 
 him ; but the righteous shall live by his faith- 
 fulness."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 277 
 
 Joseph Bryant Rotherham translates thus : 
 " Lo I as for the conceited one, crooked is his 
 
 soul within him ; but one who is righteous by his 
 
 faithfulness shall live." 
 
 So far as I have any right to make a distinction, 
 I infinitely prefer this last translation. The 
 difficulty of expressing the thought of one lan- 
 guage in another is very great, it being almost 
 impossible to carry over the light and shade of 
 suggestion. I like this translation of Rotherham, 
 because it seems to me to convey the more 
 delicate tones of the original, better than any 
 other. 
 
 The differences are those of the words swollen, 
 proud, conceited one. Yet as we think of the 
 peculiar quality and value of these different words, 
 we also discover the identity of suggestion. 
 Again there is the difference between the expres- 
 sions " By faith " and " By faithfulness." I have 
 no doubt whatever that the word which is an 
 actual translation of the original is not faith, but 
 faithfulness; yet that necessarily includes the 
 idea of faith. It is to that fundamental idea those 
 would draw attention who have translated the 
 Hebrew word by our word faith ; while the use of
 
 2/3 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 the word faithfulness suggests rather the result 
 of the operation of faith on the character and 
 conduct of the man of faith. The word faithful- 
 ness means, quite literally, fullness of faith. It 
 may be affirmed that faithfulness means fidelity. 
 And so it does ; but what is fidelity other than 
 fullness of faith ? Fidelity is a word which ex- 
 presses the outward result of the inward grace, 
 which is fullness of faith. The Hebrew word 
 carries both thoughts. The inward grace, the 
 master principle, is fullness of faith ; and the 
 outward manifestation, the obedient practice, is 
 fidelity. 
 
 It is patent, therefore, that all these translations 
 are in perfect agreement in the way in which 
 they put two attitudes of life into contrast. An 
 examination of the different terminology by 
 which the one attitude of life is described, reveals 
 the same attitude in each case. So also if with 
 equal carefulness we examine the words which 
 describe the other attitude, we discover that the 
 attitude is always the same. 
 
 Let us now observe the contrast. On the one 
 side we have certain manifest things, and a 
 hidden secret. On the other side we have also 
 certain manifest things, and a hidden secret.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 279 
 
 As to the first. The words conceited, swollen, 
 or proud indicate the external manifestation. 
 What, then, is the hidden secret ? That of the 
 soul not upright, not right, not level, crooked. 
 The outward manifestation is conceit ; the hidden 
 secret is crookedness of soul. 
 
 As to the second. Here also is the outward 
 manifestation of righteousness, and the hidden 
 secret of fullness of faith. One need not dwell 
 here a single moment, for the statement is per- 
 fectly simple. Goodness is always simple. It is 
 evil which is complex. It is much more difficult 
 to discover the devil than God, to define evil 
 than goodness. It is always more difficult to 
 deal with a crooked thing than with a straight 
 thing. Suffer me a parable. Supposing I had 
 in my possession, but out of your sight, two 
 sticks. If I said to you, I have a straight stick 
 and a crooked stick, which can you imagine best? 
 Your answer would inevitably be, the straight 
 one, for a straight stick is a straight stick ; but a 
 crooked stick may be crooked in a hundred dif- 
 ferent ways. All of which is but to remind us of 
 the complexity of evil and the simplicity of good- 
 ness. 
 
 So far we have not considered the declaration
 
 280 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 itself, We have been dealing with terms only, 
 the instruments through which the light is to 
 flash. What, then, is the central affirmation ? 
 " My righteous one shall live by his faith." I 
 am convinced that we have been in danger of 
 putting too much emphasis upon the thoughts 
 suggested by the words " righteous " and "faith" 
 Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that 
 we have put too little emphasis upon the positive 
 and flaming affirmation, " He shall live" In 
 this connection notice the remarkable contrast of 
 silence. Of the conceited soul nothing is said. 
 He is puffed up, his soul is crooked within him. 
 What does he do ? Nothing. Does he not live ? 
 No. 
 
 Now carefully observe the application of all this 
 to the problem of Habakkuk. He looked around, 
 and saw everything crooked, unlike God, proud ; 
 the wicked flourishing like a green bay tree ; 
 violence rampant 1 What was God doing ? The 
 righteous were oppressed, broken ; hardly any of 
 them were left ; they were dying out. 
 
 Poor pessimistic soul I What does the text 
 say ? " Behold, swollen is he ; crooked is his 
 soul within him." Anything else? Nothing 
 about the apparently flourishing wicked, but
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 281 
 
 something about the fainting righteous. "My 
 righteous one shall live." 
 
 The result of that declaration for Habakkuk 
 was that his agnosticism merged into song. 
 Faith is the principle of life in spite of all appear- 
 ances. Pride is destructive in spite of all ap- 
 pearances. These godless men and affairs seem 
 to be so high and so proud ; these enterprises, 
 which are in rebellion against eternity, seem so 
 mighty, and encased in armour so strong that 
 we cannot overcome them. Look again. " My 
 righteous one" poor, despised, in difficulty, 
 hardly daring to lift his head " shall live." The 
 principle of faith is the principle of life. Any- 
 thing that is not of faith is crooked and swollen ; 
 leave it alone. It will pass and perish. 
 
 What is God doing? He is presiding over 
 His own law, watching it work out to its ultimate 
 conclusion, holding everything in His grasp ; and, 
 in spite of the appearance of the moment, surely, if 
 as men count time, slowly, crushing all that which 
 is crooked in its soul and swollen in its pride, and 
 lifting into life all the things which are of faith. 
 
 Then the prophet turns to affirmation ! The 
 illustrations that follow flash their light back upon 
 this central declaration.
 
 282 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 He first describes the swollen and the proud k 
 their pride and their passing, the manifestations 
 of the self-centred life, and the retribution that in- 
 evitably follows such life. All the things of pride 
 and self-seeking pass before the vision ambi- 
 tion, covetousness, violence, insolence, idolatry 
 and the prophet shows that every one in- 
 volves its own nemesis and judgment. Those 
 who have been crushed under the rule of the 
 swollen, revolt; and he is spoiled. When the 
 swollen would come into possession of the cities 
 he has coveted ; the very walls talk, the very 
 beams thunder out judgment. There is no 
 possession granted to greed. Violence issues in 
 self-destruction. Insolence made men drunk, and 
 laughed at them when they were drunk ; in turn 
 the proud himself is made drunk, and becomes 
 the shame of all who gaze upon him. The keen 
 satire of Habakkuk is poured upon idolatry, as 
 he declares of idols there is no breath in them ; to 
 pray to them is to be unanswered ; to be in agony 
 is to find no helper. The self-centred life am- 
 bitious, covetous, idolatrous seems to rise higher 
 and still higher ; but the prophet has heard the se- 
 cret, and he knows that pride-destroying forces 
 are already working the destruction of the proud.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 283 
 
 Then he illustrates the life of faith. There is 
 first the vision of God coming from Teman. 
 Then he traces, as I think, the whole history 
 of the Hebrew people through the great file- 
 leaders of faith Abraham, Moses, Joshua. At 
 last he trembles as he watches God's judgment. 
 He who had thought God was doing nothing to 
 punish evil, now prays that in the midst of wrath 
 He will remember mercy. He who had im- 
 agined that God had forsaken the faithful, and 
 left them to their fate, at last breaks out into the 
 great psalm with which the book ends. 
 
 The living message is perfectly patent. Faith 
 has still its problems. The outlook is often dark 
 and desolating enough. The message of this 
 book is first that we cannot and ought not to 
 judge by the appearances of the hour, but by 
 the word of God, which is at once His oath and 
 covenant. 
 
 When we have to confront these problems, 
 let us take up Habakkuk's attitude. Habakkuk 
 might have started out as a lecturer on the incon- 
 sistencies of the doctrine of the supposed govern- 
 ment of God. Instead of that he told God of his 
 perplexity. He poured out his heart in the 
 presence of God. He said, I cry Violence ! and
 
 284 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 You do nothing. Oh, the comfort of the fact 
 that we may say anything to God. There is a 
 hymn we sometimes sing, and I wonder if we 
 really mean it : "I tell Him all my doubts and 
 griefs and fears." The trouble is that we talk 
 of our doubts to our neighbours instead of telling 
 them to Him. The best place to speak of the 
 secret problem is the Secret Place. Let us take 
 time to listen to God that He may explain Him- 
 self to us. Some one says God does not speak 
 to men to-day as He did of old. I will give you 
 a truer statement : Men do not listen to-day as 
 they listened of old. If men will listen, God will 
 speak. 
 
 Let us believe the truth of this central prin- 
 ciple, and apply it. Let us who name His name, 
 and profess to be men of faith, put the measure- 
 ments of this verse upon all the problems that 
 confront us in this world. To do so would be to 
 find ease from a great deal of pain, to be saved 
 from a vast amount of suffering. We should 
 not so often be degrading Christianity by discuss- 
 ing in the newspaper columns our own inability 
 and weakness. There are vested interests high, 
 proud, swollen things lifting themselves against 
 God ; but they do not live. The life element is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 285 
 
 to be found in the man who has faith in God. 
 There is life in none other. 
 
 Is there not a personal word of application 
 here ? Has this book anything to say to me ? 
 " The swollen is crooked in soul, but My righteous 
 one shall live by his faith." In the compass of 
 my own life, that life which none can know but 
 God and myself in its inner and deepest things, 
 how does that verse appeal ? Does it rebuke me 
 for crookedness of soul, or vindicate me for the 
 trust that means triumph ? 
 
 Did I say that my own life none can know 
 save God and myself? That is true, yet it is 
 always manifest sooner or later in the external 
 things. If I am crooked in soul, men will find it 
 out by my conceit. Every secret sin sooner or 
 later flames through the windows of the soul, 
 burns upon the cheek, blasts the external. That 
 matter is too solemn to illustrate in public ; it is 
 for consideration in the inner chamber, and when 
 the door is shut. 
 
 What is the final word of this message for us ? 
 "Though the vision tarry, wait for it." Does 
 that seem an easy thing to do ? I ask the ques- 
 tion, and would give you time to think. Have 
 you never discovered that waiting is the hardest
 
 286 THE MESSAGE OF HABAKKUK 
 
 of all work ? " Wait." It is a great word. 
 How shall I wait ? On the watch-tower, telling 
 God everything, and listening to God. When 
 Habakkuk looked at his circumstances he was 
 perplexed. When he waited for God and listened 
 to God, he sang.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 Its Revelation of the Day of the Lord 
 
 I. The Content 
 
 i. The direct Act of God. i. laJ. 
 ii. Supernatural. i. 1416. 
 
 H. The Extent 
 
 i. Judgment upon Sin. 
 
 a. Luxury and Indifference, i. 12. The last Stages. 
 
 b. The evil Spirit. iii. 2. 
 
 c. The Results. iii. 3, 4, f Princes. 
 
 I Judges. 
 
 ii. The whole Extent. 1 Prophets. 
 
 L Priests. 
 
 a. Man, and all he has polluted. 
 
 b. National Life and History, as well as imme- 
 
 diate Sins swept away. 
 
 c. Chaos consumed. 
 
 III. The Intent 
 
 i. The Enthronement of Jehovah, iii. 17. 
 ii. The new Order. Vindication of the Trusting. 
 
 a. Songs instead of Sorrow. 
 
 b. Service instead of Selfishness. 
 
 c. Solidarity instead of Scattering. 
 
 I. The Joy of the Assurance 
 
 " We rejoice in Hope of 
 the Glory of God." 
 
 II. The Responsibility of the 
 Assurance 
 
 2 Peter iii. 
 i. " Holy Living and 
 
 Godliness." ii. 
 
 ii. " Looking for and 
 
 hastening." 12. 
 
 iii. " Give Diligence." 14. 
 i Beware." 17. 
 
 v. "Grow." 18.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 THE key to the book of Zephaniah is the 
 phrase "the day of the Lord." The 
 phrase is not peculiar to Zephaniah. 
 Most of the prophets make use of it in the course 
 of their prophesying. In our study of the per- 
 manent value and living message of the prophecy 
 of Joel we noticed that Joel used it five times in 
 the course of his brief message, and by his use 
 of it we found that the phrase stands for a per- 
 petual method in that activity of God which 
 moves ever forward until at last it accomplishes 
 all His purpose in the affairs of men. To him 
 the locust plague was " the day of the Lord " ; 
 the threatened invasion would be "the day of 
 the Lord " ; that ultimate procedure whereby 
 God will establish His rule in the world will be 
 " the day of the Lord." 
 
 Zephaniah used this phrase more frequently 
 than any other prophet. It was his burden. 
 Consequently we find, as we should expect, in 
 
 his prophecy a fuller explanation of the mean- 
 
 289
 
 290 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 ing of the phrase than in any other of the Old 
 Testament writings. The explanation of the 
 phrase is the permanent value of this book of 
 Zephaniah. 
 
 Wherever we find this phrase in any of the 
 prophets or in the New Testament, it invariably 
 suggests a contrast. Each prophet who uses it 
 does so in a certain set of circumstances, in order 
 to put such circumstances into contrast with that 
 which he describes as "the day of the Lord." 
 The contrast is always that between the day of 
 man and the day of Jehovah. 
 
 Zephaniah uttered his prophecy in the time of 
 Josiah. A remarkable thing which has puzzled 
 expositors is that Zephaniah, whose prophecy 
 opens with the declaration, 
 
 ' The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah, 
 the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, 
 the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of 
 Amon, king of Judah," 
 c 
 
 never referred to the reform under Josiah. The 
 days of Josiah stand out, when we study the his- 
 tory of the people, as days of reform. I think 
 the explanation is simple. The reform under 
 Josiah, so far as it affected the nation at all, 
 was a reform brought about by the popular-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 291 
 
 ity of the king, and not by heart repentance. 
 Huldah the prophetess had declared that this 
 would be so. Zephaniah took no account of the 
 reform, knowing as he did that the hearts of the 
 people were still in rebellion and in sin. Amid 
 circumstances of rebellion, sin, and corruption, he 
 spoke of " the day of the Lord." 
 
 The day of man is the day of Jehovah's pa- 
 tience. " The day of the Lord " is the day of 
 man's judgment. Wherever this phrase occurs, 
 it refers to God's judgment, in order to the estab- 
 lishment of His Kingdom. To Joel the locust 
 plague was "the day of the Lord," because it 
 was a day of judgment ; the coming armies con- 
 stituted "the day of the Lord" because their 
 coming was the coming of God's judgment upon 
 a sinning people. The ultimate " day of the 
 Lord," according to Peter, is the day in which 
 "the elements shall be dissolved with fervent 
 heat, and the earth and the works that are 
 therein shall be burned up." The day of man is 
 the day of God's patience. " The day of the 
 Lord " is the day when patience has had her per- 
 fect work on the part of God, and He takes up 
 the sword of judgment 
 
 The permanent value of this book, then, is its
 
 292 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 unveiling of " the day of the Lord." One of the 
 most significant things about the book is that it 
 is impossible to deal with it from the standpoint 
 of a calendar or almanac. It cannot be placed 
 historically beyond the introductory words. As 
 one reads it, the nations seemed to have ceased 
 to be ; all are involved in one sweeping hurricane 
 of judgment. History seems to be forgotten. 
 " I will utterly consume all things from oft the 
 face of the ground " is the first word. It is a 
 picture of devastation, and kings as instruments 
 of judgment are no longer to be found here. No 
 longer through mediation is God dealing in judg- 
 ment, but directly, absolutely, and finally. The 
 prophecy reveals the meaning of " the day of the 
 Lord " in its broad processes, and in its detailed 
 application. 
 
 There are three things revealed in the reading 
 of the book. Let us indicate them by three sim- 
 ple and related words. First, the content of 
 " the day of the Lord." Secondly, the extent of 
 " the day of the Lord." Finally, the intent of 
 " the day of the Lord." 
 
 According to this prophecy, what is the con- 
 tent of " the day of the Lord " ? That can only 
 be answered by a repetition of certain declara-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 293 
 
 dons of the book. The first of these follows im- 
 mediately after the first verse : 
 
 " I will utterly consume all things from off the face of 
 the ground, saith the Lord. I will consume man and 
 beast ; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the 
 fishes of the sea, and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked; 
 and I will cut off man from off the face of the ground, 
 saith the Lord." 
 
 This is a declaration that God will visit this earth 
 in direct and positive judgment, using the word 
 judgment not now in that broader sense, in which 
 we often use it as indicating administration, but 
 in the narrower sense of vengeance, punishment. 
 The prophet then proceeds to declare that this 
 will be so in spite of unbelief : 
 
 "And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will 
 search Jerusalem with candles ; and I will punish the men 
 that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, The 
 Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil." 
 
 Men are saying that God is neither doing good, 
 nor will He visit men with judgment and scatter- 
 ing. Zephaniah affirms that He will act in hu- 
 man history suddenly, swiftly, and irrevocably 
 in judgment. 
 
 That is also the teaching of Peter in his 
 second letter. It is to be observed also that Peter 
 insists upon it that God will act in spite of unbelief
 
 20* THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 Again the prophet declares that this " day of 
 the Lord " will be not merely a day as other days 
 have been when God presses into His service 
 the armies of men. It will be entirely super- 
 Natural : 
 
 "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and 
 hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord ; the 
 mighty man crieth there bitterly. That day is a day of 
 wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness 
 and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day 
 of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and 
 alarm, against the fenced cities, and against the high bat- 
 tlements. And I will bring distress upon men, that they 
 shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against 
 the Lord." 
 
 All these terms, descriptive of the day, suggest 
 that the judgment will be supernatural. The 
 indefiniteness of the terms creates a sense of the 
 terribleness of the judgment. 
 
 That, then, is the message of Zephaniah. 
 There is a day when God will come to judge the 
 earth, when He will interfere in human history 
 and end it ; a day in which God will come Him- 
 self directly, supernaturally, immediately into the 
 presence of human affairs, and that to judgment 
 The men of Zephaniah's day said, " The Lord 
 will not do good, neither will He do evil." The 
 men of Peter's day said, " Where is the promise
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 295 
 
 of His coming? For, from the day that the 
 fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they 
 were from the beginning of the creation." The 
 men of our own day are saying exactly the same 
 thing, that God will never interfere in judgment 
 in this way. The declaration of this book is that 
 there is a day of Jehovah, a day in the history of 
 humanity, when His patience will be at an end, 
 and when He will bring to pass His act, His 
 strange act, of judgment. 
 
 This prophecy also declares the extent of that 
 activity. Judgment is to be discriminative. It 
 will be judgment upon sin. Let us repeat th? 
 words already quoted, and ponder them : 
 
 "And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will 
 search Jerusalem with candles ; and I will punish the men 
 that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, The 
 Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil." 
 
 The last stages of sin are luxury and indifference. 
 " Men that are settled on their lees " ; that is 
 luxury. Men who say, " The Lord will not do 
 good, neither will He do evil " ; that is indiffer- 
 ence. There is the constantly recurring applica- 
 tion of " the day of the Lord " in history. The 
 history of the decline and fall of the Roman 
 Empire shows that the last stages of sin before
 
 296 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 judgment fell in Rome were luxury and indiffer- 
 ence. The final stage of sin in the history of 
 man upon which the wrath of God will fall will 
 be characterized by the same things. 
 
 What is the secret of luxury and indifference ? 
 
 " Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted, to the op- 
 pressing city ! She obeyed not the voice ; she received 
 not correction ; she trusted not in the Lord ; she drew not 
 near to her God." 
 
 Opinions differ as to whether the prophet in 
 these words referred to Jerusalem or to Nineveh. 
 For our purpose, whether Jerusalem, Nineveh, 
 Rome, or London matters nothing. This is the 
 spirit upon which judgment falls. The last stage 
 of sin is that of luxury and indifference, and the 
 spirit which issues in such a condition is that of 
 disobedience to the voice of God, refusal to re- 
 ceive His correction, failure to put trust in Him, 
 and distance from Him. 
 
 The result of such a spirit in the life of the city 
 is that 
 
 " Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions ; her 
 judges are evening wolves ; they leave nothing till the mor- 
 row. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons : her 
 priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done 
 violence to the law."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 297 
 
 The extent of the judgment is that man and all 
 he has polluted are swept away. 
 
 It has been said that this prophecy of Zepha- 
 niah is peculiarly desert and barren no life, no 
 flower, no fruit, none of the beauties of nature ; 
 nothing but a world swept by a simoom. If this 
 is so, what is the reason of it ? Look at the con- 
 ditions described. Men settled on their lees in 
 luxury, denying the interference of God. A city 
 that did not obey the voice, received not correc- 
 tion, did not trust in the Lord, did not draw near 
 to God. Men and city materialized, self-centred, 
 luxurious ; the rulers, princes, judges, prophets, 
 and priests alike corrupt. The whole condition 
 may be expressed in the one word chaos. 
 What, then, is the story of "the day of the 
 Lord " ? That of chaos consumed, disorder dis- 
 organized, evil conditions destroyed, until the 
 whole city appears before the eyes of the as- 
 tonished prophet as a simoom-swept landscape 
 with never a blade of grass. 
 
 What is it all for ? What is the intent of this 
 terrible activity ? Read to the end : 
 
 "Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel ; be glad 
 and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. 
 The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast
 
 298 THE MESSAGE CF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 out thine enemy : The King of Israel, even the Lord, is 
 in the midst of thee : thou shalt not fear evil any more. 
 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not : 
 O Zion, let not thine hands be slack. The Lord thy God 
 is in the midst of thee, a mighty One Who will save : He 
 will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, 
 He will joy over thee with singing." 
 
 A modern expositor has said that it is perfectly 
 patent that this last chapter was not written by 
 Zephaniah, because the contrast is too great be- 
 tween the picture of the awful, sweeping, irrev- 
 ocable judgment, and that of the restoration. 
 No one can imagine, he declares, that the same 
 man wrote both. All of which is the result of 
 the expositor's blindness. The last picture is 
 that of the enthroned Jehovah, the picture of a 
 new order ; songs instead of sorrow, service in- 
 stead of selfishness, solidarity instead of scatter- 
 ing. That is the intent of judgment. Its con- 
 tent, God's immediate, supernatural visitation of 
 the earth to destroy ; its extent, sin and its last 
 issues of pollution man and everything he has 
 spoiled ; the intent, the established throne and 
 the new order, in which God and His Kingdom 
 sing over each other. The very contrast dem- 
 onstrates the unity of authorship. There was a 
 nan whose name was John. We describe him 
 to-day as the apostle of love ; Jesus described
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 299 
 
 him in the early days as tne son of thunder. In 
 his writings two words are of constant recur- 
 rence commandments and love. It is the man 
 who sees most clearly the fierceness of God's 
 wrath against sin, who sees most clearly through 
 all the processes to the restoration, and therefore 
 sings his song. If I seek the supreme example 
 of this principle of the " day of the Lord," I come 
 again to the Man of Nazareth, and listen to the 
 word He uttered when from the slopes of the 
 mountain He looked at the city of His love. 
 Was there ever such merging of fire and tender- 
 ness, of severity and goodness, as in His words, 
 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the 
 prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto 
 her! How often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
 chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 
 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." 
 Zephaniah will write of " the day of the Lord " 
 as a day of swift, fiery judgment upon a sinning 
 earth, but he will end with the song that tells of 
 Jehovah's singing. 
 
 What is the living message of this book? 
 Zephaniah teaches that it is ours to rejoice in 
 the hope of the glory of God. He called the
 
 300 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 
 
 men of his own day to sing for joy because of 
 " the day of the Lord," because " the day of the 
 Lord " is the day of destruction of the things 
 that destroy, because " the day of the Lord " 
 will be the beginning of a new era when songs 
 shall take the place of sighs, and service shall 
 take the place of selfishness, and solidarity shall 
 take the place of scattering. Surely Charles 
 Kingsley had been reading Zephaniah when he 
 wrote " The Day of the Lord " : 
 
 " The Day of the Lord is at hand, at hand ! 
 
 Its storms roll up the sky : 
 The nations sleep starving on heaps of gold : 
 
 All dreamers toss and sigh. 
 The night is darkest before the morn ; 
 When the pain is sorest the child is born, 
 And the Day of the Lord at hand." 
 
 Mark the note of triumph in the next verses : 
 
 " Gather you, gather you, hounds of hell 
 
 Famine, and Plague, and War; 
 Idleness, Bigotry, Cant and Misrule, 
 
 Gather, and fall in the snare ! 
 Hireling and Mammonite, Bigot and Knave, 
 Crawl to the battlefield, sneak to your grave, 
 In the Day of the Lord at hand. 
 
 " Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold 
 
 While the Lord of all ages is here? 
 True hearts will leap up at the trumpet of God, 
 
 And those who can suffer can dare. 
 Each old age of gold was an iron age too, 
 And the meekest of saints may find stern work to do 
 In the Day of the Lord at hand.'*
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZEPHANIAH 301 
 
 That is sentimental and useless joy which finds 
 its reason in the thought of escape. We need 
 to-day a renewal of the passion that delights in 
 judgment which ends the things of wrong and 
 evil, and brings new birth to the whole creation. 
 
 " Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold 
 While the Lord of all ages is here ? " 
 
 The living message may be expressed in the 
 words of Peter : 
 
 " Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, 
 what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living 
 and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the 
 coming of the day of God." 
 
 " Give diligence that ye may be found in peace." 
 
 " Beware lest, being carried away with the error of the 
 wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness. " 
 
 " Seeing that ye look for these things . . . grow in 
 the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. A Revelation of the peculiar Perils of an Age of 
 
 Adversity 
 
 L A false Content They looked at their Con- 
 
 ditions only. 
 
 ii. A false Discontent. They looked at their 
 Building in the Light 
 of the Past. 
 
 iii. A false Expectation. 
 
 iv. A false Fear. 
 
 They looked at their Ad- 
 versity in the Light of 
 their Building. 
 
 They looked at their Po- 
 sition in the Light of 
 the Nations. 
 
 II. A Declaration of the Duty of Men of Faith in such 
 an Age 
 
 i. The Corrective of false Content 
 
 a. The Duty. " Build." 
 
 b. The Dynamic. " I am with you " (i. 13). 
 ii. The Corrective of false Discontent. 
 
 i a. The Duty. " Be strong . . . and work." 
 
 ' 6. The Dynamic. " I am with you " (ii. 4). 
 K. The Corrective of false Expectation. 
 
 a. The Duty. " Ask a Torah." 
 
 b. The Dynamic. " I will bless " (ii. 19). 
 iv. The Corrective of false Fear. 
 
 a. The Duty. Patience. 
 
 b. The Dynamic. I will f shake. 
 
 I overthrow. 
 1 destroy. 
 I overthrow. 
 
 I. The Wickedness of wait* 
 Ing for psychic Mo- 
 ments, set Times, is of 
 the Essence of Re- 
 bellion 
 
 II. The Polly of attempting 
 to interpret the Pres- 
 ent in the Terms ot 
 the Past 
 
 A better Thing is always 
 at hand. 
 
 III. The Paralysis of expect* 
 Ing immediate Result* 
 
 i. The Necessity for Pa- 
 tience. 
 
 ii. The Certainty of God. 
 
 IV. The Sin of fearing op* 
 posing Forces 
 
 The final Word. 
 
 " Be strong and work."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 HAGGAI stands first in the last group oi 
 the prophetic books. In common with 
 Zechariah and Malachi it is post-exilic. 
 In considering the messages of these three books 
 we find ourselves in new circumstances and in a 
 new atmosphere. The history of the people was 
 at once full of glory and full of shame. It is 
 easy to imagine how they felt as they thought of 
 the ancient glory of the nation. Some amongst 
 them would be filled with shame as they came 
 back to their own city and their own country, 
 and found themselves without national constitu- 
 tion and without power, tributary to the Gentiles. 
 Their circumstances were those of difficulty and 
 discouragement. Their hopes were of the most 
 shadowy and uncertain kind. 
 
 These three men prophesied in the midst of 
 such circumstances. Haggai had one burden 
 upon his heart, that of leading the people to 
 build the temple. Zechariah helped him in the 
 delivery of that message, and then produced his 
 
 303
 
 304 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 great apocalypse. Malachi uttered the final 
 mourning and warning to the ancient people of 
 God. 
 
 Let us consider a little more particularly the 
 circumstances in which Haggai delivered his 
 message. About sixteen years earlier the people 
 had returned to their own land under Zerubbabel, 
 and had begun to build the temple a year later. 
 They had laid the foundations, and perhaps the 
 first course of stones, when the work of building 
 was abandoned through Samaritan opposition. 
 For fifteen years nothing more was done. Then 
 Haggai delivered his message and exercised his 
 ministry. He dealt with the immediate. He 
 was a man of faith, whose one business was that 
 of persuading the people to do one thing. The 
 greater part of his ministry consisted not of 
 public preaching but of private application 
 thereof. He delivered four brief messages, and 
 succeeded in persuading the people to build. 
 His first message was delivered, and they com- 
 menced. Then a difficulty arose and they halted. 
 He immediately delivered his second message, 
 and they resumed the work. After a while 
 another difficulty arose, and again they halted. 
 He delivered his third message, and on the same
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 305 
 
 day his fourth and last ; and the work was com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The permanent value of this book is twofold. 
 First, it is a revelation of the peculiar perils of an 
 age of adversity ; and secondly, it is a declara- 
 tion of the duty of the man of faith in such an 
 age. Haggai helps us to see the perils of the 
 hour when everything looks dark ; and to under- 
 stand the duty of the man of faith in such an 
 hour, and in the presence of such perils. 
 
 There are four perils indicated in the proph- 
 ecy, and the four addresses deal with them re- 
 spectively. First, the peril of a false content. 
 Secondly, the peril of a false discontent. Thirdly, 
 the peril of a false expectation. Finally, the 
 peril of a false fear. 
 
 First, a false content. As these people looked 
 at the conditions in the midst of which they 
 found themselves they said, 
 
 "It is not the time ... for the Lord's house to 
 be built." 
 
 Secondly, a false discontent. After the work 
 had commenced they looked at their building in 
 the light of the olden days, and they said, 
 
 " Who is left among you that saw this house in its
 
 306 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 former glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in 
 your eyes as nothing ? " 
 
 Thirdly, a false expectation. When the build- 
 ing had proceeded further they expected immedi- 
 ate material results from their moral reformation. 
 
 Finally, a false fear. They were filled with fear 
 of the nations by whom they were surrounded. 
 
 The first peril is that of a false content. These 
 people were waiting for the psychic moment in 
 which to begin to build the house of God. They 
 said, The set time is not yet come. They ex- 
 pected some manifestation of Divine readiness to 
 help them. On that side of their life which had 
 to do with God, they were waiting ; but they 
 were busy building their own houses. They 
 were only psychologists in the matter of religion. 
 They were preeminently practical when they had 
 to do with the places in which they themselves 
 had to live. 
 
 The next peril is that of a false discontent. 
 When in obedience to the prophet they began to 
 build, they looked at their building in the light of 
 the past, and their outlook was entirely material. 
 They compared the poverty of the material erec- 
 tion with the glory of the ancient temple of 
 which they had heard, and which some of them
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 307 
 
 had seen. The old men amongst them, in child- 
 hood's days had gazed upon the glory of the past 
 temple, and they put this new temple in its ma- 
 terial poverty, into comparison with the one of 
 old and its material glory. The result was that 
 they were filled with discontent, and broke out 
 into lamentation. That was a note of false dis- 
 content. 
 
 The third peril is that of a false expectation. 
 They looked at their adversity in the light of 
 their building. They said, We have begun to 
 obey, and the weeks have passed away and 
 grown into months, and yet there is no sign 
 of better conditions. It was autumn when we 
 began to build, and now it is winter, and there is 
 no improvement. Haggai taught them that it 
 was an unwarranted expectation in view of the ap- 
 palling penetration of evil resulting from their sin. 
 Finally, they looked at the surrounding na- 
 
 / tions, saw their strength and the solidarity of the 
 opposition, and were filled with a false fear. 
 
 i In each case the prophet sought to counteract 
 the perils by declaring an immediate duty, and 
 revealing an available dynamic. 
 
 For the correction of their false content, he de- 
 clared that their immediate duty was to build.
 
 308 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 As dynamic, he gave them the inspiration of the 
 Divine declaration, " I am with you, saith the 
 Lord." The people said, The time has not yet 
 come to build. The prophet affirmed, The set 
 time has come, because Jehovah is with us. 
 
 For the correction of the false discontent the 
 prophet declared that their duty was to "be 
 strong . . . and work." Again as dynamic, 
 he gave them the inspiration of the Divine word, 
 " I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts." 
 
 For the correction of false expectation the 
 prophet bade them " Ask the priests concerning 
 a law " ; and there follows the account of the 
 opinion given by the priests, evidently in answer 
 to the appeal. This needs to be considered care- 
 fully. They were to ask not the law, but for a 
 law. In order to understand this passage we 
 must go back to Deuteronomy. There will be 
 found instructions given to the people that in 
 any case of difficulty, the priest was to declare a 
 law, that is, declare the principle involved in the 
 difficulty. Here Haggai framed the enquiry of 
 the people in the words, 
 
 " If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and 
 with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, 
 or any meat, shall it become holy? And the priests an* 
 swered and said, No."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 309 
 
 That was the statement of the law or principle, 
 and the prophet applied it thus. The pollution 
 of nature which had resulted from their sin could 
 not be immediately set right by their reformation 
 and return. The lesson he drew from this decla- 
 ration was that of patience. There must be re- 
 turn and obedience ; but not eager anxiety for 
 immediate material results. There must be 
 return and obedience, although there seemed to 
 be no immediate benefit accruing therefrom. 
 
 In spiritual revival there should be freedom 
 from anxiety about material results. That is the 
 principle. There will be material results, but the 
 inspiration for patient waiting is found in the 
 words, " From this day will I bless you." The 
 material blessing that will follow will not be 
 created by obedience, but will be given as a 
 gracious act on the part of God. The people 
 said in effect : We are giving God obedience, we 
 are building ; but He is giving us nothing in re- 
 turn. The lesson they had to learn was that 
 obedience must be without bargaining. Yet the 
 prophet did not leave them with that stern appli- 
 cation of the principle ; he gave them this word 
 out of the heart of God, " From this day will I 
 bless vou." The blessing must come from God.
 
 3io THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 Men must never imagine that by their return and 
 obedience they have a right to blessing. 
 
 For the correction of false fear the prophet laid 
 down the duty of patience, and uttered for their 
 inspiration the great promises of Jehovah. The 
 consciousness of the people concerning the 
 strength of the enemies about them is revealed 
 in the references to those enemies in the promise 
 of deliverance ; " the throne of the kingdoms 
 . . . the strength of the kingdoms . . . 
 the nations . . . the chariots, and those that 
 ride in them . . . the horses and their 
 riders." These were the forces of which the 
 remnant were conscious. Wherever they lifted 
 their eyes they saw the strength of the kingdoms; 
 chariots and them that ride in them ; horses and 
 their riders ; massed military powers ! There was 
 no hope of deliverance. All these things filled 
 them with dull despair. There seemed to be no 
 chance of their ever regaining national constitu- 
 tion and power. The corrective of the prophet 
 was that of his utterance of the word of Jehovah, 
 " I will shake ... I will overthrow . . . 
 I will destroy ... I will overthrow." By 
 that activity of Jehovah there would issue the 
 degradation of the strength they feared, and the
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 311 
 
 disintegration of the forces which held them 
 prisoners. 
 
 Let us put the perils and the corrective teach- 
 ing side by side. 
 
 The people were content to let the temple re- 
 main unbuilt, saying, The set time has not yet 
 come. The prophet bade them arise and build, 
 knowing that the set time had come, because 
 God was with them, knowing that 
 
 " God is on the field when He 
 Is most invisible." 
 
 The people were filled with discontent as they 
 compared the house as they saw it in the course 
 of building with the glory of the previous house. 
 The prophet called them to be strong and to 
 work, because God was with them ; and therefore 
 the glory of the latter house would be greater 
 than that of the former, because the method of 
 God is always progressive. The former glory 
 was material, but to the latter house would come 
 the fulfillment of all things foreshadowed in the 
 former. 
 
 The people expected immediate material bene- 
 fit as the result of their moral reformation. No, 
 said the prophet, you do not know the meaning
 
 312 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 of sin, how deep its pollution goes, how all 
 nature is affected by it. There must be patient 
 waiting for God from Whom the blessing will 
 come as a gift of grace, and not as a result 
 created by human amendment. 
 
 The people were looking at enemies, at thrones, 
 at chariots, and horses, at the military multitudes, 
 and consequently they were filled with fear. 
 The prophet called them to cease looking at the 
 foes and to look to God Who would break the 
 power of the surrounding nations. 
 
 The living message of the book is patent. It 
 teaches first the wickedness of waiting waiting 
 for the psychic moment, for the set time is of the 
 essence of rebellion when immediate duty calls. 
 God's windows wait man's opening. 
 
 " Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there 
 may be meat in Mine House, and prove Me now herewith, 
 saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows 
 of heaven." 
 
 Those windows are never opened in response 
 to sighing and crying. In that hour in which we 
 bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, the 
 windows will be opened and the blessing will 
 come. " Now is the accepted time, now is the 
 day of salvation " is a word of constant applica-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 313 
 
 tion, and constitutes the true answer to man's 
 declaration that the set time has not come. 
 
 The next peril is that of lamenting the past ; 
 desiring an experience to-day like that of the 
 past. In Wales men to-day are desiring to go 
 back to the experiences of the revival. Christian 
 men are sighing after the experiences of '59. 
 Some sigh for a return to apostolic times, to that 
 peculiar manifestation of the Spirit, necessary in 
 the first stage of the Church's history, but un- 
 necessary to-day. It is impossible to unlock the 
 present with the rusty key of the past. The at- 
 tempt to crowd the Spirit of God to-day into the 
 manifestation of the past is of the nature of 
 sacrilege. It is utterest folly to attempt to in- 
 terpret the present in the terms of the past. 
 There is always a better thing at hand than any- 
 thing the past has seen ; better, that is, for to-day, 
 for the present time. Many of the ecclesiastical 
 quarrels of the Christian Church are due to at- 
 tempts to live in the past, and the consequent 
 failure to recognize the living presence of the 
 Spirit of God, and the fact that in one age He 
 must use one method and in another age an en- 
 tirely different one. In the gift of the Spirit we 
 have the charm and value of perpetually chang-
 
 314 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 
 
 ing methods. The simplicity, the commonplace, 
 the dullness of the present hour, may be of the 
 very essence of God's method. Let us get to 
 work. The word of God to us also is, " Be 
 strong . . . and work." 
 
 Again, we need to be reminded that there is a 
 grave peril in expecting immediate material re- 
 sults. Those who serve in spiritual things in a 
 world permeated with the virus of sin need 
 great patience. That was a wonderful vision of 
 Isaiah in which he saw that the poison of human 
 sin had permeated the very earth, and that the 
 only way in which God could get it out was by 
 burning, smiting, and destruction. We must be 
 content to do our best work with perhaps but lit- 
 tle result that can be tabulated. 
 
 Finally, we need the message of this book for 
 the correction of our fear. Do we not still hear 
 men of faith saying, Those that are against us 
 are mighty and strong? What we supremely 
 need is a new vision of God, a new understand- 
 ing of the fact that He will overthrow the thrones, 
 and the kingdoms, and break their strength, and 
 finally set up His government in the earth. 
 
 We may summarize the whole message of 
 Haggai in one brief word of his second proph-
 
 THE MESSAGE OF HAGGAI 315 
 
 ecy, " Be strong . . . and work." If we do 
 that, we may leave the issues with God ; but we 
 have no right to leave the issues with God unless 
 we work. The initial 'sin was that of waiting for 
 the psychic moment. When we are strong and 
 work, then we may be, and shall be delivered 
 from all anxiety about the ultimate, knowing 
 that He will bless, and accomplish, and perfect 
 It should be the highest honour of life, its crown- 
 ing glory, and its chief joy in the midst of the 
 ages, to have done one day's work with God. 
 
 " Yet will I live my life, 
 
 Dim though its mystery be, 
 Not wholly lost to sense, nor yet 
 Absorbed in what I see. 
 
 "For me to have made one soul 
 
 The better for my birth : 
 To have added but one flower 
 To the garden of the earth : 
 
 " To have struck one blow for truth 
 
 In the daily fight with lies : 
 To have done one deed of right 
 In the face of calumnies : 
 
 " To have sown in the souls of men 
 One thought that will not die 
 To have been a link in the chain of life : 
 Shall be immortality."
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUE 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. Its fundamental Revelation of the pervasive Power 
 
 and persistent Purpose of Jehovah 
 L The suggestive Title. " The Lord of Hosts." 
 
 a. Its History and Meaning. 
 
 1. History. 
 
 a. Born with the Monarchy. I Sam. i. 3 
 
 and ii. 
 
 6. Not prevalent during the Period. 
 f. The prophetic Name. 
 
 2. Meaning. 
 
 a. Stars. ") 
 
 b. Angels. \ Sovereignty. 
 
 c. Israel. J 
 
 b. Its introductory Grouping. i. 3. 
 
 1. The Will made known. i. 6. 
 
 2. The Way provided. iii. 8. 
 
 3. The Work accomplished, iv. 6. 
 ii. The pervasive Power. 
 
 a. The Visions. 
 
 b. The Oracles. 
 
 Iii. The persistent Purpose. 
 
 a. The Principle illustrated by the Visions. 
 
 b. The Principle illustrated by the Oracles. 
 
 II. The resultant Revelation of the true Attitude and 
 
 Activity of His People under all Circumstances. 
 
 ( Hearken. 
 L The suggestive first Word. -I Return. 
 
 ( See and Obey, 
 ii. The Attitude, (vii., viii.) 
 
 a. Look back, and know your Sin. 
 
 b. Look on, and see God's Purpose. 
 fiL The Activity. 
 
 a. Build the House. 
 
 b. Abolish the human Fasts. 
 
 c. Keep the Divine Feasts. 
 
 I. A Revelation of the Se- 
 cret of Strength 
 " While we look . . ." 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 17. 
 i. The Secret of Strength is 
 
 Vision. 
 
 ii. The Proof of Vision is 
 Strength. 
 
 II. An Appeal to be Strong 
 Heb. xii. 12, 13.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 THIS is the second of the three prophetic 
 books which are undoubtedly post-ex- 
 ilic ; consisting as they do of messages 
 delivered to the people after their return from 
 captivity. The relation of Zechariah to Haggai 
 we recognized in our study of the latter book. 
 The atmosphere is the same. The people to 
 whom Zechariah delivered his message were 
 looking back, and were conscious of a history 
 which was at once glorious and shameful. The 
 history of God's dealing with them was full of 
 glory. The history of their dealing with God 
 was full of shame. The immediate outlook was 
 one of difficulty and discouragement. The hope 
 of the nation was practically extinguished. 
 Hemmed in by opposing forces, without national 
 constitution or power, it certainly must have 
 seemed to that feeble remnant that there was 
 very little hope in the future. The peculiar 
 value of the teaching of Zechariah was that it 
 was calculated to inspire hope in the heart of the 
 discouraged people. 
 
 317
 
 3i 8 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 The first message of Zechariah was delivered 
 between two messages of Haggai, so that the 
 first phase of his ministry was one of actual and 
 immediate cooperation with Haggai. In that 
 first message the one burden upon the heart of 
 the prophet was that of urging the people to 
 obey the message of his co-worker, and to build 
 the house of God. Following the first simple 
 message, we have the visions of the prophet ; 
 not easy of exposition, but flaming with light, 
 singing in hope, and resonant in confidence. 
 Finally, we have those messages in which, in lan- 
 guage as stately as any to be found in the pro- 
 phetic books, and with somewhat more of detail, 
 there is presented the portrait of the great De- 
 liverer-King, Who through suffering comes to 
 crowning. The principal value of such message 
 was that of filling the heart with hope, even in 
 the days' of darkness and of hopelessness. 
 
 The burden of Zechariah was that of the per- 
 vasive power and the persistent purpose of Jeho- 
 vah. The book has been accurately described 
 as the apocalypse of the Old Testament. An 
 apocalypse is the removal of something that 
 hides ; an unveiling. 
 
 Zechariah was the great unveiler, the man
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 319 
 
 through whose message the people were enabled 
 to see things which, while actual, were neverthe- 
 less obscured by the prevalent conditions of 
 adversity. 
 
 Our observation is limited to the sight of the 
 eyes and the hearing of the ears. The peculiai 
 peril of the day of adversity is that therein men 
 are in danger of seeing only the things that are 
 near. The apocalypse provides visions and 
 voices ; visions through the near to the distant, 
 voices from the distant calling to the near. 
 These men were looking at the near ; Zechariah 
 bade them look through to the things beyond. 
 They were looking at the narrow circumstances ; 
 Zechariah called them to the wider circumstances 
 of the Divine government and activity. 
 
 The permanent values of Zechariah then are : 
 first, its fundamental revelation of the pervasive 
 power and persistent purpose of Jehovah ; and 
 secondly, its resultant revelation of the true 
 attitude and activity of the people of God in all 
 circumstances. 
 
 As to the first of these permanent values, let us 
 look at the opening paragraph, 
 
 " In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came 
 the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah,
 
 320 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, The Lord hath been 
 sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou 
 unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Return unto Me, 
 saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith 
 Jehovah of hosts." 
 
 His one inclusive appeal is contained in the 
 words, 
 
 " Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : Return unto Me, saith 
 Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah 
 of hosts." 
 
 Everything which follows is by way of applica- 
 tion and illustration. 
 
 Notice first very carefully the suggestive title 
 thrice repeated, "Jehovah of hosts," as to its 
 history and its meaning. Think of its history. 
 You cannot find it in Genesis; it does not occur 
 in Exodus ; it is absent from Leviticus ; it is to be 
 discovered neither in Numbers nor Deuteronomy. 
 You never find it in the Pentateuch. You may 
 go still further and you will not find it in the 
 book of Joshua or the book of Judges. Then 
 you come to the first book of Samuel, which is 
 the book of transition from the Theocratic to the 
 monarchic form of government, the story of how 
 these people turned from God to a human govern- 
 ment. In that book the title first occurs. The
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 321 
 
 phrase was born with the monarchy. On the 
 human side, as Perowne suggests, it was the re- 
 sult of the people's new thought of massed and 
 marshalled armies. We are principally interested 
 in the significance it gathered in the process of 
 the years. In the historic books it very rarely 
 occurs ; but in the prophetic literature it is the 
 constantly recurring title of Jehovah. Isaiah 
 repeatedly employed it. Jeremiah used it more 
 often than did Isaiah. Zechariah used it more 
 frequently than any other prophet. Fifty-three 
 times at least does this majestic and wonderful 
 title appear upon the pages of this brief prophecy 
 of fourteen chapters. In order to an understand- 
 ing of the suggestiveness of the title we should 
 need a careful examination of the prophetic use 
 of it ; not merely a study of the actual words, but 
 of the place in which we find them in our Bible. 
 Let three very simple thoughts suffice. The 
 word hosts is used of stars, of angels, of the 
 nation of Israel, of the armies of other nations. 
 The significance of this fact is that whatever the 
 title meant when it was first employed, it came 
 ultimately to mean that Jehovah is sovereign 
 Lord and Master of the universe. In the pro- 
 phetic use of it is suggested, not the sovereignty
 
 322 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 of Jehovah in the abstract merely, but that sov- 
 ereignty in activity. The prophet saw Jehovah 
 marshalling all hosts of stars, of angels, and of 
 men. Zechariah lived in a day when Israel had 
 lost its army, its power, and its organization ; 
 and he constantly spoke of Jehovah of hosts, 
 thus reminding the people of the abiding and 
 active sovereignty of Jehovah. The threefold 
 use of the title in the opening paragraph of 
 Zechariah speaks of that fact of sovereignty to 
 the conditions in the midst of which the people 
 found themselves. 
 
 " Thua saith Jehovah of hosts." 
 
 The declaration first suggests that the will of 
 God is made known to His people. That is 
 further illustrated by what follows. 
 
 "Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former 
 prophets cried, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Return 
 ye now from your evil doings : but they did not hear, nor 
 hearken unto Me, saith Jehovah. ' ' 
 
 The main value of that reference to the past is 
 its insistence upon the fact that God has spoken 
 His will to His people. That is His perpetual 
 method, He speaks. He makes known His will
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 323 
 
 The prophet insists upon it that He continues 
 that method. That is the first part of the pro- 
 phetic burden. 
 
 " Return unto Me." 
 
 That is the second value of the prophetic mes- 
 sage. Jehovah calls His people back, and pro- 
 vides a way for their return. In the subsequent 
 vision of Joshua, the high priest, confronted by 
 Satan the adversary, the title is linked to the 
 great announcement. 
 
 " Thus saith Jehovah of hosts . . . Hear now, O 
 Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before 
 thee ; for they are men which are a sign : for, behold, I will 
 bring forth My Servant the Branch." 
 
 Thus the way back to God is provided. 
 " I will return unto you." 
 
 That is the third value of the message. Je- 
 hovah promises to return to His people, and He 
 accomplishes the work which makes this return 
 possible. 
 
 " Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith 
 Jehovah of hosts." 
 
 The power necessary for the restoration of 
 order will be provided by the coming of God to 
 His people, by His Holy Spirit
 
 324 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 These are only the key-phrases, but around 
 them the whole system of the prophet's thinking 
 was grouped. His conviction was threefold ; 
 Jehovah reveals His will ; Jehovah calls men 
 back to Himself, and provides the way for their 
 coming ; Jehovah promises that if they will re- 
 turn, He will return to them, and He does so in 
 the power and might of His own Holy Spirit. I 
 am not prepared for one single moment to affirm 
 that Zechariah apprehended the great doctrine of 
 the Trinity, or those of our evangelical faith ; but 
 all are to be found potentially in his words. Je- 
 hovah of hosts speaks ; it is the perpetual method 
 of God with men, that of making known His 
 will. Jehovah of hosts calls men to return ; and 
 in the mystery of that Branch Whose nature is 
 dealt with later on in the prophecy, and Whose 
 history is written in the last movement He 
 makes the way of return. Jehovah of hosts 
 declares that if men will return to Him, He will 
 return to them, and this He does by the coming 
 of the Spirit. All this teaching was inclusively 
 an unveiling first, of the pervasive power of God ; 
 and secondly, of the persistent purpose of God. 
 
 The pervasive power of Jehovah is illustrated 
 by the visions and by the oracles. This is seen
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 324 
 
 when we take each one in separation, and alloi* 
 it to make its own impression upon the mind 
 In every case certain conditions are described 
 and side by side with the conditions, facts are 
 declared which the average man cannot see. 
 
 The first vision is that of the shady place ; and 
 also of the Watcher, the angel of Jehovah. The 
 people were conscious of the shady place ; but 
 they were not conscious of the Watcher. He 
 was unveiled. 
 
 The second vision is that of the opposing 
 forces and the weapons being formed against the 
 people of God ; and also of the forces for the 
 destruction of the opposing forces. The people 
 were conscious of the weapons formed against 
 them ; but not of the forces for the destruction of 
 those weapons. These were unveiled. 
 
 The third vision is that of a city, and a young 
 man so interested therein that he desired to 
 measure it ; and also of the fact that the new 
 city had no walls, for two reasons ; first, because 
 it is too great to be included by walls, and 
 secondly, because it does not need the defense 
 of walls by reason of the defense of Jehovah. 
 The people were conscious of the city and of its 
 imperfections, but they were not conscious of the
 
 326 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 splendour of the city that is to be. This was un- 
 veiled. 
 
 The fourth vision is that of the adversary ; 
 and also of the Advocate. The people were 
 conscious of the adversary ; but they were 
 not conscious of the Advocate. He was un- 
 veiled. 
 
 The fifth vision is that of responsibility, the 
 candlestick and the light shining in the dark 
 places ; and also a vision of resource, the oil and 
 the perpetual supply. The people were con- 
 scious of the responsibility, but not of the resource. 
 That was unveiled. 
 
 The sixth vision is that of the presence of evil ; 
 and also of the practice and application of law. 
 The people were conscious of the presence of 
 evil ; but not of the administration of law. That 
 was unveiled. 
 
 The seventh vision is that of the pollution of 
 commerce ; and also of the restriction of the area 
 of its influence. The people were conscious of 
 the pollution ; but not of the restriction. That 
 was unveiled. 
 
 The eighth vision is that of the need of ad- 
 ministration ; and also of the spirit of govern- 
 ment, the horsemen from the mountains of brass
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 327 
 
 riding through the world for the establishment 
 of order. The people were conscious of the 
 need of administration ; but were not conscious 
 of the spirit of government. That was unveiled. 
 
 Thus, under all circumstances, the prophet was 
 conscious of the presence and activity of Jehovah 
 of hosts. Jehovah the becoming One, the One 
 Who becomes exactly what His people need in 
 any and every hour of need. Are they in the 
 shady place ? He is the Watcher. Are weapons 
 being formed against them ? He is the destruc- 
 tive force that breaks the weapons. Is the new 
 city being built ? He is its defense. Is the ad- 
 versary unmasked ? He is the Advocate. Is the 
 responsibility heavy ? He is sufficient resource. 
 Is evil present everywhere ? He gives the law 
 to which evil must bow. Is commerce polluted ? 
 He restricts the area. Is there need of adminis- 
 tration ? He sends forth riders upon horses from 
 mountains of brass. This man in the midst of 
 the difficulty, disappointment, and desolation of 
 his day, saw Jehovah everywhere. 
 
 The oracles teach the same lesson. The 
 anointed King is rejected, but the book does not 
 end with that story. The rejected King is en- 
 throned by the pervasive power of Jehovah.
 
 328 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 The persistent purpose of Jehovah is illus- 
 trated by the same visions and oracles. This is 
 seen when they are considered, not in separation, 
 but in sequence. Here I am compelled to touch 
 upon controversial ground in the matter of inter- 
 pretation. I hold that the vision of the myrtle 
 trees is the vision of the present hour, so far as 
 Israel is concerned, and that all the succeeding 
 visions are yet unfulfilled. Israel has been in the 
 shady place for over two millenniums. During 
 all the period the Watcher is with her. Beyond 
 the day of adversity, the day of trouble, will 
 come the hour when Israel's enemies will be de- 
 feated. Then Jerusalem will be rebuilt Israel, 
 as the servant of God, will be cleansed from filthi- 
 ness. Then she will fulfill her function in the 
 world as the great light-bearer. Under those 
 conditions the law will go forth from Jerusalem 
 for the government of the world. Then Babylon 
 will be held in check. Finally the Kingdom of 
 Heaven will be established on earth, when the 
 riders upon horses will proceed from the moun- 
 tains of brass, and in the power of the Spirit en- 
 compass the world. 
 
 All this reveals the persistent purpose of Jeho- 
 vah, whereby, in spite of human failure, and all
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 329 
 
 opposition of men or demons, He moves on 
 towards the final goal. 
 
 The same principle is illustrated by the oracles. 
 The Advent of rejection prepares for the Advent 
 of coronation. The Advent of coronation per- 
 fects the Advent of rejection. 
 
 This prophecy, then, reveals the true attitude 
 and activity of the people of God in days of dark- 
 ness and of difficulty. 
 
 " Thus saith Jehovah of hosts." 
 
 What is the attitude of the people of God in 
 the presence of that declaration ? That of atten- 
 tion. 
 
 "Return unto Me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will re- 
 turn unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts." 
 
 What is the attitude of the people of God in 
 the presence of that promise? To believe it, 
 obey it, and work in the power of it. 
 
 The great burden of the prophet to the men of 
 his own age was that they were to build the house 
 of God even though it was a day of darkness and 
 disappointment ; that they were to abolish their 
 fasts by removing the cause for them, to have 
 done with them by getting rid of the sin which 
 occasioned them.
 
 330 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 However diversified our opinions may be as 
 to the interpretation of the details of this book, 
 its spirit speaks with no uncertain sound. 
 
 There can be no mistaking its living message. 
 If the final charge of Haggai is " Be strong . . . 
 and work," the supreme message of Zechariah is 
 its revelation of the secret of strength. 
 
 When Paul was feeling the difficulties and dis- 
 couragements of the Christian ministry, he wrote, 
 
 " We faint not; but though our outward man is decay- 
 ing, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our 
 light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us 
 more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory ; 
 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the 
 things which are not seen : for the things which are seen are 
 temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal. ' ' 
 
 That is the message of Zechariah in New Tes- 
 tament terms. 
 
 " While we look not at the things which are 
 seen." Haggai said, " Be strong . . . and 
 work." Zechariah said, You will only be strong 
 as you see the things that are not seen, the 
 heavenly visions, and hear the things that are 
 never heard, the heavenly voices. While we look 
 at, and while we listen to the unseen things and 
 the unheard things, we do our best work.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 331 
 
 The proof of vision is strength. You tell me 
 these days are dark days. So they are. But let 
 us look not only at the things seen, but also at 
 the things unseen. See the shady place if you 
 will, but see also the angel of Jehovah watching. 
 See clearly the horns that are being prepared 
 for the destruction of the purposes of God, but 
 see also the smiths that will destroy the horns. 
 See the unseen. The secret of strength is vision. 
 The proof of vision is strength. If men declare 
 that they see these things and believe these 
 things, and still do nothing, I cannot believe 
 what they declare. Their sight is borrowed 
 sight. They have been looking at a picture and 
 not at the living fact. The man who sees the 
 unseen is the man who grips the seen and 
 masters it. The man who is conscious through 
 all the appalling defeat of the hour, of the imme- 
 diate, pervasive presence and power of God, is 
 the man who gets hold of the piece of desolation 
 nearest to him, and wrestles with it until it 
 blossoms like the rose. The demonstration of 
 vision is the strength with which men take hold 
 of the difficulty of the present hour. I turn once 
 again to the New Testament for the word which 
 reveals the thought that was in the heart of the
 
 332 THE MESSAGE OF ZECHARIAH 
 
 prophet, and which inspired him as he saw the 
 visions fulfilled. 
 
 " Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the 
 palsied knees ; and make straight paths for your feet, that 
 that which is lame be not turned out of the way, but 
 rather be healed." 
 
 I am very much afraid that there are those 
 who think it to be a sign of true sanctification to 
 have hands hanging down, and palsied knees ; 
 that the measure of sanctification is the measure 
 of pessimism; that the measure in which men 
 are really spiritual is the measure in which they 
 waste their breath deploring the difficulties of 
 the hour. 
 
 Though there be darkness to-day, if we see 
 Jehovah, know His Presence, and fall in line with 
 His power, it is ours to be sure of the consumma- 
 tion, and to hasten it To see God here and now, 
 and to fall in line with Him, is to be perfectly 
 certain that presently when the Rejected is the 
 Crowned, we shall share in the triumph, as we 
 have shared in the travail
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 THE PERMANENT VALUES 
 
 B 
 THE LIVING MESSAGE 
 
 I. A Revelation of the unfailing Love of Jehovah 
 
 i. The Constancy of Love. 
 
 a. The opening Statement, i. 2a. 
 
 b. The Persistence. 
 
 ii. The Consciousness of Love, 
 iii. The Courage of Love. 
 
 II. A Revelation of human Failure 
 
 i. The Secret. 
 
 Failure of all Motives other than Love to 
 
 maintain true Relationships to God. 
 ii. The Manifestation. 
 
 The Death of Love issuing in Callousness, 
 iii. The Issue of Failure. 
 
 The Worthlessness of Form without Power. 
 
 III. A Revelation of the Secrets of Strength in an Age 
 
 of Failure 
 
 i. Values. " The Name " thought upon, 
 
 ii. Occupation. Fellowship. 
 
 iii. Hope. The coming One. 
 
 I. The Present Position of 
 Christendom por- 
 trayed in Malachi 
 
 The Difference between 
 the Church and Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 II. The final Message is the 
 same 
 
 The coming One, as a 
 Sun. 
 Healing. 
 Burning. 
 
 HI. Our Attitude towards 
 that Word the su- 
 preme Test of our 
 Position
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 THIS is the last of the prophetic utter- 
 ances before the coming of the Messiah. 
 There can be no doubt that the message 
 of Malachi must be interpreted in the light of the 
 work of Nehemiah. While it is true that in the 
 book of Nehemiah, Malachi is never mentioned, 
 it is quite evident that the conditions revealed in 
 that book were practically the same as those 
 with which Malachi had to deal. Let us turn 
 back to the book of Nehemiah in order that we 
 may compare three passages therefrom with 
 three from Malachi. 
 
 Nehemiah xiii. 29. 
 
 " Remember them, O my God, because they have 
 defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, 
 and the Levites." 
 
 Malachi ii. 8. 
 
 " Ye are turned aside out of the way ; ye have caused 
 many to stumble in the law ; ye have corrupted the cove- 
 nant of Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts." 
 
 Nehemiah xiii. 23-25. 
 
 " In those days also saw I the Jews that had married 
 women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab : and their 
 
 335
 
 336 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not 
 speak in the Jews' language, but according to the lan- 
 guage of each people. And I contended with them, and 
 cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off 
 their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall 
 not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their 
 daughters for your sons, or for yourselves." 
 
 Malachi ii. u, 12. 
 
 "Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination 
 is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem ; for Judah hath 
 profaned the holiness of the Lord which He loveth, and 
 hath married the daughter of a strange God. The Lord 
 will cut off to the man that doeth this him that waketh and 
 him that answereth, out of the tents of Jacob, and him 
 that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts." 
 
 Nehemiah xiii. 10, na. 
 
 " I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not 
 been given them j so that the Levites and the singers that 
 did the work, were fled every one to his field. Then con- 
 tended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of 
 God forsaken ? " 
 
 Malachi Hi. 8-10. 
 
 " Will a man rob God ? yet ye rob Me. But ye say, 
 Wherein have we robbed Thee ? In tithes and offerings. 
 Ye are cursed with the curse ; for ye rob Me, even this 
 whole nation. Bring ye the whole tithe into the store- 
 house, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove 
 Me now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open 
 the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that 
 there shall not be room enough to receive it." 
 
 The reading of these passages is quite suffi- 
 cient to show that the general conditions de- 
 scribed at the close of the book of Nehemiah
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 337 
 
 were identical with the conditions to which Mal- 
 achi's message was addressed. Nehemiah de- 
 plored the denied and corrupted priesthood. 
 Malachi's central charge was that the priesthood 
 had corrupted the covenant. Nehemiah dealt 
 with the mixed marriages and the evil resulting 
 therefrom. Malachi's message was directed 
 against the same evil which was cursing the 
 people. Nehemiah charged the people with 
 neglecting to bring the tithe into the store-i 
 house and so making it necessary for the Levites 
 to turn from the service of the house of God to 
 earn their own living upon the soil. Malachi 
 uttered a complaint in the presence of the same 
 neglect, there being a deeper spiritual note in 
 his word, in that he recognized the spiritual fail- 
 ure involved in the material which Nehemiah 
 deplored, and against which he made his protest 
 Most probably as Malachi is not mentioned by 
 Ezra or Nehemiah, he followed closely, but was 
 not contemporary with these men. He found 
 the conditions described on the last page of 
 inspired history aggravated rather than removed 
 when he began to exercise his ministry. 
 
 It is very important that we should get into 
 the atmosphere of this prophecy ; and the con-
 
 338 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 dition of things generally will be best under- 
 stood by going back over the history of about 
 a hundred years. About 536 B. C. there had 
 been a return from Babylon under Zerubbabel. 
 A year later the foundation of the temple was 
 laid. The work was soon abandoned. Fifteen 
 years later Haggai and Zechariah delivered their 
 messages, and as a result the building of the 
 temple was resumed. Four or five years later 
 the temple was finished, in the year 575 B. C. 
 In 458, Ezra went up to Jerusalem with a letter 
 from Artaxerxes. In 445 Nehemiah went up to 
 Jerusalem, and accomplished his work. Thus 
 the coming of Nehemiah to Jerusalem was about 
 ninety years subsequent to the return from 
 Babylon. Malachi prophesied in all probability 
 about one hundred years later than that return, 
 and so about ten years later than the period of 
 Nehemiah. 
 
 It would seem as though the special evils 
 which Ezra and Nehemiah set themselves to 
 combat still existed, side by side with correct 
 outward observance. The people are seen re- 
 stored to Jerusalem, their temple built, the serv- 
 ices of the temple observed, both special fasts 
 and feasts, and regular seasons of worship.
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 339 
 
 The condition of the people is revealed by a 
 question repeated seven times in the course of 
 the book. 
 
 " Wherein hast Thou loved us? " 
 
 " Wherein have we despised Thy name? " 
 
 " Wherein have we polluted Thee? " 
 
 " Wherein have we wearied Him ? " 
 
 " Wherein shall we return ? " 
 
 " Wherein have we robbed Thee? " 
 
 " Wherein have we spoken against Thee ? " 
 
 Malachi charged the people with seven sins, 
 and in reply they said "Wherein?" They did 
 not admit that they had failed, as he declared 
 they had. 
 
 The prophecy reveals a sensitive God, and a 
 stultified people. Malachi declared the sensi- 
 tiveness of Jehovah, and charged the people 
 with lack of sensitiveness, hardness, callousness. 
 The people were not conscious of their own 
 shortcoming. They imagined they were per- 
 fectly satisfying the Divine heart, and fulfilling 
 the Divine requirement. The book presents the 
 picture of a people having a form, while they are 
 devoid of power; fulfilling all the external re- 
 quirements of religion, but being utterly without 
 the internal experience ; maintaining the sacra- 
 mental symbols, while destitute of the spiritual
 
 340 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 grace of which those symbols should be the 
 sign. It should be remembered that this mes- 
 sage was delivered not to Judah, and not to 
 Israel, if by Israel we mean the Northern king- 
 dom. The burden of the word of the Lord was 
 to Israel. Malachi spoke not to the ten tribes 
 or to the two ; not to the North, or to the South, 
 as in separation from each other, but to the 
 whole nation. When these people had re- 
 turned from Babylon under Zerubbabel, and 
 when later another contingent had returned in 
 the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the returning 
 remnants were made up of members of all the 
 tribes. 
 
 In the last book of the inspired history of these 
 people, the book of Nehemiah, we saw them 
 without a king, without a priest, and without 
 prophet ; and moreover, without any Messianic 
 hope. To people in that condition Malachi de- 
 livered his message. As the book of Nehemiah 
 was the last page of inspired history, the book 
 of Malachi is the last page of inspired Hebrew 
 prophecy. 
 
 This book is different from those of Haggai 
 and Zechariah. The first business of Haggai 
 was that of inspiring the people to be strong and
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 341 
 
 build the house of God. It was local, practical, 
 immediate, important The business of Zechariah 
 was that of inspiring the people to the selfsame 
 activity ; but also that of leading them to look at 
 things unseen. The master thought of Malachi 
 is that of fellowship with God. He had to deal 
 with a people whose glorious history was that of 
 their fellowship with Jehovah, whose shameful 
 history was that of their infidelity to that fellow- 
 ship. If that be recognized, we shall find the 
 threefold permanent value of this book. 
 
 It is first, a revelation of the unfailing love of 
 Jehovah. It is secondly, a revelation of human 
 infidelity. It is finally, a revelation of the secrets 
 of strength in an age of failure. Let us take 
 these in order. 
 
 First, its revelation of the unfailing love of 
 Jehovah. If we read this prophecy, listening for 
 the master tone of it, we shall find it to be that of 
 love, the love of God. Its opening words are al- 
 most startling, 
 
 "The burden of the word of Jehovah to Israel by 
 Malachi. I have loved you, saith Jehovah." 
 
 That is the whole burden. " I have loved you, 
 saith Jehovah." Our translation does not quite
 
 342 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 convey all the forcefulness of the thought. The 
 tense employed is not exactly the Hebrew tense, 
 nor have we any tense that exactly answers the 
 Hebrew. I do no violence to the declaration 
 that fell from the lips of Malachi if I render it 
 thus, I have loved you, I do love you, I will love 
 you, saith Jehovah. It is a declaration of the 
 continuity of His love. That is the opening 
 statement ; the burden of the book is that of the 
 constancy of the love of God. God sent that 
 message to His people, when the nation was 
 without king, priest, or prophet, when the nation 
 consisted of a remnant satisfied with formality 
 and lacking power, when the spokesmen of the 
 nation answered the prophet by denying his 
 charges, so callous had they become. There was 
 to be no other voice until the herald should an- 
 nounce the Advent of the King. The last mes- 
 sage of Isaiah's thunder had died away. Jere- 
 miah's lamentations were almost forgotten. 
 Malachi, the last prophet, came declaring, " I 
 have loved you, saith Jehovah," and right 
 through the prophecy that is the master note of 
 the music. It rises high above all the other 
 notes. Whether we listen to the thunders of 
 judgment, or to the plaintive complaint, we hear
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 343 
 
 the great love-song of Jehovah. Malachi charged 
 the people with profanity, sacrilege, greed, in- 
 difference ; he charged them with perversion of 
 the moral order, calling good evil and evil good ; 
 he charged them with robbing God in that they 
 did not bring the whole tithe to His altars ; he 
 charged them also with blasphemy, in that they 
 said, There is no value in serving God. These 
 charges reveal in every case the consciousness of 
 love in the presence of sin. It is love that is 
 wounded. The book, therefore, is a revelation of 
 the constancy of love, the consciousness of love, 
 and the courage of love. 
 
 The chief sinfulness of form without power is 
 that it hurts the heart of God. The one master 
 note of the message which God sends to every 
 age of failure is that which affirms the constancy 
 of His love. 
 
 Then, in contrast, we have the revelation of 
 human failure. This prophecy teaches that all 
 motives other than love fail to produce mainte- 
 nance of true relationship to love. It is possible 
 to attend the temple, bend the knee, and make 
 an offering regularly, but unless there is love in 
 the heart there is no communion with God. To 
 go to the temple merely as a matter of duty is to
 
 344 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 blaspheme. To carry offerings to the house of 
 God simply because it is commanded, is to be 
 guilty of sacrilege. There is only one motive 
 sufficiently strong to maintain the relation be- 
 tween the heart of God and the heart of man, 
 and that is love. When these people lost their 
 love for Jehovah, all their religious observances 
 became as tinkling brass and a clanging cymbal, 
 noise without music. 
 
 The death of love issues in callousness. Think 
 how surprising a thing it is, that when the last 
 prophet came with his message, " I have loved 
 you, saith Jehovah," the people answered, 
 "Wherein hast Thou loved us?" That is the 
 inspiration of all sin, and when we consider it, 
 and wonder at it, we have no astonishment at 
 all the other charges which Malachi brought 
 against these people. The hour in which we 
 cease to love God is the hour in which we begin 
 to wonder whether God loves us. Then form is 
 robbed of power, and form without power is not 
 only useless, it is paralysis, blight, mildew ; and 
 when the matchless music of the Divine love is 
 declared by the messenger of love, the formal re- 
 ligionists will say " Wherein ? " 
 
 There is yet another value in this book. It
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 345 
 
 reveals the secrets of strength in an age of 
 failure. 
 
 "Then they that feared the Lord spake one with an- 
 other : and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book 
 of remembrance was written before Him, for them that 
 feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name." 
 
 Here are revealed the secrets of strength in an 
 age of failure ; they " thought upon His name." 
 The Hebrew word translated thought is elsewhere 
 translated regard. When Paul wrote " If there 
 be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think 
 on these things " he used the same Greek word 
 which in the Septuagint version is employed 
 here, they " thought upon His name." Thus the 
 Hebrew word, illuminated by the Greek word, 
 helps us to understand what otherwise might ap- 
 pear a shallow statement. The Greek word 
 means to take an inventory ; they " thought 
 upon His name," that is, they took an inventory 
 of the wealth they had in His name, Jehovah Jireh. 
 Jehovah-nissi. Jehovah-Shalom. Jehovah Tsid- 
 kenu. Jehovah Shammah. These people had 
 nothing left to think of, other than the name. 
 The grandeur of their nation was perished. The 
 prophetic voices were silent. The priests had 
 corrupted the covenant. The kings had passed
 
 346 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 away. All about them was formality devoid of 
 power. But there was left them the real value 
 of life. It was the name. They thought upon 
 His name. " The name of the Lord is a strong 
 tower ; the righteous runneth into it and is set on 
 high." When the king has failed, the priest is 
 corrupted, and the prophet is silent; when the 
 national power has declined and we are bewail- 
 ing the failure of our age, then let us think on 
 the name, take an inventory in the name, count 
 it as our wealth, take time to go over our wealth 
 in order to discover how rich we are. 
 
 Then again they "spake one with another." 
 The word often is omitted in the Revised Ver- 
 sion ; but sometimes it is possible to say less and 
 so to say more. The speaking together may be 
 repeated, but when we say they spoke often we 
 admit times of silence. That is not what the 
 prophet said. He described constant, continu- 
 ous, unbroken fellowship with each other, based 
 on thought centred upon the name of Jehovah. 
 
 This is followed by another unveiling, " The 
 Lord hearkened, and heard." Both these words 
 are pictorial. " Hearkened " is a word suggest- 
 ing the action of a horse at the sound of its 
 master's voice, the pricking of the ears. It is
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 347 
 
 only a figure of speech. The horse is arrested 
 by the voice it knows. " They spake one with 
 another, and the Lord hearkened." " Heard " 
 means bending over patiently listening that no 
 syllable may be missed. When His people 
 spake one with another not when they spoke to 
 Him Jehovah hearkened, and heard. They 
 thought on His name and talked to each other 
 thereof, and He hearkened and heard. God 
 always attends to the conversation of those who 
 are bound together by their loyalty to His name, 
 and their consciousness of the wealth of their 
 possessions in Him. Two or three of His people 
 never meet together to speak of the deep things 
 of His name and all the name means to them, 
 but that He hearkens and hears. 
 
 The final secret is that of hope in the coming 
 One ; in the dawning of that new day which is 
 to have two effects. 
 
 "The day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the 
 proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble : and 
 the day that cometh shall burn them up. ... But 
 unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness 
 arise with healing in His wings." 
 
 That is not two days, but one. When that 
 day comes, and the Sun arises, it will burn or it
 
 348 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 
 
 will heal. It will burn the plant that has no 
 roots and no river resources ; but it will heal the 
 tree planted by the river. 
 
 The present position of Christendom is vividly 
 portrayed by Malachi. Let us draw a very sharp 
 line of distinction between the Church and Chris- 
 tendom. The terms are not synonymous. The 
 Church consists of those who are His own. 
 Christendom is the external appearance in every 
 form. Christendom is characterized by formality 
 devoid of power. Formality is not peculiar to 
 one section of the Church. The form may not 
 be the same. It may be stately ritual, or it may 
 be of the simplest. Formality is the result of a 
 conception that religion consists in external ob- 
 servance. To that condition the message of 
 Malachi is : The day is coming which will be a 
 day of healing, or a day of burning according to 
 the condition of those who come to its dawning. 
 
 What is our attitude towards that day ? That 
 is the supreme test of our position. As the last 
 word of the Old Testament economy was a word 
 declaring the coming of that day, so also is the 
 last word of the New Testament economy. The 
 attitude of men towards that day determines 
 their ultimate relation thereto, and their ultimate
 
 THE MESSAGE OF MALACHI 349 
 
 destiny. Let us live, putting all our trust in the 
 name, in holy and unbroken fellowship with each 
 other around our possessions therein, waiting for 
 the daybreak, that so we may not be ashamed 
 from Him at His coming. 
 
 Printed in th* United States of A meriea,
 
 BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 G. Campbell Morgan: 
 by JOHN HARRIES 
 
 An informative record of the life and activities 
 of a popular preacher, known equally well on 
 both sides of the Atlantic. A copious record of 
 an amazingly full and useful life which, happily, 
 is yet open. Illustrated, $230 
 
 Forty Years on the Labrador 
 by ERNEST HAYES 
 
 This life-story of Sir Wilfred Grenfell has been 
 writttn to meet an obvious need. A consecutive 
 story of Grenfell's life and work, told in brief 
 compass, and arranged so as to show its steady 
 development down to the present time. 
 
 Dan Crawford: 
 
 Missionary and Pioneer in Central Africa 
 by DR. G. E. TILSLEY, F.R.G.S. 
 
 Jean Kenyon Mackenzie says: "Dr. Tilsley, a 
 veteran in African missions, has known how to 
 embody Dan Crawford's extraordinary journals 
 and letters in a rich and fascinating record. Here 
 is the inimitable Dan Crawford speaking in his 
 own deeply moving fashion of the things of 
 Africa." Fully Illustrated, $6 JO 
 
 Doctor Dillard of the Jeanes Fund 
 
 by BENJAMIN BRAWLEY 
 
 Introduction by Anson Phelps Stokes, D.D. 
 
 The life story of a man whose name is a house- 
 hold word in the South. Any study of Dr. 
 Dillard's career must, of necessity, entail a survey 
 of the agencies with which he is so finely asso- 
 ciated. Illustrated, $1.75
 
 BY CHURCH LEADERS 
 
 Some Living Issues 
 
 by ROBERT E. SPEER, DIX 
 
 "As refreshing as a cool breeze on a sultry day. 
 Deals with doctrines essential to the Christian 
 faith in a masterly manner, and is an immense 
 asset to Evangelical Christianity. It should be in 
 the hands of all theological students and Christian 
 ministers and thinking laymen, everywhere." 
 David G. Wylie, D.D., LL.D. J2JO 
 
 The Fellowship of Toil 
 by JOHN MCDOWELL, DJX 
 
 Dr. McDowell enjoys the confidence of organized 
 labor, and for ministers having to address them- 
 selves to labor topics, his book should prove a 
 godsend. $135 
 
 The Challenge of the Changing 
 by MALCOLM J. MacLEOD, D.D. 
 
 A series of stirring addresses in which present-day 
 aspects of society, morals and Christian activities 
 are reviewed and analyzed by a competent and 
 shrewd observer. Dr. MacLeod, moreover, shows 
 the way to more reverence and a deepened knowl- 
 edge of experiences which enrich and satisfy the 
 soul $2.00 
 
 Twilight Reveries 
 fcvCHARLES L. GOODELL, D.D. 
 
 "The messages cover a remarkably wide range of 
 human experience and appeal to all. Many readers 
 will agre that any one of more than half of these 
 addresses is easily worth the price of the book." 
 Monthly Book Talk. flJO
 
 STUDY OF THE BIBLE 
 
 The Categorical Imperatives 
 
 of the Christian Faith 
 
 by G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, DIX 
 
 Dr. Morgan deals with matters of Christian faith 
 and belief that are finally assured and authorita- 
 tive things which constitute that faith and belief 
 from the standpoint of intellectual apprehension 
 and interpretation. $1.25 
 
 The Bible and the Ages 
 
 by BISHOP HORACE M. DU BOSB, D.D. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
 A noteworthy book, marked by strength, adequate 
 scholarship and rare assurance, showing the way 
 to a sound, conservative position regarding the 
 Scriptures. $230 
 
 Notes on the Revelation 
 
 by WILLIAM J. ERDMAN, D.D. 
 
 Edited by Charles R. Erdman, D.D. 
 
 Conclusions attained after protracted study of the 
 Apocalypse, and are presented without any admix- 
 ture of heat, controversy or dogmatism, $1.25 
 
 Studies of the Parables 
 by HENRY T. SELL, DJD. 
 
 "A new study book by Dr. Sell. Invaluable to 
 teachers, speakers, ministers, and for private per- 
 sonal study." Paper, net 50c; Cloth, net 75c 
 
 The Inspiration of the Bible 
 by B. H. CARROLL, D.D. 
 Introduction by George W. Truett, D.D. 
 
 A hitherto unpublished book by a recognized 
 master of Biblical exegesis and interpretation. 
 
 $1.25
 
 EVANGELISTIC WORK 
 
 Twice-Born Ministers 
 
 by SAMUEL M. SHOEMAKER, JR. 
 
 Author of "Children of the Second Birth," etc. 
 "A plea for reality in religion. It is a disturb- 
 ing book. It will cause you to ask yourself if you 
 are giving men and women in sin, sorrow and 
 difficulty the security and joy of a real experience 
 in Christ." Baptist Standard. $130 
 
 Out of the Depthg 
 
 by ENSIGN CLARENCE W. HALL of the 
 
 Salvation Army 
 
 Foreword by Commander Evangeline Booth 
 
 Is the day of miracles past? Must we, forever, 
 be pointing to ages long agone for verification 
 of our faith? Is Christianity grown impotent 
 with age? This story of the redemptive work of 
 Henry J. Milan offers a ringing negative to these 
 searching questions. $130. 
 
 The Directed Survey and 
 
 Visitation Evangelism 
 
 by A. EARL KERNAHAN, DJX 
 
 The competent director of Visitation evangelistic 
 campaigns, here adds an exceptionally useful and 
 informative manual needed in the conduct of a 
 surveypreparatorytoacampaign. Illustrated, 
 
 Sheep of the Outer Fold 
 by FLORENCE H. TOWNE 
 
 "Human interest stories of the work of a neigh- 
 borhood house stories that pull the heart strings. 
 Stories from life for use in religious education 
 proving the practical, transforming power of the 
 gospel of love." Presbyterian Advance. $1JOO
 
 ESSAYS AND REFLECTIONS 
 
 The Charm of Trees 
 
 by THOMAS F. DAVIES, D.D. 
 
 "Bishop Davies draws liberally from his extensive 
 store of the literary. His book is an interesting 
 bypath leading to Bishop Davies' personal philos- 
 ophy of life; a bypath which takes one through 
 fragrant woodlands, over lush meadows and be- 
 side the peaceful shores of lake and stream." 
 Springfield Union. Illustrated, SI JO 
 
 For Average Christians 
 
 by HAROLD B. SHEPHEARD, MA. 
 
 The problems of personal wealth, privilege, com- 
 petition and kindred characteristics of the present 
 age and the religion of Jesus. A thoughtful, stim- 
 ulating book, exhibiting much fresh and sugges- 
 tive thinking on the part of its author. $135 
 
 The Radiant Life 
 
 by JOHN S. BUNTING 
 
 Introduction by Joseph Fort Newton, DJD. 
 
 A book which, as Dr. Newton says, "is wise with 
 a wisdom that is gentle, and overbrooded by a 
 spirit of serenity." Throughout the author is con- 
 cerned with the factors which minister to the 
 heart and feed the springs of the spiritual life. 
 
 $130 
 
 Trie Spirit of Piney Woods 
 by LAURENCE C. TONES 
 
 Addresses delivered by Principal Jones to the 
 students of Piney Woods School. Although brief, 
 they are eminently practical in character and ex- 
 hibit throughout an authentic common sense.
 
 BIBLE CHARACTERS 
 
 Parallel Lives of the Old 
 
 and New Testament 
 
 by CLARENCE E. MACARTNEY, D&. 
 
 "Some twenty-six of the great heroes of the 
 Church, including Augustine, Savonarola, John 
 Huss, Calvin, Knox, Arminius, George Muller 
 and Dwight L. Moody portrayed in brief, well- 
 written, carefully balanced sketches." Sunday 
 School Times. $1.75 
 
 CHURCH HISTORY 
 
 The Beacon Lights of Faith 
 by C. F. WTMBERLEY, D.D. 
 
 Twenty-eight studies: The Early Fathers; Wyclif ; 
 Cranmer; Latimer; Luther; Calvin; the French 
 Huguenots; Knox; Bunyan; Wesley; Edwards; 
 Wesley; Livingstone; Asbury; Booth, etc., etc. 
 
 $130 
 
 The Church of the Living God: 
 
 A Study in Church History 
 
 by WM. ROBERT POLHAMUS, S.T.D. 
 
 An excellent survey which, in addition to being 
 an admirably sketched record of the Christian 
 Church and centuries, throbs with human life and 
 interest. $1.50 
 
 Chapters in Church History 
 by JOHN W. WAYLAND, Ph.D. 
 
 Specially prepared as a textbook for classes taking 
 a brief course in the history of the Christian 
 Church, for individual students (Sunday school 
 teachers and others) and for the general reader.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 I UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 R 
 
 1989 
 
 RE?DNOV301989 
 RET'D DEC 2 01989 
 
 ETD JAN 2 5 1990*5 
 
 CHECKED IN JW 25 '90 1 
 
 IOOM 11/86 Serin 9482 
 
 27
 
 II I I I I II. 
 
 3 1205 00849 5457 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000 994 701 1