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.