Chapter XXXII: Part 32

1. _Christianity promotes wisdom._ (1.) The God whom the Bible reveals is the fit object of reverence and love. It reveals the Divine attributes in forms the most fitted to fill the soul with solemn awe and reverence. It ascribes to Him eternal and unchangeable love, and reveals that love in forms of ineffable grace and mercy. It does not efface any of the more awful attributes of Godhead, or merge them in a perverted view of the parental relation; nor does it degrade His more amiable attributes into the tenderness, or rather weakness, which loses sight of the criminal's guilt in the consideration of his misery--the world's conception of the Divine! _That_ character, however, is not enough to rekindle the flame of piety in a fallen world (James ii. 19). But (2.) Christianity provides, in the great facts through which it conveys the knowledge of God, the means of reducing men to contrition and restoring them to hope. The Gospel is adapted to convert the soul. How? In its adaptation the element of hope occupies no mean place. Any scheme of regeneration must contain a provision of mercy. By its mode of opening the door of hope; it impresses sinfulness on the mind; it moves to repentance, and inspires obedience on the ground of conscious obligation to Divine grace. The tendency of the doctrine of the cross is no doubtful matter (Rom. i. 16).

2. _Christianity promotes knowledge._ It points out the only true way to the knowledge of God; but further it promotes general knowledge. (1.) Revealing God, it makes known the highest truths; and, making known the highest truths, it promotes and facilitates inquiry into every other. The uncovered heavens reflect their light on all earthly things. (2.) By the healing power which it applies to the heart and conscience, it fits the soul for vigorous and healthful action. The Christian can have no reason to dread the advances of knowledge--he may tremble for the temporary evils resulting from philosophy, falsely so called.[4]

+II. By promoting wisdom and knowledge, Christianity establishes a people.+

1. _It purifies and elevates society._ (1.) It is an acknowledged fact that the Gospel makes man unfit for a state of slavery. It may teach submission to the bond, but it will create a moral influence whose fire will melt his chains. (2.) The Gospel civilises the savage. It produces dissatisfaction with his abjectness, and creates the desire and imparts the means of rising in the scale of intelligence.

2. _If Christianity thus elevates, how much more will it establish!_ If it imparts life, how much more will it maintain it! But what are the means of the stability of a nation? (1.) _Religion._ This is the foundation of all others. An irreligious and wicked nation has the elements of misery and dissolution within itself; a righteous nation, like a righteous individual, may be afflicted, but, as in the one case, so in the other, "all things work together for good." Knowledge has an indirect influence. Galileo could sacrifice truth and honour to escape imprisonment; the tale of Bacon's moral weaknesses is a humbling page of human history; but the diffusion of knowledge tends to correct a taste for low and sensual habits. (2.) _Virtue._ Religion produces the best morals; here the connection is direct and immediate. The Gospel provides an authoritative principle--wanting elsewhere--which responds to its moral precepts, and renders it a matter of moral necessity to give a ready and cheerful obedience. (3.) _Freedom._ The foundation of this is in the virtue which Christianity creates and promotes. If the ark of God were in danger, we might well tremble for the ark of liberty; religious degeneracy endangers the existence of freedom. (4.) _Good order._ This follows, as the natural and necessary consequence from the promotion of virtue and freedom.

CONCLUSION.--British society, with all its boasted civilisation, is only in a state of childhood; it speaks as a child and it acts as a child. We expect better days, not as the result of a natural and inherent tendency to progress and improvement, but as the result of the operation of Divine principles implanted in the midst of us, under the blessing of a favourable Providence. That we may put forth our strength to accomplish this change, we must have an adequate impression of existing evils and of our obligation to apply a remedy. Christianity is the lever by which we can raise man (Eph. v. 14).--_John Kennedy, D.D.: Weekly Christian Teacher,_ vol. iii. pp. 769-764, 777-781.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] What connection is there between the knowledge of mechanics
and morality? What moral duty have you impressed on the
conscience when you have taught a man to make a table? So
with the knowledge of numbers, or of language, whether
ancient or modern. In none of these sciences is there any
principle that can connect itself with moral
feeling.--_Watson._

[2] The Gospel was first preached, beyond the limits of the
Jewish church, to a very refined, but to a very immoral
people. Even with what they had learned from tradition, the
wisest among them--I may not even except Socrates--could
contemplate with perfect indifference, and even practise,
the most abominable vices. The same results are found in
our own day. Wherever infidelity prevails, we witness the
decay and destruction of moral principle. We find, perhaps,
some exceptions in Christian countries; but let us see how
they are produced, and we shall find that they prove the
rule. They proceed from awe of public opinion; from a
feeling of shame with regard to personal honour and
character. But what provides that standard whose elevated
purity men thus practically acknowledge, even while they
reject its source? It is this book, it is the faithful
preaching of the Gospel, which so keeps up the standard of
public opinion that even infidels are obliged to
acknowledge its authority. Even among our peasants who have
been carefully instructed in religious truth--men without a
single ray of science--we find the practice of all the
Christian virtues; whilst, too often, we see the brightest
beams of human philosophy gliding and giving splendour to
baseness and corruption.--_Watson._

[3] Along with the truth of God there goes an accompanying
influence. The words that are spoken to you are "spirit and
life:" this is because the illuminations of the Holy Ghost
go along with them. We may not overlook the fallen state of
man; he is dead in trespasses and sins. The very law is
weak through the flesh; it gives direction, but it cannot
give life. The Spirit must convince man of sin and
righteousness; and if He be removed, the Agent is taken
away by whom only our moral renovation can be effected.
Now, this blessed, this mighty Spirit only works on our
hearts in connection with His own revealed truth; it is not
with human science that He works for the amendment of our
principles and tempers.--_Watson._

[4] I fear it is incontrovertible that what is denominated
poetic literature, the great school in which taste acquires
its laws and refined perceptions, and in which are formed,
much more than under any higher, austerer discipline, the
moral sentiments, is, for the far greater part, hostile to
the religion of Christ; partly by introducing insensibly a
certain order of opinions unconsonant, or, at least, not
identical with the principles of that religion, and still
more by training the feelings to a habit alien from its
spirit. And in this assertion I do not refer to writers
palpably irreligious, who have laboured and intended to
seduce the passions into vice, or the judgment into the
rejection of Divine truth, but to the general community of
those elegant and ingenious authors who are read and
admired by the Christian world, held essential to a liberal
education, and to the progressive accomplishment of the
mind in subsequent life, and studied often without an
apprehension, or even a thought, of their injuring the
views and temper of spirits advancing, with the New
Testament for their chief instructor and guide, into
another world.--_John Foster._

GOD AVENGING HIS OWN ELECT.

xxxiii. 7-12. _Behold, their valiant ones shall cry
without, &c._

I. A PICTURE OF DESOLATION.

The picture has two distinct points of interest--1. _Man_ (ver. 7). Desolation receives nowhere so strong and pathetic expression as in the strong cries and tears of a man. The purer and nobler the man, so much the more affecting is it to hear his despairing cry and look upon his tears. The child cannot bear to see his father weep, because his father is to him the ideal man. Eliakim's grief, on returning from the interview with Rabshakeh, would be more grievous to Hezekiah than Shebna's. Peter's repentant tears were bitter; but by the cry of the Christ, _"Eloi! lama sabathani?"_ and His tears at the grave of Lazarus, we are much more affected. 2. _Nature_ (vers. 8, 9). The world is partly bright and beautiful, because noble men of God dwell in it; Nature reflects and interprets man. The Assyrian invader weighed heavily on Jewish hearts (xxxvi. 22, xxxvii. 1) and the Jewish land.

II. THE REDRESSER OF WRONG.

"Now will I rise, saith the Lord," &c. 1. _God rules the world in the interests of His people._ "Now will _I_ rise." Democrats are fond of saying, "The Queen may reign, but she does not govern;" but the reins of government are firmly held by the great I AM. 2. _God's interposition comes at the right moment:_ "_Now_ will I rise." Man's extremity is often God's opportunity; because not until his case is desperate, will he cast himself unreservedly upon God. So man often retards the arrival of the right moment. Meanwhile the innocent (comparatively) suffer for the guilty; the good for the bad, the just for the unjust. If it is the teaching of Scripture that God's people are "the salt of the earth," preserving it from destruction, it is no less the doctrine of the Bible that untold sorrows are to the righteous because they dwell on the earth with the wicked. The Isaiahs and Hezekiahs of the world feel something of the weight of the world's sin. But there is always a "thus far and no farther." "_Now_ will I rise, saith the Lord."

III. THE DESOLATOR DESOLATED.

_Cf._ Luke xviii. 8; Isa. xlii. 1. The greater wickedness is employed by God to be the scourge of the less, until its own time comes to be scattered as chaff, and destroyed as fire destroys (vers. 11, 12). To one whose "eyes are in his head," it is sad to hear the ambassador of Sennacherib saying, "The Lord said unto me, Go up against this land and destroy it." In the midst of this judgment of God--in which the righteous suffer most--meted out instrumentally by wicked hands, we do well to remember the words of Christ: "Knowest thou not, said Pilate to Him, that I have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above."

Note that where the avenging is pictured in this passage, the two sides spoken of in the former part of it--men and nature--are summed up in the terrible destruction of the _human._ So terrible is this, that a burning world is lost sight of! The first picture of desolation is as nothing to the second; and the woe is seen to reach its intensity in this regard.--_J. Macrae Simcock._

A BLESSED LIFE.

xxxiii. 15-17. _He that walketh righteously, &c._

This is a gleam of bright sunshine after a heavy storm. It describes a truly happy, holy life, such as we may all attain, and may all well desire to be ours.

1. It is _a gracious life._ This is not especially mentioned here. We have only what is outward and visible described. But this always implies an inward hidden life. When we see such a great, green, spreading, fruitful tree of righteousness as this, we may always assuredly conclude that, deep in the heart out of sight, there must be a great, strong, living Lebanon-root of faith and love (Tit. ii. 12). This is the secret or source of all that follows (H. E. I. 2840, 2841, 4092-4095).

2. It is _an upright life._ "He that walketh righteously." A man's "walk" is his whole conduct in all the positions and relations in which he stands. _All_ that this man does is conformed to the law of God and the example of Christ (Luke i. 6). "He speaketh uprightly." Most important (Jas. iii. 2, i. 26; P. D. 3384, 3394). "He despiseth the gain of oppressions." He will not take advantage of his neighbour's distress; will not be hard upon him when his back is at the wall; will not abuse his ignorance or simplicity by charging more than a commodity is worth. "He shaketh his hands from holding of bribes." He abhors such temptations. Judas, from an awakened conscience, horror-struck at what he had done, cast the blood-money which he had received on the ground; but this man, from a clear, enlightened conscience, at peace with God, casts from him all that would offend the Lord. "He stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood." There is a killing of character by slander and insinuation, but he will have none of it (P. D. 3108). "He shutteth his eyes from seeing evil." He is like God; he _cannot_ look upon sin. He hates it; can find no amusement in it; knows its tendency and its fearful end. Through the unguarded eye comes ruin (Josh. vii. 21; 2 Sam. xi. 2). Pictures and descriptions of evil often destroy. Have we not here a beautiful, noble character? and yet this is what believing in Christ and walking in His footsteps will always produce. But there must be the root, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, else the outward life, however fair and seemly, will be only a make-believe, a wretched caricature, that will break down in the time of trial, and be rejected in the day of the Lord.

3. It is _a heavenly life._ "He shall dwell on high." His heart is set on things above (Eph. ii. 5, 6; Col. iii. 1-3; Phil. iii. 20). He has already come to Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; he really dwells on high (H. E. I. 2766-2779).

4. It is _a safe life._ His real all is above, beyond the reach of chance and change. He is still beset by foes, but he is safe. "His place of defence is the munitions of rocks" (Ps. xviii. 2, 3, &c.)

5. It is _a well-supplied life._ "His bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure" (Ps. xxxiv. 10). But man needs more than bread to eat and raiment to put on; like the Master, the servant has meat to eat of which the world knows not (Ps. iv. 6, 7, liii. 5, 6). He has growing light, increasing life, fuller assurance, and fresh Ebenezers from day to day.

6. It is _a hopeful life._ "Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty." There is a blessed beginning of the fulfilment of this promise now (John xiv. 21-23; H. E. I. 974, 975). "They shall behold the land that is very far off." To Christ's friends things to come are revealed by the Holy Ghost. They see Jesus, already crowned with glory and honour, and fairer than the sons of men. Like the patriarchs, they see the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Like Moses, they gaze the landscape over and gird their loins; they take courage and press on (H. E. I. 2771-2779).

Such a life leads to a blessed death. The two go together. We cannot have the one without the other. Balaam thought he could, but it was in vain. Such a life prepares for a happy meeting with the Lord, if He should come while we are still present on the earth (Matt. xxiv. 46).--_John Milne: Gatherings from a Ministry,_ pp. 325-331.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE SERVANT OF GOD.

xxxiii. 16. _He shall dwell on high: his place of defence
shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him,
his water shall be sure._

This is part of the answer to the question proposed in ver. 14. The overthrow of Asshur has been predicted; but the judgment of Asshur is a lesson for Israel as well as for the heathens. For the sinners in Jerusalem, there is no abiding in the presence of the Almighty. They must repent. "God is a consuming fire." His furnace was in Jerusalem. Therefore they inquire, "Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?"

The prophet answers their question in ver. 15. It is the description of a God-fearing man from the Old Testament point of view. Because of the predominating religion of his heart, he avoids the sins of his times. A Christian, in like manner, renounces sin, and, so far as the world's principles and practices are sinful, sets himself against the world. Instead of being afraid of the Divine anger, as sinners and hypocrites are, he dwells in blessed security, with God for his Friend (ver. 16). Three things distinguish him from the unbelieving world: elevation, provision, and security.

I. ELEVATION. "He shall dwell on high." Leaving out of view the temporal advantages that sometimes accrue from true religion as being only incidental, let us look at the elevation it secures with regard to--1. _Thought._ Christianity directs the mind to the most elevated themes, fosters the habit of thought upon them, and through them refines and elevates the mind itself. When a man is converted he generally becomes interested in topics beyond the requirements of daily life. Mind is awakened. Mental activity is required. In any number of uneducated men, some Christians and some not, the Christian section will probably be the more intelligent and thoughtful. If an educated man is converted, the influence is equally marked. His previous attainments remain, and his mind receives a new impetus from the world of spiritual thought now discovered. He thinks of God, Christ, redemption, holy influences on men from on high, the invisible, heaven, eternity. The mind cannot fail to be uplifted by contact with such themes as these. 2. _Character._ Doubtless much excellence exists among men apart for personal religion. The civil, social, and commercial virtues are often exemplified by men who make no pretension to religion. Even in these respects the best man without it would be better with it. But we must rise higher. Men never rise above their ideal. The ideal of a man without religion does not rise above his obligations to man; but the ideal of a man in Christ is to be like Christ. It comprehends all dispositions, sympathies, duties that either look Godward or manward. It is not yet realised; but the entertaining and striving towards it will lift him to a loftier moral attitude than if his ideal were lower; when all allowance has been made for human imperfection, it remains true that the Christian is, "the highest style of man." 3. _Relationship._ Believers are closely connected with Christ, their Saviour, their Head, their Elder Brother. They are "united to Him," "in Him." Terms are employed that give the idea, not, indeed, of personal identity, but of such close relationship that whatever concerns Him concerns them, and whatever glorification He attains they are to share. Through Him they are "the children of God," and heirs of the celestial inheritance. Is it possible for relationship to be loftier? 4. _Companionship._ The man is known by his chosen associates. The young man that keeps low company makes it plain that his tastes are low. Fine natures can only enjoy congenial society. When a man becomes a Christian, he seeks the society of Christians. And not only are his human companionships superior to those he previously courted, he enjoys a Divine companionship which is the supremest dignity. "Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." Is it not dwelling "on high" to have free access at all times to the King of kings? 5. _Influence._ God has made us kings of men. The time is coming when the principles we hold shall, by our means, pervade the mass of humanity. Already, in a thousand quiet ways, in families, in schools, in churches, in populations, the influence of individual Christian men is felt to be good and gracious as far as it extends. Christian fathers and mothers will live in the recollection of their children and their children's children when the memory of the wicked shall rot (H. E. I. 1089-1095). 6. _Destiny._ He is to be crowned and enthroned in the abiding glory. "He shall dwell on high" (H. E. I. 1073-1076, 1106, 1112-1119).

II. PROVISION. "Bread shall be given him, his water shall be sure." His wants shall be supplied in his elevation. All necessary temporal supplies and spiritual provision. Christ the bread of life.

III. SECURITY. "His place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks." There is an enemy who would gladly attack and overcome him; but he has retired to a place of perfect safety. Inaccessible to the adversary. Will endeavour to dislodge you by various means; such as: 1. _Temptation,_ which assumes many forms. Grows out of everything. Keep before you the lofty ideal; constant effort, watchfulness, government of thought and desires, Divine aid. 2. _Trouble._ It becomes temptation. It tries faith. Cry to God. 3. _Death._ It is the last enemy. Christ, our defence, will triumph.

What a privilege to be a Christian! For what would you exchange it? Not the world's sins, pleasures, possessions.--_J. Rawlinson._

THE PROSPECT OF THE GODLY.

xxxiii. 17. _Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall
behold the land that is very far off._

The literal application of this prophecy is generally supposed to have reference to the deliverance of the Jews from the Assyrian army. They would then have the joy of seeing Hezekiah in his goodly apparel, and, freed from the presence of the invader, would be left at liberty to enjoy their own pleasant and goodly land. The deliverance was accomplished (2 Chron. xxxii. 21). But there is another application of the text--to the beatific vision of the King of kings in the heavenly land. Let us then consider--

I. THE GLORIOUS PROSPECT BEFORE THE CHILDREN OF GOD. "Thine eyes," &c. The prospect respects--1. _The vision of Christ._ Christ is king. Of Him Melchisedec, David, and Solomon were types (Ps. ii. 6, &c.; John xviii. 36; Heb. ii. 9; Rev. i. 5; 1 Tim. vi. 10). Patriarchs and prophets saw Him in human form. The Jews saw Him in His humiliation, as "a man of sorrows," &c. The apostles and disciples saw Him in His risen glory. John saw Him in the vision of Patmos (Rev. i. 13, &c.). Hereafter all His people shall see Him "in His beauty," in all His regal splendour and magnificence. They shall see Him clearly, fully, eternally. 2. _The vision of heaven._ "The land," &c. Of heaven Canaan was a type. It was a land of beauty and abundance; of freedom, after the slavery of Egypt; of triumph, after warfare; of rest, after the toils of the desert. Its crowning distinction was the Temple, which God filled with His presence and glory. But heaven is all temple.

II. THE CERTAINTY OF ITS REALISATION. "Thine eyes _shall,_" &c. 1. _This was contemplated by Christ in our redemption._ He designed our emancipation from the dominion of sin, our deliverance from this present evil world, and also our elevation to His glorious kingdom (Heb. ii. 10; John xvii. 24). 2. _This is repeatedly the subject of the Divine promises_ (Luke xxii. 29, xii. 32; John xiv. 2, 3, &c.). 3. _To this tends the work of grace in all its influence on the soul._ See what our calling is (1 Pet. v. 10); to what we are begotten (1 Pet. i. 3, 4); why we are sanctified (Rev. iii. 4). 4. _A goodly number are now enjoying the fulfilment of these promises_ (Rev. vii. 9, 14). 5. _The glory and joy of Christ would not be complete without the eternal salvation of His people_ (Isa. liii. 11).

III. THE PREPARATION NECESSARY FOR ITS ENJOYMENT. Nothing is necessary in the way of merit, price, or self-righteousness. But if we would see the King, _we must make Him the object of our believing, affectionate regard now._ If we would see "the land," &c., _we must seek and labour for its attainment_ (Heb. xi. 16, iv. 10).--_Jabez Burns, D.D.: Pulpit Cyclopædia,_ vol. ii. pp. 154-157).

THE BEAUTY OF CHRIST'S CHARACTER.

xxxiii. 17. _Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty._

There is a difference between the worthiness and the beauty of a character. A poetic beauty adorns the worth of Christ's character.

WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF THE SUPREMELY BEAUTIFUL CHARACTER OF CHRIST?

+I. Sensibility.+ This is a word to be preferred to sensitiveness, for it includes sensitiveness; it has the passive quality of sensitiveness with activity of soul in addition exercised upon the impressions received. The more perfect the manhood, the more perfect is this sensibility. The total absence of it is the essence of vulgarity. The presence of it in its several degrees endows its possessor, according to the proportion of it, with what Chaucer meant by "gentilness." 1. It does not seem wrong to say that there was in Christ the _sensibility to natural beauty._ He also, like us, wished and sought that Nature should send "its own deep quiet to restore His heart." We find His common teaching employed about the vineyard and the wandering sheep, the whitening corn and the living well, the summer rain and the wintry flood and storm. 2. Still higher in Him was an intense _sensibility to human feeling._ He saw Nathaniel coming to Him, and in a moment frankly granted the meed of praise (John i. 47); when the malefactor on the cross appealed to Him, Christ saw at once that the fountain of a noble life had begun to flow (Luke xxiii. 43). It was the same with bodies of men as with men; He wove into one instrument of work the various characters of the Apostles; day by day He held together vast multitudes by feeling their hearts within His own; He shamed and confuted His enemies by an instinct of their objections and their whispers; men, women, and children ran to Him, as a child to its mother.

_How did the sensibility of Christ become active?_--1. _As sympathy with Nature._ There are many who never employ either intellect or imagination on the impressions which they receive. Remaining passive, they only permit the tide of the world's beauty to flow in and out of their mind; they do nothing with it. In Wordsworth, each feeling took form as a poem. As Christ walked silently along, He lifted up His eyes and saw the fields whitening already to harvest; and immediately He seized on the impression and expressed it in words. It marks a beautiful character to be so rapidly and delicately impressed; but the beauty becomes vital beauty when, through sympathy with and love of what is felt, one becomes himself creative of new thought. Sometimes such sympathy is shown _through the imagination,_ as when Christ, seeing the cornfield by the shore of the lake while He was teaching, looked on the whole career of the field, and combined impressions taken up by the imagination into the Parable of the Sower. Sensibility becoming sympathy is _discriminating._ Praise without distinctiveness is wearisome. We find perfect discrimination in the illustrations Christ drew from Nature. How exquisite the passage beginning, "Consider the lilies!" This distinctiveness appears still more in the choice of places for certain moods of mind,--the temptation in the wilderness, the hill-side for prayer. In all this, Christ recognises natural religion as His own, and bids us believe in its beauty, and add it to the spiritual. 2. _As sympathy with human feeling._ Examples on this are numerous. His tenderness stayed Him on the wayside to satisfy the mother's heart and bless the children; touched by the widow's weeping, He gave her back her son. "Jesus wept" even at the moment when He was about to give back the lost, because those He loved were weeping. How discriminating the sympathy which gave to Martha and Mary their several meed of praise! How unspeakably beautiful the words, "Woman, behold thy son!" Friend, "behold thy mother!"

This, then, is loveliness of character.

Remember, we have no right to boast of our sensibility to the feelings of others; nay, it is hateful in us till we lift it into the beauty of sympathising action. Remember, too, its wise discrimination. Christ, while feeling with all the world, sanctified distinctiveness in friendship and love.

+II. Simplicity.+ Milton tells us that poetry must be "simple." The beautiful character must also possess this quality. But by simplicity is not meant here the simplicity of Christ's teaching. What is meant is the quality in His character which corresponds to that which we call simplicity in poetry; and that which is simplicity in art is _purity_ in a perfect character. The beauty of Christ's purity was first in this, that those who saw it saw in it the glory of moral victory. His purity was not the beauty of innocence in a child; it was purity which had been subject to the storm, which had known evil and overcome it. And from this purity, so tried and victorious, arose two other elements of moral beauty--_perfect justice_ and _perfect mercy._ Innocence cannot be just, nor is the untempted saint fit to judge; but Christ is able to be just and yet merciful, because He is entirely pure.

+III. Passion,+ defined as the power of intense feeling capable of perfect expression. Milton tells us that poetry must be "passionate." We may transfer it directly to character as an element of beauty. It was intense feeling of the weakness and sin of man, and intense joy in His Father's power to redeem, that produced the story of the "Prodigal Son." "Come unto Me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden; and I will give you rest." How that goes home! How deep the passion which generalised that want into a single sentence! It is a beauty of character, whether seen in words or action, which passes into and assumes the diadem of sublimity. Christ's words to the Pharisees have all the marks of indignation and none of the marks of anger. Passion and energy limited by temperance imply _repose of character._ Activity in repose, calm in the heart of passion, these things are of the essence of beauty. And in Him in whom we have found the King in His beauty, this peacefulness was profound. This is the final touch of beauty, which gathers into itself and harmonises all the others, and hence no words are so beautiful as those in which Christ bestows it as His dying legacy on men, "Peace I leave with you," and repeats it as His resurrection gift, "Peace be unto you." All moral and spiritual loveliness lies in knowing what He meant when He said, "Come unto Me . . . and I will give you rest."--_Rev. Stopford A. Brooks, M.A.: Christ in Modern Life_ (_Three Sermons,_ pp. 89-131).

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.

xxxiii. 20. _Look upon Zion, &c._

It is probable that when this prophecy was delivered the city of Jerusalem was threatened with an immediate siege; but Jehovah engages to defend it from the attacks of its enemies, the Assyrians, and to render it at once quiet and secure. But yet the text appears to have a direct reference to the privileges and stability of the Gospel Church, for Jerusalem, after this period, was never long preserved from hostile invasions; therefore our attention is turned from it to that glorious city against which the gates of hell shall never prevail. (See THE DUTY OF GLADNESS, pp. 228, 229.)

I. The Church of Christ is "the city of our solemnities." Jerusalem was thus described because of the solemn assemblies that were there held, the solemn feasts that were there celebrated, and the solemn sacrifices that were there offered. And it is in the Church that individual believers come together, and unite in the enjoyment of Divine grace, and in the presentation of "sacrifices" with which "God is well pleased" (Heb. xiii. 15, 16).[1]

II. The Church of Christ is "a quiet habitation."[2] All genuine believers dwell in it, and peace is at once the bequest of Christ (John xiv. 27) and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. v. 22).

III. The Church of Christ is "a tabernacle that shall not be taken down." "A tabernacle" in contrast with the superior glories of the New Jerusalem in heaven. A tabernacle, because it may often change its place, as in fact it has already done. But it shall never be "taken down" in the sense of being destroyed (H. E. I. 1246-1251).

IV. Such a contemplation of Zion as our text calls for will awaken--1. In _angels_ complacency and delight; 2. In _sinners_ astonishment at its wondrous preservation, in spite of all their efforts to destroy it, and desire to share in its privileges; and 3. In _Christians_ wonder, love, and praise.--_Thomas Spencer: Twenty-one Sermons,_ pp. 196-206.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] As the earth's loftiest peaks rise not in their snows on
some isolated hill that stands like a lonely pyramid on a
level plain, but where the mountains, as in the Alps, or
Andes, or Himalayan range, are grouped and massed together,
so the saint's most heavenly happiness is not attained in
solitude, nor even amid domestic scenes, but where
religious life exists in its social character.--_Guthrie._

[2] See THE PEACEFUL HABITATION, chap. xxxii. 18, page 368.

ENRICHING RIVERS.

xxxiii. 21. _But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a
place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no
galley with any oars, neither shall gallant ship pass
thereby._

The prophet here speaks for the encouragement of God's Church; and he appears to overstep the boundaries of time, and gives a glimpse of the blessedness and safety of the Church triumphant. In our interpretation let us take a large view, and refer, as the course of thought may require, both to the Church militant and the Church triumphant. And let it be deeply impressed on the mind that the promises of God can be realised only by those who belong to the true Israel.

I. THE ATTRACTIVE TITLE PROCLAIMED. "The glorious Lord." God is glorious in His own perfections, and as the source of all the glory and beauty in this and every other world. Our knowledge of God is gathered from His manifestations in _nature_ and _revelation._ How resplendent in glory is the Being thus revealed to us! Especially we may say, with immediate reference to our subject, He is glorious in the vastness of His resources. In the summer the streams of the Holy Land were either entirely dried up, and converted into hot lanes of glaring sands, or reduced to narrow streamlets. But no summer's heat can dry up the broad streams of Divine love and mercy. God is glorious in the abundant nature of His supplies, and in His willingness to make ample provision for His Church.

II. THE BLESSED COMPARISON INSTITUTED. "The glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams." That is, all that such rivers and streams are to a country, God would be to His people. 1. _Broad rivers and streams give beauty to the landscape._ All beauty is from God, and it is a revelation of Him; but especially is it true that He is the source of all the moral beauty of His people. 2. _Broad rivers give fertility and prosperity._ In such a highly cultivated country as England, where great droughts are unknown, we have no opportunity of properly observing the fertilising influence of a broad river. But remember what the Nile is to Egypt. So does God enrich and fertilise the soul, causing it to bring forth "the fruits of righteousness." 3. _Broad rivers afford protection._ Babylon had its Euphrates, which was a source of power. "Hundred-gated Thebes," celebrated by Homer, also had its river. Almost all great modern cities are built upon the banks of rivers. But Jerusalem had no great river running through it. In fact, it was badly supplied with water. Large cisterns were constructed in which to catch and preserve the rain that came down plentifully in its season. The prophet makes use of this fact for the encouragement of the Church. The glorious Lord will be unto it as broad rivers and streams. He is the sure defence of His people.

III. THE DISTINCTIVE MARK OF DIVINE BLESSINGS HERE SYMBOLISED. "Wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby." Earthly blessings have attendant evils; heavenly blessings alone are pure and perfect. Rivers may prove a source of weakness as well as strength to a nation.[1] But along the broad rivers of Divine blessing no foe shall advance to assail God's people. The presence of God at once confers blessings and averts evils.--_W. Burrows, B.A._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rivers are highly important as the outlets and inlets of
commercial enterprise; but the merchant ship, though richly
laden, may carry the seeds of physical and moral disease,
and inflict untold injury. Rivers give security to the
cities built on their banks, but they may also prove the
means of destruction. Cyrus made use of the Euphrates when
besieging Babylon, and thus captured the city. The strength
of Babylon became its weakness. The same river that bears
on its tidal waves the merchant ship laden with the
precious produce of distant lands may also bring the
war-ship laden with the instruments of destruction and
death. But the city of our solemnities is secure. No
mischief can come to us along the broad river of Almighty
grace.--_Burrows._

[See also outlines, _Rivers of Waters,_ xxx. 25, 26, and
_Rivers of Water in a Dry Place,_ xxxii. 2.]

A CONTROLLING FACT.

xxxiii. 22. _The Lord is our Judge._

An immense step has been taken in the moral development of any one who has been led to say this with the understanding, with a vivid perception of the truth of this declaration.

+I. It is a fact that God is our Judge.+ The Bible teaches us--1. That God is continually present with us, intimately acquainted with our real characters, the witness of all our actions, words, and thoughts (Prov. v. 21, xv. 3; Job xxxi. 4; Ps. xi. 4, cxxi. 1-7). Thus He is qualified for being in an eminent sense our judge. 2. That the God who is perfectly acquainted with all our dispositions and actions cannot behold any one of them with indifference. He observes them on purpose to estimate their real nature; He necessarily approves or disapproves of them. It is this that renders His knowledge of them important. He not only is pure from all moral evil, but He holds it in abomination; He not only is perfect in all moral goodness, but He loves goodness (Hab. i. 12, 13; Jer. ix. 24; Ps. v. 4-6, xi. 7, xxxvii. 23). 3. That this omniscient and holy God is our proper and righteous Governor. This brings His approbation and disapprobation home to us; it implies that they will be attended with the weightiest consequences. All that men can do often is merely to esteem or to blame us. If they have authority over us, or are able to promote or obstruct our interest, their opinion of our character assumes a new importance (Prov. xix. 12). Honour or dishonour in the eye of the All-perfect Being is for its own sake deeply affecting to every ingenuous mind; but to the soul of every man not dead to thought it must, on account of its inevitable and infinite consequence, appear of infinite importance. God is the Sovereign and the moral Governor of mankind, and His approbation will be followed by a great reward, His disapprobation by a dreadful punishment (Ps. xlvii. 2, 8; Jer. xvii. 10; Eccl. iii. 17, xii. 14). Our conscience testifies that this should be the case. And our redemption by Jesus Christ, which displays the marvellous grace and compassion of God, displays at the same time, in the most striking manner, the inevitable sanctity of His government of mankind. While it provides for the pardon of sin, the blood of Christ, shed for the expiation of sin, testifies how odious, how deserving of punishment it is in the sight of God. While it secures mercy to the penitent, it seals the condemnation and the misery of every sinner.

+II. A recognition of the fact that God is our Judge will necessarily exert a controlling influence upon us.+ We are greatly influenced by the judgment passed upon our character and conduct by our fellow-men, especially if they are discerning and virtuous, and still more if their good or bad opinion is likely to be of advantage or disadvantage to us. What, then, must be the effect upon any man who really wakes up to the fact that we are under the scrutiny of One who alone can justly estimate our character, and whose estimation of it is of infinite importance to us! To be approved and beloved, or to be disapproved and hated by the Ruler of the universe! It is in one of these conditions that each of us stands to-day. Disapprobation from God is the extremity of disgrace and misery; approbation of Him is the summit of honour and happiness: the former is the natural object of fear, sorrow, and shame, exciting to circumspect avoidance of it; the latter of ardent desire, elevating hope, and rapturous joy, conspiring to animate us in eager pursuit of it.

1. The unpardoned man cannot remember that "the Lord is our Judge" without _fear._ Thoughts of His nearness, His omniscience, His omnipotence, and His hatred of all sin fill him with alarm. Along with this fear there springs up within him _sorrow._ The sinner who has become conscious of the discriminating eye of perfect sanctity marking all his paths, mourns for his sins and is troubled. His spirit is broken, his heart is contrite. He sorrows to repentance (2 Cor. vii. 9). To the sorrow is added _shame._ Whatever brings a stain upon our character in the estimation of our fellow-men naturally produces shame and humiliation. To be detected in what is base confounds most men, even though no further inconvenience is apprehended. To be lost to shame is the last sign of degeneracy; but to deserve blame from God is the deepest ignominy; it must cover with confusion every man who has any sense of God (Dan. ix. 8; Luke xviii. 13).

2. The fear, sorrow, and humiliation which arise in sinful men immediately they remember the holy government which God exercises over them continually, influence those also who are conscious that for Christ's sake He has forgiven them. They cause them to proceed through life with unremitted caution; to exercise steady care in avoiding every transgression and every omission displeasing to God. They constrain them to walk humbly with Him, and produce in them that modesty, diffidence, lowliness, and sober-mindedness which adorn their character. But these are not the only results of their constant remembrance that "the Lord is our Judge." (1.) Recognising that His approbation is the sublimest honour, they are inspired with an ardent desire to secure it. That desire gives a direction to their whole conduct (Ps. iv. 6; Col. i. 10; 2 Cor. v. 9). (2.) Conscious that, through Christ, they are the happy objects of God's favour, the hope of its continuance throughout eternity produces within them a triumphant joy (Rom. viii. 16, 17; Prov. x. 28). The all-penetrating eye of God, so terrible to the sinner, is become to the man who feels himself approved in His sight the encouraging, the exhilarating eye of his Father and Friend. This renders duty delightful, comforts in sorrow, takes away all fear in death.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.--1. A remembrance that "the Lord is our Judge" will deliver us from bondage to the opinions of our fellow-men. While naturally desirous of their approval, every corrupt fashion presuming to authorise what God disapproves or to explode what He approves will be counted but the silly caprice of fools. If every sensible man prefers the esteem of a few able judges to the applauses of an ignorant multitude, he must be as destitute of good sense as of religion who can hesitate in preferring honour from God to the good opinion of the whole universe. 2. All the present pleasures and advantages which sin can offer will be unable to seduce the man who preserves a lively sense of the Heavenly Judge, for they bear no proportion either to the happiness which accompanies His approbation, or to the misery which arises from His wrath (Matt. xvi. 26, 27). All the losses, troubles, and perils to which virtue can expose him will not have power to terrify him from the love and practice of it (Rom. viii. 18). Conscious that he is observed by God, animated by the sense of his acting his part before so august a Presence, he will exert all the powers of his soul to act it well. In the exertion he will feel a noble expansion of heart, and triumph in the hope of being approved and rewarded, and his hope shall not be disappointed, for its largest promises shall be surpassed by the greatness of his reward.--_Alexander Gerard, D.D.: Sermons,_ vol. ii. pp. 239-274.

THE ATONEMENT; OR, SALVATION CONSISTENT WITH THE REGAL AND JUDICIAL CHARACTER OF GOD.[1]

xxxiii. 22. _For the Lord is our Judge; the Lord is our
Lawgiver, &c._

There are here two propositions, the one affirming that Jehovah sustains a certain relationship to us, the other declaring that in that relationship, and therefore in a manner perfectly consistent with it, He will save us. The same thing substantially is repeatedly asserted in the Scriptures. The very prophet in whose writings these words occur elsewhere speaks thus in God's name: "There is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside" (xlv. 21); "I bring near my righteousness, my salvation shall not tarry" (xlvi. 13); "My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth" (li. 5). All this has been translated into New Testament language in that remarkable utterance of Paul's, "Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus" (Rom. iii. 25, 26).

Let us endeavour to unfold the harmony of salvation with the law, the justice, and the royalty of God.

+I. Let us look at the relationship indicated by the three terms Judge, Lawgiver, and King.+ We say relationship, for although the words are three, the thing is substantially one, each term giving us only a modification of the same idea. The judge is the king on the bench, the lawgiver is the king writing the statute-book, and the king is the judge and lawgiver on the throne of government. The three things so run into each other that it is difficult to keep them distinct, each of the three terms brings before us one distinct phasis of the governmental relationship which God sustains towards us. The judge is set to see that the guilty shall not escape, and that the innocent shall not be punished; the lawgiver has to secure that the majesty of the law is upheld, and its authority recognised; and the king has to take care that the best interests of his subjects as a whole are not interfered with but advanced. Now it is here affirmed that Jehovah stands to us in this threefold relation, and that as a judge He saves us criminals, as a lawgiver He forgives us law-breakers, as a king He pardons us rebels.

We are not denying that God is willing and anxious to show Himself as a _father,_ even to sinners. Our affirmation is, that _now,_ when man has sinned, if God is to be to him precisely as He was before, if the liberty of God's Son is to be enjoyed by him, then some means must be taken to secure that in all this no dishonour shall be put upon the law of God, no blot be made upon His judicial character, and no peril result to His throne or the interests of His holy subjects.

+II. The means by which God the Judge, Lawgiver, and King saves man.+ If we take the Scriptures for our guide, the answer will not be difficult to discover, for we are there uniformly taught that God seeks to save us through a substitute. At first this principle was revealed through animal sacrifices, then through the more definite offerings of the Mosaic institute, and then through the still more definite teachings of the inspired prophets. The high priest laid his hand upon the head of his victim, confessed over it all his iniquities and all the sins of all the people, and it was to bear their iniquity. But in the remarkable oracle contained in Isaiah liii. the very same phraseology is used in reference to the expected Messiah; for we are there told that God "hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all," that "He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities," and that "He shall bear our iniquities." To this corresponds the language of the New Testament; for when John the Baptist pointed out the Messiah, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh (beareth) away the sins of the world;" and Jesus Himself declared that "the Son of man came to give His life a ransom for many," and that "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." And in perfect harmony with all this are the utterances of the Apostles. It seems perfectly clear that the principle of substitution is the very thread round which all the other declarations of the Scripture crystallise. The Bible, from its beginning to its close, is "dipped in blood;" the atoning death of Christ is the foundation on which its whole system rests, and if that be rejected, the whole book must go with it as a dead and worthless thing.