^^iSfoF?mi?^ 
 
 '^L OG-CM. SfM ]0> 
 
OLD 
 
 TESTAMENT 
 HEROES * 
 
 Joshua, and the Land of Promise 
 
F. B. MEYER'S 
 
 Biblical Expositions 
 
 NeiAj Popular Edition 
 
 The International Leaders* Library 
 
 ly ^volumes. Each, net ^oc. 
 
 "Mr. Meyer is unsurpassed in recent times in 
 his faculty of helpfully and interestingly adapt- 
 ing studies of Biblical characters to modern 
 needs. His work does not consist of mere pious 
 moralizing, but it is the product of a man evi- 
 dently of scholarly habits and attainments, and 
 in close and practical touch with the life of the 
 people of the day." — The United Presbyterian. 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT VOLUMES 
 
 Samuel the Prophet. 
 
 Zechariah : The Prophet 
 of Hope. 
 
 David : Shepherd, Psalm- 
 ist, King. 
 
 Jeremiah : Priest and 
 Prophet. 
 
 Joshua, and the Land of 
 Promise. 
 
 Moses, the Servant of God 
 
 Abraham ; or, The Obe 
 dience of Faith. 
 
 Elijah and the Secret of 
 His Power. 
 
 Israel, a Prince with God. 
 
 Joseph: Beloved, Hated, 
 Exalted. 
 
 Christ in Isaiah. Exposi- 
 tions of Isaiah XL.-LV. 
 
 NEW TESTAMENT VOLUMES 
 
 Paul: AServant of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 John the Baptist. 
 
 The Way into the Ho- 
 liest : Expositions of 
 the Epistle to the He- 
 brews. 
 
 The Life and Lifht of 
 Men. Expositions of 
 John I.-XII. 
 
 Love unto theUttermost. 
 Expositions of John 
 XIII.-XXI. 
 
 Tried by Fire. Exposi- 
 tions in the First Epis- 
 tle to Peter. 
 
 "Orderly in plan, cumulative in force and 
 powerful in the spiritual persuasiveness with 
 which they illustrate." — The Congregationalist. 
 
F.r£>. V .-. ^<0^^^ '>^^*i^ 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT HEROES 
 
 aV 
 
 JUN T><1912 
 
 /^A 
 
 JOSHUA, AND THE 
 LAND OF PROMISE 
 
 BYTHE 
 
 Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A. 
 
 Author of • The Shepherd Psalm," " Tried by Fire," " Elijah," 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literatvire 
 
Copyright, 
 
 1893, 
 Fleming H. Revell Company. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE best way to vindicate the Bible is to preach it. 
 Each book contains within itself, sometimes in cypher, 
 the autograph of the Holy Spirit. Every page has the 
 water-mark of Heaven. And a patient consideration of 
 the contents of Scripture, as of the book before us, will 
 leave a stronger impression of God's authority and author- 
 ship than any number of external evidences. 
 
 In addition to this, and altogether apart from the spiritual 
 lessons that may be derived from a devout study of Old 
 Testament Scriptures, there accrues to the thoughtful mind 
 an ever-deepening conviction that, instrumentally, they 
 date from the pens of contemporary historians. It is im- 
 possible to believe that a writer, after the return from exile, 
 could have told the story with the vividness, the realism, 
 the minute life-like touches, in which it is presented to us 
 in the historical books of the Old Testament. In the per- 
 spective of time, many things that bulk largely to their 
 contemporaries are dismissed as unworthy of notice, whilst 
 general principles are discussed to the ignoring of details. 
 But the reverse of these meets us in every paragraph of that 
 wonderful series of books, of which the story of Joshua is 
 one. 
 
 This study, in which the scenes of the conquest of Canaan 
 are narrated again with such help as modern investigation 
 affords, may thus confirm the wavering faith of some. But 
 
 3 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 my main object has been to bring out the wonderful parallels 
 between the story of this book and the experiences of the 
 Church and the individual Christian — parallels so minute 
 and precise as to establish with added force our faith in the 
 Bible as one book, the production of one mind, which " at 
 sundry times and in divers manners " has spoken to men. 
 
 In writing this book, I have, amongst other works, read 
 Dean Stanley's " Jewish Church " ; "Joshua, his Life 
 AND Times," by Rev. W. J. Deane; "The Book of 
 Joshua," by H. F. Witherby ; " The Fullness of Bless- 
 ing," by S. F. Smiley ; and other smaller books : to all of 
 which I gladly confess my obligations. 
 
 F. B. MEYER. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The Book of Joshua 7 
 
 II. The Divine Commission 17 
 
 III. Three Days' Pause 26 
 
 IV. Passing the Jordan 35 
 
 V. The Stones of Gilgal 45 
 
 VI. Three Successive Days 55 
 
 VII. The Warrior Christ 64 
 
 VIII. The Walls of Jericho 74 
 
 IX. Arrest and Defeat 84 
 
 X. The Valley of Achor 94 
 
 XI. Ebal and Gerizim 105 
 
 XII. The Wiles of the Devil 113 
 
 XIII. A Memorable Day 122 
 
 XIV. Claiming Victory 131 
 
 XV. Rest in the Heavenlies. 140 
 
 XVI. Land to be Possessed 150 
 
 XVII. A Veteran Comrade 159 
 
 XVIII. Receiving and Reigning 169 
 
 XIX. The Conclusion of the Task 176 
 
 XX. Life in the Land 185 
 
 XXI. Take Heed to Love! 193 
 
 XXII. Evensong 201 
 
 5 
 
JOSHUA: 
 
 AND THE LAND OF PROMISE. 
 
 S[|)ie Book of Ios|)tia. 
 
 " What if Earth 
 Be but the shadow of Heaven, — and things therein 
 Each to other like, more than on earth is thought ! " 
 
 Milton. 
 
 THE order of the books of the Old Testament is due 
 to something more than human selection, or even the 
 period of their composition. The same Spirit that origi- 
 nally inspired them has manifestly controlled their position 
 in the sacred Book. Gefiesis begins with God, and leads 
 us back to the origin of that divine grace which strives 
 against human sin; loves man before ever there is aught 
 in man to warrant it ; and binds itself by a covenant, ** or- 
 dered in all things and sure." Exodus tells the story of 
 redemption ; Leviticus, of worship ; Numbers, of our posi- 
 tion in the ordered ranks of God's army ; Deuteronomy, of 
 that more spiritual conception of the law of God which is 
 produced by love and faith ; and the Book of Joshua is 
 r.a indispensable link in this chain of symbolical teaching. 
 
 7 
 
8 THE "BOOK OF JOSHUA. 
 
 Finally, the history of the soul may be traced through the 
 disorder of Judges to the royalty of the Kings ; and on- 
 ward to the hallelujahs of the Psalms^ and the prophetic 
 visions of the following books. 
 
 There is, then, a special inner meaning in the Book of 
 Joshua, which cannot be exhausted when we have learned 
 from it the story of the extermination of the Canaanites ; 
 of the partition and settlement of Canaan; and of the 
 noble simplicity and military exploits of Joshua. It is im- 
 possible to suppose that so much space should have been 
 given to the record of these, unless there had been some 
 deep and holy purpose — similar to that which has given 
 such minute directions for Levitical sacrifice, each of which 
 contained some deep spiritual truth required for the growth 
 of holy souls throughout the ages. Of the Book of Joshua, 
 as of the Paschal Lamb and the Passage of the Red Sea, 
 it may be said, " All these things happened unto them for 
 ensamples." 
 
 The clue to this inner meaning is given by the writer of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, the third and fourth chapters 
 of which are all-important in determining the drift of our 
 interpretation ; and it is to the clearer appreciation of the 
 true meaning of these chapters that we must attribute the 
 increasing interest with which the church of God turns to 
 this record of the simple-minded, transparent, humble, and 
 strong soldier, the Miles Standish of the Exodus. If the 
 river Jordan stands for physical death, and Canaan for 
 heaven, there seems to be no satisfactory interpretation 
 for many items which are narrated with significant minute- 
 ness, ere we come to the conquest and partition of the land ; 
 and on this line of interpretation there would be some 
 anomaly in associating fighting with the calm restfulness of 
 the New Jerusalem. 
 
 A careful study of the chapters referred to shows us that 
 
"HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS." 9 
 
 though Canaan was not f/ie rest of God — because he spoke 
 of rest through an unknown temple singer, four hundred 
 years after Canaan was occupied — yet it was a vivid type 
 of that blessed Sabbath-keeping into which we may enter 
 here and now. We are to fear lest we " should seem to 
 come short " of the rest, even as they whose carcasses fell in 
 the wilderness came short of the Land of Promise. *' We 
 which have beheved do enter into that rest." Our Lord 
 Jesus has entered into his rest, as God did into his ; and 
 has therefore received the ideal Land of Canaan, as the 
 representative of his followers to whom he allots it as they 
 believe. We are summoned to give diligence to enter into 
 that rest, that " no man fall after the same example of dis- 
 obedience." 
 
 All these references go to establish the spiritual signifi- 
 cance of this wonderful story, which tells of that satisfaction 
 of rest, wealth, and victory which may be enjoyed by those 
 who have come to know the secret things which God hath 
 prepared for them which love him, and which are revealed 
 by his Spirit- Oh that that Spirit may use these chapters 
 for the purpose of leading many of God's redeemed ones 
 from the wilderness life into that rest! For that we have 
 been redeemed ; for that we have passed through the Red 
 Sea; to convince us of our need of that we have been 
 permitted to hunger and thirst in the desert waste ; and 
 our possession of that will alone convince the world that the 
 Lord Jesus is the Christ of God. We were indeed brought 
 out that we might be brought in ; redeemed that we might 
 be a purchased possession ; justified that we might be sanc- 
 tified and glorified. 
 
 There is another book in the New Testament in deep 
 spiritual accord with the story told in the Book of Joshua, 
 viz., the Epistle to the Ephesians ; which rises above all its 
 kin as the soaring cathedral tower rises above the maze of 
 
lO THE 'BOOK OF fOSHU/f. 
 
 architecture beneath — on which it rests indeed, but whfdt 
 it crowns, and carries within its heart bells that ring out the 
 wedding peal. Already in that epistle we can detect notes 
 which are to announce the consummation of creation in 
 the marriage of the Lamb. The Book of Joshua is to the 
 Old Testament what the Epistle to the Ephesians is to the 
 New. 
 
 The characteristic word of the Ephesians is f/ie heavenlies 
 (i. 3, 20; ii. 6; iii. 10; vi, 12). Of course it does not 
 stand for heaven; but for that spiritual experience of 
 oneness with the risen Saviour in his resurrection and ex- 
 altation which is the privilege of all the saints, to which, 
 indeed, they have been called, and which is theirs in him. 
 It may help us to a better comprehension of this analogy 
 between the " heavenly places " and the land of Canaan, 
 if we trace it in the following five particulars : 
 
 I. Each was the Destined Goal to which God's 
 Purpose led his People. — When in answer to the agony 
 of his people's cry, and in remembrance of his covenant, 
 the Lord appeared to Moses at the burning bush, in the 
 first sentence he spoke he pledged himself, not only to de- 
 liver his people out of the land of the Egyptians, but to 
 bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a 
 large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. Their 
 emancipation from the thrall of Pharaoh was only prepar- 
 atory to their settlement in the Land of Promise. 
 
 Some vision of this seems to have shone like a star be- 
 fore the march of the ransomed hosts ; and on the shores 
 of the Red Sea their triumphant strains passed from the 
 destruction of their foes to the mountain of God's inherit- 
 ance, whither he would bring them in and plant them. 
 
 " The place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in. 
 The sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established." 
 
HOLINESS, yiCTORY, AND POJVER. n 
 
 The plagues of Egypt that struck the fetters from the 
 wrists of an enslaved nation, the institution of the Passover 
 and shedding of blood, the passage of the Red Sea and 
 destruction of the hosts of Egypt — all must have been 
 abortive had they not led on to, and been consimimated 
 in, the settlement of Israel in Canaan. Nor otherwise 
 could the divine promise to Abraham have been fulfilled — 
 " Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where 
 thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and 
 westward : for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I 
 give it, and to thy seed forever." 
 
 Similarly, though so many of the Lord's redeemed ones 
 seem ignorant of it, all the wonderful facts that lie behind 
 the history of the Church were intended to clear the ground, 
 to level the hills, and fill up the vales, so as to prepare for 
 the glad entrance of all who believe into the blessed life — 
 into an experience like that which was enjoyed by the 
 Master himself during his earthly ministry, joy that must 
 forever be a song without words, peace that passeth under- 
 standing, love that passeth knowledge. 
 
 It is remarkable how constantly the Epistles point to 
 this experience. The foundations of justification are mas- 
 sively and deeply laid, that they may carry the edifice of 
 sanctification and blessedness. The apostles do not write 
 their glowing paragraphs for the conversion of the world, 
 or the awakening of the dead ; but for the perfecting of 
 the saints, and the unfolding of the true conditions of holi- 
 ness, and victory, and power. 
 
 Let me here solemnly ask, Have you realized those con- 
 ditions, and entered on those privileges? Are you still in 
 the wilderness, or have you entered the Land of Promise? 
 Do you occupy cities you never built ; eat of vineyards 
 and olive-yards you never planted ; drink of cisterns filled 
 from the everlasting hills which you have never hewed ; 
 
12 THE 'BOOK OF JOSHUA. 
 
 and inhabit houses full of all good things which you never 
 stored? Do you dwell in a land of com and wine, while 
 the heavens drop dew? Do you, as the beloved of the 
 Lord, dwell between his shoulders? Do you tread down 
 your enemies beneath shoes of iron or brass? Do you 
 make your dwelling-place in the eternal God, whilst under- 
 neath are his everlasting arms ? Test yourself by the 
 promises made to Israel, which are types and shadows of 
 eternal realities ; and if they do not foreshadow facts in 
 your spiritual experience, understand that you frustrate the 
 purpose of God in your redemption. Leave those things 
 which are behind to reach forth to the goodly land beyond 
 the Jordan, apprehending that for which you were appre- 
 hended of Christ Jesus. 
 
 II. Each was Impossible by the Means of Law. — 
 " Now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it 
 came to pass, that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of 
 Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead ; 
 now therefore arise, go over this Jordan." " The law came 
 by Moses," and in a very real sense found in him its repre- 
 sentative. So it was befitting that, when he died, his eye 
 should not be dim, nor his natural force abated. The law 
 of God can never become decrepit, or show signs of weak- 
 ness and decay. At the end of uncounted ages it is as 
 strong, and fresh, and vigorous as that divine nature of 
 which it is the expression. 
 
 But the law of God can never bring the soul of man 
 into the Land of Promise ; not because of any defect in it, 
 but because of human infirmity and sin. In that marvel- 
 ous piece of self-analysis given us in the Epistle to the 
 Romans the Apostle repeatedly affirms that the law is holy, 
 and righteous, and good ; he insists that he delighted in it 
 
JOSHUA AND JESUS. 13 
 
 after the inward man, but he tells us that he finds another 
 law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, 
 and bringing him into captivity. It is the presence of this 
 evil law in our members which makes obedience to the law 
 of God impossible, filling us with disappointment and un- 
 rest, ceaseless striving and perpetual failure. We must, 
 therefore, leave the law as an outward rule of Hfe behind 
 us, in that lonely valley over against Bethpeor, that the 
 divine Joshua may lead us into the Land of Promise. 
 
 Not by vows, or resolutions, or covenants of consecra- 
 tion signed by blood fresh drawn from the veins ; not by 
 external rites or by ascetic abstinence from good and 
 healthy things ; not by days of fasting and nights of prayer ; 
 not even by obedience to the voice of conscience or the 
 inner light — though attention to these is of prime impor- 
 tance — by none of these shall we enter the land of blessed- 
 ness. They all become forms of legaHsm, when practiced 
 with a view of obtaining the full rest and victory of Chris- 
 tian experience. Valuable many of them unquestionably 
 are, when the river is crossed, and the land is entered ; but 
 they will not of themselves unlock its gates, or roll back its 
 guardian river. Just as the forgiveness of sins and eternal 
 life are the free gift of God's grace, to be received by faith 
 — though their full enjoyment is determined by obedience 
 and self-denial — so the fullness of the blessing of the Gos- 
 pel of Christ is bestowed on those only who, in the absence 
 of all merit and effort, receive it with open and empty 
 hands. We do not work up to our rest-day, as the Jews 
 did, but down from it. 
 
 III. Each was intrusted to a Representative. — It 
 is a remarkable characteristic of the story of Joshua that 
 God repeatedly addresses him for the people, and bestows 
 
14 THE ^OOK OF JOSHUA. 
 
 on him what was destined for them. " Go over this Jor- 
 dan, thou, and all this people. . . . There shall not any 
 man be able to stand before thee." " See, I have given 
 into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof." And it 
 was for him to apportion it. ** Thou shalt cause this peo- 
 ple to inherit the land which I sware unto their fathers to 
 give them." All was put into the hands of Joshua, as the 
 trustee of Israel, for him to administer as each of the tribes 
 came near to appropriate it from his hands. 
 
 And in perfect keeping with this, we find it stated, at the 
 close of the seven years' war, that " Joshua took the whole 
 land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses ; and 
 Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to 
 their divisions by their tribes " (Josh. xi. 23). 
 
 How perfectly is this type fulfilled in our blessed Lord! 
 To him as the trustee and representative of his people has 
 all spiritual blessing been given, and he holds it for us to 
 claim. All power is given to him in heaven and on earth, 
 that he might give us authority over all the power of the 
 enemy. The Father has given him to have hfe in himself, 
 that he might give us life more abundantly. He is full of 
 grace and truth, that out of his fullness we all may receive. 
 He received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, 
 that he might pour him forth in Pentecostal fullness. He 
 hath received of the Father honor and glory, that we might 
 be with him where he is. 
 
 Let us diligently comprehend all the fullness of our in- 
 heritance in Jesus ; and then let us go forward to appre- 
 hend it by faith. Whatever he has is in trust for us. Let 
 us claim it! Let us receive the abundance of his grace, 
 that we may reign in this life through the one Man! Let 
 us beheve that we receive, and reckon on it, Uving in the 
 power of what we may not feel, but know we have, so act- 
 ing faith. 
 
CONQUERED ADyERSARIES. 15 
 
 IV. Each was missed by Many. — Their carcasses fell 
 in the wilderness, so that the generation who cried, " Would 
 God that we had died in the wilderness!" did in fact die 
 there. The Ninetieth Psalm tells the tale of those sad and 
 dreary years, when an unceasing train of funerals passed 
 out from the camp of Israel, and the mounds of the desert 
 traced the course of the guilty and unbeheving race. 
 
 Such scenes are witnessed still. And the state of his 
 Church must be a bitter sorrow to the heart of her Lord. 
 Notwithstanding his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and 
 passion ; in spite of the earnest remonstrance of his Word 
 and Spirit ; though the fair land of Canaan lies within view 
 — yet so few comparatively appear to have realized what 
 he intended. All around, souls, redeemed by his blood, 
 who have been numbered among his people, are perishing 
 outside the land of blessedness in graves of worldliness, of 
 self-indulgence, and masterful sin. We descry here and 
 there a Joshua, a Caleb, or a tribe of Levites. But the 
 majority seem to have come short. See to it, reader, that 
 you are not one of them! " Let us also fear." 
 
 V. Each was infested by Many Adversaries. — The 
 seven nations of Canaan held the land with strongholds 
 and chariots of iron ; though the Lord caused them to be 
 to his people as bread which needs only to be eaten. They 
 came against the invading hosts in all the pride of their 
 vast battalions and the array of their warlike preparations ; 
 but at his rebuke they fled, at the voice of his thunder they 
 hasted away. 
 
 The " heavenly places " also are not removed from the 
 noise of conflict, or free from the presence of the foe. 
 Those who are raised to sit there in Christ have to en- 
 counter the spiritual hosts of wickedness, principalities and 
 powers of evil. They are conquered foes ; but, neverthe- 
 
l6 THE 'BOOK OF JOSHUA. 
 
 less, are terrible to behold, and certain to overcome, unless 
 we are abiding in our great Joshua, who has already van- 
 quished them, and have taken to oiu-selves the whole armor 
 of God. 
 
 Thus the land of Canaan and the heavenly places are 
 one : and we may read into these ancient records the deep- 
 est thoughts of the New Testament, for God repeats him- 
 self in many ways. 
 
II. 
 
 (Joshua i. 7.) 
 
 " Only when thine arm 
 In sense of weakness reaches forth to God, 
 Wih thou be strong to suffer and to do." 
 
 Plumptre. 
 
 AS Joshua stood on the threshold of his great work, he 
 jl\ was repeatedly bidden to be strong and of a good 
 courage. Some little time before the death of his predeces- 
 sor, a great convocation of all Israel had been summoned, 
 at which Moses had solemnly transferred his office to his 
 successor, and had given him a charge, saying, " Be strong 
 and of a good courage ; for thou must go with this people 
 unto the land." And now the voice of God reiterates the 
 charge and repeats the injunction. 
 
 At first this startles us. What ! must all they whom God 
 uses be strong? Is it essential that there should be strength 
 of limb and muscle in the physical and moral constitution 
 of those who are called to do the divine biddings in the 
 world? Because, if that be so, we who are like Ehud, 
 left-handed ; like Gideon, least in our father's house ; or 
 like Saul of Tarsus, painfully conscious of weakness, can 
 never get beyond the rank and file in the army of the Lord. 
 And yet, may not this reiterated appeal indicate that the 
 heart of Joshua misgave him, and that he was conscious 
 
 17 
 
1 8 THE DIVINE COMMISSION. 
 
 of his utter inadequacy to fulfill the great commission that 
 was thrust upon him? Probably he had never dreamt of 
 so high an honor, so vast a responsibility. He had been 
 content to be Moses' minister, satisfied to wait below while 
 his master passed into the cloud to hold fellowship with 
 God ; staying in the tent to serve Moses if he were required, 
 or in his absence to guard its contents ; jealous for his 
 master's honor, when Eldad and Medad prophesied ; glad 
 that all the glories of the conquest of Eastern Palestine 
 decked with laurels the closing days of the great leader. 
 
 When Moses first received the sentence of death on the 
 further side of Jordan, none could have been more deeply 
 grieved than his faithful friend and attendant. But the 
 thought of succeeding him never presented itself to his 
 mind. Indeed, Moses himself does not appear to have 
 thought of him in this direction ; for we learn that he be- 
 sought the Lord to appoint a man over the congregation, 
 that they should not be as sheep without a shepherd (Num. 
 xxvii. 17). In that prayer Joshua may have joined, think- 
 ing all the while that Caleb, the Hon-hearted, or Phinehas 
 the priest, or one of the sons of Moses, might take his 
 place ; but not supposing that he would himself be called 
 to it. His one aim had been to enhance the glory and 
 lighten the cares of Moses ; and he was too absorbed in 
 his master's personaHty to be greatly conscious of his own. 
 r'^When therefore the call came to him to assume the ofldce 
 /which Moses was vacating, his heart failed him, and he 
 'needed every kind of encouragement and stimulus, both 
 from God and man. " Be strong " means that he felt 
 weak ; " Be of good courage " means that he was affrighted ; 
 " Be not thou dismayed " means that he seriously consid- 
 ered whether he would not have to give up the task. He 
 was a worm, and no man : how should he deliver Israel? 
 
 It is when men are in this condition that God approaches 
 
"BE STRONG!" 19 
 
 them with the summons to undertake vast and overwhelm* 
 ing responsibilities. Most of us are too strong for him to 
 use; we are too full of our- own schemes, and plans, and 
 ways of doing things. He must empty us, and humble us, 
 and bring us down to the dust of death, so low that we 
 need every straw of encouragement, every leaf of help; 
 and then he will raise us up, and make us as the rod of his 
 strength. The world talks of the survival of the fittest ; 
 but God gives power to the faint, and increases might to 
 them that have no strength ; he perfects his strength in 
 weakness, and uses things that are not to bring to naught 
 things that are. If Ehud had been right-handed, he might 
 never have judged Israel ; if Gideon had been the greatest 
 instead of the least in his father's house, he would never 
 have vanquished Midian ; if Paul had been as eloquent in 
 his speech as he confesses himself to have been contempti- 
 ble, he would never have preached the Gospel from Jeru- 
 salem round to Illyricum. 
 
 Let us consider the sources of Joshua's strength. 
 
 I. A Faithful Past. — "After the death of Moses the 
 servant of the Lord, the Lord spake unto Joshua the son 
 of Nun, Moses' minister." In his case, as always, the 
 eternal rule held good, that faithfulness in a few things is 
 the condition of rule over many things ; and the loyalty of 
 a servant is the stepping-stone to the royalty of the throne. 
 Of the Highest it is said that he was obedient to death, 
 even the death of the cross; and that, therefore, God 
 highly exalted him, and gave him the Name above every 
 name. We must learn obedience by the things that we 
 suffer, ere we can be hfted from the dunghill to sit with 
 princes. 
 
 The previous years of Joshua's past had been full of 
 high and noble endeavor. For forty years, if Josephus be 
 
20 THE DIVINE COMMISSION. 
 
 correct in his statement as to his age at the death of Moses, 
 he shared the slavery and sorrows of a captive race. His 
 childish eyes must have become accustomed to witnessing 
 the brutality of the Egyptian taskmasters, even if his own 
 shoulders were not torn by their cruel whips. As a scion 
 of one of the leading families of Ephraim (Num. xiii. 8, 
 1 6), he may have taken some leading part in the marshal- 
 ing of the Exodus, and there approved himself as worthy 
 of all trust. His conflict with Amalek ; his good report of 
 the Land of Promise ; his refusal to take any part in the 
 disastrous attack on the Canaanites ; his eagerness for the 
 good name and fame of Moses ; his patient endurance of 
 the weary years of wandering — all prove that his was no 
 common character. The aloe blooms but once in a hun- 
 dred years ; but every hour of all that century is needed to 
 produce the delicate texture and resplendent beauty of the 
 flower. The deed of a Grace Darling is not the sudden 
 outburst of the moment that gives it birth, but the result 
 of long years of self-discipline, courage, and ministry to 
 others. And this summons of Joshua to the leader's place 
 in Israel was the guerdon of more than eighty years of 
 faithful service. 
 
 None of us can tell for what God is educating us. We 
 fret and murmur at the narrow round and daily task of 
 ordinary life, not realizing that it is only thus that we can 
 be prepared for the high and holy office which awaits us. 
 We must descend before we can ascend. We must suffer, 
 if we would reign. We must take the via cruets (the way 
 of the cross) submissively and patiently, if we would tread 
 the via lucis (the way of hght). We must endure the pol- 
 ishing, if we would be shafts in the quiver of Emmanuel. 
 God's will comes to thee and me in daily circumstances, 
 in little things equally as in great : meet them bravely ; be 
 at your best always, though the occasion be one of the 
 
JOSHUA'S TASK. 21 
 
 very least ; dignify the smallest summons by the greatness 
 of your response ; so the call will come to thee as to Joshua 
 the son of Nun, Moses' minister. 
 
 II. A Distinct Call. — "Arise, go over this Jordan, 
 thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to 
 them. ... Be strong and of a good courage, for thou 
 shalt cause this people to inherit the land which I sware 
 unto their fathers to give them." When a man knows 
 that he has been called to do a certain work, he is in- 
 vincible. He is not unconscious of his own deficiencies, 
 whether they be natural or intellectual. He is not insensi- 
 ble of difficulty; none so quick as he to see the great 
 stones, the iron gates, the walled cities, the broad and flow- 
 ing rivers ; he is not invulnerable to the shafts of ridicule 
 and adverse criticism : but for all these he looks steadily 
 away to the declared purpose of God, and yields himself 
 to be the channel through which it may operate. 
 
 Joshua's task was a very difficult one. The people of 
 Canaan were well versed in the arts and sciences of the 
 time, acquired from commerce with the Phoenicians on 
 the north and the Egyptians on the south. One of the 
 most interesting discoveries of recent years has shown that 
 the Hittites were a great people, highly cultured, and of 
 sufficient importance to rival Assyria and Egypt. It seemed 
 preposterous to suppose that a nation of a few years' exist- 
 ence was so soon to dispossess nations that had gained the 
 country by conquest and were prepared to fight for every 
 inch of territory by the most approved methods of warfare. 
 The Jewish legend says that when Joshua, appalled at the 
 greatness of the task, rent his clothes and fell on his face, 
 weeping to think of his incompetence, Moses hfted him up 
 and comforted him with the assurance that God had fore- 
 seen and provided for all. Whether it were so or not, it is 
 
22 THE DIVINE COMMISSION. 
 
 at least clear that the reiterated assurance of God to settle 
 Israel by means of Joshua must have been a great source 
 of strength to him. 
 
 The supreme inquiry for each of us, when summoned to 
 a new work, is — not whether we possess sufficient strength 
 or qualification for it, but — if we have been called to it of 
 God ; and when that is so there is no further cause for 
 anxiety. If it is in his plan that we should march through 
 a river, or attack a walled town, or turn to flight an army, 
 we have simply to go forward. He will make the mount- 
 ains a way. Rivers will dry up ; walls will fall down ; 
 armies shall be scattered as snow in Salmon. There is no 
 such thing as impossibility when God says, " Forward, soul : 
 arise, go over this Jordan!" 
 
 III. The Sense of the Presence of God. — "As I 
 was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail 
 thee, nor forsake thee." There was one particular in which 
 Joshua would always come far behind his great predeces- 
 sor. Both were in necessary and constant communication 
 with God; but Joshua had to seek counsel through the 
 high-priest, whereas Moses had enjoyed direct intercourse 
 with God, " speaking unto him face to face, as a man 
 speaketh unto his friend." Still, Joshua the son of Nun 
 was equally sure of the personal companionship of his great 
 Ally, though he lacked the direct vision. 
 
 There have been generals whose presence on the field 
 of battle has been the presage and guarantee of victory. 
 Not only have they inspired the soldiers with a sense of 
 confidence in their leadership, but they have encouraged 
 them by their personal prowess and bravery. There is a 
 marvelous sense of security and courage when a Christiana, 
 a Mr. Fearing, or a Miss Much- Afraid is assured of the 
 presence of a Great-heart, who has never turned his back 
 
"I IVILL BE WITH THEE.'* 23 
 
 on a foe. And a lonely, trembling soul dares to step 
 bravely across the margin of life into the unknown beyond : 
 to go down unabashed into the chill waters of death, be- 
 cause it can sing, "Thou art with me; thy rod and thy 
 staif they comfort me." 
 
 All through the arduous campaign that followed nothing 
 could daunt Joshua's courage whilst that assurance was 
 ever ringing its silver tones in the belfry of his memory, ** I 
 will be with thee." Ah, it is well when we can so encour- 
 age ourselves in God! The fire is heated seven times; 
 but he is with me, and no smell of fire shall pass upon my 
 flesh. The river is deep ; but he is with me, and its waters 
 shall not sweep me off my feet. Mine enemies are many, 
 and they hate me with cruel hatred ; but he is with me, 
 and no weapon that is formed against me shall prosper, 
 and every tongue that shall rise in judgment agamsc me 
 he will condemn. Who can wax faint-hearted whilst he 
 holds the right hand, saying, " Fear not, I am with thee!" 
 The Lord Jesus ever lives to save unto the uttermost, and 
 is witn us all the days, even unto the end of the age. 
 
 IV. The Indwelling of the Word of God. — "This 
 book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth ; but 
 thou shalt meditate therein day and night." Words pass 
 on to men the heroic thoughts which thrilled the souls of 
 those who spake them first. There are words, as there 
 are strains of music, which cannot be uttered without 
 nerving men to dare and do, to attempt and achieve. A 
 woman will be strong to wait and suffer for long years in 
 the strength of a sentence spoken by her lover as he parted 
 from her. An army has before now forgotten sleepless 
 nights and hungry marches in the stirring harangue of its 
 general. And is not this what the prophet meant, when 
 he said, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; 
 
24 THE DIVINE COMMISSION. 
 
 and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine 
 heart " : and what Jesus meant when he said, " The words 
 that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are hfe "? 
 
 We must meditate on the words of God, because it is 
 through the Word of God that the Spirit of God comes in 
 fullness to be the mighty occupant of our inner man. 
 This, after all, is the secret of strength — to be possessed of 
 the strong Son of God, strengthened by his indwelHng 
 might, and filled by his Spirit. 
 
 We can do all things when Christ is in us in unthwarted 
 power. The only limit lies in our faith and capacity ; or, 
 in other words, in our absolute submission to his indwell- 
 ing. Little children can overcome when there is within 
 them a Stronger than their foes. Weaklings may do ex- 
 ploits when the Mighty Conqueror who travels in the 
 greatness of his strength makes them the vehicle of his 
 progress. Nobodies, nonentities, broken reeds, bleached 
 jaw-bones, quills plucked from the wild-fowl, and arrows 
 that a babe could snap, accomplish marvels, because they 
 are the channels through which the mysterious current of 
 divine power and Godhead flows forth to the world. 
 
 Our risen Lord is charged with power. It is stored in 
 him as in a cistern for us. As the force of the brain is 
 communicated to the members by the energy of the vital 
 current flashing along the nerves, so does the power of 
 Jesus come to us, his members, by the Holy Ghost. And 
 if we would have that blessed Spirit, we must seek him, 
 not only in the fervid meeting or in the great convocation, 
 but through the Word, wherein his force is stored. Medi- 
 tate on it day and night, till it yield to thee strength and 
 good courage, drawn from the nature of the glorified Re- 
 deemer. Thy God hath commanded thy strength : claim 
 it from Jesus, through faith, by his Spirit, and in his Word. 
 
 Be strong in your weakness through the strengthening 
 
THE IVORD OF GOD. 25 
 
 might of Christ. Take weakness, weariness, faint-hearted- 
 ness, and difficulty, into his presence ; they will melt as 
 hoar-frost in sunbeams. Give yourself wholly up to him, 
 to do or die, as he shall choose. Then anoint your head, 
 and wash your face. You shall have your inheritance in 
 Timnath-heres (the portion of the sun) ; you shall make 
 your way prosperous, and have good success; and you 
 shall lead a nation to inherit the Land of Promise. 
 
III. 
 
 Srijr^e majjs* JJanse. 
 
 (Joshua i. i i ; ii.) 
 
 ** God's fashion is another : day by day, 
 And year by year, he tarrieth ; little need 
 The Lord should hasten. " 
 
 Myers. 
 
 THE whole land of Canaan was Israel's by deed of 
 gift. As soon as Lot had separated from Abraham, 
 choosing all the plain of Jordan, and pitching his tent 
 toward Sodom, the Lord drew near his faithful servant, 
 assuring him that he would not suffer him to lose by his 
 magnanimity. "Arise," said the divine voice, "walk 
 through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of 
 it ; for I will give it unto thee.'' But, after that, when Mel- 
 chizedek had blessed him, and he had watched through 
 the long hours with God, beneath the horror of the great 
 darkness, "The Lord made a covenant with him, saying, 
 Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of 
 Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." 
 
 But though this was so, each square mile of it had to 
 be claimed from the hand of the peoples that possessed it. 
 " The sole of the foot " had to be put down to claim and 
 take. The cities were theirs, but they must enter them ; 
 the houses which they had not built were theirs, but they 
 must inhabit them; the cornfields in the rich vales and 
 
 26 
 
DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 27 
 
 the vineyards on the terraced slopes were theirs, but they 
 must possess them. It is not difficult for us to realize 
 these things, for spiritually we occupy precisely a similar 
 position. God our Father hath blessed us with all spiritual 
 blessings in Christ Jesus ; but they are not ours to enjoy 
 until we have claimed and appropriated them by a living 
 faith. They are only ours as we avail ourselves of them. 
 Hence the need to " be strong and very courageous." 
 
 But now a new and unexpected delay took place. A 
 three days' pause was called for. The officers informed 
 the people that three days must pass before they could go 
 in to possess the land which the Lord their God was giving 
 them to possess. 
 
 I. What this Pause Meant. — " Three days " is a rec- 
 ognized period in Scripture for death and resiurection. 
 "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of 
 the sea-monster (r.v,, marg.), so shall the Son of Man be 
 three days and ' three nights in the heart of the earth." 
 " On the third day he will raise us up, and we shall Hve 
 before him." It was, therefore, appropriate that this 
 period should elapse ere the people could pass through 
 symbolic death over to resurrection ground. 
 
 But there was another and deeper reason for the delay, 
 which closely touches one of the greatest principles of the 
 inner Hfe. When Israel reached its banks, the Jordan was 
 in flood, and overflowing the low-lying lands on either side 
 of its bed. It was the time of " the swellings of Jordan," 
 which in after-days was employed as an expression for 
 overwhelming trouble. Before the gaze of the assembled 
 hosts the turbid floods rushed on, swollen by melting 
 snows far away on Hermon, and carrying trunks of trees 
 and other dedns torn from the banks in their impetuous 
 descent. Its force and velocity, as it poured down from 
 
28 THREE DAYS' PAUSE, 
 
 its upper basins to the immense depression of the Dead 
 Sea, had gained for it the name of " Descender " ; and this 
 title was specially appropriate at such seasons as that at 
 which Israel first beheld it. 
 
 Across the river stood Jericho, embosomed in palms and 
 tamarisks, in a very paradise of exquisite vegetation, its 
 aromatic shrubs and gardens scenting the air. But as the 
 people beheld it, all their cherished hopes of taking it by 
 their own energy or courage must have been utterly dissi- 
 pated. What could they do in face of that broad expanse 
 of rushing, foaming, turbulent waters? The Jordan, on 
 the page of Scripture, is constantly associated with death. 
 This indeed is its common characteristic. Not the death 
 of the body ; but that baptism into death which signifies a 
 pause in the energies of nature, and an entrance through 
 faith on a higher and nobler level. So John baptized 
 there ; and there the Lord entered into his first identifica- 
 tion with sins not his own. But never in all its history 
 did the Jordan more effectually pronounce the sentence of 
 death than on that day when it taught the people that by 
 no strength or energy of their own could they prevail. 
 
 Multitudes have come to the brink of that river, and 
 have been left there^ waiting on its banks, that they might 
 consider the meaning of those impassable waters, and carry 
 away the sentence of death in themselves. Abraham 
 waited there for more than twenty years, face to face with 
 the apparent impossibility of ever having a son. David 
 waited there for almost as long ; and it must have seemed 
 that the kingdom foretold to him as a youth lay on the 
 other side of insurmountable difficulties. The sisters of 
 Bethany waited there ; and the stone, rolled heavily to the 
 door of the tomb where Lazarus lay, must have been to 
 them all that the Jordan was to Israel — the knell of hope. 
 
 Many a saint since then has been brought down to these 
 
THE RIVER OF JORDAN. 19 
 
 same banks, and has stood to witness these flowing streams. 
 What though the promise of God has offered all manner of 
 blessedness and dehght! That river! Always that river! 
 That flooded, fordless, bridgeless, boatless river! Are you 
 there now, my reader? Do not hasten from it. Stand 
 still and consider, until the energy and impetuosity of your 
 self -life dies down. You can never reach the Blessed Lifei 
 by resolutions, or pledges, or forms of covenant; your) 
 good self is as powerless now as your bad self was for- 
 merly ; you must learn that your strength is to sit still, and 
 that the rich blessings of God stored in Christ for you are 
 an absolute gift to be received by the outstretched hand 
 of faith. 
 
 What a marvelous expression that is concerning the faith 
 of Abraham! — " Without being weakened in faith, he con- 
 sidered his own body as good as dead, and the deadness 
 of Sarah's womb" (Rom. iv. 19, r.v.). Not many could 
 have long stood such considerations without losing all the 
 faith they ever possessed. There was one secret, however, 
 that sustained him. " He looked unto the promise of 
 God." Turning from the one to the other, he wavered 
 not. These are the only conditions on which the vision 
 of the river will not hurt us ; if only we turn from it to the 
 Presence of the Captain of the Lord's Host, and to the 
 covenant which is ordered in all things and sure. Then 
 we shall wax strong through faith, and be fully assured 
 that what God has promised he is able also to perform. 
 
 II. How THIS Pause was spent. — During this space 
 of three days events transpired which are both interesting 
 and typical. Amongst other things Jericho was entered 
 by the two spies. 
 
 (i) Jericho may fitly stand for the world of men over 
 which' judgment is impending, but which goes on its way 
 
so THREE DAYS' PAUSE. 
 
 unheeding. The blue sky spread its canopy overhead; 
 the sun rose and set ; the fields were ripened for harvest ; 
 the vintage was preparing ; youth and beauty with hnked 
 hands pursued a flower-strewn path; but within a fort- 
 night a blow was to fall from which the city would not 
 rally for centuries. 
 
 The great majority of the people were either bent on 
 stubborn resistance, or boasted themselves on their river 
 and their walls. Their iniquity was full. And no procla- 
 mation was made to them, no terms proposed, no embassy 
 sent. But there was one soul in their midst who was capa- 
 ble of faith, and was already exercising it. And he who 
 had mu- tured ±Cahab, anid^d'lier to the point which she 
 had reached, was bent on p erfecting what, he had com- 
 menced, and on leading her into the fullest hght which that 
 age possessed. This is ever God's way. If there is but 
 "one righteous man in Sodom, he cannot destroy the city 
 till his angels have brought him forth. If there is but one 
 doubter among the apostles, he will not leave him com- 
 fortless, but will come to him with unmistakable tokens. 
 Wherever there is a Rahab, who, amid much sin and igno- 
 ranceTisTivmg^ up to the truth she has, and longs for more, 
 God will takejier hand and lead her to himself. He dis- 
 cerns a touch on his robe, and stays his footsteps till he 
 has fully healed. A Nathanael beneath the fig-tree, a 
 eunuch in his chariot, a Cornelius praying beside the sea, 
 are not overlooked amid the crowds of careless souls around. 
 They are as jewels on a heap of cinders, which are eagerly 
 espied and taken up, poHshed, and placed amid the divine 
 regalia. 
 
 Two references are made in the New Testament to 
 Rahab's faith (Heb. xi. 3 1 ; James ii. 25). It was true faith, 
 though exercised only toward a fragment of the ^uth^Jt 
 is not the amount of truth that a man holds which saves 
 
THE SCARLET THREAD. 31 
 
 him ; but the grasp with which he holds it. / AU^ jhat 
 Raha b knew was that God had delivered his people from 
 Pharaoh, and had promised to give them that land; and 
 she believed it ^ and it was accounted to her for righteous- 
 ness. And the evidences of her faith were quick to follow. 
 She came into antagonism with the world-spirit as repre- 
 sented in the king of Jericho ; she sent the spies out by 
 ariother^way. She Identified herself with Israel by the 
 scarlet thread ; she gathered her kinsfolk under her roof ; 
 her window looked toward Israel, whilst her door stood 
 open to shelter many a fugitive ; and though her faith was 
 not as yet sufficiently strong to deliver her entirely from 
 the^ fear of man which brought the snare of lying, yet she 
 was commended to the care of Israel, and became a link 
 in the ancestry of the Son of Man. 
 
 Rahab, the poor outcast of Jericho, who had this strange 
 faith in God, entered in with the people to possess the land 
 that flowed with milk and honey. She is thus the type of 
 Gentile sinners who are permitted to share in the unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ ; to sit with him in the heavenlies ; to 
 form part of that new race which is gathering arouad the 
 true Joshua, the Lord from heaven. We were not a peo- 
 ple ; but are now the people of God. We had not ob- 
 tained mercy ; but have now obtained it. We were far 
 off ; but are now made nigh by the blood of Christ. So 
 then we are no more strangers or sojourners; but fellow- 
 citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. 
 Only let us avail ourselves of our heritage! 
 
 (2) During this brief pause Joshua also had an oppor- 
 tunity of ascertaining the feelings of the two tribes and a 
 half. He discovered that they were fully prepared to dis- 
 charge the obhgation into which they had entered with 
 Joshua, and to march with the other tribes to the conquest 
 of Canaan. But they were equally set on returning to the 
 
32 THREE DAYS' PAUSE. 
 
 rich pasture lands of Gilead, and Bashan, which Moses 
 gave them beyond Jordan, toward the sunrising. They 
 had "much cattle" (Num. xxxii. 2, 4, 19, 33). 
 
 Are not these the type of Christians to whom the Land 
 of Promise is as freely open as to others, and who make 
 an incursion into it with no thought of remaining? They 
 are wiUing to mete and measure their strength with the 
 seven nations of Canaan ; but they are not prepared to 
 abandon the strong fascinations of the world, and to settle 
 down to a life hidden with Christ in God. Are there not 
 among us those who have spent seven years in the Land 
 of Promise, and have had hallowed experiences of blessed- 
 ness, rest, and power ; but have been swept off their feet 
 and back by the receding tide of worldliness? 
 
 The end of such is but too clearly suggested by the fate 
 of those Eastern tribes. They had their much grass ; but 
 they became gradually cut off from the corporate life of 
 Israel. They gave few great names to the roll of saints 
 and heroes emblazoned on Israel's story. They fell first 
 beneath the invasions of Assyria, and were swept into cap- 
 tivity, from which they never returned. 
 
 From such a lot may we all be saved! Rather be it 
 our happy portion to be employed on the Lord's embassies 
 in seeking souls ; shown where to find them ; taught how 
 to deal with them; and enabled to lead them out into 
 complete identification with the people of God. 
 
 III. How THE Pause ended. — On the third day the 
 hosts seem to have come nearer the river's brink, and their 
 tents were pitched for the night within close proximity to 
 the hurrying waters. It was then that Joshua said unto 
 the people, " Sanctify yourselves ; for to-morrow the Lord 
 will do wonders among you." From which it would seem 
 that the wonder-working power of God is dependent upon 
 
"SANCTIFY YOURSELVES." 33 
 
 the sanctification of his people. When we ask the olden 
 question, "Why art thou as a mighty man that cannot 
 save? " we get the answer, which shows that we are to 
 blame for the divine impotence, ** He could do no mighty 
 works there, because of their unbehef." 
 
 We all want to see wonders wrought by God — in our 
 own characters, that the fir-tree may replace the thorn, and 
 the myrtle the brier ; in oiu" homes, that the desert places 
 may blossom with roses ; in our churches, that they may 
 arise and put on their beautiful garments. Oh for another 
 Pentecost! Oh for a widespread revival of true godliness! 
 Oh for the making bare of the right hand of the Most 
 High ! Oh to see converts fly as doves to their windows ! 
 And why is it that we strain our eyes for them in vain? 
 Is it not because we have not sanctified ourselves? Sancti- 
 fication means the cleansing of the soul, and the putting 
 on of the white robes of purity and humility. We are not 
 clean enough for God to use us. We are not humble 
 enough to bear a great success. It is perfectly true that 
 we can only be wholly sanctified by the God of Peace. 
 Holiness on its positive side is his indwelling and filling ; 
 but on its negative side it involves the putting away of 
 known sin, or the being willing that he should cleanse it 
 away from us by blood, or water, or fire. 
 
 Is this our condition? Have we laid aside our weights 
 as well as our sins? Are we cleansed from all filthiness of 
 the flesh and spirit? Are we able to say with the Apostle 
 that we do not condemn ourselves in anything that we 
 allow? If not, let us no longer complain that the days of 
 wonders are over. We are ourselves accountable for their 
 having vanished, like peace from the criminal, and purity 
 from the fallen. No wonder we are always dreading to- 
 morrow. To-morrow with God, and without the wonders 
 of his mighty arm, is indeed a dismal outlook. 
 
34 THREE DAYS* PAUSE. 
 
 But if only each one of us were to sanctify himself, put- 
 ting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the 
 new man, renewed daily in the image of Christ ; forsaking 
 every form of evil, and hating even the garment spotted 
 by the flesh ; yielding himself to the two-edged sword of 
 the great High- Priest — we should find that wonders would 
 begin and never cease ; that the to-morrows would only 
 unfold greater and better things than ever before; that 
 Jordans would cleave, and Jerichos would fall. Then the 
 Land of Promise would he open with its immeasurable 
 plenty, its oil and wine, its com and honey, its precious 
 priceless stores. 
 
IV. 
 
 ^Passing tl)e Moxhan. 
 
 (Joshua iii. lo.) 
 
 ** Omnipotence is on your side, 
 
 And Wisdom watches o'er your heads. 
 And God himself will be your Guide, 
 
 So ye but follow where he leads : 
 How many, guided by his hand. 
 Have reached ere now their fatherland! 
 Press on! press on!" 
 
 Lehr. 
 
 THE words " I will drive out " are familiar ones in the 
 Mosaic record of the Exodus. A dozen times at least 
 God promised, through his servant, to drive out the na- 
 tions of Canaan before his people. Sometimes it was to be 
 wrought by sending an angel, and sometimes a hornet ; for 
 though God's righteous acts are fair and lovely to his chil- 
 dren, they are terrible to his adversaries. All that Israel 
 had to do was to march straight before them into the Land 
 of Promise; and they would find that kings would flee 
 apace, and that the mightiest armies would give back. 
 
 There were several reasons why it was needful for God 
 to drive out the seven nations which dwelt in Canaan. 
 But chief amongst them stands that suggested by the mem- 
 orable interview held between Jehovah and Abraham, the 
 ancestor of the chosen race, four centuries before — the in- 
 iquity of the Amorite was now full (Gen. xv. i6). 
 
 35 
 
36 TASSJNu 'HE JORDAN. 
 
 In the first place, the nations of Canaan had abandoned 
 themselves to the most abo7ninable immorality. After 
 enumerating several impure actions, which were not to be 
 so much as named amongst the chosen people, Moses, 
 speaking as the mouthpiece of Jehovah, said, " Defile not 
 ye yourselves in any of these things ; for in all these the 
 nations are defiled which I cast out before you, and the 
 land is defiled: therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof 
 upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants." 
 The destruction of the people by the sword of Israel was 
 only the hastening of the natural results of their shameful 
 vice. The reasons which necessitated the Deluge of water 
 necessitated this deluge of blood. Plague-spot as it was, 
 Canaan would have infected the world had it not been 
 passed through the fire. 
 
 In the second place, the Canaanites were steeped in 
 spiritualism, and held close communications with the 
 demons of the air, which have always been forbidden to 
 men. On the eve of Israel's entrance into Canaan, Moses 
 said, " There shall not be found with thee one that useth 
 divination, one that practiceth augury, or an enchanter, or 
 a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a consulter with a famihar spirit, 
 or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whosoever doeth 
 these things is an abomination unto the Lord; and be- 
 cause of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive 
 them out from before thee" (Deut. xviii. 10-12). These 
 terms include mesmerism; the use of evil spirits to get 
 aid and information; demoniacal possession of bodies of 
 mediums ; and the apparent summoning back of the de- 
 parted. " All these things are a transgression of the hmits 
 of humanity as laid down by the Creator. And the un- 
 lawful confusion brings its own immediate punishment, in 
 addition to the fearful judgment to come. For our body 
 appears to be intended to serve as a fortress ; and is not 
 
THE !?ylQUlTY OF THE CANAANITES. 37 
 
 improbably devised for the very purpose of sheltering us 
 in some degree from the corrupting influence of demons " 
 (Fember). When, therefore, man breaks through this strong 
 fence, and opens a passage of communication with the 
 fallen spirits around, he exposes himself to God's direst 
 wrath ; and for the sake of the race these black arts must 
 be stayed. 
 
 And this last thought gives a new complexion to this 
 conflict. In driving out and destroying these demoralized 
 races, God was in effect waging war with the evil spirits, 
 who from their seat in the heavenlies were ruling the dark- 
 ness of that land. This conflict was not against flesh and 
 blood ; " but against the principalities, against the powers, 
 against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly 
 places." The mighty armies marshaled against Israel 
 were dissipated as chaff before the breeze of the summer 
 evening ; because the demons whom they worshiped were 
 being driven out before the Lord's host, the Captain of 
 which appeared presently to Joshua. At this time, prob- 
 ably, to celestial watchers, Satan appeared to fall as light- 
 ning from heaven. And thus this old record is invested 
 with a new interest. It is not simply the story of the con- 
 quest of Canaan ; but it is a fragment from the chronicles 
 of heaven, giving an episode in the eternal conflict between 
 light and darkness, between heaven and hell, between the 
 Son of God and his great antagonist, the devil. What an 
 interesting additional analogy is presented by this fact, be- 
 tween the Book of Joshua and the Epistle to the Ephesians! 
 
 God graciously vouchsafed a sign of the ultimate issue of 
 the war ; so that through the seven years of coming con- 
 flict the people of Israel might be at rest as to the result. 
 "Hereby ye shall know that the Hving God is among 
 you, and that he will without fail drive out from before 
 you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and 
 
3S TASSING THE JORDAN. 
 
 the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and 
 the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord 
 of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan." The 
 passage of the turbulent waters of Jordan was to be the 
 Heaven-appointed sign : just as the passage of our Lord 
 through death, his resurrection, and ascension, are the 
 Heaven-appointed auguries and signs that he shall at last 
 put down all rule, and authority, and power ; destroy the 
 works of the devil ; and give up the kingdom to God, even 
 the Father. 
 
 I. The Passage of the Jordan. — At the close of the 
 three days of preparation there seems to have been a 
 movement of the camp from Shittim, with its acacia groves, 
 to a spot within a mile of the boisterous rush of the swollen 
 floods. There Israel spent the last memorable night of 
 pilgrimage and wandering. As the dawn broke, the officers 
 again passed through the host, and bade the people watch 
 and follow the movements of the ark. A short interval 
 only would elapse before the congregation had struck their 
 slight black tents, packed up their household goods, ad- 
 justed their burdens, and stood in one great host, two and 
 a half millions strong, prepared to tread the untried path 
 — the way that they had not passed heretofore — though it 
 led into the valley of death. The sun was rising behind 
 them, its beams flashing on the Jordan, a mile of water 
 broad, and setting in bold rehef the white walls of the 
 houses of Jericho ; whilst all the adjacent hills of Canaan 
 stood around veiled in morning mist, or robed in the ex- 
 quisite garments of light. 
 
 At last a little group emerged from those densely crowded 
 hosts. It was the chosen band of priests, white-robed, 
 barefooted, who slowly descended the terraced bank of 
 the river, bearing on their shoulders the sacred ark, its 
 
THE PRIESTS BEARING THE ARK. 39 
 
 golden Hd and bending cherubim hidden beneath their 
 covering of blue. How awful the silence ! How fixed the 
 gaze that followed them every step ! How hushed the 
 voices of wiseacres and gainsayers who had been loud 
 all the previous days in protesting that the passage was 
 impossible ; and that it would be wiser to wait until the 
 mile of water had dwindled to the normal width of thirty 
 yards when the stream was four or six feet deep, and easily 
 fordable ! 
 
 Nearer the little procession went ; but even when it was 
 within a yard of the river brink, its approach effected noth- 
 ing. The waters showed no disposition to flee or fail. But 
 when the feet of the priests were dipped into the tiny 
 wavelets, brown with mud, yeasty with the foam of their 
 hurried rush, a marvelous change took place. They began 
 to divide and shrink away. And as the priests piusued 
 them, descending ever farther toward the midst of Jordan, 
 they fled before them as if panic-stricken. " What ailed 
 thee, thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back ? " Nothing 
 could account for so great a wonder, save the presence of 
 the God of Jacob, and that the ark of the covenant of 
 the Lord of all the earth was passing through those depths. 
 
 Far up the river, at a distance of some thirty miles, at 
 Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan, the flow of the river 
 had suddenly stayed, and the waters, unable to hurry for- 
 ward, gathered into a heap, and probably formed a vast 
 lake that spread itself for miles. From that point and 
 downward, the waters, no longer suppHed from above, 
 began to fail ; they hurried toward the Sea of Death, and 
 were swallowed up in its dark, unwholesome depths. " They 
 were wholly cut off." And as there were none to follow, 
 the river-bed for miles was dry ; and the people, hurrying 
 down the bank, " hastened and passed over." 
 
 Mark the all-inclusiveness of the miracle. It did not 
 
40 TASSING THE JORDAN. 
 
 concern the strong only, but also the weak; not men 
 only, but women and children ; not the loyal and true only, 
 but the querulous, the murmurers, the doubters, the fearless 
 and unbelieving. Achan, whose heart was preparing for 
 his deed of sin ; and Caleb, the hale warrior, who wholly 
 followed the Lord. Not one was missing. The feet of 
 the priests stood firm till every individual of the redeemed 
 race had crossed the river. It is a blessed anticipation of 
 the keeping back of a more awful flood until without one 
 exception the entire host of the Church has entered that 
 city whose walls are Salvation, and its gates Praise. 
 
 And this was the promised sign. For he who could 
 drive out the waters would drive out their foes. Having 
 done so much, he would perfect that which he had begun. 
 No child of the kingdom may put his hand to the plow 
 and then look back ; how much less the King himself! 
 
 II. The Typical Significance of this Passage. — 
 The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the 
 works of the devil. The dispossession of the devil from 
 the position which he has usurped is as certain as that of 
 the Canaanites from the Land of Promise. His doom is 
 sure. He must be cast out. Our Emmanuel will not fail 
 nor be discouraged until our great enemy and all his armies 
 have been cast out of the heavenlies into the earth, and 
 out of the earth into the abyss, and thence into the lake of 
 fire. And this is the sign of it, that he dipped his feet in 
 death ; and, dying, aboHshed death. It fled before him, 
 as Jordan before the priests; and for those. who live and 
 believe in him, though the semblance of dying remains, it 
 is as a river-bed from which the water has shrunk away, 
 and the blood-bought go over dry-shod. 
 
 Christian people do not seem to understand this glorious 
 fact. They think that death to them will be much as it 
 has been and is to the myriads who die out of Christ. But 
 
"CHRIST THE FIRST-FRUITS." 41 
 
 surely this is a profound mistake. When Jesus died, he 
 entirely altered the article of death for all who beheve. 
 ** Through death he brought to naught him that had the 
 power of death, that is the devil ; and delivered them who 
 through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to 
 bondage." 
 
 In view of these considerations what a ray of light flashes 
 on several of these sentences ! 
 
 "There shall be a space between you and the ark'' Yes, 
 the Lord Jesus preceded his Church. He first passed 
 through the grave in resurrection power. " Every man in 
 his own order : Christ the first-fruits, afterward they that 
 are Christ's." In all things, and therefore in this also, he 
 must have the preeminence. When he putteth forth his 
 own sheep, he goeth before them ; and his sheep follow 
 him. " The breaker is gone up before them : they have 
 broken forth and passed on to the gate, and are gone out 
 thereat, and their king is passed on before them, and the 
 Lord at the head of them" (Micah li. 13, r.v.) 
 
 "And the Lord said unto Joshua^ This day ivill I begin to 
 magnify thee'' And surely the exaltation of Christ as the 
 God-man dates from the moment that he stepped into the 
 hurrying waters of death and dried them up. " The God 
 of Peace brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that 
 great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the blood of the 
 everlasting covenant." 
 
 "The priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord 
 stood firm, until all the nation were passed clean over Jordan P 
 Thus does the merit of Jesus avail 
 
 *' Till all the ransomed Church of God 
 Be saved to sin no more." 
 
 The waters of judgment may be accumulating for all 
 who cling to the old Adam-stock ; but they can never slip 
 from their leash until every trembling laggard soul that 
 
42 TASSING THE JORDAN. 
 
 will has passed into blessed rest. You may be young, or 
 crippled, or ready to halt, or much afraid ; but if you will 
 but cast in your lot with the host of the ransomed, the 
 Priest will lengthen out the dispensation, and hold the 
 waters back for you. 
 
 " The people hasted and passed over." Not that they were 
 afraid of being caught in the rush of water ; but that they 
 might not overtire the waiting priests, patiently standing, 
 the precious burden on their shoulders. Has not the 
 patience of Jesus been greatly exercised during these long 
 centuries ? He longs to take his bride to himself, to reap 
 the harvest of his tears, and see of the travail of his soul. 
 Let us hasten the coming of the day of God, by learning 
 all his holy lessons, doing his blessed will, and hastening 
 the Lots that linger at the gates of Sodom. 
 
 Here, then, is the blessed sign of the final victory of the 
 Son of God; and every Christian who passes into the 
 Land of Promise, Rest, and Victory, who begins to live 
 the resurrection life, who knows what it is to stand in 
 conscious rapture of power, is another pledge that ere long 
 the song shall be heard ringing through all the spheres : 
 " Hallelujah! the kingdoms of this world have become the 
 kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he shall reign 
 forever." 
 
 in. The Bearing of this Passage on Christian 
 Experience. — (i) We have aheady seen the effect pro- 
 duced by the death of the Lord Jesus on death. It is 
 appointed unto man once to die. And since we have died 
 in him, we shall find death robbed of its terrors. The 
 darkness of the valley is only that of a shadow. But this 
 is not all. By virtue of our union with him, we have 
 passed through death on to resurrection ground, and have 
 become " the children of the resurrection." It is on this 
 
CHILDREN OF THE RESURRECTION. 43 
 
 fact in our spiritual history that the apostles base many of 
 their most powerful arguments and appeals. " We who 
 died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein ? " " Ye 
 were made dead to the law, through the body of Christ, 
 that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was 
 raised from the dead." " Forasmuch then as Christ suffered 
 in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same mind ; for 
 he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, 
 that ye no longer should Hve the rest of your time to the 
 lusts of men, but to the will of God." 
 
 (2) With this truth we can foil the most bewitching fas- 
 cinations of the world. We have passed out of it with our 
 dear Lord. We have left it behind us on the other side 
 of his grave. We cannot love it which crucified him, and 
 us in him. We have died, and our life is hid with Christ 
 in God. We have risen, and seek those things which are 
 above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 
 We have become citizens of the new Jerusalem ; and if we 
 still move amid the world's engagements, it is in the garb 
 of strangers and foreigners — men from the other side of 
 the river, who speak the language and wear the attire of 
 the heavenly Canaan — the language, love; the attire, the 
 white raiment, pure and clean, washed in the Blood of the 
 Lamb. 
 
 It is true that Jordans always roll between us and our 
 Canaans. We are permitted to catch glimpses of spiritual 
 experience, which is not only within our reach, but evi- 
 dently intended for us. A face lighted up with an un- 
 earthly glow ; a recital of experience ; a passage in a book ; 
 a text; a sermon — these have revealed something as ra- 
 diant to our gaze as Jericho must have seemed to those 
 weary travelers. But there is a Jordan between us and it. 
 And the turbulent waters seem an impassable barrier. 
 
 There is no hope that we shall be able to cope with 
 
44 TASSING THE JORDAN. 
 
 these things by any might or wisdom of our own. As 
 well might we seek to arrest a river in its flood, or curb the 
 ocean in storm. The opposition of that relative; the 
 hatred of that persecutor; the strength of that passion; 
 the tyranny of that habit; the untowardness of our cir- 
 cumstances — these are our Jordan. How easy Hfe would 
 be if only these were other than they are! Give me 
 Canaan without its Jordan ! But God permits the Jordans 
 that he may educate our faith. Do not look at the trou- 
 bled waters rushing past ; at the Priest, who is also the Ark 
 of the Covenant. He will never send us by a way that he 
 is not willing to tread before us. " Behold, the ark of the 
 covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before 
 you into Jordan." 
 
 Keep in living fellowship with the Apostle and High- 
 Priest of your profession. Consider him. Look away from 
 all else to him. Follow him. It may seem as if he is 
 leading thee into certain destruction ; but it shall not be 
 so. When thou comest to the dreaded difficulty, be it 
 what it may, thou wilt find that because his feet have been 
 dipped in its brink, it has dwindled in its flow. Its roar 
 is hushed; its waters are shrunken; its violence is gone. 
 The iron gate stands open. The stone is rolled from the 
 sepulcher. The river-bed is dry. Jericho is within reach. 
 ** They passed over right against Jericho." 
 
ttl|e 0t0nes of (l^iigai. 
 
 (Joshua iv., v.) 
 
 ** Less, less of self each day, 
 
 And more, my God, of thee! 
 Oh, keep me in the way. 
 However rough it be ! 
 Leave naught that is unmeet ; 
 
 Of all that is mine own 
 Strip me ; and so complete 
 My training for the throne." 
 
 H. BONAR. 
 
 ON the western side of Jordan, to which the host of 
 Israel had now come, five miles from the river-brink, 
 the terraced banks reached their highest point. That was 
 Gilgal. There the first camp was pitched, on the edge of 
 a vast grove of majestic palms, nearly three miles broad 
 and eight miles long, that stretched away to Jericho. Dean 
 Stanley suggests that, as Joshua witnessed it, it must have 
 recalled to him the magnificent palm-groves of Egypt, such 
 as stretch at the present day along the shores of the Nile 
 at Memphis. Amidst this forest could have been seen, 
 reaching through its open spaces, fields of ripe corn, " for 
 it was the time of the barley harvest " ; and above the top- 
 most trees the high walls and towers of the city on the 
 farther side, which from that grove derived its proud name, 
 " Jericho, the City of Palms." 
 Gilgal was the base of operations in the war against the 
 45 
 
46 GILGAL 
 
 people of Canaan. There the camp remained, and the 
 women and children (ix. 6 ; x. 6). It ranked with Mizpeh 
 and Bethel amongst the holy places, where Samuel exer- 
 cised his sacred office (i Sam. vii. i6). It was the rallying- 
 point to which the people gathered at solemn times of 
 national crisis (xi. 14). Saul had reason to remember it; 
 and there Agag was hewed in pieces "before the Lord." 
 
 Probably to the last of the events, and beyond, the 
 twelve stones were visible which had been pitched by 
 Joshua as the lasting memorial of the passage of the river. 
 Children were brought thither by their parents to see them, 
 and to hear the wondrous story of the passage, recited on 
 the spot in words which Joshua had suggested long before. 
 
 At the time when the book was written, the other heap 
 of stones, laid in the river-bed, must have been clearly dis- 
 cernible when the stream, temporarily swollen by the spring 
 floods, had retreated to its normal width (iv. 9) ; and there 
 could have been no difficulty in fixing the hill of circum- 
 cision, where, at the command of God, they had rolled 
 away the reproach of Egypt, and from which the name 
 Gilgal, or Rolling, was derived (v. 9). 
 
 Gilgal was from the first "holy ground" (v. 15) ; and as 
 we traverse it again in devout thought, it will give us also 
 themes for deep and holy meditation. 
 
 I. The Stones on the Bank. — At the divine bid- 
 ding, twelve men, one out of each tribe, went down into 
 the river's bed on a special errand. From the place where 
 the priests' feet stood firm in Jordan they took each man a 
 stone. It may be that the priests had selected those stones 
 as providing a safe and secure footing ; or perhaps they 
 lay within some short distance of the spot where they had 
 stood upbearing the sacred symbol of the presence of God. 
 For centuries these stones had lain there undisturbed ; but 
 
I 
 
 "IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME." 47 
 
 now, piled together in a heap before the eyes of all men, 
 they were to be a memorial of the passage of Jordan, as 
 the song of Moses was of the passage through the Red Sea. 
 
 It is well that forgetful hearts like ours should be stirred 
 p by way of remembrance. We are so apt to grow un- 
 mindful of the Rock that begat us, and to forget the God 
 that gave us birth. Even the Lord, whose love effected 
 a redemption which runs parallel with our lives, as a river 
 beside a carriage road, needed to set up a memorial of his 
 most precious death on our behalf. There is, therefore, a 
 needs-be for these memorial stones to be erected beside our 
 Jordans, with their inscription, " Wherefore remember." 
 
 The special circumstance which these stones commemo- 
 rated was that they had come, a united people, through the 
 Jordan ; and that as a nation they had been brought into 
 the land promised to their fathers. What though two 
 tribes and a half had elected to stay with their cattle in 
 the rich pastures of Gilead and Bashan, yet they were still 
 an integral part of the people. There were twelve stones. 
 And in after-centuries, if the heap remained intact, even 
 after the northern tribes had been carried into captivity, 
 any who came thither would be compelled to admit that 
 there had been a time when the twelve tribes of Israel had 
 stood together, on that spot, a united and mighty nation. 
 
 And what is the typical and spiritual significance of this? 
 Why this reverent care to pitch these bowlder stones, and 
 to record with such minute detail the fact ? What mean 
 these stones? Those who have followed carefully the 
 teaching of the preceding chapters cannot hesitate as to 
 the reply. As in the passage of the Jordan all Israel came 
 up on to the river's bank, so in the resurrection and ascen- 
 sion of the Lord Jesus the whole Church of his redeemed 
 passed over to resurrection ground, and are, in the purpose 
 and thought of God, aheady seated in the heavenlies. 
 
48 GILGAL 
 
 There can be no doubt that this is the teaching of the 
 Holy Ghost through the apostles. It comes out unmis- 
 takably in the writings of Peter as well as of Paul. No 
 fact is better attested or more eagerly emphasized. To 
 ignore it is to miss the foundation on which the structure 
 of a full and present salvation is based. We must go back 
 to the cross for the Atonement ; but we must also go back 
 to it for our passage in him to the resurrection side of 
 death : 
 
 " In him we died, in him we rose, 
 In him we triumphed o'er our foes ; 
 In him in heaven we took our seat, 
 And heaven rejoiced o'er earth's defeat." 
 
 It is in the Revised Version, with its more accurate ren- 
 dering of the tenses of the original Greek, that this mighty 
 fact stands out with most distinctness. Addressing those 
 who at the time when the Lord Jesus was dying on the 
 cross were probably living in the lusts of their flesh, do- 
 ing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, the Apostle 
 says : " Even when we were dead through our trespasses, 
 God quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up 
 with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenlies " 
 (Eph. ii. 5, 6). And in each case the use of the aorist 
 tense points to a definite past act by which their position, 
 and that of the whole Church, was settled, once and for 
 all, so far, at least, as the purpose and thought of God 
 are concerned. 
 
 It cannot be too often or too clearly emphasized that 
 the basic thought in the New Testament philosophy of de- 
 liverance from the power of sin consists in the intelligent 
 apprehension of this divine fact — that the whole Church 
 was identified with Jesus in his death, and resurrection, and 
 ascension ; that all died with him ; all lay in his grave ; 
 all rose with him on the Easter morning ; all passed with 
 him, in the divine intention, to the throne. It was no 
 
THE MEMORIAL IN JORDAN. 49 
 
 lonely figure that, as the light of morning broke on the 
 temple dome, climbed the steeps of the sky, drawn by an 
 invisible attraction ; he was accompanied by a multitude 
 which no man could have numbered ; in him you and I 
 and all believers trod down the principalities and powers 
 of darkness, and took our place above them all. What 
 though as yet for many of us this seems a dream ? Yet 
 let us never rest till the Spirit of God has made it a hving 
 fact. And let it be the one aim of our life by faith to 
 make that true in daily life and experience which is true 
 in the thought and purpose of our God. 
 
 Consider those twelve stones on the farther side of 
 Jordan ; and be sure that as they represented the entire 
 people, and commemorated their marvelous transportation 
 from the one side of Jordan to the other, so, in the New 
 Jerusalem, the twelve foundation-stones bearing the names 
 of the apostles, and the twelve gates inscribed with the 
 names of the twelve tribes of Israel, are a standing memo- 
 rial that the Church as a whole is on resurrection ground ; 
 but her shame and sorrow are that she has not availed 
 herself of her lofty privileges, or descended to earth as 
 girded with the power of the risen, living Jesus. 
 
 We have crossed the River. Our eternity is begun. 
 Part possession of our heritage has already been bestowed. 
 In Jesus we are loved and accepted ; we are more than 
 conquerors ; we occupy a position which, if only we keep 
 it, is unassailable by oiu* foes ; they can only prevail against 
 us when they succeed in tempting us to abandon it. All 
 things are ours in union with our raised and reigning 
 Lord ; whether the world, or life, or death, or things pres- 
 ent or things to come — all are ours, and we are Christ's, 
 and Christ is God's. 
 
 II. The Stones in the Bed of the Stream. — Not 
 content with pitching a cairn of stones on the river's bank, 
 
50 GILGAL 
 
 Joshua, at God's command, set up twelve stones in the 
 midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests 
 that bare the ark of the covenant stood. And often, as 
 he came back and back to Gilgal, he must have gone out 
 by himself to walk and muse beside the river, turning the 
 outward and the inner gaze to the spot where beneath the 
 flow of the current those stones lay hidden. They were 
 the lasting memorial of the miracle which otherwise might 
 have faded from memory, or seemed incredible. They 
 were aids to faith. Where they lay the people had been, 
 and the feet of the priests had been planted dry. And 
 surely the power that had arrested the Jordan, and brought 
 the people up from its bed, would not fail until it had 
 wrought out the whole purpose of God. 
 
 We too may often walk along that river, and gaze into 
 those depths. There Jesus lay in death for us, and there 
 we lay in him; and not we only, but all his Church. 
 " For if one died for all, then all died." Each time we 
 partake of the Lord's Supper, or behold the rite of baptism 
 administered in the form of immersion, or fall into the 
 ground to die in acts of self-sacrifice and self -dying, we 
 stand with Joshua beside the Jordan, covering the twelve 
 memorial stones ; and there float through our thought, like 
 a strain of thrilling music, the words, " Now that he as- 
 cended, what is it but that he also descended first into the 
 lower parts of the earth, . . . that he might fill all things." 
 
 Nothing breaks the power of sin like this. When we 
 apprehend the love of Christ, and the meaning of his death, 
 we are constrained to live, no longer to ourselves, but to 
 him. By his cross we too have been crucified to the 
 world, and the world to us. Other men may be fascinated 
 by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride 
 of life ; but these things have lost their charm for us. How 
 can we love them when we remember what they did unto 
 
THE SEAL OF THE COVENANT. 51 
 
 our Lord — our life, our love, the bridegroom and husband 
 of our souls ? What true woman can dally with the mur- 
 derer of her spouse ? 
 
 Go, O Christian soul, and meditate long and prayerfully 
 on this great spiritual fact. Realize that thou hast passed 
 into another sphere. Thou art quit of thy first husband, 
 the Law ; and thou art married to another, even to him 
 who was raised from the dead. Thou sharest his life, his 
 home, his protection. That principle of sin that held thee 
 fast in the lower sphere may not follow thee hither. Death 
 bars its way. Reckon, then, thyself to be dead indeed 
 unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus ; and answer 
 every solicitation of the world, the flesh, the devil, by 
 affirming that thou art none of theirs. 
 
 Let us also remember that the very same power, " the 
 working of the strength of his might," which availed to 
 raise Christ, our representative and head, from the grave, 
 and to set him far above all orders of spiritual being at his 
 own right hand, is available for each of us who beHeve. 
 Electricity lay hidden around men in these long ages in 
 which they were oblivious to its presence and unable to 
 apply it to their needs; and God's mighty resurrection 
 energy Hes all around us, waiting for us to avail ourselves 
 of it. Let us claim and appropriate and use it, yielding 
 ourselves to its impulses, and learning that there is noth- 
 ing in the purpose of God which he is not prepared to 
 reahze in the happy experience of those who believe. 
 
 III. The Rite of Circumcision. — Israel looked for 
 nothing less than to be led from the river-brink to the 
 conquest and partition of the land. They suddenly dis- 
 covered, however, that this was not quite the divine pro- 
 gramme for them. But they were required to submit to a 
 painful rite, the seal of the covenant which was made orig- 
 
52 GILGAL 
 
 inally to Abraham, and by virtue of which the land had 
 been given to him and to his seed (Gen. xvii. 8-10). 
 
 During the wanderings of the desert — which were due 
 to their unbehef, and practically disinherited them — the 
 observance of this rite had been in abeyance ; because the 
 operation of the covenant was for the time in suspense. 
 But now that the new young nation was learning to exer- 
 cise its faith, the covenant and its seal came again into 
 operation. " Their children, whom he raised up in their 
 stead, them did Joshua circumcise." 
 
 Even those comparatively unenlightened people must 
 have reaHzed that there was deep spiritual significance in 
 the administration of that rite at that juncture. On more 
 than one occasion they had heard Moses speak of circum- 
 cising the heart ; and they must have felt that God meant 
 to teach them the vanity of trusting to their numbers, or 
 prowess, or martial array. Their strength was nothing to 
 him. The land was not to be won by their might, but to 
 be taken from his hand as a gift. Self and the energy of 
 the flesh must be set aside, that the glory of coming vic- 
 tory might be of God, and not of man. 
 
 We, too, must have ova Gilgal. It is not enough to ac- 
 knowledge as a general principle that we are dead and risen 
 with Christ ; we must apply it to our inner and outer life. 
 If we died with Christ, we must mortify our members, 
 which are upon the earth. If we put away the old man 
 with his doings, in our profession, we must also put away 
 anger, wrath, malice, railing, and shameful speaking. If 
 we were raised together with Christ, we must seek those 
 things which are above, where Christ is seated on the right 
 hand of God. The first effect of our appreciation of the 
 meaning of Christ's death will be our appHcation of that 
 death to our members which are upon the earth. We have 
 no warrant to say that sin is dead, or that the principle of 
 
THE ENERGY OF THE DIVINE LIFE. 53 
 
 sin is eradicated ; but that we are dead to it in our stand- 
 ing, and are dead to it also in the reckoning of faith. 
 
 But for this we need the gift of the Blessed Spirit, in his 
 Pentecostal fullness. It was by the Eternal Spirit that our 
 Lord offered himself in death upon the cross ; and it is by 
 him alone that we can mortify the deeds of the body. 
 For, first, the spirit of self is so subtle. It is like a taint 
 in the blood, which, stayed in one place, breaks out in an- 
 other. Protean in its shapes and ubiquitous in its hiding- 
 places, it requires omniscience to discover and omnipresence 
 to expel. And, secondly, only the Spirit of God has cords 
 strong enough to bind us to the altar of death ; to remind 
 us in the hour of temptation ; to enable us to look to 
 Jesus for his grace ; to inspire us with the passion of self, 
 immolation ; to keep us true and steady to the resolves 
 of our holiest moments ; to apply the withering fire of the 
 cross of Jesus to the growth of our self-conceit and self- 
 energy — for all these the grace of the Spirit is indispen- 
 sable. He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, therefore he 
 must be the Spirit of death to all that pertains to the old 
 Adam. 
 
 There is a sense in which all believers have been cir- 
 cumcised in Christ ; but there is another sense in which it 
 is needful for them to pass one after another through the 
 circumcision of Christ which is not made with hands, and 
 which consists in the putting off of the body of the flesh. 
 To that all who would lead a life of victory and inherit the 
 Land of Promise must submit. The process may be sharp, 
 for the knife does not spare pain. But it is in the hands 
 of Jesus, the Lover of souls. Oh, shrink not from it ! 
 Let him do all that he deems needful, though it takes many 
 days ere the wound is healed. 
 
 At first it might appear strange that the past experience 
 of resurrection life should lead to death. But on further 
 
54 GILGAL 
 
 reflection it is not hard to see that all which is of the flesh 
 must be condemned and executed even as he was, who 
 came in the hkeness of sinful flesh, that the ordinance of 
 the law might be fulfilled in us who walked not after the 
 flesh but after the Spirit. And though it might appear 
 that the circumcised life will ever be a maimed life, it is 
 not really so ; the contrary is the universal testimony of 
 this book. When the hand is cut off, we go maimed info 
 life. When we mortify the deeds of the body, we begin to 
 live. When the Lord our God has circumcised our hearts, 
 then we love him with all our heart and with all our soul 
 — and we live. 
 
 You can never take Jericho, Christian worker, till you 
 have been circumcised, till God has taken away your self- 
 reliance, and has brought you down into the dust of death ; 
 then, when the sentence of death is in yourself, you will 
 begin to experience the energy of the divine life, the glory 
 of the divine victory. 
 
VI. 
 
 (Joshua v. 10-12.) 
 
 ** To feed on Christ is to get his strength into us to be our strength. 
 You feed on the cornfield, and the strength of the cornfield comes 
 into you, and is your strength. You feed on Christ, and then go 
 and live your life ; and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that 
 helps the poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battle, and that 
 wins the crown." Phillips Brooks. 
 
 IN one of his sonnets, Matthew Arnold tells of an inter- 
 view he had on a day of fierce August sunshine, in 
 Bethnal Green, with a preacher whom he knew, and who 
 looked ill and overworked. In answer to the inquiry as 
 to how he fared : 
 
 " Bravely ! " said he ; *' for I of late have been much 
 cheered with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread." He 
 is not the only human soul who, above the ebb and flow 
 of London storm and tumult, has set up a mark of ever- 
 lasting light to cheer, and to right its course through the 
 night. For holy souls have ever loved to meditate upon 
 that wonderful power which they possess, of absorbing into 
 themselves the very nature of him who, though he was the 
 Everlasting Son of the Father, became man, that the forces 
 of deity might through him pass out to those who love 
 him. 
 
 There is a great difference between the strength which 
 may be supplied from without and that which is assimilated 
 
 55 - - 
 
$6 THREE SUCCESS! l^E DAYS. 
 
 within. To illustrate the first: we tread the cathedral 
 close and examine the mighty buttresses that steady the 
 ancient walls. What though the high embowed roof presses 
 on them with all its weight to make them bulge, they may 
 not stir an inch from the perpendicular so long as those 
 masses of stone, built up without, forbid. To illustrate 
 the second: we must visit the forest glade, where giant 
 oaks withstand the blasts of centuries, because they have 
 incorporated into their hearts the properties of earth and 
 air, becoming robust and sturdy and storm-defying. 
 
 There are many ways in which the holy soul derives 
 strength from without. It is buttressed by remonstrances 
 and appeals ; by providences and promises ; by the fear 
 of causing grief ; and by the incitement of passionate de- 
 votion. But if these were all, they would be insufficient. 
 We need to have within ourselves the strong Son of God ; 
 to know that the Mightiest is within us, working through 
 us, so that we, even as he, can do all things. 
 
 In this old record we may discover without effort the 
 Living Bread under three aspects — the Passover ; the com 
 of the land ; the manna. Each of these was associated 
 with one of three successive days. 
 
 The Passover. — The Passover itself could never be 
 repeated ; once for all it lay back in the history of Israel, 
 as a fundamental fact. Only once that Angel, bent on 
 slaying the firstborn ; only once the slain lamb and sprin- 
 kled blood ; only once the Exodus in the gray dawn of his- 
 tory. But the feast of the Passover, held in commemora- 
 tion of that event, was destined to perpetual repetition 
 until it gave place to a yet more significant symbol ; which, 
 in turn, is to fade into the marriage supper, as the love of 
 betrothal fades into that of marriage, and moonhght into 
 dawn. 
 
THE PASSOyER, 57 
 
 The feast of Passover was held at Sinai ; but not after- 
 ward till the forty years had elapsed. In fact, it could 
 not be held whilst the nation, through unbelief and dis- 
 obedience, was untrue to the covenant. Had it not been 
 distinctly affirmed, amid other provisions, that no uncircum- 
 cised person should eat thereof ? How, then, was it pos- 
 sible that it should be maintained, when, as we have lately 
 learned, " all the people that were bom in the wilderness, 
 by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, they had not 
 circumcised " ? But directly the circumcising of the peo- 
 ple was completed, there was no longer a barrier; and 
 they kept the Passover between *' the two evenings," as the 
 sun of the fourteenth day of the month was flinging toward 
 them long shadows from the palm-trees and walls of 
 Jericho. 
 
 There were two significant parts of the Passover as it 
 was first instituted: the sprinkling of blood oi? the doors 
 without ; and within, the family gathered around the roasted 
 lamb, and eating it in haste. As, however, years went on 
 and conditions altered, blood was no longer sprinkled on 
 the hntel and door-posts ; but the drinking of wine was 
 substituted for that ancient and significant act. And the 
 family gathered round the table to the sacred feast, not 
 merely with the girded loin and staff in hand as befitted 
 pilgrims, but with the leisured restfulness of home. In 
 point of fact, it was a family meal at which the people re- 
 viewed the past with thankfulness, and talked together of 
 that mercy which had been so remarkably displayed in 
 their national history. On reaching the Land of Promise, 
 the thoughts of the people were guided back to the great 
 fact of redemption by blood that lay at the basis of their 
 existence. And there can never be a moment in the ex- 
 perience of the believer when he can be forgetful of the 
 broken body and the shed blood of his Lord, broken and 
 
58 THREE SUCCESSIVE DAYS. 
 
 shed for the remission of sin. However much the cross 
 may speak of santification, its primary message must ever 
 be of justification. It is true that we died with him ; but 
 it is also true that he died for us — that he was made a 
 curse to bring us blessings. In heaven itself the redeemed 
 ones sing of the Lamb who was slain, and amid the rapt- 
 ures of the Golden City adore him who wrought redemption 
 by his blood. 
 
 The other side of the Passover has also a counterpart in 
 oiu- experience. The Israelites feasted, they drank the light 
 Eastern wine ; and in after-days chanted the Hallel, and 
 ate of the flesh of the lamb. The bread was unleavened, 
 and the herbs bitter ; but joy preponderated over sorrow. 
 And this is the type of Christian hfe. " Christ our Pass- 
 over hath been sacrificed for us," said the Apostle, " where- 
 fore let us keep festival " (r.v.). He did not refer to any 
 hour or day in the year when those to whom he wrote 
 should give themselves up to joy ; but meant us to consider 
 our hves as though the joy of the ancient Jewish feast 
 were lengthened through all our days ; so that we are al- 
 ways standing with girded loins, always in the pilgrim atti- 
 tude, and always feeding on the Lamb of God. 
 
 The Lord's Supper is not simply a memorial of what he 
 did on Calvary, or is doing on the throne ; it is a perpetual 
 reminder to the beheving heart of its privilege and duty to 
 eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man after 
 a spiritual sort. We must eat his flesh, or we shall have 
 no life in us. We must drink his blood, or we shall not 
 dwell in him, or he in us. 
 
 How little we understand the way by which each part 
 of our body takes the particular nourishment it requires 
 from the food we eat ! But we know that such is the case ; 
 and that bones, muscles, and tissues appropriate their 
 sustenance from the common store. So, though we may 
 
"THE CORN OF THE LAND." 59 
 
 not be able to explain the philosophy of the process, we be- 
 lieve and are sure, that as we hold fellowship with Jesus in 
 quiet, hallowed moments, our weakness absorbs his strength, 
 our impatience his long-suffering, our restlessness his calm, 
 our ignorance his wisdom. But let it ever be borne in 
 mind that as no uncircumcised person was permitted to 
 partake of the Passover, so none who are living in willful 
 sin can feed on the flesh and blood which were given f«r 
 the life of the world. There must be a Gilgal before there 
 can be a Passover in the deepest and fullest sense. 
 
 II. The Corn of the Land. — " And they did eat of 
 the com of the land on the morrow after the Passover." 
 There is no need for the adjective old. It would be suffi- 
 cient to say that they ate of the com of the land ; though 
 it is quite likely that it was the com of the previous har- 
 vest, and not that which was then goldening throughout 
 the land of Canaan, and ready for the sickle. The main 
 point is, that, with great thankfulness, the Israelites, the 
 majority of whom had never tasted anything but manna, 
 ate of the produce of the Land of Promise. 
 
 According to the Jewish code, on that day the high- 
 priest should have waved the first sheaf of the new harvest 
 before God, so presenting the whole. The rite may have 
 been omitted on that occasion, though rehgiously observed 
 in after-years. Is it not significant that on this very day 
 the Lord Jesus arose from the dead, " the first-fruits of them 
 that slept " ? Surely, then, it is no straining of the parallel 
 to say that the com of the Land of Promise represents him 
 in risen glory. He fell as a seed of corn into the ground 
 to die ; but through death he has acquired the power of 
 imparting himself to all who believe. He was bruised, as 
 all bread com must be ; the wheel of the cart of divine 
 justice ground him beneath its weight ; but he has become 
 
6o THREE SUCCESSIVE DAYS. 
 
 thereby as the finest of the wheat to feed the needs of the 
 world. We must feed on the Paschal Lamb, and learn 
 the full meaning of his cross and passion, his precious 
 death and burial ; but we must also feed on the corn of 
 the heavenly land, and derive life and blessing from his 
 glorious resurrection and ascension. 
 
 The Church has in some measure learned to appreciate 
 the importance of the incarnation and crucifixion. The 
 picture-galleries of the world teem with masterpieces rep- 
 resenting the holy nativity and the wondrous cross. But 
 it is comparatively seldom that we hear in treatise or ser- 
 mon any adequate treatment of the ascension from the 
 lowest parts of the earth to that zenith point of glory from 
 which he fills all things. The resurrection is emphasized 
 as the sign of his Sonship, and the evidence of his accepted 
 work ; but its full significance as the first step in the upward 
 passage of the Son of God, bearing us with himself from 
 glory to glory until we sat down with him in the heavenlies, 
 is too little appreciated. Oh to know what Paul meant by 
 his emphasis when he said, " Yea rather that is risen again ;" 
 and to fathom his thought when he said, that though he 
 had known Christ after the flesh, he wished to know him 
 so no more, because he longed to understand the power 
 of his resurrection. The Paschal Lamb is good ; but the 
 corn of the land includes the fruits and honey and bread- 
 stuff that grow on the soil of the resurrection Hfe. 
 
 The ascension of Christ may be considered in many 
 aspects ; but in each we seem to stand beneath his out- 
 stretched hands of benediction, as they did who saw him 
 parted from them, and taken up before their adoring gaze. 
 The majesty and triumph of the God-man, as he is raised 
 far above all principality and power, whether of angels or 
 of demons, and above every name that is named, whether 
 in this world or that which is to come ; the certainty that 
 
THE MANNA. 6i 
 
 the same power which raised him from the grave to the 
 right hand of the Father waits to do as much for each of 
 as ; the behef that in his ascension he has received gifts 
 for each of us, and the best of all gifts, the fullness of the 
 Spirit, waiting for us to claim and receive ; the conception 
 that, however our emotions may change, we are one with 
 him, accepted and beloved — these are themes that stir 
 our sluggish hearts and make them leap with gladness, 
 which no increase of com or wine can yield to the men of 
 this world. Happy indeed are they who also in heart and 
 mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell. To 
 do this is to eat of the com and fruit of the land. 
 
 III. The Manna. — "And the manna ceased on the 
 morrow, after they had eaten of the old corn of the land." 
 There was no break between the two. The corn began 
 before the manna ceased. The one overlapped the other 
 as the thatch of a hay-rick or the feathers of a bird. 
 
 God does not wish that there should be those intervals 
 of apparent desertion and the failure of supphes of which 
 so many complain. It is quite Hkely that he may have to 
 withdraw the extraordinary and exceptional, as represented 
 by the manna ; but he will wait until we have become ac- 
 customed to the ordinary and regular supplies of his grace, 
 as represented by the com. In the blessings of our out- 
 ward life he does sometimes humble us, and suffer us to 
 hunger. The brook Cherith dries before he sends us to 
 Zarephath. But as to the inward hfe, he gives without 
 stint. The table is always prepared before us in the pres- 
 ence of our enemies — one form of soul-sustenance is within 
 reach before another form fails. 
 
 We are constantly being forced from the familiar manna 
 which came without anxiety or seeking on our part, to 
 the com which requires foresight and careful preparation. 
 
62 THREE SUCCESSIVE DAYS. 
 
 This is needful; because in these we learn invaluable 
 lessons of patience, and self-denial, and cooperation with 
 God. But ah, how at first we shrink from the change ! 
 Who is there that does not cry, " The old is better " ? The 
 old furniture for the room ; the old house where we spent 
 so many happy days ; the old familiar routine of life ; the 
 old ways of doing things. It is hard to part with them. 
 But they have ceased to furnish the discipline we need ; 
 and we must leave them for the untried and unknown, 
 where we obtain a new insight into the ways of God, and 
 become workers together with him. 
 
 How gracious, then, is the gentle, thoughtful kindness of 
 God, who lets us see the new before he quite takes away the 
 old ; accustoming us to walk before he removes the chair on 
 which we had leaned so long. Do not fret if the rhapsodies 
 and outbursts and exuberant manifestations of earlier days 
 have ceased ; it is better to live by the ordinary laws of hu- 
 man life than by the abnormal and miraculous. And after 
 all, there is as much divine power in the production of a 
 fig and pomegranate, of ohve-oil and honey, of barley and 
 wheat, as in the descending manna ; as much in the transfor- 
 mation of the moisture of the earth and air into the ruddy 
 grape as in the miracle of Cana; as much in the mainte- 
 nance of the soul in holiness and righteousness all its days 
 as in the communication of unspeakable visions and words 
 that may not be uttered. 
 
 But in addition to all these lessons, we may learn from 
 the cessation of the manna that, as we advance in Christian 
 experience, we think less of the coming down from heaven 
 in the incarnation, and more of the going back in the as- 
 cension. The babe Jesus is less to us than the ascended 
 Christ. We look not so much toward the cradle of the 
 manger-bed as upward to the throne and forward to the 
 second advent. It makes a great difference to us whether 
 
THE MANNA. 63 
 
 we occupy the standpoint of the birth or of the ascension ; 
 and many a system of theology, when weighed in the bal- 
 ance, is found wanting because it fails to understand that 
 the manna ceases when the Jordan is crossed and Canaan 
 entered. 
 
 This, then, is our main lesson. We must learn to live in 
 such wise as to be nourished with the life of the Son of 
 God. When we eat of Christ, we live by him, as he lived 
 by the Father ; and as the Father, dwelling in him, wrought 
 through his life, and did his wondrous works, so he, enter- 
 ing into us — the Word by his words — will do through us 
 what had otherwise been perfectly impossible. 
 
 Do you long for more strength to do or suffer, to wit- 
 ness or turn the foe from the gate? Then feed on Christ, 
 meditating on his Word, communing with himself, filled by 
 his Spirit, who takes of the things that are his and reveals 
 them to us. " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst ; they 
 shall be filled." *' He hath filled the hungry with good 
 things." " Bread that strengtheneth man's heart." 
 
VII. 
 ^\}t tXJatrior Ci)rist. 
 
 (Joshua v. 13-15-) 
 
 " So let it be. In God's own might 
 We gird us for the coming fight, 
 And, strong in him whose cause is ours 
 In conflict with unholy powers, 
 We grasp the weapons he has given — 
 The Light and Truth, and Love of Heaven." 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 " TT came to pass." The time and exact locality are not 
 X defined ; but they are not of much account in the 
 presence of that marvelous episode which stands before the 
 conquest of Canaan, as an illuminated capital before the 
 black letterpress of some old missal. As to the time, it 
 was probably the day in which the manna had ceased, and 
 the Leader had realized that the land must now furnish the 
 commissariat. As to the place, it is enough to know that 
 it was ^y Jericho. 
 
 Behind lay the Jordan, the seam made by the passage 
 of the host no longer discernible ; though the fresh heap 
 of memorial stones proclaimed the miracle of the dried 
 river-bed. Beneath, under the shadow of the hill, lay the 
 camp, where the people were resting from their long fa- 
 tigues, in the first glad realization that their long joumey- 
 ings were ended. Whilst five miles distant, on the path to 
 
 64 
 
"WHAT SAITH MY LORD?" 65 
 
 Canaan, towering above the palm-groves, arose the strongly 
 fortified walls of Jericho. 
 
 It must have been for Joshua, at least, a time of anxious 
 suspense. He could not forget how forty years before the 
 former generation had cried out for bondage in Egypt, or 
 graves in the desert, rather than face the terrors of forti- 
 fied cities and giant champions. And what might not 
 their children do! It had been comparatively easy to 
 cope with Amalek, and Og, and Sihon, because they had 
 met Israel in open war upon the field of battle ; but that 
 was a very different matter to attacking a city which was 
 able to hold its own in a long siege. It was impossible to 
 leave it in the rear, unsubdued ; but it was also suicidal to 
 sit down before it to starve it to surrender. As the weary 
 months dragged on, the energy of the people would evapo- 
 rate, and the armies of their foes would gather. Eagerly 
 must the lonely chieftain have longed for one moment 
 with Moses, or, better still, with that Angel of the Presence 
 of God, who had been promised when the camp was still 
 pitched beneath the chffs of Sinai. 
 
 Thinking much and deeply, Joshua wandered forth alone ; 
 and suddenly, *' as he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, 
 there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn 
 in his hand." We need those uphfted eyes. Too often 
 we keep o\n gaze fixed on the ground, and miss the celes- 
 tial visions that await us all round. 
 
 But who was this man? Was he phantom cr reality, 
 Hebrew or Canaanite, friend or Toe? Joshua knew not; 
 but his heart was pure and clear, and therefore he did not 
 hesitate to go up to him and challenge him with the inquiry, 
 "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? " Then came the 
 majestic reply, " Nay ; but as Captain of the host of the 
 Lord am I now come." And Joshua fell on his face to 
 the earth, and did worship, and took the place of lowly 
 
66 THE IVARRIOR CHRIST. 
 
 obedience, saying, "What saith my Lord unto his ser- 
 vant?" 
 
 We cannot doubt, then, who he was. Though bearing 
 the semblance of a man, he was certainly neither man nor 
 angel. Had he been either, he would have instantly re- 
 pelled the homage which Joshua gave. When the men of 
 Lystra were about to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, they 
 cried out in horror, " Sirs, why do ye these things? we are 
 men of like passions with you ;" and when John, amid the 
 blaze of glory, fell down before the feet of the angel who 
 hfted the concealing veil, he said, " See thou do it not ; 
 for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the proph- 
 ets." But when Joshua prostrated himself before this mys- 
 terious apparition, there was no prohibition to his lowly 
 homage. It was accepted as Peter's in the fishing-boat ; 
 and as the leper's when he knelt at the blessed feet of 
 Christ for healing. Joshua was even urged to more care- 
 ful and reverent homage, in words which were addressed 
 to Moses from the burning bush, where the I AM spake 
 with him ; and we have to believe that he who spake to 
 Joshua on the threshold of Canaan was none other than 
 Jehovah, the God of Israel, whose dehghts, long before 
 the incarnation, were with the sons of men, and who an- 
 ticipated it by paying preliminary visits to our earth in cor- 
 poreal form. 
 
 The tide here adopted by our Lord cHngs to him 
 throughout the Bible. Isaiah says that he is given to be 
 the Leader and Commander of his people. Peter describes 
 him as the Prince or Captain of Life. The Epistle to the 
 Hebrews refers to him as the Captain of our Salvation, 
 who was made perfect through suffering. And at the close 
 of the Book we see a majestic procession come forth from 
 the opened heaven, led by a Captain, who is clothed in 
 vesture dipped in blood, and whose name is the Word of 
 God. 
 
"THE LORD'S HOST." 67 
 
 I. The Special Significance of this Vision to 
 Joshua. — It has been generally supposed that this divine 
 Captain came to take Joshua's place in command, and 
 assume the supreme direction of the hosts of Israel ; much 
 as when the German Emperor takes the field, his greatest 
 officers subordinate themselves to him, surrendering to his 
 hands the control of the campaign, and are content to ex- 
 ecute his plans. But that is not the deepest meaning here. 
 ''The Lord's host" does not primarily allude to those 
 Israelite armies encamped beside the overflowing waters 
 of the Jordan ; but to other and invisible hosts, encamped 
 all around on those heights, though no ear ever heard the 
 call of the sentries at their posts of duty, or saw the sheen 
 of their swords flashing in the sunlight, or beheld their 
 marshaled ranks. Those troops of harnessed angels were 
 the hosts of which this wondrous warrior was Captain. 
 
 There are several references in Scripture to the presence, 
 near at hand, of angel-hosts. When Jacob, after his angry 
 altercation with Laban, was on his way back to Canaan, fear- 
 ful perhaps of pursuit, we are told that the angels of God 
 met him — as though a squadron of heavenly armies sud- 
 denly came in sight — assuring him of defense against attack. 
 When the servant of the prophet was dismayed to find him- 
 self encircled by the hosts of Syria, he was permitted, in 
 answer to EHsha's prayer, to see that the mountain was full 
 of horses and chariots of fire. The Psalmist tells of the 
 angel that encampeth round about them that fear him, and 
 of the hosts that do his bidding. So in Gethsemane, the 
 Lord referred to the twelve legions of angels who were 
 waiting, under arms, for the least indication of the Father's 
 will to come only too gladly to his relief. It is therefore 
 in harmony with the tenor of Scripture to see those lines 
 of warriors waiting within the curtains of the unseen to 
 be led against the foes of God and Israel. And we read 
 a new meaning into the ancient phrase by which Jehovah 
 
68 THE WARRIOR CHRIST. 
 
 became known. " Who is the King of glory ? ** " The 
 Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." 
 
 But if it be true that there are hosts of light, it is certainly 
 true also that there are hosts of darkness. Such is the per- 
 petual affirmation of Scripture. Behind the gods of the 
 heathen inspiration detects demons, who rule men through 
 the hideous idols of their hands. Behind the might of 
 vast but ungodly empires inspired men descry the presence 
 and activity of great potentates from Satan's fallen realm. 
 Behind the darkness of this world the Bible teaches us to 
 look for wicked spirits, who rule it from " the heavenlies." 
 These they occupy for the present, and until the second 
 advent hurls them down, first to the earth, and afterward 
 to the abyss (i Cor. x. 20; Dan. x. 13; Eph. vi. 12; 
 Rev. XX. 2, 3). 
 
 Is it, therefore, any cause for wonder that the walls of 
 Jericho fell down, or that vast armies were scattered with- 
 out a blow being struck, or that the land was subdued in 
 a seven years' campaign ? These achievements were the 
 earthly and visible results of victories won in the heavenly 
 and spiritual sphere by armies which follow the Word of 
 God upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
 pure. Those walls fell down because smitten by the im- 
 pact of celestial hosts. Those armies fled because the 
 dark powers with which they were in league had been put 
 to the rout before the Lord God of Sabaoth. That land 
 was subdued because of some great dislodgment which 
 had taken place in regions beyond human ken. There 
 was therefore deep significance in the words with which 
 Caleb had sought to encourage his people forty years before : 
 " Their defense is removed from over them, and the Lord 
 is with us : fear them not." And we can better understand 
 what the Lord meant when he said, "As Captain of the 
 Lord's host am I now come." 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ASCENSION. 69 
 
 II. The Significance of this Vision to the Church. 
 
 — If we read the thoughts thus suggested into the story 
 of the conquest of Canaan, we shall find it invested with 
 fresh interest. It is, as we have said, not only an ancient 
 historic record, but a page torn out of the chronicles of 
 heaven, telling of that mighty conflict which has been in 
 process since the introduction of moral evil, and shall last 
 till the Son of God has destroyed the works of the devil. 
 
 Throughout the world of nature there are signs of con- 
 flict and collision. Everywhere armies meet in battle- 
 shock, and part to repair their losses or count their gains. 
 According to the last findings of science, the invisible mole- 
 cules of the calmest air are in rapid motion all around us, 
 jostHng with each other, and fighting hard to keep their 
 course, but hindered by a thousand kindred molecules that 
 are fighting too, so that we move and work in a very 
 cyclone of whirHng atoms. There is no pool, however 
 tranquil ; no forest-glade, however peaceful ; no isle bathed 
 by southern seas, and set gem-Hke on the breast of ocean, 
 however enchanting ; no scene, however fascinating — which 
 is not swept by opposing squadrons contending for victory. 
 The swift pursue their prey ; the strong devour the weak ; 
 the fittest alone survive in the terrific strife. 
 
 For the student of God's ways all this leads up to a 
 more tremendous struggle, between darkness and Hght, evil 
 and good, Satan and our King. And here is the real im- 
 portance of the ascension, which was the worthy climax 
 of the wonders of the first advent, as it will introduce the 
 glories of the second. 
 
 All through his earthly ministry our Lord encountered 
 the dark powers. They assailed him in the wilderness of 
 temptation ; opposed him through the wretched victims 
 they possessed ; gathered in their might in the glades of 
 Gethsemane ; hissed their horrid suggestions into his heart 
 
70 THE IVARRIOR CHRIST. 
 
 on the cross ; and resisted his every step as he arose. 
 Up to that moment none of woman born had proved him- 
 self able to overcome their attacks. But the life and death 
 of the man Christ Jesus turned the tide. And when he 
 arose and ascended far above all rule and authority and 
 power and dominion and every name that is named, not 
 only in this world but also in that which is to come, it be- 
 came established beyond a doubt that though man in him- 
 self was no match for hell, yet man in Christ, in union with 
 the Son of God, was more than a conqueror ; able to do 
 all things through him that strengthened him, and destined 
 to overcome. 
 
 The victory of the ascension was not for Jesus only, but 
 for his people ; that he might lead his heavenly squadrons 
 forth to assured victory, whilst the Church mihtant marched 
 on the plains of earth below. When the Church won her 
 mightiest victories over the idols of Greece and Rome, the 
 systems of Pagan philosophy, the temples of Venus and 
 Diana and Jove, she recognized this; and her successes 
 were due, not to the valor or prowess of her battahons, but 
 to the spiritual forces with which she was allied. To this 
 same cause, whether recognized or not, we must attribute 
 the missionary^ triumphs of recent years — the open doors ; 
 the tottering of heathen systems ; the unopposed progress 
 of the Gospel in many lands. These results have been 
 doubtless simultaneous with changes in the sphere of the 
 Unseen and Eternal, of which we can form no true concep- 
 tion ; and the future conquests of the Church must depend, 
 not on her wealth or numbers or prestige, but on her loving 
 and hallowed alHance with those celestial hosts to which 
 the Lord Jesus referred on the plains of Jericho when he 
 said, "As Captain of the Lord's host am I now come." 
 
 Alas, that this truth has been so little appreciated ! The 
 Church of Christ has too often either considered that she 
 
''MORE THAN CONQUERORS." 71 
 
 contained within herself all the resources necessary for vic- 
 tory over the evil of the world, or she has stood paralyzed 
 or aghast before the Jerichos of sin which have risen up 
 to obstruct her path. The fenced cities of drink and lust, 
 of self-indulgence or apathy, have refused to open their 
 gates to her challenge, and have laughed defiance to her 
 hosts. Then she has appealed to Caesar — to human meth- 
 ods and alliances and expedients. But in vain ; for not- 
 withstanding all, the walls have not fallen down, nor her 
 foes given back. 
 
 The saints of God have need to repent of their sins and 
 failures in this direction. Let them realize that already 
 the Captain of the celestial hosts has led his squadrons 
 against their foes and his. Let them put away all that 
 would imperil or impair the alliance. Let them raise a 
 modification of the old battle-cry, which was originally 
 based on an acknowledgment of this great spiritual fact, 
 and charge with the shout, " The sword of the Lord and 
 of his people." 
 
 III. The Significance of this Vision to Our- 
 selves. — We sometimes feel lonely and discouraged. The 
 hosts with which we are accustomed to cooperate are rest- 
 ing quietly in their tents. No one seems able to enter into 
 our anxieties and plans. Our Jerichos are so formidable 
 — the neglected parish ; the empty church ; the hardened 
 congregation ; the godless household. How can we ever 
 capture these, and hand them over to the Lord, like dis- 
 mantled castles, for him to occupy? 
 
 That problem at first baffles us, and appears insoluble. 
 Then we vow it shall be untied, and summon all our wit 
 and energy to solve it. We study the methods of others, 
 and copy them ; deliver our best addresses and sermons ; 
 put forth herculean exertions; we adopt exciting adver- 
 
72 THE IVARRIOR CHRIST. 
 
 tisements and questionable methods, borrowed from the 
 world. Suppose Israel had taken lessons in scaling walls 
 and taking fenced cities from the Canaanites ! Or that the 
 people had made an attack on Jericho with might and 
 main, determined to find or make a breach! Such sup- 
 positions are not altogether absurd. At least they have 
 their counterpart in the practice of too many of God's 
 children, who forget that the race is not to the swift, nor 
 the battle to the strong, and that by strength shall no man 
 prevail. 
 
 But in our hours of disappointment, when we have tried 
 our best in vain, and have fallen — as the sea-birds which 
 dash themselves against the Hghthouse tower fall to the 
 foot with broken wing — it is well to go forth alone, confess- 
 ing our helplessness, and tarrying for the vision ; for then 
 we shall be likeHest to see the Captain of the Lord's host. 
 He will undertake our cause ; he will marshal his troops 
 and win the day ; he will fling the walls of Jericho to the 
 ground. Those walls can only fall down by faith; for 
 faith allies itself with omnipotence, and becomes the 
 channel along which the might of God can pass, as the 
 electric current along the wire. Our cooperation may be 
 employed, but only to walk around the walls, in the garb 
 of priestly purity, and blowing the rams* horns. 
 
 But we must be holy. " Put off thy shoes from off thy 
 feet," said the divine Warrior to Moses ; " for the place 
 whereon thou standest is holy." Wherever God is, there 
 is holiness. Even Canaan is holy when God stands upon 
 its soil. And we must be holy if we would cooperate 
 with him. We must put off the old man, with his affections 
 and lusts ; we must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of 
 the flesh and spirit ; we must cast off the works of dark- 
 ness, and array ourselves in the panoply of light. 
 
 We know enough to be sure that he will not ally himself 
 
PURE yESSELS. 73 
 
 with the unfaithful or unclean, or have any association 
 with us so long as we harbor an Achan with wedge of gold 
 and Babylonish garment. And if he is to go forth with 
 our armies, to deliver us and to give up our enemies be- 
 fore us, we must be careful that the camp be holy, and that 
 he see no unclean thing in us and turn away (Deut. xxiii. 14). 
 The battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift ; 
 but each to those who are living lives separate from the 
 world, and dedicated to God. The vessels which are meet 
 for the Master's use are pure ones. Cleanness, rather than 
 cleverness, is the prime condition of successful service. 
 And then it is only out of such a heart that the faith can 
 spring which is able to wield the forces of the unseen and 
 spiritual and divine. May there be no film between 
 God's holiness and ours ! Nothing to insulate us or shut 
 off the current! No shoe-leather to intercept the commu- 
 nication of its fullness to our need. 
 
VIII. 
 Q:i)e CDallfi of Semico. 
 
 (Joshua vi.) 
 
 , " More than conquerors even now, 
 With the war-sweat on our brow, 
 Onward o'er the well-marked road, 
 March we as the host of God." 
 
 BONAR. 
 
 JERICHO, palm-girt, standing out clear-cut in the pure 
 air and under the deep blue of the sky, in front of the 
 vast precipice of rock down which the road descended 
 from Jerusalem, was filled with many thoughts, chief among 
 which was faint-heartedness. There was no mustering of 
 forces; no issuing forth of the men of war; no sudden 
 night attack upon that host which lay along the Jordan 
 bank, the brown tents pitched around the central pavihon 
 or tabernacle of God. It was as though some mysterious 
 spell had fallen upon king and people, unnerving them, 
 impelling them to stand upon the defensive and await the 
 unfolding of events. "Their heart melted, neither was 
 there spirit in them any more, because of the children of 
 Israel." 
 
 Israel, on the other hand, was probably impatient, eager 
 to be led to the conflict. The men of war, confident in 
 their might, were eager to match themselves against the 
 inhabitants of the land, and to wipe out in blood the 
 memory of their fathers' defeat at Hormah. Conscious 
 
 74 
 
*'YE SHALL COMPASS THE CITY.'* 75 
 
 that the passage of the Jordan had been due to the pres- 
 ence of the priests, it may have been that there was a secret 
 desire in their hearts to show that the time had come for 
 the priests to stand aside, whilst they approved their powers 
 and won the land by might. 
 
 But they had to learn that the land was a gift, to be re- 
 ceived by faith, not won by effort. God required of them 
 only to obey and wait and trust, whilst the divine Cap- 
 tain led his celestial hosts to the assault, and achieved the 
 victory. "And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have 
 given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and 
 the mighty men of valor. And ye shall compass the city, 
 all the men of war going about the city once." 
 
 It certainly was the strangest spectacle ever witnessed by 
 a beleaguered garrison. The besiegers did not make an 
 assault, or rear mounds, or place scaling-ladders against 
 the walls. They did not, indeed, afford an opportunity 
 for parley or discussion of terms of capitulation. On each 
 side it seems to have been understood that the war would 
 be to the knife — no quarter asked, no mercy shown. 
 Without delay the host of Israel began encompassing the 
 city. " Ye shall compass the city." May it not be rather 
 said that the ark encompassed the city, and that the men 
 of war accompanied it? For in each case, whether- the 
 directions were given to Joshua by the Captain, or by 
 Joshua to the host, the particular position of the ark was 
 minutely specified. Indeed, as Joshua came from the 
 divine interview he appears to have first summoned the 
 priests into his presence, and given them his instructions. 
 After this, he turned to the people generally. There is a 
 remarkable emphasis in the words, " He caused the ark of 
 the Lord to compass the city." 
 
 It was but a little after dawn. The sun had mounted 
 not far above the eastern horizon. Blue blended, with 
 
76 THE iVALLS OF JERICHO. 
 
 amber in the morning sky. Toward the south the mount- 
 ains of Moab stood like a mighty rampart, veiled in violet, 
 while the sullen waters of the Dead Sea gleamed Hke silver 
 at their foot. The belt of desert sand added its dark red 
 to the variegated colors of the picture, contrasting notably 
 with the emerald green of the oasis in which Jericho stood, 
 watered by perennial streams. Then from out the camp of 
 Israel a long procession began to unwind itself : first the 
 men of war, marching beneath their tribal banners ; then 
 seven priests, white-robed, blowing with seven trumpets of 
 rams' horns ; next the ark of God, hidden by its coverings 
 from gaze of Israelite and Canaanite alike ; and lastly the 
 tribe of Dan, closing up the rear. 
 
 Toward the city this strange procession made its way, 
 preserving an absolute silence, save that the priests went on 
 continually and blew with the trumpets. With that ex- 
 ception no other sound was heard. No challenge! No 
 taunt! No cry as of them that shout for mastery! The 
 whole host wound silently around the city, as a serpent 
 with sinuous folds ; and when the circuit was completed, 
 to the surprise of the XairaHTrite§7 wno probably' expected 
 an4fflInediaIFa5sauI|3r-^ turned quietly to the. camp from 
 which It had emerged some hour or two before. And the 
 rest oTthe day pasTed^tTTout Further incident. " So they 
 did six days." 
 
 On the seventh day the circuit of the walls was repeated 
 seven times. And at the close of the seventh, Joshua's 
 voice rang out on the still evening air the command, 
 " Shout ! for the Lord hath given you the city." Then 
 the priests blew a blast upon the trumpets; the people 
 shouted with a great shout, that reverberated through the 
 hills around, and was perhaps answered by the feebler 
 voices of the women and children from the camp ; and the 
 wall of Jericho fell down flat, so that the people could go 
 
"THEY TOOK THE CITY.*' 77 
 
 up into the city, every man straight before him, " and they 
 took the city." As, in years long after, an inspired writer 
 reviewed the incident, he quoted it as a remarkable instance 
 of that faith which, in various dispensations, unites the 
 hearts of all the saints in one, as a thread a number of 
 diverse beads. "By faith the walls of Jericho Jell down, 
 after they were compassed about seven days." In various 
 directions ' we- may find a counlerpart of this remarkable 
 incident. 
 
 I. In Christian Experience. — If Egypt represents 
 our conflicts with the world, and Amalek our conflict with 
 the flesh, the seven nations of Canaan represent our con- 
 flict with the principalities and powers of wicked spirits, 
 who resist our entrance into the heavenlies, and dull our 
 practical realization of what Christ has wrought for us. 
 Intrenched behind the ramparts of some stronghold of 
 difficulty or habit, they defy us and threaten to arrest our 
 progress in the divine hfe. Who is there amongst us, or 
 who reads these lines, that does not know, or has not 
 known, of something — a cherished indulgence, a friendship, 
 a pernicious entanglement — reared as an impassable barrier 
 to the enjoyment of those blessed possibilities of Christian 
 experience which are ours in Christ, but which for that 
 reason seem beyond our reach? That thing is a Jericho. 
 
 Now it cannot be the purpose of God that anything, 
 however deeply rooted, should shut his redeemed ones out 
 of the heavenly places, which are theirs in Christ — even 
 though it should be the result of their own sin or mistake, 
 the heirloom of early indiscretions, the better entail of tres- 
 pass off the narrow path. I have met with those who have 
 declared that they have forever forfeited their right to the 
 richer experiences of the blessed life because they have 
 wrought some wickedness in the past. What though it has 
 
78 THE IVALLS OF JERICHO. 
 
 long ago been forgiven, yet it has left its shame, its scar, 
 its fatal offspring, by reason of which, in their apprehension, 
 their path into Canaan is barred. I have met with others 
 who, eager enough to enjoy all that may be experienced on 
 this side the Golden Gate, yet point to some hindrance in 
 the way, the lasting memorial of days when the spirit was 
 less on the alert, and conscience less sensitive; and for 
 this cause they too fear that they can never do more than 
 encamp, beyond the Jordan indeed, but on the fringe of 
 the Land of Promise. Again, it may be asked. Who is 
 there that has not stood, at some period or another, before 
 a Jericho, right in the pass to Canaan ? 
 
 To all such there is infinite sweetness and comfort in the 
 word spoken by the Great Captain to Joshua, standing 
 with bared foot on the holy ground, " See, I have given 
 into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the 
 mighty men of valor." 
 
 Be still/ — The hardest of all commandments this! That 
 our voice should not be heard ; that no word should pro- 
 ceed from our mouth ; that we should utter our complaints 
 to God alone — all this is foreign to our habits and taste. 
 As death is the last enemy to be destroyed in the universe 
 of God, so is the restraint of the tongue the last lesson 
 learned by his children. We like to air our grievances ; to 
 talk over our ailments ; to compare ourselves with others ; 
 and to discuss the likeliest remedies. We tell our friends 
 our secrets under strict promises of confidence, to discover 
 in bitter experience the truth of the Master's words, that 
 what is told into the ear in closets will be proclaimed upon 
 house-tops. 
 
 It is only the still heart that can reflect the heaven of 
 God's overarching care, or detect the least whisper of his 
 voice through its quiet atmosphere, or know his full grace 
 and power. Only when we have quieted ourselves as 
 weaned babes can we reach that position in which God 
 
"BE STILL!" 79 
 
 can interpose for our help. Not dumb toward God, but 
 dumb as the dove amongst strangers, or as the lamb before 
 her shearers. " Be still," saith God, " and know that I am 
 God. I will be exalted among the heathen ; I will be ex- 
 alted in the earth." And that soul may well be still and 
 wait which has learned that the Lord of hosts is beside it 
 and the God of Jacob its refuge. To that Friend it hies 
 to pour out its secret agony. In that home it nestles as 
 in the covert of a great rock, sheltered from the blast. 
 
 Obey/ — As i n this st ory so in grace, there^must be co- 
 operation between God and man. The walls of Jericho 
 ccHiTd^ fairdown only HBjT the exercise of divine power; but 
 the children of Israel must needs encompass them. Only 
 God can give a body as it hath pleased him to the seed 
 corn ; but man must plow and sow and reap and thresh 
 and grind. Only the Son of God could multiply the loaves 
 or raise the dead ; but man must provide and distribute 
 the broken bread, and roll the stone from the sepulcher 
 door. Only God can remove the difficulties that stand in 
 the way of an entirely consecrated and blessed life ; but 
 there are commands and duties which it is incumbent on 
 us to fulfill. 
 
 What are these? In some cases we are withholding 
 obedience that we should give at once. There are things 
 which we ought to do, but which we are not doing. And 
 there is equal danger in doing more than we should — en- 
 deavoring to scale walls which we are told to encompass ; 
 shouting before the word of command has been uttered ; 
 making the circuit of the city oftener than the once each 
 day prescribed by the divine ordering. It is so hard to 
 feel that we do more by doing less ; that we save time by 
 resting quietly in our tents ; that it is vain to rise up early, 
 and so late take rest, because he giveth to his beloved 
 while they sleep. 
 
 Whatever, then, is c/early borne in on us as the will of 
 
8o THE IVALLS OF JERICHO. 
 
 God, either for us to do or discontinue doing, let us imme- 
 diately perform ; and leave it to him to do all the rest. 
 Some must bear the sacred ark in witnessing to the Gospel ; 
 others must blow on the rams' horns perpetual blasts of 
 victorious anticipation ; others, again, must face the daily 
 routine in silence; but our position should ever be the 
 prompt soldier-Hke one that rang out throjigh Joshua's 
 noblli words, " What-saith-Tny tord'unto his servant ? " 
 
 Have faith / — Look away tromr'att"~your preparations, 
 and even from your God-commanded acts to God himself ; 
 and as you do so, your difficulties will melt away — that 
 stone will be rolled from the mouth of the sepulcher ; that 
 iron gate will open of its own accord ; those mighty walls 
 will fall down flat. 
 
 Whatever it be that seems an insuperable difficulty to 
 your enjoyment of the best of those things which Christ 
 has purchased, hand it over to your Saviour ; wait before 
 him in silence, till you know what he would have you do. 
 Be sure in the meanwhile to put off all that belongs to the 
 past, and cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh 
 and spirit ; then do his bidding, at whatever cost. At the 
 same time believe that he is working for you, and that 
 the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough 
 places smooth, arid that the glory of the Lord shall be 
 seen in your heart and life, so that all who know you shall 
 be compelled to confess that the Lord has done great 
 things for you. He has given you Jericho. Let your 
 heart already dwell on that glad word. Though the walls 
 are yet standing, they are as good as gone ; and with their 
 ruins in your rear, you shall go forward to possess the land. 
 
 II. In Christian Work. — The Apostle speaks of strong- 
 holds that had to be cast down, and of high things that 
 exalted themselves against the knowledge of God; and 
 
THE PERIL OF OUR TIME. 8l 
 
 asserts that he did not war against such things accord- 
 ing to the flesh, and that the weapons of his warfare were 
 not of the flesh, but mighty before God for the casting 
 down of strongholds, and for the bringing of every high 
 and proud thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 
 
 What need there is for all Christian workers to ponder 
 these pregnant words ! The peril of our time is that we 
 should get away from the simplicity of the early Church, 
 which went into the conflict with the mighty superstitions 
 and flagrant sins of its age with no weapons save those that 
 may be found in symbol in this old-world incident. There 
 were the white robes of priestly purity ; the lifting up of 
 the propitiation of Christ ; the blowing of the rams' horns ; 
 the Gospel message proclaimed with no silver cadence, but 
 with rude and startling effect, as a summons to surrender. 
 It was in the use of such weapons as these that giant forms 
 of error collapsed, and hoary systems of idolatry were dis- 
 solved like morning mists touched by the warm fingers of 
 the sun. 
 
 With what dismay would the confessors and martyrs, 
 the prophets and apostles of primitive Christianity view 
 the methods with which we assail the monster forms of 
 vice that confront us ! Drink is intrenched behind mighty 
 fortifications — the bastions and walls of social custom and 
 habit, of national usage and immense revenues. Impiuity 
 has built around itself a girdle of defense, flaunts itself 
 undismayed in our streets, and mocks us from the gilded 
 splendor of music-hall and theater. The opium traffic 
 laughs us to scorn — supported by government; minister- 
 ing to an inveterate habit ; willing to pay a handsome sura 
 for its right to exist. The depravity of the human heart 
 is another Jericho, in which there are the towers of spirit- 
 ualism, indiiference, pride, and high imagination, which 
 proudly rear themselves against the law of God. And in 
 
82 THE IVALLS OF JERICHO. 
 
 the case of each individual worker there is almost certainly 
 some Jericho in the apathy of fellow-workers, the spirit of 
 opposition from other Christians, or the special forms of 
 sin that are rampant in the sphere intrusted to his care. 
 
 When confronted with all these things we are apt to fight 
 the world with weapons borrowed from its arsenals, and 
 to adopt methods which savor rather of the flesh than of 
 the spirit. It is a great mistake. Our only hope is to act 
 on strictly spiritual lines, because we wrestle not with flesh 
 and blood, but with the wicked spirits that He behind all 
 that is seen in this world of men and things. If we can 
 overthrow the dark spirits that abet and maintain, we shall 
 see the system which they support crumble as a palace of 
 clouds before the wind. 
 
 Let us be pure and holy, giving time to heart-searching 
 in the presence of the Captain; let us Hft up the sacri- 
 fice and work of Jesus ; let us blow the Gospel trumpet of 
 alarm and summons to surrender ; let us be much in silent 
 prayer before God; let us cherish a spirit of unity and 
 love, as the tribes of Israel forgot their differences in one 
 common expedition against their foes; above all, let us 
 beheve in the presence and cooperation of God, and we 
 shall see the old miracle repeated, and the walls of Jericho 
 fall down flat. 
 
 III. In the Story of the Church. — This_capture 
 of Jericho is surely capable of being read as^aj)arable of 
 things that af e~yerTo^e72^We Jknow that the world lieth 
 in the power of" the wicked_one._J[tJiasJDrLgJ]iDasted itself 
 against'GodTwith its mighty walls_and gate^; and it would 
 seem as^ifTHelTmFwillliever come of which psalmists and 
 kings have sung and spoken in rapturous phrase. 
 
 In~the meanwhifelheTariMs^tribes of the Church of 
 Christ ha\^been perambulaBiog^lliout^he-i^ subjected 
 
A PARABLE OF THINGS TO COME. 83 
 
 to much derision and mockery, though sometimes a sicken- 
 ing premonition of approaching judgment must steal upon 
 £he hearts oflKe votaries of worldliness. For nearly nine- 
 "teeiTcenturies the circuit has been made, the trumpet-blast 
 uttered, the Testimbliy inamtaihedl And surely the seven 
 days^vFnearly expired. 
 
 It i^aybe_ that this narrative of the taking of Canaan is 
 even a miniature anticipation of what is yet to transpire 
 m IKarfurure which is probably so near. God has given 
 the kingdoms of this world to his Son ; but they will have 
 to be engirdled by the sacramental hosts of his elect until 
 he shall have put down all rule and authority and power. 
 
IX. 
 
 ^tuBt anb fUefeat. 
 
 (Joshua viii. i, 2.) 
 
 " * Now, Christians, hold your own — the land before ye 
 Is open — win your way, and take your rest.' 
 So sounds our war-note ; but our path of glory 
 By many a cloud is darkened and unblest." 
 
 Keble. 
 
 THE conquest of Canaan occupied seven years, and 
 during the whole of that time Israel lost but one 
 battle ; indeed, the six-and-thirty men smitten in the head- 
 long flight before the men of Ai seem to have been the only 
 loss which their hosts sustained. The story of this defeat 
 is told with great minuteness, because it involved lessons 
 of the greatest moment to Israel, and of incalculable value 
 to ourselves. 
 
 The experience of defeat is far too common to the 
 majority of Christians. They are constantly turning their 
 backs before their enemies. They are defeated by in- 
 dwelling sin and the assaults of Satan, and by the mighty 
 evils which they assail in the name of God. But instead 
 of taking their defeats to heart, they become inured to 
 them. For the time they are filled with mortification and 
 chagrin, but the impression soon wears away. They do 
 not He on their faces before God, eager to discover the 
 cause of failure, to deal with it, and to advance from the 
 
 84 
 
CAUSES OF THE DEFEAT. 85 
 
 scene of defeat to wider and more permanent success. If 
 we but carefully investigated the causes of our defeats, they 
 would be only second to victories in their blessed results 
 on our character and Hves. 
 
 There were three causes for this defeat. 
 
 I. They were Self-confident because Ai was 
 Small. — Jericho was a heap of smoldering ruins. Man 
 and woman, both young and old, and ox and sheep and 
 ass, all had been utterly destroyed with the edge of the 
 sword. The only relics were — the silver and gold and 
 vessels of brass and iron which had been placed among 
 the precious stores of the Tabernacle ; the woman Rahab, 
 her people and her property; and a certain Babylonish 
 garment, some silver shekels, and a wedge of gold, of 
 which we shall hear again. 
 
 Fearing no attack from the rear, Joshua at once set his 
 face toward the interior of the country, and chose a deep 
 gorge or ravine, which lay a little toward the north, as the 
 passage-way for his army. Eight miles from its opening 
 on the Jordan valley this ravine met another, " in a wild 
 entanglement of hill and valley," and near the junction of 
 the two stood the little town of Ai, with a population of 
 twelve thousand persons. The proportion of fighting men 
 has been calculated at about two thousand ; but the situa- 
 tion was strong and commanded the pass, so that Joshua 
 had no alternative but to mete out to it the same terrible 
 fate as that with which he had visited Jericho. 
 
 Speaking after the manner of men, there was consider- 
 able force in the report of the spies sent up the valley to 
 reconnoiter. The place was much smaller than Jericho, 
 and would apparently require much less expenditure of 
 time and strength for its capture. Jericho may have 
 needed the entire host ; but for Ai, some three thousand 
 
86 ARREST AND DEFEAT. 
 
 men would surely suffice. " Make not all the people to 
 toil thither ; for they [i.e., the men of Ai] are but few." 
 
 But this recommendation went on the supposition that 
 Jericho had been overthrown by the attack of the hosts 
 of Israel ; whereas, in point of fact, they had had singu- 
 larly httle to do with it. They had walked around it, and 
 shouted — that was all. It had been taken by their great 
 Captain and Leader, and by him given into their hands. 
 The silence that reigned over its site was no criterion of 
 their might, but of his. To speak as they did was to ignore 
 the real facts of the case, and to argue as though the vic- 
 tory were due to some inherent qualities in themselves; 
 with the inference that because they had conquered at 
 Jericho they must therefore necessarily conquer at Ai. 
 
 There is no experience in the Christian life so full of 
 peril as the hour when we are flushed with recent victory. 
 Then comes the temptation to sacrifice to our net, and bum 
 incense to our drag. We magnify our part in the conflict 
 till it fills the whole range of vision. We boast to ourselves 
 that we have gotten th^ land in possession by our own 
 sword, and that our own arm has saved us. Counting 
 from our great triumph at Jericho, we despise such a small 
 obstacle as Ai. Surely, we argue, if we have carried the 
 one, we shall easily prevail at the other ! And so it fre- 
 quently happens that a great success in public is followed 
 by a fall in private ; that those who had swept all before 
 them in the pulpit or on the platform are overcome by 
 some miserable appetite, or by petulance in the home ; and 
 the bitter regret of that sin wipes out all the glad exhilara- 
 tion of the hour of victory. We never so need to observe 
 the injunction to " watch and pray " as when the foe is fly- 
 ing before us. When the mighty convocation breaks up, 
 its convictions having been turned by our single voice — as 
 in the story of Elijah — and as the people are departing 
 
FELLOIVSHIP IVITH GOD. 87 
 
 to their homes, and the bodies of the priests of Baal choke 
 the Kishon, we must be careful to go up to the top of Car- 
 mel, where we had girded ourselves for the conflict, and, 
 bowing to the earth, put our face between our knees in 
 prayer. 
 
 Had Joshua acted thus, he would never have been in- 
 duced by the words of the spies to reason on mere miHtary 
 grounds ; he would never have presumed on the insignifi- 
 cance of the Httle town ; and he would never have had the 
 anguish of seeing his panic-stricken soldiers come rushing 
 down the rugged pass, or sheltering in the stone-quarries 
 on either hand, whilst the men of Ai, in full pursuit, were 
 cutting down the hindmost and least nimble. 
 
 There is nothing small in Christian life — nothing so small 
 that we can combat it in our own strength. Apart from 
 God, the smallest temptations will be more than a match 
 for us. So weak are we, that occasions of sin, which are 
 perfectly contemptible in themselves, will overthrow our 
 most confident resolutions. The victories which we have 
 won in fellowship with God have imparted no inherent 
 might to us ; we are as weak as ever ; and directly we are 
 brought into collision with the least of our enemies, apart 
 from him, we shall inevitably go down before the shock. 
 The faith, watchfulness, and fellowship with God, which 
 availed before Jericho, can alone serve as the key to Ai. 
 
 II. They Failed to Wait on God. — An accursed 
 thing in their midst broke the link of fellowship between 
 them and the hosts that served beneath the celestial Warrior 
 who had appeared to Joshua. And though it must have 
 been a severe sorrow to Jehovah to inflict sorrow on his 
 people, yet for their sake, and for the sake of his holy 
 name, the sin must be judged and put away. Joshua 
 pleaded, " What wilt thou do for thy great Name ? " But 
 
88 ARREST AND DEFEAT. 
 
 it was for that very reason that the defeat had been per- 
 mitted. 
 
 There is not the least doubt that if Joshua had been in 
 abiding fellowship with God, the Spirit of God would have 
 indicated the presence of evil in the host ; so that Achan 
 and his sin would have been discovered and judged before 
 the march to Ai. It was so in an analogous case in the 
 Acts of the Apostles. What Achan was to Israel, that 
 Ananias and his wife were to the early Church. The fifth 
 chapter of the Acts would have recorded some great defeat 
 or crushing disaster, if it had not contained the story of the 
 discernment on the part of the apostle Peter, and by the 
 Holy Ghost, of the accursed thing to which the guilty pair 
 were privy. 
 
 If we may dare to imagine what would have been the 
 consequence in the primitive Church had that root of evil 
 been left unextirpated, we should be obliged not only to wipe 
 out the record of the signs and wonders wrought among 
 the people, of the unity of the disciples, and of the burst 
 doors of the prison ; but we should have to interpolate an 
 account of how the hosts of God, in diminished numbers, 
 gave back before the fury of their adversaries ; of how 
 Peter lay with his face in the dust of the Temple courts ; 
 of how panic and dismay filled the hearts of leaders and 
 led; and of how the name of the Lord Jesus was blas- 
 phemed, and his character traduced. But none of these 
 things befell, because the Spirit of God was able to utter 
 his unhindered testimony. 
 
 Very important is it for us to heed the Apostle's warning, 
 " if we discerned ourselves we should not be judged." God 
 sees the little rift in the lute ; the spot of decay in the 
 fruit; the ulcer in the flesh, threatening to eat away its 
 vitality. These may not be realized by us ; but he knows 
 how inevitably they must lead to defeat. Nor is he slow 
 
SEEK COUNSEL OF GOD. 89 
 
 to warn us of them. Yet of what use is it for him to speak 
 to deaf ears ; or to those who are self-confident in their 
 own wisdom ; or who pride themselves on victories which 
 were wholly his gift? Amid the gayety of the revel, we 
 do not see the handwriting on the wall ; amid the unani- 
 mous advice of the false prophets, we do not inquire for 
 the one voice that may speak evil of our plans ; amid the 
 radiant sunlight of the morning, in which the dancing 
 wavelets flash, we do not care to see the falling glass, or 
 be guided by the dark prognostications of the weather- 
 beaten sailor. Probably there is no single temptation which 
 has not to claim permission of God before it touches us. 
 He who permits it prays for us, raising his voice in lonely 
 vigil whilst we sleep, anticipating the attack by ambushes 
 of intercession. Yea, not content with this, he warns us 
 not once or twice ; he even touches us with fingers that 
 would thrill us were we not insensible, steeped in spiritual 
 lethargy. 
 
 Where God's children, like Joshua, are oblivious to the 
 warning voices which speak in ever fainter tones as they 
 are disregarded, God is compelled to let them take their 
 cotuse until some terrible disaster flings them on their 
 faces to the ground. Ah, if Joshua had only prostrated 
 himself amid the shoutings of victory over Jericho, there 
 would have been no need for him to prostrate himself 
 amid the outcry of a panic-stricken host! If he had only 
 sought counsel of God before he sent the spies up the 
 pass, there would have been no need to ask what he should 
 do to repair his defeat. The iron pruning-knife of trouble 
 has to do for many of us, roughly and hurtfully, what the 
 silver pruning-knife of the Word of God might have 
 effected. 
 
 Before ever we make some new advance, although the 
 point of attack be but an Ai, it is our duty, as it is our 
 
90 ARREST AND DEFEAT. 
 
 best policy, to get back to Gilgal. Joshua does not seem 
 to have returned there after the fall of Jericho. We ought 
 to seclude ourselves in spiritual converse with our Almighty 
 Confederate, asking if he has aught to say to us ; entreat- 
 ing that he should reveal any evil thing that he may see in 
 us, and mustering the tribes of our heart before his scrutiny, 
 that the Achan lurking there may be brought to light be- 
 fore, instead of after, the fight. 
 
 III. They had Committed a Trespass in the De- 
 voted Thing. — (i) Joshua was inclined to lay the charge 
 of their failure on God. It seemed to him as if the 
 Almighty had done ill by them in bringing them into the 
 heart of such mighty difficulties. In his judgment, warped by 
 the presence of disaster, it appeared as if it had been better 
 for the camp to have remained on the other side of Jordan. 
 The dreariest anticipations of defeat and destruction passed 
 in spectral form before him. He spoke as one whom faith 
 had deserted, the locks of his might shorn, and himself no 
 longer a hero, but, like the Canaanites themselves, whose 
 heart had melted as his did now. But, in point of fact, 
 the blame lay not with God, who was engaged in conduct- 
 ing his people within reach of superlative blessedness, but 
 wholly with themselves. 
 
 There are times in our lives when we are disposed to 
 find fault with God. "Why, Great Potter, hast thou 
 made me thus ? Why was I ever taken out of my quiet 
 home, or country parish, or happy niche of service, to be 
 plunged into this sea of difficulties? " When we are smart- 
 ing from some defeat, caused by the overpowering might 
 or the clever strategy of the foe, we are prone to blame 
 God ; either that our nature was not stronger, or that he 
 has brought us from the shelter of comparative obscurity 
 and placed us on the mountain slope where the storms 
 
"NONE UVETH TO HIMSELF." yi 
 
 expend their wildest fury. Alas ! we forget that our Father 
 brings us across the Jordan to give us larger experiences, 
 to open before us vaster possibilities, to give us a better 
 chance of acquiring his unsearchable riches. There is no 
 task without sufficiency of grace ; no foe without a suffi- 
 ciency of victorious power ; no trial without a sufficiency of 
 resource by which, as in the old dream of the alchemist, 
 the hardest, commonest metal may be transformed to gold. 
 
 The defeats that we incur in the Land of Promise are 
 not necessary. They are due entirely to some failure in 
 ourselves, and they cause grief to the immortal Lover of 
 our souls. There is no reason for defeat in the Christian 
 hfe ; always and everywhere we are meant to be more than 
 conquerors. The course of the Christian warrior should 
 be as the sun when he goeth forth in his strength, and in 
 regular gradients drives his chariot from the eastern wave 
 up the steep of heaven. Child of God, never lay the 
 blame of your failure on God ; seek for it within ! 
 
 (2) One Israehte only had trespassed, and yet it is said, 
 "The children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted 
 thing." Not one of us stands alone ; we cannot sin with- 
 out insensibly affecting the spiritual condition of all our 
 fellows. We cannot grow cold without lowering the tem- 
 perature of all contiguous hearts. We cannot pass upward 
 without lifting others. No asteroid revolves through space 
 without affecting the position and speed of every member 
 of its system. No grain lies upon the seashore without 
 influencing all its companion grains. " None of us liveth 
 to himself, and none dieth to himself." "Whether one 
 member suffereth, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
 member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." 
 
 If Israel had but realized how much the safety of the 
 whole depended on the obedience of each, every individual 
 would have watched his brethren, as he watched himself, 
 
92 ARREST AND DEFEAT, 
 
 not for their sakes alone, but for his own ; and did the 
 members of Christian communities understand how vast 
 an influence for weal or woe depends upon the choice, the 
 decision, the action of any, there would be a fuller and 
 more intelligent obedience to the reiterated injunctions of 
 the New Testament — for the strong to bear the infirmities 
 of the weak ; for the loftiest to stoop to wash the feet of 
 the lowliest ; and for all to look not on their own things 
 only, but also on the things of others. " Looking carefully 
 lest any man fail of the grace of God." 
 
 Should these words be read by any soul which is con- 
 scious of playing an Achan's part, let it take warning, and 
 whilst it is called To-day, confess, restore, and repent. 
 Not only that it may escape an inevitable judgment ; but 
 that it may not bring disaster and defeat upon those with 
 whom it associates, dragging the innocent down into the 
 vortex of a common fate. The hands of Achan were stained 
 with the blood of the thirty-six that perished in the flight 
 to Shebarim. 
 
 (3) How careless we are of God's distinct prohibitions! 
 Nothing could have been more clearly promulgated than 
 the command to leave the spoils of Jericho untouched. 
 The city and its contents were devoted to utter destruction, 
 a specified number of articles only being preserved for 
 Tabernacle use. This ordinance was probably intended to 
 preserve the children of Israel from the temptation which 
 must have accrued, had they glutted themselves with the 
 spoils of the city. The abstinence tended to strengthen 
 their character, and to educate their faith. But to Achan, 
 the will of God was overborne by the lust of his eyes and 
 the pride of Hfe. The strong tide of passion swept him 
 over the barrier reared by the divine word. 
 
 Let us not, however, judge him too hardly. He is not 
 the last who has acted in distinct violation of divine com- 
 
COMPLACENT DISOBEDIENCE. 93 
 
 mands. The Bible is full of prohibitions against the love 
 of the world, the love of dress, the love of money ; against 
 censoriousness, and pride, and unhallowed ambition; 
 against the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold ; 
 and yet thousands of Christian people hve in complacent 
 disobedience, as if God were one of themselves, or as if his 
 words were unsubstantial as smoke. What wonder that 
 the force'^ of his Israel meet with defeat, and that the old 
 word is verified in individual experience and in the history 
 of the church, " Israel hath sinned ; yea, they have even 
 transgressed my covenant which I commanded them ; yea, 
 they have even taken of the devoted thing. Therefore 
 they cannot stand before their enemies. I will not be with 
 you any more, except ye destroy the devoted thing iiom. 
 among you." 
 
®l)e baik^ of ^cljot. 
 
 (Joshua vii.) 
 
 " No cloud across the sun 
 But passes at the last, and gives us back 
 The face of God once more." 
 
 KiNGSLEY. 
 
 WAS it a sudden gust of temptation that swept Achan 
 before it when, with the rest of the host, he entered 
 Jericho ? or was it that some long growth of unjudged evil 
 flowered into that act which has made his name a reproach 
 to all after-time? It is impossible to say. Only the terri- 
 bleness of his fate seems to indicate something more than 
 a transient yielding to sin. This, at least, is clear, that in 
 the late afternoon of the day of Jericho's capture, and be- 
 fore the lurid flames of its conflagration rose to heaven, he 
 had pilfered one of those robes of exquisite texture for 
 which the plain of Shinar was famous, together with gold 
 and silver — the latter coined, the former in a wedge, and 
 had borne them surreptitiously away. 
 
 We can imagine him bringing them into his tent, where 
 he probably found it necessary to acquaint his children with 
 his deed ; for if they had not been party to the crime and 
 its concealment, they could hardly have been involved in 
 his terrible fate. With their help he dug a hole in the sand 
 and hid the spoil, which by the special ban of Joshua had 
 been devoted to Jehovah. 
 
 The whole proceeding had been conducted in such abso- 
 94 
 
THE SINFULNESS OF SIN. 95 
 
 lute secrecy, and he was so confident of the collusion of 
 the inmates of his tent, that, amid the general inquiry for 
 the thief, he braved detection, and held his peace until the 
 unerring finger of God pointed him out, as if he had said, 
 "Thou art the man!" 
 
 But what anguish he must have suffered in the mean- 
 while! Long before his deed was immasked, conscience 
 had borne witness against him ; and the lot had been cast 
 within the circle of his heart. The scene in which he 
 played so prominent a part on the plains of Jericho was re- 
 hearsed where no crowds of awestruck spectators gathered 
 round, no blanched faces looked upon his, and no horror- 
 stricken messengers ran to the tent to unearth the hidden 
 treasure. 
 
 When the first excitement of his new acquisition had 
 passed, and the fever had subsided, the dull, heavy sense 
 of wrong-doing began to gnaw at his heart. In the lull of 
 reaction, conscience spoke ; and when he marched with the 
 rest up the long ravine to Ai, when he saw his comrades 
 turn to flee, when he joined in the breathless rush back to 
 the camp, when he met the relatives of the six-and-thirty 
 men who had fallen in the battle, when he saw the dismay 
 beneath which Joshua and the elders of Israel were over- 
 whelmed — he knew, by an unerring spiritual perception, 
 that it was his sin that was bringing shame and disaster to 
 Israel. It must have been a positive rehef to him when 
 his secret was torn from his breast, and there was no need 
 to preserve longer the appearance of comparative uncon- 
 cern. Let us turn aside and study this scene in which 
 Achan's sin was detected and dealt with ; for whilst we do 
 so, we may learn something of the action of that sharp, 
 two-edged sword which pierces to the dividing asunder of 
 soul and spirit, and discerns the thoughts and intents of 
 the heart. 
 
96 THE y ALLEY OF ACHOR. 
 
 I. We should Grieve more for Sin than for its 
 Results. — Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth 
 upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening ; 
 smarting from the disgrace inflicted upon his people, and 
 aghast at the results which would probably ensue so soon 
 as the tidings had been bruited abroad. Judging simply 
 by human standards, the very worst consequences might 
 be expected when the nations of Canaan suddenly discov- 
 ered that the Israelite hosts were not invulnerable. This 
 was Joshua's fear, that the Canaanites and all the inhab- 
 itants of the land should hear of it, and compass them 
 round, and cut off their name from the earth. 
 
 As soon as we have committed sin, we look furtively 
 round to see whether we have been watched ; and then we 
 take measures to tie up the consequences which would 
 naturally accrue. Failing this, we are deeply humiliated. 
 Saul was much more moved by his desire for Samuel to 
 worship the Lord with him, and so honor him in the pres- 
 ence of the elders of Israel, than by his disobedience to the 
 divine will. We dread the consequences of sin more than 
 the sin itself ; discovery more than misdoing ; what others 
 may say and do more than the look of pain and sorrow 
 on the face that looks out on us from the encircling throng 
 of glorified spirits. 
 
 But with God it is not so. It is our sin, one of the most 
 grievous features in which is our failure to recognize its in- 
 trinsic evil, that presses him down, as a cart groans beneath 
 its load. The boy grieves because sickness shuts him away 
 from his companions — the excursion on the river; the 
 game in the woods ; the swift gliding over the deep blue 
 ice on the ringing skate ; but th^ mother grieves over the 
 disease, of which the burning fever or the labored breath 
 is the symptom. In the heart of the mother, sorrow for 
 
REALIZATION OF SIN. 97 
 
 the disappointment of the child is almost obliterated by the 
 eager anxiety that bends over his bed. 
 
 Very few of us realize what sin is, because we have had 
 no experience of a character without it, either in ourselves 
 or in others. People speak of being entirely delivered from 
 sin, but they know not what they say, or whereof they 
 affirm. None that has been born of woman, save One, 
 has ever had the experience of a perfectly sinless character. 
 Babes seem pure as the unfolding lily, which has not been 
 freckled or soiled by contact with earth-stains, but they 
 had been purer ; Christian maidens are sweet and lovely, 
 but they had been loveher; saints seem blameless and 
 harmless, but they had been saintlier — if they had not been 
 originally connected with a fallen race. 
 
 It is, of course, possible to learn something of the ex- 
 ceeding sinfulness of sin by viewing the agony, heart-break, 
 and shame, of the dying Lord ; by remembering its infinite 
 cost to the love of God ; by recalling the comparisons of 
 Scripture, in which the most loathsome forms of disease 
 are its chosen types ; or by considering the worm that never 
 dies, the fire that is never quenched. And yet the true 
 way to a proper realization of sin is to cultivate the friend- 
 ship of the Holy God. The more we know him, the more 
 utterly we shall enter into his thought about the subtle evil 
 of our heart. We shall find sin lurking where we least an- 
 ticipated — in our motives; in our rehgious acts; in our 
 hasty judgment of others ; in our want of tender, sensitive, 
 pitying love; in our censorious condemnation of those 
 who may be restrained by the action of a more sensitive 
 conscience than our own, from claiming all that we claim 
 to possess. We shall learn that every look, tone, gesture, 
 word, thought, which is not consistent with perfect love, in- 
 dicates that the virus of sin has not yet been expelled from 
 
98 THE yALLEY OF ACHOR. 
 
 our nature ; and we shall come to mourn not so much 
 for the results of sin, as for the sin itself. This is the godly 
 sorrow that needs not to be repented of. Here are tears 
 which angels catch in God's tear-bottles. In hours Hke 
 these we approach most nearly the world where sin is hated ; 
 not because it cost us Paradise, for that has been more 
 than replaced — but because it is sin, 
 
 II. We should Submit Ourselves to the Judg- 
 ment OF God. — ''And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get 
 thee up ; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face ? " It 
 was as if he had said, " Thou grievest for the effect ; grieve 
 rather for the cause. I am well able to preserve my peo- 
 ple from the assaults of their foes, though all Canaan beset 
 them; and I am equally able to maintain the honor of 
 my name. These are not the main matters for concern : 
 but that a worm is already gnawing at the root of the 
 gourd, and a plague fs already eating out the vitals of the 
 people whom I have redeemed. With my right arm I will 
 screen you from attack, whilst you give yourselves to the 
 investigation and destruction of the accursed thing." 
 
 Whenever there is perpetual failure in our Hfe, we may 
 be sure that there is some secret evil lurking in heart and 
 life. It may not always be possible for us to go direct to 
 the spot where the evil has made its lair. But we may be 
 sure that there is an accursed thing somewhere in our midst, 
 and that therefore we cannot stand before our enemies. 
 Somewhere there is a fault in the insulation of the wire 
 through which the currents of divine power and grace 
 come to us ; and it is useless to pray that they may be re- 
 newed until we have repaired the defect. Much of the 
 time spent in public and secret prayer would be better 
 employed by subjecting our dealings with each other and 
 our walk before God to a searching scrutiny. It is a 
 
SUBMISSION TO GOD. 99 
 
 mistake to be on the face pleading with God for a blessing 
 — and especially for f/ie blessing of Pentecost — whilst there 
 is some evil thing in our hearts needing to be dealt with 
 ere the divine energies can come to us. It is not a ques- 
 tion of God's willingness or unwillingness ; but of the laws 
 of the spiritual world, which make him unable to ally him- 
 self with consciously permitted sin. 
 
 Hast thou, reader, been beaten back in thy Christian 
 work, or exposed to perpetual defeat by some petty tempta- 
 tion? Then it would be well to call a halt: not to hold a 
 prayer-meeting; but to order thy heart-life before God, 
 that, if thou canst not discern the evil thing that hes at 
 the root of thy trouble, he may discern it for thee, whose 
 eyes are as a flame of fire, and in his hand a sharp sword. 
 
 (i) In searching out the causes of failure, we must be 
 willing to know the worst ; and this is almost the hardest 
 condition. Ostrich-Hke, we all hide our heads in the sand 
 from unwelcome tidings. It is the voice of an iron resolu- 
 tion, or of mature Christian experience, that can say with- 
 out faltering, " Let me know the worst." But as we bare 
 ourselves to the good Physician, let us remember that he 
 is our husband; that his eyes film with love and pity; 
 that he desires to indicate the source of our sorrow only to 
 remove it ; so that for him and for us there may be the 
 vigor of perfect soul-health and consequent bliss. 
 
 He will communicate the result of his search by methods 
 which are known to his dehcate tenderness. Do not get 
 into a fever. Do not rush from one to another for advice. 
 Do not bewilder yourself with trying to detect his voice 
 amid the tumult of voices that are sure to clamor for 
 hearing when you bend down your ear to listen. "Be 
 still and know." The responsibihty of showing you your 
 mistake is wholly with him, if you have placed all in his 
 hands. Leave it there and wait. If he has anything to 
 
lOO THE GALLEY OF ACHOR. 
 
 say, he will say it clearly, unmistakably, and certainly. If 
 he says nothing, it is because the set time has not come. 
 But to-morrow, in the morning, it may be, he will speak 
 to you and tell you all. In the meanwhile, wait and trust. 
 
 (2) When God deals with sin, he traces back its gefiealogy. 
 Notice the particularity with which, twice over, the sacred 
 historian gives the list of Achan's progenitors. It is always, 
 " Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of 
 Zerah, of the tribe of Judah" (i ; 16-18). 
 
 There, in the early morning, Joshua and Phinehas stood 
 to discern the transgressor with the aid of the Urim and 
 Thummim of Judgment. The princes of Israel passed be- 
 fore them first ; and the prince of Judah was taken. Then 
 the families of Judah ; and that of the Zarhites was taken. 
 Then the Zarhites, and Zabdi was taken; then Carmi; 
 then Achan. How his heart must have stood still, as he 
 saw the inevitable closing in of his destiny ! — hke the con- 
 tracting walls of a chamber of horrors on a hapless victim. 
 
 But sin is sporadic. To deal with it thoroughly, we 
 need to go back to its parentage. All who have carefully 
 watched the processes of the inner Hfe bear witness, that a 
 long period will often intervene between the first germ of 
 sin, in a permitted thought or glance of evil, and its flower 
 or fruit in act. We generally deal with the wrong that 
 flames out before the sight of our fellows ; we should go 
 behind to the spark as it lay smoldering for hours be- 
 fore, and to the carelessness which left it there. We only 
 awake when the rock disintegrates and threatens to fall 
 upon our cottage roof ; God would lead us back to the 
 moment when a tiny seed, borne on the breeze, floating 
 through the air, found a lodgment in some crevice of our 
 heart; and, although the soil was scanty, succeeded in 
 keeping its foothold till it had struck down its tiny roots, 
 and gathered strength enough to split the rock which had 
 
HIDDEN FAULTS. loi 
 
 given it welcome. And by this insight into small begin- 
 nings, our God would for^-arm us against great catas- 
 trophes. 
 
 What we call sin is the outcome of sin permitted, days 
 — perhaps weeks — before ; which, in the meanwhile, had 
 been gathering strength within the heart. An avalanche is 
 the result of the dislocation of a few flakes of snow, which 
 had fluttered from their place weeks before the villagers 
 were overwhelmed and smothered in their beds. There 
 is reason therefore for the advice of the wise man : " Keep 
 thy heart above all that thou guardest ; for out of it are the 
 issues of life" (r.v. marg.). If we would be kept clear 
 from great transgression, we must see to it that we are 
 cleared from hidden faults, so subtle and microscopic that 
 they would elude any but a conscience kept sensitive by 
 the grace of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 In the light of these thoughts we shall better understand 
 what is meant by one of the deepest passages in the Epis- 
 tles. James tells us — and none could better discourse on 
 such a theme than the saintly president of the Apostohc 
 Church — that ** Each man is tempted when he is drawn 
 away by his own lust, and enticed." A word which surely 
 suggests that temptation is not wholly a matter without 
 the soul, as some think ! And he goes on to say, " The 
 lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin ; and the sin, when 
 it is full-grown, bringeth forth death." Mark those words, 
 when it hath conceived, beareth — they are very deep. In 
 nature there is an interval, a period of incubation. 
 
 If, therefore, you have fled before Ai, do not be content 
 when you have discovered Achan ; but continue your search 
 till you have learned what gave him power to hurt you, and 
 so work your way through the links in the long chain till 
 you discover his remote ancestor in something which you 
 did not suspect for the moment, but which was the guilty 
 
I02 THE yALLEY OF ACHOR. 
 
 progenitor. Achan's own words shall enforce the neces- 
 sity : " I saw ... I coveted ... I took." 
 
 (3) It is a good thing at times to muster the clans of 
 heart and life. We must make the principal tribes of our 
 being pass before God — the pubhc, and private ; our be- 
 havior in the business, the family, the church — until one 
 of them is taken. Then examine that department, go- 
 ing through its various aspects and engagements, analyz- 
 ing it in days, or duties; resolving it into its various ele- 
 ments; and scrutinizing each. The auditor of accounts 
 in some great business house, called in to discover the 
 source of leakage, will for obvious reasons eliminate from 
 his inquiry certain of the ledgers representing the more 
 prosperous branches of the trade ; and thus he narrows his 
 inquiries within a smaller and yet smaller range. 
 
 This duty of self-examination should be pursued by those 
 who have least relish for it, as most likely they really need 
 it ; whilst those who are naturally of an introspective dis- 
 position will probably apply themselves to the task without 
 being reminded of the necessity of so doing, and should 
 guard against its excess and abuse. Whoever undertakes 
 it should do so on reliance on the Holy Spirit ; and give 
 ten glances to the Blessed Lord for every one that is taken 
 at the corruptions of the natural heart. It is " looking off 
 unto Jesus " which is the real secret of soul-growth. 
 
 III. We should hold no Parley with Discovered 
 Sin. — "And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Aclian, 
 the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the 
 wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his 
 oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all 
 that he had. And they brought them up unto the Valley 
 of Achor. And all Israel stonei him with stones; and 
 they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones." 
 
"THE DOOR OF HOPE." 103 
 
 Then Jehovah repeated the words which had preceded the 
 capture of Jericho, "And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear 
 not ! . . . see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, 
 and his people, and his city, and his land." 
 
 Then up the long defile Joshua marched with thirty 
 thousand men — the mighty men of valor. There was a 
 sense in every breast of an integrity which had put away 
 all cause of failure and defeat. The preparations were 
 skillfully made ; the appearance of flight on the part of 
 Israel drew forth the men of Ai to headlong pursuit ; and 
 the city was left at the mercy of the ambush, which at the 
 sign of Joshua's uplifted javelin arose, entered the city, and 
 set it on fire. And in that very place where Israel had met 
 with so disastrous a defeat, the people took great spoil, 
 specially of cattle, which they drove down in triumph to 
 the camp at Gilgal. 
 
 God never reveals an evil which he does not require us 
 to remove. And if heart and flesh fail, if our hand refuses 
 to obey our faltering will, if the paralysis of evil has so far 
 enfeebled us that we cannot lift the stone, or wield the 
 knife, or strike the flint-stones for the fire, then he will do 
 for us what must be done, but which we cannot do. Some 
 are cast in a mold so strong that they can dare to raise the 
 hatchet, and cut off the arm just madly bitten, and before 
 poison has passed from it into the system; others must 
 await the surgeon's knife. But the one lesson for all the 
 inner Hfe is to be willing for God to do his work in us, 
 through us, or for us. 
 
 So the Valley of Achor becomes '' the Door of Hope." 
 From that sterile, mountain-guarded valley, Israel marched 
 to victory ; or, to use the highly colored imagery of Hosea, 
 it was as though the massive slabs opened in the cliffs, and 
 the people passed into cornfields, vineyards, and oHveyards, 
 singing amid their rich luxuriance as they sang in their 
 
104 THE VALLEY OF ACHOR. 
 
 youth in the day when they came up out of Egypt. Ah ! 
 metaphor as true as fair! for all our inner Hfe, there is no 
 Valley of Achor where the work of execution is faithfully 
 preformed, in which there is not a door of hope — entrance 
 into the garden of the Lord ; and a song so sweet, so joy- 
 ous, so triumphant, that it would seem as if the buoyancy of 
 youth were wed with the experience and mellowness of age. 
 
XI. 
 (Bbal anli (^m^im. 
 
 (Joshua viii. 30.) 
 
 ** Therefore, child of mortality, love thou the merciful Father! 
 Wish what the Holy One wishes! — and not from fear but affection; 
 Fear is the virtue of slaves ; but the heart that loveth is willing ; 
 Perfect was before God, — and perfect is — Love and Love only!" 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 THIS was one of the most impressive scenes that oc- 
 curred during the occupation of Canaan. Jericho 
 and Ai were heaps of blackened ruins ; their kings and 
 people utterly destroyed; their dependent villages mute 
 with terror. And all through the land the rumor ran of 
 the might of Israel's God. And beyond the horizon of the 
 visible, into those realms of evil spirits, which had too long 
 filled the chosen land with horrid rite and obscene orgy, 
 must tidings have come that struck the knell of their 
 supremacy. There must have been panic there, in those 
 dark realms, Hke that which Milton, in his sublime " Ode 
 to the Nativity," ascribes to the hour of the birth of Christ. 
 
 The nations of Canaan appear to have been so panic- 
 stricken that they offered no resistance, and made no at- 
 tempt at molestation, as all Israel went on a pilgrimage 
 of thirty miles to perform a reHgious duty, which had been 
 distinctly, and more than once, commanded by the great 
 Lawgiver, whose words constituted their supreme directory. 
 
 " It shall be," so the word stood, " on the day when ye 
 
 IDS 
 
io6 EByfL AND GERIZIM. 
 
 shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy 
 God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, 
 and plaster them with plaster, and thou shalt write upon 
 them all the words of this law " (Deut. xi. 26-32 ; xxvii. 2). 
 Joshua lost no time in obeying these minute and lu-gent 
 injunctions ; and within two or three days after the fall of 
 Ai — ^perhaps within three weeks of the passage of the Jor- 
 dan — the people were assembled in the valley of Shechem, 
 which lies from east to west, sentineled on the north by 
 the sterile slopes of Ebal, rearing itself gaunt and barren 
 against the intense blue of the Eastern sky ; and on the 
 south by its twin-giant Gerizim, '* a majestic mass of lime- 
 stone, with stately head and precipitous sides, but fruitful 
 and picturesque, girt with foliage and beauty." 
 
 The valley between these two is one of the most beauti- 
 ful in Palestine. Jacob's well Hes at its mouth ; and all 
 its luxuriant extent is covered with the verdant beauty of 
 gardens, and orchards, and olive-groves, rolling in waves 
 of billowy beauty up to the walls of Shechem ; whilst the 
 murmur of brooks flowing in all directions fills the air. 
 The width of the valley is about a third of a mile ; though 
 the summits of the two mountains, in the lap of which it 
 Hes, are two miles apart. It is remarkable that where the 
 two mountains face each other and touch most closely, with 
 a green valley of five hundred yards between, each is hol- 
 lowed out, and the limestone stratum is broken into a suc- 
 cession of ledges, '* so as to present the appearance of a 
 series of regular benches." Thus a natural amphitheatre is 
 formed, capable of containing a vast audience of people ; 
 and the acoustic properties are so perfect in that dry and 
 rainless air, that Canon Tristram speaks of two of his party 
 taking up positions on the opposite mountains, reciting the 
 Ten Commandments antiphonally, and hearing each other 
 perfectly. 
 
THE ALTAR ON EBAL 107 
 
 Thither Joshua led the people, that, by a solemn act, 
 they might take possession of the land for God. 
 
 I. The Altar on Ebal. — Ebal was stem and barren 
 in its aspect. There was a congruity, therefore, between 
 its appearance and the part it played in the solemn pro- 
 ceedings of the day. For far up its slopes gathered the 
 dense masses of the six tribes, who, with thunderous 
 Amens twelve times repeated, answered the voices of the 
 band of white-robed Levites, as, standing with Joshua and 
 the elders and officers and judges in the green valley, they 
 solemnly repeated the curses of the law. 
 
 But that was not the first proceeding in the holy cere- 
 monial. Before the people took up their assigned places 
 on the mountain sides, an altar was reared on the lower 
 slopes of Ebal. Special directions as to its construction 
 had been given in Deuteronomy xxvii. It was to be built 
 of unhewn stones, on which no iron tool had been hfted ; 
 probably to guard against any attempt to set forth the 
 likeness of God, and to discountenance the florid and las- 
 civious ornamentations of which the surrounding heathen 
 were so fond. 
 
 There they offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace- 
 offerings. The Burjit-offering was what was known as a 
 sweet-savor offering. The whole of the victim was burned. 
 ** It was an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto 
 the Lord" (Lev. i.). Herein the Holy Ghost signified, 
 secondarily, our duty to present ourselves without reserve 
 to God ; but primarily the devotion of our blessed Lord 
 to accomplish his Father's will in our redemption. He 
 held nothing back ; there was no reserve. He emptied 
 himself, and he did it ungrudgingly ; for he said, *' I de- 
 light to do thy will, O my God." How sweet this was to 
 the heart of the Father! If on the one hand there was 
 
io8 EBAL AND GERIZIM. 
 
 anguish such as only God could feel, on the other there 
 was the gratification of delighted love. 
 
 The Peace-offering also belonged to the sweet-savor 
 offerings, but it was not wholly consumed; a part was 
 eaten by the offerers, to testify that in it they had fellow- 
 ship and communion with God. In the sight, therefore, 
 of Israel, Joshua and other chosen representatives par- 
 took of portions of the sacrifices, and obeyed the divine 
 injunction, " Thou shalt eat there, and thou shalt rejoice 
 before the Lord thy God." If any of the native Hittites, 
 peering out from behind great bowlder-stones, were spec- 
 tators of that scene, they must have been impressed with 
 the thought that Jehovah dehghted in the happiness of his 
 people, and that his service was as the scent of clover, or 
 as the feast of children at their father's table. We feed 
 on the peace-offering when we meditate on the love and 
 death of our blessed Lord, and enter into some of the 
 Father's thoughts of satisfaction at the work he did, and 
 the spirit in which he did it. 
 
 As we pass into the Land of Promise we must see to it 
 that we do not leave behind the devout and loving con- 
 sideration of that precious blood by which we have been 
 redeemed and which is our life. Our highest and most 
 rapturous experiences can never take the place of this. 
 Constantly we must remind ourselves and others that we 
 are redeemed sinners ; and that all our hopes of salvation, 
 our fellowship with God, our motives for service, are de- 
 rived from what our Saviour did when he bore our sins in 
 his own body on the tree. 
 
 Since he died there, we need never stand on the mount 
 of cursing. Because he counted not his hfe dear to him- 
 self, those gaunt and forbidding slopes have become the 
 scene of blessed communion with God. We sit and feast 
 with him, and from peak to peak joy chases the terrors of 
 
LAW AND GRACE. 109 
 
 the curse ; and smiles look out on us from the old rocks, 
 whilst the torrents tinged with the light of the sun flash 
 and sing. Because he shed his blood, there shall, unlike 
 the field of Gilboa, be " dew, and rain, and fields of offer- 
 ings," even on Ebal ; until its terraced slopes resemble 
 those of the opposite mount of blessing. Ah, blessed Lord, 
 how shall we thank thee, who hast redeemed us from the 
 curse of the law, and made Ebal so choice a trysting-place 
 with God ! 
 
 II. The Law in Canaan. — Around the altar strong 
 men reared great stones, and plastered them with a facing 
 of cement, composed of lime or gypsum, on which it was 
 easy to write all the words of the law very plainly (Deut. 
 xxvii. 8). In that dry air, where there is no frost to split 
 and disintegrate, such inscriptions — graven on the soft ce- 
 ment, or written on its polished surface when dry with 
 ink or paint, as in the case of the monumental stones of 
 Egypt — would remain for centuries. As the time could 
 not have admitted of the inscription of the whole law, it 
 is probable that the more salient points were alone com- 
 mitted to the custody of those great cromlechs, to perpetuate 
 to after generations the conditions of the tenure on which 
 Israel held the lease of Palestine. They were a standing 
 protest against the sins which had bhghted those fertile 
 valleys, and an incentive to the obedience on which so 
 much of the future hinged. 
 
 But when we turn from the literal to the metaphorical, 
 and ask for the underlying typical meaning of this inscrip- 
 tion of the law in so prominent a position in the Land of 
 Promise, we are at first startled. What can it mean? Is 
 there a connection after all between law and grace? Are 
 those who sit with Christ in heavenly places still amenable 
 to law — " under the law," as the Apostle puts it? Is it not 
 
no EBAL AND GERIZIM. 
 
 true that, by our union with Christ who died, we have 
 passed out of the sphere in which we were married to our 
 first husband, the law, and have left it behind us? Are 
 we not, therefore, discharged from the law of our former 
 husband and married to another, even to him that was 
 raised from the dead? 
 
 There is but one answer to all these questions. We 
 have died to the covenant wherein we were holden. We 
 do serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the 
 letter. We are not looking to our obedience to merit the 
 favor of God, or to win aught of the blessings of the 
 Gospel. But it is also true that faith does not make the 
 law of God of none effect ; and still, in the Land of Prom- 
 ise, he undertakes to write it clearly on the tablets of our 
 hearts. In each one of us there is an Ebal with its altar 
 and its stones. The soul comes back again and again to 
 those first principles of the perfect life ; not by compulsion 
 from without, but by the impulse of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The case is this. When we yield ourselves entirely to the 
 Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, and which passes freely 
 through us, as the blood through artery and vein, he makes 
 us very sensitive to the least commandment or desire of 
 him whom he has taught us to love ; we dread to see the 
 shadow of suffering pass over his face more than to feel 
 the pang of remorse rend our hearts ; we find our heaven 
 in his smile of approval, and the ** Well done ! " that glis- 
 tens in his eyes when we have done aught to the least of 
 his ; we are conscious of the pulse of a love which he has 
 instilled, and which supplies us with the highest code for 
 life — and so insensibly whilst we yield ourselves to him 
 we find ourselves keeping the law after a fashion which 
 was foreign to us when it was a mere outward observance, 
 and we cry with the psalmist, " Oh, how love I thy law I 
 it is my meditation all the day." 
 
THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE, m 
 
 III. The Convocation. — When these rites were ful- 
 filled, the third and concluding scene of this extraordinary 
 transaction took place. In the center of the valley the ark 
 rested, with its group of attendant priests and Levites. 
 Hard by, Joshua and the leaders of the tribes, elders, offi- 
 cers, and judges. Then up the slopes of Ebal, finding seats 
 on its terraced sides, were Reuben, Gad and Asher, and 
 Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali ; whilst up the slopes of Geri- 
 zim were the larger and more important tribes of Simeon, 
 and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Ben- 
 jamin. It was as though the voice of blessing must be 
 louder than that of cursing — a prediction of its final preva- 
 lence and triumph. 
 
 Then Joshua read aloud " all the words of the law, the 
 blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in 
 the book of the law. There was not a word of all that 
 Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the 
 assembly of Israel, and the women, and the httle ones, and 
 the strangers that were conversant among them." And as 
 he solemnly read, whether the blessing or the curse, each 
 several item was responded to by the Amens that thundered 
 forth from thousands of throats, and rolled in reverberating 
 echoes through the hills. Earth has seldom heard such 
 shouts as those! 
 
 It is well worth our while to ponder the list of blessings 
 appended to obedience in that memorable twenty-eighth 
 chapter of Deuteronomy, that we may discover their spirit- 
 ual counterparts, and, having found them, to claim them. 
 
 Let us, first, be quite sure that we are right with God ; 
 next, that we are on his plan and doing his will; also 
 thirdly, that we are set upon his glory, altogether irrespect- 
 ive of our own interests ; and we shall find ourselves able 
 to appropriate blessings of which we little dreamed. The 
 Lord will open his good treasury in heaven and make ns 
 
112 EBAL AND GERIZIM. 
 
 plenteous for good, and establish us for an holy people unto 
 himself. 
 
 Nor can we better close our meditation than by asking 
 that the Holy Spirit may so indwell and guide us that we 
 may choose what he ordains, and not swerve by a hair's 
 breadth to the right or left of the narrow path of obedience ; 
 keeping his commandments; obeying his biddings; per- 
 fectly conformed to his will. Thus shall Ebal cease to 
 frown, and Gerizim rain its blessings upon us. Ours shall 
 be the Beatitudes with which our Master opened his great 
 discourse. Ours, the heavenly Kingdom, the divine com- 
 fort, the earthly inheritance, the fiUing and the mercy, the 
 vision of God, and the blessed prerogative of sonship, and 
 finally the great reward (Matt. v. 1-12). 
 
XII. 
 
 ®l)e toiUs of tlje SDml. 
 
 (Joshua ix.) 
 
 " The perils that we well might shun 
 We saunter forth to meet ; 
 The path into the road of sin 
 We tread with careless feet. 
 The air that comes instinct with death — 
 
 We bid it round us flow ; 
 And when our hands should bar the gate 
 We parley with the foe!" 
 
 Bright. 
 
 THE whole country was in arms. Minor differences 
 were obliterated, a truce was given to tribal wars, and 
 those who had been deadly foes were driven by the very 
 necessities of the case into a combination against the 
 dreaded invader. Just as the Pharisees and Sadducees, 
 who were hereditary foes, combined to destroy Christ, so 
 did all the kings — whether Hittite or Amorite, Perizzite 
 or Hivite — gather themselves together to fight with Israel 
 and with Joshua, "with one accord." In front of that 
 common danger all minor contentions held their peace. 
 
 Tidings of this formidable coalition found their way into 
 the camp of Gilgal, whither leader and people had re- 
 cently returned from their pilgrimage to Shechem. Prob- 
 ably Joshua heard the tidings without great dismay ; but 
 to the princes it was welcome news to learn almost simul- 
 taneously that there was the possibility of forming a league 
 
 113 
 
114 THE IVILES OF THE DEVIL 
 
 with those who were likely to stand by them at that solemn 
 juncture. This league, however, was to cost them as much 
 anxiety, if not more, as the sin of Achan. 
 
 Whenever we are threatened with unprecedented diffi- 
 culty, we may expect to encounter just such a temptation 
 as that which the Gibeonites presented to Israel. 
 
 I. "They did work Wilily." — One day a strange 
 spectacle presented itself at the gates of the camp. A 
 group of strangers announced themselves, who seemed to 
 have come from a far country. In every article of dress, 
 as well as in the trappings of their asses, there were the 
 signs of long journeys. Their shoes were clouted ; their 
 garments faded ; their sacks in holes ; their wine-skins 
 patched ; and when they turned out the remnants of their 
 bread, the mold suggested the days that had passed since 
 it left the oven. All the camp gathered to see them enter ; 
 and as they passed through the lines of eager spectators, 
 from one to another the word passed, " Who are they ? 
 whence came they? Wherever they come from, they are 
 evidently foreigners in this country." Compassion would 
 be freely expended on them for the weary fatigue of their 
 travel ; and no one suspected for a moment that beneath 
 the clever disguise was concealed a band of Hivites. But 
 so it was. For the first time, within the precincts of the 
 camp which was holy unto the Lord, there stood a com- 
 pany of those inhabitants of Canaan which Israel had been 
 expressly commissioned to destroy. 
 
 Had it not been for their disguise they would not have 
 been permitted to come within the circle of the tents. A 
 cry of horror would have passed from lip to Hp, drowning 
 any attempt of theirs to speak; but their story was so 
 reasonable, their references to Jehovah so reverential, their 
 
THE CRAFTY G/BEONITES. 115 
 
 appearance so in keeping with the account they gave of 
 themselves, that they threw Joshua, princes, and people 
 completely off their guard. 
 
 It is in this way that we are tempted still — more by the 
 wiles of Satan than by his open assaults; more by the 
 deceitfulness of sin than by its declared war. And it is 
 little matter for wonder that those who succeed at Jericho 
 and Ai fall into the nets woven and laid down by the wiles 
 of Gibeon. Better to meet Caiaphas than Judas. A black 
 devil is less to be dreaded than a white one. 
 
 Take up the chronicles of the early Church. With no 
 prestige, or wealth, or human learning to help her, she 
 swept forward on her beneficent mission, during the first 
 centuries of her existence, freeing the slave, lifting woman 
 from her degradation, smiting down gigantic systems of 
 idolatry and philosophy, and winning myriads of trophies 
 for Jesus Christ. There was no reason to doubt that she 
 would speedily accomplish the will of her divine Founder 
 in encompassing the world with the tidings of redemption, 
 and proclaiming his Gospel to every creature. All through 
 these days each step was taken at a great cost of agony 
 and blood. The kings of the earth set themselves in array, 
 and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, 
 and against his Christ. Ten awful persecutions rolled up 
 against the Ark, threatening to engulf it in their blood-red 
 waters. The great dragon persecuted the woman; and 
 the serpent cast out of his mouth after her water as a river, 
 that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. 
 
 But the effect of all this was most salutary. There was 
 no temptation to hypocrites to join the ranks of the faith- 
 ful ; and these counted not their hves dear unto themselves, 
 if only by word and life they might commend the Gospel 
 of their Lord, Those were the days when the saints 
 
Ii6 THE fVILES OF THE DEVIL 
 
 walked the earth in white, and God was not ashamed to 
 be called their God, and men were attracted by the sheen 
 of a celestial beauty. 
 
 Then, since the adversary could not prevail by force, he 
 had resort to wile. Constantine was his agent, through 
 whom an alliance was effected between the new young 
 faith and the expiring systems of paganism. The great 
 fasts of the Christian faith were commemorated on the 
 days consecrated from time immemorial to heathen festi- 
 vals ; and after a while in the garments and with the rites 
 by which those festivals had been signahzed. A league was 
 formed between the Church and the world ; between truth 
 and falsehood ; between the new and the old : and the re- 
 ligion of Jesus Christ struck hands in solemn covenant 
 with the old shoes and clouted, the old garments, the 
 moldy provision of Babylonish idolatry. 
 
 From that moment a change passed over the Church of 
 Christ. What she gained in prestige of worldly power she 
 lost in character and spiritual strength. From that moment 
 the course of the professing Church has been always down- 
 ward ; and to-day it is her weakness and shame that she 
 has so unaccountable a liking for the old reHcs of a de- 
 funct paganism. 
 
 Many a soul that has withstood the attacks of the more 
 pronounced forms of temptation has succumbed before the 
 treacherous arts of the flatterer. Young Christians have 
 much to fear from those who introduce themselves as being 
 also rehgious, and as enthusiastic as they, and who proceed 
 to urge them "not to overdo it." We have all to beware 
 of those insinuating themselves into our affections, our 
 counsels, our homes, or our businesses; who assume an 
 interest in religion which they do not feel ; who talk glibly 
 and falsely of the fame of God ; and who offer to do all 
 in their power to further and help our interests whilst they 
 
''THEY ASKED NOT COUNSEL/' 117 
 
 are plotting our ruin. There are plenty of Gibeonites about. 
 " Beloved, believe not every spirit ; but prove the spirits, 
 whether they are of God ; because many false prophets are 
 gone out into the world." " Bear with me ; I fear, lest by 
 any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, 
 your minds should be corrupted from the simpHcity and 
 the purity that is toward Christ." 
 
 II. "They Asked not Counsel of the Lord." — 
 The leaders of Israel seem at first to have been a little 
 suspicious of their visitors. " And the men of Israel said 
 unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us, and 
 how shall we make a covenant with you ? " But their sus- 
 picions were allayed as they hstened to their story, and 
 saw the apparent evidences of their long journey. Here 
 surely was an opportunity of proving their sagacity. They 
 had not been allowed as yet to show their bravery and 
 might, but they could at least now give proof of their 
 superior insight! This was altogether too obvious a mat- 
 ter to need to be referred to Phinehas with his Urim and 
 Thummim ! And so they took of their provisions, moldy 
 as they were, in token of their willingness to count them 
 allies and friends ; indeed, the princes of the congregation 
 sware unto them. But they " asked not counsel at the 
 mouth of the Lord." 
 
 What an ominous sound there is in those words! They 
 portend disaster — and it befell. Up to this moment the 
 initiative had always been taken by the Lord. Now for 
 the first time it is taken by Joshua and the people. In all 
 the previous chapters the words run thus : " And the Lord 
 said unto Joshua ; " but there is no such phrase in this, 
 Israel through her chosen leaders acted for herself, and 
 easily fell into the trap. If only they had inquired of the 
 Lord, the dimming Hght in the sacred stone would have 
 
Ii8 THE IVILES OF THE DEVIL 
 
 betrayed the fatal secret and arrested the formation of the 
 
 league. 
 
 Let us lay the moral to our heart. Earth's somber tints 
 and cross-lights are very perplexing ; and it is often ex- 
 tremely hard to detect the truth. The foolish virgins are 
 so much like the wise ; the tares so resemble the wheat ; the 
 hireling imitates so precisely the Shepherd's voice; the 
 devil's mimicry of an angel of light is so exact ; By-path 
 Meadow is parted from the King's Highway by so narrow 
 a boundary. We urgently need, as the Apostle prayed 
 for his Philippian converts, that we may have not only all 
 knowledge, but all discernment, so that we may prove the 
 things that differ (Phil. i. lo, r.v., margin). 
 
 In one place this power to discriminate is said to result 
 from use (Heb. v. 14) ; whilst in the passage aheady quoted 
 it is attributed to an abounding love. But following the 
 suggestion of the narrative before us, we may say that it 
 will follow naturally on the careful cultivation of the habit 
 of asking counsel at the mouth of the Lord. 
 
 Never trust your own judgment. When your common 
 sense is most sure of the rightness of a certain course of 
 action, it will be best to make assurance doubly sure by 
 lifting up your soul to God, that it may dim with his No, 
 or glisten with his Yes. When voices within or without 
 would hasten you to decide on the strength of your own 
 conclusions, then be careful to refer the whole matter from 
 the lower court of your own judgment to the supreme tri- 
 bunal of God's. If there is any doubt or hesitation left after 
 such reference, be sure that as yet the time has not come 
 for you to understand all God's will. Under such circum- 
 stances — wait. Throw the responsibility of the pause, and 
 all it may involve, on God ; and dare still to wait. As a 
 traveler over the hills, when the mist has come down, 
 elects to stand or lie where it overtakes him, rather than 
 
iVAITING UPON GOD. 119 
 
 wander on, perhaps to the brink of a precipice — so wait. 
 If you trust God absolutely, it is for him to give you clear 
 directions as to what you should do. And when the time 
 for action arrives, he will have given you such unmistak- 
 able indications of his will that you will not be able to mis- 
 take them or err therein. ** None of them that wait on 
 him shall be ashamed." 
 
 Life is full of difficulties. The pointed spear awaits the 
 unwary at the bottom of the pit, the top of which is cov- 
 ered by a slight film of earth. The snare of the fowler, 
 the pestilence that walketh in darkness, the net privily laid, 
 the decoy-bird, the devil in the wily serpent form — of these 
 we need to beware. But prayer is like the spear of Ithu- 
 riel ; and before its touch evil will be compelled to show 
 itself in its native deformity, so that we may be thrown in- 
 stantly upon the watch. 
 
 Before entering into any alliance — taking a partner in 
 life, going into a business with another, yielding assent to 
 any proposition which involves confederation with others — 
 be sure to ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord. He will 
 assuredly answer by an irresistible impulse — by the voice 
 of a friend ; by a circumstance strange and unexpected ; 
 by a passage of Scripture. He will choose his own mes- 
 senger ; but he will send a message. 
 
 III. "Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water." 
 — There are some oaths better in the breach than the ob- 
 servance, as would have been the case with Herod's. And 
 if there had been certain peril that these Hivites would 
 corrupt Israel, it had been better for them, notwithstanding 
 the oath of the princes, to have been cut off like the rest 
 of the Canaanites. But all danger of this peril accruing 
 was carefully guarded against by their reduction to servi- 
 tude. " Hewers of wood and drawers of ^ water, for the 
 
I20 THE IVILES OF THE DEVIL 
 
 congregation and for the altar of Jehovah." This position 
 they retained; and in after years heavy disasters befell 
 Israel, because Saul, in his mad zeal, broke the solemn 
 league and covenant into which Joshua and the princes 
 had entered with them (2 Sam. xxi. 2). 
 
 This is a beautiful and comforting example of the way 
 in which God overrules our mistakes, and brings blessing 
 out of our sins ; as the chemist obtains his loveliest dyes 
 from the refuse of gas retorts. Inadvertently, and without 
 due consideration, some reader may have entered into 
 alliance with a Gibeonite — whether in marriage, in busi- 
 ness, or in some other sphere. Are they therefore to aban- 
 don their high privilege, and forsake their lofty ministry 
 to the world? Must they cease to be God's portion, and 
 the priests of men? Not necessarily. Let them turn to 
 God in repentance and confession, and he will teach them 
 how these very hindrances may become great means of 
 help ; so that they shall hew the wood for the burnt-offering, 
 draw the water for the libations, and promote the prosper- 
 ity and well-being of the soul. *' Out of the eater shall 
 come forth meat, and out of the strong shall come forth 
 sweetness." 
 
 " If any brother hath an unbelieving wife, and she is 
 content to dwell with him, let him not leave her. And the 
 woman which hath an unbelieving husband, and he is 
 content to dwell with her, let her not leave her husband. 
 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and 
 the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother. How 
 knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy hus- 
 band? or how knowest thou, O husband, whether thou 
 shalt save thy wife? But God hath called us in peace." 
 
 It is very sweet to think of the grace of God which for- 
 gives our sins, as the preliminary condition to transforming 
 the results of those sins to blessing. How often, in the 
 
THE MATCHLESS GRACE OF GOD, 121 
 
 lives of God's saints, the ancient prediction has been real- 
 ized, that instead of the thorn should come up the fir tree, 
 and instead of the briar the myrtle tree, that these may be 
 to the Lord for a name and an everlasting sign. 
 
 It is true that the natural consequences of our sin may 
 have to run their course. The hand of the reclaimed 
 drunkard will still tremble. The constitution of the prodi- 
 gal will never be able to throw off the effects of the fever 
 contracted from the swine-troughs. The Gibeonite will 
 always, in this world at least, be tied to you. But these 
 things shall not rule, but serve; shall not impede, but 
 promote. They shall hew the wood and draw the water 
 for the inner shrine of character, and for the promotion of 
 the loftiest standard of Christian attainment 
 
XIII. 
 21 Mcmoxabk ^Dag. 
 
 (Joshua x. 14.) 
 
 *' This day shall shine, 
 For evermore 
 To thee a star divine 
 On Time's dark shore." 
 A. Proctor. 
 
 "'T^HERE was no day like that." It stood alone in 
 X the history of the conquest, and of Joshua. Let 
 us notice — 
 
 I. The Confederacy which was Gathered against 
 Israel. — Israel had previously dealt with separate cities, 
 Jericho and Ai ; but now five kings of the Amorites joined 
 together, namely, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, 
 Lachish, and Eglon. 
 
 The traitor city of Gibeon was the object of the attack 
 of the combined forces ; partly because its defection had 
 aroused the fiercest animosity of its former allies, and partly 
 that by its occupation they might be able to interpose one 
 further barrier to the invasion of the Israelites. This was 
 more especially the purpose of Adonizedek, whose name, 
 " lord of righteousness," recalls the ancient glory of Melchis- 
 edec, the friend of Abram. The royal city of Gibeon lay 
 only six miles to the north of Jerusalem. 
 
 All suddenly, the men of Gibeon found themselves sur- 
 122 
 
A DAY OF VIGOR. 123 
 
 rounded by a vast host of infuriated warriors, who, not 
 daring to measure themselves against Joshua, because of 
 the awe which his exploits had inspired, were all the more 
 eager to wreak their vengeance upon those who had dared 
 to make a league with him. Relying upon Joshua's fidelity 
 to the covenant so recently formed, a message was sent in 
 breathless haste, summoning him to their help. 
 
 II. Joshua's Heroic Faith. — There had been great 
 days in his hfe before — the day of the Passover, when he 
 marched in the van of his tribe ; the day of the fight with 
 Amalek when, beneath the uplifted hands of Moses, he 
 drove the tribes of the desert before him ; the day when 
 first he had stood with his master amid the burning splen- 
 dor of the vision of God ; the day when he had returned 
 with Caleb from espying the land, and had heard himself 
 singled out to survive his nation and to enter the Land of 
 Promise. There had also been some wonderful days lately, 
 when he crossed the Jordan, saw the Angel, and beheld the 
 walls of Jericho fall flat ; but there had never been a day 
 in his Hfe quite hke this. 
 
 It was a day of vigor. As soon as he received the 
 message, he saw the importance of at once vindicating the 
 trust reposed in him. Ere the sun went down, orders had 
 passed through the camp that the men of war should be 
 ready for a midnight march ; and at dead of night he climbed 
 the pass from Gilgal to Gibeon — fifteen difficult miles — and 
 came upon the sleeping host suddenly before they had had 
 time to prepare themselves for fight. Inertness and indo- 
 lence ill become those who are intrusted with great con- 
 cerns. The stirring of God's Spirit in man makes the pulse 
 throb quickly ; purposes form themselves in the will, and 
 all the nature is braced, and knit, to subserve the heroic 
 souL 
 
124 A MEMORABLE DAY. 
 
 It was a day of Fellowship. Soon after the first message 
 had come, with surely a certain amount of starthng sur- 
 prise, God hath spoken to him and said, " Fear them not, 
 for I have dehvered them into thy hands ; there shall not 
 a man of them stand before thee." It was in the strength 
 of that promise, and under the pressure of such stirring cir- 
 cumstances, that he spake to God as man had never spoken 
 before. 
 
 There must have been hard fighting all the morning. It 
 was dawn when the battle began, and it would have been 
 toward afternoon when the kings gave the signal for re- 
 treat; and the Canaanites, unable longer to sustain the 
 successive onsets of Israel, charging to the battle-cry of 
 "Jehovah, mighty in battle," broke into flight like a flock 
 of panic-stricken sheep. Ten miles they fled, climbing 
 a precipitous ascent to the high ridge of Beth-horon the 
 Upper. From that point the road drops, broken and 
 rugged, seven hundred feet in two miles. The rock is cut 
 into steps. Down this breakneck steep the fugitives fled, 
 to reach, if only they might, their fastnesses and citadels, 
 which lay in the valley below, and longing for night to put 
 a pause upon the anguish of the pursuit. It was at this 
 point that the storm, of which we will speak presently, 
 burst on them with irresistible fury, as if the whole artillery 
 of heaven had suddenly opened fire, and when Joshua 
 reached the head of the ravine, before him the descent was 
 blocked with the masses of the routed armies ; beneath him 
 the valley was thick with cloud, which was venting its con- 
 tents on his foes ; while upward to him there surged the 
 mingled voice of the cry of the vanquished, the shout of 
 the pursuer, and the chorus of the hailstones. Behind 
 him, over the hills of Gibeon, the sun was westering. It 
 wanted but an hour or two, and its sudden disappearance 
 would bring on the rapid Eastern twilight, whilst the 
 
A DAY OF TRIUMPH. 125 
 
 moon's pale face appearing over the purple waters of the 
 great sea was waiting to lead on the night. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Joshua dared to 
 ask an unprecedented gift of God — that the day might be 
 prolonged. ** Why should not the sun, which is thy creat- 
 ure, but worshiped too long in this land in thy stead, now 
 subserve thy purpose in the destruction of these who have 
 given it what was thy due? and why should not yonder 
 moon, which has so often looked down upon these licen- 
 tious orgies of the Amorite, now see their impurity washed 
 out by blood? They are thine, Jehovah ; they will per- 
 form thy bidding ; hearken to my voice and let them stay." 
 
 There are high days in human lives when thought and 
 purpose, which had been quietly gathering strength, like 
 waters swelling against a barrier, suddenly leap from their 
 leash, and vent themselves in acts or words or prayers. 
 We are not, then, drunk with wine : but we are flushed, as 
 to our spirits, with the exhilaration and sense of power 
 which the Spirit of God alone can give; or, to put it in 
 another form, we catch fire. There is too little of this 
 capacity of rising into the loftiest experience of that spirit- 
 life which is within the reach of us all, through Hving fel- 
 lowship with God: but whenever we realize and use it, 
 it is as when the feeble, smoldering wick is plunged into 
 oxygen gas ; or as when a flower that had struggled against 
 the frost is placed in the tropical atmosphere of the hot- 
 house. In such hours we realize what Jesus meant when 
 he said, " Whosoever shall say unto this mountain. Be thou 
 taken up and cast into the sea ; and shall not doubt in 
 his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to 
 pass; he shall have it." 
 
 If was a day of Triumphant Onlook. Discomfited, 
 weary, vanquished, the kings sheltered in the cave of Mak- 
 kedah ; but Joshua did not stay to dispatch them ; he was 
 
126 A MEMORABLE DAY, 
 
 too eager to finish what he had commenced, and to pre- 
 vent the Canaanites re-entering their cities. So he took 
 measures for keeping them imprisoned in the cave till his 
 return. Presently, flushed with victory, and with (as 
 Josephus tells us) the loss of hardly a single hfe, he came 
 again. The kings were summoned from their hiding-place ; 
 and as they crouched abjectly at the feet of their conquer- 
 ors, Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto 
 the chiefs of the men of war, " Come near, put your feet 
 upon the necks of these kings." And whilst they stood, in 
 that attitude of unquestioned victory, there broke on the 
 exalted spirit-kindled imagination of the warrior-chieftain 
 the sure prevision of the ultimate issue of the conflict in 
 which they were engaged. He already saw the day when 
 every knee should bow before Jehovah's might; when 
 every king should be prostrate before Israel's arm; and 
 when the whole land should be subdued. So all through 
 the years that followed, he would come back again and 
 again in thought to that moment when he stood on a peak 
 of the mountain of vision, and said, '' Fear not, nor be dis- 
 mayed ! be strong and of good courage ; for thus shall 
 Jehovah do to all your enemies against whom ye fight." 
 
 III. The Extraordinary Interposition of Jehovah. 
 — The storm that broke in that late afternoon over the 
 rugged descent to Beth-horon was no common one. Ori- 
 ental hailstones are of great size : it is said that sometimes 
 lumps of ice, of a pound or more in weight, will fall ; and 
 these would naturally kill any on whom they fell. But the 
 remarkable thing in this case was that the storm broke in 
 a moment when its fury could be spent on the Amorites 
 without inflicting injury upon Israel. " It came to pass as 
 they fled from before Israel, while they were in the going 
 down of Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones 
 
"THE SUN STOOD STILL" 127 
 
 from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died ; they 
 were more that died with the hailstones than they whom 
 the children of Israel slew with the sword." 
 
 But the stupendous miracle of the day consisted in the 
 arrest of dayhght. It is obvious that verses 12-15 ^-re a 
 quotation from the poetical book of Jasher. This is clear, 
 because verse 1 5 is duplicate with verse 43 ; and the style 
 is altogether different from the majestic roll of the histo- 
 rian's prose. But there is no reason to beheve, with some, 
 that these verses give us only a metaphorical account of the 
 fight, and of the thoroughness of the victory ; as though 
 the poet would say that in that one day Israel did the work 
 of two. Beneath the veil of poetry, so gravely interpo- 
 lated by the historian, there must be a reference to a mar- 
 velous and miraculous episode. 
 
 We place no Hmit to the divine power. He who made 
 all things is the Monarch of all. It is indeed easy for him 
 to impose his will on nature, man, or human will. The 
 miracle of the resurrection is so stupendous in the raising 
 of our human nature, incorporate with the divine, to take 
 its place in the heart of the forces of the spirit-world, that 
 we need not hesitate to accept any well-accredited marvel. 
 Nor should we scruple to beheve that God could make the 
 clock of the universe stop, if it were necessary that it should 
 do so. 
 
 But it is not necessary to beheve that he did this. No 
 doubt here, as elsewhere. Scripture uses the language of 
 ordinary human life. By some process, the laws of which 
 are at present unknown to us, but of which we get glimpses, 
 in refraction, in the after-glow of sunset, in the fantastic 
 appearances familiar to travelers in high latitudes and 
 amongst the loftiest mountains — God was able to prolong 
 the daylight until Israel had made an end of slaying their 
 foes, with a very great slaughter, so that only a decimated 
 
128 A MEMORABLE DAY. 
 
 remnant entered into the fenced cities. The how is not 
 material to our present purpose. It is enough to express 
 our belief in the fact itself. Somehow, the duration of 
 that day's hght was lengthened out until the people had 
 avenged themselves of their enemies ; " And there was no 
 day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened 
 unto the voice of a man ; for the Lord fought for Israel." 
 
 Oiu: present purpose does not require us to follow the 
 steps of the conquerors as they passed from city to city. 
 Some of them, like Lachish, seem to have made an obsti- 
 nate resistance ; others, like Hebron, must have been re- 
 garded with intense interest, because of their connection 
 with the lives and wanderings of the patriarchs ; others, 
 again, witnessed to a high state of civiHzation, as Debir, 
 the city of books and learning. All were treated with the 
 same unsparing severity. The kings were slain, their 
 bodies gibbeted till the evening ; and all the souls smitten, 
 so that none were left remaining, an utter destruction of 
 all and every one by the edge of the sword. 
 
 We must remember that the Israelites were the execu- 
 tioners of divine justice, commissioned to give effect to the 
 sentence which the foul impurities of Canaan called for. 
 There is a judgment-seat for nations as well as for individ- 
 uals. Within the Hmits of the ages as they pass, and on 
 the surface of this earth, that throne is erected and that 
 judgment is proceeding. And the almighty Judge sees to 
 it that his sentences are carried out. He has many agents 
 — the Persian legions to execute his sentence on Babylon ; 
 the Vandals on Rome ; the Russian Cossacks on Napo- 
 leon ; as the Israelites on the Amorites, whose iniquity was 
 now full, and threatened to infect the world. 
 
 IV. The Lesson for our own Life. — There are days 
 so extraordinary for the combination of difficult circum- 
 
FELLOIVSHIP IVITH GOD. 129 
 
 stances, human opposition, and spiritual conflict that they 
 stand out in unique terror from the rest of our lives. 
 Looking back on them, we may almost adopt the language 
 of the sacred writer, " There was no day like that before it 
 or after it." 
 
 But these days do not come, if we are living in fellow- 
 ship with God, intent on doing his will, without there com- 
 ing also his sweet " Fear them not ; for I have delivered 
 them into thine hands! " Our only anxiety should be that 
 nothing divert us from his path, or intercept the commu- 
 nication of his grace. Like a wise commander, we must 
 keep open the passage back to our base of operations, 
 which is God. Careful about that, we need have no anx- 
 ous care beside. The greatness of our difficulties is per- 
 mitted to elicit the greatness of his grace. We may even 
 be glad to enter the storm, that we may make fresh discov- 
 eries of the all-sufficiency of Jesus, who is never so near as 
 in these days of special trial. 
 
 Moreover, these days may always be full of the realized 
 presence of God. All through the conflict, Joshua's heart 
 was in perpetual fellowship with the mighty Captain of the 
 Lord's host, who rode beside him all the day. So amid 
 all our conflicts, our hearts and minds should thither ascend, 
 and there dwell where Christ is seated, drawing from him 
 grace upon grace, as we need ; like the diver on the ocean- 
 floor, who inhales the fresh breeze of the upper air. At 
 these times it is very necessary not merely to ask God to 
 help us, because the word help may mean that there is a 
 great deal of reliance on self; and whatever there is of 
 ourselves is almost certain to give way in the strain of 
 battle. The divine part of our deliverance will be nullified 
 by the alloy of our own energy, strength, or resolution. 
 Let us substitute the word keep for the word help. Let us 
 put the whole matter into the hands of God ; asking him 
 
I30 A MEMORABLE DAY. 
 
 to go before us, to fight for us, to deliver us, as he did for 
 his people on this eventful day. 
 
 In all such days we may have light which cannot be 
 accounted for on any natural hypothesis. Our sun shall 
 not go down, neither shall our moon withdraw itself ; be- 
 cause the Lord shall be to us an everlasting light. Or in 
 words spoken long after, which siurely contain an allusion 
 to this marvelous day of Gibeon, " It shall be one day 
 which is known unto the Lord, not day and not night ; 
 but it shaU come to pass that at evening time there shall 
 be Hght " (Zech. xiv. 7, r.v.). 
 
 Only let us seek the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we 
 may be kept in such an attitude of soul that we shall miss 
 nothing of God's gracious and timely help. Trusting it, 
 reckoning on it, appropriating it. Abiding in him, that we 
 may ask with the certainty that God is hearkening unto the 
 voice of man, and that he is fighting for us. 
 
XIV. 
 Claiming bictor^, 
 
 (Joshua xi.) 
 
 ** Up! — God has formed thee with a wiser view, 
 Not to be led in chains, but to subdue! 
 Calls thee to cope with enemies ; and first 
 Points out a conflict with thyself — the worst ! " 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 THE Merom Waters, which must have become encrim- 
 soned with the blood of men on that great day whose 
 story we are now to tell, is described by travelers as one 
 of the fairest scenes in Palestine. 
 
 The lake is not large, but its blue waters are skimmed 
 by myriads of water-fowl which make their home in the 
 forests of wavy reeds growing at the northern point where 
 the Jordan enters it. On the gentle undulation of the hills 
 that slope to it on the western side all the episodes of pas- 
 toral Hfe are transacted ; whilst, from the farther side, the 
 gaunt hills, two miles across, frown upon the placid scene. 
 
 To this sweet spot as mustering-place, Jabin, King of 
 Hazor, aroused at last to fear and action by the tidings of 
 the day of Gibeon, summoned all the tribes of the north of 
 Canaan. Well would it have been for him — speaking after 
 the manner of men — if he had not delayed so long, but 
 had concentrated his forces in time to cooperate with 
 Adonizedek, marching from the north simultaneously with 
 
 131 
 
132 CLAIMING VICTORY. 
 
 the attack of the latter against Gibeon. To compensate 
 for his lost opportunity, he now sent messengers with speed 
 to raise the country. Possibly he adopted words hke those 
 with which, in after years, Saul summoned Israel to follow 
 him to Jabesh-Gilead, where he took a yoke of oxen and 
 cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the bor- 
 ders of Israel, by the hand of messengers, saying, " Who- 
 soever Cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so 
 shall it be done unto his oxen." 
 
 Throughout the hills of Galilee the messengers sped — to 
 the far north beneath the shadow of Lebanon, all down the 
 Valley of Esdraelon to Carmel, and along the shores of the 
 Great Sea. The Jebusite heard the summons in the hill 
 country, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of 
 Mizpeh ; and even some remnants of the shattered south- 
 ern confederacy seem to have poured their scanty contri- 
 bution into the accumulated ranks of that great host. 
 " They went out, they and all their hosts with them, much 
 people, even as the sand that is upon the seashore in mul- 
 titude." 
 
 It was no time for dalliance in the camp at Gilgal, 
 whither Joshua had led back his warriors to recruit after 
 their toils ; and as soon as tidings reached him, he started 
 with his army on the five days' journey that intervened 
 between Gilgal and Merom, and marched to perhaps the 
 greatest battle of his Hfe. Josephus tells us that the united 
 forces consisted of 300,000 foot, 100,000 horses, and 
 20,000 chariots. He says also that the Israelites were 
 terrified at having to encounter the iron chariots which 
 drove swiftly into the ranks of an opposing army, enabling 
 the warriors to discharge their missiles with terrible effect. 
 It may be that some tidings of the immense array that lay 
 waiting for him within the circle of the hills reached Joshua 
 when he was within a day's march of the camp. A sense 
 
THE FINAL yiCTORY. 133 
 
 of the awfulness of the crisis may for a moment have 
 thrilled his soul ; but the steadfastness of his courage knew 
 no shock, because, simultaneously with the tidings, there 
 came the divine assurance, **Be not afraid because of 
 them ; for to-morrow about this time I will dehver them 
 up all slain before Israel." 
 
 Joshua repeated the tactics which had been so success- 
 ful previously. He came against them suddenly, perhaps 
 in the early dawn. As the Israehtes fell upon them, the 
 vast host was seized with panic. Angel hosts, no doubt, 
 cooperated from the heavenlies with the armies of the 
 Lord ; and the vaunted pride of the kings bit the dust as 
 they beheld the awful rout that followed. Thousands must 
 have fallen beneath the avenging sword ; whilst three great 
 bodies of fugitives made their way, one to the city of 
 Zidon, forty miles distant ; one to the seacoast, where in 
 after years Elijah sojourned with the widow ; one to Miz- 
 peh, sheltering under Hermon. 
 
 The strength of the foe was broken ; but for some years 
 after this final victory Joshua carried on a campaign against 
 the cities standing, each on its mound or hill (r.v.), accord- 
 ing to the custom of the time, from which Jabin and his 
 allies had sallied forth to fight. Hazor was burned, prob- 
 ably to intimidate the rest, being the most prominent in the 
 alliance against Israel. For the rest, it was deemed suffi- 
 cient to destroy the inhabitants that could bear arms, to 
 render the horses useless, and to burn the chariots. " As 
 the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses 
 command Joshua, and so did Joshua ; he left nothing un- 
 done of all that the Lord commanded Moses." 
 
 The Anakim warriors of extraordinary height, who had 
 been the dread of Israel, were destroyed, together with 
 their cities ; and, nominally at least, the whole land passed 
 into the hands of Israel. 
 
134 CLAIMING yiCTORY. 
 
 I. It was a Decisive Victory. — Often before had the 
 Canaanites rallied to oppose the progress of Israel; but 
 never after this did they dare to meet them in battle array. 
 Their spirit was crushed, their power quelled. And herein 
 we are reminded of the ascension of that greater Con- 
 queror of whom Joshua was a type. 
 
 It is not improbable that those dark powers, who had 
 opposed our Saviour throughout his earthly life, mustered 
 for one last struggle as he left beneath his feet the cloud, 
 bathed in the roseate light of dawn, that hid him from the 
 eyes of his disciples. There is some trace of this in the 
 words of the Apostle, who tells us that he was raised far 
 above all rule, and authority, and power, employing the 
 very terms afterward used of our conflict with the wicked 
 spirits in the heavenhes (Eph. i. 21 ; vi. 12). 
 
 But in any case he triumphed over all that opposed him. 
 ** Having put off from himself the principalities and the 
 powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over 
 them." And the Apostle, borrowing from one of the 
 subhmest triumphal odes in the world, speaks of him as 
 leading captivity captive (Col. ii. 15 ; Eph. iv. 8). 
 
 Through the prophetess Deborah the Spirit of God first 
 uttered that significant phrase when celebrating Israel's 
 victory over a later Jabin, King of Hazor: — 
 
 "Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, 
 Thou son of Abinoam." 
 
 The thought undoubtedly is that when the down-trodden 
 becomes at last the victor, he leads captive that which had 
 led him and others in captivity. The captive-making 
 tyrant becomes in turn a captive. 
 
 So it was when Jesus rose and ascended into heaven. 
 Up to that time Satan had usurped a supreme power over 
 
LEADING CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE. 135 
 
 man ; by the wiles of his temptations ; by the witchery of 
 the world ; by the dread terrors of death and the grave ; 
 and by the virulence of his accusations. None had been 
 able to withstand him, and it seemed as if devil-power must 
 be forever triumphant over man — over the strongest, as 
 Samson ; the wisest, as Solomon ; the meekest, as Moses ; 
 the innocent, as Adam. But all this was reversed by the 
 glorious deeds of our blessed Master, who, in his death, 
 resurrection, and ascension defeated the devil, and demon- 
 strated for evermore the supremacy of man in him over all 
 the dark powers that infest the earth or air or heavenly 
 places. " He led captivity captive." We can almost see 
 the long Hne of princely captives following his triumphal 
 car as he ascends — the world, which he had overcome ; 
 death, which he had aboHshed ; Hades, the keys of which 
 were wrenched from it to hang henceforth at his girdle ; 
 the devil and his hosts ; the principalities and powers of 
 hell, led as a long hne of slaves. 
 
 Never again need that conflict be repeated. It has been 
 decisively demonstrated to the universe, and established 
 forever, that though the first Adam was not able to with- 
 stand the assaults of the devil, but succumbed with all his 
 race, yet the second Adam has proved himself more than 
 conqueror ; not for himself alone, but for all who are one 
 with him by faith. There may be war in heaven ; but it 
 will largely resemble the warfare carried on by Joshua after 
 his final victory — harassing and difficult, perhaps, but of 
 no importance as affecting the result of the successes 
 already gained. If Jesus vanquished the powers of dark- 
 ness when they hurled themselves on him in the hour of his 
 weakness and mortal agony, is it to be supposed for a mo- 
 ment that they will be able to effect anything now that he 
 sits at the right hand of God, girded with power and glory? 
 
136 CLAIMING VICTORY. 
 
 II. This Victory needed to be Followed up and 
 Appropriated. — Though the victories of Israel were de- 
 cisive, yet there was a sense in which they were incomplete. 
 It is true that Joshua destroyed the cities and those whom 
 he found in them ; but it would seem that many of the 
 inhabitants had previously retired for safety to the rocky 
 fastnesses or caves in the vicinity of their homes, so that as 
 soon as the wave of conquest had passed over the land and 
 subsided, they emerged from their hiding-places, and re- 
 occupied their possessions in houses and lands from which 
 they had been temporarily dislodged. This was according 
 to the word of Moses, who had predicted this very state of 
 things when he said, "The Lord thy God will cast out 
 those nations before thee by little and Httle ; thou mayest 
 not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field in- 
 crease upon thee." 
 
 It would have been in the highest degree impolitic to 
 have exterminated all the inhabitants, for the land would 
 have gone out of cultivation ; the terraces, which were so 
 needful in that hilly country, would have become broken 
 down ; and the water-courses would have fallen hopelessly 
 out of repair. And all this in addition to the reason alleged 
 by the great lawgiver that the wild beasts would have 
 multipHed to an alarming and dangerous extent. How 
 much wiser, then, that the displacement of the Canaanites 
 should be by a gradual process. The victories of Joshua 
 were decisive, but they were not final. They needed to 
 be followed up by the various tribes. There was no more 
 doubt as to their success in prosecuting their victories than 
 there had been in winning them. The one was as much 
 guaranteed by the divine promise as the other. In the 
 same breath as Moses had proclaimed the gradual process 
 of Israel's settlement in the land of Canaan, he announced 
 that the Lord their God would deliver their enemies up 
 
APPROPRIATION BY THE TRIBES. 137 
 
 before them, discomfiting them with a great discomfiture 
 till they were destroyed (Deut. vii. 23). 
 
 The sacred historian even affirms that it was of the Lord 
 to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, 
 that he might utterly destroy them (Josh. xi. 20). We 
 must not suppose, of course, that God stepped in to pro- 
 duce, in the case of these Canaanites, a result which would 
 not have accrued to them by the working out of the nat- 
 ural laws which he has instituted. God loved them as he 
 loves the world. They were included in the propitiation 
 of Christ. They might have been saved, as Rahab was. 
 And when it is said that God hardened their hearts, we 
 must understand that their hearts became hardened by sin- 
 ning against their Hght; in accordance with that great 
 principle which God has established, that if a man resists 
 his convictions of right he becomes more inveterate in his 
 sinful ways. God is thus said to do what is done by the 
 working out of the laws of that moral universe which he 
 has constituted. It is clear that the Canaanites knew that 
 God was with Israel. Rahab said, " I know that the Lord 
 hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon 
 us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away be- 
 fore you. For we have heard, . . . and as soon as we had 
 heard it, our hearts did melt ; ... for the Lord your God, 
 he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath" 
 (Josh. ii. 9-1 1 ). And the Gibeonites said, "We have 
 heard the fame of the Lord, and all that he did in Egypt" 
 (ix. 9, 10). There is no doubt, then, that throughout the 
 land there had gone forth the fame of God ; and when the 
 kings flung their hosts in battle against Israel it was as it 
 has always been : 
 
 " The kings of the earth set themselves, 
 And the rulers take counsel together, 
 Against the Lord, and against his Anointed." 
 
138 CLAIMING VICTORY. 
 
 But how rich is the spiritual lesson to be derived from 
 the peculiarity of this gradual appropriation of Joshua's 
 achievements! "Joshua took the whole land, according 
 to all that the Lord said unto Moses ; and Joshua gave it 
 for an inheritance unto Israel, according to their divisions 
 by their tribes." Yet Israel had to fight over every inch 
 of soil to drive out their conquered foes. So, as we have 
 seen, our blessed Lord has won a decisive victory over all 
 our foes ; but we have to claim it repeatedly until, in the 
 case of each of us, death, that last enemy, is destroyed. 
 
 The world is overcome ; but we must overcome it by 
 faith. The flesh has been nailed to the cross, and the old 
 man has been done away ; but we have by the Spirit to 
 mortify the deeds of the body, that we may live. The 
 devil has been vanquished once for all ; but we have to 
 hide ourselves in the Only-begotten, trusting him to keep 
 us, so that the evil one may not touch us. The grave and 
 death have been passed and left behind in the triumphal 
 procession of the second Adam ; but we must meet them, 
 unless he come first, saying, as we approach them, " O 
 death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 
 Thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." We are more than conquerors in 
 all things through him that loved us : but there never will 
 be a day in our history when we shall not need to over- 
 come by the word of our testimony and by the blood of 
 the Lamb. Therefore the voice of the ascended Jesus 
 speaks in sevenfold benediction to them that overcome. 
 
 There is no foe to your growth in grace, no enemy in 
 your Christian work, no dreaded form of evil dominating 
 and cursing the souls of men, which was not included in 
 your Saviour's conquests. You need not be atraid of 
 them. When you touch them, they will flee before you. 
 God has promised to deliver them up before you. Only 
 
FAITH OyERCOMETH THE tVORLD. 139 
 
 be strong and very courageous! Fear not, nor be dis- 
 mayed ! The Lord is with you, O mighty men of valor — 
 mighty because one with the Mightiest. Claim victory! 
 Whenever your enemies close in upon you, c/aim victory! 
 Whenever heart and flesh fail, look up and claim victory! 
 Be sure that you have a share in that triumph, which Jesus 
 won not for himself alone, but for us all ; remember that 
 you were in him, when he won it — and claim victory! 
 Reckon that it is yours, and gather spoil. Neither the 
 Anakim nor fenced cities need daunt or abash you. You 
 are one of the conquering legion. Claim your share in the 
 Saviour's victory. 
 
XV. 
 VicBt in tl)e iicavznlUi. 
 
 (Joshua xi. 23.) 
 
 •* He saw with Faith's far-reaching eye the fount 
 Of life, his Father's house, his Saviour God; 
 And borrowed thence to help his present want . . • 
 And so his eye upon the land of life 
 He kept." 
 
 POLLOK. 
 
 THE Book of Joshua naturally divides itself into two 
 parts, the first of which deals with the conquest, the 
 second with the partition of the Land of Promise. The 
 junction of these two is at the close of the eleventh chap- 
 ter. There the story of the conquest ends, and that of the 
 partition begins. And just there we have the significant 
 record, "And the land had rest from war" — a note of 
 blessed tranquillity and peace, which is repeated in the 
 fourteenth chapter. But even that is not all ; for in the 
 twenty-first chapter we are again told that " the Lord gave 
 Israel rest round about, according to all that he sware unto 
 their fathers." 
 
 Now, all this is in precise keeping with the spiritual 
 analogy that we have been tracing throughout this book ; 
 and indeed the symbolism is so close that we are certain 
 that we are not following cunningly devised fables, but are 
 tracing the patterns of things in the heavens, sure anticipa- 
 tions of the plans and designs of God. He who embodied 
 
 140 
 
OUR SAl^lOUR'S REST. 141 
 
 anticipations of Calvary in the sacrifices and offerings of 
 Leviticus, embodied anticipations of the empty grave and 
 the Ascension Mount in the conquest and apportionment 
 of Canaan by Joshua. In the case of the glorious Anti- 
 type there was also a pause of blessed rest. Between the 
 completion of his victory and the outpouring of the Holy 
 Spirit, we are told that he sat down at the right hand of 
 God. And in her noblest song the Church has repeatedly 
 addressed him thus : " Thou sittest at the right hand of 
 God, in the Glory of the Father." 
 
 The session of our Lord Jesus at the right hand of God 
 is a graphic and beautiful metaphor, pregnant with food 
 for holy thought. Obviously, it asserts the glorious honor 
 of his majesty, that he is one with God in his divine nature. 
 With equal clearness, it indicates the oneness of the Lord 
 Jesus in the divine Unity of Being, albeit that he now 
 wears our nature. But with similar force, it teaches us 
 that he rests. The sitting posture naturally suggests re- 
 pose. And we may reverently ask what was the nature of 
 his rest, that we too may enjoy the Sabbath, which he 
 keeps through the ages. 
 
 I. Our Saviour's Rest. — It was not the rest of over- 
 weariness. When a man has wrought with vigor, he throws 
 himself into a sitting posture to recruit his exhausted ener- 
 gies. Now it is true that Jesus never spared himself. The 
 intensity of his love and pity consumed prematurely the 
 lantern in which they had been kindled. There had been 
 the strain of unceasing toils, unsleeping vigils, and bitter 
 sorrow ; there had been the anguish of the Garden, and 
 the weight of human sin ; but none of these had availed to 
 exhaust the divine energy of his being. On the morning 
 of the resurrection he awoke, as a sleeper from refreshing 
 slumber. He had not fainted, neither was he weary. And 
 
142 REST IN THE HEAVENUES. 
 
 whatever else it meant, his session at the right hand of God 
 did not imply that the Saviour had overspent himself, and 
 needed rest. 
 
 Did it mean that he had entered on a period of inaction, 
 and that there would be a pause put on his redemptive 
 energies? The supposition has only to be stated to be dis- 
 missed. The evangehst Mark, who ends his Gospel on 
 the high note of the Saviour's session at the right hand of 
 God, instantly and in the same breath tells us that when 
 his disciples went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord 
 worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs 
 that followed. The descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, the 
 government and maintenance of the Chxirch, the perpetual 
 communication of hfe and power from the Head to the 
 members of his body, prove that behind the veil, which 
 trembles as each spirit whom we have loved enters behind 
 it, Jesus is at work. For Zion's sake he does not hold his 
 peace, and for Jerusalem's sake he will not rest. 
 
 The Rest of the Lord Jesus, symbolized by his session 
 at God's right hand, was therefore not that of weakness or 
 inactivity. What was it? Surely it meant that he had 
 finished that which he rose up to do. He arose from 
 the throne, emptied himself of his glory, stripped himself 
 of much that was his by inherent right, and became flesh — 
 that he might finish transgression, make an end of sins, 
 make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting 
 righteousness. All these things he had done. On the 
 cross, he said, *' It is finished " ; from the throne, he could 
 say, " It is done." As it was said of Joshua, so it might 
 be said of that greater Joshua, " He left nothing undone." 
 And therefore, as the Father entered into his rest, when he 
 had ceased from the work of creation — a rest, not of weari- 
 ness or inactivity, but of a completed scheme ; so did the 
 3on enter into his rest when he ceased from laying the 
 
"IT IS FINISHED." 143 
 
 foundations, both of his redemptive work and of the future 
 triumphs of his Church. Not weary; not inactive; but 
 so far satisfied. He had done all that he essayed to do, 
 all that could be done, and he sat down — the attitude of 
 completion ; of contentment ; of calm expectancy for an 
 inevitable result. 
 
 There is therefore great doctrinal significance in this 
 vision of Christ, which perhaps has not been sufficiently 
 considered. To quote words from the last charge of Dr. 
 Wordsworth, the late lamented Bishop of St. Andrews, " It 
 must, I am afraid, be said that the doctrine of Christ's ses- 
 sion at the right hand of God, though stated plainly and 
 repeatedly — not less than a dozen times — in the New 
 Testament, and embodied in each of our three creeds, is 
 not receiving from us the attention it deserves. It has 
 been obscured by the undue prominence given to the doc- 
 trine of the other character in which he not only intercedes 
 for us, but is supposed to be continually pleading in our 
 behalf the merits of his precious death and sacrifice offered 
 once for all upon the cross." And then he quotes with 
 approval the words of the Liturgy, in reference to our 
 Lord's sacrifice : " He is the very Paschal Lamb which 
 was offered for us, and hath taken away the sin of the 
 world." 
 
 When once the believer apprehends the meaning of the 
 Lord's session at the right hand of God, he is not only 
 assured of the divine majesty of Jesus, and of the Father's 
 acceptance of his mediatorial work, but he goes further to 
 realize that there is nothing to be added to that finished 
 work. Since Jesus sits in the heavenly places, his sacrifice 
 is sufficient and complete ; his blood can avail for sins of 
 crimson dye, and for a race of sinners ; his obedience unto 
 death has satisfied the demands of law, and its sword is 
 sheathed ; and through the universe, like a peal of marriage 
 
V44 REST IN THE HEAyENLIES. 
 
 bells ringing in heaven, there goes the announcement that 
 there is now no condemnation. 
 
 But there is an experimental significance also in the re- 
 peated affirmation of Scripture that our Lord sits at the 
 right hand of God. We must never fail to bear in mind 
 that the work of Jesus, since he took our nature into union 
 with himself, is as the representative man. As such he 
 died, and rose, and reigns. And just in proportion as we 
 are one with him by a living faith, we also shall die, and 
 rise, and reign. Such thoughts were burning in the heart 
 of the Apostle, when he said, " God raised us up with him, 
 and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in 
 Christ Jesus." As the cathedral dome rears itself above 
 the roar and strife, the smoke and mist, the slush and dirt 
 of the streets — above the lounge of the idle, the hurry of 
 the business men, and the cry of the huckster and city 
 Arab — so it is the purpose of God that we should sit with 
 Christ and in Christ ; that we should share in his triumph, 
 his reign, and especially his rest; that we should drink 
 deep draughts from the crystal depths of that river which 
 washes the foot of the eternal throne. 
 
 II. In what Respect may we Share Christ's Rest? 
 — It is a very needful question. Some of us have been 
 men of war from our youth ; we must see to it, lest, }ike 
 David, we should be debarred from building the Temple 
 of God. Only Solomons, whose names bespeak their 
 peace, are competent for that. It is only when we are at 
 rest that we can do our best work. It is said that it is 
 impossible to get the highest results of workmanship, when 
 the workers are perturbed by the fever and rush of our 
 modem hfe. The masterpieces of art come from days 
 when the strain and pace were less, or from workshops 
 where the roar of the tide is hardly heard, and the rush of 
 
THE RESTFUL HEART I45 
 
 life's hurricane is almost unperceived. So our best work 
 for God cannot be done unless we have learned to be 
 quiet; still, that God may mold us; tranquil, that the 
 tremor of our nerves may not interfere with the thrill of his 
 energy ; calm, that we may drop the silt and mud, which 
 make our hearts so dull and so inapt to mirror the deep 
 blue of the heavens above. 
 
 The restful heart Hves above the storm and strife, with 
 Christ ; sensitive to human sorrow and to its own, but able 
 to discern the purposes of divine wisdom; to await the 
 unfolding of the divine plan ; and to trust the love of the 
 divine heart. It keeps silence for his word. Its daily 
 taslcs are holy. It is not disturbed by emotional change. 
 Such is its acquiescence in the divine will that it is content 
 with whatever comes. Its winters are always going, its 
 springs always coming; the turtles call softly within its 
 woods, the flowers deck its soil. " I felt," said Fletcher, 
 " the will of my God hke unto a soft pillow, upon which 
 I could he down and find rest and safety in all circum- 
 stances," 
 
 There is no unnatural quietism in this life — ^rather the 
 most intense earnestness and activity. When the nature 
 is yielded up completely to the Holy Ghost, it attains to a 
 speed of movement and a strength of endeavor, which can 
 only be accounted for by remembering that when once a 
 man has surrendered himself to the current of the divine 
 nature, he will acquire something of its velocity and force. 
 But in the midst of the most rapid and vehement move- 
 ment there is rest — deep rest, sweet rest. 
 
 There is the Rest of Reconciliation. The soul no longer 
 works up toward the cross to obtain justification. It is 
 assured that all that needed to be done to win it had been 
 done when Jesus said, " It is finished." Thus standing at 
 the cross-foot, conscious of his acceptance through the 
 
146 REST IN THE HEAVEN LIES. 
 
 precious blood, the redeemed sinner cries, " Who shall lay- 
 any thing to the charge of God's elect? " And he does not 
 wait for a counter-challenge, because he is so sure that there 
 can be none. 
 
 There is the Rest of Assured Victory. Before we under- 
 stand the meaning of our Lord's ascension, we oppose 
 Satan by the armory of our own resolves, and efforts at 
 amendment. We fight and strive, and vow and fail, and 
 start again. But when we realize all that Jesus has done, 
 we come to see that Satan is a conquered foe ; that his 
 weapons cannot reach a life hidden with Christ in God ; 
 and that so long as we maintain our standing in our risen 
 Lord, we need not dread his attacks, nor be perturbed in 
 the affray. 
 
 There is the Rest of a Surrendered Will. When our wills 
 move off the pivot of self on to the pivot of God, then our 
 lives become concentric with the Hfe of God ; our hearts 
 are allured to his love, our feet keep step to the marching 
 music of his divine purpose. Oh, the bliss of living when 
 our wills blend with his, like perfect words married to per- 
 fect music! Then trial and sorrow are treated as our 
 Father's messengers, but in their winter costume. Then 
 our very infirmities indicate the direction into which we 
 should send our energies. Then disappointment becomes 
 impossible, because all is God-appointed. Then we always 
 have our way, because God's and ours are one. Then 
 prayer is the discovery of God's plans, and a taking hold 
 of his willingness. Then the heart keeps Sabbath, like a 
 valley encircled by the great mountains on which the 
 storms expend themselves. 
 
 There is the Rest of Unbrokefi Fellowship. For as Jesus 
 is one with the Father, so we become one with him, and 
 through him one with the Blessed Trinity, according to his 
 own prayer : " I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may 
 
THE REST OF PERFECT LOVE, 147 
 
 be made perfect in one." What pen can describe the 
 blessed fellowship between the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Spirit, in the serene tranquillity of the divine nature ? 
 Yet something of that may be realized by those who claim 
 that they shall be admitted to enjoy all that Jesus has pur- 
 chased for his Churcho 
 
 There is the Rest of Perfect Love. Our affections have 
 sorely troubled us, straying far away to forbidden things, 
 and allying us to many drifting islets, lovely to the eye, 
 but unstable as the tide. But when we enter into the 
 life of the Ascended Jesus — which is the life of Pente- 
 cost — we find that our hearts become pervaded by the 
 love of God. There is no longer the murmur of the bab- 
 bling brook; because the great ocean has poured its 
 waters up, filling its bed. There is no longer the yearn- 
 ing and jealousy and bitterness of unsatisfied desire ; be- 
 cause the heart has found in God all its desires more than 
 met. It hungers no more, neither thirsts any more ; for 
 the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne satisfies it with 
 the green pastures and still waters of eternal love. It is 
 silent in its love. 
 
 There is also the Rest of the Holy Heart. It is not oc- 
 cupied with inbred lust, not tossed to and fro on seething 
 passion, or driven by every gusty whim. The flesh is cru- 
 cified, the self-principle is quelled, the empire of the Holy 
 Saviour is supreme. Emmanuel has taken the throne, and 
 all discordant elements are still. 
 
 It may be that some who read these Hues are passing 
 through great suffering, and in that suffering are tempted 
 to feverish restlessness. They expend themselves as the 
 imprisoned songster from the woods that beats itself pas- 
 sionately against its cage bars. It is almost useless to bid 
 such to rest and be still. They must learn the source of 
 rest. Let them see that Jesus has entered into his rest that 
 
148 REST IN THE HEAyENLIES. 
 
 they might enter it too. Let them open their hearts for 
 him to breathe in his gentle resurrection message, " Peace 
 be unto you." Let them reverently and believingly claim 
 this also as part of their inheritance, of which they are co- 
 heirs with Christ. 
 
 III. How TO Enjoy this Rest. — But these blessed 
 experiences are only possible through the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. The ascension of Jesus is mystically and 
 inevitably connected with the descent of the Holy Spirit. 
 As the one Advocate passed up into the glory, the other 
 came down into the heart of the Church, that he might 
 realize in our experience that which is ours in the purpose 
 and intention of God, creating within us the faith that shall 
 be able to claim oiu* share in that inheritance of rest which 
 Christ has won for us. You cannot divorce these two 
 thoughts ; or, if you do, you will bring inevitable disap- 
 pointment into human hearts. If you magnify your rights 
 in the glorified Saviour, and fail to unfold the willingness 
 of the Holy Spirit to make them your own in daily and 
 living enjoyment, you set souls the impossible task of 
 climbing inaccessible heights, and they abandon hope. 
 Or, if you always dwell on the Pentecostal fullness, apart 
 from the Saviour, whom the Holy Spirit has come to glo- 
 rify, you drive souls into a self-analysis, an introspection, a 
 spiritual self-centeredness, which is fatal to their true devel- 
 opment. Teach men the meaning of Christ's session, and 
 that they have a right to all it means of the rest of God ; 
 but tell them also that the power to claim that right is 
 through the grace of the Holy Spirit, whom God hath 
 given to them that obey him. 
 
 We must not anticipate the teaching of the remaining 
 chapters. For what student of the analogies of this won- 
 derful book can doubt that "the much land to be pos- 
 
REST THAT AlVAITS. i49 
 
 sessed" of the following chapters refers to the gracious 
 fullness of the Holy Spirit which awaits our quest? But 
 as we close this meditation on the rest that awaits all the 
 people of God who sit with Christ in the heavenly places, 
 let us lift our hearts to the Blessed Spirit, asking that he 
 would reveal to us that which eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, nor the heart of man conceived, but which God 
 hath prepared for those that love him. 
 
XVI. 
 
 tanh to be JJossess^b. 
 
 (Joshua xiii. i.) 
 
 "Then be it so! 
 For in better things we yet may grow ; 
 Onward and upward still our way, 
 With the joy of progress from day to day; 
 Nearer and nearer every year 
 To the visions and hopes most true and dear." 
 
 F. R. Havergal. 
 
 JOSHUA was probably about ninety years of age when 
 the conquest of Canaan was complete. But a very 
 important part of his work had yet to be performed. It 
 would not have been enough for him to have asserted Is- 
 rael's supremacy over the Canaanites, unless he had taken 
 measures to follow up his victories by settling the people 
 in their stead. The work of destruction must be succeeded 
 by that of construction. The warrior must give place to 
 the administrator and statesman. 
 
 The first step toward the occupation of Canaan was 
 taken in the summons of the Lord to his servant, who had 
 so faithfully performed all his word. Though he was old 
 and well stricken in years, he was still the confidant of 
 Jehovah, the depositary of his secrets, the executor of his 
 plans. To bear fruit in old age, to put forth leaves and 
 fruit amid the decay of physical vigor, to sweep on from 
 the rapids of youth to the deep water of the river's mouth 
 
 150 
 
THE AREA DESIGNATED. 151 
 
 with ever-increasing fullness and abundance ; to be as able 
 to build up the people of God in the golden autumn as to 
 lead them to victory in the early spring — this is no common 
 honor, no ordinary achievement. And it was a high trib- 
 ute to Joshua, that when he had overstepped the ordinary 
 limit of human Hfe by twenty years, he was summoned to 
 put the crown on the work of his life. 
 
 The method adopted seems to have been, first, a careful 
 survey of the land not yet possessed ; then its apportion- 
 ment among the several tribes according to their size ; and 
 lastly the actual appropriation and acquisition of each por- 
 tion by the efforts of the tribe to which it was assigned. It 
 is with the first of these that we have now to deal. After 
 the divine voice had summoned the veteran leader to the 
 last great work of his life, it proceeded to enumerate the 
 portions of land that yet remained ; and some time after, 
 when seven of the tribes were as yet unsettled and there 
 was urgent need for the completion of the task, twenty-one 
 commissioners were appointed to pass through the land and 
 examine it, and make a report concerning it to Joshua at 
 Shiloh. 
 
 It would be interesting, did space permit, to examine the 
 area designated by the divine Spirit. This at least we 
 must notice as we pass, that it included all the region of 
 Phihstia, inhabited by some of the stoutest foes that Israel 
 ever encountered, and who were a perpetual source of 
 weakness and danger till the times of the kings. There 
 were also the rich pasture-lands of the south ; and in ad- 
 dition the luxuriant plain of Phoenicia and the fertile up- 
 land valleys, cooled by the snow-capped summits and 
 watered from the rills of Lebanon, all portions of the land 
 on which Israel had always a very slender hold. Compare 
 this outline sketch of the divine intentions with the territo- 
 ries then actually held and afterward possessed by Israel ; 
 
152 LAND TO BE POSSESSED. 
 
 and the difference between God's ideal and their real in- 
 heritance becomes very striking. 
 
 The same appalling contrast appears when we recall the 
 original promise made to Joshua at the beginning of this 
 book. " From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto 
 the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the 
 Hittites, and unto the Great Sea toward the going down 
 of the sun, shall be your border." Yet, as a matter of fact, 
 Israel filled up the measure of this prediction for once only, 
 and for a very short time, during its tenure of Canaan. 
 Solomon did for a brief space realize the divine ideal ; but 
 the radiant glory of his kingdom was soon hemmed in and 
 obscured by the clouds that drew up their dark veils over 
 the sky. Men have sometimes used this as an argument 
 against the divine veracity. It should rather be quoted as 
 a melancholy confession of human frailty, and of failure to 
 claim and appropriate the promises of God. There is no 
 variableness in God. It is impossible even for our unbe- 
 lief to make his promises of none effect. 
 
 Let us consider whether there may not be a similar con- 
 trast between that which God has intended for us and that 
 which we have made our own. Spread out in the Bible, 
 and set forth in the life of Jesus, there is for us, as for 
 Joshua, a map of what God desires for his people. Here, 
 as in a divine Doomsday-book, is a hst of the mountains of 
 vision and the valleys of blessing ; of the green pasture- 
 lands and the waters of rest ; of the cities we may occupy 
 and the foes we may expel. All is mapped out for us ; 
 and we shall do wisely to carefully ponder it, that we may 
 be humbled as we see the slow progress we have made, and 
 may be stirred up to apprehend all that for which we were 
 apprehended in Christ Jesus. 
 
 I. In the Direction of Knowledge. — We must dis- 
 tinguish between intellectualism and knowledge. It is not 
 
OUR KNOIV LEDGE OF GOD. 153 
 
 so difficult to acquire the former, with all those aids for 
 acquiring information which abound around us. The very 
 newspaper press, awaking to discover that man has other 
 needs than those of the poHtician, is beginning to bring the 
 discoveries of science and the contents of books to our 
 breakfast tables. Leisure and taste, memory and mental 
 discipline, observation and society will do a good deal to- 
 ward imparting that strange veneer called culture; but this 
 is a very different thing from knowledge. A man may be 
 utterly destitute of culture, and yet may have that direct 
 and intuitive perception of truth which as much surpasses 
 it as the blue of heaven does the painted scenery of a 
 theater. Whereas a man may be quick, clever, intellectual, 
 well-informed, and able to lay his hands readily on his in- 
 formation, and yet be utterly destitute of the true knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 God meant us to know himself even as Jesus knew him, 
 in his human life. Remember how often he said, I know 
 him. No mist ever crept up between the outspread land- 
 scape of God's nature and the loving, ravished gaze that 
 swept over it; passing from the high mountains of his 
 righteousness to the great sea of his judgments ; and dwell- 
 ing with rapture on the verdant tracts of his love and pity 
 and grace, on the mighty rivers that represent the fertilizing 
 out-goings of his being, and on the wealth of that blessed 
 existence, like a summer-land, every inch of which is full 
 of ripening fruit. Such knowledge, high and wonderful 
 though it be, and unattainable by our own endeavors, is 
 brought within our reach by our Blessed Lord. He gives 
 us eternal Hfe in order that we might know the only true 
 God. He bids us stand on Calvary that we may behold 
 the heart of the Father. He reveals God to us in his own 
 life, so that to know him is to know God. And yet how 
 httle do we know the Father! We know httle about him, 
 and less of him by personal intimacy and fellowship. 
 
154 LAND TO BE POSSESSED. 
 
 To take the lowest test, our knowledge of God's Word. 
 Whilst some individual explorers have pressed on into un- 
 known and untrodden lands, the large majority of profess- 
 ing Christians are content with a few familiar and well- 
 trodden patches. They read and read again the same 
 passages in the Gospels, the Psalms, or Isaiah; but they 
 never venture into the unexplored territory beyond. And 
 the saddest point of all is that they have no deeper percep- 
 tion of the words which have become so familiar to them 
 than at the first. They are like the busy crowds which 
 pass hghtly over the graves of martyrs, obhterating the 
 sacred inscriptions, and missing the deeper thoughts which 
 crowd in on the historian who bends over them in reverent 
 meditation. 
 
 There are many subjects which the bulk of Christian 
 people, by a tacit understanding, refuse to enter. Such 
 are, amongst others, the Second Advent ; the Restoration 
 of Israel, and its future mission to mankind; the great 
 question of fulfilled and unfulfilled prophecy ; the mystical 
 union of Christ with those who believe in him. In all 
 these respects there is much land to be possessed. Well 
 may we be rebuked by the example of the Psalmist, who 
 took days and nights to master his scanty and meager 
 Bible ! We have much to learn from Nehemiah and many 
 other characters in Holy Writ, whose prayers and songs 
 are Httle else than chains of Scriptural quotations. Let us 
 mend our ways, not always traverse the well-trodden paths, 
 but seek for a completer acquaintance with the entire range 
 of truth as given in God's Word. 
 
 And if we know comparatively little of the Bible ^ we know 
 less of God. Some of us dwell on one trait of his character, 
 in complete ignorance of others. We magnify his mercy 
 at the expense of his righteousness ; or his justice at the 
 cost of his grace. Our knowledge of him, moreover, is 
 
SELF-ANALYSIS. 155 
 
 borrowed from hearsay evidence, and from the reports of 
 others. We do not hear and know him for ourselves. We 
 are not content to know at second-hand the symphonies 
 of Beethoven or the pictures of Murillo. And we ought 
 not to rest content till we can say with the patriarch, " I 
 have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now 
 mine eye seeth thee." Oh to know God, to follow on to 
 know him, until he break on our hearts as the morning or 
 as the early rain! What ecstasy there is in discovering 
 new traits of character, new beauties in our friends, as we 
 come across some undreamed-of excellence! So there 
 would be a new meaning in life, if we began to explore 
 what is to many of us a terra incognita, the Being of God. 
 There is much land here to be possessed. 
 
 II. In the Direction of Christian Attainment. — 
 In us, as in Canaan of old, there are the seven nations of 
 sin. Hereditary tendencies to evil ; unholy habits that 
 have intrenched and fortified themselves ; worldly compH- 
 ances which have become part of our existence. When 
 first we became Christians we made a determined onslaught 
 on these things, and met with much success ; but we have 
 become wear)' of incessant watchfulness and conflict. We 
 have no taste for the girt loin and the erect, alert, soldier- 
 attitude. Our heart is only touched here and there by 
 Christ ; and our peace is incessantly broken by the raids 
 of those unextirpated evils, which swoop down from time 
 to time, carrying everything before them. There is much 
 land still to be possessed. 
 
 V^ould it not be well to enumerate the points in which 
 we are deficient — not in a spirit of morbid self-scrutiny, 
 but of honest self- analysis? Is not the first step toward an 
 amended life a clear appreciation of what needs amending? 
 We may well turn from our own efforts at self-knowledge, 
 
156 LAND TO BE POSSESSED. 
 
 and bare our hearts to the inspection of the Spirit of God ; 
 asking him to search us and show us what wicked way there 
 is in us ere he leads us in the way everlasting. 
 
 In some cases it is the business Hfe, the workshop, or the 
 counting-house, which is not possessed by Christ, and is 
 kept altogether and constantly outside the range of his in- 
 fluence. In other cases it is the social element, or the 
 home-relationships of our nature which are not brought 
 into captivity to him. The spirit is yielded, but not the 
 soul; or the soul, but not the body. We accept God's 
 reign over the principal departments of oiu: being; but 
 there are certain outstanding habits over which we are 
 reluctant to admit his sway. 
 
 Consider how great is God's ideal for each of us. To 
 be " conformed to the image of his Son " ! Scan his fair 
 proportions ; his strength and sweetness ; his holiness and 
 pity ; his hatred of sin and love to the sinner ; his devotion 
 to God ; his life of self-sacrifice for man. Is that God's 
 ideal? And does he predestinate each of us to be con- 
 formed to it? Then who of us need renounce hope? But 
 ah, how much there is to be possessed! How little do we 
 possess of his beauty or strength or tenderness or holiness! 
 
 The soul is first possessed by Christ, and then it begins 
 to possess Christ. We are apprehended by our divine 
 Captor, and then we come to apprehend him. We open 
 our hearts to receive him into their depths, and then learn 
 to appropriate him by a living faith. In other words, con- 
 secration must precede appropriation. But when once the 
 act of consecration is complete, we may begin to possess 
 him. This blessed habit may be initiated in a single act ; 
 but it is built up by a series of such acts, which are main- 
 tained, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, till it becomes 
 as natural for us to look up to Jesus and to claim whatever 
 we need as to breathe. Ah, soul! why pine in poverty 
 
THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 157 
 
 and starvation? Is it not because thou hast withheld thy- 
 self from Jesus? Arise, and yield thyself to him! Let 
 him possess thee; and then do thou claim a reciprocal 
 possession of thy Lord. Thus shalt thou begin to enter 
 upon thine eternal inheritance, and commence to expend 
 thyself on pursuits that shall engage thee when sun and 
 moon are no more. 
 
 III. In the Direction of the Gifts of the Holy 
 Ghost. — " To each one of us is given grace according to 
 the measure of the gift of Christ." And the context clearly 
 shows that this is not the common grace needed for daily 
 Hving ; but the special gifts of grace of the Pentecostal full- 
 ness of the Holy Ghost, acquired for us by the ascended 
 Lord. If we understand the teaching of the Epistles 
 aright, there is for each member of the mystical body of 
 Christ a distinct share in the Pentecostal gift. We may 
 describe it as a share in his baptism or in his fullness. 
 This is immaterial. But there is surely something more 
 than is ordinarily understood by regeneration, or the gift 
 of faith, or the revelation of the living Saviour. There is 
 a power, an overflowing love, an assurance, an exuberant 
 joy, a freedom, which are not enjoyed by all Christians, 
 but which are as evidently their birthright as they are to 
 be desired. 
 
 And, in addition, there are the bestowments of the Holy 
 Spirit, by which we are specially qualified to do Christ's 
 work in the world. Tact in leadership ; wisdom to win 
 souls ; power to help believers into a fuller hfe ; utility to 
 administer, or to speak, or to teach ; sympathy, facility in 
 utterance, power in prayer. These may be named amongst 
 others. The whole continent of Pentecostal blessing is 
 avoided by many believers as if it were full of swamps, of 
 fever, noisome pestilence ; it stands upon their globes as 
 
158 L^ND TO BE POSSESSED. 
 
 Africa did in the days of our childhood. There is surely 
 in this direction much land to be possessed. 
 
 But oh, let us not be content simply to know our failures 
 and deficiencies! Let us arise and quit oiu"selves like 
 men. Let us ask our heavenly Joshua to settle us in this 
 good land ; so that there may be no rill or valley or mount- 
 ain or tract of territory unpossessed. God has given us 
 in Christ all things which pertain unto life and godhness ; 
 let us claim the whole of our inheritance by a living faith, 
 so that we may enter on the enjoyment of all that is possi- 
 ble for us on this side of heaven. 
 
XVII. 
 
 ^ beteran (Eomxdbc. 
 
 (Joshua xiv.) 
 
 ** Simple lives, complete and without flaw . . , 
 Who said not to the Lord as if afraid, 
 'Here is thy talent in a napkin laid,' 
 But labored in their sphere, as those who live 
 In the delight that work alone can give." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 IT was in Gilgal that the apportionment of Canaan took 
 place. There, where the reproach of Egypt had been 
 rolled away, and where the main camp had stood — gathered 
 around the Tabernacle during the years that the warriors 
 had been afar from wives and children, fighting the battles 
 of Jehovah — it was fit that the rewards of victory should 
 be meted out. It was a great epoch in Israelite story, as 
 the tribes assembled around their veteran leader, before 
 whom and Eleazar stood the urns, the one containing the 
 name of each, and the other the name of some specified 
 portion of that fau" land, which lay all around, smiHng 
 from hills and vales to the blue heaven above. 
 
 Judah, first in war and march, was the first to draw nigh. 
 It was a great people, and was destined yet to play a 
 greater part in the history of Israel and of mankind. But 
 an incident intercepted the casting of the lot which calls 
 for earnest heed ; for, after all, our religious life is a thing 
 for ourselves, and we learn more from the act and word of 
 
 159 
 
i6o A VETERAN COMRADE. 
 
 individuals than from the movement of a tribe. Stand 
 still, then, O Christian soul, and see some counterpart of 
 thyself in thy best moments, in this demand of the gray- 
 headed warrior, this Hon's whelp, for that is the underlying 
 thought in the name " Caleb." Strong, bold, heroic, there 
 was a great deal of the lion in him beside his name. He 
 had been the young lion of the tribe of Judah some fifty 
 years before ; but he was as strong as he stepped out of 
 the ranks of Judah to claim his right as he was when Moses 
 sent him to spy out the land. 
 
 I. The Prime Characteristic of Caleb's Early 
 Life had been his Entire Devotion to God. — Repeat- 
 edly we are told both of him and Joshua that they " wholly 
 followed the Lord." And there was some trace of this in 
 the words of the old man, as he addressed the comrade of 
 many a hard-fought fight, of many a weary march. The 
 rest of the spies had turned aside, dismayed by the specta- 
 cle of giants and walled-up cities and vast battle array. 
 They had ceased to keep the eye steadfastly fixed on the 
 movements of God's will, and on the might of his hand ; 
 and instead of following hard after him, they had yielded 
 to panic, and made the hearts of the people melt. 
 
 But there had been no panic in the heart of Caleb. He 
 had only been considering that, when God dehghts in men, 
 he brings them into the land of milk and honey, and 
 makes it theirs by deed of gift. And as he thought in his 
 heart, so he spake with his mouth. In his rough soldier's 
 phrase he even dared to boast that the Canaanites were 
 but bread waiting to be eaten by the hosts of Israel. And 
 then in more thoughtful fashion he spoke of the shadow of 
 God's protection as having passed from over the land, as 
 if he had the consciousness of it being God-deserted. 
 
 He followed God wholly through the weary years that 
 
HE "IVHOLLY FOLLOIVED THE LORD." i6i 
 
 ensued. Amid the marchings and counter-marchings, the 
 innumerable deaths, the murmurings and rebelHons of the 
 people, he retained a steadfast purpose to do only God's 
 will, to please him, to know no other leader, and to heed 
 no other voice. It was of no use to try and involve that 
 stout lion's cub in any movement against Moses and Aaron. 
 He would be no party to Miriam's jealous spite. He 
 would not be allured by the wiles of the girls of Moab. 
 Always strong and true and pure and noble ; Uke a rock 
 in a changeful sea, like a snow-capped peak in a change of 
 cloud and storm and sun, A man in whose strong nature 
 weaker men could hide, and who must have been a tower 
 of strength to that new and young generation which grew 
 up to fill the vacant places in the van of Israel. The 
 Nestor of the Hebrew camp, in him the words of the 
 Psalmist were anticipated, that he bore fruit in old age, and 
 to the last was fat and flourishing. 
 
 And two things lit the path of this Greatheart, 'mid the 
 gloom of the wanderings and the chaos of the conquest. 
 There was, first, the consciousness that lay upon his heart, 
 like sunshine on a summer ocean, that God delighted in 
 him ; that the outgoings of God's nature toward him were 
 full of love and joy ; and that the peace of God that pass- 
 eth all understanding might be his inalienable possession. 
 Walking in the light, as God was in the light, he had fel- 
 lowship with God ; and he bore with him the rest of the 
 divine nature long before he entered into its transitory 
 type in the Land of Promise. 
 
 There was, next, the thought of Hebron. Forty-five 
 years had passed since he had seen the white buildings of 
 that ancient and holy city nestling beneath its terebinths. 
 Probably he had only dwelt there for a single hour or two, 
 whilst his comrades were bartering for pomegranates and 
 oranges and the rich produce of its vales and hills j but 
 
1 62 A VETERAN COMRADE. 
 
 it left an ineffaceable impression upon his heart. He had 
 seen the Vale of Eshcol where they cut down the bunch 
 of grapes ; but it had no attractions to him beside the city 
 on which he had fixed his desire. He had beheld Jerusa- 
 lem, beautiful for situation and girdled by its mountains ; 
 but to his lover's eye it had no glory by reason of that 
 greater glory that excelled. And even the Plain of Esdra- 
 elon, watered by the Kishon brook, could not steal away 
 his fond attachment to Hebron. Hebron, beneath whose 
 oaks Abraham had pitched his tent ; Hebron, whose soil 
 had been trodden by the feet of the Incarnate God, as with 
 two angel attendants he visited the tent of Abraham; 
 Hebron, where Sarah and Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah, 
 Jacob and Leah, lay buried ; each in a Httle niche, holding 
 the land in trust, as the graves of the dead always hold the 
 land for the living, until the promise of God was realized, 
 and the seed of Abraham could return to claim its heritage. 
 God had read his secret, and had arranged that what 
 his heart loved best his hand should take, and hold, and 
 keep. It was one of the things which God had himself 
 prepared for those who love him. He had taught him 
 to love it, and immediately on his return to the camp the 
 divine order was promulgated, " My servant Caleb, because 
 he hath another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, 
 him I will bring into the land whereinto he went, and his 
 seed shall possess it." That promise fell into his heart as 
 water on a thirsty soil, or like a lover's last word cherished 
 through long years. Often, as he lay down to sleep beside 
 the camp fire, his last thought would be of Hebron ; and 
 amid the noontide haze, when the mirage gleamed on the 
 horizon, it would sometimes seem to him as if the green 
 hills of Hebron were beckoning him across the waste. 
 What though his comrades were carried out to die day 
 after day — ^plague could not touch him ; pestilence could 
 
THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH. 163 
 
 not harm him ; and death itself must drop the point of its 
 spear when it came near his heart. 
 
 We have trace of the attitude of Caleb's heart through 
 those long years in the words he spake at this memorable 
 juncture, when he said : " Behold, the Lord hath kept me 
 ahve, as He said. . . . Now therefore give me this mount- 
 ain, whereof the Lord spake in that day ; ... as the Lord 
 said." The promise of God was his stay and comfort and 
 exceeding great reward. He had to wait for its fulfillment, 
 and it seemed long ; as waiting times always do, especially 
 when man waits for God. But God was working for him 
 whilst he was waiting (Isa. Ixiv. 4, R.V.). 
 
 II. Such Devotion as Caleb's has Marvelous 
 Results. — ( i ) // is the soil from which such a Faith springs 
 CLs can claim the realization of Promise. — " Now therefore 
 give me this moimtain, whereof the Lord spake in that 
 day." No common faith was needed to make so large a 
 claim. Think of the time that had elapsed! Think of the 
 greatness of the bequest, such a possession! Think of 
 the Anakim that held it in their giant hands! But faith 
 triumphed ; and if the words, ** It may be," come into his 
 speech, words with a falter in them, the tremor, as it were, 
 of fear, we must understand that they did not spring from 
 any doubt of God ; but of that mistrust of self which is a 
 trait in all moral greatness. No man of noblest mold is 
 ever self-confident. Whilst he reckons infinitely on God, 
 he always answers the charge of impending treachery with 
 the whisper, '' Lord, is it I ? " 
 
 The weakness of your faith is due, not to any inherent 
 incapacity for faith, but because you have not yet learned 
 the meaning of the words, " He wholly followed the Lord 
 his God." There is waiting for you an inheritance — some 
 promised Hebron, some blessed gift of God's infinite love 
 
i64 A VETERA}^ COMRADE. 
 
 in Christ. It is for you to say, with the faith of a Caleb, 
 " Give me this mountain." 
 
 (2) // leads to Fellowship. — Hebron stands for friendship, 
 fellowship, love. The old word means that ; and perhaps 
 that is why Caleb was so eager to strike out the recent 
 giants' name of Kirjath-arba, and to bring back the word 
 that Abraham had often had upon his lips. It spoke to 
 him of that communion with his unseen Friend that he had 
 enjoyed through the wanderings and vicissitudes of his 
 long hfe, and which was not to end now ; because in the 
 seclusion of his estate, beneath the shadow of his own vine 
 and fig tree, he would speak with him as a man with his 
 friend, and anticipate the experiences of Nathanael in the 
 days when the Gospel walked incarnate on our earth. 
 
 So is it ever. You must give yourself away to God, and 
 follow him, as the novice in Alpine climbing does his 
 guide ; or you will never be able to Hve in the Hebron 
 where God gives himself to the soul in passages of love 
 which it is not lawful for man to utter, '' If any man love 
 me, he will keep my word ; and my Father will love him, 
 and we will come to him and make our abode with him." 
 The world wants love. It is full of tired faces, and aching 
 limbs, and breaking hearts. Only through man does the 
 love of God come to men. This is the reason that the 
 Word became flesh, so that God might be able to pour the 
 full exuberance of his love not only over them, as in sun- 
 shine and fruitful seasons, but into them. And now re- 
 deemed men who are one with the divine Man must 
 through him become the channels by which that blessed 
 love may flow. But if any of us aspire to this, he must 
 take up his abode in Hebron, to leave it never. His 
 must be its balmy air, its terraced slopes, its sunny warmth. 
 Like the beloved apostle — whose first epistle might fairly 
 have been dated from the sweet calm of Hebron rather 
 
CONSECRATION THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH, 165 
 
 than from the strife of the heathen Ephesus — we must Hve 
 in the love of God. His love must dwell unhindered in 
 us. But the only gateway into such an experience is the 
 obedience that counts not cost, and makes no exceptions, 
 but follows fully its highest convictions of the will and law 
 of God. 
 
 Those who follow God know God. He turns and sees 
 them following, and hears their inquiry to know his secret 
 place, and bids them "come and see," Oh, bliss of bliss! 
 They tarry with him in such friendship as Moses had on 
 the Mount. Their hearts bum and glow as the hours pass 
 unheeded, uncounted, by. They come forth with the hght 
 of love transfiguring their faces, and making their common 
 dress shine with lustrous beauty, as though they, too, had 
 made light their vesture. 
 
 (3) If leads to Strength. — " Lo," said Caleb. " I am this 
 day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong 
 this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me ; as my 
 strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, 
 both to go out and to come in." Consecration is the source 
 of undecaying strength ; because it allows the soul to draw 
 on the strength of God. Just as the sap flows through 
 the tender vine branches in spring, so does the strength 
 of God pass into those that beheve; who are not only 
 united to him, but fully surrendered and given up to his 
 indwelling. 
 
 It is this point that Isaiah emphasizes in his sublime 
 contrast between the respective strength of youth and of 
 those that wait on Jehovah. He says that under circum- 
 stances that sap the vigor of early manhood, so that 
 youths faint and are weary, and young men utterly fail, 
 those '* that wait on the Lord renew their strength. They 
 mount up . . . they run . . . they walk." It is the 
 last of these that is so difficult. It is not so difficult to 
 
i66 A VETERAN COMRADE. 
 
 soar. When the day is young, and the deep blue heavens 
 tempt the exploring wing, and the breeze is soft, it is hard 
 to linger by the few twigs on the top of the bare rocks. 
 It is not very difficult to run. When the sunbeams are 
 still aslant, and the dew has not left the grass, and the dust 
 is not stirred, there is a feeling of exhilaration which com- 
 pels us to substitute our quickest pace for the more sedate 
 walk. But to walk I To go forward in the sultry heat ! 
 To have patience, and bear for his name's sake, and not 
 grow weary ! To resist the temptation to lethargy and 
 indolence and luxurious ease! This is the greatest task 
 of all ! But for this, which had been Caleb's experience 
 for forty-five years of desert wandering, no human energy 
 can suffice. The soul must learn to take the power which 
 God gives to the faint ; and to receive the strength he in- 
 creases to such as have no might. 
 
 But this strength is accessible only through obedience. 
 God cannot and will not bestow it except where there is 
 a thoughtful and dehberate purpose to do his will, to follow 
 his path, and to execute his work. But if you are set on 
 this, then adequate strength for body and soul, mind and 
 heart, will and spirit, shall most certainly be forthcoming. 
 The outward man may decay ; but the inward man will be 
 renewed day by day. 
 
 (4) // gives Victory, — Of all the Israelites that received 
 their inheritance in the Land of Promise, Caleb appears 
 to have been the only one who succeeded in perfectly 
 expeUing the native occupiers of the country. The Israel- 
 ites generally seem to have made but poor headway against 
 their strong and mighty foes, with their chariots of iron 
 and fenced walls. Repeatedly we encounter the sorrowful 
 affirmation, they were not able to drive them out. But Caleb 
 was a notable exception. What though Arba was the 
 greatest man among the Anakim! (Josh. xiv. 15.) What 
 
''THE UPPER AND THE NETHER SPRINGS." 167 
 
 though his three grandsons, Sheshai and Ahiman and Tal- 
 mai, the sons of Anak, were prepared to yield their Hves 
 rather than give up possession ! (xv. 14.) Yet Caleb drove 
 them out — not he indeed, but the Lord, who was with him, 
 and gave him a victory that must have otherwise eluded 
 even his strong hands. The man who wholly followed 
 the Lord was alone wholly victorious. 
 
 How precious and searching is the conclusion! Our 
 failures in expelling the giants of the heart, in dealing with 
 inbred corruption and the assaults of Satan, are almost 
 entirely due to some failure in consecration. We have not 
 wholly followed the Lord. There has been some secret 
 flaw, some leakage, some draining away of strength. This 
 must be put right before the other can be secured. But 
 when, so far as we know, we are entirely yielded to God, 
 then no sin can stand before us, because nothing can stand 
 before him. We humbly and trustfully put the matter into 
 his hands, and believe that he will go forth against our foes 
 in the chariots of salvation. 
 
 (5) If enables us to give blessings to others. — ^Twice we 
 are told how Achsah — who was such a prize, as well to 
 repay Othniel for his risk of Hfe in taking Debir, the city 
 of the books — lighted down from her ass to ask a blessing 
 from her father's hands. As dowry he had given her a 
 field that lay toward the south, but which was destitute of 
 springs. To water it entailed the conducting of irrigating 
 streams from a distance. The newly married pair talked 
 over the matter between themselves, and felt how desirable 
 it was to be possessed of springs ; and as Othniel shrank 
 from asking, she took it on herself to obtain the boon from 
 Caleb. " Give me also springs of water. And he gave 
 her the upper and the nether springs," 
 
 In the Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle speaks of 
 men who supplied or ministered the Spirit to them (iii. 5). 
 
1 68 A VETERAN COMRADE. 
 
 It is a remarkable expression, as though through the " hear- 
 ing of faith" men were able to become channels through 
 which the Spirit was supplied to others. What a marvelous 
 power! Is this the spiritual reality of which the laying on 
 of hands was the sacrament and sign? May we say that 
 even now there is a spiritual contact with men and women 
 who are living in the Hebron of fellowship, through which 
 the upper and nether springs of spiritual grace are com- 
 municated ? 
 
 Follow the Lord fully : so will you dwell in the land ; so 
 will your heart become as a watered garden, and a spring 
 of water that does not fail ; so will you be able to obtain 
 promises, not for yourself only, but for others ; so shall 
 rivers of Hving water flow through you, and those who 
 know you best ; the Othniels and Achsahs of your home 
 circle will gather round you to ask a blessing, and you 
 shall have power to open springs of spiritual blessing in 
 the heights of the heavenly places, and in the depths of 
 daily practical ministry, in the valley of human life. 
 
XVIIL 
 EemtJing arib H^igning. 
 
 (Romans v. 17.) 
 
 ** Each holy purpose help us to fulfill! 
 Increase our faith to feed upon thee still! 
 Illuminate our minds, that we may see 
 All around us holy signs of thee. 
 And may such witness in our lives appear, 
 That all may know thou hast been with us here!" 
 
 Bourne. 
 
 THE allotment of Canaan, which was inaugurated be- 
 neath the direction of Joshua and Eleazar in Gilgal, 
 and had been temporarily arrested by the claim of Caleb, 
 now proceeded. And, in the first instance, the three great 
 tribes of Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh received their 
 inheritance. Half the tribe of Manasseh had already re- 
 ceived its lot, given by Moses on the farther side of the 
 Jordan. And therefore the descendants of Joseph, in the 
 first instance, received but one lot, and cities were separated 
 for the children of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritance 
 of the children of Manasseh (Josh. xvi. 9 ; xvii. 14). 
 
 The limits of these great tribes are carefully mentioned. 
 That of Judah in the fifteenth chapter, even to its utter- 
 most cities. That of the children of Joseph in the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth. From this we may infer that there is a 
 specific share in the gifts of the Ascended Saviour for each 
 of us ; just as there is a specific work to be done by each 
 
 169 
 
lyo RECEIVING AND REIGNING. 
 
 in the building of the Church and the ingathering of men. 
 *' Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the 
 measure of the gift of Christ " (Eph. iv. 7). And again, to 
 each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit 
 withal. That there should be diversities of gifts and 
 workings and ministrations is not to be wondered at. 
 This is in harmony with the constitution of the human 
 mind, which in no two persons is alike. But though the 
 talents assigned to each vary in the same way that natural 
 ability does, yet no one of the King's servants is left with- 
 out some precious deposit. All have not five talents ; but 
 each has one. For each there is a piece of wall-building, 
 a comer in the vineyard, a place in the ranks of temple- 
 service ; and for each there is a store of special grace and 
 gift, won by the risen Lord, and awaiting bestowment from 
 his hands. 
 
 Concerning each of these tribes, there is made the same 
 melancholy confession which is heard repeatedly in this 
 and the following book, like the monotonous note of a 
 storm-bell rung by the wild waves on a dangerous coast: 
 " They could not drive them out." " But the Canaanites 
 would dwell in that land " (xvii. 12). 
 
 Mark the strength of that word would. It was no ex- 
 pression for those Canaanites to use. They were a dispos- 
 sessed race. They had neither part nor lot in Canaan; 
 and Israel made a profound mistake in allowing them to 
 remain in the face of God's great word, " I will drive them 
 out from before the children of Israel " — yet let us not con- 
 demn them, lest we condemn ourselves. There is not the 
 least reason why besetting sin or fleshly lusts should hold 
 their own, or find any foothold in the region of the saved 
 nature. Never allow them to say they must or they will. 
 Granted that they would be able to keep us at bay, they 
 have no weight in the presence of that Omnipotence which 
 
THE ACREAGE IVITHIN REACH. 171 
 
 vanquished them on the cross, and is pledged to destroy 
 them utterly. 
 
 The presence of the Canaanites led to an altercation be- 
 tween the children of Joseph and Joshua. " Why hast 
 thou given me but one lot and one part for an inheritance, 
 seeing I am a great people? " Like so many more, they 
 were content to live on the strength of past tradition, upon 
 their numbers and prestige ; and to base upon these con- 
 siderations, claims which they were too indolent to make 
 good by deeds. 
 
 " If you are a great people," Joshua replied, " there is 
 plenty of unoccupied territory within the limits of yom: in- 
 heritance. Forest land perhaps ! There fell trees, extract 
 the stumps, and grow crops upon the rich and verdant 
 soil fertilized by the leaves of many autumns." How often 
 we ask God for wider spheres of usefulness, whilst we fail 
 to utihze those which lie within our reach. " Cut down 
 wood," is an injunction which might very fairly apply to us 
 all. Do not sigh for missionary service till you have 
 covered the whole acreage within your reach — in the home 
 circle, or amongst the children of some poor district. The 
 wood may be thick, but the ax of persevering faith will 
 make a clearing there. 
 
 " The hill country," persisted they, " is not sufficient, and 
 the valley is filled by Canaanites with their iron chariots ; 
 give us more." 
 
 ** No," said Joshua ; " you have power enough to cut 
 down the wood, and to drive out the Canaanites — use it." 
 For all the territory which we should win for God we 
 have sufficient power, if we would but use it ; there is no 
 work so hard, no temptation so mighty, no post so difficult, 
 but there is also sufficient grace contained within the one 
 great gift of the Holy Spirit to meet our every requirement. 
 Perhaps the best path to the speedy acquisition of spiritual 
 
172 RECEIVING AND REIGNING. 
 
 power, for the majority of those who shall read these lines, 
 would be to claim and use the abundance of grace which 
 is within their reach awaiting them in the hving Saviour. 
 
 This brings us out upon the text that stands at the head 
 of this chapter, which lies in one of the most rocky and 
 precipitous portions of the Epistle to the Romans, like a 
 tiny lakelet on the bosom of gaunt and rugged cliffs. 
 
 In those words three things are patent : 
 
 I. The Differences which Obtain between Chris- 
 tians. — Some exist; others live; others again reign in 
 life. Some have life, others have it " more abundantly." 
 With some the spark of eternal life bums dimly, shrouded 
 by dense wreaths of smoke ; with others — would that it 
 might be with thee and me, reader! — the hght burns and 
 shines clear, fervent, brilhant. To reign in Hfe is to realize 
 the conception of being kings and priests unto God, a royal 
 generation, a chosen people. The conception includes no- 
 bihty of demeanor, such as becomes the scion of a line of 
 kings; munificence, as when a prince scatters his largess 
 among the crowd ; and victory, as becomes the monarch 
 who has trod his enemies beneath his feet, chmbing to his 
 throne. 
 
 What do you know of these? Would you dare assert 
 that there is aught in your days to make men think that 
 you reign in Hfe ? Do the keys hang at your girdle ? Do 
 unholy desires bite the dust in your presence? Is there 
 nobihty in your mien? Is there a consciousness amongst 
 others that your religion is not only barely sufficient for 
 your own needs, but that the grace of God has so abounded 
 toward you that you in turn can abound to every good 
 work? If not, you have yet to learn what it is to reign in 
 
ABUNDANCE OF GRACE. i73 
 
 II. The Cause of this Difference. — It does not 
 arise, thank God, from any arbitrary allotment on his part 
 of more or less grace. " There are diversities of gifts " ; 
 but his grace is like the wild flowers on the common, or the 
 beauty that lies as a bloom upon nature, or the water which 
 he brews amongst the hills — all of which are free in their 
 unrestrained abundance to every child of the family of man. 
 Not only so ; but for each one of us there is an abundance 
 of grace within our reach. God is very frugal ; there is 
 no waste in creation. What seems superfluous in one di- 
 rection is eagerly wrought up into fresh and necessary fab- 
 rics by armies of mysterious and insignificant workers. But 
 just because of this, he is able to give abundantly, beyond 
 all we ask or think, without stint ; so that all are fed, and 
 baskets are filled to the very utmost of their content. In 
 grace, as in nature, there is a divine prodigality, beside a 
 divine frugality. God makes all grace abound toward 
 us. His love passes knowledge ; his joy is unspeakable ; 
 his peace outstrips our understanding; his thoughts we 
 cannot attain unto. 
 
 The real reason, then, that so many fail to reign in life 
 is to be sought, not in some arbitrary enactment on the part 
 of God, but in the different power of receptiveness which 
 obtains amongst his children. Some fail to receive, either 
 because they have not learned the art, or because they have 
 not reached that position in Christian experience in which 
 they can avail themselves of it. See where the Apostle 
 lays the emphasis : it is they that receive the abundance of 
 grace who reign. The difference therefore is not to be 
 found on the divine side, but on the human ; not in the 
 reservoir where the gas is stored, but in the pipe where water 
 stops the free flow to the jet. 
 
 Great saints are simply great receivers. They may be 
 
174 RECEIVING AND REIGNING. 
 
 deficient in culture, education, and a thoi^sand things which 
 belong to others ; but they have learned the happy art, de- 
 noted by that word receive, which is found in every part of 
 the New Testament, and especially in connection with the 
 Holy Spirit, which they which believe on Christ were to re- 
 ceive. We can never forget that he himself constantly con- 
 nected that word with the Holy Spirit ; as when he breathed 
 on his disciples and said, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ! " 
 
 Do you want that royalty of mien ? Receive it. Do 
 you want that munificence? You have only to receive it. 
 Do you want that victory? There is no other course than 
 to receive it. In a word, do you want to reign in Hfe? 
 Then you must receive the abundance of grace ; and the 
 more you receive of it, the more royal will hfe become. 
 What though the hill country be filled with wood, and the 
 lowlands infested by Canaanites ! — if you will receive and 
 use the power within your reach, "no weapon that is formed 
 against you shall prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise 
 against you in judgment you shall condemn." 
 
 III. How TO Acquire this Sacred Art. — It is dis- 
 tinct from praying. Not, indeed, that prayer does not 
 enter into it ; but that it is only the foundation from which 
 the soul arises into the secret of receiving. None can 
 claim but those who pray ; but many pray who do not go 
 finther to receive. " Ask and receive," said our Lord, else 
 your joy will not be full. The lack of joy in Christian 
 hearts may often be traced to a failure to discern the dif- 
 ference between the prayer which is only supplication, and 
 that which takes its guerdon from the outstretched hand 
 of Jesus. Too often our prayers seem like lost vessels ; 
 when, in point of fact, they have come to the quays richly 
 freighted, but we have not been there to claim our own. 
 
"j4SK, and ye shall RECEiyE.*' 175 
 
 Perhaps these rules may assist you to acquire this blessed 
 art: — 
 
 (a) Be sure that what you ask is according to the mind 
 of God, offered in some promise or precept of Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 (b) Ask for it simply and reverently. Use the name of 
 Jesus ; that is, stand in him, and plead for his glory. 
 
 (c) Dare to believe that God does hear and answer your 
 prayer altogether apart from the flow of emotion or the 
 rapture of conscious possession. 
 
 {d) Go your way and reckon that God is faithful. 
 Count on him as bound to keep his troth. 
 
 {e) Act as you would if you had all the consciousness 
 and enjoyment possible. 
 
 Thus you will find inevitably that the mountain shall be- 
 come a plain ; the woods shall fade into pasture-lands ; the 
 Canaanites shall be driven before you, as the chaff of the 
 threshing-floor before the autumn wind ; and nothing shall 
 be impossible. 
 
XIX. 
 QL\;)c QLondmion of t^e QLask, 
 
 (Joshua xviii.) 
 
 ** All which is real now remaineth, 
 And faileth never ; 
 The hand which upholds it now, sustaineth 
 The soul forever." 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 THE two great tribes were thus at last settled — ^Judah, 
 as Dean Stanley suggests, like a lion to guard the 
 south, and couch in the fastness of Zion ; whilst Ephraim, 
 like the more peaceful but not less powerful bullock, was 
 to rove the rich vales of central Palestine, and defend the 
 frontier of the north. And Joshua was able to turn his at- 
 tention to the several items which claim a passing notice. 
 
 I. Joshua Erected the Tabernacle in Shiloh. — 
 During the march through the wilderness, when the camp 
 was pitched, the Tabernacle occupied the center ; around 
 it were grouped the tents of the priests and Levites, whilst 
 the tribes occupied specified places, three to each quarter 
 of the compass. An attentive comparison of those posi- 
 tions with the territories allocated to them in the Land of 
 Promise will reveal a striking similarity. It was as though 
 the encampment were, in its main features, repeated in 
 their final settlement in the land. And to complete the 
 parallel, the Tabernacle was now removed from Gilgal and 
 
 176 
 
THE TABERNACLE IN SHILOH. I^^ 
 
 pitched in Shiloh, which lay as nearly as possible at the 
 heart of Canaan. 
 
 No striking landmarks distinguish this ancient site. And, 
 unlike most of the holy places of the world, it is said to 
 be almost entirely featureless. Imagine a somewhat wide 
 plain, surrounded by low hills, with a rocky platform toward 
 its northern end. This was the chosen site of the Taber- 
 nacle, after its long wanderings, erected probably on that 
 shght plateau. And so was fulfilled the command of the 
 great lawgiver : " It shall come to pass that the place 
 which the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to 
 dwell there, thither shall ye bring all that I command you." 
 
 Here, then, in the center of the land, embosomed in the 
 keeping of the strongest tribes, on the east side of the 
 highway that led from Bethel to Shechem, was the chosen 
 spot where the Tabernacle of God was among men ; and 
 he dwelt with them. Oh that they had acted as his people! 
 — then would he have wiped away every tear from their 
 eyes ; they would have overcome, and have inherited all 
 things. 
 
 The sacred name, Shiloh, which means peace or rest, 
 was also given by the dying patriarch to the Messiah. 
 Jesus is the center of his people. Around him they gather. 
 Not his professing Church, not a synod or a convocation, 
 not a creed or a ritual ; but the Rest-giver himself is the 
 center around whom the people gather. He is both head 
 and heart, which make the body one. Life in " the heav- 
 enhes " must have its center in the risen Saviour ; and just 
 in proportion as we focus in him shall we find ourselves 
 brought into loving fellowship with all who love him. The 
 altar of Ed, which was afterward reared to attest and 
 cement the unity of Israel, was a poor device, which would 
 not have been needed if the people had observed the prac- 
 tice of thrice a year gathering at God's center, Shiloh. 
 
178 THE CONCLUSION OF THE TASK. 
 
 II. Joshua Rebuked the Inertness of the People. 
 — And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, " How long 
 are ye slack to go in to possess the land, which the Lord 
 God of your fathers hath given you ? " (xviii. 3). Forth- 
 with the twenty-one commissioners arose to walk through 
 the land, surveying it. They embodied the results in a 
 book, in which the land was described by cities in seven 
 portions. This they brought to Joshua. It may be that 
 the account of what they had seen was the means under 
 God of arousing the people from the apathy into which 
 they had sunk. 
 
 In our own time the Spirit of God has been sending out 
 many commissioners to pass through and describe the good 
 land into which the heavenly Joshua would fain lead his 
 people. A good many books have resulted from their in- 
 vestigations, which have mightily stirred the hearts of God's 
 people, so that in great numbers they have gone up to 
 possess. And we would fain hope that even these words 
 may incite Christian hearts that they may be no longer 
 slack to go in to possess the land which the God of our 
 fathers has given us in Jesus. 
 
 There is the portion of Benjamin, the beloved of the 
 Lord, to dwell in safety by him, covered all the day long, 
 and borne between his shoulders — the place where Eastern 
 mothers cradle their babes, giving them warmth and easy 
 carriage. There is the portion of Zebulun, to whose shores 
 the inimitable ocean washes the treasures of the deep ; in 
 whose heart Gennesaret lies, with its fragrant memories of 
 God manifest in the flesh. There is the portion of Issachar 
 which derived treasures from the sands, emblems of the 
 precious stones, the pearls and crystals of spiritual charac- 
 ter. There is the portion of Asher, the oil of whose wine- 
 presses bespeaks the unction of the Holy Ghost ; the strength 
 of whose shoes betokens that invincible might which treads 
 
SPIRITUAL ATTAINMENT. 179 
 
 down serpent and scorpion. There is the portion of Naph- 
 tali, satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing of the 
 Lord ; owning rich forests, the circle of Galilee, and the 
 garden of Palestine. Each of these is significant of spirit- 
 ual endowment, which we ought to arise to possess. 
 
 Too long have we been slack to go in to possess that 
 fullness of the Holy Spirit which might be in us as a living 
 spring, making us perfectly satisfied ; like the fountain in 
 the court-yard of a beleaguered castle which enables the 
 garrison to defy the siege. There is a knowledge of Jesus, 
 a participation in his victory, a realization of blessedness, 
 which are as much beyond the ordinary experience of 
 Christians as Canaan was better than the wilderness. But 
 of all this we, alas! know so little. 
 
 The causes of this inertness are many. We shrink from 
 spiritual attainment, because it entails self-denial, the sac- 
 rifice of darling but questionable things, together with the 
 ascent of heights where the air is rare, and the muscles 
 become strained, and the head swims. Oxu: love of ease, 
 our attachment to the world, our dread of being singular, 
 OMX consciousness that we should have to forego much that 
 we cherish, if we essayed to hold fellowship with the 
 Holy God — all these things prevail over us as the bird-lime 
 which detains the fluttering tenants of the air from their 
 native element. 
 
 But how much we miss! The nomad life, with its frail 
 tents, could not afford those seven tribes of Israel so much 
 lasting enjoyment as their own freehold in Canaan. What 
 were the pasture-lands of the desert as compared to the 
 oliveyards and vineyards of Esdraelon or Galilee? But the 
 comparison is utterly inadequate to portray the loss to 
 which we subject ourselves in refusing to appropriate and 
 enjoy the blessedness which is laid up for us in Jesus. The 
 yielded life ; the members presented to Christ for his use, 
 
l8o THE CONCLUSION OF THE TASK. 
 
 and held at his disposal; the cleansed heart; the vic- 
 tory over sin ; the singleness of purpose ; the unbroken 
 .fellowship ; the Pentecostal Fullness ! Let us come to our 
 Joshua at Shiloh, and ask him to lead us into each of 
 these. 
 
 III. Joshua Received his own Inheritance. — " The 
 
 children of Israel gave him the city that he asked, even 
 Timnath-serah, in the hill country of Ephraim " (xix. 50). 
 In the following book it is spoken of as Timnath-heres 
 fudges ii. 9). It was " the portion of the sun." 
 
 The old veteran had deserved well of his people, and 
 must have been glad to retire to his estate, on which the 
 remaining twenty years of his hfe were spent. And the 
 greatness of his influence may be inferred by considering 
 the evils that overwhelmed Israel when he was taken, as 
 the sea rushes in when the sea-wall is down. His very 
 presence among the people was a restraint. As for him and 
 his house, he served the Lord, and maintained the sacred 
 rites which Moses had enjoined ; so that his example shone 
 like a beacon-light and kept the darkness at bay. What 
 a significant testimony to his consistency and steadfastness 
 is furnished by the record, " The people served the Lord 
 all the days of Joshua." He was like the central pillar 
 which supports the entire weight of the roof of some chap- 
 ter-house, with its Gothic roof, and its exquisite foHage of 
 carved stone. 
 
 There is fascination in the name of his inheritance. The 
 portion of the sun ! Did it lie specially open toward the 
 sun, catching the first gUmpse of sunrise, and holding the 
 last fading gleam of sunset? Perhaps so. But there seems 
 a special beauty in the name when we associate it with his 
 previous career of unswerving fidelity to the will of God. 
 Like Caleb, he had wholly followed the Lord. And as the 
 
THE CITIES OF REFUGE. i8i 
 
 course of the one ended in fellowship, the course of the 
 other ended in that dwelling in the Light which is the high- 
 est bliss within man's reach. 
 
 Be wholly given to God, then you too shall live in the 
 light, as he is in the Light. The warmth of his love shall 
 fill your emotions with its glow, and teach you the art of 
 love; the light of his truth shall banish obscurity and 
 ignorance from your mind, and endow it with direct and 
 certain knowledge ; the ray of his presence shall in- 
 spire you with strength, vigor, elasticity, immortal youth. 
 Where sunshine is, there is hfe, health, gladness, vigorous 
 strength. 
 
 IV. Joshua also made Provision for the Man- 
 slayer. — Six cities were apportioned, three on each side 
 of the Jordan, central to the adjacent districts, and easily 
 accessible. Thither the manslayer who had killed any per- 
 son unwittingly and unawares might flee from the pur- 
 suit of the next of kin. The roads were kept in good re- 
 pair ; clearly written directions at the cross-ways indicated 
 the route; and, according to Jewish tradition, runners, 
 learned in the law, were stationed at various stages to di- 
 rect and help the fugitive. 
 
 Once within the city walls, all breathless with his flight, 
 the manslayer waited at the entering of the gate of the city 
 till he had stated his case to the elders, who had the right 
 of admitting him provisionally into the city. On the ap- 
 pearance of the avenger of blood, the cause seems to have 
 been finally adjudicated ; and if it were clearly shown be- 
 fore the assembled people that there was no animosity in 
 the blow which caused death, the manslayer was permitted 
 to remain there, until the death of the high-priest then in 
 office. 
 
 It is interesting to note this provision, made in the Land 
 
1 82 THE CONCLUSION OF THE TASK, 
 
 of Promise, for the passing over of sins which were not 
 sins of presumption. For the latter no provision was 
 made. But, for wrongs which did not emanate from a fixed 
 or rooted malice, there was, as in the case of sacrifices 
 for sins of ignorance under the Levitical code, this merciful 
 provision. Take heart, O Christian soul! thou hast done 
 many evil things, in thy ignorance or thoughtlessness, for 
 which thou art justly guilty, and which might well exclude 
 thee from the Land of Promise ; yet, there is forgiveness 
 for thee. Only get thee to the City of Refuge, which is 
 also the city of the priests, and hide thee there ; thou wilt 
 not only be safe, but shalt enjoy thine inheritance beside, 
 for the High Priest has died, and in his death has put away 
 thy sin forever ; there is therefore now no condemnation 
 for thee, because thou art in him. 
 
 The Jews specially have acted the part of the man- 
 slayer. They killed the Prince of Life, but they did it in 
 ignorance (Acts iii. 17, 18). Therefore they have lost their 
 heritage ; but they exist still as prisoners of hope, finding 
 refuge among the cities of the priests, until such time as 
 the Lord Jesus shall wrap up the present age as a worn-out 
 vesture, and shall inaugurate that new and glorious reign 
 in which he shall take to himself the kingdom. Then 
 Israel shall return, each to his own house, and imto the city 
 from whence he fled. 
 
 V. Joshua Apportioned Cities for the Levites.— 
 There was an ancient curse hanging over the lots of Simeon 
 and Levi. Brethren by birth, they had been joint perpe- 
 trators in a dark crime, which had made Jacob, their father, 
 to stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the 
 Canaanites and Perizzites. The dying patriarch could not 
 forget that deed of treacherous cruelty, and as it rose be- 
 fore his filming sight he said : 
 
CITIES FOR THE LEVITES. 183 
 
 ** Weapons of violence are their swords, 
 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; 
 And their wrath, for it was cruel; 
 I will divide them in Jacob, 
 And scatter them in Israel." 
 
 But this curse was not fulfilled in each case in the same 
 way. With Simeon, it ran its course. Settled at the south 
 of Canaan, between Judah and Philistia, this tribe became 
 more and more nomadic, and finally faded out of corpo- 
 rate existence. In the case of Levi, it was transformed into 
 blessing. The behavior of this tribe was very remarkable. 
 At Sinai, when Moses called on all who were loyal to 
 Jehovah to gather in the gate of the camp, the Levites, to 
 a man, answered his appeal. Phinehas, also, who took 
 such decisive action in the matter of Baalpeor, was a 
 Levite — perhaps even a typical one. Whereupon Jehovah 
 entered into a covenant of hfe and peace with them, took 
 them as a substitute for the first-bom sons of Israel, and 
 pledged himself to be their inheritance (Num. xviii. 20; 
 Josh. xiii. 2,3)' 
 
 At the divine command, forty-eight cities were given 
 to the Levites, with one thousand cubits of pasture-land, 
 measured outward from the city walls. There they dwelt 
 when not required for temple-service, or when they were 
 incapacitated by age from attending on their sacred office. 
 
 As Jacob predicted, they were scattered ; but the eifect 
 was most salutary. They permeated the whole land with 
 the hallowing influence of Shiloh. What a halo of sacred 
 interest must have gathered round the man whose lot it was 
 to enter into the temple of God and burn incense at the 
 solemn hour of prayer ! Then multiply this a thousandfold, 
 and consider what a wide and wholesome effect must have 
 been produced throughout the country, especially when 
 Levi fulfilled the lofty possibilities of its high calling. 
 
1 84 THE CONCLUSION OF THE TASK. 
 
 Moreover, the teaching of the law was a special preroga- 
 tive of the Levites, who appear to have traveled through 
 their apportioned districts. They taught Jacob his judg- 
 ments, and Israel his law; as well as put incense and 
 whole burnt-offering on the altar. They caused the people 
 to discern between the unclean and the clean, and in a con- 
 troversy stood to judge. They acted as the messengers of 
 the Lord of Hosts (Deut. xxxiii. lo). 
 
 So the work was finished. '* There failed not aught of 
 any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house 
 of Israel; all came to pass" (Josh. xxi. 43-45). And this 
 is true still. Our Father has blessed us with all spiritual 
 blessings in Christ. He has withheld no good thing. In 
 Jesus all fullness dwells; all that is needed for hfe and 
 godhness. We are complete in him. If there is failure, 
 it is ours, not his. If the Book of Judges succeeds to that 
 of Joshua, it is because God's heirs yield to unbehef and 
 sin. 
 
 In the eternity, which is at hand, as we stand together 
 and review our life course — with its battles and marches 
 and experience, its losses and gains, its heights of privilege 
 and depths of failure — we shall without doubt take up and 
 repeat the glad confession of these noble words, and con- 
 fess that no good thing failed us of aught that the Lord 
 had spoken, but that all came to pass. 
 
XX. 
 
 UU in tlj^ lanb. 
 
 (Joshua xxii.) 
 
 ** Give us now, now ! — to live in the life of God. 
 Give us now, now ! — to be at one with him. " 
 
 Jean Ingelow. 
 
 WHEN the seven years of fighting came at last to an 
 end, the children of Israel settled down to the enjoy- 
 ment of their land. It was Hke the clear shining of the sun 
 after a wild morning, or like a happy and prosperous man- 
 hood after a tempestuous youth. The comparative silence 
 of the record suggests the engrossing interest with which 
 the people gave themselves to the culture of the land, and 
 to the occupation of great and goodly cities which they 
 had not built, of houses full of all good things which they 
 had not filled. Cisterns which they had not hewn poured 
 forth refreshing waters to vineyard, oHveyard, or garden ; 
 and they ate and were full. 
 
 The soul, as it matures in Christian experience, though 
 it never ceases to walk carefully, yet comes to realize more 
 fully the blessings of the heavenly places. It is satisfied with 
 the goodness of the Lord, and is like a watered garden. 
 It is fanned by breezes from the mountains of myrrh. The 
 air is heavy with perfume ; the vines bud, their blossoms 
 are open, the pomegranates flower, and at the door all 
 manner of precious fruits, new and old, are laid up. 
 
 It is in such seasons that we learn the meaning of rest ; 
 185 
 
1 86 LIFE IN THE LAND. 
 
 the true source of unity; and the need of patience in 
 dealing with the erring or fallen. 
 
 I. Our First Discovery is the Meaning of Rest. — 
 "The Lord gave them rest round about, according to all 
 that he sware unto their fathers " (xxi. 44). " And now," 
 said Joshua, addressing the two and a half tribes, "the 
 Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he 
 promised them." And this was the chmax of Jehovah's 
 dealings with the chosen people. For this he brought 
 them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock. 
 For this he put his Holy Spirit in the midst of them. For 
 this he caused his right hand to go at the right hand of 
 Moses, dividing the water before them, to make himself 
 an everlasting name. For this he led them through the 
 depths, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not 
 stumble. The divine intention through it all was that as 
 cattle go down into the valley, with its shade and succulent 
 pasture, to hide themselves from the burning heat, so the 
 Spirit of the Lord should cause them to rest (Isa. Ixiii. 14). 
 
 There was a very distinct measiure of rest. The land 
 rested (Josh. xi. 23), and the people also. But it is equally 
 clear that Canaan did not exhaust God's ideal. Fair as it 
 was, its benediction did not go beyond the narrow circle 
 of mere worldly prosperity and material interests. And 
 these were manifestly inadequate. How impossible it is 
 iox the soul to take its ease, just because of some large in- 
 crease in worldly prosperity! As well expect it to grow 
 fat on husks! It was equally impossible that the mere pos- 
 session of the Land of Promise could give rest to hearts 
 with infinite capacity for love, or to minds with an insatia- 
 ble appetite for truth. The rest of Canaan, like so much 
 else in this book, could at the best be only a type and 
 shadow of that spiritual repose, that holy tranquillity, that 
 
GOD'S WAY IS PERFECT. 187 
 
 unspeakable peace, which fill the souls of men with the 
 rest of God himself. Listen to these words — my rest ; his 
 rest; /he Sabbath-keeping of the people of God. These 
 are more than Canaan, with its joys of harvest, and the 
 song of the treader in the press. Therefore, it is truly said 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, " If Joshua had given them 
 rest, then would he [the Spirit of inspiration by the mouth 
 of David] not afterward have spoken of another day. 
 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God " 
 (Heb. iv. 8, 9). 
 
 There is rest from the first glad outburst of the new life ; 
 but it gets more intense as the years go on, as the hue of 
 the sky deepens from the pale blue of April into the ultra- 
 marine of August. The cause of this is in the ever-grow- 
 ing conviction that God's way is perfect, his will lovehest, 
 his plan best. When first we enter into rest, we have to 
 watch against distrust, to reason with ourselves that all 
 must be well, to solace ourselves with promise and assur- 
 ance. But, as the days pass, each utters speech to the 
 next; and the accumulated voice of experience gathers 
 volume within the secret chambers of the heart. We 
 come to know him whom once we did but trust. We re- 
 member that not one good thing has failed of all he prom-, 
 ised. We see that the most threatening tempest clouds of 
 our lives have either been dissipated or have broken in 
 showers of blessing. We remember that things we prayed 
 against, and fought against, have been oiu: greatest bless- 
 ings. We are driven to admit that whenever we got our 
 way, it was gall and bitterness ; but that when God had 
 his, it was milk and honey. 
 
 When such thoughts throng the heart, whilst from some 
 summit in life we review tke past, our hearts are filled with 
 emotions of tranquil restfulness. Why should we fret and 
 chafe, or beat our breasts against the bars, or allow our 
 
1 88 LIFE IN THE LAND. 
 
 souls to be disquieted within us? All is under law, all 
 under love, all things are working together for good. He 
 will give grace and glory. No good thing will he with- 
 hold from those to whom he has given his only-begotten 
 Son. In him the tenderness of motherhood and of father- 
 hood blend. There is not a step he does not weigh ; not 
 a path he does not winnow ; not a tear, the shedding of 
 which has not been to him a subject of anxiety; not a 
 stab of pain, the edge of which he has not felt before it 
 touches us ; not a sorrow, the weight of which he has not 
 felt before he allowed it to impinge. Such a God is thine, 
 O my soul ! hush thee ; trust him ; he is doing all things 
 well; be still and at rest! Thou art as safe as if the gate 
 of pearl were behind thee ; thy joy cannot rust or be 
 stolen ; every wind is a south wind ; every shore thy native 
 land ; every circumstance a rough packing-case containing 
 the gifts of thy Father's love. 
 
 And so the rest, born of trust, gets ever deeper ; because 
 the trust enlarges with growing knowledge. The more we 
 grow in the knowledge of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, 
 the more absolute is our trust in his everlasting, all-per- 
 vading love; and the more unbroken is our rest. It is 
 true that the people entered into rest when they crossed the 
 Jordan ; it is also true that seven years after they drank 
 higher up the stream, where the waters were more pellucid. 
 A meet emblem this of the successive increments of rest- 
 fulness experienced by those whom the Lamb leads ever 
 farther into the heart of the land, unswept by tempests, 
 and within the limits of which there is no more sea. 
 
 II. Our Second Discovery is the True Center of 
 Unity. — The forty thousand warriors who had so nobly 
 fulfilled their early promise received the public thanks of 
 the great leader ; and his last advice, " Turn ye, and get 
 
THE TRUE CENTER OF UNITY. iSg 
 
 you unto your tents; . . . only ?ake diligent heed to 
 do the commandment of the Lord." He expressed also in 
 the name of the congregation his fervent desire that they 
 should have much cattle, silver, gold, brass, and iron, with 
 very much raiment — words and wishes which they most 
 certainly deserved. 
 
 When they reached the fords of Jordan, and reflected 
 that the stream would presently divide them from the rest 
 of the people, a sudden fear seems to have overtaken them, 
 lest, in coming days, the seven tribes and a half might say 
 to their children, " What have ye to do with Jehovah, the 
 God of Israel? For the Lord hath made Jordan a border 
 between us and you : ye have no portion with us." To 
 obviate this, and to make clear for all coming time their 
 identity with the rest of the people, they built an altar on 
 the western bank of Jordan. It was a great altar to see 
 to, not intended for burnt-offering or meal- offering, or for 
 religious rites ; but as a perpetual witness that its builders 
 were leal-hearted Israelites. 
 
 But it was a great mistake. No pattern for its shape 
 had been received from God, nor any direction as to its 
 construction ; whilst if they had obeyed the divine instruc- 
 tion, that three times in the year all their males should ap- 
 pear before God in Shiloh, there would have been no need 
 for this clumsy contrivance. In their view the unity of 
 the people could not be preserved by a merely spiritual 
 bond, but by an outward and mechanical one. The com- 
 mon ties of the altar at Shiloh were insufficient ; there must 
 be in addition the great altar of Ed. 
 
 There was in vogue, however, a truer conception — that 
 of Joshua and the rest of Israel. Similarly, life in the 
 heavenlies begets in us a clear conception of the true unity 
 of the people of God. And here is another remarkable 
 parallel between this book and the Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 
19© LIFE IN THE LAND. 
 
 which, whilst it is specially the book of the heavenly places, 
 is also the revelation of the mystery of that body which, 
 amid the diversity of its parts, partakes of the unity of God 
 himself. In the early stages of Christian life, we suppose 
 that unity can only be obtained by the formulation of a 
 common creed, and the inclusion of all believers in some 
 great visible body. We build the altar of Ed. Ignorant 
 of God's principle of unity, we make one for ourselves. 
 In a word, we mistake uniformity for unity. But as we go 
 from strength to strength we discover that all true souls 
 who meet around the altar are one. Coming from all 
 points of the compass, fired by the same hopes, suppliants 
 at the same meeting-place, rehant upon the same blood, the 
 common attraction establishes an organic unity ; hke that 
 of the tree, the multiplicity of whose parts is subsidiary to 
 the one hf e force ; or like that of the body, the variety of 
 whose members is subordinate to the one animating soul. 
 
 The nearer we get to Christ, the more clearly we discern 
 our unity with all who belong to him. We learn to think 
 less of points of divergence, and more of those of agreement. 
 We find that the idiosyncrasies by which each believer is 
 fitted for his specific work do not materially affect those 
 depths of the inner life which in all saints abut on the 
 nature of the Hving Saviour. As the scattered sheep browse 
 their way up toward a common summit, they converge on 
 each other, and there is one flock, as there is one Shepherd. 
 
 It is the supreme vision of the Bible, granted to the 
 most eminent saints, that though the new Jerusalem com- 
 prehends the names of the tribes of Israel and of the Apos- 
 tles of the Lamb, is garnished by jewels of many hues, 
 and has gates facing in all directions, it yet is one, " the 
 Bride, the Lamb's wife." What wonder, then, that the 
 world, and sometimes the professing Church, supposes that 
 the Lord's prayer is not fulfilled, and that the unity has 
 
THE NEED OF PATIENCE. 191 
 
 yet to be made? The unity is made ; but only the spirit- 
 ual with spiritual discernment can detect its symmetry. 
 
 III. We Discover the Need of Patience in Deal- 
 ing WITH THE Erring and Fallen. — When first the 
 tribes of Israel heard of the erection of the altar, their im- 
 pulse was to go at once against their brethren to battle. 
 Shiloh was the mustering place ; for it seemed as if an 
 offence had been perpetrated against that holy shrine. 
 
 But wiser counsels prevailed, and it seemed best to 
 depute Phinehas and ten princes, men of note, to go as a 
 deputation in the name of the whole congregation of the 
 Lord. They found the warriors in the land of Gilead on 
 the point of dispersing to their homes, uttered their re- 
 monstrance, and quoted the warning instances of Achan 
 and Beth-peor as reasons for fear lest the sin of one should 
 be visited in judgment upon all. Their contention was, 
 that none of the tribes of Israel, or even of individual 
 members of the commonwealth, could sin without involv- 
 ing the whole in judgment. " Rebel not against the Lord, 
 nor rebel against us." 
 
 So deeply had the spirit of love wrought in their hearts, 
 that they even proposed to share the land of western 
 Canaan, wherein the Lord's Tabernacle dwelt, with their 
 brethren. " If the land of your possession be unclean, then 
 pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the Lord, 
 and take possession among us." 
 
 There was a gentleness, a winsomeness, a desire to attract 
 back the erring, which are quite beautiful, and in striking 
 contrast to much that had been, and was yet to be. And 
 it had its desired effect in eliciting a frank disavowal of any 
 desire to turn away from following the Lord, accompanied 
 by a simple explanation of the motives which had actuated 
 them. Thus the whole episode resulted in a tightening of 
 
192 LIFE IN THE LAND. 
 
 the bonds of brotherhood, and in glad protestations of 
 thankfulness and praise. 
 
 So is it always. The fiery persecutor ends by beseeching 
 men by the mercies of God. The sword is laid aside for 
 the olive-branch. And we who had commenced life full of 
 harsh judgments and impetuous heat, whilst not relaxing 
 out steadfast allegiance to truth, learn to deal gently with 
 the erring ; restoring them in a spirit of meekness, bearing 
 one another's burdens, and counting it a greater gain to 
 win a brother than to overcome him in argument or destroy 
 him by sarcasm. Thus, in the golden autumn, the fruit 
 which had been acrid enough in its first inception becomes 
 mellow and luscious. The fierce beams that struck like 
 swords fall slanting in softening radiance ; and Peter, the 
 vehement disciple, administers consolation to suffering be- 
 lievers out of a heart softened by years of attempering trial. 
 
XXI. 
 
 QLake ^cch to CotJe! 
 
 (Joshua xxiii.) 
 
 ** With all thy hart, with all thy soull and mind. 
 Thou must him love, and his behests embrace ; • • • 
 And give thy s elf e unto him — full and free, 
 That full and freely gave himselfe to thee!" 
 
 Spenser. 
 
 EIGHTEEN years had probably passed since the events 
 recorded in the previous chapter. The rest which 
 God had given had not been broken in upon by any upris- 
 ing of the Canaanites ; and the people had been able to 
 prosecute the toils of husbandry unhindered by the alarm 
 of war. All around them, and mingled with them, were 
 the remnants of the Canaanites ; but they were becoming 
 more accustomed to the joint occupancy of the land with 
 the invaders, and were content to share with them a coun- 
 try so rich that it was easily able to sustain them all. 
 
 Meanwhile, years as they passed left evident traces on 
 the bearing and energy of the great leader, who had be- 
 come " old, and well stricken in years." In this respect, of 
 course, he presents no parallel with the Prince and Captain 
 of the Church, who is leading his people into the heavenly 
 places, and sharing with them his rest. He " ever liveth." 
 Joshua, knowing that his end was drawing near, called for 
 the leaders of the people to an audience with him ; in some 
 such way as the great Apostle of the Gentiles summoned 
 
 193 
 
194 TAKE HEED TO LOVE! 
 
 the elders of Ephesus to meet him on the shore of the 
 ^gean. It must have been an imposing and memorable 
 gathering, either in the vicinity of his own inheritance, or 
 on the sacred site of Shiloh. 
 
 Probably Caleb would be there with Kenaz ; Phinehas 
 the priest ; warriors who had been in all the great battles 
 of the conquest, but who had latterly exchanged the sword 
 for the plowshare, and the spear for the pruning-hook ; 
 others also who were beardless youths at the conquest, but 
 now came as heads of famiHes, elders, judges, and officers. 
 The wisdom and chivahy of Israel were convoked to hear 
 the last words of the great chief, who bridged the gulf of 
 time between the passage of the Red Sea and that moment 
 when the Land of Promise had been for twenty years in 
 the possession of the people. 
 
 Standing upon the vantage ground of that gathering, 
 Joshua directed the mind of his auditors into the past, and 
 reminded them of what God had done for them. He had 
 brought them in and planted them in the mountain of his 
 inheritance, in the place which he had made for himself to 
 dwell in; an^ not one thing had failed of all the good 
 things that he had spoken ; all had come to pass. This 
 episode of the old veteran testifying to the unfailing faith- 
 fulness of God has its counterpart in the experience of the 
 matured behever, when memory speaks, recalling scenes 
 from the long past, and comparing the harvest of life's 
 golden autumn with the promise of its spring. 
 
 Joshua's one anxiety appears to have been about the 
 nations that were left. Seven times he refers to the nations 
 of the land. What God had done to them; how they 
 were allotted to be an inheritance ; how God was prepared 
 to thrust them out ; and especially how great a temptation 
 would be suggested by their perpetual presence, lest the 
 people should be tempted to cleave unto them, intermarry 
 
''THOU SHALT LOVE." IQS 
 
 with them, and adopt their gods. It was as though the 
 old man realized that he was the only barrier between Israel 
 and the inroads of worldly conformity and idolatrous rites ; 
 and his exhortation anticipates that addressed by the apos- 
 tle Paul to the elders of the church at Ephesus : "I know 
 that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in 
 among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your 
 own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things; 
 wherefore watch ye! " 
 
 As a preservative against these evil consequences, Joshua 
 proposed three safeguards : the first of which reminds us 
 of the admonition given to himself at the beginning of this 
 book, that they were to be very courageous, so as to keep 
 and do all that was written in the law of Moses, not turning 
 aside from it to the right hand or to the left. The second 
 was the certainty that if they became identified with the 
 heathen in marriage alliance or idolatrous practices, they 
 would not be able to prevail against them in battle, but 
 would find in them a trap, a scourge and thorns, until they 
 perished quickly from off the good land into which they 
 had come. 
 
 But it is on the third that we would dwell particularly ; 
 " take good heed therefore unto yom"selves, that ye love the 
 Lord your God." There is a beautiful fitness in this ex- 
 hortation as coming at the close of this book. The earher 
 pages are full of bloodshed and strife ; but here the soldier 
 speaks as the lover, and the clash of arms is exchanged 
 for the dulcet notes of the harp. The froth is left behind, 
 and the stream runs clear. The storm of the morning has 
 sunk into the gentle zephyr of the evening sunset. Thus 
 the life of Christ led up to the discourses of the upper 
 room, warm with the glow of love. 
 
 The whole law of God and of human Hfe is fulfilled in 
 that one word, "Thou shalt love." Take good heed to 
 
196 TAKE HEED TO LOVE! 
 
 love God, and all other injunctions are comparatively need- 
 less. Love God, and you will be content with nothing 
 less than to inherit all the land, even to that great sea of 
 his love upon which the sun never goes down. Love 
 God, and courage must possess you; as the timid bird 
 will assail the dreaded depredator of her nest, her maternal 
 love making her obhvious to all considerations of her own 
 safety. Love God, and you will love his Book, nor wish 
 to swerve from it. Love God, and you will not seek a 
 love which is inconsistent with your supreme affection. 
 Love God, and you will possess God, and be possessed 
 by God ; and things which otherwise had been snares and 
 traps and scourges will become stepping-stones to a fuller, 
 richer Hfe. Love God, and you will become one with all 
 holy beings in heaven and upon earth, and throughout the 
 universe, to whom he is the supreme Love. 
 
 The one consideration, therefore, which demands our 
 thought is how to fulfill this command, "Take heed to love." 
 What are the steps by which we may enter into the heart 
 of obedience to that great law, first enunciated by Moses, 
 and reaffirmed by Jesus, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy mind, and with all thy strength "? 
 
 I. Remember that Love is of God. — The only 
 Being that really is, is God. All other being is derived ; his 
 is inherent and essential to himself. There is probably a 
 deeper meaning than we have ever apprehended in his 
 name, I AM. There is one God, the Father, of whom are 
 all things. He is over all, and through all, and in all. 
 Therefore, all love and power and wisdom not only reside 
 in him, but pass from him into all other beings, according 
 to the measure in which they are prepared to receive them. 
 He is the central Sun; and all that is fair or noble or 
 
''GOD IS LOyE." 197 
 
 helpful in any one is the far-traveled ray of his nature 
 caught by the soul, consciously or not, to be flashed back 
 again to its source. 
 
 What was nature in its first creation but the reproduction 
 in material forms of thoughts and conceptions that other- 
 wise had been hidden forever in the depths of the divine 
 nature! What are the forces in the physical world, light, 
 heat, electricity, but manifestations of the energy of God ! 
 And what, in the moral world, are virtue, courage, patience, 
 love but sparks — more or less dimmed by the fallen state 
 of man — of that hght which hghteth every man coming 
 into the world ! 
 
 Let us ascend farther, into the highest sphere of all, and 
 speak of love. Love is the crown of human nature ; its 
 regal chaplet of flowers ; the bond by which the sentient 
 universe is made one ; the trait in which we most nearly 
 resemble God, for God is Love. In Love's hand Hes the 
 key to unlock the lost secret of concord. She alone can 
 speak the magic word by which the marring effect of sin 
 can be undone, and all the occupants of the many man- 
 sions of the Father's house formed into one great family, 
 bound together and to God by the cohesion of a common 
 tie. It is by love alone that angels, and redeemed spirits, 
 and holy beings everywhere shall be so harmonized as to 
 unite in the new song, which is yet to break in waves of 
 melody around the throne of the Most High. Love must 
 conquer discord, subdue strife, and complete the divine 
 purpose. 
 
 But all love, whether in the heart of the babe, that 
 stretches out its hands toward the familiar face which 
 overbends it ; or in the mother, enthralled to a new ecstasy ; 
 or in the faithful servant, prepared to give his life for his 
 charge ; whether in the soul of man or of angel ; whether 
 on earth, or beyond it in the blessed spheres that elude our 
 
198 TAKE HEED TO LOVE! 
 
 vision — must have its ultimate source, fountain, and origin 
 in the heart of God. 
 
 It stands, therefore, to reason that those who would love 
 purely, unselfishly, strongly, must converse deeply with 
 God. There must be a steeping of the nature in his 
 fellowship, as the dyer's hand in the deep colors of his 
 craft, or sea-flowers in the warm waters of southern climes. 
 As the moon must hold converse with the sun, that she 
 may receive the glory which she shall transmit to our night, 
 so our only hope of giving love is to receive it. We must 
 get, if we would give ; absorb, if we would transmit ; ob- 
 tain, if we would scatter. Oh for a closer walk with God! 
 
 II. But such Love comes to us through Jesus. — 
 There is, of course, a broad sense in which the love of God 
 reaches all men ; but even this is only possible because of 
 the death and intercession of the Lord Jesus. Unless he 
 had become the propitiation for the sins of the world, the 
 love of God would have had no channel through which, 
 consistently with righteousness, it could have poured forth 
 its tides. Had it not been for Jesus, the flowers of heaven 
 falling into the pit of sin would have been tiumed to flakes 
 of fire. 
 
 But, in a deeper sense, the love of God has been stored 
 in the manhood of Jesus. The divine essence expresses 
 itself in terms of human affection. And it is when we 
 know Jesus, and are united to him by faith, and through 
 him are united to God, that we begin to experience the full 
 tide of divine love as it comes from God the Father, 
 through the Son, to become in us a well of living water, 
 springing up into everlasting life. Then we begin to ex- 
 perience what Paul meant when he cried, " The love of 
 Christ constraineth us." Open your heart to Jesus ; culti- 
 vate his friendship ; live in his fellowship ; famiharize your- 
 
"THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE." i99 
 
 self with the constant consideration of what he has done 
 for you. Love begets love; think, then, how much he 
 loved you, when he gave himself for you. Talk of him 
 to others, till your soul begins to glow. 
 
 III. Love also is by the Holy Ghost. — The love 
 of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
 Ghost, which is given unto us (Rom. v. 5). As the grapes 
 of Eshcol were a pledge that God would give the land 
 from which they came, and he did, so the divine Spirit 
 takes of the love of Christ, and communicates it to us, as 
 an assurance of a hope that can never be ashamed. We 
 argue from the bhss which is to that which is to be. We 
 are sure of eternity because it is already begun in us. 
 Already we hunger no more, neither thirst any more ; and 
 are therefore assured of the land where the Lamb leads his 
 flock to fountains of life. 
 
 Let us lay this well to heart, that the first fruit of the 
 Spirit is love. Like fruit, it swells gradually on the bough, 
 reddens in the cluster, and ripens, man hardly knows how. 
 Yield to the Holy Spirit ; never rest till you have claimed, 
 reverently and humbly, your share in Pentecost ; be filled 
 with the Spirit: thus you, too, will receive a baptism of 
 love. When we are strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the 
 inner man, we begin to know the heights and depths, and 
 lengths and breadths of the love of Christ. 
 
 IV. There are some further Directions for 
 Loving God. — We can only enumerate them as we close : 
 
 (i) Distinguish between the emotion of love, which is 
 variable and inconstant, and love itself. 
 
 (2) Remember that it is possible to love God not only 
 with the heart, but with the mind. The will should put him 
 first, as the pivot upon which the whole life shall revolve. 
 
200 TAKE HEED TO LOVE. 
 
 (3) The test of love is not feeling or speaking, but obey- 
 ing. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth 
 them, he it is that loveth me." 
 
 (4) Guard against the intrusion of sense ; for where any 
 license is given to bodily appetite, there is instant loss in- 
 flicted on the growth of the soul in the love of God. 
 
 (5) Climb to the love of God through the love of man. 
 Dare to treat all men as you know you would if yoM felt 
 to love them, and you will come to feel tenderly and piti- 
 fully toward them. This is the beginning of love. This 
 is most like God's love. Act thus always by the power of 
 the indwelling Spirit, and you will certainly apprehend in 
 growing measure, though never comprehend, the unsearch- 
 able love of God. We may know the love of Christ ; but 
 it passeth knowledge. 
 
XXII. 
 
 (Joshua xxiv.) 
 
 ** Whensoe'er it comes — 
 That summons that we look for — it will seem 
 Soon, yea, too soon ! — Let us take heed in time 
 That God may now be glorified in us ! " 
 
 H. Hamilton King. 
 
 ONCE more the veteran leader, who was soldier, judge, 
 statesman, and prophet combined, desired to see his 
 people face to face. His meeting with their representa- 
 tives was therefore followed, almost immediately, by a 
 gathering of all the tribes of Israel to Shechem; where 
 years before they had stood together in solemn convocation, 
 whilst from the heights of Ebal and Gerizim had rolled the 
 Amens of the people in answer to the blessing and the curse. 
 The stones on which the law had been written were still 
 clearly in evidence, and the whole scene must heve come 
 vividly back to the memory of the majority of those as- 
 sembled. But from that moment the valley would be as- 
 sociated specially with this touching farewell scene, in which 
 Joshua uttered his last exhortations and appeals. 
 
 Joshua's Narrative. — He told again the wonderful 
 story of Israel's past ; beginning where God began, with 
 their fathers in their native land beyond the Euphrates, in 
 the dim dawn of history. What a far-traveled look was 
 
 201 
 
202 EVENSONG. 
 
 that to Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of 
 Nachor ! The reference was possibly intended to give 
 him the opportunity of emphasizing the fact that there the 
 family was as much addicted to idolatry as any of the 
 peoples around. This sin was, so to speak, indigenous to 
 the soil of Israel — a weed which would crop up, unless the 
 utmost care was exercised against it. Look, O Israel, to 
 the hole of the pit whence ye were hewn; ye were not 
 originally one whit better than others. God did not choose 
 you for any distinguishing trait of monotheistic fervor, 
 but because of his sovereign grace. This alone has made 
 you to differ. Ye were dead in trespasses and sins ; but 
 in his mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved you, 
 he chose you for his own. 
 
 Isaac, Jacob, Esau — names which made the deepest 
 chords vibrate in his hearers' hearts — were successively 
 recalled in the deep hush that had fallen on the vast as- 
 sembly. Then the speaker, acting as the spokesman of 
 Jehovah, reached more familiar ground, as he recalled 
 names and events which had played a part in his own 
 wonderful career — the mission of the two brethren; the 
 plagues of Egypt; the cry and deliverance of the Red 
 Sea ; the wilderness ; Balak, son of Zippor, and Balaam, 
 son of Beor ; the passage of the Jordan ; the fall of Jeri- 
 cho ; the overthrow of the seven nations of Canaan ; the 
 possession of their land. 
 
 But throughout the story, the entire stress is laid on the 
 grace of God. / took ; / gave ; / sent ; / brought ; / 
 destroyed; /gave; /delivered. Not a mention is made 
 of Israel's mighty men. All is attributed to the ultimate 
 source of nature, history, and grace — the supreme will of 
 God. We cannot get beyond that. However many links 
 we interpose between ourselves and the causes of things, 
 ultimately we are shut up to acknowledge the determining 
 counsel and foreknowledge of God. The Christian can- 
 
IDOLATRY. 203 
 
 not improve on the creed once formulated by the great 
 heathen monarch : " He doeth according to his will in the 
 army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth ; 
 and none can stay his hand, or say unto him. What doest 
 Thou ? " 
 
 There is nothing more salutary than to stand on the 
 eminence of the years in life's golden evening and review 
 the way by which our God has led us. The far-away 
 home, where faces glimmer out in the daybreak of life's 
 morning, on which we shall not look again till the vail of 
 eternity rends ; the hard bondage of early life ; the many 
 straits and deliverances ; the guiding cloud of the pilgrim- 
 age ; the daily provision for incessant needs ; the human 
 love; the goodness and mercy which have followed all 
 our days. Ah me ! what a romance Hes behind the mean- 
 est hfe, of sin and forgiveness, of provocation and pity, of 
 grace and gift! Not one of us that shall not hold his 
 own history to be the most wonderful of all when we ex- 
 change experiences in that land which we shall not get by 
 our own sword or bow, dwelling in mansions we did not 
 build, eating of vineyards and oHveyards we did not plant. 
 
 Joshua's Appeal. — It would appear that the people 
 largely maintained the worship of household gods, like 
 those which Rachel stole from Laban. This practice was 
 probably perpetuated by stealth. But the germs of evil 
 were only awaiting favorable conditions to manifest them- 
 selves, and Joshua had every reason to dread the further 
 development of the insidious taint. The human heart is 
 always so willing to substitute the material for the spirit- 
 ual ; and where the idol takes the place of God, man for- 
 feits the only antagonistic force strong enough to coun- 
 teract the workings of his passion. Thus in every nation 
 under heaven idolatry has sooner or later led to impurity. 
 Therefore, with marked emphasis, Joshua appealed to the 
 
204 ' EVENSONG. 
 
 people to put away the gods which Terah and others of 
 their ancestors had served beyond the river, and those which 
 they had vainly invoked in the slave-huts of Egypt. He 
 did this first at the close of his address (14), and again just 
 before the memorable interview closed (23). 
 
 The work of idol-renunciation runs parallel with our 
 deepest experiences in the blessed Hfe. Even John, at the 
 close of his first Epistle, bids his disciples keep themselves 
 from idols. In fact, it is only as the clearer light of heaven 
 falls upon us that we come to see the true nature of many 
 things which we had counted innocent, and hugged as 
 dearer than Hfe. We may choose death once for all in 
 some solemn hour of consecration, but we only gradually 
 come to learn all that it involves. Self is our greatest idol ; 
 and it is so ubiquitous, so insidious, so protean! Scotched 
 in one place, it breaks out in another. It clings and twines 
 about things which are innocent enough in themselves, 
 but which it transforms into idols, and then they have 
 to be put away. Our Isaacs ! our Rachels ! our right 
 hands ! 
 
 Our only hope is to be strong in our choice of God. 
 The negative destruction of self is unsatisfactory. We 
 must deliberately set ourselves toward God. Our will 
 must crown him. Our soul must make him first. Our life 
 must be subdued to the least syllable of his command. If 
 thou wouldst do this, peace would come to thee. " If it 
 seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day 
 whom ye will serve ; whether the gods which your fathers 
 served that were beyond the river, or the gods of the 
 Amorites, in whose land ye dwell : but as for me and my 
 house, we will serve the Lord." 
 
 The People's First Reply. — They professed that they 
 had no desire to forsake Jehovah and serve other gods. 
 
A JEALOUS GOD. 205 
 
 They freely acknowledged that they owed everything to 
 him from the exodus to the possession of Canaan. They 
 also expressed their determination to serve the Lord. 
 
 Joshua's Answer. — Whether they uttered all these 
 vows in thunderous unison, or by the mouth of chosen rep- 
 resentatives, or whether the historian gathered up thus the 
 consensus of their feeHng as it passed from lip to lip, we 
 cannot tell. But surely Joshua detected some traces of 
 insincerity in their voice. Perhaps he felt the unreaUty of 
 their professions because they gave no sign of abandoning 
 their strange gods. Had he hoped for a repetition of the 
 scene that had taken place on that very spot so many 
 years before, when at the challenge of Jacob his house- 
 hold gave unto him all the strange gods which were in 
 their hands, and the rings which were in their ears, and 
 Jacob hid them beneath the oak which was by Shechem? 
 Did he expect that the leaders of the people would first 
 bring out their contributions to a pile similar to that which, 
 in Christian centuries, rose in the great square of Florence, 
 at the summons of Savonarola? 
 
 But there was no such response. The people contented 
 themselves with their affirmations, but made no sacrifices. 
 There was no holocaust, and Joshua was deeply conscious 
 of the unreality of profession that went no deeper than 
 words. This, said he in effect, is no way to serve the 
 Lord. He is a holy God ; he is a jealous God. He will 
 search out these secret sins of yours ; he will not be con- 
 tent with the service of the lip ; he will not pass over 
 transgression and sin, even though they be hidden in the 
 recesses of your tents and the depths of your hearts. 
 Notwithstanding all the good that he has done to you, he 
 will not pass over the declensions and backshdings of his 
 people. 
 
2o6 EVENSONG. 
 
 The People's Second Reply. — They were full of self- 
 confidence, and vowed, come what might, that they would 
 serve the Lord. There was the energy of their own self- 
 will, the strength of their own resolve, the persistent insist- 
 ence on their choice of Jehovah. Standing there with 
 Joshua they forgot the many failures of the past, mocked 
 at his fears, derided his suggestions of possible declension, 
 and cried, " Nay, but we will serve the Lord." 
 
 What a commentary on those proud words is given by 
 the Book of Judges ! Serve the Lord ! The very first 
 sentence which follows the record of Joshua's death in that 
 book tells us that " the children of Israel did that which 
 was evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; 
 and they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers." And 
 this record reciu-s with melancholy monotony on nearly 
 every page. We are reminded of that other scene when 
 beneath Sinai, burning with fire, the people pledged them- 
 selves to do all that the Lord had spoken ; and within six 
 weeks were worshiping him under the form of a calf, with 
 lascivious dance. 
 
 In point of fact, resolution, however good and however 
 strongly expressed, is not sufiicient to carry us forward 
 into a life of obedience. Our moral nature has become so 
 weakened by repeated failure that it is not able to resist 
 the appeals of sense. To will is present with us, but how 
 to perform that which is good we find not. No one can 
 look thoughtfully into the workings of his own nature with- 
 out realizing the terrible paralysis which has befallen it. 
 The will sits amid the vassals of the inner realm, issuing 
 commands which it is not able to enforce, like a puppet- 
 king in the midst of mighty chiefs who dispute his authority. 
 
 Thus it is that so often young hearts are imbittered with 
 disappointment, because in some high moment of resolve 
 they determine that all Hfe shall be new, inspired by con- 
 
*'BY STRENGTH CAN NO MAN PREl^AIL" 207 
 
 stant resolve, and climbing with undeviating purpose the 
 steeps of purity and devotion ; but when they descend to 
 the plain of commonplace, to the routine of daily life, they 
 discover that the impetus has died away, and that the 
 power to execute the high purpose of the soul is gone. 
 No; consecration is only possible when it is conceived, 
 prosecuted, and consummated in power not our own, and 
 in the energy of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Joshua's Second Answer. — "Ye are witnesses," he 
 said, " against yourselves, that ye have chosen the Lord to 
 serve him." In other words, he appealed to them on the 
 ground of their own asseverations, and sought to bind them 
 to the vows they had made. Did he not intend to probe 
 them deeper, to make them realize the solemnity of the 
 occasion, to compel them to face the greatness of the re- 
 sponsibiHty they had assumed? By the magnitude of the 
 interests involved, by the mercies and deliverances of God, 
 by the memory of their ancestors, by the great days of 
 Abraham and Isaac, by their own solemn protestations, 
 he urged them to be true. 
 
 The People's Third Reply. — "We are witnesses," 
 they cried ; as in after days the people met Pilate's repeated 
 challenge by the imprecation upon themselves of the blood 
 of Jesus. Alas, for their self-confident boast, for their 
 headstrong pride of purpose! "By strength can no man 
 prevail." O my soul, be warned, that when thou art chal- 
 lenged as to thy resolves, thou makest thy boast in God ; 
 setting up thy banners in his name, intrenching thyself 
 within the circle of his environing Almightiness. Only by 
 thy God canst thou leap over a wall, or run through a 
 troop. Ask the Holy Spirit to bind thee by cords to the 
 altar of self -surrender by the blood-red cord of Calvary ; 
 
2o8 El^ENSONG. 
 
 by the silver cord of hope in the second Advent ; by the 
 golden cord of daily fellowship. 
 
 Joshua's Response. — Further words were fruitless, and 
 so he set up a memorial of the pledges by which the people 
 had bound themselves. He wrote their words in the book 
 of the law of God ; and he took a great stone, and set it 
 up there under the slab. " Behold," said he, " this stone 
 shall be a witness against us ; for it hath heard all the 
 words of the Lord which He spake unto us : it shall be 
 therefore a witness against you, lest ye deny your God." 
 Then he dismissed the people to their homes. 
 
 There is Comfort Suggested to us by Contrast 
 WITH this Solemn Scene. — Even in the Land of Promise 
 the people introduced the old Sinaitic spirit of duty and 
 obedience as the condition of their tenure. They had said 
 at Sinai, "All that the Lord says, we will do." And they 
 said it again in Canaan. And we are all apt to make the 
 same mistake. We once sought to justify ourselves by our 
 own efforts, and now we seek to sanctify oiurselves. Once 
 we made resolutions to earn heaven by good works ; now 
 we make them to maintain our vows of consecration intact. 
 And directly we essay to tread the difficult path of sanctifi- 
 cation in our own energy, and by our own might, we expose 
 ourselves to endless misery and chagrin. There is no 
 thoroughfare by this route. We cannot perfect in the flesh 
 that which we began in the Spirit. 
 
 Joshua did not give the people rest. Had he done so, 
 David would not have spoken of another day. Canaan 
 was only the fype of the Sabbath-keeping of the people of 
 God, but did not exhaust it. At the best it was only a 
 material and unsatisfying type. It afforded rest from the 
 fatigues of the march, but not to the infinite capacities of 
 
ENTERING INTO REST. 209 
 
 the soul. The produce of cornfields and vineyards and 
 oliveyards could not appease the appetite for the infinite 
 that must have made itself felt even in the heart of Israel, 
 as the nation settled in its God-given land. Therefore, as 
 the Holy Ghost tells us, there remained over and above a 
 rest which is open by faith to the people of God of every 
 age. 
 
 Notice the deep spiritual truth here. Israel could not 
 enter on the real rest of God, because the people persisted 
 in introducing this talk about what they would or would 
 not do. God's rest cannot be entered thus. Though it 
 was the leadership of Joshua, it was the spirit of Moses, 
 And the law can in no shape or form give rest. Is not this 
 why so many Christians miss it still ? They profess to be 
 under the captaincy of the true Joshua ; but they are all 
 the while counting on their own resolves and boasting their 
 own strength. 
 
 It is only when we apprehend the provisions of the New 
 Covenant, which does mention man, but is full of the / 
 wills of God, that we come into the true blessedness of rest 
 and peace. Not what you do, but what God will do ; not 
 your bow and spear, but his right hand and his holy arm ; 
 not the energy of your good self, but the freeness of his 
 grace. When you confess yourself powerless to maintain 
 the attitude of consecration, and cast yourself helplessly on 
 him to perform all things in and through you, realizing his 
 ideals, and fulfilling his purposes, and when the entire bur- 
 den is rehnquished, and you are content to work out in 
 the strength of his Spirit what he works in, will you experi- 
 ence the fullness of that rest which is deep as God's, like 
 the azure sky that slumbers behind the bars of gold which 
 incase the glory of sunset. 
 
 His task ^^ided, Joshua retired to his inheritance ; but 
 the influence of his character and life was felt as long as he 
 
210 EVENSONG. 
 
 lived, and afterward. At last he died, one hundred and 
 ten years old, and they buried him. All Israel probably 
 gathered to pay homage to his memory. He richly merited 
 all the honor that he received. He had none of the gifts 
 of Moses. He may be compared to the man of two talents, 
 whilst his great master was dowered with five. But he was 
 strong and wise and true to the great trust committed to 
 his care by the people and by God ; and amid the stars 
 that shine in the firmament of heaven, not the least bright 
 or clear is the luster of Joshua, the son of Nun, the antitype 
 of the risen and ascended Saviour, and whose worthiest 
 epitaph, as written by a subsequent hand, is — 
 
 JOSHUA, 
 
 the son of nun, 
 
 the servant of 
 
 Jehovah. 
 
THE MINISTER AND HIS WORK 
 
 THIS ELTON MARK, D.Lit. 
 
 The Pedagogics of Preaching 
 
 A Short Essay in Practical Homiletics. Net 50c. 
 
 Much has been done for the Teacher in showing him 
 the practical application in his work of the findings of the 
 new Psychology, but comparatively little has been done in 
 the field of "Psychology and Preaching." This scholarly and 
 yet popular book applies to the art of preaching methods 
 which have long been followed in the training of teachers. 
 
 FRANK W. GUNSAULUS, P.P. 
 
 The Minister and The Spiritual Life 
 
 Yale Lectures on Preaching for 191 1. Net $1,25. 
 
 Among the phases of this vital subject treated by the 
 
 Eastor of The Central Church, Chicago, are: The Spiritual 
 ,ife and Its Expression in and Through Ministering; The 
 Spiritual Life in View of Changes in Philosophical and 
 Tlieological View-Points; The Spiritual Life in Its Rela- 
 tion to Truth and Orthodoxy; The Spiritual Life and 
 Present Social Problems, etc. 
 
 PROF. A. T. ROBERTSON, P.P. 
 
 The Glory of the Ministry 
 
 Paul's Exultation in Preaching. Cloth, net $1.25. 
 
 Rev. F. B. Meyer says: "I think it is the best of all 
 
 your many books and that is saying a good deal. Its il- 
 luminating references to the Greek text, its graphic por- 
 traiture of the great Apostle, its allusions to recent liter- 
 ature and current events, its pointed and helpful instruc- 
 tions to the ministry combine to give it very special value. 
 
 SAMUEL CHARLES BLACK, D.D. 
 
 Building a Working Church 
 
 l2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 
 
 Every pastor or church officer no matter how successful 
 he may be, will find practical, vital suggestions for strength- 
 ening some weak place in his present organization. The au- 
 thor makes every chapter bear directly upon some specific 
 phase of the church building problem. 
 
 WILLIAM E. BARTON, D. D . 
 
 Rules of Order for Religious Assemblies 
 
 i8mo, cloth, net 50c. 
 
 TTiis work is entirely undenominational and will be 
 found adapted to use in any religious assembly whether 
 church, council, association or convention. 
 
ESSAYS, ADDRESSES, Etc. 
 
 CHARLES F. AKED 
 
 The Lord's Prayer 
 
 Its Meaning and Message I'o-day, Net $i.oo. 
 
 A series of seven sermons on the Lord's Prayer showing 
 the aptness of the requests to present day life. It is de- 
 votional and expository and stimulating, but not exegetical 
 nor technical. The application to modern conditions is ex- 
 ceptionally good, 
 
 J. RE ID HO WATT 
 
 The Next Life 
 
 Light on the Worlds Beyond. i2mo, cloth, net $i.eo. 
 
 A very practical discussion of the question of life be- 
 yond the grave — what can be argued for it from life and a 
 very dispassionate examination of what the scripture has 
 to say on the subject without reference to traditional theories 
 concerning it. It will be found a most helpful and reassur- 
 ing book, and will be welcomed by all who honestly seek 
 light. 
 
 R. A. TORREY 
 
 The Holy Spirit 
 
 As Revealed in the Scriptures anfl in Personal Experience. 
 i2mo, cloth, net $i.oo 
 
 Dr. Torrey has already written upon this theme, but 
 never so fully as in this new volume. It will prove one of 
 the author's most important contributions of devotional study. 
 
 JAMES M. BUCKLEY 
 
 The Wrong and Peril of Woman 
 
 Suffrage i2mo, cloth, net 75c. 
 
 "Dedicated to men and women who look before they 
 leap." 
 
 "Dr. Buckley is dispassionate, calm and sane. He pre- 
 sents in permanent form some of the most logical thoughts 
 in opposition to the clamor for suffrage." — Detroit Free Press, 
 
 W. L. WATKINSON 
 
 The Fatal Barter and Other Sermons 
 
 i2mo, cloth, net $1.00. 
 Another volume of sermons by the "preachers' preacher" 
 along the lines he has made so distinctly his own; rich in 
 illustration and quotation aad both refreshing and illuauaat> 
 
 tag. _y 
 
DEVOTIONAL 
 
 ROBERT F. MORTON 
 
 The Triumphant Life : Life, Warfare 
 and Victory through the Cross 
 
 i6mo. Cloth, net 50c. 
 
 The author, one of the most influential preachers and de- 
 votional writers, presents an attractive volume of brief 
 counsels on Faith and Duty. 
 
 CHARLES BROWN 
 
 Lessons from the Cross 
 
 i6mo, Cloth, net 50c. 
 
 A volume of remarkable spiritual power which will also 
 prove an incentive to further study of this great subject. 
 
 MILFORD HALL LYON 
 
 For the Life That Now Is 
 
 i6mo, Cloth, net 7Sc. 
 
 "Emphasizes the power and presence of a life hid with 
 Christ in God. It will be a revelation to many that there is 
 such a correspondence between the needs of mankind and the 
 provisions of redeeming grace." — Reformed Church Mes- 
 senger. 
 
 HANNAH WHITALL SMITH 
 
 The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life 
 
 New Edition, with Decorative L,ace Border and Lace Cover 
 
 Design. lamo. Cloth, net $1.00. 
 
 A Handsome New Gift Edition of this famous Christian 
 classic, which as a prominent writer once said will "trans- 
 form the dark days of your life, as it has transformed those 
 of thousands before you." 
 
 J. H. JOWETT 
 
 Our Blessed Dead 
 
 i6mo, Boards, 2sc. 
 A booklet of consolation; suggestive and effective. 
 
 CORTLAND MYERS 
 
 The Real Holy Spirit 
 
 i2mo, Cloth, net soc. 
 
 "To make this unreality real and mighty in the life of 
 the individual and of the Church is the purpose of this book, 
 tiiat is eminently sane and practical, and will appeal .with 
 force to every thoughtful and earnest Christian."— Cftrr»tia»» 
 Cuardion. 
 
BIBLE STUDY 
 
 G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, P.P. 
 
 The Analyzed Bible '^'SlvhII 
 
 The Book of Genesis 
 The Gospel of Matthew 
 
 2 volumes. i2mo, cloth, each net $1.00. 
 
 "We know of nothing just like this in the entire range 
 of exeg^etical and theological literature and anticijjate a wide 
 popularity for these volumes." — United Presbyterian. 
 
 G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, P.P. 
 
 Living Messages of the Books of the Bible 
 
 3 vols, 1 2 mo, cloth, each net $i.oo 
 
 I. Messages of the Books, Genesis-Esther. 
 
 II, Messages of the Books, Job-Malachi. 
 
 - ' >•- III. Messages of the Books, Matthew-Brevelatlon. 
 
 Tfhis work is quite distinct from the author's "Analyzed 
 Bible." Dr. Morgan here presents in a most scholarly series 
 of EJxpositions the truly Spiritual messages or Key-notes of 
 each of the separate books of the Bible, applying their various 
 to the individual, the church and the nation t0'da3i. 
 
 G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, P. P. 
 
 The StudyandTeachingof th. EnglishBible 
 
 i6mo, cloth, net soc 
 
 "Dr. Morgan has condensed in his clear, analytical 
 fashion, a few great principles about the Book, and how to 
 make its contents accessible to others. Many perplexed but 
 earnest teachers, especially of men's classes, will be grateful 
 for the light it throws on the heart of the problem of teach- 
 ing the Bible, and for its mental quickening and heart- 
 warming qualities." — S. S. Times. 
 
 PROR JAMES R. KAYE 
 
 The Chart Bible 
 
 Forty-eight Charts. i2mo, cloth, net $1.50. 
 
 *'An effort to use the eye as the doorway to the bettef 
 onderstanding of the content of the Bible. The principal 
 featiire of the book is a series of forty-eight charts designed 
 to present the biblical movement in history and doctrine, 
 and thus to give the reader a comprehensive grasp of the 
 material." — Continent. 
 
 MRS. J. H. KNOWLES 
 
 Heart Talks on Bible Themes 
 
 i2mo, cloth, net $1.25. 
 
 The author, having for many years conducted a Bible 
 Class of some hundreds of young women in the Young 
 Women's Christian Association of New York City, has been 
 induced to put into this permanent form a series of her 
 most helpful Biblical studies. They will be found exceeding- 
 ly suggestive for devotional reading. 
 
) / 
 
BS580 .J7M6 
 
 Joshua, and the land of promise. 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00041 3122 
 
 
 DATE 
 
 DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t'l ' ,. r < 
 
 •r:- -■ ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 i- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 PRINTED IN USA