YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

Messages from the Old Testament

Messages from the Old
Testament

By the
Right Rev. Edgar C. S. Gibson, D.D.
Bishop of Gloucester

London
Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Ltd,
3, Paternoster Buildings, E.C*

First Editiont November 1904.
Second Edition, February 1905.
Third Edition, November, 1905,

Preface
The following sermons and papers represent an
attempt to give some help towards a right under
standing and an intelligent use of the Old Testa
ment. Many persons have felt that tlie recent
' critical ' movement, of which they read much in
popular literature, has made it impossible for them
to read the Jewish Scriptures in exactly the same
way as their fathers did ; and I have been anxious
to show that this fact need not in the very least
impair their sense of the religious value of what
must ever be to the Christian Church an integral
part of the Holy Bible, or diminish their reverence
for it as containing Divine messages for the
twentieth century after Christ, as it did for the
centuries before the Incarnation.
The s Tmons are printed exactly as they were de
livered — the majority of them in the Parish Church
of Leeds — and it has not been thought necessary to
remove some repetitions, which under the circum
stances were almost inevitable. As the sermons
are largely expository, I am naturally indebted to
many of our best writers on the Old Testament
for the thoughts and interpretations of Scripture
which I have adopted, and I have tried as far as

vi Preface
possible to give references and quote my authori
ties. But owing to the fact that many of them
were written some years ago, and without any
idea of publication, I have, in a few instances,
been unable to trace the citations, and possibly in
some cases I may be indebted to previous writers
where no reference is given. If so, I trust that
any writers who may recognise their own thoughts
or words in any of these discourses will accept this
as my apology. If Arthur Pendennis, as he turned
over his old articles in the Pall Mall Gazette a
few months after they were written, when he had
forgotten the books he had been reading, could
not help wondering where he got his erudition
from, the preacher may perhaps be excused if, as
he looks over sermons preached some years ago,
he fails in every case to recall the names of the
authors whose works he had been reading, and
whose thoughts and words he may, perhaps, un
consciously have borrowed. E. C. S. G.
The Vicarage,
Leeds.

Contents I
Creation Page
Gen. i. i : 'In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth '---... i
II
The Creation of Man
Ps. viii. 4 : • What is man ?'- - - - . .11
III
The Fall
Gen. ii. 17 : 'In the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die '  18
IV
The Lesson of Massah and Meribah
Exod. xvii. 7 : ' He called the name of the place Massah,
and Meribah, because of the striving of the children
of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, say
ing, Is the Lord among us, or not ?' 29
vii

viii Contents

Our Lord as Prophet

Page

Deut. xviii. 15:' The Lord thy God will raise up unto
thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren, like unto me ; unto Him ye shall hearken ' 36

VI
The Miracles of the Old Testament
Ps. xliv. 3, 4: 'They gat not the land in possession
through their own sword : neither was it their own
arm that helped them. But Thy right hand, and
Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance,
because Thou hadst a favour unto them ' - - 46
VII
The Battle of Bcih-horon
Josh. x. 12, 13 : 'Then spake Joshua to the Lord in
the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites
before the children of Israel, and He said in the
sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ;
and thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon. And the
sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the
nation had avenged themselves of their enemies' - 55
VIII
The Book of Judges
Judg. v. 24 : ' Blessed above women shall Jael the wife
of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above
women in the tent ' - . 66

Contents ix
IX
Elisha's Gift Page
2 Kings ii. 9, 10 : ' And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a
double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he
said, Thou hast asked a hard thing : nevertheless, if
thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be
so unto thee ; but if not, it shall not be so ' - 77
X
The Book of Job
Job xviii. 5 : ' The light of the wicked shall be put out.'
Job. xxi. 17 (R. V.) : ' How oft is it that the lamp
of the wicked is put out ?' 89
XI
The True Wisdom for Man
Job xxviii. 28 : ' The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom :
and to depart from evil is understanding ' - 106
XII
The Eighteenth Psalm
Ps. xviii. r : ' I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength : the
Lord is my stony rock and my defence'- 116
XIII
Nature and Revelation
Ps. xix. 1,7:' The heavens declare the glory of God ;
and the firmament showeth His handiwork. . . .
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul :
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the
simple' - - 128

Contents XIV
Confession

Page

Ps. xxxii. 6 : ' I said, I will confess my sins unto the
Lord ; and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my
sin' - - - ... !g8

XV
The Destruction of Sennacherib's Host
Ps. xlvi. n : ' The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of
Jacob is our refuge ' - 147
XVI
Meditation
Ps. xlviii. 8 : ' We wait for Thy loving-kindness, O God,
in the midst of Thy temple ' .... 155
XVII
The Imprecatory Psalms
Ps. lviii. 8 : ' Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns :
so let indignation vex him, even as a thing that is
raw'(P.-B. V.). - - 161
XVIII
Rahab and Babylon
Ps. lxxxvii. 3, 4 : 'I will think upon Rahab and Babylon :
with them that know me. Behold ye the Philistines
also : and they of Tyre, with the Morians ; lo, there
was he born ' (P.-B. V.) - ... I?2

Contents xi
XIX
The Study of Church History Page
Ps. cvi. 2 : ' Who can express the noble acts of the Lord ?' 184
XX
The Book of Ezekiel
Ezek. xxxiii. 11:' Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ;
for why will ye die, O house of Israel ?' - - - 1 94
XXI
The Fathers have Eaten Sour Grapes
Ezek. xviii. 2 : ' What mean ye, that ye use this proverb
concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers
have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are
set on edge?' .... 205
XXII
The Day of the Lord
Amos v. 18 : ' The day of the Lord ' - - • - 215
XXIII
Betting and Gambling
Hag. i. 6 : ' He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put
into a bag with holes '  227
XXIV
The Apocrypha
Jer. vi. 16 : 'Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for
the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
therein ' -238

xii Contents XXV
The Book of Wisdom Page
Job xxviii. 28 : ' The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom :
and to depart from evil is understanding' - 249
XXVI
The Position of the Church of England with Regard
to the Criticism of the Old Testament - - 261
XXVII
Criticisms of Holy Scripture and the Church's
Gains thereby  . 275

i
Creation
Gen. i. i : 'In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.'
Perhaps no part of the Old Testament has
caused more difficulty to thoughtful minds in the
present clay than the first chapter of Genesis.
In former days it was accepted without more
question than other parts of Genesis, nor did
it seem to be involved in any special difficulty.
In the present day its statements are widely
called in question, and Churchmen are freely
told that they must be prepared to give it up
altogether, as men cannot be expected to believe
it any longer. This is owing to two chief
causes : (i) The discoveries of science. These
have revolutionised our ideas about the begin
ning of things and the position of this earth
in the universe. Foremost in time came the
discoveries of astronomy ; then those of geology,
when the rocks were made to give up their secret
and to disclose the story of the long ages during
which the present order of things was slowly
coming into being. Then palaeontology took up

2 Messages from the Old Testament
the tale, and taught us about primitive man and
his ways, while the theory of development threw
a flood of light on the origin of species in the
world. But it was not only the discoveries and theories
of men of science that were deemed fatal to the
account in Genesis. On the top of these there
came (2) the announcement of the startling
discoveries made by explorers such as the late
George Smith in the mounds of Babylonia and
Assyria, where long - buried clay tablets and
cylinders of immense antiquity, covered with
strange characters, were* dug up ; and when, by the
patient labours of Assyriologists, they were
deciphered it was found that they contained
accounts of Creation older than that in Genesis,
but so similar in character to it that it was almost
impossible to resist the conclusion that the one
had been borrowed from the other. And so
we were told that the claim of Genesis to any
thing like Divine inspiration had been once
for all disproved, and that it had better be
quietly put on one side, and ignored by rational
Christians. What are we to say of these difficulties —
difficulties which, I venture to think, are so widely
felt that no apology is needed for discussing them
in the pulpit ? Well, let us consider first the
second ofthe difficulties, that which is raised by the
Babylonian and Assyrian discoveries, for I believe
that we shall find that not only need it be no real
stumbling-block to the faith of any thoughtful
person, but that it may actually be made of very

Creation 3
real service towards the solution of the problems
raised in connection with the relation of Genesis
to scientific truth.
Now, it is impossible to deny that a real
connection of some kind exists between the
Biblical account of Creation and that preserved in
the clay tablets and cylinders of Babylonia. The
similarities and points of contact between the two
are so striking that if the narratives are placed
side by side it will appear at once that they are
cither derived from a common source, or that one
is to some extent copied from the other. The
immense antiquity of the Babylonian traditions
seems to be firmly established. They cannot
have been borrowed from Genesis. Indeed, one
of our leading authorities on the subject says that
it is far from impossible that the Hebrews
acquired a knowledge of them as far back as the
time of their earlier settlement in Babylonia, and
that they carried these stories with them from Ur
of the Chaldees.* But granting this, what
follows ? Simply this : the old, somewhat
artificial view (for which there is no Scriptural
authority) that the early history of the world was
specially revealed to Moses is certainly destroyed.
The notion that the account of Creation was
originally communicated to him in a series of
visions must be altogether discarded. But the
question of the inspiration of the Biblical account
is still untouched, and ample room is still left for
an element of direct revelation as well. These
two things, inspiration and revelation, it must
* Sayce. Cf. Driver, The Book of Genesis, p. 31.
I — 2

4 Messages from the Old Testament
ever be remembered, are really distinct, though
they are often confused, and the words are loosely
used as if they meant the same thing. Inspiration
may be defined as the actuating energy of the
Holy Ghost, under the influence of which men
wrote down the record of God's dealings with the
world. Revelation is the communication from
God of truth not known previously to the person
receiving the revelation, and in some cases
impossible to be known without it. The Evange
list St. Luke was certainly inspired for his task,
but we never hear that he was the recipient of a
revelation. The Patriarchs received revelations
from God, but we are nowhere told that they were
inspired to record them.* Thus the one may
exist without the other. And, further, we learn
quite conclusively from the preface to St. Luke's
Gospel that inspiration does not supersede the
labour of the careful historian, collecting his
material from the best sources at his command,
and tracing out all things accurately from the
very first.
So in regard to these early chapters of Genesis,
what if the same holds good there ?
Instead of the old crude view of the composition
of the book, a truer one seems to emerge. The
Biblical historian derived his material from the
best human sources available ; the function of
inspiration was to guide in the disposal and
arrangement of the materials, and in the use to
which they were applied. We can see, then, what
* Cf. Archdeacon Lee on The Inspiration of Holy Scripture,
p. 50.

Creation 5
Dr. Liddon so happily termed * the inspiration of
selection' at work throughout. And not merely
did the sacred writer select from the material that
lay ready to hand, but he so purified and trans
formed the narrative that the old story or tradition
(call it what you will) became the medium of con
veying Divine truths, and in those Divine truths
we can often see a real revelation.
Does this seem to you a small thing ? You
have only to compare the Babylonian with the
Scriptural account, and I am quite certain that
you will be no less struck by the points of differ
ence than by the points of likeness. Why is it
that, while in the other accounts the crudest
physical theories are combined with the materials,
the grossest polytheism is apparent in every line,
and the account of the creation of the world is
preceded by a solemn account of the creation oi
the gods, in Genesis there is absolutely nothing
of all this ? There all that is absurd and grotesque
is eliminated, no trace of polytheism is left, and
the narrative opens with the majestic utterance, to
which no parallel has been produced from any
other account whatever : ' In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth.' Why is this ?
we ask, and no explanation is forthcoming except
that which sees a Divine guidance, and the action
of the Holy Spirit of God, controlling, directing,
and leading into truth.
Now let us turn back to the first difficulty and
the question between Genesis and science, and
see whether it is not the case that the Babylonian
discoveries just alluded to may help us in adjusting

6 Messages from the Old Testament
the relations between the two. So long as it was
thought that the whole account in Genesis was the
result of a direct communication from God to
Moses, I can imagine that perplexity might have
been felt at the apparent discrepancies between it
and the record of the rocks. But once grasp the
fact that some human tradition has been used by
the writer, and adopted as the basis of his narra
tive, and the right position for the consideration
of the whole subject at once becomes clear. The
object of Genesis is to teach religious truth. But
a human tradition has been taken up and made
the vehicle of this, and we are surely not called
upon to think that the use made of it necessarily
guarantees its literal and exact accord with facts.
Matters which are discoverable by human reason,
and the means of investigation which God has
put within reach of man's faculties, are not the
proper subjects of Divine revelation, and matters
which do not concern morals or bear on man's
spiritual relations towards God are not the
province of revealed religion. Hear the words of
a thoughtful writer on the subject, which we
should do well to consider : 'If anyone is in
search of accurate information regarding the age
of this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and
stars, or regarding the order in which plants and
animals have appeared upon it, he is referred to
recent text-books in astronomy, geology, and
palaeontology. _ No one for a moment dreams of
referring a serious student of these subjects to the
Bible as a source of information. It is not th
object of the writers of Scripture to impart

e

Creation

7

physical instruction or to enlarge the bounds of
scientific knowledge. But if anyone wishes to
know what connection the world has with God, if
he seeks to trace back all that now is to the very
fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover
some unifying principle, some illuminating purpose
in the history of this earth, then we confidently
refer him to this and subsequent chapters of
Scripture as his safest — and, indeed, his only —
guide to the information he seeks. Every
writing must be judged by the object the writer
has in view. If the object of the writer of
Genesis was to convey physical information, then
certainly it is imperfectly fulfilled. But if his
object was to give an intelligible account of
God's relation to the world and to man, then it
must be owned that he has been successful in the
highest degree.'*
Here, then, we seem to gain a thought that
may help us. We need not be careful to consider
whether in every case the narrative is in exact
accord with what modern research may show, nor
strain the words of Genesis in order to fit them in
with the dominant theory of an ever advancing
science. It would not be true to say that Genesis
anticipates the results of science. It is true to
say that it is independent of them, for the great
religious truths which the Biblical record of
Creation is intended to teach us stand untouched
by the discoveries and investigations which have
thrown such a flood of light on the early history
* Genesis, by Marcus Dods (in The Expositor's Bible),
p. i.

8 Messages from the Old Testament
of the world. Those religious truths may be
summed up in a few words as the following :
I. First, the fact of creation by God. Every
thing as we see it was made by God. Things
have not just grown of themselves, but have been
called into being by a presiding Intelligence and
an originating Will.
Against materialism and pantheism it shows
that the world was not self-originated, that ' it was
called into existence and brought gradually into
its present state at the will of a Spiritual Being,
prior to it, independent of it, and deliberately
planning every stage of its progress. It is this
feature which distinguishes it fundamentally from
the Babylonian cosmogony, to which it bears an
external resemblance. The Babylonian scheme
is essentially polytheistic. Chaos is anterior to
Deity. The gods are made or produced : we
know not whence or how. In Genesis the
supremacy of the Creator is absolute.'*
2. Secondly, we learn the fact that every stage
is no product of chance or of mere mechanical
force, but is an act of the Divine will, realises
the Divine purpose, and receives the seal of
Divine approval. The universe has no being of
itself, but exists at God's will, and everything in
it is in its essence good, as the product of the
good God. Again and again is the Divine
thought or purpose marked by the recurrent
* See Dr. Driver's article on the cosmogony of Genesis,
Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iii., p. 42. Reference should also
be made to the same writer's new work, The Book of Genesis,
in the Westminster Commentaries.

Creation 9
formula, ' And God said, Let there be . . . and
it was so.' Secondary causes are nowhere men
tioned, but they are not therefore denied, and
room is left for any scientific theories with regard
to the development of their action. Again and
again, also, we have the Divine note of approval :
' and God saw that it was good.' ' And God saw
every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was
very good.'
3. Thirdly, we notice the pre-eminence of man
as the crown of creation, and his special relation
to God as made in His image, after His likeness,
to be His vicegerent, and to have dominion over
the lower creation. ' So God created man in His
own image, in the image of God created He
him ; male and female created He them.'
I might mention other matters, but it is perhaps
chiefly in these three points that we find the
revelation of the first chapter of Genesis. The
inspiration is seen throughout in the spirit that
runs through it all, and the way in which the old
tradition is made the medium of Divine truth, and
purified and ennobled in the process. So inter
preted and understood, we find no discord between
what are really different sides of God's truth ;
rather, we find that the old narrative is instinct
with new meaning, and that God's method in
revelation is brought into harmony with His
method in nature. Our hold becomes deeper on
the one increasing purpose which runs through
the ages ; and if at first it requires some effort on
the part of devout souls who love their Bible to
readjust their ideas and modify conceptions which

io Messages from the Old Testament
were formed in childhood and have grown with
their growth, yet remember that it is true in every
department of life that there is no advance with
out sacrifice, and the more we think of it, the
more certain does it appear that, so read, the
Bible has profounder truth to break forth out of it
than the world has ever yet grasped ; and so a
day will surely come when these truths have been
assimilated by the Christian consciousness, and
then even those who love it most shall ' count new
things as dear as old.'*
* Cf. Tennyson, In Memoriam, xxxix.

II
The Creation of Man
Ps. viii. 4 : ' What is man ?'
Year after year Septuagesima Sunday recalls to
our minds those wonderful records of the past in
which are enshrined, in inspired narratives, the
answers which the wisdom of the ancients gave
to this question. And in spite of all the advance
that there has been in our knowledge, and all the
progress that has been made by patient investi
gators in the different branches of science, with
accurate observation of facts, and solid inferences,
and brilliant guesses founded upon them, it is
wonderful how little has really been added to the
answers to the Psalmist's question which the
Hebrew historian was inspired to give^ many
centuries before the full revelation of God's truth
through the Incarnation. Let us consider those
answers to-day. They will be found in the first
lessons for the morning and evening on Septua
gesima Sunday.
The morning lesson is the first chapter of
Genesis, with the opening verses of chapter ii.,
which clearly belong to it, giving the comple-

12 Messages from the Old Testament
tion of the week of creation, and the summary
at its close. That for the evening consists of
the remainder of chapter ii., which contains a
quite distinct account of the Creation, differing
in several important particulars from that which
precedes it. No thoughtful reader can pass from
one account to the other without being struck by
the differences ; and the relation of the two
accounts to each other has been a standing
puzzle to Biblical critics. Recent researches have,
however, made it clear, beyond reasonable doubt,
that they are distinct in origin, two ancient docu
ments that have been placed side by side by a
later editor, who has incorporated them in a larger
work. The proof of this is found partly in the
marked difference of style, for the second account
is much freer and more varied than the first.
The narrative in chapter i. is ' unornate,
measured, and precise,' and marked by the
recurrence of certain phrases which fall on the
ear with the regularity of the strokes of a clock
that mark the hours. In that of chapter ii. the
recurring phrases, though not entirely wanting,
are less marked.* The name used for the Divine
Creator is different. Instead of the general word
for God, Elohim, which alone we meet with in
chapter i., we have the most sacred name of all,
what we may without irreverence call the proper
name of God, by which He revealed Himself to
Moses at the bush — -Jehovah, used throughout
chapter ii. and iii., and very rarely elsewhere,
* Cf. Driver, introduction to the Literature ofthe Old Testa
ment, p. 8,

The Creation of Man 13
in combination with the other word for God,
Jehovah Elohim, very inadequately represented in
the English versions by the Lord God. Further,
the actions of God are described with some ful
ness and picturesqueness of detail. Instead of
simply 'speaking,' 'making,' or 'creating,' as in
chapter i., He is said to 'fashion,' to 'breathe
into man's nostrils the breath of life,' to ' plant ' a
garden, to 'place,' to 'take,' to 'set,' to 'bring,'
to 'close up,' to 'build,' to 'water' the garden.*
But beyond these divergencies of style, there are
differences of representation, which show that the
two accounts are not written from the same point
of view.
The first account, brief as it is, aims at giving
a complete picture of the creation of the world :
The heavens and the earth, the light and the
darkness, the dry land and sea, the heavenly
bodies, and the inhabitants of the sea, the air,
and the land, leading up to the creation of man,
who stands as the crown and completion of it all.
The second account is written from a different
standpoint, with a more limited aim. The
writer's interest is practically confined to man,
the creation of other things being only mentioned
in so far as they stand in special relation to man.
Consequently, man is introduced as the first of
creatures, apparently not only in respect of worth,
but also in respect of time. The animals appear
as created originally for him, and even the plant
world is represented as if it had not been there
before him. * See Gen. ii. 6-8, 15, 19-22.

14 Messages from the Old Testament
Let. us admit these divergencies without
hesitation.* They need not disturb our faith in
the inspiration of Scripture, for surely we can see
that they only concern subordinate matters which
do not affect the faith. The ancient narratives
and traditions which had come down from
immemorial antiquity, and were common to Israel
with other nations of the East, are taken by the
inspired writer, placed side by side, and made to
become the vehicles and channels of religious
truth. For matters of scientific interest we go to
treatises on science, and we trust our scientific
teachers, who have devoted a lifetime to their
study. In matters of religious import we go to
the Holy Scripture, and we trust this still more
implicitly ; and on these matters the two narratives
of Creation are at one. The form of representa
tion varies, but the result, as far as religious truth
is concerned, is the same in both ; for, in regard
to the main point, the nature of man and his
relation both to the creatures and the world
around him essential agreement is manifested.
' What is man ?' That is the real question
which concerns us, and the answer is given in no
faltering tones. He is the head of God's creation
on earth. This is made perfectly clear in each
account, and so long as it is clear it matters not
to us whether the truth is brought out, as it is in
the one account, by placing his creation last, as if
all else led up to it, and adding the Divine word
which gives him ' dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
* Cf. Driver, The Book of Genesis, p. 35.

The Creation of Man 15
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,' or
whether it be represented, as in the other account,
by placing man's creation first, and introducing
afterwards the creation of plants and beasts to
minister to him and supply his wants. The
essential point — I repeat it — is that he is the head
of God's creation on earth. But this is not all.
' What is man ?' we ask. Is he only this, and
nothing more ? Nay, he has a unique relation to
his Creator ; and though on the one side he is
akin to the beasts that perish, yet you have not
exhausted all that is to be said of him when you
have described his origin from the lower creatures
and traced his descent from an anthropoid ape.
And here, again, both our accounts are at one in
claiming for him something higher and nobler.
On the one hand, they not indistinctly imply that
man on his .physical side is related to the animal
world, of which he forms a part. It is surely
significant that in the first chapter, where the
separate acts of creation are given to different
days, the creation of man is assigned to the same
day as the creation of the beasts of the earth, as
if he were very closely related to them, and in the
second account, while it is out of the ground that
the Lord God formed every beast of the field and
made every tree to grow, it is still out of the. dust
of the same ground that He is said to have
formed man. What plainer terms could be used
if the writer designed to indicate the kinship of
man with the brutes, and his common origin with
them? And if this were all, we might well

16 Messages from the Old Testament
accept Darwin's account as not merely true so far
as it goes and in its own proper sphere (which we
need not hesitate in doing if scientific men tell us
it is established), but as containing a complete
account of man's origin and nature, and giving us
the last word that is to be said on the subject.
But, once again, this is not all, for the two accounts
in Genesis are at one in declaring that man has a
higher nature also, unshared by others, in which
he is akin to his Creator. In chapter i., while
assigning man's creation to the same day as that
of the beasts of the earth, the writer places in the
mouth of the Creator the majestic utterance,
spoken of no other creature in the universe, ' Let
Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness ';
and in language which swells out into the stately
rhythm of Hebrew poetry closes the account by
stating that ' So God created man in His own
image, in the image of God created He him ;
male and female created He them.' And in
turning to chapter ii., we cannot fail to be
arrested by the remarkable expression in verse 7,
where, after telling us that the Lord God formed
man of the dust of the ground, the writer proceeds
at once to add the statement that ' the Lord God
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and
man became a living soul.' Surely here are
indications, writ large, so that he who runs may
read, which show us that man has a specific pre
eminence over the animals in the possession of a
spiritual nature, which enables him to hold with
his Creator such communion as it is given to none
other to hold. And we are thus brought face to

The Creation of Man 17
face with a matter which is proper to revelation
alone, and which is altogether outside the range
of scientific treatises. As Professor Ray Lankester
truly says in his work on Degeneration, ' Such an
assumption as this does not in any way traverse
the inferences from facts to which Darwinism leads
us.'* In all that science takes cognisance of man's
ancestry may be determined, and he may be only
an improved ape. But no physiological reason
can touch the question whether God has not
breathed into him a living soul, a spirit which
goeth upward when bodily life ceases. It is this
which, after all, gives these early chapters of
Genesis their unique importance. They contain
a revelation which can only come from above, and
assure us that
¦ Trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God who is our home,'f
a revelation which brings new hopes and aspira
tions into life, as it manifests our kinship with the
Divine, and makes us exclaim with the Psalmist :
' O Lcrd our Governor, how excellent is Thy t.ame in all the
world !
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him ? and the son of
man, that Thou visitest him ?
Thou madest him lower than the angels, to crown him with
glory and worship.
O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the
world !'

* Degeneration, p. 66.
t Wordsworth, Ode on Intimations of Immortality, etc.

Ill
The Fall
Gen. ii. 17 : 'In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.'
The narrative of the Fall, like the narrative of
Creation which precedes it in Genesis, has given
rise to endless discussions in recent years. In old
days these narratives were accepted without
question as containing all that could pos'sibly be
known ofthe beginnings of the present order of
things, and devout souls were undisturbed by
any doubts or difficulties connected with them.
But during the last century all this was changed.
The progress of knowledge of the history of the
earth and the advance made in the physical
sciences has shown us that God has left us other
records of His creative work and of man's early
history besides those enshrined in the Book of
Genesis ; and the difficulty of reconciling the
record so patiently deciphered by the geologist
and the palaeontologist with the Hebrew traditions
which we have all known and loved from our
childhood has cast a dark shadow of doubt over
the faith of many, and has bewildered not a few
18

The Fall 19
of those who, feeling that they owe all that is
best in them to their Christian faith, yet sorrow
fully say that they scarcely see how they can hold
it any longer. The same kind of thing has
happened with the narrative of the Fall. There
are difficulties which force themselves upon us
to-day in the way of the literal acceptance of it,
which were not, and from the nature of things
could not be, present to our fathers. Two in
particular may be mentioned — not as the only
ones, but as the most important of those which
are popularly urged against the teaching of the
Church. The former of these has to do with the
introduction of death into the world. The Book
of Genesis, we are told, makes it very definitely
the consequence of man's sin. ' In the day thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' St. Paul's
commentary upon this in the New Testament is
even more emphatic. Death ' came into the
world by sin.'* But how, we are asked, can we
possibly accept such a representation as this with
our present ascertained and certain knowledge of
the world's history ? We know* that for long
periods of time before ever man appeared upon
earth death reigned supreme over the animal
world. The beasts preyed upon each other then
as they do now. The laws of Nature were the
same then, and at work, as they are now, and
death was certainly a present fact for centuries
before the Fall. Nor can we imagine that man,
who — at least, on the physical side — is closely
connected with the brutes could ever have been
* Rom. v. 12.

20 Messages from the Old Testament
exempt from it. The connection between death
and sin, then, proclaimed by the Bible is, we are
confidently told, one of the things that modern
science has rudely shaken, so that it is no longer
possible to maintain it. That is one difficulty
which presses upon thoughtful minds ; but it is
not the only one. How, again we are asked, can
you reconcile the teaching of Genesis with the
teaching of science in regard to the history of
man since his first appearance upon the earth ?
The Book of Genesis presents us with a picture —
lovely, indeed, and most attractive — of man as
originally in a state of primitive innocence and
perfection, walking with God in the garden, and
with all his wants satisfied without effort on his
part by the beneficent provision made for him by
his Creator ; and then suddenly by the dark
tragedy of the Fall all this is changed. Man
is fallen from his high estate, and his pro
gress is downward, along the path of deteriora
tion. This first act of disobedience is presently
followed by murder, and before long we read
of the whole earth as corrupt. As Keble puts
it in The Christian Year :
' 'Twas but one little drop of sin
We saw this morning enter in ;
And lo ! at eventide the world is drowned.'*
How different is this from what science teaches
us of primitive man — scarcely distinguishable from
the ape, 'unable to forecast to-morrow or to
* The Christian Year : Hymn for Sexagesima Sunday.

The Fall 2i
comprehend yesterday, living from hand to mouth
on the wild products of Nature, clothed in skin or
bark, or daubed with clay, and finding shelter in
trees and caves ; ignorant of the simplest arts,
save to chip a stone missile, and perhaps to
produce fire '; and then gradually rising from this
state of primitive savagery, as he leaves behind
first the old and then the new Stone Age, and
passes gradually through the various ages of Metal
— Copper, Bronze, and Iron. Thus, while Scrip
ture, to put it briefly, teaches a fall and a deteri
oration, science loudly proclaims a rise and a
development. My brethren, I have stated these difficulties
quite frankly, and with no effort to minimise
them, with no desire to disturb the faith of any,
or wrongly to suggest doubts to those who are
free from them ; but I have felt it right to bring
the subject forward, because I know that the
difficulties are already present to the minds of
many, and if there should be the slightest sus
picion that the clergy shirk them, or are afraid of
them, it will be disastrous to the interests of
religion, and will go hard with our teaching in
other matters also. But having said this, let me
say further that I do not think that the existence
of these difficulties need for one moment shake
our belief in the Divine authority of the Old
Testament when rightly understood ; still less need
it give rise to any haunting fear lest Christianity
itself should fail us. It has stood the test of diffi
culties even greater than these before now. But,
at the same time, I cannot but look on the

22 Messages from the Old Testament
existence of these difficulties as involving us in a
serious responsibility, and as a summons to us
from God Himself, bidding us look again at our
interpretation of Scripture, and urging us to make
quite sure that there has not grown up over the
text of it a crust of interpretation, which, however
venerable, is no part of the sacred deposit. I am
sure that many persons have been accustomed to
read into Holy Scripture a great deal that is not
really there, and have substituted their own ideas
of what it should mean for the actual statements
for which it is really responsible. Let us, then,
take the statements of Scripture and see what they
actually say, and remember that not Scripture, but
Milton's Paradise Lost, is responsible for a great
deal of the popular theology of the day. Dismiss
this famous poem (noble as it is), with all its
associations and suggestions, from your mind, and
think only of what Scripture itself says, and then
you will perhaps see that, when fairly interpreted
and freed from the glosses with which it has been
encumbered, there is nothing in regard to either
of the points indicated which need shake our
belief in its Divine authority within its proper
sphere. Take first its teaching about death and its
commencement. Everything here depends upon
what you mean by death. If 'death' is simply
physical demise, the shuffling off this mortal coil,
then not only is Scripture in direct opposition to
the record of the rocks, but the Divine proclama
tion to Adam, 'In the day thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die,' was proved by the issue to

The Fall 23
be completely false. He did not die. But the
proclamation was profoundly true if by ' death '
you mean the penal consequences of sin, alienation
from God, unrest, predisposition to wrong, and all
the manifold phases of that awful history which
culminates in what theology calls ' the bitter pains
of death,' the grave, and all that it introduces to.*
And that ' death ' in Scripture frequently means
something very different from mere physical
demise is clear to every reader. ' If a man keep
My saying, he shall never see death. 'f ' We
know that we have passed from death unto life,
because we love the brethren.' ' He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. 'J And once
more we are expressly told that Christ hath
' abolished death. '§ What do you understand by
that ? We know that He has not abolished the
physical transition. We see this every day of
our lives. The samtliest of men has to pass
through it equally with the worst of sinners. But
for him it ceases to be what it was before. It
has become ' the gate of life immortal,' and it is
surely fair to say that ' sin only introduced death
in the sense in which Christ abolished it.'|| If
this is so, the difficulty disappears altogether.
We are not concerned to dispute the facts to
which science so triumphantly points. We admit
its teaching in its own sphere without hesitation.
We are prepared to admit that had man not
sinned there might indeed have been a passage
* See Cave, Scriptural Doctrine of Sacrifice, p. 312, etc.
t John viii. 51. t 1 John iii. 14.
§ 2 Tim. i. 10. || Bishop Gore in Lux Mundi, p. 536.

24 Messages from the Old Testament
from one state to another, a physical dissolution,
but it would not have been what the Scriptures
term death. And lest you should think that such
teaching as this is only a sort of afterthought on
the part of theologians just to escape a difficulty,
I would remind you that this interpretation
existed among trained divines long centuries
before scientific investigations had suggested the
contradiction, and before ever the difficulty was
felt at all.
Two of the greatest theologians of the early
Church, alike in East and West, Athanasius and
Augustine, ' emphasise the truth that death, as we
call it, is the law of our physical life, and that
when Adam died he was only undergoing what
belonged to his animal nature. In being: left to
death he was only left to the law of his physical
being.'* Enough has, perhaps, now been said on this
point. I pass on to the second. Christianity
represents a fall, science a gradual rise. So the
objection is stated. But here, again, it is possible
that we have read into the narrative of Genesis
a good deal that is not really contained in it or
reasonably to be inferred from it. Divines have
indeed been found to maintain that ' an Aristotle
is but the rubbish of an Adam, and Athens but
the rudiments of Paradise,'! but not such is the
teaching of Scripture. There is no doubt that
as regards sin and the moral order of things a fall
* Aug., Degen. ad litt., vi. 36 ; Ath., De Incarn., 4, quoted
in Lux Mundi, loc. cit.
t South, Sermon on Gen. i. 27.

The Fall 25
is distinctly taught, and we boldly claim that in
the teaching of Scripture on this point is to be
found the only key to the riddle of human nature.
What explanation can be found of the marvellous
contradictions of humanity — man's greatness when
looked at from one side, his littleness when viewed
from another ? Why is life ' such a comedy to
those who think, such a tragedy to those who
feel ' ? You look out on humanity at large, and
you see a world out of joint, presenting the most
contradictory appearances, distracted by the most
opposite tendencies, with no remedy for its dis
orders, no key to its riddles. ' Read man in one
way,' says the late Dean Church, ' and he seems
made for God and truth. Read him in another,
and nothing can express the interval which sepa
rates him from all that is holy, perfect, eternal,
his blind stumbling through an existence which
has come from chance, the unmeaningness, the
vanity of his life. How is it that he knows so
much, and can think so powerfully, and yet, after
all, knows so little, and so imperfectly ? Why
should his knowledge, just where it is most im
portant, find an impassable barrier, and truth elude
and betray him just where he most wants it ? To
look at his great endowments, his wonderful
achievements, his never - ending progress, he
seems indeed the crown and glory and perfection
of God's creation. But look at him again, in
comparison with what his very powers enable him
to see, the immensity, the inscrutability of the
¦universe, and he sinks into an insignificance which
he has not the imagination to measure or the

26 Messages from the Old Testament
words to express. . . . There he is, this marvel
lously compounded creature, so ingenious, yet so
stupid ; so wise, and yet so incredibly foolish ;
able to do so right, yet constantly doing so wrong;
balancing between good and evil, sin and repent
ance, till the wavering is cut short by death.
And that, multiplied by the numbers of mankind,
is the broad aspect of human life.'*
What is the explanation of these extraordinary
anomalies of man's condition, and of the contra
dictions in which he is involved ? There is only
one account of it that can be given which will ever
satisfy the plain common-sense of mankind, and it
is the account given us in the early chapters of the
first book of Holy Scripture. Man's greatness is
fallen greatness. It is indeed royal greatness, but
it is the greatness of a king dethroned, dispos
sessed, disinherited, banished. To this we hold
fast, and we point to the evidence of facts and to
the testimony of poets and philosophers of the
world as supporting us in maintaining that ' our
life is a false nature — 'tis not in the harmony of
things,' and that, as Shelley says,
' The universe
In Nature's silent eloquence declares
That all fulfil the works of love and joy,
All but the outcast man.'t
e The outcast man.1 It is too true, and that in
the moral and spiritual sphere the Fall is a terrible
* Pascal and other Sermons, pp. 7-10.
I f See Mozley's Lectures and other Theological Papers,
Lecture X.

The Fall 27
reality our hearts bear witness. But in all else
the record contained in the Bible itself points
quite clearly to an advance and progress. It has
been truly called ' the book of development,'* and
if you only read it carefully, and without bringing
preconceived notions to its study, you cannot fail
to see that it represents the fabric of civilisation
and the arts as being gradually built up by slow
degrees and little by little. There is nothing to
make us think that primitive man was in posses
sion of the arts, or that his condition was one of
developed civilisation. ' All that we are led to
believe,' says one of the greatest of living theo
logians, ' is that the historical development of man
has not been the development simply as God
meant it. It has been tainted through its whole
fabric by an element of moral disorder, of human
wilfulness. ... It has been a development with
God only too often left out, the development
under conditions of merely physical laws of a
being meant to be spiritual. 'f
The difficulties, then, which are so often raised
about these early chapters of Genesis need not
greatly concern us. In its own proper sphere, and
as regards its teaching concerning man's moral
and spiritual nature, Holy Scripture remains as
authoritative as ever. We can read it with our
eyes open to all the wonderful truths that modern
discoveries in the region of the physical sciences
can teach us, but with hearts as quick as ever to
respond to the yet more wonderful truths which
* Bishop Gore in Lux Mundi, p. 534.
t Ibid., p. 535.

28 Messages from the Old Testament
God Himself has here revealed to us. There
stand out from the narrative of the Fall in the
third chapter of Genesis these two great lessons,
which are as fresh to-day as they were on the
day on which they were first written : (i) That
sin, and all that sin brings with it of misery and
death, came not of man's nature, but of his dis
obedience to God, and rejection of the limitations
under which He placed him, under the stress of
external temptation ; and (2) that, in spite of all
that sin has brought about, God has not left man
to himself, but that through it all there shines a
star of hope and a sure promise of future victory.
The serpent may indeed ' bruise the heel ' of the
seed of the woman, but in the end the woman's
seed shall 'bruise the serpent's head.'

IV
The Lesson of Massah and Meribali
Exod. xvii. 7 ¦. ' He called the name of the place Massah,
and Meribah, because of the striving of the children of Israel,
and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord
among us, or not ?'
Few incidents during the wanderings in the
wilderness made a deeper impression upon the
Jews than the striking of the rock by Moses, and
the supply of water from it which followed, if, at
least, we may judge from the number of references
to it in their national literature. It was a signal
manifestation of God's power, and of that love
which was able and willing to supply all their
needs, and as such it is alluded to again and again
in the Psalms. The Psalmist delights to describe
how God ' clave the hard rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them drink thereof, as it had been out
of the great depth. He brought waters out of
the stony rock, so that it gushed out like the
rivers.'* He sings how He 'opened the reck of
stone, and the waters flowed out, so that rivers
ran in the dry places ';t and he speaks with
* Ps. lxxviii. 16, 17. t Ibid., cv. 40.
29

30 Messages from the Old Testament
reverent awe of the God who 'turned the hard
rock into a standing water, and the flint-stone into
a springing well.'* In later ages also the Jews
were never tired of dwelling on the story, and a
rich growth of legend and tradition (for which
there is no foundation in the sacred narrative)
sprang up and flourished about it. And as it was
so signal an exanapjeof God's power to satisfy
thirsty souls under mosn^TpT^surnsing circumstances,
it is no wonder that men haveloved to dwell on
it as a type of His willingness and power to satisfy
the spiritual cravings of mankind with the water
of life; just as St. Paul takes it fo> his Epistle,
where he reminds the Corinthians th/Lt the Jews
'all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank
of that spiritual rock which followed them : and
that rock was Christ. 'f ******
But if, on,, the one hand, the incident thus stood
out brightly as a signal manifestationof GoD'spower
anal love, there was a darker side to it as well, for,
on the other hand, it was a no less striking and
mournful example of the faithlessness and unbelief
of God's people, and as such also it made a deep
impression. So in that psalm which the Christian
Church has taken for daily use in her morning
service there is a reference which the English
reader is apt to miss, for when in the Venite the
appeal is made, ' To-day if ye will hear His voice,
harden not your hearts ; as in the provocation, and
as in the day of temptation in the wilderness ;
when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and
saw My works,' J there is in the original a
* Ps. cxiv. 8. t l Cor, x. 4. + Ps. xcv. 8,

Lesson of Massah and Meribah 31
definite and clear allusion to that which happened
'at Meribah, in the day of Massah'; and these
names, which were given to the spot in com
memoration of the incident, stood forth to all time
as a memorial of Israel's ingratitude, for Meribah
means strife and Massah temptation. ' He called
the- name of the place Massah and Meribah,
because of the striving of the children of Israel,
and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is
the Lord among us, or not?' It was indeed a
tempting of God. After so many manifestations
of His power and goodness towards them they
were still unable to trust Him for an instant.
Think of all that had happened during the last
few months, and of all the manifold proofs they
had received that He was among them. The
signs wrought in Egypt, and His wonders in the
field of Zoan ; the passage of the Red Sea, and the
destruction of their foes ; the guidance vouchsafed
to them through the overshadowing cloud by day
and the pillar of fire by night ; the sweetening of
the bitter waters of Marah, and the gracious supply
of their wants when He ' commanded the clouds
above, and opened the doors of heaven'; when
He 'rained down manna also upon them for to
eat, and gave them food from heaven.'* And yet
in spite of all this at the first difficulty, when they
had pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water
for the people to drink, they rounded on their
leader, and were ready to stone him, complaining
that he had brought them up out of Egypt to kill
them. It was, as Moses himself said, a rejection,
* Ps. lxxviii. 24, 25.

32 Messages from the Old Testament
not of him, but of God, whose minister he was,
a ' tempting God,' to use the expressive phrase of
Scripture — a phrase, however, which perhaps
needs a word of explanation, since it has shifted
its meaning. In modern parlance to ' tempt ' is
commonly used in the sense of enticing a person
in order that he may act in a particular way,
whereas the Scriptural idea of ' tempting ' is fre
quently somewhat different from this, as when it
is said that ' God did tempt Abraham,'* or, here,
that the people ' tempted God.'
In such passages the word means to prove a
person, whether he will act in a certain way, or
whether the character which he bears is well
established. So when it is said that God did
' tempt Abraham,' it means that God put him to
the test to prove if his fidelity and affection were
sincere ; and when Israel is said to have ' tempted
Jehovah,' it means that they acted as if doubting
whether His promise was true, or whether He
was really faithful to the character in which He
had so often revealed Himself as a present God,
able and ready to supply their every need. ' They
tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us,
or not?' It indicated on their part a temper of
distrust, a readiness to fall into a panic, to doubt
God, and so to forsake Him at the first difficulty ;
and for this it is that it is so often alluded to in
the subsequent history as a warning and example
to all time. It marked the temper which looks
for God in the fire, the storm, and the earthquake,
but which cannot recognise Him in the still small
* Gen. xxii. i.

Lesson of Massah and Meribah 33
voice; the temper which cannot be content without
striking and exceptional manifestations of His
Presence ; the temper which our Lord met with
the rebuke, ' Except ye see signs and wonders, ye
will not believe ';* a temper which is always ready
to doubt and disbelieve unless God is disclosing
Himself in a startling way, in something that
is, as we say, out of the common. 'They tempted
the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not ?'
Can we say that we of to-day have no need to
lay to heart the warning which is writ so large on
the face of the story, and that the temper which
I have just described as shown by Israel has no
counterpart among us now ? The doubt which
Israel felt of God's power and presence, because
of an unexpected difficulty and a new problem,
seems to me typical of that timid, faithless attitude
which comes over so many when the advance of
knowledge and discovery raises some difficulty
with regard to the Christian faith. Take, for
instance, the attitude which many persons adopted
when, more than forty years ago, the publication of
Charles Darwin's Origin oj Species revolutionised
the thoughts of scientific men. The -dread and
horror with which many persons regarded the
theory of evolution and development there advo
cated, based though it was on most patient
investigations, and a marvellous collection of
minute and significant facts, disclosed just this
temper of mind. Men were afraid that the
acknowledgment of Darwin's conclusion would
eliminate God from His creation. They fancied
* John iv. 48.

34 Messages from the Old Testament
that unless what is called special creation was
maintained belief in God Himself must be shaken;
and they assailed the author of the work in ques
tion as if he must be an atheist, in spite of that
fine paragraph at the end of the volume — a passage
which the writer never altered — which distinctly
recognised a Creator as having, on Darwin's view,
breathed life originally into one or a few forms at
first.* ' Is the Lord among us, or not ?' men asked, as
if His presence depended on His having manifested
Himself in one particular way. The attitude of
panic has passed away now with regard to this
particular controversy, and men can face Darwin's
conclusions without the slightest fear that the
Christian faith will be shaken by their acceptance.
But in a more recent controversy as to the com
position, authorship, and meaning of the Old
Testament, exactly the same timid and faithless
attitude has been manifested, as if the Christian
faith was bound up with a particular interpretation
of the Old Testament, and must go by the board
if conclusions adverse to that interpretation, how
ever overwhelming the evidence for them, be
accepted. God in this latter day is speaking
through historical criticism to those who have ears
* ' There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several
powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a
few forms or into one ; and that, whilst this planet has gone
cycling on according fo the fixed law of gravity, from so simple
a beginning endless forms, most beautiful and most wonderful,
have been and are being evolved ' (The Origin of Species, con
cluding paragraph).

Lesson of Massah and Meribah 35
to hear in tones as distinct as ever He spoke to
Israel of old ; but men will not recognise His
voice, because He tells them that He has not
always manifested Himself in ways which they
imagine, in the fire or the earthquake, the signs
and wonders for which they have been accustomed
to look. 'Is the Lord among us, or not?' they are
asking to-day, as Israel asked of old, and so the
Psalmist's warning appeal rings in our ears with
an ever new and deeper meaning. ' To-day, O
that ye would hear His voice ! Harden not your
hearts, as at Meribah, in the day of Massah.' Let
Israel's faithlessness and incapacity to trust Him
be a warning to us of these later generations.
Let us be true to all the truth which God may
show us, however hard it may be at first to
harmonise it with our previous conceptions. God
cannot contradict Himself. In the end the new
will be found to be in accord with the old, and the
noble words with which our greatest Christian
hymn of praise closes will once more justify them
selves, as they have so often clone already in the
history of the Church. ' In Thee, O Lord, have
I trusted : I shall not be confounded eternally.'

V
Our Lord as the Prophet
Deut. xviii. 15: 'The Lord thy God will raise up unto
thee a Prophet -from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like
unto me ; unto Him ye shall hearken.'
There is no doubt that these words, which have
come down to us as one of the last utterances of
Moses, did more than almost any others to create
and keep alive that expectation of some great
prophet to come, sometimes identified with
Messiah, sometimes distinguished from Him,
which we discover to have existed among the
Jews generally at the time of our Lord's earthly
ministry. The words were familiar to every Jew
from his childhood, and through all the changes-
and vicissitudes of his national history, through
those long years, when vision and prophecy alike
had ceased, there they stood as the great
promise of God, of the ultimate fulfilment of
which no Jew who believed in the faithfulness of
his God could have a shadow of doubt. And
thus when a new teacher arose the question was
at once asked, with anxious interest, Could this be
the prophet whose coming Moses had announced,
36

Our Lord as the Prophet 37
and whom the devout-minded among the people,
those who, like Simeon and Hannah, were waiting
for the consolation of Israel, were eagerly expect
ing ? So we read when the nation was stirred to
its depths by the preaching of John the Baptist
the Jews sent priests and Levites to John, and
they asked him, ' Who art thou ? And he con
fessed and denied not , but confessed, I am not the
Christ. And they asked him, What, then? Art
thou Elijah ? And he saith, I am not. Art thou
the prophet ? And he answered, No. . . . And
they asked him and said, Why baptizest thou then
if thou be not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the
prophet ?'* So also during our Lord's earthly
ministry careful reading of the New Testament
in the more accurate Revised Version makes it
clear that from time to time He was recognised as
' the Prophet '; not merely as a prophet, as if He
had been one of many, or simply one of the old
prophets risen again, but more precisely as ' the
Prophet ' — the Prophet, that is, like unto Moses, of
whom it had been promised long centuries before
that the Lord God would raise Him up. Thus,
after the feeding of the five thousand in the
wilderness, a miracle which naturally recalled to
the minds of the people the way in which Moses
had, by the grace of God, been enabled to feed
still greater multitudes in the desert of Sinai with
bread from heaven, we read, ' When therefore the
people saw the miracle which He did, they said,
This is of a truth the Prophet that cometh into
the world. 'f Again, some months later there was
* John i. 19-25. t Ibid., vi. 14.

38 Messages from the Old Testament
a similar incident. At the Feast of Tabernacles,"
which commemorated the sojourning of the
children of Israel in tents in the wilderness, ' on
the last day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me aud
drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture
hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water.'
The minds of the bystanders were full of the
associations and scenes of the forty years' wan
dering in the desert, and their thoughts would
naturally travel back to that other great miracle
of Moses, when at his bidding rivers of water
flowed from the stony rock, and the thirsting
multitudes drank of it. So at once we find that
some of the multitudes, when they heard these
words, said : ' This is of a truth the Prophet.'*
And yet, once more, when on the occasion of His
triumphal entry into Jerusalem all the city was
stirred, and the air rang with the glad shouts of
' Hosanna !' the question passed from mouth to
mouth, ' Who is this ?' and the answer returned
by the enthusiasm of the multitude was : ' This is
the Prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.'t
It will be seen, then, that the passage taken
as the text is really the primary one for fixing
our conception of the office of Christ as our
Prophet. We are to think of Him as a prophet
like unto Moses; and this is, I think, suggestive,
and may throw some light on the nature of
Christ's prophetic office, and perhaps modify our
conception of it. What, then, does the name of
* John vii. 40. t Matt. xxi. 10, it.

Our Lord as the Prophet 39
prophet suggest to you, and what is your idea of
a prophet ?
To most persons the name suggests the thought
of prediction — of speaking before, of foretelling
the future. The gift of prophecy is widely
imagined to be a power of foreseeing in detail
the course of coming events, which enables men
to write down the history of them before it has
come to pass. This, however, is a comparatively
modern conception, and is not the main thought
which Holy Scripture puts before us in regard to
the prophets of the Old Testament or our Blessed
Lord Himself as pre-eminently the Prophet. 'A
Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto
you like unto me.' The words imply that the
speaker, who (it must always be remembered) is
represented to be Moses, was himself a prophet,
as the one to come was to be like him. But we
can all see that prediction occupies but a very
small place in the life of Moses. True, it is not
entirely absent, but it is not the dominant feature.
He was a prophet, not as a Joreteller, but as a
forth teller, and a speaker Jor God. We instinc
tively think of him as the giver of the law, the
revealer of God Himself, rather than as the man
who announced beforehand the course of history.
Incidentally, indeed, there are in his utterances
announcements of the future ; but how do they
come in ? Not so much because he had Joresight
of the incidents and details which were afterwards
to be written down in the pages of history, but
rather because he had such clear and swift insight
into the mind of God, and could, therefore, unveil

40 Messages from the Old Testament
the working of the eternal laws of God's dealing
with men, and through this insight could anticipate
with unerring certainty that, given certain con
ditions on the part of man, certain results were
sure to follow. He could thus warn and threaten
on the one hand, and on the other could announce
mercy as well as judgment. He had insight into
the mind of God. Had he not gone up into the
Mount of Sinai, among the lightnings and thunders
and voices, when ' Mount Sinai was altogether on
smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in
fire ' ?* He had heard the voice of the Almighty,
and knew the terrors of His judgment. Yes ; but
had there not also been granted to him that other
vision of God, when, as he cowered in the cleft of
the rock, a voice came from the glory that passed
by, and proclaimed : ' The Lord, the Lord, a
God full of compassion and gracious, slow to
anger, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin.'t And so, because he had
thus been admitted to know the very mind of God,
His infinite compassion, as well as His wrath
against sin, he was able, at the close of his sternest
warnings of future judgment, to add those words
of exquisite tenderness, which have rung in the
ears of God's scattered people from that day to
this : ' Yet for all that I will not cast them away,
neither will T abhor them, to destroy them
altogether, and to break My covenant with them,
for I am the Lord their God,' % a passage which
shines with the glory of the rainbow of mercy
* Exod. xix. 1 8. t Ibid., xxxiv. 6.
I Lev. xxvi. 44.

Our Lord as the Prophet 41
after the storm of judgment, and which, for its
gracious tenderness, the Jews have for centuries
loved to call ' the section of the golden yet.'
' Yet for all that.' Yes ; it was because of this
insight into the Divine counsels that Moses was a
prophet of the Lord God. He could speak for
Him, because He knew His mind, had been
admitted to closest intercourse with Him, 'face
to face as a man speaketh with his friend, '* and
had seen His glory.
And the Prophet whom the Lord raised up
centuries afterwards from among His people, like
unto Moses, does not the same hold good of Him,
only in a far higher way? It is as the revealer
of the will and law of God that Jesus Christ is
our Prophet. The utterances of His which, in the
strict sense of the words, predict the future are
limited in number ; but those in which He shows
us the mind of God are past counting. Here,
again, it is insight rather than Joresight that
marks Him out as Prophet. And if we can say
of Moses that he was admitted to communion
with God, and saw His glory, and that, therefore,
he could proclaim His will, what can we say of
the only-begotten Son, who has existed from all
eternity in the bosom of the Father, who so
shared His throne that He could speak of 'the
glory which I had with Thee before the world
was.'f and who Himself has told us that 'no
man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and
he to whom the Son will reveal Him ' ?| It is this
* Exod. xxxiii. i r. t John xvii. 5.
% Matt. xi. 27.

42 Messages from the Old Testament
which gives to the teaching of Christ its supreme
place in the heart of Christendom, which makes
us bow to His words as the ultimate authority
behind which we can never get. He spoke what
He knew, and testified what He had seen. His
are the words of one whose communion with His
heavenly Father all through His earthly ministry
was so close and unbroken that as we listen to
them we feel sometimes, if we may reverently say
so, that He spoke almost as if He forgot that He
was on earth, so filled was He with the sense of
communion with His Father. ' No man hath
ascended up into heaven save He that came down
from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in
heaven.'* On all that concerns His Divine
mission and work His human soul was so flooded
with a fulness of Divine knowledge that He spoke
with an authority which comes from the union of
two natures in a single personality, and that
personality Divine. Thus we feel that His
teaching for us is final. He is our Master, and to
His words we yield unquestioning assent. They
are true to the end of time ; and the only
questions we can raise with regard to them
concern their meaning and what He intended to
teach us. It is perfectly true that we recognise that
in His infinite love for us and His desire to be in
all things made like unto His brethren, sin only
except, He voluntarily submitted to limitations of
knowledge, and in ordinary matters, outside the
sphere of the special work which He came to do,
willed to be dependent on ordinary sources of
* John iii. 13.

Our Lord as the Prophet 43
information. But the recognition of this in no way
prejudices our sense of His unquestioned authority
on all matters which did concern His work and
His mission. He 'condescended not to know'
in things which concerned them not ; but on those
matters which He came to reveal He spoke what
He knew and testified what He had seen, and
therefore claimed by His own inherent right the
submission of the conscience and will and intellect
of men.
Let us illustrate this from a subject which is
much in our thoughts to-day — the subject of
prayer. We are met together at the bidding of
authority for special supplications for God's
blessing on our forces now unhappily engaged in
war.* It is true that to-day thanksgiving is
mingled with prayer. Our hearts are full of
gratitude for deliverance, for victories, for daunt
less courage and endeavours, but still the dominant
thought is prayer and intercession. And many
persons are asking the question whether prayer
is really of any avail, and can do us any good.
So men are asking to-day, as they have asked
in the past, and probably will go on asking till the
end of time. But for those who take Christ as
their Prophet and Master, who believe that He
reveals the mind of the Father, and can see
things of the unseen world, there is only room for
one answer. Prayer is a power in the world. I
can no more doubt this than I can doubt the fact
* The sermon was preached on the day of intercession on
behalf of His Majesty's naval and military forces in South
Africa during the Boer War in 1900.

44 Messages from the Old Testament
of my own existence. My Master has pledged
Himself to it, and I believe His word. There
may be difficulties and perplexities, puzzling
problems which we cannot solve, and fools may
ask questions which wise men cannot answer, but
if the authority of Christ's word is to have
weight, of the fact itself there can be no doubt.
' Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall
find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.'*
'All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe
that ye have received them, and ye shall have
them.'t 'If ye, being evil, know how to give
good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask Him. 'J Such passages are
decisive for His disciples ; only, while He teaches
us thus plainly that God does hear prayer, let us
never forget how much of His teaching is con
cerned with enforcing the much-needed lesson of
what prayer really is. Men doubt as to the
efficacy of prayer, because they imagine it to be
a mere form or charm. Our Lord teaches us that
it is real hard work. It is not the thoughtless
utterance of a formula, or the hasty repetition
of a Pater Noster. It is not a mere traditional
habit in which the mind ' dreams its way through
a dialect of dead words, and floats on the current
of a stereotyped phraseology.' Nay, it is the
urgent entreaty of the soul that will not be denied.
It is like the ceaseless cry of the importunate
widow, or the persistent knocking of the man
* Matt. vii. 7. f Mark xi. 24.
% Luke xi. 13.

Our Lord as the Prophet 45
who stands outside the door in the cold and rain
at midnight, determined to get what he wants
from those within ; and before you dare question
the efficacy of prayer, or set it down as useless, it
would be well if you were to ask yourself zvhether
you have ever prayed at all. And so with this
day of intercession of ours, that is now drawing
to a close, let us, ere it passes, gather up into one
the desires and petitions which we have been
offering up, and with all the energy of an intense
faith, and pleading Christ's promises as living
realities, say with the patriarch of old, ' I will not
let Thee go, except Thou bless me.'* So shall
this day prove fruitful of blessing to all those
- — the living, the dying, and the departed — whom
we commend into the hands of our God, as our
Creator and most merciful Saviour.
* Gen. xxxii. 26.

VI
The Miracles of the Old Testament
Ps. xliv. 3, 4 : ' They gat not the land in possession through
their own sword : neither was it their own arm that helped
them. But Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of
Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them.'
The book which bears the name of Joshua stands
first among what we call the historical books of
the Old Testament, and taking up the thread of
history where it is dropped in • the Pentateuch
at the death of Moses, describes the conquest
of the land of promise, and its partition among
the twelve tribes. Across the whole book there
seems to be written this great lesson : ' Not
by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.'
' They gat not the land in possession through
their own sword : neither was it their own arm
that helped them. But Thy right hand, and
Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance,
because Thou hadst a favour unto them.' Nowhere
else do we see with greater clearness man's
absolute dependence upon Divine assistance, and
the way in which by Divine grace the weak are
made strong. 4<5

Miracles of the Old Testament 47
Jordan is dried up before the armies of Israel.
The walls of Jericho fall before them, and the city
is taken without a blow. The sin of Achan leads
to defeat and disaster, and must be atoned for
before the tide of conquest can again set in. But
once more God fights for His people; by His
power their foes are discomfited in two pitched
battles, and Israel is firmly planted in the land of
promise. We can all see the great lesson written
clearly upon the face of the book, and nowhere
else is it more impressively stated. But there is
one thing which certainly puzzles and staggers
some persons when they read it. It is the wealth
of miracle which is related, not here only, but in
other parts of the Old Testament also. There
are many who find it hard to accept the accounts
given of God's miraculous interposition for His
people at the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, and
on other occasions. Did these things really
happen ? they ask. Did God in very truth thus
manifest Himself on earth ? Now, the question is
one which ought to be fairly faced, and which it is
not wise to shirk. In the course of a single
sermon I cannot do much with it. But there are
some considerations, which I should like to put
before you, which personally I have found to be
helpful, and which possibly may throw fresh light
on the matter for some. In considering what I am
about to say, however, I would ask you to leave
out of your thoughts the narrative of the tenth
chapter, with Joshua's command to the sun to
stand still on Gibeon, and the moon in the valley
pf Ajalon. That narrative seems to me to require

48 Messages from the Old Testament
separate treatment, and must be made the subject
of a separate discourse. Broadly, then, it ought
to be granted by all that to one who believes in a
personal God miracles are possible. So much is
shown with great clearness, among others, by John
Stuart Mill.* Whether they are probable is
another matter. But at least those who believe in
a personal God (and unless a man believes in one
it is of no use arguing about miracles with him)
have no right to dismiss them as intrinsically
incredible, and so manifestly false as to discredit
the narrative in which they occur. Nor are we
justified in cavilling at any supposed interference
with, or infraction of, natural laws. There is not
necessarily any more ' interference ' than there is
in those numerous cases in everyday life in which
the action of a higher law comes in and modifies the
result of the lower. When you hurl a stone into
space or rig up a force-pump, the laws of Nature
are not suspended or interfered with ; but a new
force is introduced, and the results of the natural
laws are controlled. These laws still act and
produce their full effects, but a new power has
supervened, and the final result represents the
combined effect of the two forces. So it is with
miracles. But having said this in order to remove
objections that may arise, let us remember also that,
so far as we can trace God's dealings with men,
He never compels belief. Having created man
free, God always respects the freedom wherewith
He has endowed him. He does not coerce him
* Three Essays on Religion : Theism.

Miracles of the Old Testament

49

into acceptance of the truth. As a matter of fact,
the miracles of which we read in the Old Testa
ment did not compel the surrounding nations to
accept Israel's God, by whom they were wrought.
Men were somehow able to shut their eyes to the
evidence of a present God, guiding and controlling
the affairs of men ; in Scriptural phrase, they
' hardened their hearts.' This is, it seems to me,
a very material consideration for us. It suggests
that there must be something wrong in the crude
way in which we sometimes represent the scene to
ourselves. We are apt, in picturing the Biblical
scenes to our minds, to forget altogether the true
character of the Biblical history. Not only do we
lose sight of the profound conviction which the
Jew felt in the reality of God's presence in the
world, and his intense realisation that everything
natural was His work, so that, leaving out all
mention of secondary causes, he could attribute it
all to God, but we also ignore the way in which
the Hebrews thought in figurative and symbolic
language, their graphic and pictorial way of
describing things, such as you find among
untutored races in the present day. We fail
to make allowance for the Oriental breadth of
style and conception which leads to statements
which, though perfectly well understood by an
Eastern, yet if found in a Western writer, ac
customed to precision and mathematical exact
ness could only be termed the grossest exaggera
tion. And so failing, we take the narrative in the
baldest and most literal fashion, and represent
the scene to ourselves as something so startling, 4

50 Messages from the Old Testament
so impressive, so contrary to Nature, that it
seems as if it must perforce have convinced, even
against his will, anyone who witnessed it of
God's personal intervention on behalf of His
people. Now, here, it seems to me, we are quite wrong.
In every case there must have been some way
out of it for those who did not wish to be
lieve. They must have been able to represent
the matter to themselves either as accident, or
as — I say not the result of some natural law,
for there was little conception of natural laws
in those early days — but a familar process. In
the case of many of the Old Testament miracles
modern research enables us to understand better
than our fathers could how this may have been.
Take the ten plagues of Egypt as an example.
We are told on good authority that each of
these inflictions has a demonstrable connection
with Egyptian customs and phenomena, and that
they were all marvellous, not as reversing, but
as developing, forces inherent in Nature, and
directing them to a special end. The first of
them, for instance — the Nile being turned into
blood. It is well known that before the annual
rise of the river its water is green and unfit
to drink; but towards the end of June it be
comes clear, and then yellow and reddish, the
depth of the colour varying in different years,
and this being due to natural causes ; and
when the colour is very deep the water has
an offensive smell, and travellers say that the
broad turbid tide has a striking resemblance

Miracles of the Old Testament 51
to a river of blood.* Thus it seems probable
that the miracle was really an intensification of
a natural phenomenon ; and that while, follow
ing as it did upon the word of Moses, the oc
currence might well strike Pharaoh with amaze
ment and dismay, and appear as the direct act of
God, yet it would not compel belief or work com
plete conviction. On second thoughts Pharaoh
might easily harden his heart, and persuade himself
that, after all, it was but an accident. So we might
go through the rest of the plagues, and we should
find that something of the same kind holds good
in each case.
Or, take the passage of the Red Sea. Those
who are responsible for the representations
of the scene in Bible picture-books have some
times taken literally the picturesque phrase of
the narrator that ' the waters were a wall unto
them on their right hand and on their left,'f and
have painted the billows as piled up on either
hand like a literal wall built by the hand of
masons, in such a way that — had such really been
the case — it is impossible to imagine that the
Egyptians could have failed to see the direct
action of Almighty God Himself; and surely in
this case they would never have ventured to
pursue after Israel any further. Rather, they
would have argued that if their God can do this
for them it is idle to endeavour to stop them.
Such a manifest interference on behalf of Israel
would have compelled a sullen acceptance of the
* See the Speaker s Commentary on Exod. vii. 17.
t Exod. xiv. 22.
4—2

52 Messages from the Old Testament
power of Jehovah, and a belief in the hopelessness
of contending against Him. But read the
narrative carefully and you will see that, though
the deliverance is rightly attributed absolutely to
the intervention of God Himself, the agency of
secondary and natural causes is distinctly stated.
The Lord • caused the sea to go back by a strong
east wind all that night, and made the sea dry
land, and the waters were divided.'* Travellers
and archaeologists who have made a special study
of the locality and conditions are unanimous in
telling how this could actually have happened
where the passage of the Red Sea is supposed to
have taken place, and they tell us also that a
sudden cessation of the wind at sunrise, coinciding
with a spring tide (and remember it was full moon),
would immediately convert the low, flat sand
banks, first into a quicksand and then into a mass
of waters, in a time far less than would suffice for
the escape of a single chariot or horseman. Yes ;
and is not this exactly what we read : ' And
Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and
the sea returned to his strength when the morning
appeared ; and the Egyptians fled against it ; and
the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of
the sea. And the waters returned, and covered
the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of
Pharaoh that came into the sea after them ; there
remained not so much as one of them.'f I might
add other illustrations also, but these are perhaps
sufficient. * Exod. xiv. 21. f Ibid., 27, 28.

Miracles of the Old Testament 53
But now, what is the outcome of all this? Is
it to deny miracle ? Most certainly not. It is
only to get rid of our old crude ideas about
the scene and God's method of intervention, but
not for one moment to deny the intervention of
the persona] God. It was ' the Lord's doing ;
and it is marvellous in our eyes.'* But in this
way we may perhaps remove the sense of
unreality which sometimes haunts the reader of
the Old Testament, for he learns to see that the
miracle may lie, not in any capricious or arbitrary
interference with the order of Nature, but often in
the coincidence, divinely brought about, between
the word of God, and facts in the natural world,
and God's own law ; so that the natural is, as it
were, lifted up into the domain of the miraculous
by the manner in which it is timed and the ends
it is made to serve, f Those who have eyes to
see can see clearly enough the hand of God ; but
if a man will not see, God will not force him to.
There is always the ' natural ' solution in which he
may take refuge, beyond which he may refuse,
and beyond which it may be impossible to compel
him, to proceed. But for us, who believe in a
personal God, and who know and are sure that
this God has spoken and revealed Himself to us in
His Son, these things are sure tokens and clear
manifestations of His Presence and Power ; and if,
in this way, we learn to read these records of
ancient days with a greater sense of the reality of
the events, we should learn also to read them with
* Ps. cxviii. 23.
t Cf. Trench, On Miracles, chap. ii.

54 Messages from the Old Testament
a firmer grasp and a truer belief in the controlling
power of the God whom we adore. ' So that a
man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the
righteous : doubtless there is a God that judgeth
the earth.'

VII
The Battle of Beth-horon
Josh. x. 12, 13 : ' Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the
day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the
children of Israel, and He said in the sight of Israel, Sun,
stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley
of Aijalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed,
until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies.'
There are few passages in the Old Testament
which have caused more perplexity than this.
In considering the Old Testament miracles in
general, it was said that in all probability they
appeared in a very different character to those
who actually beheld them from that with which
they are invested by popular imagination. We
saw that the miracle lay not in any capricious
or arbitrary interference with the order of Nature,
and that in many cases it consisted not in the
reversal but in the development of forces in
herent in Nature, or in the coincidence, divinely
brought about, between the word of God, on
the one hand, and facts in the natural world,
and God's own law, on the other, so that the
natural was, as it were, lifted up into the domain
of the miraculous by the manner in which it
55

56 Messages from the Old Testament
was timed and the ends it was made to serve.
We saw also that if God does not coerce men
into belief there must have been some way of
representing the miracles as natural or accidental,
in which the unbeliever could take refuge, and
thus escape from the acknowledgment of the
direct interference of an Almighty God on behalf
of His people.
But it may be fairly asked, How can the line of
reasoning thus adopted be made to apply to the
incident recorded in Joshua x. ? There, surely,
the miracle was of such a character that if it was
really the case, as the Jews in later days certainly
imagined, that ' the sun went back, and one day
became as two,'* it is hard to see how there could
have been any possibility of evading the inference
that the Creator and Governor of the universe
had Himself directly intervened and controlled the
action of His own laws imposed upon the universe,
and modified the results of those general laws
which govern the course of Nature, in order that
the victory of Israel on this occasion might be
rendered complete. It was for this reason that
I asked you, in considering miracles generally,
to dismiss this particular incident from your
minds, for I do not honestly think that the line
of reasoning then adopted can fairly be made
to apply to it. It requires special consideration
by itself, and this must be given to it now.
Let me say at the outset that I think that
much of the criticism which the narrative has met
with is altogether beside the mark. We need not
* Ecclus. xlvi. 4.

The Battle of Beth-horon 57
trouble ourselves much about the objection that
since the sun does not move it was a manifest
absurdity to command it to stand still, or with the
criticism that the sudden stoppage of the revolu
tion of the earth upon its axis would have dashed
to pieces all the works of human hands that were
to be found upon its surface, and hurled the earth
itself, with its satellite the moon, out of their
orbit. The former of these objections assumes
that we are tied to a bald literalism in the inter
pretation of Scripture, which no sensible person
is concerned to maintain, for, as Kepler himself
long ago pointed out, all that Joshua can be
supposed to have prayed for was that the moun
tains might not intercept the sun from him.
Joshua's knowledge of the system of the universe
was certainly no better than that generally pos
sessed at that time, but even had it been, had he
been a very Newton, he would have expressed
himself exactly as he did, and made use of popular
language, as we all do to-day when we speak of
the sun rising or setting.
Again, the second objection leaves out of sight
the fact that the omnipotent hand of God, which
not only created the stars, but gave them their
power to revolve with such regularity in their
orbits as long as this universe endures, and which
upholds and governs all things in heaven and on
earth, is not too short to guard against any such
disastrous consequences as those imagined. These
are the shallow objections which did duty some
years ago, but the difficulties which beset thought
ful and reverent minds to-day are of a wholly

58 Messages from the Old Testament
different order from these. We have learnt that
our God is a God of law and order, and there are
those who find it hard to think that such an inter
position on His part is consistent with the character
in which He has revealed Himself to us. It was
an old heathen rule of the drama that the inter
vention of a god was not to be invoked unless
the occasion was worthy of it ; and there are
thoughtful minds which, while fully admitting the
possibility of such a miracle, yet feel a difficulty
in understanding that the occasion was one which
really demanded it. It is not that they question
God's power, but rather that they are unable to
reconcile such action on His part as they think is
here described with the conception of Him which
they have learnt from the New Testament and
from the study of Nature to form. That is the
real difficulty, and, as I have put it, you will, I
think, see that it is a moral one rather than one
which is concerned with physical possibilities and
impossibilities. And now, how are we to deal with it ? Well,
let us make quite sure that our interpretation of
the narrative is the right one, and that we are not
reading into it a great deal that is not really
there. If you look carefully at the chapter, you
will see that, while it is clearly stated all through
that the Lord was on the side of Israel, and the hail
storm which so signally discomfited the Amorites
is traced, and rightly traced, to His action, yet all
reference to the particular miracle of prolonging
the day is confined to exactly three verses (12, 13,
14), and that in the sequel, after the account of the

The Battle of Beth-horon

59

flight and pursuit and capture of the five kings,
the going down of the sun at the close of that
memorable day is alluded to as naturally and
simply as possible, and not as if there was any
thing extraordinary or exceptional about it. ' And
it came to pass at the time of the going down of
the sun that Joshua commanded, and they took
down the bodies of the kings off the trees, and
cast them into the cave where they had hidden
themselves.' Further, you will notice that in verse 13 the
author of the Book of Joshua gives us his authority
for the statement he has made about the sun
standing still, and actually tells us the name of
the document from which he is quoting. ' Is it
not written in the Book of Jasher ?' This same
Book of Jasher is referred to again in 2 Sam. i. as
the source from which the writer of the Book of
Samuel extracted David's lament over Saul and
Jonathan ; and though the book itself is no longer
forthcoming, it seems almost certain that it must
have been an early collection of national songs,
containing poems in praise of heroic deeds, the
name, ' the Book of Jasher,' perhaps signifying
the book of the heroes. At any rate, there is no
question whatever that the passage before us, like
the elegy on Saul and Jonathan, is an extract, not
from a prose narrative or history, but from a
poem. It is marked by the use of exceptional
and poetical words, as well as by the ' parallelism
of members ' — that is, the balance of words and
thought rhythm — which constitutes the dominant
and essential feature of Hebrew poetry.

60 Messages from the Old Testament
All this has been lost sight of by most readers
of the Bible. But when once it is grasped very
important consequences follow as to the manner
in which the words are to be understood. The
poetry of the Bible, like all other poetry, must be
interpreted as poetry, and not as exact and literal
description. In other cases we are quite ready to
read poetry as poetry, and not to impute to it the
exactness and precision of scientific prose. Look
at the song of Deborah in Judges v., for instance:
' The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.'
Nobody dreams of interpreting this literally, or of
imagining an astronomical miracle there. We
can all see that what is meant is (as we ourselves
might well phrase it) that the very elements
themselves seemed to be ranged on the side of
Israel. Or when David says in the eighteenth
Psalm, ' He bowed the heavens also and came
down. . . . He sent from on high, and took me ;
He drew me out of many waters,' we do not
even pause to ask in what sense we are to under
stand his words. We instinctively remember that
we are reading a psalm, and make the requisite
allowance for the imaginative and impassioned
tone of his language. We do not for an instant
suppose that God stretched a physical arm through
a physical heaven, and plucked David out of a
boiling flood, in which he was in imminent danger
of being drowned. Nor do we for an instant
deny either that David prayed to God from the
depth of some great trouble, or that he received,
and knew that he received, an answer to his
prayer. We at once understand that in answer

The Battle of Beth-horon 61
to his cry for help God delivered His servant from
a peril as dreadful and overwhelming as a flood,
by an act of grace as marvellous as though He
had stretched down a hand out of heaven.* And
similarly with the passage before us. Only realise
that it is an extract from an ancient poetical
account of the battle, and you will no longer be
troubled with the idea that its words are to be
taken au pied de la lettre. Read the whole
account, the prose setting as well as the poetical
extract, and you will see that, though the victory
rested with Israel, there was a moment when it
seemed as if the fruits of victory might be snatched
from them by the flight of the foe. This would
surely happen if, under cover of the approach of
nigh', the fugitives should be suffered to escape.
What Joshua, then, earnestly desired was that the
victory might be rendered complete ere night fell.
And cannot we understand that, just as when an
Apostle charges us, ' Let not the sun go down
upon your wrath, 'f he is not contemplating any
miraculous extension of the day, but only pleading
for a speedy cessation of human passion through
the work of grace in the heart, so if Joshua prayed
that the sun might not go down upon an incom
plete victory, his prayer would really mean nothing
more than this, that God would so hasten His
work and nerve the arm of Israel that the dis
comfiture of the foe might be made absolute, and
* Cf. S. Cox in the Expositor, vol. i., ist series, 'Joshua
commanding the Sun and the Moon to stand still,' an article
to which this sermon is greatly indebted.
t Eph. iv. 26.

62 Messages from the Old Testament
the work of two days, as it were, crowded into
one, and yet, in the highly figurative language of
Eastern poetry, this might well be represented as
it was in the Book of Jasher ?
' Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ;
And thou, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.'
And when the prayer was heard, and the work
accomplished, it must have seemed indeed as if
' The sun stood still, and the moon stayed,
Until the nation had avenged themselves upon their enemies.'
Thus it appears to me that in these verses we
are not intended to understand any special miracle
beyond that which is involved in what we find all
through the Book of Joshua — viz., that the Lord
fought for Israel ; or, as the psalmist puts it,
' They gat not the land in possession through
their own sword, neither was it their own arm
that helped them ; but Thy right hand, and Thine
arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because
Thou hadst a favour unto them.' There is, then,
nothing in this chapter that need cause any special
perplexity, as if there was something inconsistent
with the character of God. And is it not some
confirmation of the interpretation I have advocated
that nowhere else in the whole range of the
canonical books of the Bible is there any allusion
whatever to any miraculous prolongation of the
day on this occasion ? There is such an allusion
in the Apocrypha,* which shows us that the Jews
in later days regarded it as a miracle; but though
references to the wonders of the Exodus and the'
* Ecclus. xlvi. 4.

The Battle of Beth-horon 63
passage of the Red Sea and the Jordan are
numerous, there is in the canonical books a
significant silence with regard to this particular
incident. Even where we might reasonably have
looked for a reference to it we look in vain. On
the ordinary interpretation, which regards it as a
miraculous prolongation of the day at the prayer
of Joshua, it was certainly one of the most
stupendous triumphs of faith imaginable ; and yet,
in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where the
writer sums up the great deeds of the heroes of
Hebrew history, and ascribes them all to faith, it
is not this victory, but the capture of Jericho, that
is selected as the special example of the power of
faith in that generation, nor will you find a single
reference to the narrative elsewhere.
And now to conclude. If you have followed
me so far, does not the line of interpretation which
I have endeavoured to set before you in these two
discourses make the Old Testament history seem,
not only more natural, but more real to you ?
We are no longer haunted by a sense of unreality,
and the characters no longer appear as puppets
pulled by strings, but as real living men and
women. The gain in this way is immense. But
do not let us stop here, or rest content with this
thought alone, but follow it up by another, which
concerns us yet more closely. This way of read
ing the Old Testament may and ought to suggest
to us a way of reading the facts of present-day
history also, which should greatly affect our lives,
and bring God nearer to us than He has ever
been before. The devout Israelite, outwardly (as

64 Messages from the Old Testament
we now know) so much like others, with the same
sort of things happening to him as happened to
them, sometimes victorious, sometimes unsuccess
ful, knew that he possessed the key to the meaning
of things, which was not granted to others. He
could see the hand of God everywhere, could
belive that there was a personal will behind all
phenomena, shaping, controlling, directing ; and
when he wrote down the account of his people's
experiences, he boldly traced them all to the
action of God Himself, and reckoned but little of
the secondary causes through which He worked.
The Christian, with the fuller light of the Gospel,
is, alas ! apt to imagine that, though formerly God
manifested Himself in the world and wrought
great wonders for His people, yet, since the
Ascension and the days of the Apostles, He has
left the world to get on as best it can by itself.
It is this un-Christian view of history that the
new reading of the Old Testament may help us to
banish. See in all things, now as then, the hand
of Him without whom not a sparrow faileth to
the ground. Consider Him, not as an absentee
God, or sitting apart in a remote position of
general superintendence, but as present with all
that is, and holding sovereign sway over all things
now as in the days when psalmist and prophet
wrote. Learn to see Him everywhere, in history
as well as Nature, and trace even the commonest
and most ordinary events to His providence and
governance, as Israel did, and then I do not think
that the question of Old Testament miracles will
disturb you much ; and surely to those who believe

The Battle of Beth-horon 65
the promise, ' Lo, I am with you alway,'* it ought
not to be difficult to do this. Only let the Christian
Church, the inheritor of the promises, learn boldly
to take up the very same position to-day that
Israel took of old, and the result will be a gain
that will far more than counterbalance any loss
that has come to us through the shock of recon
structing traditional ideas, for it will bring back
God into the world, and bring Him closer than
ever into our daily lives.
* Matt, xxviii. 20.

VIII
The Book of Judges
Judg. v. 24 : ' Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of
Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the
tent.' The moral difficulties of the Book of Judges
culminate in this verse out of the fifth chapter.
Perplexing passages are not wanting elsewhere in
the book. The treachery by which Ehud gains
access to Eglon and slays him is a stumbling-
block to some. Jephthah's fulfilment of his rash
vow and sacrifice of his daughter, the low moral
tone of Samson, and the way in which he fooled
away God's great gift — all these seem hard to
explain ; but nowhere else "is the difficulty so
keenly felt as in the case of the murder of Sisera
by Jael, and the commendation bestowed upon it
by the prophetess Deborah. It is not merely that
the act is related as a simple piece of history, as is
many another murder in Holy Scripture, but it is
that the author of the book appears to regard it
as an heroic act, and that it is actually held up
to admiration by a prophetess in that grand song
of praise which Deborah and Barak sang to the
66

The Book of Judges 6j
Lord in the day of Israel's triumph : ' Blessed
above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the
Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in
the tent.' It is surely a miserable evasion to say
that no commendation is here intended, but that
Deborah simply stated as a fact that the wives of
the nomad Arabs would undoubtedly regard Jael
as a public benefactress, and praise her as a
popular heroine. Such an explanation of Deborah's
words has been attempted,* but it is wholly
inadequate. Common-sense revolts against it, for
no one who reads her song without prejudice can
doubt that Deborah herself regarded Jael as a
heroine, and meant to invoke a benediction upon
her for her deed. What, then, are we to say of
this ? Does the commendation by the prophetess
compel us to justify the act? and if not, can we con
tinue to regard the book in which it is recorded as a
Divine one ? Questions such as these can hardly
fail to arise in our minds, and perplex thoughtful
persons as they hear this chapter read in the order
of our service. And first, with regard to the act
itself, let us try to avoid exaggeration on either
side. Nothing is gained by using strong language
about it, calling it dastardly treachery, and piling
up words to express indignation at it ; and, on the
other hand, it seems to put a strain upon our
moral sense if we attempt to defend it as an
altogether praiseworthy act, due to an overpower
ing patriotic impulse which could override the
ordinary instincts of humanity and hospitality.
* See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, art. 'Jael,' vol. i.,
part ii., p. 1505.
5—2

68 Messages from the Old Testament
There are ugly features in it which no overpowering
impulse of patriotism can entirely excuse. But
even admitting that neither the act itself nor
Deborah's commendation of it can be really
justified by us, I do not think that either need
surprise us, or make us doubt the Divine character
of the Old Testament as a portion of the re
vealed Word of God. Only realise the true
position of the Old Testament, and very much of
the difficulty felt — not only about this, but about
other acts of the Judges also — will disappear from
view. How, then, are we to regard the Old Testa
ment? Broadly speaking, there are three con
ceivable views that may be taken of it. It may
be regarded (i) as contrary to the New; (2) as on
a level with it ; or (3) as preparatory, while yet
inferior, to it. In the earliest days of the Church
the first of these three positions was tolerably
widely held. Many among the so-called Gnostic
heretics took up a position of more or less decided
hostility to the Old Testament. Some among
them regarded the Creator of the world, the God
of the Jews revealed in the Old Testament, as a
subordinate being, from the defects of whose work
Christ was sent by the supreme God to redeem
mankind. Others went further, and not only
maintained that Creation was the work of a being
hostile to the true God, but actually glorified Cain,
Esau, Korah, and others who are described in the
Old Testament as disobedient to God. These
men they regarded as their saints and heroes ; and
naturally they rejected the teaching of the Old

The Book of Judges 69
Testament altogether, and asserted that it was
directly contrary to the New. For a Christian
who accepts the New Testament such a position
is wholly impossible. Our Lord's utterances with
regard to the Old Testament show very plainly
that He at least regarded it as a Divine book.
To it He constantly makes His appeal. He came
'not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to
fulfil them.''"* ' The Scriptures ' of the Old Testa
ment, He tells us, 'cannot be broken. 'f Moses
and the prophets are His standard authorities,
which testify of Him, whose Scriptures must be
fulfilled. So in the Acts of the Apostles those
who search the Scriptures are commended.'}; And
St. Paul, writing before ever there was a collection
of books of the New Testament, and so referring
only to the Old, says directly that 'all Scripture,
Goo-inspired as it is, is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous
ness'^ and thus no one who admits the authority
of our Lord and His Apostles, or accepts the
New Testament as a whole, can possibly feel any
hesitation in regarding- the Old Testament as an
inspired work, an integral part of God's revelation
of Himself to man.
So much for the first position : the Old Testa
ment is not contrary to the New. That it is on a
level with it has been the opinion maintained by
many from the days ofthe Puritans ofthe sixteenth
century onwards. So far were the Puritans from
regarding it as in any way inferior to the New
* Matt. v. 17. t John x. 35.
X Acts xvii. 11. § 2 Tim. iii: 16.

yo Messages from the Old Testament
that they were for ever regulating their conduct
by it. The actions of those who lived in the dim
twilight of a preparatory dispensation were taken
by them as models for those who enjoyed the
light of the Gospel, and deeds such as those of
Ehud and Jael were held to warrant the com
mission of similar deeds on the part of Christians.
John Balfour of Burley could justify the assassina
tion of Archbishop Sharp in cold blood by his
appeals to the Book of Judges, and by the action
of Samuel in hewing Agag in pieces. He and
others like him regarded themselves as God's
chosen people, and, branding all who did not see
eye to eye with them in religious matters as
idolaters who would bow down to the golden calf
at Bethel, imagined that they themselves had
received a Divine commission to extirpate such
heathen, like the Jews of old, and that they were
under a similar charge to show no quarter. Thus
the historian of the insurrection of the Covenanters,
which the genius of Scott has immortalized in
Old Mortality, seriously tells us of the grief of
one of their leaders when on one occasion some of
his followers had let go five of their captives,
' after that the Lord had delivered them into their
hands, that they might dash them against the
stones '; and he adds that the said leader 'reckoned
the sparing of these enemies, and letting them go,
among their first steppings aside, for which he
feared the Lord would not honour them or do
much more for him.'*
* See the quotation from A True and Impartial Accou?it of
the Persecuted Presbyterians, etc., in the notes to Old Mortality,
chap. ix.

The Book of Judges yi
This view, however, equally with the former
one, is opposed to the plain teaching of our Lord
in the Gospel. There He distinctly draws a
contrast between what was permitted or even
enjoined under the old dispensation, and what is
allowable now. He extends, or modifies, or repeals
provisions of the law : ' Ye have heard that it
hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for
a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not
evil : but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right
cheek, turn to him the other also.'* And when
the Pharisees bring before Him the question of
divorce, and remind Him that the law of Moses
permitted a man to put away his wife, back came
the answer at once, ' For your hardness of heart
he wrote you this commandment. But from the
beginning of the Creation, male and female made
He them. For this cause shall a man leave his
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife ;
and they twain shall be one flesh : so they are no
more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'f
And when the sons of thunder appealed to the
example of Elijah, and asked to be allowed to call
down fire upon the inhospitable Samaritans, as
also Elijah did, He turned at once and rebuked
them. 'Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are
of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy
men's lives, but to save them. 'J
Thus both these views — (i) that the Old Testa
ment is contrary to the New, and (2) that it is to
* Matt. v. 38, 39. t Mark x. 5-9.
t Luke ix. 55, 56.

72 Messages from the Old Testament
be placed on a level with it as in all points a
guide for Christian conduct, are condemned by our
Lord. If either of them be adopted we are
landed in grave moral difficulties. Plainly, the
truth lies somewhere between them ; and if only
men would learn to regard the Old Testament as
our Lord Himself regarded it — viz., as preparatory,
while inferior, to the New — they would soon find
that their difficulties in connection with it would
diminish, if not altogether disappear. The two
classes of passages already quoted show distinctly
that while our Lord regarded it as Divine, and as
preparing for His mission and work, He yet held
that the spirit for Christian men is not that of the
Old Covenant. A higher revelation has taught us
that things cannot now be defended which once,
' for the hardness of men's hearts,' were permitted.
We can surely understand how under a prepara
tory dispensation perfection could not be attained,
and how much that we now see to have been
culpable and faulty could be tolerated for the time
if only there was a Jorward movement going on,
and if men were gradually rising to a higher level.
And it is just this Jorward movement which we can
discern so clearly all through the Old Testament,
and which justifies its claim to be regarded as an
integral part of Holy Scripture ; and the interest
of the Book of Judges is that, in belonging as it
does to a very early period, it takes us back to the
beginning of the nation's life, so that by its help
we can trace its development from its earliest and
rudest stages. On this point let me quote to you
some words from a modern writer on the book,

The Book of Judges 73
which put the matter very clearly before us. 'It
is a picture of a dark age, of the darkest age,
probably, of Hebrew history. It brings before us
in a series of sketches the conditions of life and
thought in a time when the knowledge of God
was dim and the ethical ideas of men were crude.
The Hebrews are the people to whom in later
ages the highest and purest conceptions of religion
and righteousness were given ; but these con
ceptions were the result of a long training and a
severe discipline, and this Book of Judges shows
us what the Hebrews were in the beginning, out
of what kind of stuff the prophets and lawgivers
and psalmists of Israel were developed. It is
very instructive to observe such an evolution ; . . .
and these stories of the Judges are for this purpose
of unspeakable value. The people of that rude
time are permitted to bring before us in their own
way their ideas about God and their conceptions
of human conduct. Upon these pages, with the
utmost simplicity and sincerity, they tell us their
thoughts, they live out their life ; we see them
working, worshipping, scheming, fighting, journey
ing, sojourning — nothing is hidden from us. Their
crudest ideas, their most heathenish beliefs, are
laid bare to our view, and this not by someone
who stands outside and moralises about it from a
higher plane, but by themselves ; for the stories,
though brought together by a later compiler, are
in substance clearly the handiwork of men who
lived when such conceptions were current. Such,
then, were the raw materials of humanity, out of
which were to be constructed the sublimities and

74 Messages from the Old Testament
glories of the Hebrew faith. Men like Gideon,
and Othniel, and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samson,
were to become under the education of the Spirit
such chivalrous heroes as David, such noblemen
as Hezekiah, such clear-sighted moralists as the
authors of the Proverbs, such seers as Isaiah and
Jeremiah and Hosea and Amos, such singers as
those who wrote the Psalms, such spiritual philo
sophers as the author of the Book of Job. A
most precious product of Divine inspiration is this
spiritual faith of Israel ; and here in the Judges we
see the hole of the pit out of which it was
digged.'* Remembering this, we can, I think, understand
both Jael's act and Deborah's praise of it. We
are not called upon to justify either. But when
we take into account the circumstances of the age
and the very imperfect light granted to that
generation we can understand them both. Judged
by the standard of the Gospel they cannot but be
condemned. But to apply to them this standard
is to forget altogether the preparatory and dis
ciplinary character of God's dealings with His
people, and to ignore the teaching of our Lord
with regard to the Old Testament. There was
an element of goodness in Jael's act. Her motive
was good, though our trained moral sense revolts
against the method she adopted for ridding Israel
of its most formidable foe. But if there was this
element of goodness in it, why should we feel
surprise if a prophetess — an inspired prophetess,
if you will — in that wild age, with its crude notions
* Washington Gladden, Seven Puzzling Books, p. 63.

The Book of Judges y^
of right and wrong, should seize upon it, and utter
her benediction over the doer of the deed ? It is
a benediction which could only have been uttered
in such an age, but just where it stands in the
Bible it is perfectly natural. And, after all, say
what you will about this and some other passages
in the book, we may well thank God that it finds
a place within the canon of Holy Scripture, for we
can all find in it even now a stimulus for virtue.
We may well be inspired and stimulated by the
devotion of these heroes and heroines of Israel.
'We need not copy their barbarities. Jesus Christ
has taught us to discriminate between the good
and evil in their conduct, but we can never read
this record without having our courage strength
ened and our patriotism quickened. Gideon's
dauntless deeds, Deborah's flaming speech, Sam
son's sublime self-sacrifice, the unhesitating self-
abnegation of the daughter of Jephthah, all kindle
in our hearts the fire of noble endeavour.'*
And, lastly, remember that stamped upon the
book as a whole there is one most important
lesson, which is as needful to-day as ever it was.
De true to your highest convictions. This is the
lesson which one after another of these narratives
emphasises. Faithfulness to Jehovah brought
welfare and prosperity and peace to Israel, dis
obedience to Him brought bondage and misery.
So long as the Israelites were true to their con
victions and followed the light which was granted
to them, so long ' the land had rest.' It was when
they 'forgat God their Saviour,' and 'did evil in
* Washington Gladden, Seven Puzzling Books, p. 65.

y6 Messages from the Old Testament
the sight of the Lord,' and went after Baal and
Ashtoreth, that He 'sold them into the hands of
their enemies.' And still the law holds good in
regard to our eternal and spiritual welfare, that
when men follow the highest they know it is well
with them ; and when they forsake the highest
they know and go after other gods, it is ill with
them. And are there none among us who are
doing exactly as Israel did ? Seeking gain, prizes,
and pleasures that do not ennoble, but rather
degrade us. These are the idols, the Baals and
Ashtoreths of to-day, and, depend upon it, the
teaching of this old-world book is not yet out of
date. Be true to your highest convictions. Be
faithful to the God who has revealed Himself to
you, even more clearly than He revealed Himself
to Israel, and it shall be well with you. Fidelity
to the highest truth you know is the straight path
to life. That is the lesson of the Book of Judges,
and if we can only lay it to heart we shall not
have studied the book in vain.

IX
Elisha's Gift.*
2 Kings ii. 9, 10 : ' And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a
double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou
hast asked a hard thing : nevertheless, if thou see me when I
am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it
shall not be so.'
Let me say a word at the outset to remove a
possible misconception concerning the character
of Elisha's request. It was not of so ambitious
or extravagant a nature as might at first sight
be supposed. The ' double portion ' which he
requested does not mean twice as much of the
spirit as Elijah had possessed. It denotes some
thing quite different from this, for we see from a
passage in Deuteronomy,! to which the margin of
the Revised Version refers us, that the phrase
was a technical one for the share of a man's
property which the Jewish law assigned to the
eldest son. Lie was to receive a ' double portion '
— i.e., twice as much as any of the younger sons.
And this is what Elisha asked for. His request
was that he might be treated as Elijah's heir and
* An ordination sermon. + Deut. xxi. 17.
77

yS Messages from the Old Testament
successor, and that twice as much of his master's
spirit might be granted to him as to any others
of the sons of the prophets, not twice as much of
the spirit as Elijah himself possessed.
With this explanation of the request, let us
turn to consider the nature of Elijah's reply, and
the test or condition proposed in it.
' Thou hast asked a hard thing : nevertheless,
if thou see me when I am taken from thee, this
shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall not
be so.'
Can we see any special significance in the
condition thus offered ? Or are we to regard it
as something purely arbitrary ? Does it offer any
test of Elisha's power and character which stands
in an intimate connection with the office and gift to
which he aspires ? Or is it something external and
fanciful, dissociated altogether from the position
and capacities of the man to whom it is to be
applied ? A little thought will show us that there
is nothing whimsical or capricious about it, but
that it stands in closest relation to the prophet's
ministry. Elijah would by this sign indicate to
his faithful follower that for the prophet's office
something more is needed besides obedience,
loyalty, and devotion. In these Elisha has been
already tested. These qualities Elijah knows
him to possess. But something more is required,
and there may have lurked in the elder prophet's
mind a doubt whether his follower was dowered
with the one thing needful for the position to
which he aspired.
The prophet's message has to do with the

Elisha's Gift

79

things of the spiritual world, and if his ministry
is to be fruitful he must have the gift of insight,
eyes with the capacity to pierce the veil, and see
clearly the things of that invisible sphere of which
he speaks.
Where this power is wanting, where the man's
vision reaches no further than that of ordinary
men, then, though he may possess zeal, enthu
siasm, earnestness, and devotion, yet he is lack
ing in the one gift which alone can qualify him
for the task he seeks. He is not worthy to wear
the prophet's mantle, and it is not for him to take
up the task which drops from the hands of those
who have gone before. Where, on the other
hand, this power exists, there he can do all things :
he can speak of the things of the spiritual life,
not with the uneasy fear of detection which haunts
the man who is talking of a subject that he has
got up hastily at second hand, and has never
thoroughly mastered, but with the glad confidence
which has in it the ring of genuineness and the
note of truth that are characteristic of one who
speaks what he knows and testifies what he has
seen ; and therefore it is that the test is offered
to ¦ Elisha. ' Thou hast asked a hard thing :
nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken
from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it
shall not be so.'
That was the condition ; and when the time
came, and the elder prophet was swept away in
the blaze of the fiery chariot, and carried up by a
whirlwind into heaven, Elisha saw it. His eyes
were strong enough to bear the sight. They

80 Messages from the Old Testament
could see that which was hidden from others.
They were powerful to penetrate the mysteries
of that heavenly sphere which ' lies about us,' not
only ' in our infancy,' but all the days of our
pilgrimage — so very near, and yet to many so very
far. And when he returned to the sons of the
prophets they recognised in him the worthy
successor of their master who was taken away
from them. They ' came to meet him, and bowed
themselves to the ground before him, and they
said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest upon Elisha.'*
The incident is not without its lessons for the
Church to-day. And for Christian ministers
above all it is full of instruction. You, my
brothers in Christ Jesus, who are coming
forward to-day — it is of no use to disguise the fact
that it is a ' hard thing ' for which you are asking.
It is well that you should realise this now, that
there may be no disappointment hereafter. The
days are past when it was possible to regard the
life of the parish priest as an easy one. It matters
not whether your lot is to be cast in town or
country ; wherever it be, the claims made upon
your time, your powers, your devotion, will become
each year more exacting. Even the world expects
much from us, and looks with contempt, which it
does not care to conceal, upon a lazy, indolent, or
careless priest. And as the demands made upon
our energies become more exhausting, and the
rush of practical work increases, so also the
requirements of learning assume a more pressing
* 2 Kings ii. 15.

Elisha's Gift 81
character. New questions are constantly coming
to the front, new problems arise demanding
patient and thoughtful consideration at our hands.
The newspapers, and magazines, and novels of
the day have popularised religious questions, and
familiarised the world at large with religious
difficulties in a manner undreamed of fifty years
ago. Difficulties and doubts are in the air. Our
faith is perpetually being challenged and called
upon to justify itself to perplexed or hostile
inquirers. Each year it becomes more and more
an absolute necessity for every Christian minister
to be able, at any moment, to give a reason for
the hope that is in him.
At such a time you come forward and ask to
be treated as the heirs and successors of those
who have gone before, to step into their places,
and take up the task that drops from their worn-
out hands. Verily it is a ' hard thing ' for which
you are asking. And yet God forbid that you
should shrink from undertaking it, or that these,
the last unauthoritative words which you will hear
before receiving your commission, should sound
to you discouraging. If the responsibilities are
great, so also is the honour great. The cause is
the noblest on earth, and one that is fitted to call
forth the noblest enthusiasm. Only we ask you
to realise in the presence of God to-day that there
is one condition which must be fulfilled if your
ministry is not to end in disaster and failure. The
kingdom which you are to proclaim is not of this
world. You will go in and out among your people,
not simply as the kindly friend or the relieving 6

82 Messages from the Old Testament
officer, still less as the undertaker responsible for
their burial, but first and foremost to let God into
the lives of men, to bring heaven down to earth,
and, in the midst of a sense-bound, materialistic
age, to bear your testimony to the reality and
importance of the unseen and the invisible.
And for this is there not something more than
good intentions, a kind heart, activity, and even
earnestness needed ? ' Thou hast asked a hard
thing : nevertheless, if thou see me when I am
taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if
not, it shall not be so.' May we not Say that
there is a similar condition required in our case ?
It is the 'kingdom of heaven' which we are to
proclaim, and though this is set up on earth in
a visible form, yet, as it has to do with powers
of another order, there must be the vision of
the eternal indwelling Presence of Him, whose
kingdom it is, to inspire us. If we are to speak
of spiritual things, above all we must be spiritual
men, able to speak from personal experience of
the things of the spiritual world, as those who are
living in it. And thus, if to us be granted the
gift of insight, if our eyes are open to those
eternal realities of that kingdom of heaven which,
invisible to the eye of sense, lies all around us,
then we can take up the work without fear or
hesitation. But if not — if we know nothing by
personal knowledge and personal insight of that
spiritual world and spiritual life, the language of
which will ever be on our lips ; if our vision is
bounded by the low level of the horizon of this
world, and our thoughts centred on things earthly

Elisha's Gift 83
and material, then ' it shall not be so : ; and better
by far were it to turn aside to the humblest of
earthly callings than to place one's self voluntarily
in the falsest of all false positions — that of the man
who is set to speak of a subject of which he has
never mastered the rudiments.
' If our eyes are open ' — how shall I best make
my meaning clear to you ? Bear with me while
I try to bring home to you how that heaven
into which Elisha saw Elijah pass, and into which,
when the great forty days were ended, the Apostles
saw their Divine Master ascend, is no far-away
region into which we have hopes of being admitted
hereafter, but a realm which is very close to us
already, and into which we may freely ascend and
enter now — a world of which we must know some
thing by personal experience if our ministry is to
be anything more than a hollow sham. To under
stand this, let us start by considering the visible
world all around us.* It has truly been called 'a
series of worlds enfolded one within another.'
Imagine, for instance, what it would have been
had you never known the gift of sight. A whole
world of colour, form, and beauty would be lying
all around you, bathed in the glory of the summer
sunshine, close at hand, but you would be cut off
from all conception of it as completely as if it did
not exist. To you it would be a sealed world.
And as others spoke of it, and told of its glories,
their words would sound to you but as idle tales,
* For much of what follows I am indebted to a striking
chapter on our Lord's Ascension into heaven in Maccoll's
Christianity in Relation to Science and Morals.
6—2

84 Messages from the Old Testament
so utterly would you be unable to realise it. So
with the sense of hearing. Indeed, each sense
admits us into a fresh world of experience of
which we should know nothing but for the
possession of that sense. This is powerfully shown
in a modern work of fiction, which tells the story
of a girl born blind and deaf and dumb.* There
she is, a living soul imprisoned in a human body,
unable to hold intercourse with those about her,
moving about in worlds not realised, cut off
altogether from the world of sight, of sound, and
of speech. And then, as God's finger touches
her, and one by one her powers are given to her,
as you read the tale, you feel how with the gift of
each sense she is introduced into a new world of
beautiful creations which opens out its treasures
to her — a world which has been very close to her
all the time, but from which she has been so
completely cut off by impassable barriers that it
has been to her an undiscovered country, while all
others were in the fullest enjoyment of it. And
then, again, beyond the region of the senses what
worlds there are, into which some can penetrate
at will, while to others the gate of entrance
seems barred and locked for ever ! The world of
imagination, for instance : what a real world it is !
WTiat creative power there is1 in it ! And yet how
many are there who are totally incapable of enter
ing into it ! To one man there is revealed that
which another cannot see, and, what is more,
never can see. To poor Peter Bell in the poem
* Hall Caine, The Scapegoat.

Elisha's Gift 85
the ' primrose by the water's brim ' is but ' a yellow
primrose,' while to the poet who tells his tale
' The meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.'*
Or take the world of music. We can all hear
the sounds, but to some they are sounds without
meaning, and bear no message to the soul ; while
there are others amongst us who can sit down
before some mighty organ and call its keys to
their work, ' claiming each slave of the sound at a
touch, at a wish of the soul.'t And lo ! as their
fingers stray over the notes of the instrument an
entrance is opened to them into a world in which
they can wander at will. The cares and worries
of this lower earth have faded away into the dim
distance. In an instant they are far away, lost in
an experience of which others of us who lack that
magic power can form no conception. In each
case you see the world is there close at hand. It
needs no change of place to admit us into it.
That is the point to notice. No change of place
is needed to enter into it, only a change of organ
ism, only a change of self, the opening of the eyes
and the unstopping of the ears.
And what if for admission into that spiritual
world of which we have been thinking there be
needed no change of place, but only a change
of self — the opening of the eyes to spiritual
truths, and the unstopping of the ears to those
celestial voices which speak to those who
* Wordsworth, Ode on the Intimations of Immortality, etc.
t Browning, Abt Vogler.

86 Messages from the Old Testament
have ears to hear as really as they ever did of
old? If we find it hard to realise the things of the
spirit, and difficult to grasp as living realities the
great truths of the Christian Creed, it may be
that we are yet in the condition of one born blind
and deaf, no change of environment needed, but
only a change of organism, to admit us into that
world of which others are already in the full enjoy
ment, for, Oh, sirs, it is indeed true that
' Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God ;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes :
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.'*
If, then, you ask this day to take up the
prophet's work, and to speak of God and the
things of God, you, too, must have your visions
of God, as prophets and seers of old had theirs.
Moses in the desert, Isaiah in the Temple,
Ezekiel by the banks of the Chebar, St. John in the
Isle of Patmos — of all these the eyes were opened
so that they could see Him who is invisible, and,
seeing Him, they could bring His. Presence home
to others. Shall we not, then, pray that God
will open your eyes, and enable you to gain an
ever clearer vision of those great verities of the
unseen invisible world with which your ministry
will ever have to do ? Shall we not ask for the
gift of insight, which alone can make you worthy
to wear the prophet's mantle, and prove you
capable of receiving a double portion of the Spirit ?
* E. B. Browning, Aurora Leigh.

Elisha's Gift 87
Those ' horses of fire and chariots of fire ' which
Elisha could see when his master was taken away
from him were not visible once only and for an
instant to him. Years afterwards, when he and
his servant were in Dothan, and the hosts of the
Syrians all around them, the young man was
afraid, and said, 'Alas, master! what shall we
do ?' and the prophet bade him be of good
courage, for, said he, 'they that be with us are
more than they that be with them. And Elisha
prayed, Lord, open his eyes, that he may see.
And the Lord opened his eyes, and he saw that
the mountain was full of horses of fire and chariots
of fire round about Elisha.'* They had been
there all the time, only the eye needed to be
opened to see them. And you, if only your eyes
are open, not to-day only, but all the days of your
ministry — you shall know that ' the hosts of God
encamp around the dwellings of the just,' and,
knowing that, you will fear no evil. The more
that the things of the spiritual world become real
to you, the less will external things affect you
personally, and the greater will be the power
with which you will minister to others. Your
whole life and ministry will be changed and trans
figured. For yourself you will be rid of that
restlessness and discontent which is the ruin of
so many ministries, nor, on the other hand, will
you sink into that state of contented dejection
which takes the heart out of so many more. And
with eyes open to the vision of the invisible, and
ears that are quick to catch the lightest whisper
* 2 Kings vi. 15-17.

88 Messages from the Old Testament
of God's voice, you will go in and out among your
people as ministering angels, with God's word on
your lip and heaven's light in your eye. You
will tell them of that world in which you are
living, which you know by blessed experience,
and into which they, too, may freely enter. They
will come to know it, too, and to realise more and
more how little, after all, the material conditions
of living affect the life, until in the end it shall be
with you and with them also as it was with one of
whom I once read, whose story I give you exactly
as I have read it. He, an old Scotchman, lived
away in a wretched cottage out on the moors, and
earned just sufficient to keep body and soul together
by breaking stones. His wife died, his only child
died, and he was left quite alone. At last he
became quite blind. In the intervals of breaking
stones he would gather together the wild shepherd
boys from the moors, and tell them of the Good
Shepherd, and the sheep that was lost and found.
To that old man came a Christian minister. He
spoke gently to him, and, thinking to console him
for his hard lot, reminded him that it was not
likely to last long, for, said he, you will soon be
in heaven. The old man lifted his head and
raised his eyes, as if their sightless balls could
pierce the skies above him. ' In heaven, sir,' he
answered — 'why, I've been there these ten
years !'*
* See Teignmouth Shore, St. George for England.

X
The Book of Job
Jon xvii. 5 : ' The light of the wicked shall be put out.'
Joe. xxi. 1 7 (R.V.) : ' How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked
is put out ?'*
The earlier of these passages occurs in a speech
of Bildad, and the words are apparently a quota
tion from the Book of Proverbs, where they are
found as a plain statement of the doctrine of
retribution.f At their second occurrence in the
Book of Job, where they form part of one of the
speeches of Job himself, the slight change in the
form of the verse as found in the Revised Version
when compared with the Authorised Version in
dicates that the words are not a pious exclama
tion on the part of one who acquiesces in the
statement, but rather that they contain the
scornful question of one who repeats what had
become a commonplace among religious persons,
but is himself utterly unable to accept it. Thus
the twice- repeated words may serve as a con-
* For some of the matter of this and the following sermon
I may perhaps bs permitted to refer to my Commentary on
the Book of Job (The Westminster Commentaries).
t Frov. xiii. 9, xxiv. 20. 89

90 Messages from the Old Testament
venient summary of the positions taken by, Job
and his friends respectively in this wonderful
book, a drama which is so full of teaching for us
to-day, and yet so little studied as a whole, except
by professed students of the Old Testament. In
spite of the fact that everyone is familiar with the
story as narrated in the first two chapters, and with
a few of the finest passages in other parts, it will, I
imagine, be readily granted that as a whole the
book is but little known and studied. This .is
partly accounted for by the fact that as a whole it
is never read in our churches. On but a single
Sunday in the whole course of the year* are
the lessons drawn from it. In the morning
service for one festival f six verses are read as the
first lesson ; and even when the book is read in
the course of the daily lessons on weekdays during
the summer months, no fewer than ten chapters
are omitted altogether. But there has in the past
been a further reason for the general neglect of
the book. In the Authorised Version much of it
was so hopelessly bewildering that no wonder
men turned from it in despair. The publication,
however, of the Revised Version in 1885 has
completely removed this excuse. Where formerly
all was dark and perplexing, it is now possible for
the English reader to trace the course of the
dialogue and to follow out the argument with
comparative ease. Moreover, the last few years
have seen the publication of various works which
help us greatly towards a just estimate and a right
* The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.
f St. Thomas's Day.

The Book of Job 91
understanding of the poem, foremost among them
standing, perhaps, the writings of Dr. A. B.
Davidson. It is proposed, then, to consider here the
positions occupied by Job and his friends in the
central part of the work, and their bearing on
the right attitude for us in the face of problems,
different, perhaps, but no less perplexing to us
than were those with which the actors in this
great drama were confronted.
But first it will be well if we remind ourselves
briefly of.the structure and character of the book
as a whole. It falls into five well-defined and
clearly-marked divisions, the first and last of
which are in ordinary prose, while the three
between them, as may be seen from the arrange
ment of the text in parallel lines in the Revised
Version, are in poetry. With the prologue in
chapters i. and ii., describing the scene in heaven,
the fourfold trial of Job, and introducing the
dramatis persona, we are all familiar, nor need we
linger over it. The second part, chapters iii.-
xxxi., contains the debate between Job and his
friends. It is a dialogue constructed with con
summate skill and exquisitely arranged. After
Job's 'curse upon his day' in chapter iii.,
the speeches form three circles, each friend
speaking in turn, and receiving his answer from
Job before the next one takes up the charge. So
the debate moves forward with perfect regularity
through two complete circles.* But in the thirdf
the brevity of the speech of Bildad, the second
* iv.-xiv. and xv.-xxi. t xxii. -xxvi.

92 Messages from the Old Testament
speaker of the three, in chapter xxv., and the
way in which he can do little more than stammer
out a few things which have already been said by
a previous speaker, warns us that the friends have
well-nigh exhausted their stock of argument; and
accordingly it is no surprise to find that Zophar
considers discretion the better part of valour, and
misses his turn altogether, leaving Job as master
of the field, to continue his discourse in the form
of a monologue.* After this, in the third part.f a
new speaker, not previously mentioned, appears
upon the scene in the person of Elihu. Dis
satisfied with the arguments of the friends, and
yet shocked at the utterances of Job, he intervenes
by pointing out certain considerations with regard
to suffering and its providential purposes which
have apparently escaped the notice of both parties
in the dialogue. This episode — whether it formed
part of the original poem, or whether it is a
subsequent addition by a later poet, we need not
stop to inquire — occupies chapters xxxii. -xxxvii.
Arid then in the fourth part J God Himself inter
poses. The Almighty answers Job out of the
whirlwind, and overwhelms him with question
after question designed to bring home to him the
impossibility of his arguing with God, or under
standing the whole scheme of Divine Providence.
The result is that Job is completely humbled, and
abases himself before God : ' I had heard of Thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth
Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in
* xxvii. -xxxi. f xxxii. -xxxvii.
X xxxviii. -xiii. 6.

The Book of Job 93
dust and ashes.' Finally, in the epilogue,* which,
like the prologue, is in prose, the story is brought
to an end by the restoration of Job's prosperity :
' The Lord turned the captivity of Job, and gave
him twice as much as he had before.'
Such is the outline of the book. Let us now
confine our attention to the second part of it, the
debate between Job and his friends.
And, first, what was the position maintained by
the friends ? In estimating this it must ever be
borne in mind that they knew nothing whatever
of that scene in heaven described in the prologue.
The author of the book, by placing this in the
forefront, has admitted us behind the scenes, and
let us into the secret of Job's sufferings. They
formed, as so many sufferings form today, a God-
permitted Satanic temptation, allowed to test the
patriarch's faith, and try whether his goodness
was genuine, or whether his piety was, after all,
but a subtle form of selfishness, a serving God for
what he could get out of Him.
Of this neither the friends nor Job himself were
aware. They only knew what they could see
with the eye of sense. Here was a man who had
lived in great prosperity, honoured and respected
of all men, suddenly overwhelmed with calamity
after calamity — his flocks and herds destroyed,
his children dead, himself the victim of a most
loathsome disease. What did it all mean ? That
was the problem before them. What have they got
to say to it ? Probably up to this time Job and
his friends alike had acquiesced, without much
* xiii. 7-17.

94 Messages from the Old Testament
consideration, in what we might fairly call the
orthodox theology of the day. The theory of
suffering, which held the field in that ancient
world to which the poem transports us, was a
strict doctrine of exact retribution. Suffering was
penal : it was the consequence of sin. Not
content with a general view which would link the
suffering of the race more or less closely with the
sin of the race, there was a tendency to argue
that in any individual case suffering was exactly
meted out in proportion to individual sin ; and
thus it was natural to argue back from the
existence of so much suffering, and infer the
existence of so much previous sin as its cause.
A notable sufferer, they said, must be a notable
sinner. The disposition thus to argue, though seldom
confessed, has lingered on with marvellous vitality.
You see it in the New Testament : ' There were
some present who told Him of the Galileans
whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacri
fices. . . . Suppose ye that these Galileans
were sinners above all the Galileans, because
they suffered these things ? I tell you, Nay ; but
except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'*
You may detect it to-day in that spirit of resentment
which is sometimes aroused in a man who is over
taken by some grievous trouble or sickness. He
takes it sorely to heart, and thinks it hard that he
should be singled out thus to suffer. What has
he done, he asks, to deserve it ? He has a feeling
that he is being unfairly dealt with, and this
* Luke xiii. 1-3.

The Book of Job 95
feeling, after all, can only come from the habit, in
which he has acquiesced, of regarding suffering
as the consequence of sin. Holding this doctrine,
then, Job's friends are suddenly confronted with
his case. What are they to make of it ? Job
was undoubtedly a great sufferer. Of that there
was overwhelming evidence. The only theory
known to them which would account for it was
that Job had been secretly guilty of some great
sin, for which he was now being chastised by
God. True, his whole past life gave the lie to
this notion. His goodness and uprightness had
been a living epistle known and read of all men.
But still, rather than question their theory, rather
than give up their ' short and easy method,' they
will shut their eyes to facts. It is not that they
can't see, it is that they won't see. There is a
difference of tone between them — one may be
more courteous, more of a gentleman, another
may be of a coarser type — but that is all. The
main position taken up by all three is identical.
Suffering is the punishment of sin. Job is a great
sufferer ; therejore Job is a great sinner. This
argument underlies all their speeches — veiled at
the outset, and only hinted at in the first circle,
but at last stated nakedly, and applied to Job with
relentless cruelty. In spite of all that Job has to
urge against them, in spite of his appeal to facts,
they cannot conceive that there are more things
in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their
philosophy. They have their theory, and if facts
do not square with it, then so much the worse for
facts. Nothing would induce them to admit that

96 Messages from the Old Testament
' the bed was shorter than a man could stretch
himself on it, and the covering narrower than he
could wrap himself up in it.'* They will not see
that their theory was utterly inadequate to meet
all the needs of the whole case. We, as we read
the book, with the fuller knowledge that the ages
have brought, and the deeper insight that comes
from a larger revelation of God's mind and
purpose, can see clearly enough that though their
theory contained much truth, yet as a theory it
was utterly inadequate, because it failed to cover
the whole ground. True that some suffering is
penal, and is the direct consequence of sin. We
see it every day of our lives ; but true, too, that
this does not hold good of all suffering. Some,
as the prologue to Job reminds us, is permitted
by God to test us. Life, as Bishop Butler puts
it, is a ' time of probation.' Some, as Elihu
suggests in his speeches, is designed, not only
for probation, but, to use Butler's phraseology
again, for ' moral discipline and improvement,' so
that man may not only be proved, but also im
proved by it. Some still remains mysterious
and shrouded in darkness. Perhaps the whole
mystery of suffering is insoluble by us in our
present condition ; and whatever advances we
make in knowledge, there will still be much which,
as the speeches of the Almighty out of the whirl
wind tell us, we cannot hope to understand unless
we can comprehend the whole mind of God.
Some — and here the Book of Job prepares the
way for Christianity by stopping short and contain-
* Isa. xxviii. 20.

The Book of Job 97
ing no hint of this — is vicarious, as in the highest
and most unique sense the sufferings of Him who
gave His life on the cross for us, Whose suffer
ings are to be in some sense repeated in His
members, even as an Apostle could say that he
'filled up what was wanting of the afflictions of
Christ in his flesh, for His body's sake, which
is the Church.'* But to all these further con
siderations the friends are blind. Nothing can
shake their adherence to the theory with which
they started. Here is the conclusion at which
Eliphaz, the most thoughtful and the most con
siderate of the three, arrives, inventing crimes
wholesale, and laying them to Job's account, as
the true explanation of his misfortunes.
' Is not thy wickedness great ?
Neither is there any end to thine iniquities.
For thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought,
And stripped the naked of their clothing.
Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,
And thou hast withholden bread from the hi njry.
5fl! SJi }JC JfS ;f:
Thou hast sent widows empty away,
And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Therefore snares are round about thee,
And sudden fear troubleth thee ;
Or darkness that thou canst not see ;
And abundance of waters cover thee.'f
Let us leave the arguments of the friends, and
turn to consider the position taken up by Job
himself. Probably up to the time when his
troubles fell upon him he, like the others, had
acquiesced in the orthodox doctrine of the day.
It was a doctrine which did well enough for fine
* Col. i. 24. t Job. xxii. 5-1 1.
7

98 Messages from the Old Testament
weather, and for other people. So long as he
was prosperous himself, he could lightly acquiesce
in the view that the suffering of others somehow
stood to their sin in the relation of effect to cause.
But now he himself is exposed to the ' pelting of
the pitiless storm.' Stroke after stroke beats down
remorselessly upon him, and he feels that the old
doctrine of retribution has broken down hopelessly
in his case. He is not an exceptionally great
sinner, nor has he done anything to deserve ex
ceptionally severe treatment as a punishment. On
this point his conscience is perfectly clear. The old
doctrine must go. It has broken down hopelessly.
But he has nothing to set in its place. The old
theory must go ; but the pain and pathos of the
situation is that he cannot explain the facts which
are thus forced upon his notice. He knows for
his own part that his suffering is not a consequence
of his sin. He can point to evidences in the
world around him, such as the misfortunes into
which good men fall, and the prosperity of the
violent and rapacious, which give the lie to his
friends' explanation. They had maintained that
' the light of the wicked shall be put out.' He
turns on them with bitterness in his tone :
« How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out ?
That their calamity cometh upon them ?
That God distributeth sorrows in His anger ?
That they are as stubble before the wind,
And as chaff that the storm carrieth away ?
* * * * *
Their seed is established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,

The Book of Job 99
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
Their bull gendereth and faileth not ;
Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
* * * * *
Have ye not asked them that go by the way ?
And do ye know their tokens ?
That the evil man is spared in the day of calamity ?
That they are led away in the day of wrath ?':;:
He can see now clearly enough that such facts
are incompatible with the view that he has
hitherto accepted. But beyond this, at first, he
cannot go. He has nothing to set in the place of
the old inadequate theory. He knows no con
siderations that can help him to bear his suffer
ings patiently — and oh, the misery of his condition !
God is treating him as His enemy, setting him
up as a mark for His arrows, and there, is none
to tell the reason why. What conception can he
form of God but that He is aimlessly cruel and
wantonly capricious ? And so the temptation
comes home to him to which Satan had sug
gested that He was sure to yield, and which his
own wife had urged on him : ' Renounce God
and die.' Yes, ' Renounce God ' ; and very
striking the phrase is, if it be indeed true that the
word gains this meaning from the benediction
given at parting — ' Renounce God,' bid farewell to
Him, and have nothing more to say to Him at
all. That was the temptation, and a sore one it
was. But it was just here that Job stood firm.
Appearances were against God, but Job would
* xxi. 17-30 ; see R.V., margin.
7—2

100 Messages from the Old Testament
trust Him in spite of appearances, certain that
there must be some explanation, if only he could
find it. Whatever happened he would never bid
farewell to Him, and it was this that brought him
through the storm and stress. He might say
wild and unjustifiable things about God, he might
have hard thoughts about Him, but the one thing
which he would not do was to ' renounce God '
altogether. No, ' not even when the whirl was
worst,' for through it all he feels that if he could
only get at God Himself, if he could only come
and speak with Him face to face, and plead his
cause, and demand an answer, all would be well.
' Only do not two things unto me,
Then will I not hide myself from Thy face :
Withdraw Thine hand far from me ;
And let not Thy terror make me afraid.
Then call Thou, and I will answer ;
Or let me speak, and answer Thou me.'*
* * * # #
' Oh that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come even to His seat !
I would order my cause before Him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which He would answer me,
And understand what He would say unto me.
Would He contend with me in the greatness of His power ?
Nay ; but He would give heed unto me.
There the upright might reason with Him ;
So should I be delivered for ever from my Judge.'t
And so, as. he clings to this, gradually one
consideration after another breaks in upon him.
There is borne into his soul the thought of a day
* xiii. 20-22. f xxiii. 3-7.

The Book of Job 101
wherein present inequalities shall hereafter be
righted, and there comes home to him the cer
tainty that ' at the last ' God will ' stand up ' as
his ' Vindicator,' and make his righteousness
manifest, and that somehow — whether ' in the
flesh ' or ' out of the flesh,' who shall say ? — but
that somehow he shall gain the vision for which
he yearns, and himself shall ' see God.'* And
these thoughts bring a calmer tone to his words.
After the great climax in chapter xix., you feel
that his passion has largely spent itself. Though
to the last he has no ' cut-and-dried ' theory of his
own to put in the place of the old one which he
has demolished by his appeal to facts, yet before
the dialogue is ended the feeling of soreness has
to a great extent passed away. In his later
utterances you are conscious that the fury of the
storm is over, though he longs as wistfully as
ever for God to manifest Himself and lift the veil
that hangs over the enigmas of life, and thus
' He came at length
To find a stronger faith his own ;
And power was with him in the night,
Which makes the darkness and the light,
And dwells not in the light alone,
But in the darkness and the cloud.'t
Such is, in brief, the position taken by the two
parties in the discussion that we have been
considering. It is very easy for us to use hard
words about the stupidity and short-sightedness
* xix. 25-27.
t Tennyson, In Memoriam, xcv.

102 Messages from the Old Testament
of Job's friends ; but before we abuse them or
condemn them too harshly it may be well to
make quite certain that our own attitude towards
the problems that come before us is never similar
to theirs. To those of us who have passed our
youth there can be no question but that it often
times needs an effort if we are not mentally to
assume the position of these three men, even if
we succeed in avoiding the use of arrogant and
harsh language such as theirs. ' I am verily
persuaded that the Lord has more truth yet to
come for us, yet to break forth out of His holy
word.' This was the noble saying of the first of
the pilgrim fathers. We can scarcely question its
truth theoretically. But practically it is not easy
to admit it in any given case. How increasingly
hard we find it as we grow older to give a patient
and candid consideration to anything that cuts
across our preconceived ideas, or to examine with
perfect fairness whether alleged facts of which we
have hitherto taken no account be indeed facts !
It is not so only with questions of theology, but
with other matters as well. In one of Charles
Darwin's letters to Sir Charles Lyell there is a
playful expression of a wish that all scientific men
over sixty years of age could be suppressed, as
they would be certain to oppose any new theory.
And yet, by the condemnation passed upon these
men, we are surely taught to be ready to enlarge
our views of God's working, whether in nature or
revelation, when new and hitherto unobserved
facts are brought to light. We are bidden to
take as our motto that of ' the greatest of artists

The Book of Job 103
in his old age of fame,' * I am still learning.' It
has been finely said that ' openness to conviction
is the mark of religious sincerity,' and certainly a
resolute determination to be at all costs true to
facts is the only right spirit for those who claim
to be followers of Him who is the Truth as well
as the Way and the Life.
On the other hand, in the days of comparative
youth, the lessons taught by the case of Job
himself are perhaps more generally needed. No
man ever yet passed from childhood to manhood
without having much for which he had never
allowed brought prominently before him. Not to
mention theories, opinions, ideas, inferences, for
which there may or may not be a good deal to be
urged, it is certain that from time to time there
will be plenty of stubborn facts brought under his
notice, which he will find hard to reconcile with
the views, whatever they may be, of life and
religion to which he has been accustomed. It is
possible, of course, for him to take up the attitude
of Job's comforters, and doggedly shut his eyes
to them all, and grow no wiser as he grows older.
But certainly with many of us in early life the
tendency is rather to run into the opposite
extreme, and throw over every belief the first
time it is seriously challenged. With the opening
of our horizon difficult problems are sure to press
upon us. They lie in our path thick as leaves in
Vallombrosa sometimes. So the man finds his
boyhood's faith is questioned, and the temptation
to ' renounce God ' and take no account of Him
in his life comes home to him as it did to Job.

104 Messages from the Old Testament
He is tempted to let gd his hold on the means of
grace, to give up prayer, and practically to live
'without God in the world.' It is the old
temptation, and a sore one it is to many. But
let it be met with Job's determination to cling to
God, to trust Him in spite of all, to be absolutely
true to facts, to tell out candidly to God all that
is in the mind, instead of letting the vague doubts
crystallise into definite unbelief through suppres
sion, and then it shall have the same ending that
it had in his case. Job's difficulties were never
fully removed, but just because he would never
'renounce God' and let go his hold upon Him
he came through them, and reached a position in
which he could acquiesce in knowing only ' in
part'; and so it may be with us. And, after all,
that such trials as these should come upon us is
only what we ought to expect, and the outcome
of them may be a stronger faith, and one that is
more worthy of the name than much which often
passes current as such among us. We have
recently been reminded in the posthumous pub
lication of a great teacher that ' beliefs worth
calling beliefs must be purchased by the sweat of
the brow.'* There are some, maybe, for whom
the price of such true beliefs is even a ' sweat of
blood.' But if it be true that ' through much
tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of
heaven, 'f we can scarcely complain if we find by
experience that no step onward in the Church's
* F. J. A. Ilcrt, The Way, the Truth, and the Life,
p. xxxiv.
t Acts xiv. 22.

The Book of Job 105
advance into the kingdom of God's truth can be
won without loss and pain.
There come times of exceptional trial and
perplexity to all. The difficulties need not be
intellectual. It may be that some temptation
long resisted has overcome us, and we are
miserable and dejected, tempted to give up, and
say that ' it's no use trying.' It may be that
some crushing sorrow has fallen upon us, which
seems to ' take the spring out of the year.' It
may simply be that God seems to hide His face
from us, and we fancy that we get no help and no
support from our prayers. A horror of great
darkness overwhelmed the soul of the Redeemer
Himself as He hung upon the cross, and forced
from His white lips that most mysterious cry,
' My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?'*
Whatever form the trial may take when such
hours come, and the temptation to give up every
thing — to 'renounce God,' and to let go our hold
upon Him — is borne in upon our souls, then let
us lay to heart the lesson of this wonderful book
— the lesson of trust in spite of difficulties, the
determination not to let go our hold upon the hand
of God, and the assured conviction that if we only
cling to Him, ' at the last ' He will ' stand up ' for
us as our Vindicator and Redeemer, and all shall
be well. ' Through waves and clouds and storms
His power will clear thy way :
Wait thou His time — the darkest night
Shall end in brightest day.'
* Matt, xxvii. 46.

XI
The True Wisdom for Man
Job xxviii. 28 : ' The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom : and
to depart from evil is understanding.'
There can scarcely be a single person who is
incapable of feeling the wonderful beauty of the
chapter of which these words form the close. But
I fancy that a good many of those who listen to it
have very vague ideas of its meaning. Single
verses strike on the ear and stir them with a strange
sense of spiritual power, but as a piece of literature,
as a connected argument, as a description of facts,
it is incomprehensible to the majority of those who
hear or read it. And so it must remain as long
as persons are content to use the Authorised
Version alone, and decline to avail themselves of
the help which the Revised Version can give.
There may be, and I think that there are, sub
stantial reasons against substituting the latter for
the former for public reading in church as an
ordinary rule, but there are none against following
the lessons in it privately, so as to note the varia
tions as they occur ; and there are none against
the use of it for devotional purposes at home. Its
106

The True Wisdom for Man 107
value may be illustrated in a remarkable way
from the first eleven verses of this chapter,
for there are few passages in the Old Testa
ment in which the gain to the English reader
from the possession of the Revised Version is
greater. For the first time these verses are made
intelligible to him, and without the need of having
recourse to a commentary the thoughtful reader
can now discover for himself to what the passage
refers. It is a wonderfully vivid and graphic
description of mining operations as carried on in
the ancient world. In very early days copper-
mines were worked in the peninsula of Sinai ; gold
mines were worked in Nubia ; and from Edom
copper, and possibly also both gold and silver,
could be procured ; while in Lebanon there were
ironworks and iron-mines. With some, if not all,
of these the writer of the Book of Job must have
been familiar, for the picture contained in this
chapter of the miners descending in their cages,
swinging to and fro, is evidently drawn from life.
Thus he tells us how the treasures of silver, gold,
iron and brass, are all yielded up to man, who can
search out the very darkest recesses of the earth.
He sinks the shafts of his mines, and men descend
into the bowels of the, earth, far from the haunts
of their fellows. On the earth's surface he grows
his corn, which supplies him with food, while far
down below he is ransacking its treasures, its
gold and precious stones, and searching it as by
fire. No falcon's eye is keen enough to spy out
those hidden recesses, and no beast of prey can
make his way thither. Man alone has the skill to

108 Messages from the Old Testament
dig down to the very roots of the mountains, and
hew out his passages in the solid rocks, binding
up the streams so that they shall not flood his
mines, and bringing out the hidden treasures to
the light of day. That, broadly, is a paraphrase of
the whole passage, and with this sketch of its
general drift in your mind listen to the verses as
they stand in the Revised Version :
' Surely there is a mine for tlif&ijyer.
And a place for gold which they r&fine.
Iron is taken out of the earth,
And brass is molten out of the stone.
Man setteth an end to darkness,
And searcheth out to the furthest bound
The stones of thick darkness and of the shadow of death.
He breaketh open a shaft away from, where men sojourn ;
They are forgotten of the foot that passeth by ;
They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread :
And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
The stones thereof are the place of sapphires,
And it hath dust of gold.
That path no bird of prey knoweth,
Neither, hath the falcon's eye seen it :
The proud beasts have not trodden it,
Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby.
He (i.e., man) putteth forth his hand upon the flinty
rock ;
He over turneth the mountains by the roots.
He cutteth out channels among the rocks ;
And his eye seeth every precious thing.
He bindeth the streams that they trickle not ;
And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.'
Is there not a meaning now in the words which
was wanting before ? Take the verses by them
selves as I have read them, and you see at once

The True Wisdom for Man 109
that they contain a description of the miner's
work which for vividness and picturesqueness is
without a parallel in the whole range of ancient
literature. But even when you have discovered
this you have still to see why the description is
introduced here, and what relation it bears to the
rest of the chapter, which is even more familiar to
most persons through Boyce's famous anthem
taken from it : ' Oh, where shall wisdom be found,
and where is the place of understanding ?' The
connection between the two parts of the chapter is
really very close, and it is something of this sort.
The description of mining operations is introduced
in order to illustrate the extraordinary skill and
power of man. He is able by his restless and
resistless energy to force the earth to disclose its
secrets, and to yield up its hidden treasures. He
can discover silver, gold, sapphires, precious stones
of all kinds — everything, in fact, that man holds
most desirable, with one exception. There is
one thing which baffles man in his search after it,
which he can neither purchase nor discover. One
thing for which he will search in the depths and in
the sea in vain. One thing for which he may
offer all the treasures of Arabia and India, but its
price is far above them all, and that is the true
and heavenly wisdom. Neither man nor beast
can descry it, neither death nor destruction can
help to its discovery. They know nothing but a
rumour of it. It is only God on high who pos
sesses any true knowledge of it. He knows it
and can descry it, for His eye ranges over all
things. It is He who at Creation weighed the

no Messages from the Old Testament
winds and measured out the waters. He it is
who has ordered the laws which govern the rain,
and created the thunder and the lightning. And
when He thus ordered Creation wisdom was
present to Him ; He declared it, gave it existence,
and contemplated it in all its fulness with Divine
approval. And what, then, shall man do if, clever and
cunning as he is, and able to find out many
inventions, they all fail him here in the presence
of the great Mystery, and he can never attain to
the true wisdom or comprehend completely the
principles that rule the world ? Is he abandoning
the search in despair, and giving up the problem
as insoluble, to yield himself up without restraint
to the sensual pleasures of the moment, to follow
the old Epicurean advice, ' Let us eat and drink,
for to-morrow we die ' ? Nay, indeed, says the
ancient sage, and his words ring out with a note
of truth that is undying ; man has his wisdom, but
it is of a practical rather than an intellectual
nature. And so God's word comes home to him.
Unto man He said, 'The fear of the Lord, that
is wisdom : and to depart from evil is understand
ing.' That, he seems to tell us, is, after all, the
highest and the only true wisdom for man. As
the words stand in the Book of Job, they may
seem almost a counsel of despair. Job has been
bewildered and driven nearly mad by the per
plexities of existence, and the hopelessness of the
endeavour to discover any principles of God's
providence in the ordering of the world and the
distribution of good and evil. It is all a hopeless

The True Wisdom for Man in
tangle, and he can find no clue to it. And now it
seems as if he was told to abandon the search for
any solution of the problem. It is incompre
hensible, and man had better cease thinking about
it. This may seem to be the adoption of a
position not very far removed from the agnos
ticism of the present day, and it is one which no
Christian teacher could consent to adopt as a
permanent one, for it amounts to a recommenda
tion to cease thinking. But as a temporary relief
there are probably times in the life of most
persons when it will appear to be the best course
for them to follow. Voltaire's ' Work without
reasoning; it is the only way to make life endurable,'
may sometimes be the rule even for a Christian.
For a man who is endowed by God with powers
of reason and intellect deliberately to abstain from
using them, and to turn away from any endeavour
to find an answer to perplexing questions concern
ing the Divine government of the world, cannot
be right as a permanent condition. But as J. H.
Newman has pointed out in a famous sermon,*
there are some trials of faith which are best met
by simple obedience, which is God's remedy for
religious perplexity ; and when men are bewildered
and puzzled and doubtful about the very founda
tions of religion, they will often, by leaving specu
lation and turning to active work in the course of
plain duty, find that in time their perplexities dis
appear and the difficulties solve themselves. ' It
is, indeed,' he says, ' very painful to be haunted by
* ' Obedience the Remedy for Religious Perplexity': New
man's, Parofhi'al and Plain Sermons, vol. i,

112 Messages from the Old Testament
wondering doubts, to have thoughts shoot across
the mind about the reality of religion altogether,
or of this or that particular doctrine of it, or about
the correctness of one's own faith and the safety
of one's own state.' But it must be right to obey,
and it is often best to turn away resolutely from
the contemplation of these doubts and difficulties,
and just go on quietly doing the duty that lies
immediately before us. 'To be dutiful and obedient
in ordinary matters, to speak the truth, to be
honest, to be sober, to keep from sinful words and
thoughts, to be kind and forgiving for our Saviour's
sake — let us attempt these duties first. They even
will be difficult, the least of them ; still, they are
much easier than the solution ofthe doubts which
harass us, and they will by degrees give us a
practical knowledge of the truth,' for we shall find
in time that somehow or other, while we have
been quietly doing our duty and obeying our
Lord's commands, our difficulties have been re
moved and our perplexities have disappeared.
' The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom : and to
depart from evil is understanding.'
The words, then, may come to us as a reminder
of the proper course to be followed in times of
exceptional strain and difficulty. But over and
above this, they have a constant value as the
expression of a grand truth which needs to be
always kept steadily before us, and of which no
age ever stood in greater need than the present —
the truth, that is, of the supremacy of goodness,
and the superiority of moral and spiritual to
intellectual gifts. Is there no danger, not simply

The True Wisdom for Man 1 1 3
of profaning whatever gifts of intellect God may
have given us, and of turning them to mean and
unworthy uses, but also of deliberately thinking
that the possession of specially brilliant gifts
carries with it diminished responsibilities and
larger license in regard to the great questions
of right and wrong ? Have we not all seen at
some time or other men who seemed to think
that by reason of the greatness of their gifts and
their intellectual superiority they were dispensed
from the obligations of the moral law which they
admitted to be binding on smaller men, while the
world has complacently acquiesced in their view,
and condoned the evil which they scorned to hide,
because it so admired the brilliancy of their
talents ? Alas ! such cases occur too frequently
in every age for it to be needless to remind you
that being clever and having knowledge does not,
and never can, make up for not caring to be
good. Rather,
' Be good . . . and let who will be clever,
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand sweet song.'*
' The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to
depart from evil is understanding.'
I have already alluded to a famous sermon of
Dr. Newman's on ' Obedience the Remedy for
Religious Perplexity.' Let me end by referring to
one by Newman's greatest disciple, the late Dean
Church, on the point which I am now pressing —
* C. Kingsley, ' A Farewell ': Andromeda and other Poems
p. 64. 8

114 Messages from the Old Testament
' the Supremacy of Goodness.' The Dean was
not a man to underrate the value of intellectual
gifts, nor was he disposed to think lightly of their
claim on our homage, but he reminds us, in words
which are among the noblest ever uttered from
the pulpit of a great University church, the very
home of learning, that ' intellectual strength and
fertility cannot be the summit of human nature,'
or ' the highest and most precious of man's
possessions and attainments.' ' It is a great thing,'
he says, ' to have lived like Kepler and Faraday,
with such magnificent achievements, with such
purity and simplicity of soul, with such enthusiasm
for duty aiid work, and that noble humility which
means the deep and wide sense of truth and
reality. But there will always be the few and the
many, and such privilege cannot be for the
many. Yet there is a blessedness higher than to
be able to bequeath the wealth of Shakespeare
and Bacon. We may all of us, by God's un
speakable blessing and help, add to the world's
goodness if we cannot add to its knowledge. We
may, one -and all of us, the least as well as the
highest, do our part in that which is the chief
work of God's rule and discipline over us now, the
growth and victory of the spirit and mind of
Christ. We may all of us have laid our single
and unnoticed stone where the future of God's
holy kingdom is slowly rising, while He patiently
but certainly fulfils His purposes. We may leave
when we go hence no name and no remembrance ;
but it rests with everyone whether he shall leave
what is better than name and remembrance.

The True Wisdom for Man 115
When He who gave us our life calls for it again
we can leave, as an offering on the altar of the
God of our souls, the God of all the worlds, the
offering of a life lived in His light, ruled by His
charity, humbly and thankfully resigned when it
is time to give it up ; a life rescued by repentance
and self-discipline from folly and sin, from sloth
and emptiness ; a life of duty, loyal and industrious,
sincere and patient ; a life in which we sought
by His help to draw near to His goodness, to
love and to follow it, as its glory is shown to men
in the face of Jesus Christ.'*
* Human Life and its Conditions, p. 28 et seq.

XII
The Eighteenth Psalm
Ps. xviii. i : ' I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength : the
Lord is my stony rock and my defence.'
The eighteenth psalm is entitled in our Bibles ' a
Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who
spake unto the Lord the words of this song in
the day that the Lord delivered him from the
hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of
Saul.' And, whatever we may think of the value
of the titles in general, there is no reasonable
ground for questioning the truth of this one.
The great antiquity of the psalm is guaranteed
by the fact that it is actually quoted in the book
of the prophet Micah, who lived in Hezekiah's
time,* and an additional evidence of the correct
ness of the title is supplied by the fact that the
psalm reappears as the work of David in 2 Samuel,
where it is given in full in chapter xxii. And
therefore, in spite of doubts occasionally expressed
by some writers, we may, on purely critical grounds,
feel pretty confident that the tradition which
* Cf. Micah vii. 1 7 with verse 46. It may also be noticed
that Hab. iii. 19 seems to be based on verse 34.
116

The Eighteenth Psalm 117
connects this psalm with the name of David is
trustworthy, and that it is a genuine work of the
sweet Psalmist of Israel whose name it bears.
It may be assigned to the comparatively early
days of David's reign and prosperity — after his
victorious wars and military successes described
in 2 Sam. viii. and x., and before that strange,
sad fall which forms the subject of chapter xii.,
and which cast such a dark shadow over his
closing years. David has reached the highest
point in his prosperity, and is at the summit of his
greatness. The Lord has delivered him from
the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of
Saul. What a contrast between his past and his
present ! He looks back and lets his eye run over
his experiences in those years of wandering, when
he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains.
He thinks of those hairbreadth escapes : the javelin
which shivered past him and quivered in the wall
at his back, Saul's messengers watching the house,
his flight by the window, his life as an outlaw, the
days spent in the cave, the feigned madness at
the Court of Achish, the many occasions when
there seemed but a step between him and death.
Since then he has
' Lived to clutch the golden keys,
To mould a mighty State's decrees ' j
he has become ' on Fortune's crowning slope'
The pillar of a people's hope,
The centre of a world's desire.'*
* Tennyson, In Afemoriqm, lxiv,

1 1 8 Messages from the Old Testament
And now, as he looks back over it all, he can
see clearly enough that it is to no merit of his
own that he owes it. The hand of God is
manifest everywhere, guiding, guarding, protect
ing him. It was to this, and this alone, that
he owed his preservation ; through it, and it alone,
was he able to ' breast the blows of circumstance,'
and therefore he will pour out his heart in gratitude
to God, who has delivered him, and will break
forth into this noble psalm of thanksgiving, in
which he reviews his past experiences, and
condenses his manifold deliverances into a single
scene, painting them with matchless skill as some
great Theophany or visible manifestation of God.
This requires, perhaps, some further ex
planation. In order, then, to understand the meaning of
the psalm, and the imagery employed in it, it must
be remembered that on almost the first page of
Israel's history there stood the account of the
manifestation of God at Sinai after the Exodus,
when ' there were thunders and lightnings, and a
thick cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of a
trumpet exceeding loud . . . and Mount Sinai
was altogether on smoke, because the Lord
descended upon it in fire ; and the smoke thereof
ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole
mount quaked greatly, and the Lord came down
upon Mount Sinai to the top of the Mount.'*
The Jew never forgot that scene. It influenced
his thoughts and coloured his conceptions all
through his national history. It stood as the
* Exod. xix. 16-29.

The Eighteenth Psalm 119
very type and model of a Divine manifestation
and deliverance, so that in after years, whenever
there was any special deliverance wrought by
God, or any signal interposition on behalf of His
people, it was at once recognised as a fresh
manifestation of that power which had shone forth
on Sinai ; and by a very natural process it was
idealised and described poetically and figuratively
as if there had been a similar visible appearance,
as the Almighty came down to save His own.
So you find it in the Song of Deborah :
' Lord, when Thou wentest forth out of Seir,
When Thou marchedst out of Edom,
The earth trembled : the heavens also dropped,
Yea, the clouds dropped water.
The mountains flowed down at the presence of the Lord,
Even as Sinai at the presence of the Lord the God of
Israel.'*
The same strain is repeated in Psalm Ixviii.,
and we catch its echoes in the song of the prophet
Habakkuk :
' God came from Teman,
And the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
And His brightness was as the light ;
He had rays coming forth from His hand.
And there was the hiding of His power.
Before Him went the pestilence,
And fiery bolts went forth at His feet.
And the eternal mountains were scattered,
The everlasting hills did bow.'t
* Judg. v. 4, 5. t Hab. iii. 3-6.

120 Messages from the Old Testament
Here are just the same references to physical
phenomena. The manifestation is made through
the storm, the lightning, the thunder, and the
earthquake. So is it also in the psalm before us.
David is idealising his actual experiences and
condensing them into one grand majestic scene,
describing how God came down to the rescue of
His servant as He came down of old on Sinai,
and how all nature was moved at His coming.
Study the eighteenth psalm with this thought in
your mind, and the general drift of it will at once
become clear, especially when you have corrected
two unfortunate mistakes of translation in the
Prayer-Book version — that version with which we
are most familiar, so matchless in its musical
rhythm and cadences, and yet often so unhappily
inexact in its renderings.
The mistakes are these : (i) By translating the
verbs in verses 5 and 6, and again in 16 and 17,
as futures instead of pasts — ' I will call,' ' so shall
He hear my voice,' ' He shall send down ' — the
Prayer-Book version hides from us the fact that
it is but a single scene which is set before us in
the whole passage which stretches right away
from the 3rd to the 19th verse ; and (2) owing to
the use of the terms 'the sorrows of death' and
' the pains of hell ' in verses 3 and 4, the fio-ure
which the Psalmist really employs is altogether
lost. The revisers of 1885 render 'the cords of
death compassed me. . . . The cords of Sheol
(or Hades) were round about me ; the snares of
death came upon me.' Do you see the significance
of the change ? Death and hell, or Hades (which

The Eighteenth Psalm 121
the Hebrews termed Sheol), are personified, as
they are in Diirer's famous picture. They are
regarded as hunters with ' cords,' and ' snares ' or
traps. It is no ignoble quarry for which their
snares are spread. They are hunters of men.
David himself is represented as entangled in their
nets, bound by their cords, by which they are
dragging him away (as the hunter drags off his
quarry from the forest) down to the underworld
beneath, where Death reigns supreme as king.
That underworld is pictured, as always, in the
bowels of the earth. Bound hand and foot, David
is dragged down to the depths. The floods are
fast overwhelming him. He is at his last gasp.
But, as he himself tells us afterwards,
' In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried unto my God.'
His cry penetrates to the heavenly temple, and
reaches the ear of God.
' He heard my voice out of His temple :
And my cry before Him came into His ears.'
At once God interposes — comes down to save
His servant, as He had come down on Sinai.
' Then the earth shook and trembled,
The foundations also of the hills moved
And were shaken, because He was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of His nostrils,
And fire out of His mouth devoured :
Coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens also, and came down ;
And darkness was under His feet.'

122 Messages from the Old Testament
What a picture it is of the descent- of the
Almighty ! The whole Theophany is vividly set
before us in the following verses, the spirit of which
is somehow wonderfully caught in the old metrical
version of Sternhold and Hopkins, which, in spite of
obvious faults, has an undying charm for some of us :
' The Lord descended from above,
And bowed the heavens high ;
And underneath His feet He cast
The darkness of the sky.
On cherubs and on cherubims
Full royally He rode,
And on the wings of all the winds
Came flying all abroad.'
One seems to see the whole scene. The
Almighty comes down. His voice is heard in
the roll of the thunder. The storm-cloud and
lightnings are the tokens of His presence.
' He sent out His arrows, and scattered them ;
Yea, lightnings manifold, and discomfited them.
Death and hell abandon their prey and flee in
terror. The floods of waters recoil, and are driven
back so that the very roots of the mountain are
laid bare, as God follows in quest of His servant.
' Then the channels of waters appeared,
And the foundations of the world were laid bare,
At Thy rebuke, O Lord,
At the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils.'
And David, who was being dragged down to
the depths and overwhelmed by the surgino-

The Eighteenth Psalm 123
waters, is rescued and drawn out and set at
liberty.
' He sent down from on high, He took me ;
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
And from them that hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
They came upon me in the day of my calamity :
But the Lord was my stay.
He brought me forth also into a large place ;
He delivered me, because He delighted in me.'
You see it all now ; and what a wonderful picture
it is of the deliverance wrought by God for the
man who has trusted Him and called on Him for
help ! There is nothing of its kind to equal it
anywhere else in literature. All mercies since
those boyish days, when the Lord had delivered
him from the paw of the lion and the bear, or
since the hour when in the first flush of youthful
excitement and enthusiasm he had volunteered,
boy as he was, to go forth to meet the Philistine
who defied the armies of Israel — all mercies and
deliverances since then, countless though they be,
are fore- shortened and brought into one in the
retrospect of years, and are set before us as the
work of God alone.
This, then, is the subject of verses 3 to 19 of
the psalm. In the following verses, 20 to 3r,
David dwells on the reasons why God thus inter
posed on his behalf. It is because he has kept
the ways of the Lord, and not forsaken his God,
as the wicked doth. ' Therefore hath the Lord
recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His

124 Messages from the Old Testament
eyesight.' God, he tells us, deals with men
according as their heart is toward Him. His is
not a solitary case : it is only one instance of
a general law. The holy and perfect find God
holy and perfect. To the froward He seems
perverse. Their way is not God's way, and
therefore they find themselves checked and
thwarted at every turn. So it had been with
David's predecessor on the throne of Israel. So
long as Saul's will was in harmony with God's
will the Spirit of the Lord was with him. When
Saul fell away, and set his will against God's will,
then the Spirit of God became to him evil, and
troubled him. In the picturesque phrase of the
Hebrews, 'the Spirit of the Lord departed from
Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled
him.' No spirit from the Lord can be morally
and essentially evil. But to a man who makes
good evil and evil good, the Spirit of the Lord
will necessarily appear evil, and will become
evil to him — not morally and essentially evil, I
repeat, but evil in the sense of opposing his
perverse and wilful desires. That is what had
happened with Saul, whereas with David, who
had ever striven humbly and patiently to serve
God, and to submit his will to God's will, God
showed Himself holy and perfect. It is a profound
truth that is here set before us. God deals with
men as they deal with Him.
1 With the merciful Thou wilt show Thyself merciful ;
With the perfect man Thou wilt show Thyself perfect ;
With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself pure ;
And with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself froward,'

The Eighteenth Psalm 125
Bold and startling words they are, but as true
to-day as ever they were. It lies in the nature of
God that it must be so. You may see the truth
exemplified every day of your life. Wherever
law reigns it holds good, and law, as we know,
has 'her seat in the bosom of God.'* Take the
laws of Nature — God's laws, you will all admit.
Obey them, and you find that Nature is kindly
and beneficent ; she yields up her secrets to you,
and is content to serve you, and do your bidding.
Set yourself against them, and at once all things
about you seem perverse. Forget them and ignore
them, and disaster follows. The fire which you
had utilised and pressed into your service, and
which yielded ready obedience to your will,
becomes at once a destructive force, to consume
you and sweep you in an instant from the face of
the earth. So with the laws of orderly govern
ment in the world. To the peaceable and law-
abiding citizen they have no terrors. To him
they come in the guise of a friendly power. He
looks to them for shelter and protection from
wrong and violence, and appeals to them to be
the champion of the weak and down-trodden.
But to the lawless man, to the house-breaker and
the murderer, they are indeed perverse. Law is
to him an enemy. It opposes him, thwarts him,
and stands in his path at every turn.t So, whether
God is working through Nature, or through the
powers which he has ordained on earth, or how
ever He may be working, the truth holds good.
* Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, book i., chap. xvi.
t Cf. Phillips Brooks, Twenty Sermons, p. 302.

126 Messages from the Old Testament
It is either the case that David's own experience
is ours — ' with the holy He shows Himself holy ' ;
or the tragedy of Saul's life repeats itself — ' with
the perverse He shows Himself froward.'
In the remainder of the psalm there is little
to detain us. In the verses that follow David
describes more in detail the military successes and
general prosperity of his reign, acknowledging
again the dependence of his fortunes upon God,
tracing every blessing he has received to Him
alone, and pouring out his heart in adoring love
and gratitude for them.
And here it is in this thought, with which he
begins and to which he recurs at the close, that
the psalm touches us so nearly. For, after all,
the experience of David described in it is an
experience which is repeated in the lives of all
who trust in God and call upon Him for deliver
ance. Each one of us here, if only he has eyes
to see, must be able to recall time after time in
the past when he was entangled in the meshes of
the nets which Satan had spread for him, when
the cords were bound round him by which he was
being dragged away down to the depths ; and he
knows as he looks back that it was nothing short
of an interposition by God Himself that saved
him and brought him to the place of liberty where
he now stands. And yet, how little has he
thought of it ! How scanty has been his acknow
ledgment of it to God ! " The Jewish king, with
privileges far less than ours, living under a prepara
tory dispensation, may yet put to shame many of us,
who, with the full knowledge of all that has been

The Eighteenth Psalm 127
done for us by the redemption wrought on Calvary,
and of all that is still being done for us by that love
which has watched over us from our cradle, yet fail
altogether to render to our Creator, Redeemer, and
Sanctifier the tribute of praise and thanksgiving
which is due. It is mainly in order to help us in
this matter that the psalms are given so prominent
a place in our service. When in the sixteenth
century the Puritans raised against our Prayer-
Book the complaint that there was a lack of
particular thanksgiving in it, Richard Hooker, in
answer to the objection, pointed out that ' lest God
should be any way unglorified, the greatest part
of our daily service consisteth, according to the
blessed Apostle's own precise rule, in much variety
of psalms and hymns, for no other purpose, but
only that out of so plentiful a treasure there might
be for every man's heart to choose out his own
sacrifice, and offer to God what fitteth best the
often occasions' he ' may seem to have.'*
Such a psalm as this may well be taken by
everyone and applied either to his own circum
stances or to those of the Church at large. He will
find it suit either equally well. May we, then, all
endeavour to enter more and more into the spirit of
those psalms, the words of which are so familiar,
the meaning so sadly little known ; and may they
become more and more the expression of our love
to and dependence on Him who is still to us what
He was to David, our Strength, our Rock, and our
Defence.
* Ecclesiastical Polity, book v., chap, xviii. 3.

XIII
Nature and Revelation
Ps. xix. i, 7 : 'The heavens declare the glory of God; and
the firmament showeth His handiwork. . . . The law of the
Lord is perfect, converting the foul : the testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple.'
It was a saying of a great German philosopher*
that there were two things which impressed him
with ever new and increasing admiration and
reverence — the starry heavens above, and the law
of conscience within.
Something of the same spirit must have filled
the Psalmist when he wrote this nineteenth Psalm,
in which he celebrates God's manifestation of
Himself in nature and in His revealed law.
i. It has been often noticed that the psalm
consists of two distinct parts — so distinct that
some have held that their union was an after
thought, and that they must originally have
belonged to different hymns. The supposition is
scarcely necessary, for surely the transition is not
an unnatural or a violent one — from the thought
of God in nature to that of God in revelation.
* Kant. Cf. Kirkpatrick On the Psalms (Cambridge Bible),
p. IOI. 128

Nature and Revelation 129
And very instructive is it to note how the
Psalmist suggests a contrast between the two by
the different names for God which he employs
in the two parts of the psalm. The Hebrew
tongue has many names for God, but there are
two principal ones, and it is often interesting to
see which is employed. There is first the
ordinary name for God, 'Elohim,' or 'El,'* a
name which simply speaks of the Supreme Being,
the Maker and Creator of all things visible and
invisible, but tells us nothing of His nature and
character. But there is also the name by which
God specially revealed Himself as entering into
covenant with man, which spoke of His personal
relations to His own people, His manifestation to
them, and His unchanging love for them. This
is what we might reverently call the ' proper
name' of God. It is sometimes represented in
our Bibles as Jehovah, more often simply as the
Lord, the translators having followed Jewish
custom, which shrank, from motives of reverence,
from pronouncing the word because of its sacred
ness, and ordinarily substituted for it another
word meaning Lord. Now let us turn to the
psalm before us, and what do we find there ?
In the first part, consisting of verses 1 to 6, of
which the subject is Nature, we are told that the
heavens declare the glory of God. It is God,
El, the strong, the mighty, whom the world
around reveals. Of God as Power you can learn
from Nature. Would you know Him as Love, as
* The words are really distinct, but for practical purposes
they may be treated as identical in meaning. 9

130 Messages from the Old Testament
entering into personal relations with man — for
this, the Psalmist seems to say, you must go to
Revelation. And therefore, in the second part
of the psalm, from verse 7 onwards, where he
describes the glory of the revealed law, the name
of Him who gives it is changed. He no longer
speaks of Him simply as God. It is the law of
the Lord that is perfect. The Lord — that is,
Jehovah, the covenant name under which the
Almighty revealed Himself to Moses at the bush,
the name which spoke to every Jew of One who
had set His love upon man, who was mindful of
him, and entered into closest personal relations
with him.
And that the thought of the covenant between
God and man was present to the mind of the
Psalmist when, in singing the praise of God's law,
he uses this name Jehovah, is indicated by the
significant fact that he introduces this most sacred
name exactly seven times in the course of the
Psalm. Seven times — that is the covenant num
ber, which to the Jew at once suggested the
union of heaven and earth, the covenant between
God and man.
2. The thoughts of the psalm are as fresh
to-day as on the day when the Psalmist first gave
utterance to them. There have been, of course,
those who have fancied that the discoveries of
modern science have done away with the testi
mony of Nature to God, and who would therefore
bid us rewrite the psalm, sO as to make it begin
with the announcement ' The heavens declare the
glory of Kepler '; but somehow the old arguments

Nature and Revelation 131
from Nature, even if they require readjusting from
time to time, live on, and appeal as strongly as
ever to thoughtful minds, and are, as it has been
truly said, ' if not resistless, yet sufficient, and if
not compelling, yet convincing.'
There are many who will remember that fine
passage in the Conjessions of Augustine in which,
describing his search after God, he tells us how all
Nature witnessed to one above as its Creator.
' I asked the earth, and it answered me, " I am
not He"; and all the things that are in it con
fessed the same. I asked the sea and the depths,
and the moving creatures, and they answered,
" We are not thy God ; seek above us." I
asked the air, and the whole air, with the inhabi
tants thereof, answered, " Anaximenes was wrong ;
I am not thy God." I asked the heavens, sun,
moon, and stars. " Nor," say they, " are we
the God whom thou seekest." And I replied
unto all the things around, " Ye have told me of
my God, that ye are not He : tell me something
of Him." And they cried out with a loud voice,
"He made us.'"*
Ask the question of the heavens to-day, and
the answer returned is still the same : ' The
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma
ment showeth His handiwork.' Listen to the
voice of the sun, moon, and stars, and still shall
you hear them
' For ever singing as they shine,
The Hand that made us is Divine.'
* Augustine's Confessions, x. 9.
9—2

132 Messages from the Old Testament
And if the sight of the universe around us
suggests the thought of a Being of infinite power,
to whom it owes its existence, as we look a little
closer, and see in ourselves and in everything on
all sides of us ten thousand instances of design and
adaptation, we feel that not only power but
wisdom also has been at work. We re-echo the
question of another psalmist : ' He that made the
eye, shall He not see ? or He that planteth the
ear, shall He not hear ?'
But we want something more than power and
wisdom if the great Being whom we worship is to
answer our idea of perfection. And if we interro
gate Nature further, and ask, ' What of the
goodness and love of God ?' what answer is
returned to us ? It is true, on the one hand, that
there are many things to suggest that He who
ordered the world in its wondrous harmony of
form and colour and beauty is hlimself goodness
and love.
' Yes,' said a great French statesman once,
' God is not only great and powerful : He is
good. Look, sir ' — and he turned to an engraving
upon the wall — ' see how beautiful this engraving
is. Yet it wants one thing — it wants colour.
God might have made the world an engraving :
He has made it a painting. Yes, God is good,
and I love Him.'
There are moods in which the beauty of the
world will irresistibly suggest this thought to us.
We gaze in silence on some fair landscape. And
when the heart swells and the eye fills with tears,
as we drink in the full beauty of the scene before

Nature and Revelation 133
us, to which, perhaps, lake and forest and snow-
clad mountain all contribute something, then, say,
is it not a sense of the goodness as well as the
greatness of God which steals in upon us, and
makes us not only stand awed and humbled at
the majesty and glory revealed, but also lifts the
heart heavenward in glad thanksgiving to Him
who has created such wondrous beauty ? But, on
the other hand, there are moods in which we
cannot deny that there is much in Nature to
baffle and perplex us. We fix our minds on
another set of facts — the ceaseless warfare, the
apparent waste, the pain and seeming cruelty all
about us in the natural world — and at once ' we
falter where we firmly trod.' We have all heard
of J. S. Mill's terrible indictment against Nature :
' Nearly all the things which men are hanged or
imprisoned for doing to one another are Nature's
everyday performances.'* Unfair, overstrained,
and exaggerated it \i ill be admitted to be ; but
yet there have been times in the lives of many
who ' trusted God was love indeed, and love
creation's final law,' when, with the fullest wish to
believe, they have yet felt as if
' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against their creed.'t
And if there was nothing beyond the revelation
of God as made in Nature, it is possible that we
should only be able to speak with stammering
lips and hesitating utterances. So, I have been
* Three Essays on Religion, p. 28.
t Tennyson, In Memoriam, lvi.

134 Messages from the Old Testament
told, was the thought borne in upon the mind of
an eminent man of science not long ago. Given
a God, he said — and he thought that all nature
pointed to the existence of one — then He must
reveal Himself. In other words, if God be indeed
Goodness and Love, as well as Power and Wisdom,
then He must speak and assure us of it Himself.
And assured us He has ; for ' God, who at
sundry times and in divers manners spake in
times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
in these last days spoken to us by His Son.'*
And ' God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'f
In the light of the Incarnation the latter half of
this nineteenth Psalm gains a new force and mean
ing. We can fitly sing it as we do in the course
of the Psalms, or as.we"take it as a proper psalm for
Christmas dayrwith hearts full of the thought of
the revelation of God's love manifested in the
manger at Bethlehem, and all that it means to us.
' The law of Jehovah is perfect : restoring the soul.
The testimony of Jehovah is sure : making wise the simple.
The statutes of Jehovah are right : rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of Jehovah is pure : enlightening the
eyes.
The fear of Jehovah is clean : enduring for ever.
The judgments of Jehovah are true: and righteous alto
gether. * * * * *
O Jehovah ! my strength and my Redeemer !'
3. But if the glory of the heaven and earth,
* Heb. i. 1. t John iii. 16.

Nature and Revelation 135
and the revelation of God's love in the Incarna
tion, are thus to make their appeal to us, we must
ever remember that something is needed on our
part. The eye must be opened, or it cannot see
the beauties of nature so lavishly scattered all
around ; the ear must be unstopped, or it cannot
hear the Divine harmonies of celestial music
which fill the air.
If you will, you can close the eyes and stop the
ears, so that to you the heavens display no glory
of God, and that to you the law of the Lord gives
no message of glad tidings. There is in the
indulgence of any known and admitted sin a
terrible power to darken the light of the eye, and
deaden the ear to the voice of God. He, there
fore, who would take in the revelation of God
must in all loyal singleness of heart keep clear of
all such. But more than this is needed. There
are many things which are not wrong in them
selves, but which, nevertheless, have a bad effect
on some people, and therefore become sin to
them, though perfectly innocent in themselves.
And as in the call to sacrifice these there lies
perhaps the hardest trial of all, so in the response
to it there will be found the surest test of the
purity and singleness of our aim. Let me give
an illustration which will convey my meaning
better than any elaborate explanation of my own.
One of the most gifted singers that the world has
known, who for her power of song was known as
the ' Swedish nightingale,' was seated one even
ing towards sunset on the seashore with an open
book on her knee. Her talk with the friend who

136 Messages from the Old Testament
sat beside her turned on her early days and
triumphant scenes, when every capital of Europe
rang with her fame. ' Oh, Madame Goldschmidt,'
said the friend, ' how was it that you ever came
to abandon the stage at the very height of your
success ?' ' When, every day,' was the quiet
answer, ' it made me think less oi this,' laying her
finger upon the open Bible, ' and nothing at all of
that,' pointing to the sunset, ' what else could I
do ?' Jenny Lind was no Puritan, with a Puritan's
horror and detestation of the stage. She never
condemned it, but she felt that, whatever it might
be for others, yet for her there were dangers to
the spiritual life in the brilliant career that had
opened out before her. At any cost she was
determined that to her the heavens should still
declare the glory of God, and that she would still
keep the knowledge that the law of Jehovah is
perfect. She would sacrifice everything that
came between her and this, and therefore her
determination was fixed, and she put aside at
once all the crowns and triumphs and homage
which were hers, not ceasing to use the gift which
God Himself had given her, but only consecrating
it to a higher use, and dedicating it to a nobler
service. It is not likely that any one of us is called
upon to make the decision in a manner that
strikes the imagination so forcibly as this. But
in a humbler fashion, and on a smaller scale, it is
possible that there are some things in the life of
many of us of which it must be confessed that
they tend to make us think every day less of the

Nature and Revelation 137
Word of God, and nothing at all of the witness
which Nature bears to Him. And if by the grace
of God we can determine that from henceforth,
be they what they may, they shall come between
us and Him no more, we shall find that somehow
the eye becomes more quick to see, and the ear
more ready to hear, and the heart more willing to
acknowledge those tokens of His presence, which
God makes known to all who love Him and
serve Him with sincerity of heart, for there is a
' secret of the Lord ' which ' is with them that
fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.'

XIV
Confession
Ps. xxxii. 6 : ' I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord ;
and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin.'
If there is one thing which is clear from Holy
Scripture in regard to the forgiveness of sin, it is
the necessity of confession of it. We see it alike
in the Old and in the New Testament : before the
Law, under the Law, in the Gospels, and in the
Epistles. ' He that covereth his sins shall not
prosper ; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh
them shall have mercy.'* In these words of the
Hebrew sage we may sum up the teaching of the
Old Testament. In these of St. John, the teach
ing of the New : ' If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'f ' If we
confess our sins ' — there it is : where the condition
is unsatisfied we have no right to expect the
blessing. Why this condition has been required by God
for His pardon it is not difficult to see. Look at
it first simply from the point of view of the
penitent himself.
* Prov. xxviii. 13. t 1 John i. 9.
138

Confession

*39

Confession is the natural relief of the over
burdened soul. It satisfies a real want in man's
moral nature. There must be many a one who
has known at some time or other what it is
to have something really weighing on the mind :
some miserable secret which you have carried
about for days, perhaps for months, unknown to
any other. How it has weighed you down, and
haunted you ! It is the real cause of that
depression of spirits which others have perhaps
taxed you with. You cannot get rid of it from
your thoughts. There it is the last thing at night,
and when you wake in the morning, even before
you have collected your thoughts, you have a dim
and confused sense of something oppressing you,
and back it all comes again as the mind clears to
full consciousness. In the daytime you do your
best to drive it away by talk and employment,
but there it is all the while. But — just tell this
miserable secret to another, some friend whose
judgment and discretion you can rely on ; and lo !
a load seems lifted off the mind at once. Liberavi
animam meam. The feeling of relief is immediate
and intense. Life, which seemed almost unbear
able yesterday, is worth living again to-day, Judge
Hughes ' story of Tom Brown at Oxford is not
perhaps so much read now as it was thirty years
ago. But there is a powerful scene in it which
bears on this point and deserves to be remembered.
The hero, who has foolishly set his hand to a bill,
and is carrying about the wretched secret that he
is liable for some hundred pounds which he
cannot pay, goes into the University church, and

140 Messages from the Old Testament
hears a sermon urging this very duty. ' Is there,
asks the preacher ' — and a footnote tells us that it
is a quotation from a sermon actually preached by
Dean Stanley — 'is there anyone who has ever
felt, who is at this moment feeling, this grievous
burden ? What is the deliverance ? How shall
he set himself free ? There is at least one way,
clear and simple. He knows it better than any
one can tell him. It is to tell the truth. . . .
One word of open, frank disclosure, one resolution
to act sincerely and honestly by himself and others,
one ray of truth let into that dark corner, will
indeed set the whole man free. Liberavi animam
meant. I have delivered my soul. What a faith
ful expression is this of the relief, the deliverance,
effected by one strong effort of will in one moment
of time.' ' I will arise, and go to my father, and
will say unto him, Father, I have sinned.' And
so after the sermon the hero of the tale comes out
from the shadow of the church, and then and
there blurts out to the trusty friend accompanying
him his confession, and in the telling it finds the
relief for which his soul has been craving. So is
it often in real life. And if it is so, we can surely
understand how God in His infinite wisdom takes
this natural instinct, and finds a place for it in the
system of His Church, and requires the confes
sion of sin to precede the Divine assurance of
pardon, making it an integral part of that repent
ance, which not only wins the forgiveness of the
sin, but also delivers the sinner from the burden
of the sin itself. Depend upon it, if we don't
understand the moral necessity of confessing our

Confession 141
sins in order to be released from them, it is
because we have no real sense of sin, because
there is nothing in us which truly merits the name of
contrition. Let the burden be felt, and the desire
to be rid of it by confessing the sin will be felt too.
Next, let us look at the matter not only from
the point of view of the penitent wrongdoer, but
from the side of him who has been wronged.
Here, again, you know for yourselves that where
a man has offended against you it makes all the
difference to you if he acknowledges his sin. So
long as the acknowledgment is withheld and there
is no expression of regret, you say that you
cannot be expected to forgive. Let there be a
frank admission of the fault and a request for
forgiveness, and your better nature tells you at
once that you should meet the offender half-way.
Why ? Because the confession is in itself at once
the outcome and the proof of the changed attitude
of the wrongdoer. It is the evidence that the
proud or unkind feelings that held sway in his
heart are reigning there no longer. They are
expelled, and his confession proclaims it aloud ;
and you feel instinctively that now to withhold
forgiveness would put you in the wrong, and
make you to become the one to harbour malice
and proud thoughts, and therefore it is that on
the spot it meets with the forgiveness it seeks,
and the reconciliation is complete. Now, if this is
the case between man and man, cannot we under
stand from it something of the nature of the
Divine forgiveness ? God's pardon is not a mere
letting off the consequences of sin. It is no

142 Messages from the Old Testament
license to sin with impunity. Rather it is the
deliverance, of the sinner from the power of sin,
and his restoration to the light of God's counte
nance. But if this is so, then God cannot pardon
so long as the sinner is continuing in his hardness
and impenitence. Only let the changed condition
be there, of which the confession is the natural
outcome and the external expression, and at once
God's love goes forth, and meets it with the full
assurance of forgiveness. There it is. ' I said, I
will confess my sins unto the Lord ; and Thou —
Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin.'
But the subject cannot be left here, for questions
have arisen, and questions always will arise, as to
the manner in which this confession is to be made.
One thing about it is quite clear and certain: that
is, it must be something very real and thorough ;
a mere vague acknowledgment of sinfulness is not
sufficient. That is easy enough to make. As all
are sinners, it costs the individual nothing to admit
it in his own case. So there are multitudes who
haunt our churches from indolence of habit, and
smilingly confess themselves sinners, without ever
remembering the tremendous purport of the words
which they employ ; who echo the thrilling
penitence of the confession in the service in
the same tone that inquires the news of the day.
In all this there is nothing in common with the
confession that brings relief to the sin-laden soul..
Much more than this is needed. As the sins
were committed one by one as definite acts, so as
definite acts they should be one by one confessed
to God. But this implies real knowledge of self,

Confession 143
such a knowledge as can only be secured by
regular searching self-examination. Even the
heathen felt that the maxim ' Know thyself came
from heaven ;* and without this self-knowledge be
sure that sins unnumbered will remain unconfessed,
and therefore unrepented of, to arise hereafter to
your shame and condemnation at the judgment,
when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed,
and we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of
Christ. All this means that repentance is a real
and serious work. It implies effort on our part, a
determination that by God's grace we will have
the courage to look into the past, to face it as it is
in God's sight ; and then honestly to speak out to
Him the truth we have discovered about ourselves,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So
much, perhaps, all thoughtful and earnest Church
men will admit to be necessary. But there
remains the further question whether this con
fession is to be made in secret to God alone, or
whether it shall be made in the presence of God's
minister, that the message of pardon may come
through the ministry of reconciliation. Now, the
question seems to me to be often needlessly
complicated, because people will speak as if there
were two confessions of sin, one to God and one
to man ; whereas this is a wholly wrong way of
putting it. The Church knows but one confession
that precedes the Divine forgiveness, and that is
confession to God. But the question for each is
whether this confession is to be made unaided, or
whether the penitent may have the help of God's
* Juvenal, Satire, xi., 1. 27.

144 Messages from the Old Testament
minister, and the authoritative anouncement of
God's pardon. And when we put it in this way,
the answer ought not to be far to seek. I do not
see how anyone who knows anything of the
history of the English Church, or who has
honestly considered the language of the Prayer-
Book, can have the shadow of a doubt that the
English Church means to provide a place for this
last for those who need it. Take such a book
as Walton's Lives of Hooker, Donne, Wotton,
Herbert, and Sanderson. It is a book that is
absolutely free from party spirit ; and the lives
told in it are those of representative Churchmen
of a sober type, and there you find one after
another making use of the help to which they felt
that they had a right.* So in the Book of
Common Prayer there are well-known passages,
both in the exhortation to Holy Communion and
in the Visitation of the Sick, which no ingenuity
can explain away, which place very clearly before
us its position in the Christian life, as the healing
medicine which the soul may require. This is
* See especially the Life of Mr. Richard Hooker : 'About
one day before his death Dr. Saravia, who knew the very
secrets of his soul — for they were supposed to be confessors to
each other — came to him, and after a conference of the benefit,
the necessity, and safety of the Church's absolution, it was
resolved that the doctor should give him both that and the
Sacrament the following day.' So also in the Life of Dr. Robert
Sanderson : ' After his taking to his bed, and about a day before
his death, he desired his chaplain, Mr. Pullin, to give him
absolution ; and at his performing that office, he pulled off his
cap, that Mr. Pullin might lay his hand upon his bare head.
After this desire of his was satisfied his body seemed to be at
more ease and his mind more cheerful.'

Confession 145
something widely different from the rigid and
compulsory _ system of the Church of Rome.
There it is insisted on as a duty. With us it is
offered as a privilege. The Church does not for
one moment say that there is no real penitence, no
true confession, without it. But she does say : If
you need the help of it, come. She teaches what
we may fairly call the liberty of confession ; and
if there are those who claim this liberty on one
side, and decline to use this medicine of the sick
soul, holding that it is not for them, let them not
take it ill if others claim this liberty on the other
side, and, feeling that they require help in laying
hold of God's promises, or in deepening their
penitence, come, as the Prayer-Book directs them
to do in such a case, to some ' discreet and
learned minister of God's word and open their
grief, that by the ministry of God's Holy Word
they may receive the benefit of Absolution,
together with ghostly counsel and advice.' In
either case the confession is made to God : from
Him alone the forgiveness can come. But, as we
are reminded every day in our daily office, He has
given ' power ' as well as ' commandment' to His
ministers ' to declare and pronounce to His
people, being penitent, the absolution and remission
of their sins,' and if He has been pleased to
appoint a ' ministry of reconciliation ' it cannot be
wrong for men to resort to it. It is for each one
to face the question for himself, and say whether
this discipline is for him. To his own Master he
standeth or faileth. But we to whom God has
committed this ministry would be untrue to our
10

146 Messages from the Old Testament
Divine commission were we not ready to offer
this means of grace to all who desire it. There
are many who have found it hard to scramble up
through their difficulties unaided, and who would
have been thankful for help had they known
where to turn for it. There are many whose sins
are ' like a sore burden, too heavy for them to
bear.' For all such GoD has provided an express
comfort and a remedy ; and not only may no man
deny it to them, but the ministers of the Church
would be unfaithful did they not make known its
existence, and proclaim their willingness to do
their part in applying it.

XV
The Destruction of Sennacherib's Host
Ps. xlvi. 1 1 : ' The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of
Jacob is our refuge.'
An interest is always added to a psalm if we can
assign its composition to some definite historical
occasion, picturing to ourselves the circumstances
under which it was written, and calling up before
the imagination the incidents to which it refers.
It is, of course, not necessary to be able to do this.
The devotional use of the Psalter is wholly inde
pendent of it, and oftentimes the language of the
psalms is such that they are appropriate to many
different circumstances and occasions. Indeed, it
is in this fact that their peculiar value lies. We
can take these old Hebrew psalms, written so
many years ago, under circumstances which are
lost in the mist of a dim antiquity, and we can
make them fit our own case to-day and turn them
into the expression of our wants, desires, hopes,
aspirations, fears, and regrets. No fitter language
can be found than that which they contain to
express our personal or national thanksgivings for
mercies received, our longing for blessings to be
i47 10—2

148 Messages from the Old Testament
granted, our confessions of sins committed. We
need not ask for what occasion they were com
posed in order to use them thus. But still, when
ever we can assign a definite occasion to any
psalm we feel that a great interest is added to it,
and we can read it with a deeper appreciation of
its beauties.
Now, the three psalms numbered xlvi., xlvii. and
xlviii. form a closely-connected group, in which
the language of thanksgiving for deliverance from
some calamity is so pointed and definite that we
can have no hesitation in saying that they must
have been composed as hymns of praise for some
special national mercy, and deliverance from some
special and imminent danger. And there is one
occasion described in the Book of Kings to which
this language is so extraordinarily appropriate
that they may be assigned to it with a probability
which approaches certainty. The occasion is the
miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from- the
army of Sennacherib in the reign of Hezekiah.
The story is familiar to every child. There is
no need to repeat it at length. Everybody will
recollect how Sennacherib came up to chastise his
rebellious vassal, and how, while besieging Lachish
with the main body of his army, he sent a force
under the command of his chief officers, the Tartan
and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh, to demand the
surrender of Jerusalem. Twice the demand was
made in insulting language, with threats of summary
vengeance should it be refused. The second
time Hezekiah took the taunting letter to the
Temple and spread it before the Lord, appealing

Destruction of Sennacherib's Host 149
to Him in his hour of extremity to confute the
blasphemies ofthe Assyrian, and to vindicate His
claims to be the living God. Then it was that
Isaiah uttered that sublime prophecy in which he
declared that Sennacherib's pride was doomed to
be humbled, and that Jerusalem would be pre
served inviolate. And so it came to pass, for
' that night the angel of the Lord went out, and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred
fourscore and five thousand : and when they arose
early in the morning, behold, they were all dead
corpses.'* Byron's fine lines set the whole scene before us
with a vividness that can scarcely be surpassed :
' The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold ;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
' Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen ;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
' For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed ;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still.
' And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride ;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

2 Kings xix. 35.

150 Messages from the Old Testament
' And there lay the rider, distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail ;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances uplifted, the trumpet unblown.
' And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal ;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.'*
How that great host was actually destroyed
must be to some extent a matter of conjecture.
The sacred historian contents himself with saying
that ' the angel of the Lord went forth and smote
them '; but, as the sound good sense of old Samuel
Johnson saw, this assertion was never intended to
deny the existence of secondary causes, and what
we call natural means. ' We are not to suppose,'
said the Doctor, ' that the angel went about with a
sword in his hand, stabbing the Assyrians as they
lay sleeping in their tents.' It is probable enough
that a pestilence, which has often been fatal to
other armies in just the very spot where the
Assyrian was encamped, was the actual instru
ment of destruction ;f but whatever it was, Israel
was perfectly right in tracing it directly to the
hand of the Lord, and so signal a manifestation
of Jehovah's power could not but strike them with
awe. Theirs was no vulgar triumph over their foes ;
and in the midst of their national rejoicing there
was mingled a note of awe, which these psalms,
with all their thankfulness, accurately reflect.
* Hebrew Melodies.
f See a striking passage to this effect in G. A. Smith's
Historical Geography ofthe Holy Land, p. 158.

Destruction of Sennacherib's Host 151
' God is our hope and strength,' so they sang at
the time, ' a very present help in trouble. There
fore will we not fear, though the earth be moved :
and though the hills be carried into the midst ofthe
sea. Though the waters thereof rage and swell :
and though the mountains shake at the tempest of
the same. The rivers of the flood thereof shall
make glad the city of God : the holy place of the
tabernacle of the most Highest. God is in the
midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed :
God shall help her, and that right early. The
heathen make much ado, and the kingdoms are
moved : but God hath showed His voice, and the
earth shall melt away. The Lord of hosts is with
us : the God of Jacob is our refuge. O come
hither, and behold the works of the Lord : what
destruction He hath wrought upon the earth. He
maketh wars to cease in all the world: He breaketh
the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and
burnetii the chariots in the fire. Be still, then,
and know that I am God : I will be exalted among
the heathen ; and I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob
is our refuge.'
History offers but few parallels to this deliver
ance, so sudden, so complete, so contrary to
human expectation. Perhaps that which comes
nearest to it is the deliverance of our own country
from the Spanish Armada. There was the same
disproportion of forces, the eighty little vessels of
the English fleet being matched against the 132
gigantic galleons, galleasses, and merchantmen of
the Spaniards. There was the same arrogance

152 Messages from the Old Testament
and boasting on the side of the invader when that
huge Armada set sail from the harbours of Spain.
There was the same sudden, complete, and un
expected destruction, traced, as was this other, by
those who witnessed it, to the hand of God Him
self. Read the historian s account of the way in
which that mighty force sailed proudly on in a
broad crescent past Plymouth, and so up the
Channel, with the gallant little English vessels
hanging on its rear, but powerless to stop it.
True that Drake and his men were able to do
serious damage, but the historian confesses that
'the work of destruction was reserved for a mightier
foe than Drake,' for the storms of the Northern
seas suddenly broke upon them in their fury, and
the huge ships were driven helplessly before them,
shattered, dispersed, and broken. ' I sent my
ships against men,' said Philip of Spain when the
news reached him, ' not against the seas.' It was
in a nobler tone, and one worthy of the old
Hebrew Psalmist, that England owned the debt
to the storm which drove the Armada to its doom.
On the medal that commemorated the triumph
were graven the words, 'The Lord sent His
wind, and scattered them.' The pride of the
conquerors was hushed before their sense of a
mighty deliverance.*
Such psalms as this on which we have been
dwelling show us how the Jews loved to think on
their national history, and how full of lessons of
* Pee J. R. Green's History of the English People, vol. ii.,
p. 446.

Destruction of Sennacherib's Host 153
hope and trust it was for them. The Church of
Jesus Christ has a history no less full of thrilling
incidents and signal manifestations of God's power.
The study of it, as Bishop Lightfoot always main
tained, is 'the best cordial for a drooping spirit.'
It will lead you to take a hopeful view of the
future. There is, indeed, a shallow optimism that
anticipates no evil and imagines that no disaster
can befall us, a sort of unreasoned conviction that
things will 'muddle out right in the end' — an
optimism that is akin to the sanguine temperament
which is always sure that something or other will
turn up, which is caught by the prospectuses of
speculators, and is invariably certain that it has
got hold of a good thing. Such an optimism is
simply mischievous, and has been the ruin of many
an honest man. But there is also an optimism
that is far deeper and nobler, that springs from no
light-hearted gaiety, and is not the result of a
mere sanguine temperament or even of a good
digestion. It is an optimism that has its roots in
knowledge of the past and experience, and is
based on a profound trust in God, who has never
forsaken the Church which the Saviour founded,
and against which He has promised that the gates
of hell shall not prevail. For well-nigh two
thousand years the Church has trusted in Him,
and she has never found her trust misplaced.
' The Lord of hosts is with us : the God of Jacob
is our refuge.' It is that thought that gives us
confidence and hopefulness in the outlook. Let
us take it as our support in times of trial, our

154 Messages from the Old Testament
assurance in days of anxiety. It will help us to
gain that spirit of quiet dependence upon God
which has been the salvation of the Church so
many times in the long course of her chequered
history, and which will be her stay and support till
the end.

XVI
Meditation
Ps. xlviii. 8 : ' We wait for Thy loving-kindness, 0 God, in
the midst of Thy temple.'
The waiting attitude is not a popular one now.
We are all for immediate action, and desirous to
be always doing something — it doesn't much
matter what. I often feel that the words of the
Psalmist and the attitude ofthe Apostles between
the Ascension and the day of Pentecost have a
message for us which perhaps was not needed in
the same way in previous periods of the Church's
history. There were times once when those
whose hearts God had touched were in danger cf
sacrificing action to contemplation — when they
were ready to ' bid for cloistered cell their neigh
bour and their work farewell.' In the third and
fourth centuries, for instance, there suddenly
sprang up in the deserts of Egypt and among
the islands of the Nile a vast colony of Christian
monks and hermits. Men who had reached lofty
positions in the State, who were high in the
counsels of the Emperor, or had commanded his
armies in the field, as they came to realise the
i55

156 Messages from the Old Testament
needs of their own spiritual life, felt as if the first
thing to be done was to flee from the wrath to
come, and disentangle themselves from the cares
and pleasures of this world ; and so, abandoning
their earthly callings, they fled to the deserts, and
there passed their days in a round of prayer and
meditation, broken only by the practice of auster
ities and the preparation of the meagre and scanty
fare which the desert provided. We need not
sneer at them, or condemn their lives as useless.
They taught the world many a much-needed
lesson, and gave an example of self-control to
men who were providing for themselves by
grasping avarice, by hasty, passionate violence,
and by giving free rein to their passions. Theirs
was perhaps the highest life of which that age
was capable, but as we look back on it we can
see that it was a one-sided life. It has been said
that ' its essence was a selfish unselfishness. It
aimed at sacrificing the excitement and vain
glory of the struggles and triumphs of the present,
or at escaping from the depressing defeats and
miseries of life, in order to gain eternal peace in
the world to come, with some firstfruits of quiet
and rest in the world which was. . Yet, self-
centred as were the thoughts of the monk, his
self-seeking was of an incomparably higher order
than that of the world around.'*
And so we need not speak slightingly of it,
although we admit that the ideal which it offered
was not the highest, and that it exaggerated one
part of man's duty at the expense of another,

*

S. R. Gardiner's Introduction to English History, p. 2

o-

Meditation 157
which is really not less important. There is,
however, not much risk of our falling into the
same exaggeration to-day. With us the danger
lies in the opposite direction. The monk may have
sacrificed action to contemplation ; many of us
most certainly are too ready to sacrifice contem
plation to action. We are never happy unless
we are busy doing something. To ' wait for
God's loving-kindness in the midst of His temple'
sounds like a counsel of perfection, and some
thing beyond our powers. It would be all very
well if life were longer, if it wasn't such a rush
and hurry. But, as things are, it seems like
waste of time and indolence. We have got into
such a way of rushing through life that we can't
sit still :
' We see all sights from pole to pole,
And glance, and nod, and bustle by,
And never once possess our soul
Before we die.'*
The week is taken up from Monday morning
till Saturday with business, politics, society, in
terests of one kind or another, which leave but
scanty leisure for serious thought on religion and
the things of God, and a change of habit and
feeling has gradually crept over us with regard to
the Sunday. It is turned by one half of the
community into a day of pleasure. There are
constant ' week-ends ' in the country or at the
seaside, and so the other half of the community is
kept hard at work on the Sunday to minister to
* Matthew Arnold, A Southern Night.

158 Messages from the Old Testament
the pleasures of their more fortunate neighbours.
All this is robbing many persons of just the one
quiet day in the week which their forefathers
were accustomed to dedicate to thought and
prayer and self-examination, and the loss to our
personal religion who shall dare to estimate? It
is very striking sometimes, in reading older
biographies, to notice how much time busy and
active men used formerly to succeed in securing
for such communion with God, and one cannot
but wish that more persons would make an effort
to secure it to-day. Take such a book as
Boswell's Lije oj Johnson. How constant are
the references in it to Johnson's meditations and
prayers ! How striking is the account given ofthe
rules which he drew up for his religious life and
observance of Sundays, when he was to ' examine
the term of his life, and particularly the last week,
and to mark his advances in religion or recession
from it, and also to wear off by meditation any
worldly soil contracted in the week !' How
impressive is the notice of that Good Friday
which Boswell passed with him, when Johnson
spent the time between the two church services
in quietly studying the Greek Testament !
Or take another life, belonging not so much to
the eighteenth century, but to the first half of the
last. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was a busy
man with his hands full, if ever there was one —
a man with a large and constantly-developing
business to manage, a member of Parliament with
the keenest interest in the social questions of the
day. He was the man on whom William Wilber-

Meditation 159
force's mantle fell when that veteran philan
thropist was forced by age and infirmities to give
up the leadership of the party that was agitating
for the suppression of slavery ; and in addition to
all this Buxton was a keen sportsman, passionately
devoted to field sports, to his horses, his dogs,
and his guns, Yet as you read the life of this
man you cannot fail to have your attention
arrested by the way in which, in the midst of his
busy life and multifarious duties and interests to
be attended to, he insisted on making time for
quiet thought, not only keeping his Sundays free
from business thoughts and cares, but, in addition
to this, snatching a hardly-earned day here and
there, when he would escape from the world, and
spend hours alone in meditation and review of
the past, and communings of his spirit with his
God. It is something of this kind that we need,
almost more than anything else, in the religious
life of to-day. We cannot do without time for
thought, review, consideration, and the words of
the Psalmist, which I have read to you as my
text, may well remind us of what is wanted.
' We wait for Thy loving-kindness, O God, in the
midst of Thy temple.'
When St. Bernard's old pupil, Eugenius, was
raised to the Papacy, the saint was asked to write
him a letter of advice as to his life in the exalted
position in which he found himself, and St. Bernard,
after describing in forcible terms the deadening
and hardening effect of the rush and hurry of life
necessitated by the mass of secular cares and
business into which the chief pastor of the Church

160 Messages from the Old Testament
would be plunged, gives him as his main counsel
this simple piece of advice : Vacari consideration
— Get time to think.* Charles Darwin was a
very different man from St. Bernard, but his
counsel to his disciple, John George Romanes, is
identical : ' Cultivate the habit of meditation.'
The saint of the twelfth century and the scientific
teacher of the nineteenth are at one in their
counsel to their followers, and it is a counsel
which none of us would be the worse for following.
' We wait for Thy loving-kindness, O God, in
the midst of Thy temple.' However busy your
life may be, ' get time to think.' ' Cultivate the
habit of meditation,' and wait upon the Lord your
God.
* St. Bernard, De Consideratione, book i., c. vii.

XVII
The Imprecatory Psalms
Ps. lviii. 8 : ' Or ever your pots be made hot with thorns :
so let indignation vex him, even as a thing that is raw '
(P.-B. V.).
The Prayer-Book version of the psalms must ever
be dear to Churchmen. It is not only that it is
associated with our childhood and bound up with
our earliest recollections, although, indeed, the fact
that it is through it that most of us made our first
acquaintance with the Psalms of David, and that
we have been familiar with its cadences as far
back as memory carries us, can hardly fail to make
us love it ; but, besides this, the intrinsic merits
of the version are so great that it is not likely that
it will ever be rudely- discarded. It comes origin
ally, as a note in the prefatory matter at the
beginning of our Prayer-Book tells us, from 'the
translation of the great English Bible, set forth and
used in the time of Henry VIII. and Edward VI.'
This is what is commonly known as Cranmer's
Bible, though the man to whom it is really mainly
due was Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter. His hand
is apparent throughout ; and to his exquisite taste
161 ii

162 Messages from the Old Testament

wt>

and faultless ear we owe the marvellous melody
and rhythm of the Prayer-Book version as com
pared with the later translation of the seventeenth
century found in our Bibles, or the still more
recent version with which the exact scholarship of
the nineteenth century has furnished us. We
cannot wonder that when at the last revision of
the Prayer-Book in 1662 the daily lessons, together
with the Epistles and Gospels, were ordered to be
taken from the then recent version of King James's
reign a special exception was made in favour of
the Psalter, because the choirs and congregations
had grown familiar with the older translation,
which was felt to be smoother and more easy to
sing. Smoother and more easy to sing it cer
tainly is. ' Its style' — so it has recently been said
by one who has made a special study of it — 'is
bold and vigorous, and at the same time singularly
flowing and melodious ; its phraseology, while
thoroughly idiomatic and of genuinely native
growth, is dignified and chaste. Coverdale, it is
evident, must have been a natural master of
English style, and must have possessed a natural
aptitude for finding felicitous forms of expression,
and for casting them into harmonious and finely-
rolling periods.'* And yet, admire it as we well
may, we cannot deny that as a translation it is not
free from serious defects. Not only did Cover-
dale allow himself considerable freedom in dealing
with the shape of the original sentences, but some
times, it must be confessed, he has given us
* S. R. Driver, The Parallel Psalter, p. xxiv,

The Imprecatory Psalms 163
renderings out of which it is difficult to extract
any meaning whatever.
' Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall
ye be as the wings of a dove : that is covered with
silver wings, and her feathers like gold. When
the Almighty scattered kings for their sake : then
were they as white as snow in Salmon.'
How many persons out of an ordinary con
gregation can attach any definite idea to these
verses of Psalm Ixviii., or who has any concep
tion of the meaning of Psalm lxxxvii. ? ' I will
think upon Rahab and Babylon: with them that
know me. Behold ye the Philistines also : and
they of Tyre, with the Morians ; lo, there was
he born. . . . The singers also and trumpeters
shall he rehearse : all my fresh springs shall be in
thee.' So with the passage before us which is sung
in the ordinary course of the psalms on the eleventh
morning of the month. There must be many
who from their childhood have been puzzled and
bewildered when called upon to join in repeating
the words : ' Or ever your pots be made hot with
thorns: so let indignation vex him, even as a thing
that is raw.' What in the world do they signify?
In this particular case we most certainly need not
think hardly of Coverdale because his translation
fails to convey much meaning to us, for I doubt if
the revisers of 1884 have been much more suc
cessful in framing a rendering that shall be
intelligible. ' Before your pots can feel the thorns
He shall take them away with a whirlwind, the
green and the burning alike.' Further, it must be
noted that by presenting us with an alternative in
11 — 2

164 Messages from the Old Testament
the margin they have indicated that considerable
doubt hangs over the real translation of the words :
' Before your pots can feel the thorns, even as
raw flesh, even so shall fury sweep them away.'
The verse, then, is in any case a difficult one, and
the reader of the Prayer-Book version is not the
only person who requires the aid of the expositor
if he is to attach any meaning to it. However,
though the precise sense of the words in the second
half of the verse may be uncertain, there is no
real doubt as to the general aim and significance
of the verse as a whole, and a short explanation
may perhaps make it clear to all. It comes imme
diately after some of those fierce imprecations of
evil upon the Psalmist's foes, with which we are
from time to time startled in these ancient hymns.
In the previous verses David, or whoever may
have been the author of the psalm, has compared
his persecutors to wild beasts, and has called upon
God to break their teeth, and so to render them
powerless. He has asked that they may fail as
the torrent in the desert, swollen by the winter's
snows and rains, but dwindling down to a tiny
stream, and then failing altogether in the heat of
summer. He has prayed that they may become
as the slime in the empty shell, when the snail has
been shrivelled and wasted away during a long-
continued drought. And then, once more changing
the figure, he imagines them as a party of travellers
in the desert gathered together towards evening
for refreshment. The chase is ended, the quarry
is struck down, and the hungry travellers have
assembled round the fire to roast it for their

The Imprecatory Psalms 165
supper. We are to suppose that the thorns, which
furnish the only fuel forthcoming in the desert,
have been hastily gathered together into a pile ;
the pot is slung over them with the raw meat
inside. A light is put to the sticks. The fire
blazes up, and the hunters are reckoning on pre
sently satisfying their hunger. ' But,' cries the
Psalmist, ' or ever your pots can feel the thorns,'
before the fire has properly heated them, or the
meat begun to be cooked, God shall send the
storm wind down upon you. In an instant the
fuel so laboriously gathered together, the green.
sticks and the burning alike, shall be swept away
with a whirlwind. What a picture of disappointed
expectation it is ! The chase over, the men
gathered round the fire in eager anticipation of
the coming supper, the fire blazing up, and then in
an instant the men half-blinded by the sandstorm,
and flesh, fuel, and pots scattered to the winds !
So, cries the Psalmist, does God deal with those
who work wickedness, who weigh out the violence
of their hands. It is then you see David's way of
describing the law of retribution, and God's inter
position in judgment upon the schemes of the
ungodly. For a time all seems to prosper with
them : their plans are successful. Everything
seems ripening to a satisfactory conclusion. They
are on the verge of reaping the results of their
labours ; but just then, just when their exertions
are at an end and they are about to taste the
fruits of them, God interposes with His ven
geance, and the cup is dashed from their lips.
*So that men shall say, Verily there is a reward

166 Messages from the Old Testament
for the righteous : doubtless there is a God that
judgeth the earth.'
If this were all, the explanation given of the
Psalmist's words would remove all difficulty from
the verse. It would become but the statement in
a vigorous and dramatic form of the law of God's
dealings with men, which poets and moralists and
preachers have enforced in every age. The young
lion with its tusks broken ; the swollen torrent
hurrying away and disappearing ; the arrow, ready
to be launched, snapped in two ; the snail that had
fortified itself against the summer overtaken by
the hot rays ; the fruit of the womb, after long and
anxious hopes, cast forth lifeless ; and, lastly, the
whirlwind sweeping away the banqueter's food.
What a series of illustrations these are of destruc
tion — sudden and unexpected — overtaking sinners
at the last ! What instances is history ever fur
nishing of the truth of the Psalmist's words, and
of the action of God's law of retribution ! The
mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding
small. ' Yes, Robespierre, there is a God !' cried
one, when he saw ' the sea-green incorruptible ' of
the Reign of Terror, who only the day before had
seemed to be all-powerful, himself carried off to
the guillotine, to which he had condemned so
many. If this were all, I say, the whole difficulty
of the verse would be removed when once the
figure underlying it was understood. But we
cannot help feeling that this is not all. It is no
mere abstract statement of a law that the Psalmist
enunciates. The passage throbs with emotion,

The Imprecatory Psalms 167
and in verse after verse the writer wishes that
these evils may fall upon his enemies. You cannot
water down his words so that they shall become
mere prophecies of what will happen. He is
consumed with the thirst for vengeance, and heaps
these maledictions upon the head of his foes.
And the thought arises at once in our minds that
though such feelings may have been natural and
appropriate enough under the Old Dispensation,
and that though we can understand their finding
utterance on the lips even of an inspired man
before the higher revelation of the New Testament
was given, yet they are out of place in the mouth
of the followers of Him who said to His disciples,
' Love your enemies ; do good to them that hate
you ; and pray for them that despitefuUy use you.'*
The difficulty is a real one, and is felt by many.
And yet I cannot help thinking that the Church
is right to sing the Psalter through as a whole,
and not to attempt to expurgate it for Christian
woiship. Verses such as these, which contain the
imprecations which were natural once in a fierce
and revengeful age, may still serve as a reminder
of a truth which we are often in danger of for
getting. I grant you that such sentiments as
those to which the Psalmist gives utterance are
not the sentiments of Christian men and women,
and that we have no right literally to make the
wishes contained in them our own ; but there was
something which the Psalmist was feeling after
* Matt. v. 44.

168 Messages from the Old Testament
which we ought to be able to enter into. The
Christian poet bids us
' Marvel not if such as bask
In purest light of innocence,
Hope against hope in love's dear task,
Spite of all dark offence ;
If they who hate the trespass most,
Yet, when all other love is lost,
Love the poor sinner, marvel not ;
Christ's mark outwears the rankest blot.'*
That is a noble ideal — to hate the trespass, but
to love the sinner. But we know how difficult it
is to combine the two things. If we hate the
trespass, we are indignant with the sinner. If we
love the sinner, we are pretty sure to think lightly
of the sin. Under the Old Covenant men were
good haters. ' O ye that love the Lord, see that
ye hate the thing which is evil,' cried the Psalmist;!
and men did learn to hate sin. They were con
sumed with a zeal for righteousness, and a horror
and detestation of evil. But can we wonder that
they confused together and banned with an indis-
crimate curse the sin and the sinner, and that the
imprecation which should have been reserved for
the sin Was invoked on the head of the sinner? It
was the fault of a strong, stern age — yes, if you
will, of a vindictive age. With us the tendency is
very different. Christ has taught us a nobler
law, and has bidden us distinguish. Those who
have caught most of His Spirit are the men ' who
* Keble, The Christian Year, Fifth Sunday after Trinity.
t Ps. xcvii. io.

The Imprecatory Psalms 169
hate the trespass most,' and yet, ' when all other
love is lost,' still ' love the poor sinner.' But with
most of us, are we really faithful to His law? We
are ready to be tender to the sinner, but are we
not in danger of losing sight altogether of that
righteous hatred of sin, which is as necessary
under the Gospel as under the law. The sense
of sin as sin, and the horror of it which marked
the saints of God, which inspired those words of
the incarnate Son of God which seem to us so
stern, which makes the New Testament, with all
its love and pity, a severe book — this sense of the
exceeding sinfulness of sin seems to be almost
dying out among men. We gloss over wrong
doing. A man is called ' unlucky ' if he is found
out. He 'gets into trouble' when he does a dis
honest act, and cheats his employer. A girl is
' unfortunate ' if the consequences of her sin over
take her. Wrhy is it that we shrink from calling
things by their right names ? It is because the
sin itself is thought but little of. We look at it
from the world's point of view, and regard it
simply as it affects men in their temporal relations.
Let us be charitable to the sinner ; but do not let
us in our tenderness to him so water down our
language, and with our language our thoughts
about sin, as to destroy altogether our sense of
its sinfulness. Depend upon it, if we do, we shall
find that our own spiritual life will suffer. We
shall think less of sin in ourselves, and our resist
ance against temptation will become weak and
feeble. Oh, believe me, one of the greatest reli
gious needs of the present day is a revival of the

170 Messages from the Old Testament
sense of sin. ' How shall I do this great wicked
ness, and sin against God ?!
Unless a man realises what sin is, how hateful
in the sight of God, and what the nature of His
curse upon it is, he is powerless when overtaken
by temptation ; and I often feel that the recitation
of these maledictions in the psalms may serve a
useful purpose in reminding us that we, like the
Jews, ought to be capable of being good haters.
Not, like them, haters of the sinners, but, dis
entangling the man from the sin, haters of the sin.
We cannot make their words literally our own, nor
wish that these evils may overtake those who may
have injured us. But as we repeat them histori
cally, they may help us to realise that behind it all
there was a real zeal for God's honour, and a
hatred of the thing that is evil, in which we are
sadly lacking. And, realising this, we may be
stirred up to a zeal that is according to knowledge
— a zeal for all that is good and holy and pure,
which shall lead us to detest as dishonouring to
God all that is evil, and unholy, and impure. So
shall our own lives become purer in His sight
and freer from sin ; and as we learn to combine the
Old Testament hatred of sin with the love for the
sinner which the New Testament has taught us,
we shall become truer followers of Him who 'did
no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,' and
who yet ' came into the world to save sinners.'
'When any of you,' says an old Christian
preacher, ' is singing the verse of the psalms where
it is said, " Let the proud be put to shame," let him
be earnest to avoid pride, that he may escape

The Imprecatory Psalms 171
everlasting shame. When we sing, "Thou wilt
destroy all them that are seduced away from Thee,"
let us strive to escape from all evil desire ; and
as often as sinners are cursed in the psalms let us
endeavour to flee from sin, lest we be found to
curse ourselves with our own mouth.' That is
the answer returned to those who were puzzled by
the difficulty so long ago as the fifth century after
Christ, and I do not think that we need ask for
a better.

XVIII
Rahab and Babylon
Ps. lxxxvii. 3, 4 : 'I will think upon Rahab and Babylon : with
them that know me. Behold ye the Philistines also: and they
of Tyre, with the Morians ; lo, there was he born ' (P.-B. V.).
There is perhaps no psalm in the whole Psalter
so hopelessly bewildering and unintelligible to the
English reader as Psalm lxxxvii. As the wor
shipper in our churches joins in its recitation on
the seventeenth morning of the month, the won
dering thought must often recur to his mind,
what does it all mean ? Who was Rahab ? Who
were the Morians ? Tyre we know, and Philistia
we know. But who are these ? And who was
born — and where ? ' Of Zion it shall be reported
that he was born in her,' the next verse proceeds,
and so probably a large number of persons have a
dim and hazy notion that the birth of Christ is
alluded to, although they scarcely see how to
reconcile this with the fact that He was born, not
in Zion, but in Bethlehem. What, then, once
more, does it really mean ?
Let me try to explain it, and set before you as
briefly and simply as possible the leading thought
172

Rahab and Babylon 173
of the psalm. And, first, a word or two about
Rahab and the Morians. Rahab has, of course,
nothing whatever to do with the harlot who hid
the spies, as we read in the Book of Joshua.
Rahab properly means ' insolence ' or ' pride,' and
it is used occasionally as the name of a dragon or
sea monster, such as the crocodile, which is fitly
taken as the emblem ofthe power of Egypt. In
much the same way as with us the titles of ' the
Russian bear ' or ' the British lion ' are familiarly
used to represent these two great Powers of the
modern world, so in this psalm, as in the Book
of Isaiah, where the prophet, apostrophising the
arm of the Lord, says, ' Art thou not it that hath
cut Rahab and wounded the dragon,'* it is merely
a symbolical name for Egypt. The Morians are
also an African people. Ethiopia the Revised
Version gives : the Morians of the Prayer-Book
version being nothing but the old way of writing
and speaking of the Moors. We are not con
cerned to defend the queer geography of the
sixteenth-century translators, who identified the
land of the Moors with Ethiopia or Abyssinia. It
is enough to know that the term was used as a
popular and familiar one to denote a people of
Africa. Tyre and Babylon stand for the great
world Powers of Asia, and so Rahab and the
Morians, or Egypt and Ethiopia, stand for the
world Powers of the dark continent of Africa.
And the central thought of the psalm is that a
day shall come when these great empires — at the
time when the psalmist wrote so hostile to God's
* Isa. li. 9.

174 Messages from the Old Testament
people — shall one day be enrolled as citizens of
Zion, and thus admitted to a share in the blessings
of the kingdom of heaven. By a singularly bold
and striking figure God Himself is represented as
taking a census of His people, registering those
who are counted as His children or reckoned as
born in Zion. It is each one of these, not the
Christ, of whom it is said that ' he was born
there.' Foreign nations, says a recent writer, are
thus here described, ' not as captives or tributaries,
nor even as doing voluntary homage to the great
ness and glory of Zion, but as actually incorpo
rated and enrolled by a new birth among her sons.
Even the worst enemies of the race, the tyrants
and oppressors of the Jews, Egypt and Babylon,
are threatened with no curse. No shout of joy is
raised in the prospect of their overthrow ; but the
privileges of citizenship are extended to them,
and they are welcomed as brothers. Nay, more :
God Himself receives each one as a child newly-
born into His family, acknowledges each as LI is
son, and enrols him with His own hand in the
sacred register of His children.'* With this
thought in your mind hear the psalm as it stands
in the Revised Version, and say, is it not instinct
with new meaning ? May we not fitly say that it
is the Old Testament expression of the truth
which St. Paul declares when he tells us that ' in
Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free ' ?f or when he
writes to the Gentile Church at Ephesus, ' Now,
* Bishop Perowne, On the Psalms, vol-ii,, p. 133,
t Col. iii. 11.

Rahab and Babylon 175
therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the
household of God ' ?*
' His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee
O city of God.'
God speaks :
'I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as
among them that know me.
Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia ;
This one was born there.
Yea, of Zion it shall be said, This one and that
one was born in her.
And the Most High Himself shall establish her.
The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the
peoples,
This one was born there.
They that sing as well as they that dance shall say,
All my fountains are in thee.'
Is not the psalm fuller of meaning now than it
was before ? Cannot you see that it is a magnifi
cent prophecy of the Catholic Church ? One by
one the great nations of the world pass before the
eye of the Psalmist. The brow of each is wet
with the waters of baptismal grace, for by a new
birth of water and the Spirit ' this one and that
one,' each single one of them, has entered the
kingdom of heaven, and lo ! his name stands on
the register of freemen : he is enrolled as a citizen
of that Zion or Jerusalem which is ' the mother of
us all,' * Eph. ii. 19.

176 Messages from the Old Testament
It is a glorious vision that opened out before
the eyes of the Psalmist. But it is a humiliating
thought that nineteen centuries of Christianity
have passed away, and the twentieth century
since the birth of Christ has dawned, and the
prophecy is still a prophecy. It has never yet
received an adequate fulfilment. That it will
do so one day it were the grossest want of faith
to doubt ; but at present we have sadly to con
fess that it is still only an ideal, and that the
day seems yet very far distant when the great
world Powers of Asia and Africa, now the strong
holds of Mohammedanism, will be enrolled and
admitted by a new birth into the family of God's
covenant and adoption. Still, it is something to
stir the heart, and to send the blood pulsing with
quicker courses through the veins, to feel that you
are taking part in the fulfilment of prophecy, and
that is the aspect of missionary work which I
want you to think of to-day.
It lifts it at once to a higher level, where we
can see that the objections brought against foreign
missions are not worth the paper on which they
are written. Men may criticise our methods, and
if they can show us that they are wrong we shall
be grateful for the criticism, and strive to mend
our ways. But to object to missions themselves
is to disbelieve in the Scriptures of God, and to
tell us to disregard altogether, as the baseless
fabric of a vision, those glowing pictures of a
world-wide Church which psalmist and prophet
sketched, and which were before our Lord when
He bade His disciples, in words that we can never

Rahab and Babylon 177
forget, to 'go and make disciples of all nations,'
and pledges His word that His personal presence
should be with them as they went forth in fulfil
ment of His command.
But what I would press upon you is this : that
on no branch of the Church is the duty more
clearly imposed than the Church of England.
Never was a Church with such unparalleled
opportunities, and never was a Church more mani
festly marked out by the providence of God to be
a missionary Church than our own. Look at her
position and character, and you cannot fail to see
this. Think of our vast colonial Empire as it
exists at this moment, the growth of some three
centuries. Already this gives us a position and a
standing-ground in every quarter of the globe.
It has taught us to ' think in continents.' British
commerce and the British flag are found every
where, and it were wilful blindness to fail to see
in this an indication that God means the Church
of England to be found everywhere, and to be
beyond others a missionary Church. Or think of
the Church's character. It is a truism to say that
our unhappy divisions form one of the most serious
hindrances to missionary work. ' To educated
heathen,' wrote one who was himself a heathen,
' it is a matter of merriment to see the different
sects of Christians keeping up an incessant warfare
with each other. Each sect is never tired of pro
nouncing the mild curse of damnation upon the
rest.'* When such a statement as this can pass
current, we cannot but feel that if the kingdoms
* The Times, August 21, 1872. 12

178 Messages, from the Old Testament
of the world are to become the kingdom of our
Lord and of His Christ the reunion of Christen
dom must not be the dream of a few enthusiasts,
but a practical matter, which has a foremost place
in our prayers. And here we cannot forget how
a French writer has seen in the Church of Eng
land, with its firm maintenance of the Apostolic
ministry and order, together with its sympathy
for the reforming spirit and its jealousy for the
supremacy of Holy Scripture, the best hope for a
reunited Christendom in the future. ' If ever,'
said De Maistre in often-quoted words, ' Christians
are to be united, it seems as if the movement
must come from the Church of England.'
^Thus all things seem to indicate that God in
His providence has marked out a special work for
our nation and Church in the extension of His
kingdom and the fulfilment of the prophecies
which describe it. But, alas ! how slow, how very
slow, we have been to recognise it !
In the sixteenth century the Roman Church
could tell a stirring tale of heroism as she recorded
the life and labours of one who has justly been
called the father of modern missions, St. Francis
Xavier, and could point to a long roll of converts —
aye, and a noble army of martyrs who had laid
down their lives for the faith in far-distant India,
and even beyond its shores, in China and Japan,
while the English Church was content to do
nothing for the spread of the Gospel among the
heathen except that on one day, and one day
only, in the course of the whole year she offered
up a prayer that God would ' have mercy on all

Rahab and Babylon 179
Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics.' That was
her sole contribution to the missionary work of
the Church of Christ. It is indeed strange to
think how little recognition there is even now in
our Book of Common Prayer of the obligation
to pray for the conversion of the heathen, and of
the duty of co-operating in the work of foreign
missions. Besides the not very happily worded
Good Friday Collect to which I have referred, no
direct missionary collect is to be found within its
covers. In the seventeenth century the prayer for
all sorts and conditions of men was added, as well
as the service for the baptism of such as are of
riper years, which it was thought might be always
useful ' for the baptizing of natives in our planta
tions, and others converted to the Faith.' This
was some recognition of the possibility of mis
sionary work being attempted, but, in all con
science, it was meagre enough. There are, of
course, some of the collects into which you can
read in thoughts and aspirations connected with
foreign missions, and no earnest Christian can
possibly pray the Lord's prayer without making
the words ' Thy kingdom come ' a real missionary
intercession. Yet when we wish to pray for
special classes, for our own colonists, for the
heathen, for missionaries, for catechumens, for
converts, for the Church in any particular quarter
of the world, we are compelled to look outside
the Prayer-Book for the petitions that we need ;
and it is a simple truth that ' it hardly seems to
have been present to the minds of our great
authorities and leaders in compiling that book that
12 — 2

180 Messages from the Old Testament
the matter should be in the thoughts of everyone
who calls himself a Christian, and that no ordinary
service should be considered complete which did
not plead, amongst other things, for the spread of
the Gospel.'*
And, again, there are few chapters of history
which furnish more painful reading to an English
Churchman than those which tell the story of the
planting and growth of our colonial Empire. It is
enough to make us hang our heads for shame as
we read how slow the Church has been to go in
and possess the land, and how little she realised
for centuries that she had any duties at all towards
the heathen. The foundation of the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge at the end of the
seventeenth, and of its offshoot, the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in
the first year of the eighteenth, century, showed
that the consciences of a few earnest-minded men
were stirred by the needs of their countrymen and
the heathen around and beyond them. But the
support which the societies received from the
Church at large was miserably inadequate. So cold
and dead were Englishmen, that for some years
it was found necessary to employ the services of
Danish and German missionaries,, and those not
of our own communion, because no Englishman
would offer himself for the work. Again, a
hundred years later the formation of the Church
Missionary Society gave noble proof that some,
at least, of the Church's most devoted sons were
* Encyclical Letter of the Lambeth Conference of 1897
p. 27.

Rahab and Babylon 181
beginning to awake to their responsibilities ; but
still the Church at large appeared to sleep the
sleep of the dead. Meanwhile, our colonies were
spreading on every side, new territories were
being opened up, and English folk pouring into
them by thousands. Left to themselves, what
wonder that too often they lived themselves and
allowed their children after them to grow up as
' aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and
without God in the world'? And when the
Church did become conscious of their existence,
how miserably feeble seemed her efforts to provide
for their wants! It sounds almost like a grim
pleasantry to hear that so recently as 1829 there
was a solemn attempt made to supply the spiritual
needs of Australia by making that vast island
continent an archdeaconry of India, and that at
the same time Churchmen in our South African
colony were utterly destitute of episcopal super
vision and guidance, and had no opportunity of
receiving the grace of confirmation save when
some Indian Bishop happened to land at the
Cape of Good Hope for two or three days on his
voyage to or from his distant diocese. And if the
wants of our own people were so wretchedly pro
vided for, it goes without saying that the bitter cry
of the heathen world, ' Come over and help us,'
fell unheeded on the ears of all but a very few.
The year from which we must date the rise of
better things is 1841. In that year Bishop
Blomfield pressed upon the consciences of Church
men his famous truism, ' An episcopal Church
without Bishops is a contradiction in terms,' and

i82 Messages from the Old Testament
the Colonial Bishoprics Fund was established.
And what has been the result ? Sixty-three
years ago, outside the limits of the United King
dom, there were but eight Anglican dioceses — to
day there are one hundred* Think of that, and
you will realise as perhaps you have never done
before how recent is the growth of the colonial
Church and our missionary dioceses. We cannot
forget the noble work done in earlier times by
individuals, and the brave struggles of our mis
sionary societies to arouse Churchmen to a sense
of their duty, but still, it is no exaggeration to say
that the Church in her corporate capacity only
began to awake to a sense of her duty and her
calling little more than sixty years ago, a time
well within the recollection of many who are still
living among us. This fact must ever be borne
in mind when we are estimating the growth of
our foreign missions and the strength of the
Church in them. Realise of what recent growth
they are, and you will see that we have no cause
for discouragement. The wonder is that, having to
make up the arrears of two hundred years, during
which the Church in the colonies was virtually
deprived of episcopal superintendence, they have
done so much and grown so fast. Already our
episcopate well-nigh girdles the earth, and it has
been truly said that ' in the years to come, and
those not so very far distant, the vastest volume
of worship will be, not in Latin, but in English.'f
* This, of course, is exclusive of the dioceses of the Pro
testant Episcopal Church of America.
t Cf. Archbishop Alexander, Verbum Cruets, p. 123.

Rahab and Babylon 183
Still, as we think of all that yet remains to be
done, as we realise that in India, out of a popula
tion of nearly three hundred millions, not many
more than two millions are returned as Christians
of all denominations, we feel that whatever has
been done in the past is but as a drop in the
ocean compared with the vastness of the work
which still lies before us, and the need is brought
home to us of redoubling our prayers, our alms,
and our efforts to spread the Gospel to the
farthest regions of the earth. ' The isles ' still
' wait for His law.' Not until the ' Lord Himself
can count, in registering peoples,' of each single
one of them, ' This man was born there,' will the
Church's work of evangelising the nations be
done. Till then be it ours to lift up the hands
that hang down, and the feeble knees ; to work on
in spite of failure and discouragement ; to do all
that lies in our power for the spread of Christ's
kingdom on earth, and the fulfilment of the glow
ing visions of prophecy.

XIX
The Study of Church History
Ps. cvi. 2 : ' Who can express the noble acts of the Lord ?'
There was an ancient custom in many of our
English cathedrals whereby the whole Psalter
was parcelled out among the Bishop, and Canons,
or Prebendaries, separate psalms being assigned
to each, which they were bound by rule to
recite every day, wherever they were, so that as
an act of praise there might rise to the throne of
God the whole Psalter repeated each day through
out the year by the officers of the cathedral
church of the diocese. It was a beautiful
thought that the ceaseless roar and unbroken cry
of sin that goes up from this earth should be
drowned by the voice of praise rising from the
hearts and voices of God's people, and that each
day of the year the hundred and fifty psalms of
the Psalter should ascend from the lips of the
clergy connected with the mother-church of the
diocese, wherever they might be, and that some
forty or fifty voices (for so many Canons there
anciently were) should contribute their share from
town and hamlet, which should mingle and blend
184

The Study of Church History 185
together, and that the fifty voices should weave one
single chain of praise, and lay one offering at the
feet of God. The custom has ceased now, as
perhaps it was inevitable that it should cease ; but
in some cathedrals the recollection of it is kept
alive by the titles and first words of the psalms
attached to each Canonry being inscribed above
the stalls assigned to them in the choir ; and in
many cases the Canons and Prebendaries still feel
that they have a special property in, and attach
ment to, that psalm or group of psalms, which was
anciently connected with the stall which they
occupy. So in the seventeenth century at
Lincoln, Bishop Sanderson, the author of the
Preface to our Book of Common Prayer, when
Prebendary of that cathedral, loved to preach to
the people sermons on what he fondly called ' my
prebendal psalms '; and following the example set
by that honoured name, I propose to speak to you
on that psalm which is sung in the course of the
evening service on the 2 ist day of the month, which
I love to think of as ' my prebendal psalm,' for
it was anciently assigned to that stall in Wells
Cathedral which it is my privilege to hold to-day.
Psalm cvi. is very closely connected with that
which immediately precedes it. Both the 105th
and the 106th are what may be called historical
psalms, sketching in rapid outline the past history
of God's people, recalling to the mind of a later
generation His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, His preservation of Joseph, the descent of
Israel into Egypt, the fortunes of the people there,
the wonders of the Exodus, the passage of the

186 Messages from the Old Testament
Red Sea, the incidents of the forty years' wander
ing in the wilderness, the conquest of the
land of promise, and the settlement of the
chosen people therein. Both psalms cover much
the same ground, but they approach the history
from different points of view. Psalm cv.
celebrates God's unfailing mercies in the past, and
is a psalm of thanksgiving. Psalm cvi. confesses
Israel's persistent ingratitude and repeated
apostasy, and is a psalm of penitence. They are
thus complementary to each other, and taken
together supply a comprehensive view of past
history, recalling to mind on the one hand,, for our
encouragement, the wonderful works which God
has ever done for His people, and on the other,
for our warning, reminding us how much of
faithlessness on our part there has ever been in
response to this wondrous loving-kindness of His ;
and nothing is more remarkable in these two
psalms than the entire absence of any word or
sentiment tending to feed the national vanity.
All the glory of Israel's history is confessed to be
due, not to her heroes, her priests, her prophets,
but to God. All the failures which are written
upon that history, all discomfitures, losses, reverses,
the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, are
recognised as the righteous chastisements which
the sins of the nation have provoked. Just the
same thing holds good of the other historical
psalms found in the Psalter as well, such as the
78th, that long psalm for the fifteenth evening,
and the 135th, each verse of which contains the
refrain ' For His mercy endureth for ever.'

The Study of Church History 187
And it is invariably the tone assumed by all the
Divinely-instructed teachers of the people — by
the prophets in their great sermons, as by the
poets in their contributions to the national liturgy.
There is no other poetry in the world of a popular
and national kind so full of patriotic sentiment, and
yet at the same time marked by so complete an
abstinence from all those themes which are
commonly found in poetry written for the people.
There is not a single ode in honour of Moses, or
Aaron, or Joshua, or David ; there is not one
which sings the glory of the nation, except as that
glory is given it of God. The history of the
nation, wherever referred to, is referred to, not for
the purpose of self-applause or self-commendation,
but either for purposes of rebuke of national
faithlessness, or for the sake of giving to God the
honour and praise that are His due. Well did
the Jews understand the value of the appeal to
history, and excellently did they use it. In times
of anxiety and disaster they would appeal to God
by the memory of His past interpositions on their
behalf. They were familiar with the story of it
all, and could use it as an argument for present
help. ' O God,' they cried, ' we have heard with
our ears, and our fathers have told us, what Thou
hast done in their time of old.'* In brighter days
and times of rejoicing these same past mercies
became to them a constant ground of thankful
adoration. ' O thank the Lord of Lords : for
his mercy endureth for ever. Who remembered
us when we were in trouble : for His mercy
* Ps. xliv. 1.

1 88 Messages from the Old Testament
endureth for ever. And delivered us from the hand
of the enemy : for His mercy endureth for ever.'*
Now, the Christian Church is the heir to the
promises made to Israel of old, and has succeeded
to the position taken in ancient days by God's
chosen people. It is not a new Church, but the
one old Church of God, which there has been
from the beginning ; and consequently in the New
Testament the same names and titles are given to
it as are attributed to the Jews in the Old
Testament. It is 'the Israel of God. 'f Its
members are ' an holy nation, a royal priesthood,
a people of God's own possession. 'J They are
' called to be saints ';§ they are the ' elect of God.'||
All these terms are used first of the Jews in the
Old Testament. They are boldly transferred to
the Christian Church in the New. It is, I say,
but one Church from the beginning. And if, then,
to the Church in the earlier ages before the
Incarnation God's mighty deeds in the past
formed a constant spring of encouragement, a
theme to which men never tired of recurring, a
never-failing support in times of anxiety, a subject
for unceasing praise and thanksgiving, still more
should they be all this to the Church of God
to-day. We ought to make exactly the same use
of history which Israel did ; and — for this is the
point which I am most anxious to press — as we
have a new past and a new present in which
God's wondrous loving-kindness has been no less
constantly manifested than in the ancient days to
* Ps. cxxxvi. 3, 23, 24. t Gal. vi. 16.
X 1 Pet. ii. 9. § Rom. i. 7. || Col. iii. 12.

The Study of Church History 189
which Israel looked back so fondly, we should
delight to dwell not only on the manifestations of
God's goodness recorded in the Old Testament,
but on those which have been granted to the
Church in every generation of its life. The
history of the Christian Church for well-nigh two
thousand years ought to appeal to us quite
as forcibly, and ought to be quite as familiar as
was the history of the patriarchs, the Exodus, and
the conquest of the land of promise to the devout
Jew in the centuries before the Incarnation. The
living God has been present and working among
us as surely as ever He did in the old world. We
can trace His hand and His loving guidance in
the providential ordering of the history of His
Church ; and the lessons of it all, both of
encouragement and of warning, ought to come
home to us quite as forcibly as the lessons of their
earlier history did to those who first sang the
psalm we still use in our worship. But while
this is what ought to be, what is the actual
fact ? Is it not that the vast majority of Church-
people think nothing, and care nothing, and know
nothing of the history of that Divine society into
which they have been baptized, and to which it is
their highest privilege to belong ?
Some few years ago, it is true, when there was
a scare about the disestablishment and disendow-
ment of the Church, a certain number of persons
took to reading something about the history ofthe
Church of England. They were glad to buy a
little book with pictures, and get up from it a
smattering of the subject, which might enable

190 Messages from the Old Testament
them to refute the fictions and fancies passed off as
sober fact by the agents of the Liberation Society.
But the scare passed away, and the little book has
been consigned to the highest shelf, and people
have sunk back into a state of contented ignorance
with regard to the history of the noblest society
that the world has ever seen, the lessons of which
ought to be present to them at all times, and for
other and far higher reasons than merely to resist
a passing attack upon the property and position
of the Church in this country. And when I speak
of the study of history, let me remind you that as
the history of the Church does not begin with the
period of the Reformation, which was not a
beginning but only a turning-point in the course
of her history, so neither does it end with the
restoration of Charles II. and the last revision of
the Prayer-Book in 1662. Its history has been
continuous ever since, and full of stirring incident,
and it is being made to day as fast as it ever was ;
and the countries in which it is being- made the
fastest are those new countries which are being
opened up for the first time to the faith of Jesus
Christ. When the complete history of the Church
of God in the nineteenth century comes to be
written, the longest and most important chapters
will be, not those which tell of our miserable
ecclesiastical squabbles and struggles about ritual
and Church courts, not even those which describe
the marvellous and most blessed revival of Church
life and order that there has been herein England
¦ — rather they will be those which tell the tale
of the growth of the English Church in other

The Study of Church History 191
lands, arid describe its expansion in America, in
Australia, in Africa, in India, in China and Japan,
and in the isles of the sea. It will be a story
of heroic effort, of the weak things of the world
chosen to confound the things that are mighty, of
martyrdoms as glorious as any in the primitive
days, and of self-sacrifice, which will vie for
interest with any that has ever yet been written.
Such books as ' Deeds that Won the Empire' or
' Fights for the Flag ' have fired the enthusiasm of
countless readers for the story of the making of
our own English Empire. Some day there will
be companion volumes written on deeds that won
the spiritual empire of Him whom we hail as
King of kings, and on the fights that there have
been for the blood-red banner beneath which the
Son of God goes forth to war ; and the record of
these will be not less thrilling, and not less able to
fire the enthusiasm of those whose hearts God has
touched. And yet of all this the vast majority of
Church-people care nothing whatever. They are
ashamed of not having read the last new work of
fiction, or some volume on secular history of which
everybody is talking, but of the history of their
own Church, both in the past and in the present,
they are content to remain in absolute ignorance.
Yet if only they would study it they would
discover it to be what Bishop Lightfoot once
called it, ' an excellent cordial for drooping spirits.'
They would find their own position as Churchmen
strengthened, and, as history repeats itself, they
would meet with guidance and direction in the
controversies and perplexing questions which

192 Messages from the Old Testament
come to the front from time to time to-day.
There is nothing like the study of Church history
to give us confidence in times of anxiety and
distress; there is nothing like it to give us brave
hopefulness in looking forward to the unknown
future ; for as we read the records of the past we
can see for ourselves — it would be sheer wilful
blindness to doubt it — that the promises of Christ
to His Church have never once been found to
fail. She has had her dark days and hours of
disaster. There have been times when she
seemed tottering to her ruin. In the eighteenth
century- it is said that Bishop Butler refused the
Archbishopric of Canterbury because it was too
late to support the Church ! But somehow the
gates of hell have never been allowed to prevail
against her. She has always appeared to men on
the verge of an irreparable disaster, but even when
disaster has overtaken her men have ever found
that — to quote Waller's manly answer to the
royal sneer against allying himself with a falling
Church — ' this falling Church has got a trick of
rising again.' Yes ; there has been a Divine life
in her all along — guiding, controlling and over
ruling for good the passions and infirmities of
men. It is the presence of this Divine life
alone that can account for her history. Two men
were once sitting in the Deanery at Westminster
— the late Dean Stanley and a friend — discussing
together the thought of the Church as a Divine
society. ' Do you know,' said the friend, ' what
first taught me to believe in the Divine life of the
Church ?' 'No,' was the answer ; ' what was it ?'

The Study of Church History 193
' Your history of the Eastern Church.' ' How so ?'
said the Dean. ' Why, I used to think what
giants those men must have been who drew up
and framed the Nicene Creed, that Creed which
for more than fifteen centuries has been the rally
ing point of Christendom ; but when I came to read
your history of the Council, and description of the
men themselves, I saw what pigmies they were,
and I learned that nothing but a Divine Presence
within the Church could have so guided them
aright.' 1 Lo, I am with you always.' There is the
promise, and if you doubt it study for yourself the
history of the Church, and on every page you
will find the evidence of its fulfilment.

13

XX
The Book of Ezekiel
Ezek. xxxiii. 1 1 : ' Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ;
for why will ye die, O house of Israel ?'
Of the four greater prophets of Hebrew history,
none is less known to us than Ezekiel. Daniel
has been a familiar figure to us all from early
childhood through the stirring story of the lions'
den, and the weird description of the part of a
man's hand that startled the revellers at Bel-
shazzar's feast by writing on the wall the mysteri
ous words which spoke of impending doom.
Everybody who knows anything of the history of
God's chosen people remembers the part played
by Isaiah in the Assyrian invasion in Hezekiah's
reign. The prophet was the life and soul of the
patriot party, protesting against any alliance with
Egypt, and exhorting the people, even in their
darkest hour, to a confidence — which the event
so signally justified — in Jehovah alone. Jeremiah
is perhaps less generally known. His name is
never mentioned in the Book of Kings, but you
cannot look through his own writings without
very soon discovering how full of historical interest
104

The Book of Ezekiel 195
they are, and what an important part the prophet
really played in the events of his day. The Book
of Jeremiah is full of details and incidents which
throw considerable light both on the general
history of the times, and also on the character
and disposition of the prophet himself. Thus it
conies about that we feel as if we knew these
three men personally. They live again in the
pages of history. Their biographies car. be
written, and the history of their times can be
grouped round them as centres. But with Ezekiel
how different the case is ! What a shadowy
figure to most he is — a name and nothing more !
And as for his book, it is less known, perhaps,
than any other book of corresponding length in
the whole Bible. Just two or three chapters are
familiar, as the vision of the dry bones ; but the
greater part is quite strange to most persons, and
if an attempt is made to study it, the sense of
bewilderment which the first impression leaves on
the mind is so great that the attempt is not
seldom abandoned in despair. And yet there is
no reason why Ezekiel should be such an entire
stranger to us, or why his book should be suffered
to drop out of sight and become a sealed volume.
I grant you that it is difficult, and requires patient
and painstaking study. Of some parts it must
candidly be admitted that the interpretation
remains to this day wholly uncertain. But there
is much in the book which a little careful thought
will enable the student to understand, and there
are lessons bearing upon life and conduct to be
found in its pages which are found nowhere else
13—2

196 Messages from the Old Testament
with such force in the Old Testament, and which
we could ill afford to lose.
I purpose, then, briefly to set before you the
prophet and his message. Of his lineage and
family all that we know is soon stated. His
fathers name was Buzi, and he must have
belonged to the tribe of Levi and the family of
Aaron, for it is expressly stated that he was a
priest.* His lot was cast in stirring times. So
far as we can calculate, he must have been born
shortly before the great religious reformation of
Josiah's reign. The boy was probably too young
to have any personal recollections of the excite
ment caused by Hilkiah's discovery of the book
of the law,f but his boyhood must have been
profoundly influenced by the religious reformation
which it originated— a reformation that can only
be paralleled by the yet more famous one in the
Christian Church in the sixteenth century after
Christ. His childhood, then, was passed under
the influence of a religious revival. But just as
he was passing from boyhood to early manhood
a change was brought about, and there began
that series of disasters and catastrophes which
culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem, and
the deportation of the chosen people into the land
of their captivity. Thirteen years after the
discovery of the book of the law, in the thirty-
first year of his reign, Josiahj perhaps in simple
loyalty to his Babylonian suzerain, attempted to
bar the progress of the Egyptian monarch through
the land in his march from the Valley of the Nile
* Ezek. i. 3. -j- See 2 Kings xxii.

The Book of Ezekiel 197
to the Euphrates. The attempt ended in hope
less failure, and Josiah himself was slain at
Megiddo.* His death marks the virtual end of
the kingdom. The religious reformation came to
an end at once. The four kings who followed
1 " 1
him were the mere puppets of Egypt or Babylon,
and the twenty-two years of their nominal reigns
are occupied with successive conquests and
deportations. Jehoahaz, the successor of Josiah,
was only allowed to remain on the throne for
three months before he was carried away captive
into Egypt. Jehoiakim was suffered to reign for
a longer period, during which, the historian tells
us, he 'did evil in the sight of the Lord ';f but he
reigned only as the vassal, first of Egypt and then
of Babylon, and when he rebelled against the
latter he was speedily put to death. Then
followed another three months' reign, that of
Jehoiachin, or Coniah, ending in his deportation
to Babylon, together with the nobles and all the
upper classes of the land. How profoundly these
events influenced Ezekiel, who had not yet re
ceived the prophetic call, may be seen from the
touching and pathetic elegy which he uttered
later on over the princes of Judah, wherein the
nation is represented as a mother lioness rearing
her whelps, one after another of which learnt to
catch the prey, and then was taken by the nations
in their pits and caged in captivity, so that his
voice was no more heard upon the mountains of
Israel. J So far Ezekiel had been a silent
spectator of his country's ruin ; but in the final
* 2 Kings xxiii. 29. f 2 Kings xxiii. 37. X Ezek. xix.

198 Messages from the Old Testament
disaster of Jehoiachin's reign he was himself
implicated, as we gather that he was among those
who were now carried away captive to Babylonia,
and there, when his book opens, we find him
settled by the banks of the Chebar, in the fifth
year of Jehoiachin's captivity. In was in this
year that he received his call as a prophet, and
saw that wondrous vision of God with which his
ministry began. For twenty-two years that
ministry was to last, ' though briars and thorns
might be with ' him, and though he might ' dwell
among scorpions '* — twenty-two years throughout
which he was to bear his testimony, ' whether
they will hear, or whether they will forbear.'f Of
the outward details of his history during this
period we know but little. One tragic episode
alone is recorded four years after his ministry had
begun. Suddenly God took away the desire of
his eyes with a stroke. The announcement was
made in the morning, and ' at even,' he tells us,
' my wife died.'J Tragic as the event was, the
prophet, in obedience to God's command, con
verts it into a lesson to his people, and his
abstention from mourning becomes a symbol of
the stupefaction that shall overtake them at the
announcement, so soon to be made, of the actual
downfall of the holy city.
But though we know so little of his outward
life, his message has been very fully handed
down to us, and his prophecies have been care
fully preserved. We turn to his book, and we
find that his ministry is sharply divided into two
* »• 6- t ii. 5. X xxiv. 18.

The Book of Ezekiel 199
periods of unequal length. The former of these
lasts from his call in the fifth year of Jehoiachin's
captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem some six
or seven years later. The prophecies belonging
to this period are comprised in the first twenty-
four chapters of his book, and in these chapters,
with their wealth of allegory and symbolic imagery
and action, we can clearly trace a twofold object
in the prophet's words.
1. First he sets himself to beat down and dispel
for ever the foolish hopes that had been excited
in the minds of his fellow-exiles as to a speedy
deliverance from the yoke of Babylon, and to this
end he proclaims the certain and immediate over
throw of Jerusalem itself.
2. Secondly, he is intent upon bringing to light
and exposing the inveterate apostasy and incurable
corruption of Judah's capital, as the all-sufficient
justification both of the judgments that had
already overtaken them and of such as were still
impending. Thus at one time, in symbolic
action, he takes a tile, and portrays upon it the
siege ;* at another he is bidden to eat his bread
and drink his water by measure,^ to represent
the straits to which the people shall be reduced
by famine ; at another he is to perform the
same act with quaking and with trembling, J to
denote the agitating terror that shall seize them.
Now he is caught up by the spirit and trans-.
ported in vision to Jerusalem, and shown the
abominations committed there — men with their
faces to the east worshipping the sun, and women
* iv. 1. t iv. 11. { xii. 18.

200 Messages from the Old Testament
wailing for the death of Adonis in the very courts
of the temple.* Now he is bidden to set a
caldron on the fire, as an image of Jerusalem
exposed to God's judgment, and as the flesh is
pulled out of the caldron indiscriminately, so
Israel is taught that when the judgment has
wrought its work there shall be a universal
dispersion. "j- And now, again, as at the first, he
is shown the glory of the Lord, and granted a
vision of the Cherubim. But this time he sees
them departing from the city and sanctuary, which
are profaned and left desolate ; for ' then did the
Cherubims lift up their wings, and the. glory of
the God of Israel was over them above, and the
glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the
city. 'J So, with symbolic and allegorical teaching
and typical actions, he enforces the lessons of
judgment in the first part of his book. But with
chapter xxv. the second division begins. This is
introduced by a section concerning the nations
around, describing God's judgments on them,§ as
preparing the way for Israel's restoration, which
forms the theme of the remaining chapters, end
ing as they do with that wonderful account, so
strangely anticipating the last chapters of the
Apocalypse, describing the glorious state and
condition of the redeemed people who shall dwell
in the city whose ' name shall be, The Lord
is there.'|| But, different as the two parts
of the book are in subject, and, to some extent,
in style, there is one feature which is common
* viii. 13-16. f xxiv. 1-5. I x., xi.
§ xxv.-xxxii. || xl.-xlviii.

The Book of Ezekiel 201
to both, and one lesson on which in each section
the prophet insists with an emphasis found
nowhere else in the Old Testament. It is the
lesson of personal, individual freedom and re
sponsibility. It is clearly enunciated in the
eighteenth chapter in the first part of the book.
It is repeated with similar emphasis in the thirty-
third, immediately after the prophecies concerning
the nations, and at the head of those which deal
with the restoration of the chosen people. Put the
two chapters together, and we see very clearly the
prophet's aim, and also what was the attitude of
mind on the part of the nation which called forth
this new revelation of man's freedom and immedi
ate personal relation with God. The nation, as
we have seen, was involved in a series of
unparalleled calamities and disasters. Upon that
generation there seemed to be visited the sins of
countless generations who had gone before and
passed to their graves in peace. The people,
seeing themselves apparently inextricably involved
in ruin, were sinking into apathy and despair, and
justified themselves for their hopeless attitude on
two grounds: (1) 'The fathers,' they said, had
' eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth were
being set on edge '* — i.e., they were suffering for
the sins of others, and by no possibility could
they escape the consequences of their fathers'
wrong-doing ; and (2) ' Our iniquities be upon us,
and we pine away in them. How, then, shall we
live ?'f — i.e., our own evil past is irremediable.
We cannot undo it now. Bad we have made
* xviii. 3. t xxxiii. io.

202 Messages from the Old Testament
ourselves, and bad we must continue to the end.
It is to this position of hopelessness that Ezekiel
addresses himself, and mark how he meets iL
By the doctrine of personal responsibility and
personal freedom. The emancipation of the
individual soul, whether from doom inherited
from a former generation, or from one entailed by
its own evil past — this, it has been truly said, was
perhaps the greatest contribution made by Ezekiel
to the religious life and thought of the time.*
Not for one single moment will he admit either
of the excuses offered by the people for their
apathy and acquiescence in evil. Whichever
excuse be pleaded, it is utterly unjustifiable.
Clear and distinct his message rings out. No
man, he cries, is inexorably involved in the sins
of his forefathers. Each single soul stands in
immediate personal relation to God, as if there
were none other in the whole world. ' What
mean ye,' then, ' that ye use this proverb con
cerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
on edge ? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye
shall not have occasion any more to use this
proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are Mine.
As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the
Son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the
son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be
upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall
be upon him. And if the wicked will turn from
* See A. B.' Davidson, Ezekiel (Cambridge Bible), p. li.

The Book of Ezekiel 203
all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all
My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.' And as
for your own evil past, with its seemingly iron
chain of habit which binds you to it, away with
the thought that it is irremediable. Wrhy, such a
notion contradicts the very idea of God — God,
who has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but
that the wicked should turn from his evil way and
live ; God, who gives place for repentance to all,
and pleads with infinite tenderness with his
revolting people. ' Turn ye, turn ye, from your
evil ways, for why will ye die ?'
Here is the essence of Ezekiel's teaching, and
this it is which makes it so appropriate for our
own days. It is exactly Ezekiel's message that
we need to-day, in view of the widespread,
tendency to acquiesce in evil as a necessity forced
upon us by heredity, or the result of our own evil
past, which men are so ready to cry out that it is
too late to alter. True, indeed, is it that God
visits the sins of the fathers upon the children,
that there is an awful entail of woe which the
drunkard and the profligate may leave to their
sons ; but true is it also that the power of the
Spirit is mighty to the pulling down of strong
holds of evil, and that there is no iron law of
necessity compelling the drunkard's son to grow
up a drunkard against his will. Men can rise
superior to their surroundings and to their evil
tendencies. God, who knoweth the hearts of all,
can make merciful allowance for inherited pre
dispositions to sins, and His grace can enable

204 Messages from the Old Testament
men to overcome them. You can cut off the
entail if you will.
And then, as for that evil past of your own,
which seems to hold you a prisoner in a chain of
habit which you have forged for yourself till it
seems as if it never could be broken — here, too,
we need Ezekiel's message. It is a gospel oj hope
that you want. Whatever be the past, the one
thing you have no right to do is to despair. It
was simply despair that prevented the sorrow of
Judas from becoming the 'godly sorrow that
worketh repentance.' ' Only believe — all things
are possible to him that believeth.' By the grace
of God you can amend, and do better. Then
' turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die ?'

XXI
The Fathers have Eaten Sour Grapes
Ezek. xviii. 2 : ' What mean ye that ye use this proverb
concerning the land of Israel, saving, The fathers have eaten
sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'
An able writer,* in treating of this text, reminds
us that there are two very different ways in which
you may ask a person what he means. To begin
with, the statement made may be one of which it
is hard to understand the import. You read some
obscure passage in a difficult book, and, not being
able to make it out in the very least, you go to
some friend in whose learning and judgment you
have confidence, and ask him to explain what it
means. That is one way ; but there is also quite
another manner in which the question may be put.
A man calls you a thief and a liar, and you say at
once, ' What do you mean by it ?' The words are
easy enough to understand, there is no difficulty
in them ; but just because they are so plain you
are in doubt as to the meaning of the man's
conduct * Bishop Harvey Goodwin in Plain Preaching for a Year,
vol. ii., p. 275. 205

206 Messages from the Old Testament
Now, it is in this latter sense that Ezekiel was
bidden to ask the Israelites what they meant by
using the proverb in the text, ' The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
on edge.' As far as the words are concerned, it
is not a difficult proverb to understand ; but the
spirit which prompted Israel to use it and to find
comfort in it was one which God would severely
denounce, and therefore He sends His prophet to
ask His people what they meant by their use of
the proverb — by their conduct, that is, rather than
by the actual words which they used.
The fact was that the Jews were making the
proverb into a sort of excuse. It was a time of
great national calamity. The Northern tribes had
long since been carried away into captivity, and
the Davidic monarchy was already tottering to its
fall. Already the Chaldsean was at the gates. One
king after another had been forced to submit, and
large numbers of the nobility and gentry had been
carried away into Chalda^a, and little more than
the poorest of the people remained.
And in these dark days, in this time of national
humiliation and disaster, of judgment and catas
trophe, instead of repenting and turning in all
lowliness of heart to God, the wretched people
were consoling themselves with this proverb, and
looking on their sufferings, not as a judgment for
their sins, but as the natural consequence of the
sins of those who had gone before. Their teeth
were set on edge because their fathers had eaten
sour grapes. This was the thought in which they
took refuge. This was their excuse for accepting

Fathers have Eaten Sour Grapes 207
the inevitable, finding consolation, as men always
will, in the feeling that their calamities were not
due to their own fault.
And, mark you, there was much that might
have seemed to justify them in their use of the
proverb. They might fairly plead that, as a
simple matter of fact, it was true that the present
troubles were a direct historical consequence of the
miserable policy of kings such as Ahaz and others
like him. If the law of cause and effect can be
traced anywhere in Jewish history it can be traced
here ; and their teeth were set on edge because
their fathers had eaten sour grapes. But this was
not all. They might also fairly plead that God
had spoken of Himself as a 'jealous God,' and as
one who ' visited the sins of the fathers upon the
children'; and therefore by God's own revelation
of Himself were they not justified in the use which
they made of the proverb?
And yet Ezekiel is commissioned to denounce
them for thus shifting responsibility off their own
shoulders, and is sent to teach them the great
lesson of individual personal responsibility. It was
all true which they urged, only there was another
side to it as well. As so often, there was a double
truth, the full truth lying not in paring down and
explaining away the different sides so as to bring
about a reconciliation, but rather in the acceptance
of two seemingly opposite truths, which may not
be altogether easy to be reconciled, and yet which
must both be held frankly and fully if error is to
be avoided; and the Jews, like so many others,
both before and after, fell into the error of taking

208 Messages from the Old Testament
one side of truth alone, and that just the wrong
one. True that their calamities were the consequence
of the miserable policy of previous generations,
and true that God does ' visit the sins of the
fathers upon the children'; but yet equally true
is it that each individual is answerable for his own
conduct — ' the soul that sinneth, it shall die' — and
all shall be equitably dealt with.
The comp'ete reconciliation may be difficult,
but at least we can see that the Jews of Ezekiel's
day were not justified in making the proverb an
excuse for indolence and indifference. They
might have repented and turned to God, Who
even then would have heard them. There was
no blind fate forcing them forwards in the path of
apostasy and recklessness. They might have re
pented, and had they done so, even at the eleventh
hour, there was mercy and pardon in store for
them. But enough of the Jews and their misuse of the
proverb. Ezekiel's message is a far-reaching one,
and I cannot but think that if Ezekiel were here
to-day he would say to us, ' What mean ye that
ye use this proverb in England, saying, The
fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's
teeth are set on edge ?' The tendency which
Ezekiel rebuked is one which has lived on with
marvellous vitality, and it seems as strong to-day
as it was three thousand years ago. The form is
perhaps a little different, but the unwillingness to
acknowledge personal responsibility for sin and
failure is just the same. The Jews laid the blame

Fathers have Eaten Sour Grapes 209
on the fathers. With us nature is the scapegoat,
and as nature is so much a matter of inherited
disposition, our excuse comes very close to that of
the Jews. ' The law of heredity,' it is said, ' is
one which has been, not certainly discovered, but
formulated by modern physiology. The influence
of physical antecedents upon individuals is im
mense. Each infant brings into the world with
it a flesh and blood which have been specialised
by the channel in which they have been moulded
since man appeared upon the earth. They have
been manufactured in a family factory which has
been at work since the family existed. All that
St. Paul would call "the flesh" is built up and
modified by all — bad and good, moral and physical
— which has passed in the lives and habits — nay,
in the habitual thoughts — of its progenitors to the
first generation. Every infant comes into the
world charged and saturated with these antecedent
conditions, stamped with an immemorial history,
penetrated through and through with imperishable
influences.'* So the facts have been stated; and
from this it results that, not without some show of
reason, men plead nature as an excuse for sins
and infirmities, and thus think to shift the guilt of
their failures off from their own shoulders on to
those of their fathers. We hear much in one
class of life of an inherited craving for drink ; in
another we are told that a man is sprung from a
proud family. This one is said to be naturally
passionate, while that one is constitutionally in
dolent. Thus the drunkenness, the pride, the
* Church Quarterly Review, vol. ix., p. 309. 14

210 Messages from the Old Testament
temper, and the indolence are all traced to in
herited tendencies. The further our researches
are pushed the less, we are told, do we find to
praise or to blame in individual action ; and it is
implied that the man is no more responsible for
his character than he is for the colour of his hair
or the height of his stature. ' The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
on edge.'
The fact must be admitted. The implied infer
ence from the fact must be met with a flat denial.
It is all true that men do come into the world and
grow up with inherited tendencies and predisposi
tions to certain sins. But this is no excuse for
yielding to sin. If the Jews of Ezekiel's day were
not justified in their excuse — and we have seen
that they were not — no more are we ; and this for
two reasons : (i) The moral trial of man lies in
rightly using the whole contexture of circumstances
in which he has providentially been placed, and
these preliminary conditions of natural disposition
among the rest ; and (2) grace is freely given tb
discipline and, if need be, to counteract nature.
There is no stern law of necessity, enforced with
an iron hand, which compels the drunkard's son to
grow up a drunkard, or the constitutionally indolent
man to remain a sluggard to the end of the chapter.
Some temptations come to us almost wholly from
without, others almost wholly from within. If we
are responsible for yielding to the solicitations of
the one (as all will readily admit), there is no sort
of reason why we are not responsible for yielding
to the other also. If you are born with a naturally

Fathers have Eaten Sour Grapes 2it
weak constitution, you accept the fact, but you do
not simply acquiesce in it as a necessity which
nothing can affect. You seek the best advice and
remedies, and do all in your power to strengthen
that which is weak and overcome the inherited
delicacy. Just so, if you are born with some
moral weakness and infirmity, you have no right
tamely to acquiesce in it. It is yours to struggle
against it and fight with it, and you will have to
answer for it hereafter if you treat it as a necessity.
You can cut off the entail if you will ; for in this
struggle with nature (God knows what a hard one
it is for us all !) you are not left to yourself. The
very purpose and object for which supernatural
grace is given is to discipline and purify and refine
this poor fallen and perverted nature of ours.
Just as in the physical world all around us man
makes use of natural forces and guides and directs
them as he will, so in the spiritual world within
grace can lay hold of nature and do anything with
it. Think of all the natural forces around us.
How they run to waste till the genius of man
steps in to guide and control them ! Water and
steam, for instance, or the mysterious electric
current : there they are — what we call natural
forces, but all running to waste, all simply idle, or
even destructive, till prisoned, cabined, and con
fined by the art of man ; and then — well, you can
do almost anything with them. You turn your
mills, and you drive your steam-engines, and you
put a girdle round the earth in forty seconds, and
all this simply because you have utilised and
directed and mastered the forces of nature. And
14 — 2

212 Messages from the Old Testament
so in man. What man can do with the external
forces around him, that the grace of God can do
in the nature of man. Just as the powers and
forces of this world are simply wasted and deso
lating until man's controlling hand is there to
guide and direct, so without grace all your powers
and forces will run to waste and devastate the
garden of the soul. We make nature and natural
disposition an excuse for sin ; but, oj course,
nature will run to waste if left alone. And where
Divine grace is ever ready to refine, ennoble, and
purify, there we are not justified in acquiescing in
our faults being natural, any more than the farmer
is justified in leaving his lands undrained and his
fields one mass of weeds because, forsooth, it is
' natural.' No ; it is no excuse for us that ' the
fathers have eaten sour grapes.' Even if it be so,
there is no necessity that our ' teeth ' should be
' set on edge.'
And here comes in a grand and helpful thought :
that just those very forces which, if left to them
selves, will work our ruin are those which, when
guided and directed aright by grace, will do most
for God. Let me give one example of a truth
which is very far-reaching in its application :
' How many a father have I seen,
A sober man, among his boys,
Whose youth was full of foolish noise,
Who wears his manhood hale and green ? *
So sings the poet in familiar words ; but I will go
* Tennyson, In Memoriam, lii.

Fathers have Eaten Sour Grapes 213
further, and venture to say that I have sometimes
seen such a one, who not merely ' wears his
manhood hale and green,' but dedicates his whole
life and all its powers to the service of Christ ;
for just those healthy animal spirits and that
vigour of joyous life which leads to the ' foolish
noise ' and the buffoonery, that giant strength
which must expend itself on something, and finds
its natural outlet on the river or in the cricket-
field, and which, when no nobler object is at hand,
leads a man to let off steam in bear-fighting — all
this strong mighty force, which, if left to itself,
will simply run to waste, is just what Divine grace
loves to lay hold of and utilise for the evangelisa
tion of the world. We have seen it in Selwyn
and Patteson and Hannington in the past, and
the records of our public school and college
missions will show us the same thing in scores of
cases to-day.
Time forbids me to follow out this line of
thought further ; but sufficient has perhaps been
said to show the folly of making natural disposi
tion and inclination an excuse for acquiescing in
bad habits and failures. Only I cannot leave the
subject altogether without pointing out that if
grace is to work upon and purify nature, then
nature must submit to discipline.
Grace cannot work upon you without your feel
ing it. It must press upon you hardly at times,
directing you here, controlling you there, guiding
you in one direction and checking you in another.
But all this implies difficulty and discipline and
chastening, and 'no chastening for the present

214 Messages from the Old Testament
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ';* and so the
natural man shrinks from it, and says that he
doesn't believe in rules and doesn't see the good
of discipline, which means that he is going to let
his nature run to waste. But to give up just
because the discipline is hard and presses on you
is to lose the very end and object for which it was
undertaken. If it is to be of any use it must be
Jelt, for if it is not felt, then it is not directing or
influencing nature. Persevere in submitting to it,
and then by the grace of the Holy Spirit the
whole character will be purified and ennobled and
refined. Yes ; it will work like the refiner's fire of
which we hear .so much in Scripture, Do you
know why that is such an apt image for the
chastening judgment and discipline Of God? I
will tell you, and then I have done.
When silver was refined in the furnace, the
refiner knew that the process was complete by this
sign. That which told him that the work was
done was the parting of the floating dross, and the
reflection of his own image from the surface of the
pure metal beneath. And just so, when God
would refine us in the furnace of discipline and
chastening, the sign that His work is complete is
given when the dross on the surface parts, and
bending down over us, God sees His own image
and likeness reflected as in the pure metal beneath,
and mirrored without a flaw in the soul which is
renewed after the likeness of His dear Son.
* Heb xii. u.

XXII
The Day of.the Lord
Amos. v. 18 : 'The day of the Lord.'
The expression is one which was no less familiar
to Jewish than it is to Christian ears. It occurs
in the earliest of the prophets as a well-known
phrase that needs no explanation. It comes to
us as part of the national belief and expectation
even in the earliest period of Israel's history.
But what are the associations which to the Jew
the word would call up ?
To us ' the day of the Lord ' suggests mainly
the thought of the calm judicial proceedings of the
law-courts, the great assize, the judge on the
judgment-seat, the books opened, and the sentence
pronounced. But to the Jew there can be little
doubt that the picture which the phrase would
call up was not that of the judgment hall, but
rather of the battlefield. ' The day of Jehovah'
would mean the day of His victory over His foes.
The thought of judgment would not be absent,
because the victory over His enemies involved as
its consequences their sentence and destruction.
But the associations are not those of the law-
215

216 Messages from the Old Testament
court and assize so much as of the sack of a
conquered city, some Jericho which was placed
under the ban, the swift, short shrift meted out to
the conquered on the field of battle. It is only
in this way that the thought of judgment comes
in. But when read with this other thought of
the battle-day in the mind, the imagery and
symbolism of the prophets is at once easily under
stood. We see now the appropriateness of the
summons, not only to 'sound the trumpet' — that
might do for either — but also to ' set up the
standard.'* The dreadful significance of Joel's
'blood and fire and pillars of smoke 'f is imme
diately apparent. These have nothing to do with
the law-court. It is the sack of the conquered city
that they set before us. We see also for the first
time the full force of the stern reminder of Amos,
and understand how (in the expressive phrase of a
modern writer) he ' takes the popular conception
and turns it upside down. 'J The day of the Lord
being the day of His victory was a time which
the oppressed and down-trodden might well long
for, and to which they would look forward with
eager expectation. It would be the day of Israel's
triumph, and under the influence of national
solidarity every Jew was taught to hope for a
share in the glories of it. T hus the frivolous,
voluptuous, luxurious population, led away by the
false prophets of Samaria, liked to speak of it as
something which should be wistfully longed for.
* As, e.g., in Isa. xviii. 3 and elsewhere.
t Joel ii. 30.
X W. R. Smith, The Prophets cf Israel, p. 396 (ed. 1).

The Day of the Lord 217
They were always talking about it as a good time
coming, till Amos turned on them with the stern
reminder that the day of Jehovah's might would
not necessarily prove a day of victory to Israel
over foreign powers, but a day in which His
righteousness would be vindicated against the
sinners of Israel, as well as of the nations. ' Woe
unto you that desire the day of the Lord. Where
fore would ye have the day of the Lord ? It is
darkness and not light.'
In similar tones prophet after prophet takes up
the thought, and emphasises the seriousness of
this day and the manner in which it must be
regarded as bringing a judgment upon all that is
wrong, forcing home upon the conscience of the
people the thought that its terrors were not all
for the oppressors of Israel, but that they them
selves, children of Abraham, members of God's
chosen race, might be found in the ranks of His
enemies, and that on them and all their works
the judgment would fall. So Isaiah, and Joel,
and Zephaniah, and Malachi ; the last of the series
bringing out perhaps more clearly than any before
him the double character (so to speak) of that
day, according to the hearts and dispositions of
those on whom it should dawn. ' For the day
cometh ; it shall burn as a furnace ; and all the
proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be
stubble ; and the day that cometh shall burn them
up. . . . But unto you that fear My name shall
the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His
wings.'*
* Mai. iv. 1, 3.

218 Messages from the Old Testament
We turn over a few pages in our Bibles, and
pass from these anticipations of the prophets
straight to the opening cf the Gospel story. And
as we listen to the Evangelist telling us that
'suddenly there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace,
good will towards men,'* it is difficult to realise
that the great and terrible day spoken of by the
prophets had dawned. The prophecies which
speak of it are certainly among those which Bacon
describes as having ' springing and germinant
accomplishment.'! Jehovah's day might come
upon Israel and upon the surrounding nations of
Western Asia in the chastening judgments which
fell upon them from the Assyrian and Chaldean
invader. The prophecies are not history written
down beforehand, so much as the announcement
of eternal principles which admit of repeated
fulfilment wherever the same conditions are found,
whether in ancient Nineveh and Babylon or in
modern London and Paris and New York. But
yet, if we set ourselves seriously to consider the
matter, we can scarcely doubt that whatever
partial or incomplete accomplishments there may
have been earlier, the complete fulfilment of these
Old Testament prophecies of the day of the Lord
must be found in the Incarnation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which brought with it the rejection
of the Jewish Church and the judgment upon
Israel.
* Luke ii. 14.
t Advancement of Learning, book ii.

The Day of the Lord 219
That was the consummation of an age, the
close of a dispensation, the manifestation of God's
righteousness, and the vindication of His cause,
as no other event in the world's history had ever
been — as no other event bttt one can ever be.
And it is significant that some of the most striking
passages in which the day of the Lord is
described in the Old Testament are cited in the
New as fulfilled in the events connected with our
Lord's first coming. At the day of Pentecost
St. Peter claims that already the words of Joel
are being fulfilled, which speak not only of God
pouring forth His Spirit upon all flesh, but also
of ' wonders in the heaven above and signs on
the earth beneath, blood and fire, and vapour of
smoke.'* At the Council of Jerusalem St. James
quotes words of Amos descriptive of events to
follow after the day of the Lord, and says that
they are already being fulfilled. t And it will be in
the recollection of everybody that in the Gospels
the language of Malachi about the forerunner, the
' messenger ' to be sent ' before the great and
terrible day of the Lord,' is connected with the
mission of the Baptist, and its fulfilment seen in
his work.J All this is surely significant. And
when we penetrate beneath the surface, and look
behind the symbols of prophetic imagery to the
great realities which they are intended to
represent, we can see how that day round which
all our softest and tenderest associations gather ;
* Acts ii. 16-21.
t Ibid., xv. 16 ; cf. Amos ix. n, 12,
X E.g., in Mark i. 2.

220 Messages from the Old Testament
that day to which we look back as the birthday
of all our hope and joy ; that day that is bright
with the ripple of the sunshine round a little child's
head, as Mary bends for the first time over the
cradle of her son, was to the Jews a day of
judgment such as the prophets described it.
' This child is set for the fall as well as for the
rising of many in Israel.'* Such was the announce-
made while He was yet in His infancy, and all
through His ministry we can see how true the
words were. There was a constant sifting process
going on ; and after the act of national rejection
had culminated in the crucifixion, there was yet a
period of forty years' grace — forty years, that
mysterious time of probation — and then, in the
horrors of the destruction of Jerusalem and the
downfall of Judaism, the judgment was consum
mated, and in all its dread terrors to them 'the
great and terrible day of the Lord ' had come.
Still, however, throughout the New Testa
ment we hear of a ' day of the Lord ' as yet to
come. It has been saidt with some truth that
the chief message of Scripture to man might be
summed up in three sentences : ' He is coming.'
' He is come.' ' He is coming again.' And so
the Apostolic writers, who bear witness to the fact
that the day spoken of by the prophets has come,
speak with equal clearness of another day still to
come in the future. Sometimes, as in St. John's
Epistles,;]; it is called ' the day of judgment,' a
phrase which the Apostle must have heard more
* Luke ii. 34. t By Godet.
X 1 John iv. 17.

The Day of the Lord 221
than once from his Master's lips.* More often it
is, as in the Old Testament, ' the day of the
Lord,'| or ' of Jesus Christ, 'J or ' of Christ.'§
Sometimes, with the emphasis of reserve, it is
simply ' the day.'|| But whatever the exact phrase,
it is remarkable to notice how, though the old
associations of the battlefield still linger on, and
here and there reappear, yet they are no longer
prominent. The dominant thought is now that
of the judgment-hall, and the scene set before us
is that of the court of justice, the judge upon his
seat, and the calm judicial proceedings of the
Roman basilica. ' We must all stand before the
judgment-seat of Christ.'! ' I saw a great white
throne, and Him that sat on it. And I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God, and the
books were opened ; and another book was opened,
which is the book of Life. And the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works.'**
The contrast between the Old Testament and
the New in this matter is most suggestive, and
shows us what a real advance in the whole con
ception of justice has been made. In ruder ages
the only way in which right can be enforced and
justice secured is by the appeal to the sword and
the proof given on the field of battle by the side
on which right lies, showing it is the stronger.
Hence, when the Jew would think of God
* Matt. x. 15 ; xi. 22, 24 ; xii. 36.
t 1 Cor. v. 5 ; 2 Cor. i. 14; 1 Thess. v. 2.
t 1 Cor. i. 8. § Phil. ii. 16. || 1 Cor. iii. 13.
f Rom. xiv. 10; 2 Cor. v. 10. ** Rev. xx. 12.

222 Messages from the Old Testament
manifesting Himself as the righteous judge, it.was
under the image of the conqueror that he conceived
of Him ; and Jehovah's day was the day of battle,
in which he was victorious over His foes and
consigned them to their merited doom. But,
after all, such justice as that which is enforced by
the appeal to the sword is anything but exact.
Given an army of Galahads, and the perfect
justice of the cause of the winning side, yet at
what a cost is the victory secured ! To win a
battle is only less dreadful than to lose one.
There are widows and orphans on the side of the
victors as well as on the side of the vanquished.
The sufferings entailed by the campaign fall
heaviest on those who deserve them least. The
cottages and homesteads of the innocent peasants
go up in flames before ever the castles and towers
of the tyrants are reached. Substantial justice
may be done in the end. But the picture which
the thought of the battlefield sets before us is not
that which we have learnt to look upon as the
representative of perfect, even-handed justice,
which metes out to every man according to his
deeds. For this you must look elsewhere. You must
draw your illustration of it from the calm, dis
passionate sentence of thejudge, who sets, free
the innocent and falsely accused ; and who, while
rendering to the high-handed evil doer according
to his deserts, yet knows how to balance the guilt,
and in awarding his sentence takes into con
sideration the weakness of human nature and
recollects that

The Day of the Lord 223
' Earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.'*
And therefore it is that when we pass from the
preparatory teaching of the Old Testament to the
final revelation which God has made in His Son,
we find that this rather than the other is the
dominant thought set before us in connection
with the day of the Lord. It is because it is free
from all associations of undeserved suffering ;
because it has no terrors for the peaceful and law-
abiding ; because it can right one wrong without
creating another, that it is better fitted than the
other figure to set before us that triumph of
Divine righteousness, that victory over sin, and
consequent condemnation of all that has been
ranged on the side of evil and opposed to God,
for which we look at the last day.
There is one other thought connected with the
day of the Lord on which we should do well
sometimes to reflect.
To the Jews the day of the Lord was very
much what they themselves made it. To some it
brought the consolation for which they had waited
for years. To some it brought destruction and
death. Its effect was like the action of the sun's
heat on wax and clay. There were those whose
hearts were softened and melted like wax, as they
yielded to the gracious influence and the warmth
of that Divine presence which was manifested
among men. There were others exposed to the
very same influences, bathed in the sunshine of
* Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV., Scene 1.

224 Messages from the Old Testament
the same Divine presence, warmed by the fire of
the same Divine love, seeing the same signs,
hearing the same gracious words, blessed with the
same example and teaching, who yet, like the clay,
were only rendered harder and drier, until their
whole characters split and cracked and crumbled
to pieces beneath the touch of that same loving
hand by which the others were fashioned and
moulded into the likeness of saints. The things
that should have been for their wealth became
unto them an occasion of falling. The day was
to them what they themselves made it. To
Simeon, to Anna, to the holy women, to the
Twelve, to Nicodemus, and to many another
unknown saint of God who waited for the con
solation of Israel, its dawn brought, as Malachi
had said it would bring, the rise of the Sun of
righteousness with healing in His wings.
These, and such as these, found that while the
heavens and the earth were shaken, when the
foundations of their national life were cast down,
yet still the Lord was a refuge unto His people,
and a stronghold to the children of Israel. It
might have proved such a day of redemption to
all. But to Judas and Annas and Caiaphas, to
the Pharisees, and to the nation as a whole, it
became what the prophets had foretold that it
would become, and what they themselves made it
— ' a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress,
a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds
and thick darkness.'* It brought their sentence
upon them — ' for this,' says one who saw it all, and
* Zeph. i. 15.

The Day of the Lord 225
marked the fulfilment, ' is the judgment, that the
light is come into the world, and men loved the
darkness rather than the light, for their works
were evil.'*
And now, as at this Advent season, our thoughts
irresistibly turn to that other day in the unknown
future, it is well that we should realise that it also
will be to us exactly what we make it. It may be
the day of redemption, the brightest hour we have
ever known. It may be the darkest. One or
other it must be ; and out of the same material,
the same circumstances, surroundings, trials, and
opportunities, you may make it which you will.
By our attitude towards these external things, and
our use of them, our characters are being built up
bit by bit now ; and then it will be seen on which
side we are. On that depends the aspect which
the day will present to us. We, too, as well as
the Jews, are like the wax and clay, softened or
hardened by the same influences of Divine love.
Only use the opportunities which God has given
you, and the grace which He offers you, and
every difficulty, trial, and temptation may be
turned into a means of grace through which you
may be prepared to take your place hereafter in
the ranks of the redeemed. Fail to use them,
and the very things which should have been for
your wealth will become unto you an occasion of
. falling, and the character, which might have been
purified and ennobled and fitted for the highest
place in heaven, will, by means of the very same
* John iii. 19. 15

226 Messages from the Old Testament
influences, be lowered and degraded until it is fit
only for the lowest place in hell.
An artist was once showing to a friend a sketch
of St. Michael and the Dragon. It was very
different in character and conception from the
ordinary conventional representations of the scene
and the friend by some expression of surprise
showed that he did not understand it. ' Oh,
don't you see,' cried the artist, ' it's the same man
spoilt !' And when his friend looked again he saw
that sure enough it was so. There in the upper
part of the picture the features — transfigured to
an angelic holiness — were those of the man who
had wrestled and fought with temptation, and had
at last emerged as victor, stronger and nobler and
purer for the struggle. And there in the features
of the fallen angel, who lay crushed beneath his
feet you could recognise the lines of the same
face — coarsened and brutalised by sin indulged
and yielded to. You saw that it was indeed the
same man spoilt. Both had started alike, with
the same capacities, the same surroundings, the
same opportunities of good, the same allurements
to evil. They might have changed places ; for
to each the outcome was what he himself made it.
It is the universal law of God's dealings with us.
We shall each one find it to be so in that day.

XXIII
Betting and Gambling
Hag. i. 6 : 'He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put
into a bag with holes.'
That is an expressive figure for needless waste
an.l loss incurred by stupid folly. The profit of a
man's labour vanishes as completely as if, instead
of being carefully secured, it had been heedlessly
thrown into a bag full of holes. It would be hard
to find any figure which furnishes a more apt
description of what happens when a working man,
the wage-earner, allows himself to be mastered by
the passion for betting and gambling, which is at
the present time ruining so many among us. It
is of this that I propose to speak in this address,
for I feel that the report of the Committee of the
House of Lords just issued on this subject* throws
a grave responsibility on the Church at large. It
is often said that you cannot make a man moral
by Act of Parliament ; and, without admitting the
complete accuracy of the statement, there is no
doubt that the main function of legislation with
* Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on
Betting, with the Proceedings of the Committee, Session 1902.
227 15 — 2

228 Messages from the Old Testament
regard to morals is rather to diminish the oppor
tunities and occasions of wrong-doing, and to
remove temptations from the path of the weak,
while it is left to such agencies as the Christian
Church to regenerate character and to strengthen
men to resist temptation, and thus (in the stricter
sense of the words) to make them moral. If, then,
it is admitted that a widespread evil exists in our
midst, even though suggestions are made for
diminishing it by legislation, yet these will never
be really effectual unless the Church does her
part, and sets herself resolutely to the task of
grappling with the evil until it be destroyed.
And towards this she must labour in two ways :
(i) By creating a sound public opinion in favour
of the legislation suggested ; and (2) by so work
ing on the minds and consciences of men and
improving their characters that by the grace of
God they become strong to resist temptation and
repel altogether the evil. Now, the fact that a
great and growing evil connected with betting
exists in our midst is notorious. You may say
that it needed no Committee of the House of
Lords to tell us this, and that in every large town,
we know only too well how the practice of betting
has spread from men to boys, and even to women
and girls, and how much ruin and misery it is
causing. Ask the Chief Constable of our city,
ask the masters of any of our great works, and
with one voice all will tell you without a moment's
hesitation that betting and gambling are working
as widespread havoc in the lives of the people as
any other vice that can be named. Some of us

Betting and Gambling 229
know this only too well ; but there are others,
perhaps, who, not seeing the evil itself, may be
inclined to doubt its widespread character, and to
them I commend the study of the report just
issued — a report drawn up and signed, it must be
remembered, not by men representing one point
of view only, but by the representatives of the
sporting world as well as of the Church, and those
who might be supposed to be critical and un
biassed observers. Study their unanimous report,
I say, and you will find that they begin by saying
that, after hearing much evidence, they ' are of
opinion that betting is generally prevalent in the
United Kingdom, and that the practice has con
siderably increased of late years, especially among
the working classes,' and they go on to say that
although they ' do not look upon betting as a
crime in itself, yet they deplore the spread of a
practice which, when carried to excess, they con
sider opposed to the true interests of sport, in
jurious to the general community, and apt to
degenerate into one of the worst and most mis
chievous forms of gambling.'* And to quote one
more passage, they say lower down that ' it has
been proved conclusively to the Committee that
the practice of betting in the streets has increased
very much of late years, and is the cause of most
of the evil arising from betting among the working
classes. The fact that bookmakers can ply their
trade in the open street, and lie in wait to catch
working men in their dinner-hour outside factories
and workshops in order to induce them to bet, is
* Report, p. x.

230 Messages from the Old Testament
undoubtedly a great source of evil. Evidence has
also been brought before the Committee to show
that street bookmakers bet, not only with men,
but also with women and children.'*
There is nothing in all this that will be new to
most of us, but it is well to have it thus authorita
tively stated, because there are always plenty of
people ready to deny the existence of those things
which do not obtrude themselves upon their notice,
and to declare that the harm has been greatly
exaggerated. On the reforms which the Com
mittee suggest I need not dwell. Briefly, they
amount to this : (1) A recommendation that
tipsters' advertisements in newspapers should be
made illegal, as well as betting circulars and
notices ; and (2) that more stringent laws be made
to put down street betting and betting with young
people, and that greater facilities be given for the
police to put down betting at horse-races and
athletic meetings. I leave these, however, with
the remark that it must be obvious to all that
these reforms, if carried out, will only touch a very
small part of the evil, and certainly will not stamp
it out, and I pass on to what I am especially
anxious to dwell on now — viz., this, that while
we can all see the harm of excessive betting, and
the shameful wrong-doing of those who allow
their passion for it so to master them that they
will risk their all, and bring ruin, not on them
selves alone, but on home and wife and children
as well, yet the question, WTiat's the harm of
betting in moderation ? is one which it is so diffn
* Report, p. vii.

Betting and Gambling 231
cult to answer convincingly that many allow them
selves with a clear conscience to indulge in the
practice, and only discover when it is too late how
the passion has taken hold of them, and what a
curse and slavery it has become. I cannot help
feeling that the great difficulty which there is in
drawing the line between what may be an inno
cent amusement and what is immoral and sinful is
responsible for a good deal, and that if men could
be brought to see that the beginnings of this
practice were wrong, they would not so lightly
enter upon a course which has so often proved
the ruin of those who have followed it. I frankly
confess, however, that it is hard to say precisely
wherein lies the sin of making a bet where both
parties can well afford the risk they run of losing,
just as it is hard to say wherein lies the sin of
playing cards for small stakes under similar
circumstances. I cannot honestly say that my
intellect is satisfied with the formal proofs of the
wicked character of all betting and gambling,
even of the slightest character, which I find in
the books which I have consulted and in some
sermons preached on the subject, and yet I have
not the shadow of a doubt in my own mind that
he is acting wisely and rightly who makes it an
absolute rule never to make a single bet, or to
play cards for money, however small the stake ;
and that he is running a grave risk and exposing
himself to a needless temptation who allows in
himself the beginnings, however innocent they
may be in themselves, of a practice which is
proved to be fraught with such enormous dangers.

232 Messages from the Old Testament
Let me put it to you in a way which I have found
helpful to myself when trying to argue it out.
You may not be able to draw a sharp line between
what is innocent on the one side and what is
wrong and immoral on the other, marking out
precisely where the one ends and the other begins.
But if this is so, it is only a difficulty which we
often meet with elsewhere. One thing shades off
into another. There are many cases where we
have to be content not to draw such a single line,
stating categorically that all on one side is inno
cent and all on the other side wicked ; but what we
have sometimes to do is this — to draw two lines
at some distance from each other, enclosing in the
space between them what is doubtful and debat
able. We can then say distinctly that all on this
side of the first line is innocent, and all bevond
the second is wrong ; but if asked where is the
line to be placed which actually separates the one
from the other, we must frankly confess that we
cannot tell, but that it must be somewhere within
the doubtful ground enclosed between the two
lines already drawn ; and therefore, in the face
of this difficulty, it is wise and good to keep at a
safe distance from all that is doubtful and un
certain, and, in practice, to stop on the near side
of the line first drawn, even though one may be
willing to admit in theory that a good deal may
be innocent and harmless beyond it. That is, I
believe, the right position for a Christian man to
take up in this case. It is certainly one which,
if followed, will help him to offer his daily prayer,
' Lead us not into temptation,' free from the

Betting and Gambling 233
uneasy consciousness that all the while he is
deliberately courting a downfall and playing on
the edge of a precipice ; for, if he thinks at all
seriously, he will, I am sure, feel that all experi
ence shows the appalling nature of the evil result
ing from betting, and the difficulty of stopping
when once a man has begun ; and he will be able
to lift up his voice freely to stop those whom he
sees entering so lightly on the downward path,
thinking no evil, but allowing themselves to
indulge in that which has proved the ruin of
so many before them. In the Lije oj Charles
Kingsley there are two striking letters on the
subject, to which reference may well be made.
One is to his son, then a schoolboy, who, boylike,
and without thought of wrong, had put into a
lottery on the Derby, and had told his father of
it in a letter home. Kingsley was no Puritan,
and the last man in the world to invent sins or to
make conscience uneasy without reason. But he
wrote at once to warn his son of the danger,
pointing out that of all habits gambling was the
one which he hated most and had avoided most.
' Of all habits it grows most on eager minds.
Success and loss alike make it grow. Of all
habits, however much civilised men may give
way to it, it is one of the most intrinsically savage.
Historically, it has been the peace excitement of
the lowest brutes in human form for ages past.
Morally, it is unchivalrous and unchristian.' And
he ends the letter as follows : ' Betting is the way
of the world. So are all the seven deadly sins
under certain rules and pretty names, but to the

234 Messages from the Old Testament
devil they lead if indulged in, in spite of the wise
world and its ways.' The other letter was written
to the young men of Chester in view of the race-
week there and the dangers it involved them in ;
and in this Kingsley, with his usual courage and
manly frankness, tells them of his own experience
in early life, when he himself had been attracted
to race-meetings by his love of sport. ' Even
then,' he says, 'before I took Holy Orders, before
even I thought seriously at all, things were so
bad that I found myself forced to turn my back
on racecourses, not because I did not love to see
the horses run — in that old English pleasure,
taken simply and alone, I can fully sympathise —
but because I found that they tempted me to
betting, and that betting tempted me to company
and to passions unworthy, not merely of a scholar
and a gentleman, but of an honest and rational
bargeman or collier. And I have seen what
comes too often of keeping that company, of
indulging those passions. I have known men
possessed of many virtues and surrounded with
every blessing which God could give bring bitter
shame and ruin, not only on themselves, but on
those they loved, because they were too weak to
shake off the one passion of betting and gambling.
And I have known men mixed up in the wicked
ways of the world, and too often yielding to them,
and falling into much wrong-doing, who have
somehow steered through at last, and escaped
ruin, and settled down into a respectable and
useful old age, simply because they had strength
enough to say, "Whatever else I may or may not

Betting and Gambling 235
do, bet and gamble I will not." And I very
seriously advise my good friends to make the
same resolution, and to keep it.'* There is a
testimony from one whose love of all that was
manly and noble made him a power for good with
young men, such as few others in his generation
became, and his words should not be forgotten.
And now listen to the pathetic confessions of one
who, moving in the best society of the day,
capable of keen interest in better things and
nobler pursuits, was yet for years a slave to what
he mournfully confessed was ' a demoralising
drudgery.' Few books of its kind are more
interesting than Greville's Memoirs, and very
striking are the passages in which again and again
he confides to the pages of his private diary his
loathing and detestation of the habit he had
allowed himself to contract, and his consciousness
of his degradation and deterioration from it. His
life, he says (and this was just after he had won
,£9,000), was ' spent in the alternations of excite
ment from the amusement and speculation of the
turf, and of remorse and shame at the pursuit
itself.' 'Nothing,' he says elsewhere, 'but the
hope of gain would induce me to go through this
demoralising drudgery, which I am conscious
reduces me to the level of all that is most dis
reputable and despicable, for my thoughts are
eternally absorbed by it. Jockeys, trainers, and
blacklegs are my companions, and it is like dram-
drinking; having once entered upon it, I cannot
* Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of his Life,
vol. ii., pp. 360-366.

236 Messages from the Old Testament
leave it off, though I am disgusted with the
occupation all the time.' And, once more, ' the
continual disappointments and difficulties incident
to it which harass the mind, the life it compels
one to lead, the intimacies arising out of it, the
associates, the war against villainy and trickery,
being haunted by continual suspicions, discovering
the untrustworthiness of one's most intimate
friends, the necessity of insincerity and conceal
ment sometimes where one feels that one ought,
and would desire to be, most open ; then the
degrading nature of the occupation itself, mixing
with the lowest of mankind, and absorbed in the
business for the sole purpose of getting money,
the consciousness of a sort of degradation of
intellect, the conviction of the deteriorating effects
upon the feelings and understanding which are
produced, the sort of dram-drinking excitement of
it — all these things and these thoughts torment
me. and often turn my pleasure to pain.'* These
are the confessions of a man who was not a
religious man, and who yet evidently thoroughly
despised himself for yielding to what he felt
was so utterly lowering and degrading to his
character as an honest man. With our eye on
such statements as these, and with our knowledge
of all the misery and demoralisation that is going
on among us, can we not all do something to
create a sounder public opinion on the subject,
and determine that, so far as our influence can
extend, we will set our faces resolutely against it,
* See the Greville Memoirs, vol. i., p. 21; ii., p. 382 ; iii.,
P- 143-

Betting and Gambling 237
and do all in our power, not merely to keep clear
of it ourselves — that, perhaps, is an easy thing for
most of those who have not yielded to it in early
life — but to warn off others from the beginnings
of it. A word of warning to a lad such as that given
by Charles Kingsley to his son may make all the
difference to him in his whole after-life. And if
there are any here who still feel that it may some
times be hard to refuse to make a bet, or to play
for money for a trifling sum, when the question
What's the harm ? is asked, let them remember
the admirable rule which that most sensible of
women, Mrs. Wesley, gave to her son John :
' Take this rule,' she said. ' Whatever impairs the
tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense
of God, or takes the relish off spiritual things,
that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may
be in itself.'* Tried by that rule, there are many
things which, however innocent in themselves,
will be seen to be sin to us, and I cannot but
think that you will find that the matter which
I have just brought before you is among the
number.
* See Julia Wedgewood's John Wesley, p. 34.

XXIV
The Apocrypha
Jer. vi. 1 6 : ' Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the
old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.'
For three weeks of.the year we read as the
first lessons in the daily services selections from
those books, which, as the sixth of our Thirty-nine
Articles says, ' the Church doth read for example
of life and instruction of manners, but doth not
apply to establish any doctrine.' It is a real mis
fortune that these books, which we commonly term
the Apocrypha, should be so little known, and that
their true position and value should be so little
understood. The practice— in itself an entirely
modern one — of issuing Bibles without them is
largely responsible for the fact that they are in all
probability less familiar now than they were in
any previous century of the Church's history,
either before or after the Reformation ; and
allusions in the literature of earlier days, which
spoke for themselves and were easily understood
by our fathers, require in the present day some
explanation or commentary in order to render
them intelligible. Everybody, for instance, is
238

The Apocrypha 239
perfectly familiar with Shylock's famous exclama
tion, which has passed into a proverb, ' A Daniel
come to judgment — yea, a Daniel !'* but how
many readers of Shakespeare have ever realised
that there is nothing in the canonical Book of
Daniel which really accounts for it, and that to
understand how Daniel became a sort of embodi
ment of the character of the wise judge interven
ing in the last extremity, they must refer to the
story of Susanna and the Elders, which forms one
ofthe Apocryphal additions to it? or how many
readers of Milton catch the meaning of his allusion
to Raphael as 'the affable archangel,' or as
1 The sociable spirit, that deigned
To travel with Tobias, and secured
His marriage with the seven-times-wedded maid ' ?t
So everybody knows the saying that ' Great is
truth and will prevail,' but how many could tell
where it came from or what originated it ?£
Moreover, the use of certain Christian names is
an indication of the influence which some of these
books once possessed, and of the popularity they
enjoyed. Toby and Judith have nearly fallen out
of use now, but they were once common among
us, while Susan has not lost its popularity yet ;
but it would never have been heard of but for the
story just alluded to.
Far more interesting, however, as a witness to
a familiarity with these books, in a quarter where
* The Merchant of Venice, Act IV., scene 1.
t Paradise Lost, book v., 221,
X 1 Esdras iv. 41, Magna est Veritas, et prcevalet.

240 Messages from the Old Testament
we should hardly have expected it, is the descrip
tion which John Bunyan gives in his autobio
graphical sketch entitled Grace Abounding of
the way in which he was roused from a state of
religious despondency by the recollection of a
text which he found in the Apocrypha. Here is
his own account of it : ' For several days I was
greatly perplexed, and was ready to sink with
faintness in my mind ; but one day, when I had
been so many weeks oppressed, and was giving
up all hope of ever attaining life, that sentence
fell with weight upon my spirit : " Look at the
generations of old, and see ; did ever any trust in
the Lord and was confounded ?" I looked in my
Bible, and found it not. For above a year I
searched in vain. But at last, casting my eye
into the Apocryphal books, I found it in
Ecclus. ii. 10. This at first did somewhat
daunt me ; but it troubled me less when I con
sidered that, though it was not in those texts
which we call holy and canonical, yet, forasmuch
as this sentence was the sum and substance of
many of the promises, it was my duty to take the
comfort of it, and I bless God for that word, for
it was of God to me. That word doth still at
times shine before my face.''"
Bunyan was perfectly right to take the comfort
of it. It is a real misfortune that persons should
so generally cut themselves off from the help
which they might get from a closer acquaintance
with some of these books than is ordinarily nowa
days possessed. Before, however, I proceed to
* Grace Abounding, § 62.

The Apocrypha 241
point out in what the real value of the Apocrypha
consists, let me say something of its origin, and
of the position which the Church of England has
assigned to it.
II. It is known to most persons, and should be
known to all, that one grave difference between
the teaching of the Church of England and the
Church of Rome is concerned with this position.
The Church of Rome makes no difference what
ever between the books of the Apocrypha and
the other books of the Old and New Testament
which we regard as Canonical. She places them
all (except 3 and 4 Esdras and the Prayer of
Manasses) on a level as inspired and Canonical
Scripture, whereas the Anglican Church declines
altogether to regard them as authoritative or to
use them, as she uses the other books of the Old
and New Testament, as a standard of her doctrine.
Here, then, is an important difference between the
two branches of the Church. Its origin lies far
back,* and must be sought in the Greek translation
of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, to which
(probably for the sake of completeness) were
appended various books (some translations of
Hebrew, others written originally in Greek),
which were certainly not regarded as sacred by
the Jews. There is abundant evidence to prove
that the Jewish Church never admitted into her
Canon of Scripture those books to which we
refuse a place in ours ; and, what is surely decisive
for us, it is only to the books of the Hebrew
* Reference may perhaps be permitted to my volume on the
Thirty-nine Articles. 16

242 Messages from the Old Testament
Canon (excluding the Apocrypha) that our Lord
and His Apostles make formal appeal, and it is
these alone which they stamp with Divine
authority. In the Christian Church our earliest
witnesses all point to this collection, and to this
alone, as formally and distinctly recognised. But,
at the same time, it needs but little research to
discover that quotations from the Apocrypha are
abundant in the writings of the Christian Fathers
from the earliest days. Nor is the fact hard to
account for. The Fathers were, with scarcely an
exception, ignorant of Hebrew, and dependent on
a Greek translation for their knowledge of the
Old Testament. In this translation the books of
the Apocrypha had somehow become attached to
the Canonical books, and hence it was only
natural that the Fathers should fall into the habit
of employing and quoting all the books in the
collection with which thev were familiar, and
should gradually lose their sense of the distinction
between the books of the Hebrew Canon and the
additions of the Greek, and should come to regard
all alike as equally authoritative and equally in
spired. Thus the confusion arose ; and although,
in spite of popular opinion, a continuous s iccession
of the more learned Fathers maintained the dis
tinctive authority of the Hebrew Canon right up
to the period of the Reformation, yet the Council
of Trent, when called upon to consider the
question, ignored altogether this weight of critical
authority, and solemnly and formally placed the
Apocrypha on a position of perfect equality with
the Hebrew Canon, and by this decree the Roman

The Apocrypha 243
Catholic Church has ever since been bound. The
Council, of course, claimed to be a general one,
representing the whole Christian world, but, as a
matter of fact, no part of the world was really
represented except Italy. There were only fifty-
three Bishops present when the decree was
promulgated. The great bulk of them were
Italian; of the rest, the majority were Spanish.
There were a couple from France, none from
Germany, Switzerland, or the Northern countries,
and none, of course, from England. And it
should be added that the poorest account has to
be given of the scholarship and learning of those
who were present. None knew Hebrew, only a
few Greek. There were even some whose know
ledge of Latin was held in but low repute ; and
among them all there was not one scholar dis
tinguished by historical learning, not one who was
fitted by special study for the examination of a
subject in which the truth could only be deter
mined by the voice of antiquity.* Well may the
decision be termed by one of our greatest divinesf
a ' fatal decree,' and well may we be thankful that
the Church of England has been preserved from
an error so damaging to the cause of truth. On
the other hand, it is, I think, a matter for real
thankfulness that, unlike most of the Protestant
bodies in this country as well as on the Continent,
the Anglican Church has declined altogether to
break away from the practice of the Early Church,
* See the Speaker s Commentary, 'The Apocrypha,' vol. i„
p. xxxiii.
t Bishop Westcott, The Bible in the Church, p. 257.
l6—2

244 Messages from the Old Testament
or to discard these books altogether. She appeals
here, as always, to the primitive Church, and
finding that in early days these books were
regarded as fit for ecclesiastical reading in public
worship and for devout study in private, though
not employed as authoritative , standards in
establishing doctrine nor regarded as Canonical,
she has retained their use ; and in order to make
quite clear the exact position to be given them,
has made her own some words of the most learned
of the Latin Fathers, St. Jerome, which I have
already quoted from the sixth Article. ' The other
books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read
for example of life and instruction of manners, yet
doth not apply them to establish any doctrine.'
She thus guards against confusion and abuse on
the one hand, and on the other places herself in
accord with the practice of antiquity, and does
justice to what Hooker calls 'the divine excellency
of some things in all, and of all things in certain
of those Apocrypha ' ; and if it be urged against her
that in what she reads there happen to be some
things that savour of error, she is content to reply
in the words of the same great divine by askino-
the pertinent question whether the ' admixture of
a little dross ' should ' constrain the Church to
deprive herself of so much gold rather than to
learn how by judgment and art to make separation
of the one from the other.'*
That is the historical justification of the posi
tion given by the English Church to the Apo
crypha, as distinguished both from the over-regard
* See Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, Book V., xx.

The Apocrypha 245
paid to it by Rome, and also from the neglect of
it by Protestants. And now, lastly, let us ask
in what the real value of these books consists,
and what sort of profit we may expect to draw
from them.
Wrell, to begin with, they fill up a gap in our
knowledge, and supply what would otherwise be
a blank page in the history of the Jews. The
general course of Jewish history is tolerably
familiar to most people from the record in the
Old Testament, which brings the story down to
the time of the return from the Babylonish
Captivity and the reforms of Ezra and Nehemiah.
But there the Canonical books leave us, and were
it not for the Apocrypha we should be left with a
blank of more than 400 years between this epoch
and that morning when, in the days of Herod
the king of Judsea, a certain priest named
Zacharias went into the temple of the Lord to
burn incense, and there appeared to him an angel
of the Lord, and announced the birth of a son
who should go before the face of the Lord in the
spirit and power of Elijah* What happened
during that interval ? How are we to account
for the change, not only in the government and
political and civil status of the Jews, which we
discover from the New Testament has taken
place, but also in the condition of Jewish thought,
and feeling and belief? In the Old Testament
the Jews are perpetually falling away into idolatry.
In the New Testament we find no hankering
after this, no desire for the worship of strange
* Luke i. 5-17.

246 Messages from the Old Testament
gods. Monotheism has become the passionate
faith of the people. Their universal conviction is
that there is one God, and there is none other but
He. Again, we find that at the time of our Lord's
appearing there was a universal belief in the
advent of a Messiah, and a general persuasion
that His coming was close at hand. The doctrine,
also, not only of a future life, but of the resurrec
tion of the body, had become the firm conviction
of the most religious part of the nation. The
whole atmosphere, so to speak, is different from
what it was in the days of the Old Testament.
And how comes this ? What has brought it
about? Apart from the Apocrypha, it would be
inexplicable, and must remain an unsolved enigma,
But the possession of these books enables us to
trace out the external history of the Jews and to
follow their fortunes in the interval, and also to
discern the development of their religious faith,
for they include the most authentic and valuable
remains of Jewish literature belonging to the
period between, say, the prophecies of Malachi
and the birth of our Lord. We may well be
thankful that from this period there have been
preserved to us Jewish historical records so
valuable as those contained in the two Books
of the Maccabees, Jewish poetry so noble and
sentiments so lofty as are contained in the Books
of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, and imaginative
writing so natural and vivid as is found in the
Books of Tobit and Judith.
And then, further, we should read these books,
not only to fill up a gap in our knowledge of the

The Apocrypha 247
past, and to enable us to understand the New-
Testament better, but also (as our Article says)
' for example of life and instruction in manners.'
In these matters there are real practical lessons to
be learnt from them. We could ill afford to Jose
the ethical teaching of the Son of Sirach, or its
grand teaching on the heavenly wisdom, nor
could we spare such exquisite passages as those
from the Book of Wisdom which are read as the
first lessons on All Saints' Day, which cannot fail
to touch and stir the hearts of all who hear them.
Such passages are as music to the soul, and there
are many other portions which are full of help as
well. The Book of Tobit not only gives us clear
teaching on such practical duties as prayer, alms
giving, and fasting, but it gives a real 'example of
life' in its beautiful picture of family life, in which
parents give counsel to their children, children
love and obey their parents, and God's angel
advises, guides, and heals those who maintain
their faith and loyalty to Him even in times of
personal poverty and national disaster, while (to
mention only one other portion) the two Books
of Maccabees, with their account of the heroic
struggle of the Jews for national liberty and for
the faith of their fathers, may well nerve us in any
times of distress or anxiety to dare and suffer ail
things for His sake, secure — as these books show
us that the Jewish heroes of old were secure — in
the thought that impiety and blasphemy receive
their punishment at God's hands, that prayer is
heard, that God fights on the side of His saints
and delivers them, and that if He suffer them to

248 Messages from the Old Testament
be afflicted it is for the purpose of chastening and
purifying them, and that, even if they are called
upon to suffer the worst that can happen to man
in this life, they can bear it with a good courage,
because of the hope that they have in the Lord,
and because, like the seven martyr sons of the
Maccabean mother, they look for a better resur
rection. It is in ways like these that, in Bunyan's words,
we may ' take comfort ' of the Apocrypha and
bless God for it ; and if only we study it, we shall
find, as he did, that oftentimes it will ' shine before
our face.'

XXV
The Book of Wisdom
Job xxviii. 28 : 'The fear of the Lokd, that is wisdom ; and
to depart from evil is understanding.'*
It is a remarkable and significant fact that as a
general rule in Holy Scripture the word ' wise ' is
applied only to those who are wise enough to
serve God and to fear Him, while the term
' fools ' is reserved for those who are so foolish as
to neglect and ignore Him in their daily life.
They are ' fools ' who ' make a mock at sin.'f It
is ' the fool ' who ' saith in his heart, There is
no God,'| and shapes his life accordingly, though
all the while he may think himself supremely
wise, and be endowed with a magnificent intellect.
So, on the other hand, Daniel tells us that here
after ' they that be wise shall shine as the bright
ness of the firmament, and they that turn many
to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.'§
Folly, then, in Scriptural phraseology, is wilful
ignorance, sinfulness, and carelessness, every act
* For much of the material of this sermon the writer is in
debted to the Rev. W. J. Deane's Commentary on the Book of
Wisdom, and to the Speaker's Commentary on 'The Apocrypha.'
t Prov. xiv. 9. X Ps- xiv- l- § Dan- xii- 3-
249

250 Messages from the Old Testament
and habit opposed to the love of God and the
practice of holiness ; while wisdom, which is an
attribute of the Most High, when manifested
among men, is that gift of God which enables
men to seek Him as the end and object of their
life, to give themselves up to His guiding hand,
to know and do His will. ' The fear of the Lord,
that is wisdom ; and to depart from evil is under
standing.' The late Professor Huxley, in one of
his essays, remarks that 'the only medicine for
suffering, crime, and all the other woes of man
kind is wisdom.' Huxley was more right than
he knew. The advance of science, indeed, and
the spread of accurate information will never
cure all the ills that man is heir to. But wisdom
is more than intellectual knowledge, and she can
do it ; for she is ' the breath of the power of God,
and a pure influence flowing from the glory of
the Almighty, therefore can no defiled thing fall
into her. For she is the brightness of the ever
lasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of
God, and the image of His goodness. And
being but one, she can do ?11 things ; and
remaining in herself, she maketh all things new ;
and in all ages entering into holy' souls, .she
maketh them friends of God and prophets. For
God loveth none but him that dwelleth with
wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun,
and above all the order of stars. Being compared
with the light, she is found before it. For after
this cometh night, but vice shall not prevail
against wisdom.'*
* Wisd. vii. 25-30.

The Book of Wisdom 251
This wonderful and strangely beautiful descrip
tion of wisdom that I have just read to you will
be familiar to some as occurring, not in any of
the Canonical books of Holy Scripture, but in one
of those works which ' the Church doth read
for example of life and instruction of manners,'*
and nowhere in the Old Testament is the true
position and power of wisdom more magnificently
described than in it. We read the whole of
this book — it is called the Book of Wisdom —
in the course of the daily lessons, and on All
Saints' Day the first lessons at Matins and
Evensong are taken from it. But since it is
never read in the course of the Sunday lessons, it
is, unhappily, but little known to the majority of
Church-people, many of whom have probably
never read it through in the whole course of their
lives, and have only very occasionally heard a
chapter of it read in church, and perhaps wondered
where it came from, and what it was all about. I
have thought, therefore, that it might be well to
bring the book as a whole before you and invite
you to listen to a sermon upon it.
Who wrote the book is not known to us. The
title which it bears in our English Bibles, the
Wisdom of Solomon, has come down to us from
antiquity, and, though the name of Solomon does
not occur in it, it is clear from such a passage as
this, which is found in chapter ix., that it is
written in the character of Solomon : ' Thou hast
chosen me to be a king of Thy people, and a
judge of Thy sons and daughters. Thou hast
* Article VI.

252 Messages from the Old Testament
commanded me to build a temple upon Thy holy
mount, and an altar in the city wherein Thou
dwellest.'* These words are sufficient to indicate
that the writer personates Solomon, but it would
be a mistake to conclude from them that the
work must either be by Solomon himself or else
a forgery. 1 1 is really only an example of literary
personation which is common in the literature of
all ages, and which our own poets have frequently
indulged in. There can be no doubt that when
the writer introduces Solomon himself speaking,
it was not done with any intention of leading his
readers to believe that the work was a genuine
production of the son of David. The adoption
of the name belongs only to the literary form,
Solomon being the wise king of old in whose
mouth the writer felt that he might most appro
priately place the sentiments he desired to set
before his contemporaries. All the evidence
goes to prove that the work is a late one, written
by some Alexandrian Jew, in Greek, not Hebrew,
and after Greek influence had made itself felt
among the Jews, but before the rise of Christianity.
It must be placed before this, because there is a
marked absence in it of any reference to distinc
tively Christian doctrine. Nowhere is there any
allusion to the Incarnation or to the Atonement,
or to the Resurrection-— indeed, there is no trace
at all of any knowledge of Christ, and therefore no
Christian could have written it. Moreover, there
are in some of St. Paul's epistles such striking
coincidences of language with this book as to
* Wisd. ix. 7, 8.

The Book of Wisdom 253
prove pretty convincingly that the great Apostle
of the Gentiles must have been familiar with it,
and borrowed thoughts and phrases (perhaps half
unconsciously) from it ;* while the correspondence
of ideas and diction that may be traced between
it and the Epistle to the Hebrews is so close that
an ingenious suggestion has been thrown outf
that both treatises may be the work of the same
writer— possibly Apollos, who was 'an Alexan
drian Jew, mighty in the Scriptures,' J the Book
of Wisdom being written before, and the Epistle
to the Hebrews after, his conversion to the
Christian faith. This, however, is little more
than a fanciful conjecture. The book as it has
come down to us is really anonymous. The
author has concealed his name. Like the writer
of the fmitatio Christi of later date, he was one
who desired to be unknown in this world. Ama
nesciri might well have been his motto, and we
must be content to have it so.
Where and why he wrote, and under what
circumstances, we can, however, state with toler
able certainty. There are abundant indications
in the book itself which show that it was written
at a time of something very like a national
apostasy. Old pious customs and beliefs had
been abandoned, and the writer's contemporaries
were in danger of falling away into materialism,
idolatry, and sensualism with open immorality.
* See the Expositor, vol. iv. (2nd series), p. 209 et seq.
t By the late Dean Plumptre (after Noack); see the
Expositor, vol. i. (ist series), p. 329 et seq.
X Acts xviii. 24.

254 Messages from the Old Testament
They were no longer secluded from contact with
the heathen world, but were surrounded by
Gentiles, who crossed their path in a thousand
ways. Now, Alexandria was the place where, in
the centuries immediately before Christ, the
contact of Jew and Gentile was closest, and it
was probably there that the author of this book
lived and wrote. In the time of the Ptolemies
Alexandria was filled with Jews. They numbered
nearly one-third of the whole population, and,
living in the very centre of heathen culture, they
could not fail to be influenced by the spirit of the
place. ' Here they saw that Epicurean indif
ference, that luxurious selfishness, that gross
materialism, that virtual denial of Providence,
which are so sternly and eloquently rebuked in
the Book of Wisdom. Here they witnessed that
bestial idolatry and that debased revolt against
the pure worship of God which meet with such
severe handling in this work. A man who had
these things daily before his eyes, whose righteous
soul was continually vexed with this opposition to
all his cherished beliefs, would naturally thus
deliver his testimony, and brand the surrounding
heathenism with the fire of his words.'* But it
was evidently not the heathen "only of whom he
was thinking. There were sadly too many of his
own countrymen who were being led astray, and
were in danger of sinking to the level of their
surroundings, and it is to them mainly that he
addresses himself. To them he appeals by the
lessons of their national history, and by the
* Deane, The Book of Wisdoml p. 30,

The Book of Wisdom 255
memory _ of the noble conceptions of wisdom as
framed in some of the books of their national
literature. She is the preserver, the deliverer,
the sole source of immortality, the unique bestower
of every blessing. She gives joy and peace, and
consolation in sorrow, and power, and fame, and
honour, and immortal memory, and is better than
all riches, and health, and beauty. He who
possesses her needs nothing besides. He who is
without her is on the path of destruction. Wisdom
more than atones for every earthly calamity.
Childlessness and a short life might be regarded
as misfortunes, but when they befell the possessor
of wisdom they were blessings far more consum
mate than the many children of long-lived sinners.
The punishments of the heathen are long-
continued, overwhelming, and retributive. Israel
too might suffer, but his sufferings were only
such as were due to mild and fatherly correction.
The afflictions of the godly are compensated
beyond the grave — righteousness is immortal.
This is the basis of the writer's ethical system,
and it has been well said that it conducts us to
the very threshold of Christianity itself.*
Wisdom, then, is the theme of the book —
wisdom as the guide of men through all the
temptations, perplexities, and tangles of this
world, and wisdom as the light that can lead men
on to a glorious immortality and a life after
death. The book is divided into three well-
* See the Speaker's Commentary, ' The Apocrypha,' vol. i.,
p. 418, from which the preceding paragraph is condensed.

256 Messages from the Old Testament
defined sections, in each of which a different
aspect of the subject is presented to us.
In the first section, which lasts from chapter i.
to chapter v., the dominant thought is that
wisdom is the guide to immortality. Here there
stands out with far greater clearness than in any
of the Canonical books of the Old Testament
the thought of a future life. The attainment of
wisdom, we are told, is only possible to those
who live pure and moral lives. Wisdom is life
and immortality, sin leads to punishment and
death. With the sceptical despair, the sensual
Epicureanism, and the malignant violence of the
scorners are contrasted the hopes and blessings
of the righteous, who, under the protecting care
of God, attain a blessed immortality. It is in
this section that there occur those two singularly
beautiful passages, selected as the first lessons at
Matins and Evensong on All Saints' Day, which
have brought help and comfort to millions of
bereaved souls, and have stirred up thousands to
fresh struggles against sin and renewed efforts
after holiness of life.
' The souls of the righteous are in the hand of
God, and there shall no torment touch them. In
the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, and
their departure is taken for misery, and their
going from us to be utter destruction, but they
are in peace. For, though they be punished in
the sight of men, yet is their hope full of
immortality. And having been a little chastised,
they shall be greatly rewarded, for God proved
them, and found them worthy for Himself.'

The Book of Wisdom 257
That is one passage, and now listen to this
other, which describes the judgment as a reversal
of human opinion.
' Then shall the righteous man stand in great
boldness before the face of such as have afflicted
him, and made no account of his labours. When
they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible
fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of
his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked
for. And they, repenting and groaning for
anguish of spirit shall say within themselves,
This was he, whom we had sometimes in
derision, and a proverb of reproach. We fools
counted his life madness, and his end to be without
honour. How is he numbered among the children
of God, and his lot is among the saints ! There
fore have we erred from the way of truth, and
the light of righteousness hath not shined unto
us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon
us. We wearied ourselves in the way of wicked
ness and destruction : yea, we have gone through
deserts where there lay no way ; but, as for the
way of the Lord, we have not known it. What
hath pride profited us ? or what good hath riches
with our vaunting brought us ? All those things
are passed away like a shadow, and as a post
that hasted by ; and as a ship that passeth over
the waves of the water, which when it is gone
by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the
pathway of the keel in the waves ; or as when a
bird hath flown through the air, there is no token
of her way to be found, but the light air being
beaten with the stroke of her wings, and parted
17

258 Messages from the Old Testament
with the violent noise and motion of them, is
passed through, and therein afterwards no sign
where she went is to be found ; or like as when
an arrow is shot at a mark, it parteth the air,
which immediately cometh together again, so
that a man cannot know where it went through :
even so we in like manner, as soon as we were
born, began to draw to our end, and had no sign
of virtue to show, but were consumed in our own
wickedness. For the hope of the ungodly is like
dust that is blown away with the wind ; like a thin
froth that is driven away with the storm ; like as
the smoke which is dispersed here and there with
a tempest, and passeth away as the remembrance
of a guest that tarrieth but a day. But the
righteous live for evermore ; their reward also is
with the Lord, and the care of them is with the
Most High. Therefore shall they receive a
glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the
Lord's hand : for with His right hand shall He
cover them, and with His arm shall He protect
them.' It would be hard to find nobler passages than
these two, and if we had none beside them we
might be thankful that this book had come down
to us.
In the second part of the book (chapters vi.-ix.)
wisdom is more fully described as the source of
all moral as well as intellectual blessings. It is in
this that we have that fine passage describing her
as 'the breath of the power of God,' which I
quoted at the outset. Earthly potentates are
urged to remember their responsibilities, and to

The Book of Wisdom 259
seek and pray for wisdom. Wisdom is the true
secret of power, the greatest of all earthly blessings,
and the glorious source of all that is morally
or intellectually to be desired. Without wisdom
man is ignorant, feeble, sensuous, unspiritual ; he
can be saved by wisdom alone. It is a point of
wisdom to know whose gift she is ; and therefore
men must pray unto the Lord and beseech Him
with their whole heart that this blessed gift may
be theirs. This leads to the sublime prayer
for wisdom which is put into the mouth of
Solomon in chapter ix., and then the third and
remaining section of the book (chapters x.-xix.)
is mainly taken up with historical illustrations
intended to enforce the lessons of the previous
chapters, and to show what a power wisdom has
been in human history. The heroes of wisdom
are the heroes of faith. Wisdom preserves the
just and punishes the wicked. She preserved
Adam, and punished Cain and his guilty race;
she preserved Abraham and Lot, but punished
the people of Sodom ; she preserved Jacob and
Joseph, and she delivered Israel by the instru
mentality of Moses. This leads to an elaborate
contrast which is drawn between the punishment
of Egypt and the fatherly providence which
protected Israel ; and the writer ends his task
with a thankful recognition of God's love and
mercy to His own people, whom He has never
lightly regarded, but has assisted in every time
and place.*
* See the Speaker's Commentary, ' The Apocrypha,' vol. i.,
p. 403. 17 — 2

260 Messages from the Old Testament
Such is the Book of Wisdom, which, following
the practice of antiquity, the Church of England
commends to her children by requiring it to be
read at the daily services of Matins and Evensong.
It is said that the good old custom of reading a
chapter ofthe Bible morning and evening in private
has sadly died out of late. I know not how much
truth there is in this, but I would venture to
suggest that to read daily a chapter out of this
most beautiful book would be a devotional
exercise that would be profitable for all. It would
give them a new and deeper sense of the great
truth that ' God is love,' and would send them forth
to their daily work with fresh courage, inspired (to
use a phrase which we owe to its author) with a
' hope full of immortality.'

XXVI
The Position of the Church of
England with Regard to the Criticism
of the Old Testament*
It is no exaggeration to say that fifty years ago the
science of Biblical criticism was utterly unknown
in England. At an earlier period this country
had produced critics of whom any nation might be
proud.f But among the prominent figures in the
Church in 1846 there are very few who can claim
any sort of distinction in this particular line. Of
the leaders of the Tractarian Movement (with one
exception) it cannot be said that they showed any
special interest in the subject, or did anything to
promote the critical study of Holy Scripture
The exception, of course, is the honoured name of
Edward Bouverie Pusey. In the course of his
controversy with Hugh James Rose on German
theology, in 1825-1828, he had lamented a 'one
sidedness ' among English critics, and had noticed
* Reprinted, by permission of the proprietors, from the
Guardian of January 22, 1896.
t E.g., Richard Bentley, 1662-1742, and Robert Lowth,
1710-1787. 261

262 Messages from the Old Testament
' weak points ' and a ' certain stiffness ' among
some who maintained what he believed to be the
truth.* And though in after-years he regretted
the controversy, and somewhat withdrew from the
position which he had taken up, yet his name
stands out as that of the one man among the
early Tractarians who realised the importance of
fostering the intelligent study of Holy Scripture,
and who did something to supply the want which
he had felt twenty years before. In 1846 he was
already projecting a commentary on the whole
Bible, to be the work of various scholars,! a
scheme which unfortunately fell to the ground,
the only portion of the commentary that ever
appeared being his own work on the minor
prophets. The first instalment of this was
published in i860. But scarcely had it made its
appearance when the ' results ' of Biblical criticism
were set before English Churchmen in a singularly
ill-judged and unfortunate manner. It is hard to
imagine anything more mischievous to the truest
interests of the Church than the controversies
raised by the publication of Essays and Reviews
(i860) and Colenso's work on the Pentateuch and
the Book of Joshua (Part I., 1862; Part II.,
1863). It was in these works that 'the Higher Criticism '
was first introduced to the great body of English
Churchmen ; they were flung down before a public
utterly unprepared for them. To most Churchmen
the subject was entirely novel, and the manner in
* Life, by H. P. Liddon, vol. i., p. 174.
t Ibid., vol. iii., p. 149 et seq.

Criticism of the Old Testament 263
which the writers who came forward to instruct
them set about their task was not calculated to
recommend their cause. They appeared to
delight in startling people and in upsetting
generally received views. They committed
themselves to various rash and ill-considered
statements. Their work was purely negative and destruc
tive,* and marked by a flippant and contemptuous
tone which could not but be extremely painful to
reverent minds. Dean Church spoke of Essays
and Reviews at the time as a ' reckless book.'f and
a fresh perusal of the essays bearing upon the
Old Testament at the present day, when the views
propounded are no longer novelties, makes us feel
that his verdict was absolutely correct. It is no
wonder that people were frightened and lost their
heads, and that the outcry was loud and almost
universal. Here and there grave voices of men
who knew the real difficulties of the case pleaded
for patient consideration of the questions raised ;
but they passed unheeded in the din of the
conflict. It is, however, instructive to see how
the matter was regarded at the time by the few
thoughtful men who were strong enough to keep
their heads in the midst of the excitement, and
subsequent events have shown how accurately
they gauged the situation.
Thus R. W. Church, in the same letter which
* Thus Dean Stanley, in speaking of Essays and Reviews,
said : ' No book which treats of religious questions can hope
to make its way to the heart of the English nation unless it
gives at the same time that it takes away ' {Life, vol. ii., p. 33).
t Life and Letters, p. 157.

264 Messages from the Old Testament
contained the phrase quoted above, says : ' Several
of the writers have not got their thoughts and
theories into such order and consistency as
to warrant their coming before the world with
such revolutionary views. But there has been
a great deal of unwise panic and unjust and hasty
abuse, and people who have not an inkling
of the difficulties which beset the questions are
for settling them in a summary way, which is
perilous for everybody.' * So J. B. Lightfoot said
that Colenso's book, ' Poor as it is, will do a vast
deal of harm among unthinking, well-intentioned
people. The result, I am afraid, must be to
discredit reasonable inquiry with reverent spirits,
and to divide men into two extreme parties, who
will wage fierce war against each other, and
trample the truth under foot between them.' He
adds : ' I have tried in vain to extract a grain of
comfort from the publication of the book. I feel
very strongly, however, that it is a warning
against over much caution in handling such
subjects, for a frank and liberal treatment of the
difficulties of the. Old Testament, if it had been
general, would have drawn the sting of Bishop
Colenso's criticism, even if it had not rendered
the publication altogether impossible. 'f
The whole matter could not be better summed
up than it was by Archbishop Tait, then Bishop
of London, in a private memorandum drawn up

*

Life and Letters, p. 157.
t Life of Archbishop Tait, vol. i., p. 338. Cf. Life and
Correspondence of A. P. Stanley, vol. ii., p. 39, where similar
language is quoted.

Criticism of the Old Testament 265
at the time : ' The Liberals are deficient in religion,
and the religious are deficient in liberality.'* The
results upon the Church at large were simply
deplorable. Men were forced into one or other
of the opposing camps. ' Concessions ' were
regarded as a sign of weakness. There seemed
to be no room for a middle party. The hue and
cry was so great that men were frightened off the
ground altogether, and shut their eyes to the real
difficulties to which the writers had called
attention. So in 1869 Dean Church speaks of
the outcry against Dr. Temple's appointment to
the See of Exeter as ' the direct result of the
extravagant measures which were taken years ago
against the Essays and Reviews. People then
got committed, in Convocation and elsewhere, to
a false position against it ; they are obliged in
consistency to shriek at the. very name of it.'f
And a still more striking passage may be quoted
from a letter of the same writer to Dr. Liddon
on the subject of Biblical criticism, written exactly
twenty years later :
' Ever since I could think at all I have felt
that these anxious and disturbing questions would
one day or other be put to us, and that we were
not quite prepared or preparing to meet them
effectively. To us Church-people the general
answer was so clear that it made us think that
they wanted no further trouble, and they have
been left outside our sphere of interest, to be
dealt with by a cruel and insolent curiosity, utterly
reckless of results, and even enjoying the pleasure
* Life, vol. i., p. 325. t Life and Letters, p. 182.

266 Messages from the Old Testament
of affronting religion and religious faith. This
was sure to be, from the intellectual and moral
conditions of our time ; but it seems to me that
our apologetic and counter criticism has let itself
be too much governed by the lines of the attack,
and that we have not adequately attempted to
face things for ourselves, and in our own way, in
order not merely to refute, but to construct some
thing positive on our own side. That, it seems
to me, is the great triumph of Bull's Dejensio and
of your Bamptons, and we want something of the
same kind, which has not yet been done, for the
Bible — what it really is, how it came to be, who
gave it us. That the difficulties about it have
been forced, not on arrogant and conceited
' experts,' claiming monopoly of all criticism, but
on deep-thinking and devout Catholic believers
like  , and have given him trouble, seems to
me to show that there is something unsatisfactory
in the present condition of things.'*
Nothing could better express the true state of
the case, and the position taken up by the Church
of England for nearly thirty years. Answers to
Essays and Reviews and to Colenso's works
were published by the score ; but it must be
admitted that for the most part they are as one
sided as the books which they condemn, and fail
to deal adequately with the real difficulties, which
thoughtful students could not wholly ignore. One
outcome of the controversy, however, deserves
to be separately mentioned. There was a wide
spread feeling that the average layman was placed
* Life and Letters, p. 341.

Criticism of the Old Testament 267
in a disadvantageous position, and had no
opportunity of knowing what was said, or of
meeting the difficulties that might be raised in
connection with criticism. Accordingly, in 1864,
the Archbishop of York was consulted by the
Speaker of the House of Commons (the Right
Hon. J. Evelyn Denison) on the subject, and the
result was the publication of what is commonly
known as The Speaker s Commentary. As a
whole, it can hardly be called a success. The
writers of the volumes on the books. of the Old
Testament were still under the influence of the
panic created by the events mentioned above,
and too often betray an inadequate conception
of the problems which the student of the Old
Testament is called upon to solve. Still, it was
an honest, if not wholly satisfactory, attempt to
supply an admitted want. As such, it stands
almost alone. The first volume was published
in 1870 ; the last (on the Old Testament) in
1876. Still earlier, Bishop Perowne's scholarly
work on the Psalms had made its appear
ance (1864-1868). But with these exceptions,
there were very few critical works on the Old
Testament of any real value published by any
English Churchman for twenty years or more
from the date of the unfortunate controversies.*
No general interest was manifested in the subject,
and though Messrs. T. and T. Clark's Foreign
* Mention should perhaps be made of the publication of
Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (1863), and of Stanley's Lectures
on the History of the Jewish Church (vol. i., 1862 ; vol. ii.,
1864).

268 Messages from the Old Testament
Theological Library supplied a want and found a
ready sale, yet, as the works on the Old Testament
selected for translation were mainly on conservative
lines,* they did not materially contribute to any
advance being made.
Meanwhile, a new generation was growing up,
and there v^ere already competent scholars in
England, who, while following with keen interest
the course of Old Testament criticism abroad,
were working away independently, patiently
grappling with the problems, and slowly maturing
their own views. But the great body of intelligent
and thoughtful Churchmen still stood aloof, and
probably knew very little of what was being said
and thought by the leaders of criticism on the
Continent, and of the wide acceptance of the
Grafian hypothesis of the relation of Deuteronomy
to the priestly laws, and the post-exilic date of the
' Grundschrift.' Stanley had familiarised English
readers with Ewald. W. R. Smith's works ought
to have familiarised them with Wellhausen. But
the controversy with which the name of the Scotch
professor is connected did not stir any feeling in
this country, and his books,f though eagerly read
by scholars, somehow failed to attract popular
attention. Even the publication of the Revised
Version of the Old Testament in 1885 awoke
but a languid interest compared with that which
had been aroused by the appearance of the
* The commentaries of Keil and the earlier editions of
Delitzsch's works.
t The Old Testament in Me Jewish Church (1881) : The
Prophets of Israel (1882).

Criticism of the Old Testament 269
Revised New Testament four years earlier. The
committee appointed to revise the Old Testament
had proceeded on far more conservative lines than
their colleagues at work on the New Testament
had done. The changes of rendering intro
duced by them were less conspicuous and com
paratively few in number, nor were any exciting
questions of textual criticism raised by their work,
since they ' thought it most prudent to adopt the
Massoretic text as the basis of their work, and to
depart from it, as the authorised translators had
done, only in exceptional cases.' Not until the
year 1889 did Churchmen generally awake to the
fact that a change had come over the spirit
of the criticism of the Old Testament, and that
some who were devout and loyal Churchmen, as
well as reverent-minded scholars, not only felt
the difficulties keenly, but were prepared to face
the fact that ' criticism ' could not be silenced by
the appeal to authority, and that the Church was
bound to find a place for its assured results. The
publication of Mr. Gore's essay in Lux Mundi
marks an epoch in the history of thought upon
this subject. Mr. Gore wrote, not as a specialist
in the Higher Criticism, but rather as a Church
man who felt the weight of the main arguments
urged by the higher critics in support of many of
their conclusions, and who was prepared to admit
these conclusions as such that might be legitimately
held in the English Church, and as perfectly
compatible with a full belief in the inspiration of
Holy Scripture. Naturally, a considerable number
of Churchmen were startled and perplexed, and

270 Messages rrom the Old Testament
felt themselves quite unable to accept the position
set before them ; but, at the same time, there can
be no doubt that Mr. Gore gave voice to thoughts
that were rising in the minds of many, and that
to younger men in particular his utterances brought
a sense of relief. Since then we have all become
familiar with the Higher Criticism. The essay
aroused attention and stimulated inquiry. The
way was thus prepared for other works dealing
more fully with the questions to which he had
briefly alluded ; and the rapid and surprising
success of Dr. Driver's Lntroduction to the Litera
ture oj the Old Testament* is the best evidence
of the general interest now at last excited on the
subject. It cannot be said that even yet Church
men are all of one mind. Some may even assert
that the day is far distant when they will be.
And it is probable that they are right in this, for
much remains to be done before we are in
possession of all the facts, and till then our con
clusions can only be provisional. For instance,
the whole study of textual criticism of the Old
Testament needs to be put on a much surer basis
before a final decision can be arrived at on some
of the. problems raised by the Higher Criticism.
The Massoretic text is no longer regarded with
the reverence accorded to it fifty years ago, but
we are still in the stage of conjectural emendations
of it, and the emendations suggested certainly
sometimes appear to be due to the preconceived
ideas of the critic, with which the text must be
* Published in 1891. Fifth edition, with an appendix, in
1894.

Criticism of the Old Testament 271
made to fit. The real value of the versions is
only beginning to be understood, and before they
can be properly used and appealed to their text
must first be settled. Happily, in undertaking
this most necessary work, our Universities are
leading the way. The Clarendon Press some
years ago gave us Mr. Field's magnificent
edition of Origen's Hexapla (1875), and is now
following it up by the publication of the in
valuable Concordance to the Septuagint, begun
by the late Mr. Hatch, and now safe in the hands
of Mr. Redpath ; while last year (1895) saw the
completion of Professor Swete's manual edition of
the Septuagint issued by the Pitt Press, and we
are promised at some future date a larger edition
— ' With the variations of all the Greek uncial
MSS., of select cursive MSS., ofthe more impor
tant versions, and of the quotations made by
Philo and the earlier and more important ecclesi
astical writers.'
Till this most necessary work on the text and
the versions is complete, it is obvious that there
must remain a considerable element of uncertainty
in some of the conclusions of the Higher Criticism.
Moreover, our knowledge of Hebrew grammar
and of the meaning of many Hebrew words is
steadily increasing. No one can study the
grammars which have appeared during the last
few years without feeling what an advance has
been made of late, and the new Hebrew Lexicon,
edited by Professors Driver, Brown, and Briggs
(for which, again, we have to thank the Clarendon
Press), is a vast improvement on any that had

272 Messages from the Old Testament
previously been published. But even here we
have not reached finality ; and as our know
ledge of Assyrian becomes more thorough, it is
probable that a good deal of fresh light will be
thrown upon the meaning and relation of many
Hebrew words, and the next fifty years may
witness still greater advances than those which
have been already made. Nor can the discoveries
of archaeologists be neglected. Here, again, there
is no reason for thinking that we have come to a
standstill. Fresh discoveries may any day be
made which will upset the dominant theory, and
so long as the spade of the explorer is at work
and new facts come to light, the conclusions of
the critics must be subject to revision. It is
admitted that the student of the Old Testament
has more material at his command than he ever
had before, and that he is far better equipped for
his task to-day than he was even ten years ago.
But ten years hence he will probably be better
equipped still. Meanwhile, two happy results of
the opening up of the subject of the criticism of
the Old Testament may be noticed, for each of
which we have good cause to be thankful.
First, as was said by a thoughtful speaker at the
Rhyl Church Congress, we have ' gained the
critics.' Those who cannot without intellectual
dishonesty withhold their assent to the arguments
for the newer views are no longer compelled to
feel that, if true to the leading of their reason and
loyal to their intellectual convictions, they must
seek a home elsewhere than in the Church of
England. They find that there is still a place for

Criticism of the Old Testament 273
them in her communion, and that they can fully
and frankly accept those results of criticism, which
appear to them to be established almost to
demonstration, without surrendering their faith in
the inspiration of Holy Scripture, or losing their
hold upon a single article of their creed. Secondly,
upon Churchmen generally the lesson of earlier
controversies has not been thrown away. That
which Archbishop Tait noted as the great evil in
i860 is not true in 1896. Whatever may be said
of some others elsewhere, it is certainly not the
case here in the Church of England, that as a body
' the liberals ' in the matter of criticism ' are
deficient in religion,' nor should their opponen
be charged with being * deficient ' in liberality. In
' conservative ' quarters it is generally confessed
now that the questions raised are such as legiti
mately fall within the providence of criticism ; and
there is far less tendency than there formerly was
to denounce the newer views, and to . attempt to
silence the critics by the appeal to authority. On
either side the appeal is to criticism itself, and the
arguments of both parties are, or at least are
intended to be, purely critical. In this way the
experience of the last fifty years has taught
us much. The two camps, the ' analytical ' and
the ' traditional ' (to adopt Bishop EUicott's
phraseology), still exist, and are still opposed to
each other. But the asperities of the conflict are
greatly softened. Grave questions are still keenly
debated, and, as has been already indicated, on
many matters suspense of judgment is the only
attitude which those who are not specialists can
18

274 Messages from the Old Testament
reasonably take up ; but we may fairly hope that
when all the facts are before us and experts have
said the last word, wherever the truth may
ultimately be found to lie in regard to such
questions as are now raised with regard to the
composition, authorship, and character ofthe books
of the Old Testament, the great body of English
Churchmen will candidly and cheerfully accept it,
and find that it has not in any degree shaken their
faith or diminished their reverence for Holy
Scripture.

XXVII
Criticisms of Holy Scripture and the
Church's Gains thereby*
The subject specially allotted to me is the gain to
the Church resulting from juster statements of
Truth, as the outcome of recent criticism of Holy
Scripture. Taking a broad view of the course of
criticism on the Old Testament in late years, it
seems to me that while there is much in it which
appears to be arbitrary and unsatisfactory, two
things at least are forced upon us: (i) The con
viction that the position of Israel can no longer be
isolated as it was formerly ; and (2) The fact that
the principle oj development must be recognised as
revolutionising many of our old conceptions.
1. The position of Israel is no longer so isolated
as formerly ; you see this in regard to its literature,
and also its institutions.
(a) The spade of the explorer has been at work.
It has unearthed a literature which furnishes re
markable parallels to the early traditions of Israel.
It has revealed documents which are surprisingly
similar to those which lie at the basis of the
* This paper was read at the Rhyl Church Congress,
October, 1891. 275 l8—2

276 Messages from the Old Testament
Book of Genesis. We point, and rightly point,
to the no less surprising differences between the
two, and the transformation which the records
have undergone before they find a place in the
Bible is hailed, and rightly hailed, as evidence
that at least the inspiration of selection has been
at work. But still, the fact that such parallels
as those contained in the Chaldcean Genesis and
other books can be produced is most signifi
cant, and must be taken into account in any
theory of the origin of the early books of the
Old Testament. Again, the methods of literary
composition in vogue among the ancients are
called in to explain and illustrate the books of the
Bible. We have learnt to allow for the ' Oriental '
breadth of style and conception leading to state
ments which, if found in a Western writer
accustomed to precision and mathematical exact
ness, could only be termed the grossest exaggera
tions. Apologue and dramatic personification are
everywhere else recognised as allowable in
literature, and therefore we are called upon now
to recognise and allow for them in the literature
of the Hebrews. So, as we go on, we find the
writers of the Old Testament acting like early
writers in other nations, combining, selecting,
arranging, harmonising, and adapting their
material ; and thus, by means of the com
parative method, aided by the fresh light con
tributed by the monuments of Egypt, Palestine,
Assyria, and Babylonia, our conception of the
character and meaning of much of the Old Testa
ment has been silently but surely revolutionised.

Criticisms of Holy Scripture 277
(5) As with the literature, so with the institutions
of Israel. In his masterly work on The Religion
oj the Semites, Dr. W. Robertson Smith has
recently shown us how much the Mosaic law or
the system of religion which prevailed in Israel
had in common with that of the nations nearest
of kin to it. The Hebrew race was but one
branch of a great family, with rites and religious
ideas to which striking parallels may be found in
the rites and religious ideas of the Arabians and
other Semitic peoples. ' The common element,'
we are told, ' included not only such things as
ritual and temple furniture, or the details of priestly
organisation, but even the titles and many of the
attributes of God, and especially the forms of the
covenant in which He drew near to men.'
2. Again, the criticism of the last few years has
taught us that the principle of development holds
good in religion as well as nature. The literary
analysis of the Pentateuch has been greatly aided
by the application of the law that the simpler
precedes the more complex. This is very clearly
seen in the ' layers ' of laws of varying age, which
we are now told by sober critics, such as Delitzsch,
can be recognised in the Pentateuch. We are
now able to trace, as in former days was impossible,
the origin, development, and growth of religious
ideas, hopes, and aspirations among the Jews.
The old order, ' The Law and the Prophets,' is
to a great extent reversed, and we are bidden to
accustom ourselves to speak of ' The Prophets
and the Law.'
3. The facts thus hastily indicated are well

278 Messages from the Old Testament
known and acknowledged by thoughtful students
of different schools of criticism ; but I doubt
whether we have all sufficiently recognised how
they must affect our whole conception of the
history of Israel and its position in the world. It
appears now as one among the nations, with
institutions and laws which can be compared with
the institutions and laws of those nations nearest
of kin to it ; with a literature which bears striking
affinities in many parts to that of Babylon and
Assyria, and which, in the view of many, is
indebted to the literature of those nations, and
even, it is now said, to that of Persia, for much
that was formerly considered unique and special.
Thus the fence that marked off Israel from the
rest of the world seems to be broken down. It
stands before us with a history alike in its broad
features and main outlines to that of the nations
around it, for one result of this complete revolution
in our conception of Israel's position as regards
other nations is this : it has now become possible,
as it never was possible before, for a hostile critic
to write a plausible history of Israel from a purely
naturalistic standpoint, explaining and accounting
for the whole course of events, without having
recourse to the Divine interposition. The early
narratives are brought into line with the early
traditions and myths of other nations. Allowance
is made for Eastern modes of thought and figures
of speech, and for tendencies which are recognised
as at work outside the Bible. Thus hostile critics
can without difficulty explain as perfectly ' natural '
much that was formerly considered to be

Criticisms of Holy Scripture 279
'miraculous,' or due to a special intervention of
God on behalf of His chosen people. Take, for
instance, the restoration of the Jews from the
Babylonish captivity. What a different com
plexion ^ it can be made to wear now from any
which it could wear formerly ! The startling
character of the coincidence of the event with
prophecy disappears when Isa. xl.-lxvi. is no
longer the work of Isaiah of Jerusalem, but of an
unknown prophet, living on the very verge of the
restoration, when the victorious career of Cyrus
was already beginning ; and its special and
providential character may easily be got rid of
when we discover from the cylinder inscription of
Cyrus himself that the blessing was not peculiar
to the chosen people, but was shared by them in
common with other nationalities, for Cyrus ' de
liberately reversed the old policy of the Assyrian
and Babylonian kings, which consisted in trans
porting the larger portion of a conquered popula
tion to another country, and sought instead to win
their gratitude and affection by allowing them to
return to their native land.'
4. This danger of eliminating God and His
providence from the history is one which has to be
met and fairly faced. But even at the cost of
some risk I venture to think that it is an immense
blessing to have gained thegreater sense oj reality
which the study of the Old Testament in the
light of modern criticism brings with it. There
was something unreal and artificial in a good
many of the explanations and reconciliations of the
older commentaries ; and there was a very real

280 Messages from the Old Testament
danger lest the characters of the Old Testament
should appear as puppets pulled by strings instead
of real living men and women. All this is
changed now. One result of the way in which the
history of Israel is brought into line with that of
other nations is that the incidents gain immensely
in reality, and the history touches us far more
closely than it ever did before. No one can read
such a book as Mr. G. A. Smith's ' Isaiah ' in the
Expositor s Bible without feeling that Isaiah lives
for him as he probably never did before. The
gain in reality and human interest is immense.
5. This, however, is by no means the only or
the greatest gain. Of far greater importance is it
to have brought home to us a deeper sense of the
ultimate unity of all things in God, and of the
' one increasing purpose ' which runs through the
ages, as God gradually reveals Himself to man.
The time is coming — if, indeed, it has not already
come — for a new ' Analogy of Religion to the
constitution and course of Nature ' to be written.
Development has revolutionised our conception of
the method of God's working in nature. Is it too
much to say that it has revolutionised our
conception of the method of His working in
religion as well ? Under the old view there was
great danger, not only of reading back the whole
of the New Testament revelation into the Old,
thereby losing our sense of the gradual and
progressive character of revelation, but also of
coming to think that there was only one nation
which God cared about, one sphere in which He
was working, and one only, as if all the rest of the

Criticisms of Holy Scripture 281
world was left to itself ; and practically only too
many seemed to imagine that, although formerly
God had manifested Himself in the world and
done great wonders for His people, yet since the
Ascension He had left the world to get on as best
it could by itself. Such a notion has now become
an impossibility for anyone who reflects at all.
We still say that there was one sphere in which
God was manifesting Himself and making Him
self known in a special manner ; but we dare not
confine His working to that nation, and we are
forced to admit that externally that nation bore a
striking resemblance to those around it, and that
things may have happened formerly very much as
they happen to-day. Well, what follows from
this ? Two courses are open to you. You may
either (1) deny God's interposition throughout —
banish Him from the Old Testament as from the
history of to-day, as the rationalist does ; or (2)
you may accept the view of history, which the
Hebrew prophets were always struggling to set
before their people. You may see in all things,
now as then, the Hand of Him without whom
not a sparrow faileth to the ground. You may
consider Him, not as an absentee God, or sitting
apart in a remote position of general superinten
dence, but as present with all that is, and holding
Sovereign sway over all things now as in the days
when psalmist and prophet wrote. Let us learn
to see God everywhere, in history as well as in
nature, to-day, and trace even the commonest and
most ordinary events to His providence and
governance, as Israel did, and then I do not think

282 Messages from the Old Testament
that the new reading of Israel's history will
disturb us much ; and surely to those who believe
in the promise, ' Lo, I am with you always,'
it ought not to be difficult to do this. The Jew,
outwardly so much like those around him, with the
same sort of things happening to him as to them,
with so much that was common in his institutions
and ideas, yet knew that he possessed a key to the
meaning of things which was not granted to
others. He could see the hand of God every
where, could believe that there was the Personal
Will behind all phenomena, shaping, controlling,
and directing; could recognise this in whatever
happened, and could claim to be the chosen race
through whom God would specially reveal and
work out His purposes to the world at large.
Only let the Christian Church — the inheritor of
promises — learn boldly to take up the very same
position to-day, and the result will be a gain that
will far more than counterbalance any loss that has
come to us ; for it will bring back God into the
world, and bring Him closer than ever into our
daily lives.
' Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God ;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.'
Let us read the Old Testament with this
thought in our mind, and we shall find that its
lessons are fresher and more fruitful than ever.
We shall learn that God is working and acting
and manifesting Himself to those who have eyes
to see as truly to-day as He ever was in Israel of

Criticisms of Holy Scripture 283
old ; and the result of this will be that, although
in the minds of some who have written on the
history and brought forward illustrations and
parallels from neighbouring nations there may
have lurked the hope that God would be banished
from the world, the weapons will be wrested from
their hands, and, to borrow a striking phrase
which I have somewhere read, 'the battle-guns
which have been pointed against the Church in
one generation shall be melted down into church
bells for the next.' Yes, 'into church bells,' for
the criticism which in the hands of some has
seemed to be destructive of all that we hold
most dear shall end in the hands of others
by summoning back to the Church our children
and our children's children in the generations
that are yet to come.

THE END

WELLS GARDNER, DAKTON AND CO., LTD., LONDON

Other Works in the Same Series :
THE LAW OF FAITH. By the late Rev. William Bright,
D.D., Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, Regius Professor of Ecclesias
tical History. Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth boards, 6s.
' Every page is the outcome of a richly-stored mind, and a reader will find
that any single theme is so treated as to suggust many fruitful topics for
studious thought. He is not only theologically exact, but he is also signally
successful in attaining to that literary charm of selecting the very word which
expresses the writer's thought. ' — Guardian.

TESTIMONIES TO CHRIST. By the Rev. C J. Ball,
M.A., Chaplain to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. Crown
8vo., cloth boards, 6s.
' Exceedingly able sermons, thoughtful and original in substance, and
charming in style.' — Guardian.

RESOURCES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. By the Rev.
W. W. Williams, Fellow and Librarian of St. Augustine's College,
Canterbury. Crown 8vo., cloth boards, 6s.
' The volume is far above the average book of sermons.' — Church Bells.

THE TEACHING OF CHRIST. A Selection of Sermons
from the Anglican Writings of the late Henry Edward Manning,
M.A., sometime Archdeacon of Chichester and afterwards Cardinal.
Crown 8vo. , cloth boards, 6s.

THE DIVINE ORDINANCE OF PRAYER. By the
Rev. W. Hay M. H. Aitken, Canon of Norwich. Second Edition.
Crown Svo., cloth boards, 3s. 6d.
' We do not remember to have read a work on the subject of prayer which
impressed us so much by its logical cogency and directness. Anxious doubters
and steadfast believers will alike gain their lessons from it. ' — Record.
' No simpler, no more sincere or penetrating guide to the practice of prayer
has been written in our day.' — Expository Times.

London : WELLS GARDNER, DARTON & CO., LTD.
3, Paternoster Buildings, E.C, & 44, Victoria Street, S.W.

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