Sermons in songs

BX 9178 .R58 S4
Robinson, Charles S.
Sermons in songs

Sermons in Songs

CHAS. S. ROBINSON, D.D.,

Pastor 0/ the JSIemorial Church:, New York.

FUNK & WAGNALLS.

NEW YORK: 1885. LONDON:

10 AND 12 Dey Street. 44 Fleet Street.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by

FUNK & WAGNALLS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. D. C.

PREFATORY NOTE.

THE title of this volume was suggested by
the fact that the texts were chosen from
the ''Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs" of
the Old Testament and the New. The sermons
were prepared along the course of the author's
ministrations during a period of years. We all
know that often in work there is worship, and
that sometimes there is preaching in praise.

CHAS. S. ROBINSON.

Memorial Church, New York,
September 20, 1885.

VOLUMES BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

SERMONS IK SONGS. i2mo, 323 pp., $1.25.

Sermons preached in the Memorial Church, New York
City, the texts of which are chosen from the Songs of the
Bible.

CHURCH WORK. i2mo, 319 pp $1.25.

Sermons neither occasional nor selected, but the actual
rehearsal (once a week) of half a year's pastoral work.

BETHEL AND PENUEL. i2ino, 317 pp.,

$1.25.

The remaining half year's work in the same pulpit ;
founded upon the two incidents of Jacob's life at Bethel
and Penuel.

STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.
i2mo, 316 pp $1-25.

Homiletic expositions with illustrations of consecutive pas-
sages in the Gospels, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse.

STUDIES OF NEGLECTED TEXTS.

i2mo, 329 pp $1-25.

Sermons peculiar in that the themes of discourse are
chosen from texts somewhat rarely selected for pulpit use.

SIMON PETER; His Early Life and
Times. i2mo, 350 pp $1-25.

Sermons biographical and practical, jiicturesq^uely delin-
eating the career of this misunderstood desciple of our
Lord.

CONTENTS.

I. The King's Daughter 9

" The king's daughter is all glorious within ; her
clothing is of wrought gold." — Psalm 45 : 13.

II. The Prince's Bride 21

" She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of
needlework ; the virgins her companions that follow
her shall be brought unto thee." — Psalm 45 : 14.

III. The Bride's Presents 34

" And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a
gift." — Psalm 45 : 12.

IV. '' Folded Hands" 46

'' Whereas it was in thine heart to build a house unto
my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart :
nevertheless thou shalt not build the house." — i Kings
8 : 18, ig.

V. The "Magnificat" of Mary 58

" My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Saviour." — Luke i : 46, 47.

VI. The Sermon on the Cross 69

" I will declare thy name unto my brethren : in the
midst of the congregation will I praise thee." — Psalm
22 : 22.

VI CONTENTS

PACE

VII. A Beatitude Realized 8i

" And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice
to God with one accord." — Acis 4 : 24.

VIII. The "Gloria in Excelsis." 90

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good-will toward men." — Ztde 2 : 14.

IX. Meditation, Emotion, Utterance 102

" While I was musing, the fire burned ; then spake I
with my tongue." — Psalm 39 : 3.

X. The Reserved Power of God 116

" He had horns coming out of his hand ; and there
was the hiding of his power." — Habakkuk 3 : 4.

XI. The "Nunc Dimittis" of Simeon 12S

" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word." — Luke 2 : 29.

XII. Resting in the Lord 139

" Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath
dealt bountifully with thee." — Psalm 116 : 7.

XIII. The Singers in Prison 151

" And at midnight Paul and Silas sang praises unto
God."^ — Acts 16 : 25.

XIV. The Lateral Force of Prayer 164

"And the prisoners heard them." — Acts 16 : 25.

XV. Secret Sins 176

" Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret
sins in the light of thy countenance." — Psalm 90 : 8.

CONTENTS. vii

PAGE

XVI. The "Benedictus" of Zacharias i86

" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath vis-
ited and redeemed his people." — Luke i : 68.

XVII. The First Psalm i95

" For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous :
but the way of the ungodly shall perish."— /"^a/w i : 6.

XVIII. Getting Rid of Strange Children 208

" Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange

children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right
hand is a right hand of falsehood : that our sons may
be as plants grown up in their youth ; that our daugh-
ters may be as corner-stones, polished after the simili-
tude of a palace." — Psalm 144 : 11, 12.

XIX. Under His Shadow 220

" I sat down under his shadow with great delight."
— Solomon! s Song 2:3.

XX. The Text-Book in Affliction 230

" It is good for me that I have been afflicted ; that I
might learn thy statutes." — Psalm 119 : 71.

XXI. Nature and Revelation 239

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the
firmament shovveth his handiwork." — Psalm 19 : i.

XXII. The Availableness of Prayer 251

" From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee,
when my heart is overwhelmed : lead me to the rock
that is higher than I." — Psahn 61 : 2.

XXIII. Guidance by the Eye 261

" I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which

thou shalt go ; I will guide thee with mine eye." —

Psalm 32 : 8.

via CONTENTS.

PAGE

XXIV. The Eucharist Hymn 273

"And when they had sung an hymn, they went out
into the mount of Olives." — Mark 14 : 26.

XXV. God's Thoughts of Us 287

" But I am poor and needy ; yet the Lord thinketh
upon me : thou art my help and my deliverer ; make
no tarrying, O my God." — Psalm 40 : 17.

XXVI. Off and On 299

" I have put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ?" —
Solomoii s Song 5 : 3.

XXVII. The Argument of Experience 311

" Be thou my strong rock — for thou art my rock." —

Psalm 31 ; 2, 3.

SERMONS IN SONGS.

THE KING'S DAUGHTER.

"The King's daughter is all glorious within ; her cloth-
ing IS of wrought gold." — Psalm 45 : 13.

The opening sentence of this psalm leads you
to expect something unusual, for its author an-
nounces it is a " good matter" which his heart is
inditing. And as you read on, passing more
deeply meanwhile into its interior meaning, you
are struck with its dignity and the stateliness of
its march. It moves along with a splendor of
diction unwontedly glowing and a vividness of
dramatic force gorgeous and beautiful. You be-
gin to anticipate some grand development. Your
imagination is kindled by the picture of this ex-
traordinary King. His glory fairly transcends lan-
guage, his majesty is supereminent, his kingdom
stretches from shore to shore.

Just then suddenly you come upon that signifi-
cant verse, which your memory recognizes as
quoted in the New Testament, and applied there
only to one King, and to him simply to prove his

lO SERMONS IN SONGS.

A new personage.

divinity : " Thy throne, O God, is forever and
ever : the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right scep-
tre." This settles the reference of that part of the
psahii with no further question. The whole pre-
diction contained in it must be Messianic ; it was
written concerning Jesus as the King whom God
himself has anointed and crowned as his heir and
his Son.

But now, in the midst of the inspired song, 3'ou
perceive an abrupt change in the direction of the
thought. A new personage appears. A beautiful
maiden enters upon the scene. She is first ad-
dressed, and then described ; addressed as wel-
come and accepted in the name of the Monarch
whose name she bears ; then described, as if the
psalmist were catching a fresh fervor from the
vision of her loveliness, disclosed to him as he
speaks. For he exclaims with enthusiasm, grow-
ing prophetic as he looks along the admiring ages.

Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline
thine ear ; forget also thine own people, and thy
father's house ; so shall the King greatly desire thy
beauty : for he is thy Lord ; and worship thou him. "

From this the excited singer passes over into
description of the bride, drawing his portrait of
her with a free and friendly hand, actually multi-
plying epithets in order that not so much as one
point of Avhat seems to him supremely attractive
and admirable should escape notice from having
been untold in the strains of his music.

It is this likeness, Avhich is limned with such a

THE KING S DAUGHTER. I I

Who is this Bride ? No mere epithalamium.

master-hand, that I desire this morning to bring
under your examination. Only to discover who
this bride is, and help you to see how fine are her
adornments — this is my present purpose.

Of course our earliest inquiry must be concern-
ing her identity. Who is this amiable paragon
of feminine perfection, introduced by the psalmist
to his readers here as a King's Daughter, come to
be a King's Bride ? Is he talking of a real maiden,
whose name can be mentioned, and is it possible
for us to know in what monarch's palace she was
born and reared ?

There are some expositors who say this psalm
was a mere epithalamium, or marriage ode, writ-
ten on the occasion of Solomon's wedding, or
Ahab's, or perhaps that of one of the later Jewish
or Persian sovereigns. But the prophetic charac-
ter, which we have already seen that it bears,
necessitates a far higher reference. And if we
admit that the Messiah is its subject, we are re-
minded at once of the more extended allegory
which lies before us in the Canticles. There, as
we remember, Jesus Christ is represented as a
regal Husband, while the Church is personified as
his Bride. We recall also, now we set ourselves
about it, that on one occasion in that Song of
Songs she is addressed as a " Prince's Daughter,"
as well as a " King's Wife." This offers us an
interesting parallel passage for the explication of
our present text, for it familiarizes our minds with
the thought.

12 SERMONS IN SONGS.

In the prophecies. In the Apocalypse.

Such a figure, moreover, is found frequently in
the ancient prophecies applied to the collective
body of believers as it existed under the former
dispensation. For, so says the pleading- Jeremiah,
as if uttering a voice from heaven to earth,
" Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord ;
for I am married unto you." And even this is
hurried over into New Testament times. The
Almighty complains that his people had broken
their covenant sinfully, " although," says he, " I
was a husband unto them,"

You will recollect, hkewise, that in the Apoca-
lypse John the apostle was bidden to come and see
" the Bride, the Lamb's wife." Carried away in
the Spirit to an elevated mountain, what he did
see was a "great city, the holy Jerusalem, de-
scending out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband." And yet we immedi-
ately gather from the voices he was made to hear
that it could not have been a mere town-— some
sort of municipal organization —which was here
intended ; God's Son was never betrothed to a
metropolis. Relerence must have been meant to
the living element in the conception of a popu-
lated place ; the inhabitants are somehow included
in the suggestion made. The explanation, which
fixes the intelligible reach of the thought, is dis-
covered in the language of the more literal Paul.
This apostle, after a long disquisition about the re-
lations and duties of husbands and wives, closes a
counsel swiftly with the significant declaration :

THE KINGS DAUGHTER. 13

The Church invisible. The body of believers.

" This is a great mystery, but I speak concern-
ing Christ and the Church." Thus we learn, in
the end of our search, that this is the King's
Daughter — the Church — who is one day to become
the Prince's Wife, and share with him the glory
and grace of his millennial kingdom.

Such an explanation we are all ready to accept.
The entire body of true believers is here indicated,
the Church invisible. Those are meant who, in
all ages, clothed in robes of righteousness which
is by faith, and adorned with the graces of the
Holy Spirit, adhere to the one Saviour in single-
ness of heart as well as in fidelity of life, and who,
on this account, are admitted into the most
endearing union and communion with the Chief
among ten thousand and the One altogether
lovely. So we are told plainly that Christ loved
the Church, and gave himself for the Church,
which is his body, " the fulness of him who fiUeth
all in all."

Now, Avhat makes this title of such interest to us
here to-day is the fact that the Church is always
as its members. Indeed, there is no such thing as
a Church distinct from its members. The aggre-
gate is typed in the individual. All that belongs
to the Church, as such, fully belongs to him who
is spirituall}^ in the Church. Is the Church the
Lamb's wife? Then is each soul a bride by
experimental espousal. Is the Church all glo-
rious within ? Then it is because every soul in
the invisible body of believers is glorious within

14 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A royal family. New rank at death.

also. Hence, the relationship of every regener-
ated Christian is royal in rank and affectionate in
feeling. Each believer is one of the King's
household. "Ye are Christ's, and Christ is
God's."

There must be something in this worth our
consideration. Whenever we approach a son of
poverty and honest toil, or come into association
with a daughter of much weariness and many
cares, and recognize the Saviour's likeness repro-
duced, we are bound in some measure to disre-
gard the earthl}- estimate, and remember the
divine. Mephibosheth is to be reckoned, not by
his deformity, but by the seat he has at David's
table. A Christian man is a prince ; a Christian
woman is a queen. For a heraldry, higher than
any which ever ruled a human court, overrides all
the grades of distinction we accept, and stamps
each decent follower of Jesus Christ a child of
God. We are of God, and all the world lieth in
wickedness. Esther never touched a sceptre
more princely than that which a sinner touches in
the supreme moment when his sins are forgiven.
Pharaoh's daughter could not take the outcast
slave-infant Moses to a palace half so royal as
that into which Simon Peter took his brother An-
drew when he just led him to Jesus. One of the
devout noblemen of Britain, at the point of death,
said to his heir standing by — the relative who was
to receive his estate and his title the instant he
breathed his last — " Brother, in an hour more

THE king's daughter. 1 5

Just any believing soul. " All glorious within."

you are to become a duke ; but I shall become a
king- !"

Be very solicitous not to lose this thought in
the vague notion of the Church as a society of
believers, bearing a banner and meeting in an edi-
fice on the Sabbath. The characteristics which
our Lord admires are those of a spirit, a person, a
soul, and not at all those of a mere corporation.
Keep asking yourself whether you are wearing
the Lord's jewels. For other grooms love their
brides for the beauty they discover, and admire
them most for the sake of the attractions they
find ; but the Lamb of God loves this foreign
King's Daughter for the adornments he gives her,
and admires her most for the radiancy of the
charms which his own hand has bestowed.

Really, therefore, in answer to the question we
have raised as to the person here designed, I
think we might safely say this King's Daughter is
any true, pure, believing soul.

But we must not pause just there ; we must
pass on to study the character which is sketched
as belonging to this princess. For that must be
what is meant by the King's Daughter being, as
the text says, " all glorious within."

Some expositors have seemed to find trouble in
their interpretation of the verse. It has been said
that this word " within" means within her abode
in the father's house she came from. The allu-
sion is claimed as local ; it is insisted that it should
be applied to the maiden's surroundings at her

l6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A queen on a tower. The New Revision.

home. So some construct the imaginative picture
of an enamored lover nearing the castle in which
his queen of beauty resides. She has come forth
upon the battlements of the ancestral building,
wearing her attire of radiant robes. And the in-
stant his eyes catch a glimpse of those towers —
the instant he sees the form of her whom he ad-
mires outlined against the serene sky— he breaks
forth in tones of rapture and exultation : " The
King's Daughter is all glorious within" — that is,
within the palace walls.

But this seems very tame, no matter how much
one tries to work it up into poetic feeling and
fact. Nor is it any better to say, as some do, that
the clause ought to be rendered : " All-glorious
in her intimacy" — that is, intimacy with her mon-
arch-husband, the Church companionable with her
spouse, Christ. Others have supposed that the
expression refers to the interior apartments re-
served in Eastern houses for the females, and they
think that it here suggests the gorgeous furniture
of the chambers which the queen was occupying,
with perhaps an allusion to her own sumptuous
apparel. This appears to have been accepted by
those who have issued the late revision of the Old
Testament, for the verse reads thus: "The
king's daughter within the palace is all glorious ;
her clothing is inwrought with gold." But here
there was evidently found the need of an addi-
tional explanation ; for a side-note is given, stat-
ing that the clause means " in the inner part of the

THE king's daughter. 1/

The Bride's character. Fidelity first.

palace." This is a sort of modification of an in-
terpretation older still — namely, that the descrip-
tion must be confined to the raiment of the maiden
so gloriously attired for her wedding-day, but
kept out of sight for a season in her customary re-
tirement, as it were, within veils and costly tunics,
her beauty concealed under golden-textured rai-
ment, and to be seen only by the eyes of her Lord.

For one, I cannot say I like any of these ; I
accept, as on the whole the best, the old and
familiar exposition which applies the language to
the royal damsel herself, and makes it indicate her
internal qualities rather than her external adv^an-
tages. I take the text as seeking to show that the
Lamb desires in his wife just that which, under
inspiration, we have learned divine wisdom coun-
sels the wives of others to seek : " Whose adorn-
ing let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting
the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on
of apparel ; but let it be the hidden man of the
heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in
the sight of God of great price."

So we move on directly to inquire what these
elements of character are which the maiden's Lord
admires. A few of them are within our reach,
for the Scriptures have detailed them.

Fidelity, of course, comes earliest. The Lamb's
bride is absolutely stainless in her purity of heart
and demeanor. Even among the shadows of
earthly envy and detraction no suspicion must be

l8 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Simplicity in Christ. Affection a second element.

permitted to hiss at her. The force of the apos-
tle's figure, in his warning to the Corinthians,
cannot be overstated. A false wife can no longer
be an honest woman. She is just a lost creature :
" For I am jealous over 3^ou with godly jealousy :
for I have espoused you to one husband, that I
may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent be-
guiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ." That word "simplicity" means, not art-
lessness, nor insipidity, least of all, but singlefold-
ness. What has any redeemed believer's soul, ever
after his first espousals, to do with another lord ?
Affection is a second element in the glory of
this King's Daughter. No doubt, in the hus-
band's estimation, it is the chief one. No beauty,
no dowr}^ no station, can for a moment compare,
in its welcome, with that which he gives to the
wealth of her heart when she bestov/s it wholly
upon him. And I may just as well say now that
it would be likely that the Saviour should en-
deavor to increase this love for himself by render-
ing every possible rival, in showiness of attrac-
tion, around his bride insipid and tasteless to her.
The slenderest of all philosophy will tell us we
love that the more which costs our hearts some
little labor of endurance or suffering. And God's
providence often smites away that which would
tempt us on to ruin ; this is in order to shut us up
to him. So the old Puritan had it rieht when he

THE KING S DAUGHTER. I9

Shutting us up to Himself. Martin Luther's Amen.

exclaimed : " The scourging which frets others
makes God's children only shine the brighter ;
that weight which crushes others makes them —
like the palm — grow higher ; and that hammer
which knocks others all in pieces shall but beat
them nearer to Christ, the corner-stone."

In the third place, we must reckon patience as
among these superior wifely virtues in the King's
Daughter. For it is evident she will always have
much to put up with till her husband comes to
take her home. She must quietly narrow down
her circumstances for a brief while, because her
happiness is out at interest gathering the aggre-
gate of her heavenly income. Martin Luther
seems to have understood this very well, for he
once wrote in his journal this prayer : " Strike,
Lord, strike and do not spare ; for 1 lie down in
thy will ; I have learned to say Amen to thy
Amen ; thou hast an abiding interest in me greater
than I have in myself ; and willingly, therefore,
am I at thy disposal."

And then, beyond this, there is humility as an
element in the character of this King's Daughter.
Evidently she has been lifted in rank, as well as
honored in adornment. She comes up from the
wilderness leaning upon her Beloved. No matter
what her lineage, she is exhorted to forget her
father's house, and cut herself loose from her own
people. She owes everything to free favor. Her
husband is her benefactor as well as her Lord. In
this is the most perfect parallel for each one of us.

20 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Quaint John Berridge. Joseph's central sheaf.

We look back and look down to our origin. We
were born in sin and reared in shame. We were
hewn from a rock, we were digged from a pit.
God's dealings with us are very kind, but they
are all designed to keep under that disposition
which is in us most repulsive to him — our pride.
He rarely sends any great honor without some
balancing trial, just to force us to hold steady,
and not become puffed up. Quaintly enough, but
with much sense, did old John Berridge write to
the excellent Lady Huntingdon : " The Master
will alwavs shave your crown before he puts a
fresh coronet upon your head. I expect to hear
of a six-months' illness whenever I learn of your
building a new chapel."

It is necessary that we arrest the study of this
psalm at this point, leaving much unsaid and un-
learned. A single thought will give a closing
reflection. Even a King's Daughter yields her
glory to that of her King. Let each soul among
us see to it that every sheaf it is permitted to
garner is placed where it can best and most grace-
fully make obeisance to Joseph's ; for even if he
be our brother he is, after all, the Prince in the
household. Other kings seek alliance with royal
families, and lead to their palaces the daughters
of monarchs ; but this Prince of all the kings of
the earth makes his choice among plebeians, mar-
ries one whom he has to exalt to make his equal,
and calls to his throne-room a queen whom he
lirst crowns.

II.

THE PRINCE'S BRIDE.

" She shall ee brought unto the King in raiment of
needlework ; the virgins her companions that follow her

SHALL BE BROUGHT UNTO THEE." — Psalm 45 : I4.

Last week we began, and were not able to
finish, the study of this psahn. But with some
painstaking- we were successful in reaching the
conclusion that the royal maiden here introduced
to our notice was intended to be a figure of the
Church just on the eve of her ultimate espousal
to her divine Lord.

Her royalty was threefold, and that of itself is
worth a moment's comment. History relates that
the Empress Matilda was the daughter of a king,
then the wife of a king, and at last the mother of
a king. So with equal admiration here we may
remark that in one place the Church is apparently
called a King's Daughter, in another is reckoned
as a Monarch's Mother, and in our text is shown
to have been a Prince's Bride.

Still one more thought needs to be repeated in
commencing our study again — namely, that this
whole figure is true of each soul that is in the
Church invisible, just the same as it is of the
Church as a body. And now we are ready to go

22 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The Bride's raiment. " Wrought gold."

on a little further in the exposition. We are in-
vited to a wedding, and we find a glowing descrip-
tion of the bride's raiment, the bride's maids, and
the bride's new home. We can take these up in
turn.

I. Let us begin with the raiment : "She shall
be brought unto the King in raiment of needle-
work : her clothing is of wrought gold." This is
very much what had been intimated before in the
ninth verse, when the poet was singing of the
king : " Kings' daughters were among thy honor-
able women : upon thy right hand did stand the
queen in gold of Ophir. "

The richest of all the metals is gold ; this has
been true, for all we know, since the world was
made. And of all gold, that gold from Ophir was
the purest gold. Christ suffers nothing cheap or
common to be placed upon the person of his Bride
the day when she is to be married. But let us
observe carefully the adroit grace of language
with which these descriptions are lodged in our
imaginations. A garment of metal strikes us as
very stiff, very awkward and ungainl}^ for a
bride's dress ; and gold is certainly one of the
weightiest of metals, almost as unwieldy and bur-
densome as lead. The inspired poet lifts his
image, therefore, with exquisite delicacy ; he says
"wrought gold." In the text he enlivens the
picture still more ; he says the queen shall be
brought to the king " in raiment of needlework."
Such curious helpfulness of terms in the speech

THE prince's bride. 23

Aaron's robes. Christ's righteousness.

makes us think of those ancient times in which the
skill of metal-artisans fashioned garments of intri-
cate chains and links, woven of so light a texture
that the filaments seemed of silk rather than of
silver or steel or gold — gossamer threads of spun
metal, which are said to have floated in the air.
Something like this was certainly done when the
" holy garments for Aaron" were made ; for the
record says : "And they did beat the gold into
thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the
blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in
the fine linen, with cunnmg work." Our New
Revision renders the text thus : " She shall be
brought unto the King in broidered work ; her
clothing is inwrought with gold. ' '

But now the chief thing for us is concerning
the significance of this wonderful dress : what
does the picture mean ? In other words, what are
the new garments which the soul that is espoused
to Christ the Saviour is going to put on at the
bridal ? To gain an easy answer to such a ques-
tion, we must lay the imagery of the Apocalypse
alongside of the prophecy and the psalm. Finer
vision no human eye ever saw than that which
passed before the Apostle John in the lonely island
of Patmos : " And I heard as it were the voice of
a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying,
Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him :
for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his

24 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Fine linen. " A fair mitre."

wife hath made herself read3^ And to her was
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white : for the fine linen is the righteous-
ness of saints." The garments of the Lamb's
Bride, then, are significant of her character. It is
the righteousness of the saints with which they are
clothed. This language turns us back at once to
the enthusiastic song of the prophet Isaiah : " I
will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be
joyful in my God ; for he hath clothed me with
garments of salvation, he hath covered me with
the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom deck-
eth himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorn-
eth herself with her jewels."

With this we also recall the vision of Zechariah,
that in which he saw Joshua the high-priest com-
ing up at first before the angel of the Lord with
filthy garments upon his person ; the explanation
of this has always been clear as a picture of human
need under the defilement of sin. But suddenly,
while the prophet was looking at the scene, the
angel gave command that this raiment should be
all stripped away from him ; he also said, " Be-
hold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from
thee, and I will clothe thee with changfe of rai-
ment ; let them set a fair mitre upon his head."
This means the bestowal of Christ's righteousness
in the place of man's pollution. The " fair mitre"
is rendered in the margin of the New Revision as
a "clean turban." A swift change of outward
appearance, from filth to cleanliness, is the sign of

THE PRINCE S BRIDE. 25

Inward cleansing. . The Bride's maids.

inward washing from all defilement of sin. Such
a passage is the more remarkable because it is
found in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and
not among the clearer fulfilments of the New.
* ' Our righteousnesses are as filihy rags. ' ' Joshua
is here put as the type man of the race. The angel
of the Lord is Jesus Christ ; he gives his own robe
for man ; that represents his mighty and inex-
haustible merit before the law of our Maker. No
soul of earthly defilement can ever enter the pres-
ence-chamber of the Lamb of God on that day of
days when he takes his Bride home, unless he
has on him a recognized wedding-garment of the
imputed righteousness of the Redeemer. God
" hath made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for
us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him." All this picturesque presentation
of the gospel plan was put on the inspired record
full five hundred years before the shepherds heard
the choirs singing out in the air over the Bethle-
hem hills.

2. Thus, now that we know what the Bride's
raiment signifies, we are ready, in the second place,
to inquire about the Bride's maids, attendant upon
her at this wedding : " She shall be brought unto
the King in raiment of needlework : the virgins her
companions that follow her shall be brought unto
thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be
brought : they shall enter into the King's palace."

We shall not catch the full power of this simil-
itude unless our imagination lends itself willingly

26 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Oriental weddings. The Bride is the Church.

to the gorgeous fancy in the scene. It is an
oriental marriage festival which is pictured ; but
a group of choice epithets is suddenly aggregated
in the description. The maiden's train of com.-
panions is made up of honorable women ; prin-
cesses advance to give her a welcome as she
passes. There is in all this the showy pageantry
of a wedding, with something of its bewildering
confusion of display as well as of its splendor,
wherein nobles vie with each other in lavish ex-
penditure. For it is a King's Daughter who is
the betrothed maiden ; it is a Monarch's Son
who is the groom leading home his Bride. He
has wooed her royally ; he will crown her at the
instant of espousals ; then he will provide her a
palace for her abode. But how much of all this
is literal in the turn of the simihtude, it is not
easy to say. We have reached the satisfactory
conclusion that the Bride is the Church ; there
is no doubt as to the meaning of the psalm so
far: "Christ loved the Church, and gave him-
self for the Church, that he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing ; but that it should be holy and without
blemish."

But now we are not sure that we can fix the
meaning of each particular in the pageant. When
we read that these virgins who accompany the
Bride as her maids shall likewise be conducted to

THE PRINCE S BRIDE. 2/

Who are the maids ? Shoshannirn means lilies.

the King, being brought to him precisely as lier-
self, it perplexes us to decide who they are.
They are not her waiting servants or attendants
merely, to be disposed of at her serene pleas-
ure ; they are her equals, her companions. If
there be any religious instruction in this part
of the picture, it is to be found in the suggestion
that the Jewish privileges under the former dis-
pensation were to be shared, as they certainly
were, under the later dispensation, with the Gen-
tiles.

Still, I cannot believe that much good will
come from any close analysis of the poetic descrip-
tion ; for I do not think a writer so. excited would
pause to fix his references so definitely. Most of
us would prefer to look up and see this grand
procession moving on, without inquiring who the
maids were, or who the singers were that chanted
the songs. Indeed, the psalm has a very unusual
form of dedication ; it is entitled : " To the chief
musician upon Shoshannim ;" and the word sJio-
shannim means lilies ; hence some of the soberest
commentators suppose that reference is intended
here to the maidens whose purity and beauty shine
like lilies in the marriage train. Only one thing is
clear to us as we read along through the song ;
every device of rhetoric is put into employ in
order to fill our imaginations with a sense of the
splendor of that train on the way toward the
King's dwelling, where the feast is to be spread,
and the guests entertained.

28 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A grand procession. The Bride's home.

3. Now, in the third place, it is left for us to
consider the Bride's new home : " They shall
enter into the King's palace with gladness and re-
joicing."

Of course it is a royal abode which is to
be this maiden's future residence ; for it is the
mansion of her lord into which she goes. This
psalm does not take up the task of singing its
praises ; it is occupied with hymning the beauties
and the honors, the graces and the glories, of the
Prince and of his Bride. The new wife will then
be a queen ; she will be regnant as well as regal.
Christ promises all that now ; and as we begin to
think how much of comfort and help there is in the
spiritual application of the inspired poem, it will
be well for us to dwell for a few moments upon at
least two admonitions.

The one of these has reference to our patience
in waiting for our Lord's coming. He observes
the steady hopefulness and endurance of all his
followers, while as yet he does not establish his
whole rights here on the earth. Historians always
remark concerning the pathos of the moment when
an exiled monarch, restored at last, bestows royal
favors upon the faithful adherents who shared his
fortunes while he was contending for his crown.
King Jesus does not seem to have much to give
his followers now. But a better season is sure to
arrive. I remember that in Roman annals it is
recorded concerning one poor citizen named
Agrippa, really poverty-stricken and worried,

THE prince's bride. 29

Agrippa's new chain. The long run.

that he uttered the wish aloud that Caius were the
emperor. The reigning t^yrant on the imperial
throne was offended, and so threw the man into
prison. Slow years passed on, and by and by
Caius did indeed come to the throne. And then
he gave a province to the freed Agrippa ; and he
cast a chain around his neck, ringing as it shook
its links of beautiful gold — a chain measured so as
to be of the exact weight of the fetters he had
Avorn while in jail for the honor of his master.
Such a thought fills us with hope when we suffer
and toil for the Lord Jesus. And the little story
recalls the glowing words of the prophet who
sung them nearly three thousand years ago : ' ' For
brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring
silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron : I
will also make thy officers peace, and thine extract-
ors righteousness. Violence shall no more be
heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within
thy borders : but thou shalt call thy walls Salva-
tion, and thy gates Praise."

It becomes really wise and salutary, therefore,
for any Christian, who would rightly estimate the
worth of his sonship in God, to learn to reckon
what in our familiar language men are wont to
call "the long run," He must train himself to
turn away from the tyranny of the present, and
accept the eminence of the future instead. He
must discipline his imagination to live with more
extensive sweeps of fancy out in the air before it.
We judge poorly of what we think is for human

30 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The tyranny of the present. Forecast the future.

advantage, merely because we attempt to estimate
at too short ranges ; thus we miss all true per-
spective ; and thus we become entangled with
foolish longings and more foolish conceits. There
are times in which God's dear children would
actually sigh for some onions and leeks, such as
they used to eat in Egypt, and be willing to forget
the fair and happy land of Canaan lying on ahead.

Out in space are stars so distant that we cannot
discern any parallax. Yet we are certain they
have orbits wide beyond any possible register of
human measurement. It is owing to the simple
fact that our planet is nothing but a point in the
solar system that we cannot see beyond the sun
itself. And still we trust the astronomers who
are wiser than we are with figures.

Just so we ought to take on faitli the statement
that our immortal souls are going to circle in
orbits of inconceivable experience, which we need
not expect even to comprehend at this poor mo-
ment of our earthly history. We must learn to
forecast our future ; for our glory lies in the life
to come, and not in this : " For I reckon, that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be re-
vealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the
creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons
of God."

Then the other admonition which is suggested
here claims notice. It has reference to the ills and
inconveniences, the trials and pains, of this present

THE PRINCES BRIDE. 3 1

Tediousness of dressing. Princess Elizabeth.

state of our existence. It is wise always to remem-
ber that our Lord is making every one whom he
loves ready and meet in character and in tastes
for the true life that is on before them all. Disci-
plines of Christian souls are but the small annoy-
ances of an attiring-room to the King's Daughter,
going forth to her bridal feast, where the Beloved
is to see her face earliest. She ought to be patient
and brave, surely, just while she is being dressed
for the occasion and made meet for her inherit-
ance in the light. It is related in history that on
the day when Mary of England was advanced to
the throne, the Princess Elizabeth, her sister,
younger by many years, and so the heiress of the
honor to which she now ministered, was deputed
to carry the new queen's crown in the coronation
procession ; she turned to the French ambassa-
dor pettishly, and complained of its weight in her
hands. The adroit courtier replied significantly :
" Be patient awhile ; it will seem much lighter
when it shall rest on your head."

What we endure for others, what we have to
bear for ourselves, should be looked upon in the
light of simple present inconvenience, to be one
time forgotten altogether in the perfect fruitions
of our final establishment and rest. This is not to
be achieved by just an impulse of self-revolution ;
it comes only of long self-discipline. We must
learn to look up and off and far on ahead, so as that
we really live in another world than this. You have
seen the signs on a guide-board : the hand painted

32 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Index fingers. A far-off look.

in conspicuous letters, with the forefinger extended
to point the path or show the way. Suppose a
Christian should put on his front door, on his
business entrance, on his counting-room desk, on
his iron safe, on the panels of his carriage, on the
furniture of his table — indeed, on ever3^thing which
habitually he saw or touched — a small quiet hand
with the index finger pointing upward and far
away ; how some people would smile at him ! It
might not be wise ; but suppose he should seem to
see it, think he saw it, wished to keep seeing it
always ; then he would sometimes say to himself
gently and joyously, " This is no home, nor rest,
nor abiding-place for me ; I belong elsewhere ;
the future is my land, my country, my residence,
my hope !" Would there be any pressure there-
after of daily burdens of care? "For we are
saved by hope : but hope that is seen is not hope :
for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we
with patience wait for it."

Each suffering, which begins at all or ends at
all, bears no perceptible or measurable relations
to eternity, which is without beginning and with-
out end. It might be reproduced over and over
again, and then die out and be utterly forgotten.
Let the Bride keep thinking of the day when she
shall be brought unto the King's palace, and shall
enter it with gladness and rejoicing. We must set
our thoughts upon that vast hereafter ; and then
all these worries and disappointments, these cares

THE PRINCE S BRIDE. 33

The bride's companions. A classic story.

and weights of work, will sink into their own
proper insignificance. " For our hght affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory :
while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen : for the
things which are seen are temporal ; but the things
which are not seen are eternal."

Meantime, let the Bride's companions sing as
they go. We may find all the sermons we need
in the songs that we sing. " We are on our way
to God." In the old classic story we were told
that ^gistheus could not turn Clytemnestra away
from her joyous duty till he had murdered the
venerable bard whom Agamemnon had left behind
to sing with her. The procession is a part of the
wedding, even though the street be hot and the
way be long. And the home stands yonder on
the hill : " Hearken, O daughter, and consider,
and incline thine ear ; forget also thine own
people, and thy father's house ; so shall the king
greatly desire thy beauty : for he is thy Lord ;
and worship thou him."

III.

THE BRIDE'S PRESENTS.

"And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with A
GIFT." — Psalm 45 : 12.

In the casino of the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome
there is a painting upon the ceiling which has long
attracted the admiration of the world. It repre-
sents Aurora, the goddess of the morning, advanc-
ing along the sky to bring in the dawn. The car
of Phoebus is drawn by steeds that seem almost
alive in the air. There are groups of female
attendants, symbolizing the hours, all around ;
some of them pale and gentle, as if lit only by
twilight and waiting quietly for their turn to
come to rule the declining day ; some eagerly
alert and exultant, as they rush and shine in the
blaze of the sunrise it is their office to welcome.
Up overhead there is a Morning Star, bearing a
torch in his outstretched hand, the flame of which
is blown back by the swiftness of his speed as he
hastens on to kindle the lamps ot day.

But the fairest figure of all is that of Aurora
herself. It does not seem as if it could be possi-
ble for human pencil to put into lines and colors a
beautiful woman more comely or more attractive.
She walks as firmly as if she were on a meadowed

THE bride's presents. 35

The " Aurora" of Guide. A pageant in a poem.

sward, and yet so light is her elastic step that she
rests easily upon the atmosphere she treads.

The thought which always impresses one at first
sight of this marvelous picture of Guido is that
of velocity in action, a certain sort of vigorous
healthiness of life moving on, positively indescrib-
able in mere words. The horses are all afire in
the light which they are facing. The Hours are
gentle and soft in their feminine graces, but still
display a matchless force in their unfatigued
rapidity. The car is borne forward on wheels
that are indistinct with the whirling. Everything
is floating and moving ahead, and the sky is full
of life. It is as if the artist had caught a mere
flash of the grand procession of the dawn in the
heavens, and had fixed it there on the roof of an
earthly palace for mortals to look up to.

To those who have visited the Italian city and
seen this masterpiece of art there will be needed
no explanation of the present allusion to it. Any
one who reads this forty-fifth psalm will catch the
suggestion. It is a pageant in a poem. It is a
pageant of marriage, and the bride is a king's
daughter, and becomes a prince's wife. The
psalm moves on with the same kind of living
celerity that arrests attention in the famous paint-
ing. It seems as if we could almost see the pro-
cession on the way to the bridegroom's house.
The sacred poem celebrates the union of Christ
with his Church, and so it swings onward, and
sings along by itself. Our eyes are kindled as we

36 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A matchless maiden. The New Testament church.

behold this matchless maiden, who is the centre of
the scene — indeed, until the bridegroom shows
himself, the fairest of all the company, although
she has kings' daughters for her honorable women
— this queen standing there in gold of Ophir. It
is with a reverent sense of its fitness that we wait
while the inspired poet makes his address to one
so worthy of his praises :

" Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and in-
cline thine ear ; forget also thine own people, and
thy father's house : so shall the king greatly desire
thy beauty : for he is thy Lord ; and worship thou
him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there
with a gift ; even the rich among the people shall
entreat thy favor. The king's daughter is all
glorious within : her clothing is of wrought gold."

It relieves this psalm of all minor criticism as
being too florid in its orientalism, too gorgeous ni
its imagery, to consider it, as it undoubtedly is
meant to be, prophetic of gospel times, and sym-
bolic of the New Testament church. This maiden
is the Lamb's wife, and she is on the way to her
husband ; he is waiting for her at the marriage
feast now. It is with this interpretation that the
poem becomes specific. We can see the far and
beautiful reach of many of the otherwise obscure
references, and we can understand many of the
suggestive expressions.

When, for example, we read, at the close, that,
" instead of thy fathers shall be thy children,
whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth,"

THE bride's presents. 37

The rich entreating favor. An ancient custom.

we may learn that Jesus Christ is the only true
king-maker ; God will raise up for himself a spirit-
ual seed whose line shall never fail so as to become
extinct ; though veterans depart in the ranks of
the spiritual army, volunteers shall arise to fill
their loyal places ; and when Immanuel's crown
shall rest on his head, he will reign over a New
Jerusalem of palaces and a kingdom of kings.
And then also, when we read that " even the rich
among the people shall entreat thy favor," we
may congratulate ourselves that all the vast wealth
of the world shall become consecrate, so as to be
laid eventually at the feet of the Church of
Christ, and that for Christ's sake. It is thus that
the grand promise shall be fulfilled, as it is made
here in the psalm ; thus it is that the Church's
name shall be remembered in all generations, and
God shall be praised by the people forever and
ever.

In this way we come to perceive, and we begin
to appreciate, the matchless meaning of that frag-
ment of a verse which we have, more or less by
itself, chosen for our present theme of comment :
" And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a
gift." Here is allusion to the presents which a
beloved bride is accustomed, now as then, to re-
ceive from all acquaintances. A custom is this so
ancient that no man's memory can tell its origin,
that of bringing for the new wife's acceptance
articles for use and adornment upon the day of
her marriage. All the world over this is one of

38 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Oriental processions. Isaiah's description.

the common and beautiful ceremonies of the wed-
ding. We have seen in the East the procession of
menials and servants advancing with the sound of
music through the streets of the city at mid-day.
So fine and so showy have been the trains that, as
strangers, we have imagined them to be bridal
displays ; but indeed they were only the files of
porters carrying home the costly vessels, and
rings, and bracelets, and garlands, and wreaths,
and mirrors, with which friends were going to
grace the occasion when a maiden should become
a wife. Huge trays of burnished silver were
borne high up on the heads of stalwart men, and
on these lay jewels, and vases, and plumes, and
flowers. And all this was because it was the day
of a marriage ; the groom was waiting in his pal-
ace, and the bride had made herself ready. The
daughters of wealth were coming with gifts.

It is to keep up the poetic style that for Tyre is
put in peculiar phrase, " the daughter of Tyre,"
and that one vast and opulent city is put for the
whole outside world. History tells us that, in the
day of the psalmist, Tyre was probably the most
wealthy and conspicuous town then existing. It
is referred to in this instance as representing per-
sons of the highest rank, as well as countries of
the most exalted position, and nations of the lofti-
est supremacy. So this is a repetition of the
thought which was afterward reannounced with
more fulness by the prophet Isaiah : " Thus saith
the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to

THE bride's presents. 39

Why daughter of Tyre ? Put for us Gentiles.

the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the peo-
ple : and they shall bring thy sons in their arms,
and thy daughters shall be carried upon their
shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers,
and their queens thy nursing mothers : they shall
bow down to thee with their face toward the earth,
and lick up the dust of thy feet ; and thou shaft
know that I am the Lord : for they shall not be
ashamed that wait for me."

But the selection of such a town signifies more
even than appears on the surface, for Tyre was a
heathen city. It is in the New Testament noted
as the only place that Jesus Christ ever visited
outside of Palestine. He went once over across
into Phoenicia and came to the coasts of Tyre and
Sidon. It never reaches our minds as it ought ;
but the fact is, we are not Israelites, and the cove-
nants never pertained to us for many a solemn
century in the Old Testament church. We are
all Gentiles ; and only because the middle wall of
partition has been broken down are we now admit-
ted to equal spiritual privileges. In the splendid
pageant of this maiden's marriage. Tyre repre-
sents us — ourselves — here. Our particular office
in the forty-fifth psalm seems to consist in bringing
presents to the bride. The plain, practical mean-
ing of the verse, therefore, is this : God has prom-
ised the Church that the hisfhest national strength
upon the earth shall become tributary to the com-
ing kingdom of Jesus.

And further, there is significance in the abrupt

40 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Superfluous italics. A prosaic conclusion.

form of expression employed here. Even the
New Revision is constrained to continue the use
of the itahcs in the verse. The original Hebrew
does not say, " The daughter of Tyre sJiall be
there /' it says no more than this : " The daughter
of Tyre — with a gift !" It is an explosive and
picturesque indication of one's admiration and
delight, as if a bystander were viewing a proces-
sion, and should suddenly catch sight in it of an
important and unexpected guest, and in real en-
thusiasm should exclaim, " Oh, see there ! The
daughter of Tyre ! She has come ! And with a
gift in her hand, too ! Why, even the richest and
the grandest are proud to join the train of our
sweet Bride to-day !" It is in this instance the
gift which attracts notice ; and we, who are typed
in that Gentile city pouring forth its treasures at
the wedding of the King's Daughter, must see
that our main office in this grand pageant of the
Church going home to Christ in the celestial pal-
ace is found in the bringing ot our wealth in gifts.

It must be mournfully confessed now that there
is danger of our smothering all enthusiasm over
this psalm by so prosaic a conclusion. Is it true,
then, that this exquisite ode has no higher purpose
in Christian instruction than to stimulate contribu-
tions of money for the ordinary religious ends ?

No ; we enter instant protest against such cold
construction. Is that the way we train ourselves
to look on weddings and on wedding-gifts from
the bride's friends ? Do we propose to drag

THE bride's presents. '41

Is this sheer commonplace ? We are at a wedding.

everything down to sheer commonplace because
there is money involved in the custom ? Is it just
a weight of gold, and silver, and nickel, and gilt,
with a measure and a bundle of silk, and fur, and
linen, which hes piled up in the chamber where
the guests go to look at the presents ? Is there
no romance, is it to be understood that there is
no affection, no sincerity, no faith, no memory, in
the offering, no taste, no gracefulness in the care
of selection, no joy in the work, no kind wishing,
no heartiness in the hope for a bright future ? Do
we care whether the bride cares for what we have
brought her ? When we purchased, or fashioned,
or wrought the modest donation we placed there
on the table, was there no gentle thought in the
choosing of it for her because we loved her ?
Had we no imagination in our own minds of her
pleasure by and by, when she should have leisure
to look the articles over, and should happen to
notice that which we gave her, modest though it
might be, and did we not even whisper to our-
selves : " She has been a dear, good girl ; God
bless and keep her in all the fine, fair future !"
Was it all dead, heavy business throughout, and
did we look upon such occasions as one of the in-
flictions of society, and one of the burdens friends
had to stand under because they were so weak as
to have friends ?

So now, my Christian hearers, we are at the
wedding to-day, and the Lamb's Bride is on her
way to her husband. Why give up all this beau-

42 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Enthusiasm of affection. Heathen liberality.

tiful romance on an occasion like this ? What is
wanted in our Christian work is precisely this
enthusiasm of an honest affection. It is among
the poorest and the humblest often that we find in
these times the most devotion. And this is owing
to the presence of a simple-hearted love, and the
absence of anything like chill and cautious calcula-
tion in their action.

Hence it comes about that it is the contributions
of the feeblest which have done so much of the
work of the world so far. When Whitefield was
pleading for his orphan-house in Bethesda, the
poor were among his most generous givers ; on
one occasion a hundred dollars was offered in
simple half pennies — more than his porter could
carry off at a lift. Five thousand church mem-
bers in Jamaica gave twelve or fifteen years ago
thirty-five thousand dollars to Christian work ;
these were emancipated slaves and their children.
Recently the indigent converts in Marash sold the
copper dishes from which they ate, to help build
a church edifice. The explanation of such mani-
fest wonders is found in the fact that the hearts
were alive with interest, and then the people had
a mind to work. It is all well to teach our
children that there is great value in the cup
of cold water given to a poor disciple in the
name of Christ ; but they are far more likely
to give it if they do not imagine it will be
more welcome when dripped off the end of an
icicle.

THE bride's presents. 43

Panic of 1857. Nestorian Christians.

When the terrible days of panic were over the
American nation in 1857, crippHng- every one of
our great missionary societies, so that the cry of
retrenchment was borne passionately across to the
foreign fields of effort, workers were discharged
and missions were closed Report of the embar-
rassments over here came in due course to a small
band of Nestorian Christians in Persia. They in-
stantly summoned an assembly to consider how
they might act so as to bestow help the most
quickly and with most force. The meeting was
called to order by an aged believer, who began
the conference by a distinct allusion to the costli-
ness of their wedding ceremonies in those Oriental
lands. He insisted that young people might be
married in plainer costume. "Now here," he
continued, " is the Church, the Bride of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and she is compelled to go unpro-
' vided for to her Master's palace ! Cannot we join
hands to-day to give her a fair outfit ?" The fig-
ure seemed at once to arrest the imagination of
those simple-hearted and loving Christians, and
they took it up.

One arose, saying, " She ought at least to have
a ring ; and I am ready to offer the price of one
now, just such as my wife received when she was
wedded to me." Another added : " She needs a
veil quite as much, and I will see that the Lamb's
Bride does not set out on her journey to her hus-
band's house without it." Another sprang up
with the exclamation, " She can never go on foot

44 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Beautiful conception. ]\Iar Yohannan's gift.

over the mountains ; you may look to me for a
horse she can ride." Still another caught the
symbol in his grave, sweet way : " How beautiful
are thy feet, O Prince's Daughter ! If she rides,
she will have to wear a richer pair of shoes ;
perhaps I might be permitted to clothe her
feet." By this time their invention was put
sorely to task. One more spoke out somewhat
awkwardly : " Wedding guns are fired for joy •,
I will give two cannon, and will supply ammuni-
tion."

Then the women, who knew more of marriage
necessities, began to whisper together. A maiden
stood up modestly and said : " Now for her orna-
ments ! I have some of my own I can spare."
An impulse of affectionate generosity moved every
heart. One old man said he had nothing but a
mat, but " perhaps the Queen would deign to
put her feet on it when she should alight." Then
said the leader : " What is she to eat on the
way ?" One of the landholders answered, " You
may look to me for fifteen outside rows of my
vineyard next the sun." During this excited col-
loquy there had been sitting in the assembly no
less a personage than Mar Yohannan, their ruler.
The aged leader in the chair shrewdly asked the
question, " She is a King's daughter and a
Prince's bride; who is to give her a crown?"
And then the ro3^al guest took the hint, and held
up his hand.

So the churches in America were thrilled with

THE BRIDE S PRESENTS. 45

A new notion. A trustful bride.

the news that the Nestorians were going to take
care of themselves. Oh, when the heart is all
right and loving, what is there it will not do for
the Bride, which is the Lamb's wife, on her way
to her marriage ?

It is the notion we have of contribution which
renders so plain a duty pleasant and so self-sacri-
ficing an exercise welcome. A fine high imagina-
tion of a beloved friend becoming the bride of a
prince, and confidently, lovingly, trustfully look-
ing over to us for the merest decencies of her
dowry ; asking us to see to it that she does not
go to her husband in shame of pauper garments ;
putting out her hand frankly and gratefully, as if
she knew you and I had just been in the gift-
chamber, and had left there some token she will
have time to look at by and bv ; this — this is
what a contribution-box means ! How would
this daughter of Tyre look if she came without
her gift ?

IV.
"FOLDED HANDS."

" Whereas it was in thine heart to build a house unto

MY name, thou didst WELL THAT IT WAS IN THINE HEART :
nevertheless thou SHALT NOT BUILD THE HOUSE." — I Kings

8 : i8, 19.

These words are found in Solomon's biography,
yet they belong to David's. The august transac-
tions which joined on this king's reign to that of
his father had reference to the building of the
fairest and finest fabric of human hands that
earthly eyes ever saw. There are songs and ser-
mons about it all along, scattered through several
books of the Old Testament ; the narrative ap-
pears more like a lyric than a record, more like a
poetic ode of triumph than a sober chronicle of
what was occurring.

The history of the time to which the king refers
is found in the second Book of Samuel. The chap-
ter which contains it divides itself into verses like
the strophes of a psalm ; it needs no definite form
of analysis to make it clear. Indeed, it will ex-
hibit its meaning better by an appeal to our im-
agination, for there are in it three pictures ; out of
these comes admonition.

I. It will be of much help to lay alongside of
this history that recorded in the seventeenth chap-

FOLDED HANDS. 47

The first picture. A meditative king.

ter of First Chronicles ; for a few graphic partic-
ulars are added there that are not here.

I. The first picture represents a great Eastern
king, sitting in one of the rooms of his eminent
palace, somewhere about three thousand years
ago. Evidently he was wrapped in deep and seri-
ous meditation. This building had been lately
erected specially for his use, and his removal into
it had marked an era in his personal history. Its
beauty filled him with admiration as he gazed
upon it ; it made him reflective and pensive as the
servants came and went, in and out, before him.
How had he risen into all this regal honor, and
what had he done to deserve it ?

We have a hint even as to his thoughts in the
interesting hours he passed that day. He remem-
bered how, when he was a modest shepherd-boy
tending his father's flocks in Bethlehem, the
strange visit had been made to him by a venerable
prophet of Jehovah the Lord. That old man had
announced to him that one day he was to sit upon
the throne of Israel ; and then he had anointed his
youthful head with oil, proclaiming that he, a
ruddy-cheeked lad, should by and by be a king
and rule over a mighty nation.

Time had drifted on and away since then.
Singular events had moulded his career and filled
the annals of the people with unwonted vicissi-
tudes. Along a path checkered with sunshine as
well as shadow, he had been steadily advanced
toward the prime headship that was promised; he

48 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The second picture. Nathan's precipitancj'.

was now the sovereign, his permanent home was
Jerusalem, and the name of David was famous
among the tribes all around him. Even civil
wars had ceased ; the conflicts of succession were
ended ; all was peace and tranquillity.

2. The second picture represents this monarch
at the critical moment when he stirs in his seat
with a strong emotion, and summons instantly
into his presence the prophet of the Lord, Nathan,
lull of a purpose which he wished to communi-
cate. The very magnificence of his abode had
suggested to him a plan for an extraordinary deed
of consecration and religious endeavor. " See
now," he sa3'S, breaking out abruptly, as if the
idea were startling to himself, " even I dwell in a
house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwelleth within
curtains !" That was quite true. Nearly four
hundred years had passed since the people of God
had entered the promised land and secured their
permanent resting-place ; but as 3'et no building
had been found in which might be fittingly located
that old sacred symbol of the divine presence.
With a sort of shame for his own luxuriousness,
David now proposed a building which he would
erect and devote to the service of God.

The prophet accepted the proposition at once ;
it cannot for a moment be doubted that he was in-
tensely gratified. Though that nation had ceased
to be nomadic, and their wilderness tents had for
centuries been unused, there was this chief taber-
nacle, with its badger-skin covering, still standing

FOLDED HANDS. 49

The third picture. Consent withdrawn.

out in the air. Nathan must have felt that the
whole affair was providential, and with all his
heart he bade the king proceed ; the Lord was
with him.

3. Our third picture represents the same king a
day later. The prophet comes back into his pres-
ence, and declares that his permission on the even-
ing before had been hasty, and could not abide ;
he had received a vision during the night, and the
divine message was sent to him that he must tell
the monarch that such an acqviiescence had been
inconsiderate ; the Lord was pleased in seeing the
purpose of his servant ; but the fact was, David
had been too much a man of blood for this under-
taking ; he was a warrior too famous to be fit for
so holy a task as this ; the spirit he showed was
praised gently and generousl}^ but the proffer of a
temple was declined. Still, Nathan was commis-
sioned to state that Solomon, the king's son, might
undertake this work, and David might gather the
materials and raise the money to help him.

Now, it might have been expected of most men
that some violent explosion of disappointed feel-
ing would have marked such a startling and severe
denial from above. But the records of the king's
experience are among the brightest in the Bible.
He has no rebellious feelings ; he accepts the de-
cision joyously ; it is enough for him to know that
the Lord will let him have anything to do in a work
so grand and so holy. The whole of the chapter
is afterward taken up with a strain of humble and

50 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Cruel denials. Prayers kindly unanswered.

hopeful gratitude so exquisite that it sings like a
psalm of thanksgiving.

11. Now, out of this comes our lesson ; it is sin-
gle and eminently practical, and yet it will not be
learned unless hearts are softened to meet it, and
God's Spirit prepares the way. It is addressed
to such Christians as think they have been cruelly
denied the wishes of their lives, and are now
moving in some secondary sense of existence, and
are likely to achieve a failure.

1. Let us understand that a purpose may be good,
yet providenee may see Jit to deny its aeconiplisJunent
— that is to say, God may take the will for the
deed. We may work up a thrill of personal
enthusiasm, and because the end appears supreme
in our eyes may expect that Providence wall im-
mediately accept it ; but the question is not
whether the plan is good, but whether it is God's
plan for us in which to serve him. Such so-called
crises of human existence are sometimes nothing
more or less than mere crises of human will, dic-
tating to God what ought to be done.

2. Let us remember that a wish may be intense,
and yet it is not on that account alone to be granted.
We act so often from mixed motives that we are
not always the ones to know whether wishes we
cherish are not wiles of the devil. The day has
been for many a child of God, when he struggled
with some most eager and passionate desire of his
heart ; God denied it, and the believer has lived
to thank him on the bended knees of his grateful

FOLDED HANDS.' 5 I

Philippians 4 : 19. Richard the lion-hearted.

soul. God has promised to grant, not what we
seek, or crave, or implore ; these are not his
words ; he says he will give what we " need."

3. Let us acknowledge that sontctimcs a human
heart is too full of unworthy feeling for success in
high spiritual endeavor. Hence the Lord does not
intrust this to such agents. Let us go over once
more the exact words of the history ; what does
God say ?

" And David said to Solomon, My son, as for
me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the
name of the Lord my God : but the word of the
Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood
abundantly, and hast made great wars : thou shalt
not build an house unto my name, because thou
hast shed much blood upon the earth in my
sight."

The decision turns upon previous history of this
monarch. Character had in his case progressed
too far for any radical change. He must stand
now and take the chances which his life had fixed.
To some the language may seem harsh ; if David
was forgiven as a true believer, why not trust him
in the undertaking ? This hard estimate of unfit-
ness is not without a parallel in modern experi-
ence ; what is it to be a " man of blood " ? Rich-
ard Coeur-de-Lion wrote that for seven whole
years he would not suffer himself to take the sacra-
ment, because he was conscious of angry hatred
in his heart toward the monarch of France. It is,
quite possibly, a poignant experience, but it may

52 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" Some things I cannot do." Other instruments.

be profitable to acknowledge, "There are things
I cannot do, because God is holier than I am."
For this will leave the way open for fresh increase
in holiness at once ; and it also settles one's mind
down to give over impossibilities, and take up
what is legitimately within reach.

4. Let us admit freely that an intention may be
excellent, and yet have to be surrendered into another s
hands. This plan of David was good, but it was
Solomon who was to carry it out — that was all.
Solomon puts this frankly on record when he ends
his building, and stands ready for the dedication
of the house :

" And it was in the heart of David my father to
build an house for the name of the Lord God of
Israel. And the Lord said unto David my father,
Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house
unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine
heart : nevertheless thou shalt not build the
house ; but thy son, that shall come forth out of
thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name.
And the Lord hath performed his word that he
spake ; and I am risen up in the room of David
my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the
Lord promised, and have built an house for the
name of the Lord God of Israel."

The fact is, God may choose to have his work
finished by the instruments whom he selects, and
not by volunteers. Just observe how David sings
when he knows he has still the chance to gather
some money, and bargain for timber, and '^rousc

FOLDED HANDS." 53

Gladness in drudgeries. David's enthusiasm.

some zeal, and even to assume the merest drudg-
eries to insure Solomon's success :

" Furthermore David the king said unto all the
congregation, Solomon my son, whom alone God
hath chosen, is 3^et young and tender, and the
work is great ; for the palace is not for man, but
for the Lord God. Now 1 have prepared with all
my might for the house of my God the gold for
things to be made of gold, and the silver for
things of silver, and the brass for things of brass,
the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of
wood ; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glister-
ing stones, and of divers colors, and all manner of
precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.
Moreover, because I have set my affection to the
house ot my God, I have of mine own proper
good, of gold and silver, which I have given to
the house of my God, over and above all that I
have prepared for the holy house, even three
thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and
seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay
the walls of the houses withal : the gold for things
of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and
for all manner of work to be made by the hands
of artificers. And who then is willing to conse-
crate his service this day unto the Lord ?"

What can it matter who it is that erects the
upper courses of a building, when the lower
courses are just as necessary and just as honor-
able ? Is not God worshiped by the edifice as a
whole ?

54 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Can a life be ruined ? A new purpose.

5. But now let us seek another lesson, and we
shall find that it will help in the impression of this
one. We see that a life may claim to be ruined, ami
yet mnch of value may be left in it. David had no
notion that he was a dashed and beaten man be-
cause Nathan's message had deprived him of the
hope of his later years. It is a grieved sense of
hankering after old and denied ambitions that in
our times brings most hindrance to Christian
efficiency. Mere morbid feehng is destructive of
zeal in every kind of labor. When a man has
given up what evidently divine providence had
never designed for him, let him cease mourning
over it ; let him cheerfully clear his mind of sore
memories of it ; let him keep away from associa-
tions which suggest it. It is given as one of the
counsels of a Jewish rabbi, that a child, once
bitten by a serpent, ought to fear even a rope's
end — that is, be suspicious of everything which
looks like a snake.

6. Let us believe that a true heart may be appar-
ently broken, and yet remain full of Joy. Every
now and then we fall on some new chapter vVhich
shows King David's frank delight in this moderate
task which had been permitted to him. He kin-
dles that whole nation with his enthusiasm, and
yet his first sentence of address is a candid state-
ment of his purpose which the Lord had thwarted
the moment he mentioned it, and then of the pur-
pose he had accepted in the place of it, making
him as happy as a child.

FOLDED HANDS. 55

Albrecht Durer. The two pictures.

Now, let us only add an illustration of this whole
thought, and finish the discourse. I hav^e seen the
little story that is the best within my reach to
show from modern biography just what is the
counsel which I have been trying to press. But
I am not going to vouch for its literal truth as an
incident in the long career of the painter with
whose name it stands connected. Still it will
serve us here for a compact and commonplace dis-
play of real life. Two boys. Franz Knigstein and
Albrecht Durer, once lived together in Nurem-
berg ; they were going to be artists, and had
entered Michael Wohlgemuth's study for instruc-
tion. The parents of both were poor, and were
struggling to keep their sons at their work until
they should be able to care for themselves. Of
these two pupils the master knew that Albrecht
possessed genius, but Franz would never make a
painter of v/hom men would be proud. But both
were industrious, and frugal, and affectionate.
They loved each other tenderly, and were kind
and faithful unto all at home. Years passed on ;
one went to Italy, the other continued study in
Germany. Erelong Franz married, and by and
by Albrecht, and the old people died, and times
were hard, and art was dull. Albrecht feared
that Franz had not the artist spirit, and could
never succeed. Once they planned together to
make a drawing of the Passion of our Lord ;
when they came to show each other what had
been accomplished, the picture of Franz was cold

$6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The artist-spirit. Folded Hands.

and lifeless, while that of Albrecht was full of
beaiit3\ Franz himself saw it then. He was in
middle life, and now he knew he had been so far
a failure. He must give it up ; he could not be
successful as an artist. But he did not complain ;
only for a passionate moment he buried his face in
his hands. Then he said in broken tones, though
still full of courage, " The good Lord gave me no
such gift as this, but he has something yet for me
to do ; some homely work shall be found for me ;
I was blind so long, so much time I have lost ; be
you the artist of Nuremberg, and I — "

" O Franz, be quiet an instant !" exclaimed
Albrecht ; and a quick rush was made to the
paper before him on the table. Only a few lines
with a swift pencil ; Franz thought he was adding
another stroke to his drawing, and waited pa-
tiently, leaning over the mantel with his fingers
twined and clasped. And then, next day, Al-
brecht showed his friend the sheet : " Why, those
are only my own hands,' said Franz ; " where
did you get them ?' And there was hardly need
of an answer : " 1 took them as you stood, mak-
ing the sad surrender of your life so very, very
bravely ; and I murmured to myself, those hands
that may never paint a picture can now most cer-
tainly make one ; I have faith in those folded
hands, my brother-friend ! they will go to men's
hearts in the years to come !" And sure enough,
the prophecy was true ; for over the artistic world
has gone the tale, and over the worlds of love and

FOLDED HANDS." 57

A brave surrender, A sermon for a preacher.

duty has gone the picture ; and the " Folded
Hands" by Albert Durer are but the hands of
Franz Knigstein, once folded in sweet, brave
resignation, when he gave up his dearest wish,
and yet beheved the good Lord had a homely
duty for him to do worth the doing.

That is the picture which hangs up over my
table, and has hung there for years — -a mere copy
of a drawing that I am told belongs in the gallery
of Vienna. What it means is, there are some
things, my Christian friend, you and I cannot do.
But there are others we can do ; and we can
always do something toward accomplishing a
preparation for some one else to finish ; and what
matters all the disappointment to us if only the
dear Lord gets the glory ?

V.

THE "MAGNIFICAT" OF MARY.

" My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath
REJOICED IN God my Saviour." — Luke i : 46, 47.

About six months after the announcement had
been made to Elisabeth that she should soon be
the mother of John the Baptist, Mary, to whom
had been also now made the announcement that
she should become the mother of Jesus, deter-
mined to visit her cousin in the lower hill-country
of Judea, probably near the town of Hebron.

It will prove an interesting- exercise to trace on
the map the route which this Jewish maiden must
have taken in going down across the plain of
Esdraelon, from Nazareth southward. It was
doubtless the same general path to which she had
been accustomed, from her ordinary journeys to
the Holy City, at the solemn annual feasts. But
just now her mind was in a strange new frame of
feeling. Each familiar locality, so crowded with
history and devout reminiscences of her nation's
annals, would, under these present circumstances,
make on her imagination a far deeper impression
than usual. We must remember this, for it gives
help in the interpretation of her song.

THE " MAGNIFICAT " OF MARY. 59

Mary's journey. The " hill-country."

Out from under the shadows of western hills,
she would come into full view of the whole coun-
try, quite across to Mount Carmel, on the deso-
late ridge of which Elijah defied and conquered
the priests of Baal. Megiddo, where Josiah lay
dying ; Jezreel, where Ahab sinned ; the brook
Kishon, beside which Deborah sang, after Sisera
was slain — these were close at her feet. Before
long she would arrive at Shechem, and seem to
hear the old burden of cursing and blessing echo-
ing from Ebal and Gerizim. Perhaps she paused
a moment beside Joseph's grave ; perhaps she sat
to rest, and quenched her thirst at Jacob's well.
A little farther down she would reach Jerusalem,
" beautiful on the sides of the north," and catch
glimpses of the golden-roofed temple shining in
the sun. Diminutive Bethlehem next would hare
to be passed, and her tired feet would tread the
lonely path that goes by Rachel's tomb. Her
eyes would roam over the verdured fields where
David tended his father's flocks, and caught the
starry figures of the eighth and the nineteenth
psalms. And while she lingered on such a spot,
she would think of Ruth returning with Naomi
after bidding Orpah farewell. Hard hills are
those which now she would have to climb, before
she could reach the cave of Machpelah, or dis-
cover the small houses of Hebron in the distance.

Of this we have no detail. But it aids us much
afterward to keep it in mind ; for it shows how
she went thinking all the way to her destination.

6o SERMONS IN SONGS.

Women understand women. Confidence restored.

We meet her first in the story in the presence of
Elisabeth, dwelling, perhaps, almost beneath the
shade of Abraham's oak in Mamre.

The description of that interview arrests our
imagination powerfully. Art has loved to dwell
upon it ; and the Eastern galleries are full of pict-
ures by the most eminent masters. But such a
scene is too simple and too majestic for a paint-
ing. It is likely we should get no good from what
we find on canvas ; almost all that we read of
show Elisabeth as a withered old woman, and in
even the best of them Mary looks quiet and tame
in her bashful demeanor.

We conceive more nobly of the spectacle, when
we rest contented with the sublime words of
Scripture. Good Bishop Hall says well : " Only
the meeting of saints in heaven can parallel this
meeting of these two cousins. The two wonders
of the world are met under one roof, and congrat-
ulate their mutual happiness. Grief grows greater
by concealment ; joy, by expression ; happiness
communicated doubles itself."

The dialogue is brief ; those two women talked
together as only two women could talk who per-
fectly understood each other. Mary heard Elisa-
beth say : " Whence is this to me, that the mother
of my Lord should come tome?" Her troubles
had been so hard, her joys had been so great, and
her silent heart had been so full of both of them,
that her relief must have been sudden and over-
whelming. When the sweet face of that pure un-

THE "magnificat" OF MARY, 6l

" My soul doth magnify." The best Psalter.

married maiden saw in the jojous countenance of
that incorruptible Jewish matron the sign that she
would be welcomed as faultless and true, oh, in
that supreme moment, she could answer only with
a song, and pour forth her gratitude in nothing
less than the inspired numbers of a New Testa-
ment psalm !

It is that psalm we now propose to study in
detail. In ecclesiastical history it is named the
" Magnificat," from the word in it which in the
Latin Vulgate means "doth magnify." There-
formed churches have admitted it into the ancient
liturgies. So it is often sung in the services of
Christendom by thousands of tongues.

I. Let us look, first, at a few of its external
characteristics. It is worth much just in itself as
a Christian hymn.

1. Begin with the poetry of it. It strikes us
with wonder in these modern days that a peasant
woman of Galilee should be able to chant in so
exalted a strain. But we know " a pure heart
makes the best psalter. ' ' And she was speaking
out of the abundance of hers. Yet never was
such an occasion, never was such an angelic prep-
aration ; never — surely never before — was such
a theme ! Israel's Messiah was on his way, God
was about to manifest himself on earth in the flesh !

2. Observe also the Israelitish aspect of the
song. . It would be easy to parallel almost every
expression in Mary's poetry, by an utterance very
similar in the anthems of the temple service. The

62 SERMONS IN SONGS.

An " ideal Puritan maiden." Mary's devotion,

mechanical structure is not very difficult ; for the
Hebrew and Syriac languages are easily wrought
into rhymeless verses. There is extant now a
gospel in Hebrew ; those who can read it are in-
terested in noting the idioms followed here in the
Magnificat. The mind of this woman was filled
with the old prophets' imagery. Her whole
thoughts were tinged with what she had studied
and committed to memory. So this song has
been exquisitely compared to what might have
been expected from " some ideal Puritan maiden,"
whose mind was so imbued and saturated with the
Scriptural forms of expression that it would fall
unconsciously into inspired phrases when she
spoke.

3. Then, observe the femininity of this song.
No one but the queen of her sex could possibly
have composed the Magnificat. Mark the deli-
cacy of turn in the sentences, the mingling of dig-
nity with humility ; the majesty, as sublime as
Ezckiel's, and the tenderness, more gentle than
John's. For this shows the mind and heart of
just the one woman whom Elisabeth could call the
" Mother of her Lord."

II. Let us move on now, to consider, in the sec-
ond place, a few of the internal characteristics of
this matchless song.

I. Most prominent here, observe Mary's iiistant
devotion. She does not pause to return Elisabeth's
greeting ; she does not wait to pass back the con-
gratulation ; she seems to think only of God

THE "magnificat" OF MARY. 63

The new word " Saviour." Personal humility,

above. " My soul doth magnify the Lord !" She
comes forth hke Hannah, in the older time, with
a full ascription at the first beginning : " My heart
rejoiceth in the Lord ; mine horn is exalted in the
Lord." A maiden without any companions, and
without even a timbrel, she sets Miriam's song to
new music : " Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath
triumphed gloriously !" How ahke devout these
female voices seem !

2. Then, notice her evangelic faith. She is thor-
oughly orthodox in the gospel. She sings : " My
spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Mary,
then, felt need of a Saviour, just as much as any
one else. There is here no intimation of a " Ma-
donna" of sinless perfection. " And blessed is she
that believed ; for there shall be a performance of
those things which were told her from the Lord."
She was blessed in that she " believed." So she
knew her sins would be forgiven, because there
should be " a performance of those things which
were told her from the Lord." A great word
this, " Saviour ;" here first it appears in the New
Testament ; the word which the heathen orator
said afterward he found on a tomb that he passed
on one of his journeys : "Sahator ; a new word,
but very beautiful, as it appears to me."

3. Next, we see her personal Jnimility. How
sweetly she says : " He hath regarded the low
estate of his handmaid" ! What was this Galilean
damsel, poor and lonely now, that she should
have been sinorlcd out for so exalted a lot ? There

64 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The happiest woman in history. Peerlessly ambitious.

is in her whole demeanor during- this pathetic
part of her history an unusual poise and serenity.
She was not even frightened or abashed by the
angel ; she meekly received his announcement,
neither overcome nor unduly elated in her pros-
pects. As she acquiesced then, she sings now :
" Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto
me according to thy word."

4. Now, put with this her lofty ambition. Her
heart rises to its supreme elevation at the next
utterance. For this is the last Mary speaks of
herself ; all the rest of the song is about God.
She sings : " From henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed ; for he that is mighty hath
done to me great things." She is glad with her
whole heart that the chance is going to be given
to her to become a blessing. Watch the lan-
g-uage ; not — They shall call me rich, and pros-
pered, and honored, and famous, but — They shall
bless me for what I peril my life to bring to
them. She is peerlessly ambitious to do good.
It penetrates and sways her whole being with un-
utterable joy to think of the souls she will gladden
when they come to learn that she offers to the
world its Redeemer and Christ.

5. This is what prompts her voluminous praise.
Here are several verses now that mention the
divine attributes one by one. Mary makes each
in succession record God's glory in a new light.
Over and over again in her mind she turns her
thought, as one would turn the choicest jewel

THE "magnificat" OF MARY. 65

Divine attributes. How much had Mary traveled ?

in his hand, in order to find a fresh facet to
shine.

God's holiness, first : " For he that is mighty
hath done to me great things ; and holy is his
name." It was as if a notion of his infinite purity
had entered her heart anew, when that angel had
said : " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee ; therefore, also, that holy thing which shall
be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

T^^en God's grace : " His mercy is on them
that fear him." Oh, how much more meaning
than ever before did those ancient words have to
Mary now : " From generation to generation" !
What a worthy line of ancestry she had had, and
how affecting was the thought that the covenant
of Almighty God with the Father of the Faithful
was perpetuated through herself and this wonder-
ful Child for all coming ages !

God's power likewise : " He hath shewed
strength with his arm." Just how much of op-
portunity to observe physical energy in exercise
Mary had enjoyed, we do not know. Nazareth
was high among the south ridges of the mountains
of Lebanon, and was not far from the Mediter-
ranean which taught David all he knew about
ocean storms. But if, all the way down from
home to Hebron, she had been thinking — thinking
— as we have been led to conjecture, she certainly
must have recollected many a history, suggested
by hillside and plain, which would exhibit the

66 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Abraham's old outlook. A maiden's patriotism.

power of Jehovah in scattering by the breath of
his wrath enemies who were " proud in the imag-
ination of their hearts."

So next, God's justice ; the great retributions
of divine providence always had found their right
objects : " He hath put down the mighty from
their seats, and exalted them of low degree."
Mary at that moment was not far from the very
spot from which Abraham looked when he saw
Sodom and Gomorrah smoking as if from the de-
struction of a furnace.

Then, God's beneficence also ; this she knew
was generous, but discriminating ; her own ex-
perience taught her what she now said in the
song. Her heart had never been opulent with
graces, but surely it had often enough been filled
with longing, and so she knew that it was God's
way to fill " the hungry" with good things, but
" the rich" would be sent empty away, until they
should learn humility.

6. One thing more in this wonderful song
claims our attention. Observe Mary's magnificent
patriotism. For she passes almost unconsciously
from God's attributes to God's people. She
thinks of that ancient covenant he had made with
" his servant Israel." With the full sense at last
ot the glory of her royal lineage dawning brightly
upon her imagination, this maiden speaks of " our
fathers," and of " Abraham and his seed forever."
She must have seen how intricately her history
had been linked with the choice heroic annals of

THE "magnificat" OF MARY. 67

Raphael's Madonna. Retiring out of notice.

her race from the far beginning-. Here is where
art has for once offered a little help to our imagi-
nations. One of the noblest conceptions of that
greatest master of painting, Raphael, is found in
the simple roll of ancient parchment he has placed
in Mary's lap, while she fixes her eye on the
vacant distance, as if in profound thought over the
new discovery she has made that her life has all
along had a place in the grand purpose of Israel's
covenant of grace. And so here the finest thing
in the Magnificat is this adoring ascription of
praise to God for what he had done for her coun-
try and her race. " He hath liolpen his servant
Israel in remembrance of his mercy ; as he spake
to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for-
ever !" A great lesson is this ; that nation may
well be considered safe, when only the women
and mothers that dwell in it are patriots.

Just two reflections remain for closing our
study. One is this : How easily Mary retires
now from her conspicuousness ! One immortal
song she has given to the world and the church ;
but it was her swan-song as a poetess. She sub-
sides quietly hereafter into the mother and the
wife. She appears in the story of Jesus' life
often ; still, it is not recorded that she ever said
or sung anything more that is extraordinary.
Think how noble it seems to be ready to come
into notice for God, just as he will, and then go
out of it, just as he will, into quiet waiting and
restful service, without repining !

68 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Mary's Saviour. " Who is my mother ?"

The other reflection is this : Spiritually, any
one now can be aR that Mary was to Jesus ; spirit-
ually, any one can have all that Jesus was to
Mary. He was her "Saviour;" she was his
" mother." Let us read over together the famil-
iar verses in Matthew's gospel :

" While he yet talked to the people, behold, his
mother and his brethren stood without, desiring
to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Be-
hold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without,
desiring to speak with thee. But he answered
and said unto him that told him, Who is my
mother ? and who are my brethren ? And he
stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and
said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For
whosoever shall do the will of my Father which
is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister,
and mother."

VI.

THE SERMON ON THE CROSS.

"I WILL DECLARE THY NAME UNTO MY BRETHREN: IN THE
MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION WILL I PRAISE THEE." — Fsal/fl 22 : 22.

There is some reason for believing that Jesus
our Saviour repeated the twenty-second psalm
entirely while suspended on the cross in the ago-
nies of the crucifixion. We know that he spoke
aloud the opening sentences of it : " My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" And there
are some scholarly and careful expositors who tell
us that the final expression in it — that last clause
with which our version awkwardly closes ( ' that
he hath done this") — if rendered exactly in trans-
lation, would read, " It is finished," which, as we
all remember, was another of our Lord's utter-
ances on Calvary.

It may be that with one bitter cry under the
darkness and desolation, which is recorded, his
speech collapsed into silence, and that then only
his mind took up the remaining verses into medita-
tion and rehearsal. At any rate, we quite under-
stand he was educated to great familiarity with
all the Old Testament Scriptures, and often ad-
duced them in argument with an aptness which
showed an evident acquaintance with each im-

70 SERMONS IN SONGS.

This strange psalm. The Messiah's song.

portant passage. And, surely, in his studies con-
cerning his own Messiahship, he must have fast-
ened deeply in memory such sentences as these :
" They pierced my hands and my feet ,'" " They
part my garments among them and cast lots upon
my vesture ;" " They shake the head, saying, He
trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him ;
let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him !"
Think a moment upon the dramatic force of such
expressions, when repeated in the act of crucifix-
ion, all of which are found in this psalm.

Now that we know the exact history of this
awful scene, how wonderful seem the words of
description, penned a full thousand years before
Jesus was born ! But what renders the question
— whether Christ rehearsed these predictions or
not during those suffering moments w^hile he was
accurately fulfilling them — of more interest to us
is the fact that among the verses is found a state-
ment amounting to a literal promise that the Mes-
siah, at the very height of his grand offering of
atonement, should deliver an address. For he
says : " I will declare thy name unto my breth-
ren : in the midst of the congregation will I praise
thee."

If there be any remaining doubt as to the
person to whom so startling an announcement
belongs, it is relieved by the plain reference of
the entire passage, which we find in the epistle to
the Hebrews. There the language of the twenty-
second psalm is ascribed directly and without

THE SERMON ON THE CROSS. 7I

Christ crucified preaching. Christ crucified preached.

change to Jesus. And in that place, likewise,
you will be pleased to discover an explanation of
what the Psalmist must have meant by that which
he here calls " the congregation." It is interest-
ing to note these verses, as Paul quotes David,
and unhesitatingly gives David's words to Jesus :

" For both he that sanctifieth and they who are
sanctified are all of one ; for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will de-
clare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of
the Church will I sing praise unto thee."

What David calls " the congregation" is, there-
fore, the assembly of those " who are sanctified ";
and what the Messiah is represented as calling his
"brethren" is the "Church." Hence, a most
weighty and most welcome declaration is this :
the Lord of Glory, even in agony, speaks from
the Cross to the Church.

What a pulpit, what an audience, what a
preacher ! We have received from the sacred
record one Sermon on the Mount ; here is an-
other. Calvary is a lowlier hill than Hattin, but
this Sermon on the Cross is a grander discourse ;
for Christ crucified is preached by the lips of a
crucified Christ !

It, surely, is not necessary to ask or to answer
what were the words which Jesus spoke during
the hours while he was dying. For they are
enduringly familiar to us all. But our special
purpose with them just now requires that we
carefully contemplate their order of arrangement

72 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The Messiah's Sermon.

Words for thieves.

and their relation to each other. There are
known to be exactly seven of them in all — the
seven distinct heads to this Sermon on the Cross.
One is given us by Matthew, Mark repeats the
same, Luke records three more, and to these John
adds three.

The first was a prayer for his executioners.
The soldiers were brutal, the populace ignorant
and harsh ; but at the moment when any one
would think our Lord was going to utter a denun-
ciation wilder than an apostle's " Anathema," you
hear only the tenderness of supplication, backed
with the charity of an excuse. Then said Jesus :
" Father, forgive them ; for they know not what
they do 1"

After this comes silence. Time passes on.
Suffering deepens. A thief, crucified on another
cross, set beside Christ's in order to shame him
the more, becomes penitent for his sin, and has
faith in Jesus sufficient to surrender to him as a
Saviour. He exclaims : " Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom." That cry
was not lifted unheard. The head of Jesus in-
stantly turned — in pain, but in pity — till eye met
eye ; and then the lips spoke the second time,
grandest words of pardon and promise : " Verily,
I say unto thee, to-day shalt ihou be with me in
Paradise."

Now again ensues quiet, and the hour wears
wearily on. A little company of dear friends are
sitting at the foot of the cross ; amonj them

THE SERMON ON THE CROSS. 73

A mother bequeathed. Jesus saith, '' I thirst."

Mary^ Jesus' mother, and John, the disciple
Jesus loved specially. Higher relationships were
beginning- to over-ride the lower. It was time to
say farewell to all earthly ties. Jesus seems here
to make his will. Alas ! what a death-bed, and
yet what a testament ! A living mother is be-
queathed as a comfort and a care. Thus he spoke
the third time : " Woman, behold thy son !"
And when John's eager look was raised to his, he
simply added, forestalling all thanks and exacting
no conditions : " Behold thy mother !"

The next three of these utterances seem to be
official. The Saviour himself is the subject of
each in turn. Hence his priestly work, his pro-
phetic, and his kingly are all mentioned.

Down in the depths of awful desertion, as he
lay — the Lamb of God — upon the altar of atone-
ment, bearing the curse of sin in his person, he
cried : " My God, my God, why hast thou for-
saken me ?"

Then, as he came up a little wa)^ out of the
depth of the darkness, perhaps saying over the
rest of the twenty-second psalm, he recalled one
prediction as yet unanswered by any fact. David
had said this in his seer-vision : " They gave me
also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink." Christ would be reminded
of that prophecy of the Messiah, the moment that
in his rehearsal he met the verse : " My strength
is dried up hke a potsherd, and my tongue cleav-
eth to my jaws." There can be no doubt that

74 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" It is finished." A decorous greeting.

Jesus felt natural desire for drink under the fever
of crucifixion ; but his motive in that wild call for
some refreshment was more the wish to keep
Scripture record clear. You will miss much if
you neglect the most strange and suggestive lan-
guage here : " After this, Jesus, knowing that all
things were now accomplished, that the Scripture
might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst."

Then, glancing over all the past and on into the
future, he rose to the height of proclamation, and
said " with a loud voice," as it merited : " It is
finished !"

Only one thing more remained. As a sovereign
leaves his throne sometimes for the field, in order
to subdue a rebel province, so Christ had put off
his royal purple and his celestial crown, that he
might become the Captain of Salvation on this
revolted planet. His military work was now
done. As that sovereign returns victorious, with
all his triumphs on his brow and his captives in
his train, announcing in the presence of his army
that the campaign is ended, so Jesus at last gives
the note of a closed conflict, and the signal for
leaving the plain on the immediate march to the
capital. He is going at once, the prince royal, to
the royal abode. A message beforehand seems
becoming.

So he speaks his seventh word. There upon
the tree of humiliation he sends tranquilly aloft
into the not distant ear of the Infinite One
his final utterance — a mere decorous greeting to

THE SERMON ON THE CROSS. 75

The Sermon in the Song. Heads of discourse.

his Father : " Into thy hands I commend my
spirit !"

" And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. "
These seven expressions, then, constitute the
fulfihnent Jesus made of the Messianic promise
recorded in the psalm. They are significant even
when detached and separate ; but you will feel
their full power the more when )''ou consider their
order, the line of consecutive thought in which
they occur.

Perhaps there is no way in which they can more
vividly be grouped together than by adopting the
ancient conventional form of memorizing em-
ployed by classic orators in recalling the points of
a speech. They used to localize the heads of dis-
course by fastening them in imaginative connec-
tion around on the conspicuous parts of the build-
ing. Hence came our phraseology, " in the first
place," or "the second place," and soon. Let
us reverently conceive the Saviour in the very
posture of crucifixion, turning his head, and pick-
ing up one suggestion after another with the
glances of his eye, as the progress of his thought
shifts the subject of remark. Our question is :
Why did he say the first thing first, and the next
thing next, and all the rest in just that succession
he chose ? Imagine him, if you will, surrounded
by concentric circles of hearers — ^some remote, as it
were, some near at hand — and touching each in turn.

He looks away from him — sees the crucifiers,
and utters his cry for their forgiveness. He looks

76 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Journey of Jesus' mind. Subjects, Prince, King.

beside him — sees the penitent thief, and utters his
welcome to Paradise. He looks beneath him —
sees his mother, and utters his bequeathal of her
to her new son. He looks above him — sees the
mantle already drawn across his Father's face,
and utters his lament of desolation. He looks
within him — sees his poor weakness of thirst, and
utters his acknowledgment of the reminder it
makes that Scripture must be fulfilled. He looks
around him — sees the Messiah's work all along-
the toiling, waiting centuries, and utters his tii-
umphant announcement that he has completed it.
He looks before him — sees, far through the
bounds of earthly vision, his Father's face, and
knows his favor is restored, and then utters his
peaceful surrender.

Any one, therefore, can readily perceive the
journey of Jesus' mind by these impressive words
coming out now and then to mark its course.
He begins on the extreme outskirts of the king-
dom of God, and works up toward the throne
which is its centre. He starts with the subjects ;
he continues with the Prince ; he ends with the
King. He divides the subjects into three classes,
according to their spiritual distance ; he predi-
cates three conditions of the Prince, according to
the progress and achievements of his work ; and
then he ascribes all supremacy to the King, by
yielding himself to his hands.

The Sermon on the Cross, so it follows, is thor-
oughly logical, and is actually founded upon a

THE SERMON ON THE CROSS. 7/

The Sermon plan in full. Two lessons.

symmetrical analysis most exquisite in structure.
These may be seen to be the particulars in fair
order,

I. The subjects of the Kingdom.

1. The hardened and unconcerned. A prayer
for them : " Father, forgive them."

2. The penitent and believing. The acceptance
of them : " To-day with me in Paradise."

3. The accepted and beloved. A care toward
them : " Behold thy mother — thy son."

II. The Prince of the Kingdom.

1. The priestly Victim. Under vicarious guilt ;
hence, forsaken.

2. The prophetic Revealer. Under responsi-
bility for all truth ; hence, careful.

3. The kingly Leader. Under victorious ban-
ners ; hence, jubilant.

III. The King of the Kingdom.

Only a single word of serene self-announcement,
as he starts in person to return through the lifted
gates into the glory he had before ever the world
was.

An entire sermon would be needed on each of
these seven texts, before even a moiety of their
reach and fulness of instruction could be presented
to you. Two lessons are all we now seek to make
clear. One of these concerns the savers of souls ;
the other concerns the souls that are saved.

Rehearse, now that you are measurably familiar
with it, this journey of Jesus' mind, once more ;
for it is the line of spiritual travel along which every

78 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Going after a lost soul. Homeward steps.

true follower of Jesus must go in order to bring men
savingly to him atid to heaven.

He begins at a distance. Far away on the
borders of Satan's country, Christ seems to descry
a few men. passionate, uncouth, and blasphemous.
His heart yearns over them. Those whom no
one loves, he pities. Those whom no one warns,
he prays for. Oh, the inhnite tenderness with
which Immanuel then reached out his hand to
save them who were ahnost doomed and damned
already I Where, then, is the man beyond the
reach of our charity or our prayers !

Then he draws a step nearer, and meets the
pleading malefactor on the way From the very
edge of the bottomless pit did Christ catch that
perishing penitent, and draw him safely into
Paradise. And this, when at the moment every
fibre in his body, and every sensibility in his soul,
was racked with pain indescribable. Oh, how
frequently our ease interferes with our useful-
ness ; how often we check our footsteps going
forth " bearing precious seed," because we think
we must stay to do our " weeping" !

One more step is now all that Jesus needs to
take. He is never so busy in zeal for reprobates
as to forget fidelity to his friends. When we
notice his solicitude for his mother's earthly lot,
and the graceful ingenuity with which he com-
passed the two ends of providing for her and
comforting John, we cannot fail to learn how
helpful he means to have all that love him to be

THE SERMON ON THE CROSS. 79

A lost soul going towards God. Sin hated, not sinners.

to each other. " Whoso shall do the will of my
Leather which is in heaven, the same is my
mother, and sister, and brother." Thus having
loved his own he loved them to the end. And
our lesson is — begin, no matter how far off ; per-
sist, no matter how much ; continue, no matter
how long ; so that in the end we compass a soul !

The other hint of instruction we gain from
these utterances on the Cross has relation to the
evangelical experience through zvhich every soul has to
pass in its return and reconciliation to God. This
very journey of Jesus' mind indicates it — that is,
the experience our Lord himself shares as he ut-
ters those three personal exclamations, which cul-
minate in the calm triumph of the last.

When Jesus lifts that great and bitter cry —
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me ?"— he seems about as far from his Father's
love as human mind can conceive. He knows
himself to be the true, only-begotten Son of God,
but he is apparently on the very outermost line of
recognition. He is bearing the sins of the world,
and his Father has hidden his face in sorrow and
reprehension. Just there starts every unforgiven
soul of man.

Oh, if God hates sin like this— if he would turn
away from that suffering Redeemer in such an
hour as this — if he refuses to look upon guilt in a
mere Surety with such rejection — what can any
actual sinner have to-day for a hopeful apology,
when, covered with his own transgression, he

8o SERMONS IN SONGS.

Caring for those one seeks. Rest reached at last.

goes up abov^e to make terms for himself with the
Judge !

But Jesus advanced one step, after a while.
Though forsaken, he kept the faith. Lest a
single word of prophecy should fail, he bent to
the humiliating need of asking his enemies to pity
his admitted weakness. He did all this to save
two or three verses in two or three Psalms. So
he honored the word, and confirmed its least
record.

Here, again, let each sinner learn that God will
be true, though every man become a liar. To
even the most despairing there is promise, there
is proffer, there is pledge, of grace, on condition
of penitence and faith.

Then Jesus comes up the third step, and all is
clear. The marvelous reach of those little words
— " It is finished !" — can never be told. Types
all answered, predictions all fulfilled, provisions
all made, he is on the summit of triumph.

And with those words on his believing lips,
every sinner comes to his eternal rest and peace
in the gospel. The word of Jehovah meets him :
" Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast
out." So he, like his Lord, commends his spirit
into infinite care. From the verge of the outer
darkness, where the wandering stars are lost, he
has at last pushed his way, througli all the inter-
vening orbits, to the Sun of Righteousness, which
has risen upon him !

VII.
A BEATITUDE REALIZED.

" And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice
TO God with one accord." — Acfs 4 : 24.

The peculiar paradoxes of the Christian life are
nowhere brought to view more evidently than in
those dogmatic declarations of our Lord himself
with which he opens his Sermon on the Mount.
Each one of the beatitudes there pronounced sug-
gests a philosophy which is in utter defiance of all
legitimate human expectation and experience.
The world says, " Happy are the opulent and the
prosperous ;" Jesus says, " Happy are the poor."

The world says, " Happy are ye when ye are
merry and glad ;" Jesus sa3^s, " Happ}'^ are they
that mourn."

Thus the list moves on, a strange enumeration
of apparent contradictions. Seven classifications
of positive evils are made, and then the octave is
touched with a note the most wonderful of them
all ; it is surely the most surprising and pre-
posterous of all things to say in a promiscuous
assembly, " Blessed are they which are perse-
cuted for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven." Yet this statement is re-
peated twice in succession, and then an applica-

82 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Singing under persecution. Reach of the beatitude.

tion of it is forced directly on those who are
Hstening, as if to confirm a principle so likely to
provoke a dispute.

Now, it so happens that, in the chapter where
the text is found, we have come upon a literal
fulfilment of this prediction of Christ ; the disci-
ples are in the midst of severe persecution, and
yet we not only find them singing in the exuber-
ance of their joy, but the new song they sing is
handed down to us as a fine contribution to the
hymnological treasures of the church at large.
Evidently these brave men are realizing a beati-
tude, and the excellent illustration they furnish
ought not to be lost. Let us analyse the verses
in Matthew, and then lay them alongside of those
in the Acts ; so we shall easily perceive the prac-
tical help given.

I. What was it exactly that our Lord declared
in the beatitude ? We m.ust be just as careful in
tracing its limits as its reach, or else we shall
make a sad mistake at the start.

I. Its reach includes hard words, harsh deeds,
and hateful insinuations : " Blessed are ye, when
men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my
sake." Taunts, sarcasms, ridicule — these are
more difficult to bear than blows ; and these are
what the apostles were now receiving in full
measure.

The word which our Lord used is figurative ;
he takes his trope from the pursuit of a hunter :

A BEATITUDE REALIZED. 83

Hounded by a hunter. A prairie reed.

Blessed are ye when wicked men shall " hound "
you. Most men of refined feeling are little moved
by mere coarseness. It touches no sensibility
when some rude creature swears at us in the
street ; the barking of a dog would annoy us very
much the same. The very grossness of the attack
renders it comparatively ineffective ; we pass it
by undisturbed. I think we can understand some-
thing of the equanimity of David under the curses
of the foul-mouthed Shimei. " And as David and
his men Avent by the way, Shimei went along on
the hill's side over against him, and cursed as he
went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.
And David said to Abishai, Let him alone, and let
him curse ; for the Lord hath bidden him. It
may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction,
and that the Lord will requite me good for his
cursing this day."

A delicate-minded Christian will, like a prairie
reed, bend to a swift blast of the tempest, and in
his graceful yielding find safety ; only the lighter
winds can make him tremble. The day has come
when our persecutions consist pretty much of in-
sinuations, misrepresentations, and perversions.
A shrug of the shoulder, a whisper of defamation,
a look of suspicion, may fling reproach on the
most spotless reputation.

2. The limit of Jesus' language in the beatitude
is found in two particulars : the reproach must be
groundless — note that word " falsely ;" and it must
be religious — " for my sake." That these disciples

84 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Buffeted for real faults. Deacon Morose,

understood perfectly the distinction is plain from
what one of them, Simon Peter, wrote long after-
ward ; he says it does not amount to much if one
is buffeted for his real faults, and deserves the
censures he gets ; it is only when one does well
and suffers for it, that the pain becomes " thank-
worthy" and " acceptable to God."

Furthermore, the persecution must be for
Christ's sake only, if we expect it to count in real-
izing the beatitude. Once in a class a somewhat
pert lad exclaimed, " I think a peevish or quick-
tempered man like Deacon INIorose will make
heaven very uncomfortable for the people in that
part of it he goes to." The teacher rebuked him :
*' Some persons are hard on Deacon Morose ; he
is a dear, good, pious man." The boy continued :
" He is not to blame for being pious, but for not
being pious enough ; I never thought he was so
unpopular for Christ's sake, but for his own. If
he were a little more amiable, he would be a
good deal more religious." Such a thing is
worth thinking of any way. For in another verse
this same apostle takes occasion to make a frank
enumeration of particulars which might be easily
mistaken for unusual grace. In his day there
were some who suffered as evil-doers— thieves,
gossips, meddlers, and the like ; it was enough to
tell them that this was useless. " But let none of
you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an
evil-doer, or as a busybody in other men's mat-
ters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him

A BEATITUDE REALIZED. 85

Reliant pride of heart. " Draw me nearer — nearer."

not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God on this
behalf."

II. But now we move on a step in the study.
This being the condition, what was the beatitude ?
How were the apostles blessed in their persecu-
tions ?

1. Reproach for Christ's sake cuts off one's reli-
ant pride of heart. " Then Peter, filled with the
Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the
people, and elders of Israel, if we this day be ex-
amined of the good deed done to the impotent
man, by what means he is made whole ; be it
known unto you all, and to all the people of
Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Naza-
reth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, even by him doth this man stand here
before you whole. This is the stone which was
set-at naught of you builders, which is become the
head of the corner."

Observe carefully how these men appear to
forget themselves in the transactions which were
causing such wonder. If a man does a great good
thing he is apt at first to become vain of it ; but it
needs only the briefest experience of success to
discover that great good things are what the
world hates and maligns the most. This takes
the conceit out of his heart, and then he begins to
render all the glory unto God.

2. Again : reproach for Christ's sake drives us
nearer into close communion with the Almighty
himself. " And being let go, they came to their

86 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The Apostles' song. David at Engedi.

own company, and reported all that the chief
priests and the elders had said unto them. And
they, when they heard it, lifted up their voice to
God with one accord, and said, O Lord, thou that
didst make the heaven and the earth and the sea,
and all that in them is ; who by the Holy Ghost,
by the mouth of our father David thy servant
didst say, Why did the heathen rage, and the
people imagine vain things ? The kings of the
earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
For of a truth in this city against thy holy Ser-
vant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod
and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the
peoples of Israel, were gathered together, to do
whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained
to come to pass. And now, Lord, look upon
their threatenings ; and grant unto thy servants
to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou
stretchest forth thy hand to heal ; and that signs
and wonders may be done through the name of
thy holy Servant Jesus."

It is not difficult to dare men when one fully
trusts God ; magnanimity toward a foe is easy
when one has a friend in his God to whom he
may appeal. We conceive nobly of David when
in the secret cave of Engedi he turns away from
doing violence unto Saul, and leaves him to the
dealings of Providence. " The Lord judge be-
tween me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of
thee; but mine hand shall not be upon thee."

A BEATITUDE REALIZED. 8/

The speech of men. High-born Kinsmen.

Christ once told his disciples that there was a woe
upon them if all men should speak well of them ;
they understood him better in these hard times
when they felt his love so near ; he was manifest-
ing- himself to them as not to the world. Remem-
ber that one of those men who were singing after-
ward wrote the brave wise words we so often
quote : " For the time is come that judgment
must begin at the house of God ; and if it first
begin at us, what shall the end be of them that
obey not the gospel of God ? And if the right-
eous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear ? Wherefore, let them that
suffer according to the will of God, commit the
keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as
unto a faithful Creator."

3. Reproach for Christ's sake likewise is a
blessing because it brings one into genuine com-
panionship with the great and g-ood of all the
ages. How suggestive it is to find these disciples
of the Lord quoting an ancient psalm as a part of
the New Testament hymn they were composing
to sing now. This v/as precisely what had been
told them in the Sermon on the Mount : " Re-
joice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your
reward in heaven ; for so persecuted they the
prophets which were before you." In da)'s gone
by, so we are informed, martyrs and confessors
used to etch on the walls of the dungeons they
occupied brief exhortations to steadfastness, calls
to fortitude, and reminiscences of grace, so that

88 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Fellowship with the Master. Simon Peter's counsel.

those who should come after them in the same
prisons might have the cheer of the example they
set ; " seeing, would take heart again."

4. Finally : reproach for Christ's sake intro-
duces every true Christian into fellowship with
the great Apostle and High Priest of our profes-
sion, Jesus him.self. "It is enough for the disci-
ple that he be as his master, and the servant as his
lord." We look up and seem to see these preach-
ers before the same great council that condemned
Jesus ; think specially of John and Peter ; when
were they there last ? There were the identical
faces, scowling and hateful as ever. " And Annas
the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and
Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of
the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusa-
lem." In that room Jesus had sat when he gave
Simon Peter the look which filled his eyes with
penitent tears ; do you suppose Peter was going
to give in now, and deny the Master again ? Or
rather, we imagine a man like him would take a
grand delight in showing in these days that he
could be .courageous if he tried. You must turn
over once more to Simon Peter's epistle, and see
how tenderly this disciple, a sheep going astray
once, now has returned unto the Shepherd of his
soul, and how humbly under such memories he
exhorts the rest.

" For even hereunto were ye called ; because
Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,
that ye should follow his steps. Who did no sin,

A BEATITUDE REALIZED. 89

Surprise at trial. A peaceful life : no beatitude.

neither was guile found in his mouth ; who, when
he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suf-
fered, he threatened not ; but committed himself
to him that judgeth righteously ; who his own
self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto right-
eousness : by whose stripes ye were healed. For
ye were as sheep going astray ; but are now re-
turned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your
souls."

We ought not to be surprised at this kind of
trial even in these easier days. " All that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
But the beatitude holds. This is part of the cost
one must count when he first purposes to surren-
der himself to the Saviour ; is the price sufficient ?

"And when they had prayed, the place was
shaken wherein they were gathered together ;
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and
they spake the word of God with boldness."

A peaceful life may not always be the most de-
sirable. It amounts simply to the reckoning thus :
less persecution, and so less beatitude. One may
live far from conflict, and then discover he has been
also living far from Christ. " And they departed
from the presence of the council, rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his
name ; and daily in the temple, and in every house,
they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ."

VIII.
THE "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS."

" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
WILL toward men." — Liike 2 : 14.

Those who are so apt at saying bright things
about the Madonna and her Child — and those who
are so foolish as to talk concerning the Church
and her Christ — might, if they would, take notice
that, when the Scriptures speak, they always
mention the Child first.

One can easily imagine that the shepherds,
when they entered the presence of " the young
Child and his Mother," were satisfied to know
they had something to tell, as well as something
to listen to. And our curiosity almost runs riot,
as we think of the conversation there at the side
of the manger. How the quiet Mary's eyes would
glisten, when she heard about the song of angels
on the hill !

Indeed, Joseph and Mary might well welcome
these homely men ; for there was in their plain
words of congratulation that which rejoiced their
souls far more than those gifts of gold, frankin-
cense, and myrrh, which the Magi brought them
afterward. Good words are always more valuable
than wealthy offerings, which have less heart in

THE " GLORIA IN EXCELSIS. 9I

Sheplierds' words : Magi's gifts. Was Gabriel the leader ?

them ; they are like " apples of gold in pictures
of silver."

In gathering the matter for our own instruction
just now, we ought to be satisfied if we can be led
to remember this same song, and hold the rich
significance of its three announcements of glory to
God, peace on earth, and good will toward men.
First, however, we will make some inquiry about
this celestial choir ; then we will take up for
study the wonderful anthem which they sang :
" And suddenly there was with the angel a multi-
tude of the heavenly host praising God, and say-
ing. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men."

I, One particular angel, you observe, seems to
assume a sort of leadership to a company of
others ; he delivers the message, and then they
unannounced burst forth into a strain of music.
Curious questioning all aside, the thought of sur-
passing interest to us in this story is concerning
the sincere sympathy that these celestial beings
all seem to have for every matter which touches
our race under the plan of redemption. Angels
appear in every instance.

Gabriel it was who brought prophetic announce-
ment of the Messiah to Daniel ; the same messen-
ger foretold Jesus' birth to his mother. From
the beginning to the end of our Lord's earthly
career do these inhabitants of heaven seem to
Avalk alongside, just out of sight. We discover
them ministering: to him when in the wilderness of

92 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The ministry of angels Why do angels care?

temptation ; they are found strengthening him
under the terrible agony of Gethsemane ; the
women saw one sitting at the head and the foot of
the spot where the crucified Saviour had lain in
the sepulchre. We are given to understand that
angels are even now all the time God's messengers
to the heirs of salvation. They are coming, at the
last day, with Christ when he advances to judg-
ment. And in the glory of heaven, while they sit
singing praise on the mount of God, the chief
burden of their happ}^ hymns is joy over each
repenting sinner. Is it not a fine thing to have
such friends at court ?

Just here it is worth an inquiry, how it comes
about that angels from a sinless heaven are inter-
ested enough in the birth of a human Redeemer
to show such lively and exuberant pleasure as
makes these Bethlehem hills ring with their praise
unto God. And the answer cannot be difficult.
You must recall the description furnished us of
angels* feelings, under the awful mystery of
Christ's sufferings. They are presented to us as
fitly imaged in the Cherubim on the mercy-seat of
old ; those two singular figures of gold, bending
reverently forward toward each other over the
ark in the Holy of Holies, with eyes cast down-
ward, as if they were curiously listening to what-
ever might be spoken from out the ineffable light
between them. In like attitude, we are told to
conceive of those angels who stand in the real
presence of God, where are solved such wonder-

THE "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS." 93

" Peering over into." When did the angels learn ?

ful problems of grace — grace purchased by the
vicarious humiliation of the divine Daysman, his
equal and beloved Son.

You easily quote the language ; but there is in
it a felicity almost lost in its rendering into ours.
" Which things the angels desire to look into ;"
this means, which things they are peering over
into — bending their heads down and fixing their
eyes, as if a holy curiosity possessed them, as if
they were investigating an awful secret which
demanded closest and most earnest attention.

Furthermore, you will remember that the
Apostle Paul asserts, in a brilliant passage of the
epistle to the Ephesians, that there was once a
recognized and explicit moment in eternal history,
when the manifold wisdom of God was made
known unto the powers and principalities in
heavenly places — the fellowship of the mystery,
hid in God from the beginning of the world.
When was that ? At what precise instant — at
what period along the ages of human registering
by days and years — did the angels first learn the
meaning and the majesty of Christ's incarnation,
his suffering, and his death ?

We can get no plain inspired answer ; but
surely, there never was a more fitting opportunity
for this sublime disclosure than we know was
offered on the day when the incarnation became a
fact ; on the morning of Jesus' birth, of course,
was the appropriate moment to explain why he
was born at all. It does not seem unlikely that

94 SERMONS IN SONGS.

See Melvill's Sermon ; Vol. II. Perhaps angels learned then.

when the midnight first fell away from over Beth-
lehem and its shepherds on the hills — at just that
crisis in history, human and angelic — the heavenly
host were earliest made aware of the deep signifi-
cance of the amazing transaction they witnessed.
It may be imagined without harm, as has been
suggested by one of the most eloquent of English
preachers, that Jesus' errand on earth was then
explained to angels by just these very words we
are reading, spoken by their leader, this chief
angel, to those astonished men on the hill.

And if it be true that these high inteUigences,
who had until this supreme moment never before
understood what it was for an unpardoned sinner
against God to have an atonement ; who had
gazed upon the wreck of a fair world without any
hope of its restoration ; who had witnessed the
action of inflexible justice, as it actually sent hell
into existence for the doleful abode of some of
their own race, even then chained in its horrible
pit with no provisions for release ; if, I say, these
angels now met one historic instant of disclosure,
in which the veil of eternity dropped away from
before its chief mystery, and so was revealed to
their hitherto baffled minds the secret on which
they had for ages so hopelessly pondered — if this
be true, then it would not be surprising if the
moment of such vast discovery, such unparalleled
and immense acquisitions of knowledge, should
give birth to a song transcending every strain
they had ever previously chanted, filling the earth

THE "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS. 95

What of the music also ? Greek hymn : 300 a.d.

and the heavens alike with melody ; and this
would certainly give us a new force, if not a new
meaning, to the old verse that to so many readers
seems such a puzzle : " When he bringeth in the
first-begotten into the world, he saith. Let all the
angels of God worship him."

II. This leads us on now fitly to speak, in the
second place, concerning the music heard on that
eventful night. In the account which the listeners
gave, the words alone are mentioned ; one might
be pardoned for wishing we had also the score !

We all know how an interesting strain of
melody will fix itself in our memories ; sometimes
we can hardly keep from humming it over, repeat-
ing snatches of it we have caught, and rehearsing
to others the way it went, so as to give an idea.
It may be that the shepherds remembered parts
of this ; but if so, we have no means of ascertain-
ing it. Only the words reach us ; but they are
well worth the study of the world.

From a single form of expression employed
here, and coming along the ages through the
Latin Vulgate version, has been named an unin-
spired chant, one of the noblest in history — the
Gloria in Excelsis, given us by the Greek Church
somewhere about 300 a.d.

The startling abruptness with which this se-
raphic anthem fell on the ears of the shepherds
that first Christmas night, adds greatly to the
dramatic effect of the scene. Hardly lingering
for their leader to end his communication, that

96 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The shout of the Greeks. 'I'hree stanzas to the hymn.

choir of singers " suddenly" burst forth with loud
volume of exquisite harmony, celebrating the
praises of Jehovah, whom they saw in a fresh field
of splendid display. There were a vast number
of singers — " a host ;" that is to say, an army ;
"an army celebrating a peace." Surely there
was enough to inspire their music ; and great
armies of voices sing together quite often with
immense power of rich and voluminous harmon3^
It was an exasfpcration, no doubt, but ancient his-
tory gravely records that, when the invader of
Macedon was finally expelled, the victorious
Greeks, who heard the news and so learned that
freedom had come and fighting was over and
home was near, raised along the lines and through-
out the camp such a shout of " Soter ! Soter !" —
a Saviour ! a Saviour ! — that birds on the wing
dropped down. It may have been so ; but what
was that little peninsula of Greece, as compared
with this entire race redeemed from Satan unto
God?

What were the actual words of this angels'
song ? It is well that we all recollect them —
" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men !" Three stanzas in
one hymn.

I. The first of them, and the foremost in
thought, is ''Glory to God in the highest." This is
not a prayer at all, but an ascription. It was no
time to be asking that God be glorified, when the
whole universe was quivering with new disclosure

THE " GLORIA IN EXCELSIS. 97

Not a prayer only. An ascription also.

of a Gloria in Excelsis such as blind men could
see and deaf men could hear. Those angels did
not pray — Glory be to God — but they exclaimed
— Glory is to God in the highest, in the highest !
And then they rush rapidly into an enumeration
of particulars. The connection of thought is
close. Glory is to God in the highest, because
peace has come on the earth, and good will has
already gone out toward men.

These angels are making proclamation that
the rebellious race is forevermore subdued. No
longer was this planet to circle around among
loyal worlds in space, flaunting the defiant flag of
a belligerent in the kingdom of heaven. Men
should be redeemed ; sin should be positively
checked ; all the ills of a worn-out and wretched
existence should be banished ; poverty should be
removed, sickness and death find a master ; Satan
should be foiled by Immanuel in person : " Glory
to God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will
toward men !"

Hence, this entire vision, which flashed on the
awakened intelligence of the angels and inspired
their song, was simply reversive and revolution-
ary. The whole earth seemed to rouse itself to a
new being. Cursed for human sin, it saw its de-
liverance coming. The day had arrived when
streams and lakes should gleam in the sunshine,
when the valleys should smile, and laugh, and
sing, when flowers should bloom and stars should
flash — all to the glory of God !

98 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The gates of Janus' temple. Peace in a small way.

2. Then ''peace on earth;" God was at last in
the world reconciling it unto himself ; the hearts
of his creatures were coming back to him ; their
allegiance was to be restored, their wills were to
be subjugated, their minds were to be enlight-
ened ; thus peace over all the world would be
established, God's wrath would be averted, and
the Ions: wrestle of man with Satan would reach
its end.

For when men are really at peace with God,
they will come to peace with each other. Most
significant fact is it to remember in all our studies
of this period of Christ's coming, that on the very
night when Jesus was born as the Prince of Peace,
the whole political world was at rest. The Em-
peror Augustus had just shut the gates of the
temple of Janus for only the third time in seven
hundred years. Hopes were higher then than
ever before in the memory of man. The race
might indeed have been finally composed, but for
outbreaking sin. These angels had hardly an
hour of quiet to sing in, before the new clash of
arms resounded. Alas ! how long the desired day
seems to be in coming, when swords shall be
ploughshares, and warriors' spears shall be forged
into pruning-hooks !

But surely it is easy to have peace in a small
way all around ourselves. The fruit of righteous-
ness shall be peace. What a fitting day — a blessed
day — is this, the anniversary of a Saviour's birth,
for the composure of all private and personal

THE " GLORIA IN EXCELSIS. 99

" Knitting severed friendships up." Herdsmen visit a carpenter.

wars ! What a day for forgiving and forgetting
old grudges ; for " knitting severed friendships
up ;" for explaining and apologizing ; for sooth-
ing and assuaging ; for restoring weary estrange-
ments ! What a blessed day indeed for anything
which will bring sundered hearts together, as
they once were ! " O Lord, grant us peace in
our time !"

3. And so, at last, "good will toivard men.'*
That ends this song of the angel ; that is what
ought to be the beginning of each Christmas
anthem and carol. God loves us ; oh, how touch-
ingly does the aged Paul in one place tell his
young brother Titus about that " kindness and
love of God our Saviour toward men !" God
cherishes only good will toward any of us. Even
the wicked ; he takes no pleasure in their death.
He would rather they would turn unto him and
live. Oh, happy day is that in which he tells us
all this unmistakably, with perfect plainness !
Brethren, if God so loved us, then ought we also
to love one another. Let the wolf dwell to-day
with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the
kid ; the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling
together ; for a little Child on his birthday has
come forth from heaven to lead them !

' And all ye are brethren !" Away with all
fancied superiorities and aristocracies on the com-
mon Christmas day — the gladsome birthday of
Christ ! Herdsmen are on a visit to a carpenter
at an inn ; and they are told to go to the outhouse

lOO SERMONS IN SONGS.

King David II. Two closing suggestions.

to find him ! Beasts are standing by a manger, in
which lies the Child — King David the Second I
But, for all this seems so democratic and small,
please remember that a choir of angels have been
singing outside. Who among us is too proud to
listen ? It is a significant fact that the Apocry-
phal Gospels, so called, those uninspired produc-
tions which long claimed a denied recognition in
God's word, assuming to give a more full and de-
tailed account of Jesus' life, although they are
voluminous to repletion or prolix to weariness on
almost every other incident, hurry right across
this midnight scene of singing, in utter silence.
These supercilious writers seem to have been
mortified to find that this divine Messiah was an-
nounced to a company of mere laboring-men !

Not so Mary and Joseph ; not so you and I.
We do not believe these honest and devout herds-
men felt any awkwardness in making an uncere-
monious entrance to the stable. Why should
they ? Joseph understood himself to be a house-
builder, come up from Nazareth just to pay his
annual taxes. There is nothing ever in one's call-
ing, if it be honest, to be ashamed of, when one is
faithful in it ; we may be certain that, when com-
ing to Jesus, there is nothing whatsoever to be
ashamed of — nothing in the world — but just our
sins.

My brethren, listen to two suggestions as I close
this sermon. Beautiful tokens of love are around
you these holiday weeks of the year. Where do

THE "GLORIA IN EXCELSIS." lOI

A child's gift of gold. Why are men so apathetic now ?

they come from ? " Merry Christmas" — why is it
the merriest and gladdest day we see ? You re-
member that after a while some wealthy wise men
from far away in the East brought heaps upon
heaps of costly treasures to that Holy Family.
Suffer your imagination to play with a conceit
better, at least, than the fable of a Saint Nicholas ;
it is as if that small sweet child had reached his
hand forth to the piles of gold from the Magi, and
lifting some of it up where he could, had dropped
it gently through into your home !

And then, think how the sensibility those sing-
ing angels displayed contrasts disadvantageously
with the amazing apathy discovered in many a
human heart, under the full exhibition of God's
mercy to men ! They seem gladder to know that
souls may be saved than some of the souls for
whom that wonderful Child came into being !

IX.

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE.

" While I was musing, the fire burned ; then spake I with
MY tongue. — Psabn 39 : 3.

A GENERAL principle is frequently involved in
an individual instance. So one man's experience
sometimes stands as a type for another's. Here
in -this psalm we observe that David was intensely
excited; his heart was "hot" within him. He
was thinking deeply of some things he had done
and suffered. By this he was moved. His inner
nature was aroused to feeling. While he was
musing, "the fire burned." And at once his
tongue was loosed. He had covenanted with
himself previously that he would keep his mouth
with a bridle ; he Vv^ould hold his peace even from
good ; he would be dumb with silence. But his
heart was too strong for his will. His impetuous
zeal within burst over and through the barriers ol
self-restraint, and found vent in speech ; he
" spake" with his tongue.

Now, for our present service, it matters little
what was the cause of his musing, or how unhal-
lovv^ed was the flame that burned, or how hasty
were the words he spoke. The principle of
human action is all we need just at this moment.

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE. IO3

Christian musing. An adopted child.

Whatever a man thoughtfully ponders, moves
him ; whatever moves him hotly within, makes
itself to be heard and known without.

That is to say, three things here mentioned are
apt to follow each other in turn— meditation,
emotion, utterance. If one fails, the others will
be absent.

This thought will be found helpful in many in-
stances, and will explain some mysteries in Chris-
tian experience. We make use of it here to-day
as we approach the Lord's Table. If a Christian
muses, while he is sitting at this communion feast,
the fire of religious emotion will burn ; and when
he is hot with feeling, his tongue will be loosed
into speech.

I. The line of proper experience begins with
meditation.

A true believer should seek to become a
thoughtful man, so that God may be in all his
thoughts. It was once charged as a sin upon
Israel by God himself: "My people doth not
consider." It is this after-process of digesting
spiritual food which makes it available for nour-
ishment. When wonderful things were spoken of
the infant Jesus, we are told that " Mary pon-
dered them in her heart." Here, at the commun-
ion-table, beyond all other places in the wide
world, we ought to be meditative. We all pro-
fess to be, and we all ought to be, " musing."

I. There is our former state to come in review.
Most appropriate it is for a child of adoption to

I04 SERMONS IN SONGS.

No claim or desert. The cripple Mephibosheth.

call to mind his early home of poverty, his worry
and his want before the generous offer came
which brought him to the mansion of plenty.
And most meet it is for the adopted sons and
daughters of the Lord God Almighty to think
soberly of the time when they were far from his
love.

How helpless we were when the call of divine
favor came ! Poor old Mordecai had some sort
of a claim on King Ahasuerus. Barzillai had once
put David under obligation to him. But we had
never done anything for God, when he showed us
his tenderness and grace. We were simply lost
and ruined when the Saviour found us.

How unlovely and undeserving we were when
he offered us his highest honors ! In the barley-
field, the beauty of Ruth found fitting exhibition
before the eyes of her kinsman Boaz, and this won
him to do her a kindness. Even the outcast infant
Moses, down in the buh-ush-ark, was a goodly
child in the estimate of Pharaoh's daughter. But
we had no spiritual lovehness — none whatever — to
commend us to God's mercy.

How unpromising for the eternal future we
were, when Christ brought us the pardon of our
sins ! Timothy gave all his young fresh heart to
Paul, and so the apostle loved him. The crippled
Mephibosheth was Jonathan's child ; so David
proffered him a seat at the royal table. But we
had been rebels and enemies all our lives, and in
no sense did' we promise anything better for the

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE. I05

God's choice sovereign. Sacrificial atonement.

years to come. God never chose any man for
what he was, nor for what he had been, nor for
what unaided he was going to be. Just here, at
this lonesomest point, with no earthly parallel
even for an illustration, the great grace of our
Saviour began.

Now, this is a thing to be thought of. Our
former state comes in review. God commended
his love toward us, "in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us."

2. Then, next to this, there would come the
plan for our relief, as a new theme for meditation.
Of this the simple elements employed at the com-
munion-table are designed to remind us. They
picture the thought they suggest. The broken
bread relates the whole story of the Cross ; the
wine poured out tells the tale of sorrowful Cal-
vary.

The sacrificial atonement of our Lord Jesus
Christ is the chief theme for our musing at this
feast, just as it was the chief theme of conversation
on the mount where our Lord was transfigured,
when Moses and Elijah talked of " his decease
which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. " Here,
as nowhere else, "ye do show the Lord's death,
till he come."

The sacrificial atonement of our Lord Jesus
Christ is what renders this ordinance the highest
among all the institutions of the New Testament
church. It is far more than a mere monument of
commemoration ; it is an instrument of instruc-

I06 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A doctrinal serrnon. Qiinint old rhyme.

tion. Every administration of the Lord's Supper
is one of the most vivid and powerful doctrinal
sermons human ears are ever permitted to hear.
" Christ and his cross are all our theme." Here
at the table, each Christian should expect to re-
ceive, and should receive, a clearer and more ad-
miring view of God's wisdom in furnishing a plan
of salvation so stupendous, and provisions for car-
rying it out so munificent. Such a view he cer-
tainly will receive, if he " muses."

3. Nor is this all : there remains as a theme for
meditation the present exalted position which the
true believer occupies.

It is the wonderful swiftness of the change
which men of the world can never be made to un-
derstand. From the lowest to the highest, from
the mendicant to the prince, in one supreme mo-
ment the sinner becomes a child, the servant a
son. Why is the rapidity of the spiritual change
considered suspicious ? Joseph stepped from the
pit to the ruler's throne in Pharaoh's kingdom ;
Daniel came from the lion's den into Nebuchad-
nezzar's palace. Bartimeus was one instant blind,
the next instant he saw. God never does any-
thing imperfectl}'. The quick conversions re-
corded in the New Testament are the most wor-
thy of trust. It was a quaint old rhyme which
told the simple truth of Saul of Tarsus :

" Between the stirrup and the ground,
He mercy sought, and mercy found."

But the extent of the change is what appears to

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE. lO/

Our exalted position. Fire in one's bones.

the Christian the most marvellous, after all. " Be-
hold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God."
We have the name of a new parent ; we are cared
for from a new treasury ; we are defended by a
new power ; we are guided by a new wisdom ; we
are governed by a new sovereignty. We are reck-
oned in the ro)'al family, and made heirs of a celes-
tial estate. Justice, who came to us with a drawn
sword demanding penalty, now stands at the door
of the banquet-hall challenging the accuser, and
crying out, " Who shall lay anj^thing to the charge
of God's elect ?"

Oh, these are the things to muse upon at the
Lord's table ! These are the themes of thought
which never grow old. We feel at such times as
we imagine King David must have felt when he
said : " Who am I, O Lord God ! and what is
my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ?
And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, but
thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a
great while to come."

IL Thus we reach our second point in the text.
While the Christian muses, the fire burns. He
feels like Jeremiah of old : ' ' his word was in mine
heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones ; I
was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. "
Emotion follows meditation ; the believer's heart
is full.

I. Gratitude is one of the elements of his feel-
ing. Like Naaman, when he came up healed and

Io8 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Gratitude and joy. " Three great leaps."

clean out of Jordan, the new convert wants to
make a present to somebody. If we were to ana-
lyze our wish, we should find that it has risen out
of a recollection of what Jesus Christ has done for
us. We love him because he first loved us.
Thus the fire of gratitude burns.

2. Joy is another element of the true Christian's
emotion. The moment that, in Bunyan's alle-
gory, the burden of sin rolled off from the Pil-
grim's back and was lost in the Saviour's sepul-
chre, one shining spirit came forth to say words
of cheer and pardon ; then another stripped him
of his rags, and clothed him with a change of rai-
ment ; a third set a mark on his forehead, and
presented him with a roll having a seal on it,
which roll he was to give in at the celestial gate.
Now, observe the happy Christian left all alone ;
what did he do ? Will you smile at the poverty
of Bunyan's quaint conceit ? What else could he
do with his hero in that supreme height of experi-
ence, when he was so light-hearted and glad he
coidd not contain himself ? He tells us that the
Pilgrim " gave three great leaps for joy and went
on singing." Thus the fire of joy burns.

3. Self-abasement is another element in the be-
liever's emotion. True gratitude is always self-
distrustful and modest. What has been received
seems so much ; what can be returned seems so
little. The soul of the humble Christian is as
timid and bashful as that of the Bride in the Can-
ticles. When the King says to her, " Thou art

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE. lOQ

" Fairest among women." A child's sudden gladness.

beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jeru-
salem !" she almost seeks to hide herself, and
would murmur, " Look not upon me, because I
am black, because the sun hath looked upon me !"
But when he replies again so kindly and cheer-
fully, " O thou fairest among women," all she can
sa}' is, in the depth of her wonder : " He brought
me to the banqueting house, and his banner over
me was love." Thus the fire of self-abasement
burns.

4. Affection, therefore, may be considered the
chief element in the Christian's emotion at the
communion-table. There are periods in which
the sternest heart seems more distended with feel-
ing than usual, more agitated with love to an un-
seen Saviour than is its wont. We sit under his
shadow with great delight. Like the disciples
going to Emmaus, we feel a strange sort of wel-
come for his presence. Our hearts " burn within
us" as he seems to talk by the way. We count
all things but loss for the excellency of Christ.
This ordinance has a sort of beckoning character
to it. We have seen a child run to his father's
arms sometimes with a full burst of surprising
gladness, a shout of simple-hearted laughter fairly
ringing in the room as he buried his face in his
bosom. Now, this was not because that child just
then discovered in his parent's face a loveliness he
never saw before, nor because there flashed across
his mind a sudden remembrance of how much he
owed to his father for his care along the )^ears ;

no SERMONS IN SONGS.

" Mary — Rabboni." Speaking out refreshes.

but simply because in the midst of his play he
caught a glimpse of a gesture from him ; he saw
his arms were held out toward him, and so he
rushed to reach his welcome in the caress. So at
the communion-table, we seem to notice that our
Lord is beckoning us to come into nearness of
companionship with him. Mary Magdalene may
stand in sorrow even when the gardener is at her
side. But if he says " Mary" to her, in a way no
one else ever said it, she will answer " Rabboni,"
in her turn. But her love will have in it possibly
less of prostration, and perhaps more of tears. So
may ours ; while we arc musing, the fire of affec-
tion burns.

III. Now we move on in the order of our text.
Such feeling as this we have analyzed together
will be sure to find vent. All these elements of
Christian emotion are active. When they per-
vade the soul, they move the man. Generally
they find manifestation in speech : " While I was
musing," says David, " the fire burned ; then
spake I with my tongue."

The child of God finds three objects of address
in the utterance to which his emotion at the com-
munion-table leads him. In the words of the
young Elihu, he acknowledges it would do him
good to talk: "I am full of matter; the spirit
within me constraincth me ; I will speak that I
may be refreshed ; I will open my lips and answer, "
The Christian has something he would like to
say to his Saviour, to himself, to his fellowmen.

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE. Ill

What one says to God. Sudden doxologies.

I. What would he be likely to say to God?
Reniembermg all that had been done for him, and
all that now was freely put at his disposal, praise
and prayer are what he would choose for the
vehicles of his expression. Christ himself would
be all his meditation and remark. From the very
fulness of his soul he would join with the apostle
in exclaiming, " Thanks be unto thee for thine un-
speakable gift."

This is the reason why holy men of old passed
so suddenly into doxology, the moment they began
to talk concerning the atonement made by Jesus.
John was about to pen the Book of Revelation ;
there was no rhetorical reason at all why he should
begin with an ascription of praise. But he men-
tioned the name of Jesus Christ as the " faithful
witness," and instantly he could not contain him-
self ; he burst forth : " Unto him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and
hath made us kings and priests unto God and his
Father ; to him be glory, and dominion forever
and ever. Amen." So Paul ; he was composing
a cool theological letter to the Romans. He had
no need to do anything more than to reason clearly
and prove his points. But the vision of grace and
glory was too much lor him. Overpowered with
his own thought, he rose right up through his logic
with an ascription of adoring wonder. In the midst
of his argument, you are startled to see him lift
his clasped hands to exclaim : " Oh, the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledgre

112 SERMONS IN SONGS,

Communion hymns by proxy ! The prodigal's thoughts.

of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments,
and his ways past finding out !"

This is the reason, likewise, why communion
hymns are always sung so much with the spirit
and the understanding also. Christians are filled
to the full with the love of God. When believers
are most devoutly religious, they most sensitively
disdain the aid of others in uttering their songs.
They want to sing for themselves. Think of
requesting another person to be our spokesman
when we wish to say :

" On thee alone my hope relies,
Beneath thy cross I fall ;
My Lord, my Life, my Sacrifice !
My Saviour, and my All 1"

Oh, we need more of this outspeaking of our
hearts unto God — more of this musing, and more
of this burning fire — then will our prayers and
our praises be fervent and effectual !

2. But what would the child of God be likely
to say to his own soul at the communion-table ?
Do you think that the prodigal son, who had re-
turned once more to his father's house, had no
speech with himself that night, when he found his
home again in his old chamber ? He had made
all the words he could with his father below ; but
now, alone in the room where his better years
had been spent, had he nothing to say to his own
heart? It seems to me we should all agree, if we
were to say he sat down a moment for reflection,
and then arose to cry out : " Oh, how good, how

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE. II 3

A fresh start taken. Chamber called " Peace."

patient, how generous my father has been to me !"
But next to that, he would begin to make resohi-
tions for all the future. He would congratulate
himself on his safety, and on his welcome, and on
his prospects. He would counsel his own soul as
to the old besetting sins. He would warn him-
self against former associates whose influence had
led him astray. He would plan ingeniously how
he would make up lost time, and give comfort to
his father. And I think he would seek some way
to win back his brother who had been rebuked.

Thus the Christian at the communion-table will
have words enough to say to himself, as well as
to God. We remember another scene in " Pil-
grim's Progress ;" Christian was left in a large
upper chamber, whose window opened toward
the sun-rising. There he slept until the break of
day ; then he awoke and sang :

" Where am I now ? Is this the love and care
Of Jesus ; for the men that pilgrims are,
Thus to provide ? That /should be forgiven,
And dwell already the next door to heaven !"

It would be better for us if we talked more to
ourselves, and made such melody in our hearts.
We ought to speak to our o.wn souls words of
comfort, words of counsel, words of cheer, words
of resolve, words of hope. And we shall help
ourselves thus by our " musing."

3. Then, finally, the true Christian will have
something to say to his fellow-men when he comes
forth from the communion-table, provided he has

114 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Let others know. Let others share.

been musing aright. What the Psabnist said once
seems always appropriate : " Come and bear, all
3^e that fear God, and I will declare what he hath
done for my soul."

The heart longs to have others knoiu the love of
God. Why are we ever reluctant to speak of
what we have received ? It is a most singular
matter of observation, that persons of highest
classical education are not offended when they
bear the heroes of Homer attributing all their
successes to the gods ; but when devout Chris-
tians do the same, and claim special providences
as themes of grateful acknowledgment, they will
call it cant. It is well for the New Testament be-
liever to show himself always as religious at least
as one of the pagans of the Iliad. Let him muse ;
let the fire burn ; then let him speak with his
tongue.

The heart longs more still to have others s/ia?-e
the love of God. The spirit of Christianity is
diffusive. No wish of any human heart is more
solicitous than that which a Christian feels at the
Lord's table for those who are outside of the
guest-chamber. Our true relief is found in sim-
ply speaking out. Let the sweet, glad invitation
of the gospel be pressed at the moment when the
heart is full of desire. Let the tongue speak,
when the fire burns ; let the fire burn when the
heart muses, for love itself is a force.

The grand conclusion from all this discussion is
simple enough, my Christian friends, but it is full

MEDITATION, EMOTION, UTTERANCE. II 5

A grateful insanity. " A man died for me."

of meaning. Let all true believers talk constantly,
talk openly, talk earnestly of the love of God. No
matter how plain and direct the words may be, let
no tongue consent to be silent, lest even the stones
cry out.

I have read of a man who was saved from a
wrecked vessel. But he had the unspeakable
horror of seeing the very sailor who had dragged
him ashore, swept — worn and spent as he was —
back into the waves, and drowned before his e3''es.
His reason shook a little under the strain. After
long months of care, of waiting, and of nursing,
his sense returned so that he resumed his place
among men. But he never forgot his obligation.
He could say but little ; but it was noticed that
he always closed every conversation, whether of
business or of friendliness, whether with stranger
or with acquaintance, with the pathetic words,
" A man died for me once !" He would come
back, after he had closed the door, with a soft,
gentle, wistful look on his face, and say, " A man
died for me once !"

Oh, my friend, whoever you are, possibly you
can say no more than that, but tJiat you can say,
" A man died for me once 1" Take your fellow-
man by the hand ; tell him that Jesus Christ was
crucified for you on Golgotha. Speak of it mod-
estly ; speak of it tenderly and lovingly ; and so
may God's blessing help you sometimes to speak
of it winningly, and thus lead another soul to sal-
vation.

X.

THE RESERVED POWER OF GOD.

" He had horns coming out of his hand : and there was

THE HIDING OF HIS POWER." — Habakkiik 3 : 4.

This chapter is entitled : 'A prayer of Habak-
kuk the prophet, set to Shigionoth." And our
English Bibles say in the margin : " According
to variable songs or tunes, called in Hebrew
Shigionoth."

A horn is the ancient symbol of strength.
When here brought into use, the impression is
for a moment gained that the divine attribute of
omnipotence is to be put under process of exhibi-
tion.

But just at that point the inspired poet with-
draws from the effort, and signifies he only desires
to intimate what he does not aspire to reach. He
thus describes almightiness most impressively by
declining to describe it at all. He does not sa}'',
as we are expecting, " He had horns coming out
of his hand, and there was his power;" but he
says, " There was the hiding of his power."

Just as if some master-painter had limned upon
his canvas the recognized and sinewy form of
Samson, as the one type of giant violence and
force ; and, while you were waiting curiously to

THE RESERVED POWER OF GOD. 11/

Rhetorical ingenuity. God in nature.

discover the bold features of his countenance, and
measure somewhat the muscles of the arm which
upheld the brazen gates of Gaza, the cunning
artist had surprised you by picturing the Hebrew
champion with his face averted and his arm hidden
behind the burly bulk of his frame.

So the prophet here presents omnipotence. By
an ingenuity of rhetoric, he offers, concerning
this truly indescribable attribute, a hint far more
suggestive than any plain words could furnish.

Our theme of thought this morning is just this,
thus dimly indicated — the reserved power of God.
Power he has in display, but the power he pos-
sesses undisplayed is far greater. In the hand we
gaze upon there is might in exercise ; this no one
of us has intended to forget ; we all recognize and
admire the almightiness of God. But while we
are looking, we suddenly catch a glimpse of the
horns that come out of the hand, and there is the
hiding of his might in reserve. To illustrate this
possession, and infer some practical good from
the discovery of it, is our present aim,

I. And to show you in the outset how perfectly
unambitious and unlabored is meant to be the
tranquil development of our theme, let me ask
you, in the first place, to enter the field of nature
around us for a brief examination of what is famil-
iar. Something, I feel sure, we shall find that we
know ; more it is possible we shall find which is
not so much seen as it is suggested.

The truth is, our knowledge of either what God

Il8 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Earthquake in the Indies. Might hints at all-might.

can do or of what he does do is relative. More
experience, wider range of educated acquaint-
ance, always shows us that we have a great deal
more yet to learn. A stranger in the Indies is
startled one morning by the shaking of an earth-
quake. It is a mere jar of the planet, and is going
to do no harm ; but he imagines it one of the
severest convulsions that ever rocked the uni-
verse. But some bronzed old planter there will
smile at his trepidation, telling the story of that
former occasion, when, amid the throes of writh-
ing matter, the trembling of the hills, the crash of
dwellings, the wild surges of the unseen waves of
subterranean fire, it would have been well to grow
alarmed for one's self, and awe-struck at the re-
sistless danger.

So we all are accustomed to pass on up through
the line of a personal and historic experience, find-
ing always a degree beyond a degree — something
to reach that was not expected. Hence it would
be difficult to say whereabouts our sense of power
ought to end or our conjecture of the hiding of
power ought to begin. An infinite suggestivcness
seems to pervade the universe. Might hints at
more might, and advances toward all-might ;
potency proves omnipotence.

For we say to ourselves, If God can do all this
which we see in the rushing of the torrents, the
sweep of the hurricane, the upheaving of the
ocean, and the swinging of the stars, what is there
he cannot do ? Could not he, who crushes a ship

THE RESERVED POWER OF GOD. II9

Whispers and thunders. God in history.

SO resistlessly between icebergs, crush a world
just as well ? Could not he, who uproots the tree
so suddenly with his lightning in the summer
storm, shiver a universe as swiftly with only the
bright glancing of his eye ? To a child there is
in these sublime effects merely the evidence and
the exhibition of a power before which he trem-
bles. But to the mature man there is in them the
hiding of powder before the mystery of which he
trembles much more. " Lo, these are but parts
of his ways ; how there is only a whisper heard
of him ; the thunder of his power, who can un-
derstand !" If the hand be so admirable to a
thoughtful beholder, what shall we say concern-
ing the horns within the hand, that show a reserve
the limit of which is not known ?

II. Rising a little higher in our thought, we
find, in the second place, new illustrations of the
theme in the wide economics of Divine Provi-
dence, which our God is continually managing.

All history now lies open before us. See how
quickly and quietly the Almighty controls the
generations of men. How easily, in that far be-
ginning, he scattered the race to people the world
with men and beasts ! We talk about the strength
of human governments abroad over the continents
and along the ages ; think how many of potent
kings he has swept away with the breath of his
nostril ! Just try to recall how vast a number of
princes have occupied any given territory since
the crucifixion of Christ. Nqwhere is there found

I20 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Sand in an elephant's eye. Things foolish and base.

SO plain and full a record of the reserved power
God holds as has been written on the ruins of the
dying dynasties he has overthrown.

Now, the one thing" to notice in this particular
is the strange fact that, in the accomplishment of
such vast and revolutionary designs, the mighty
God has not seen fit to employ ordinary means at
all. The convulsions of empire by which the
earth's history grows clear have always been
brought about in some novel, some singular and
unprecedented, way that gave a surprise when it
arrived. For example, a grain of sand is drifted
into the e)^e of an elephant in the lead of a cohort
of soldiers ; this starts a panic ; the army is de-
feated, the kingdom is overthrown. So again :
only the east wind drives down suddenly upon
the English sea ; an armada is scattered ; a savage
expedition against Protestantism is thwarted ; a
free sovereignty is released from menace, and the
Reformation is confirmed.

This is the rule : God does great things, not by
his power only, as we see it in exercise, but more
yet by his power in reserve. Evidently he is mov-
ing men and things always by resistless energy ;
but his methods have oftentimes been obscure. He
has had his will ; " but God hath chosen the fool-
ish things of the world to confound the wise ; and
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty ; and base
things of the world, and things which are despised,
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not.

THE RESERVED POWER OF GOD. 121

Coral and coal. Inventions and discoveries.

to bring to naught things that are ; that no flesh'
should glory in his presence,"

Hence, so far from believing Jehovah has ex-
hausted his whole resources in these stupendous
arrangements of the nations which he has man-
aged, we are only the more forcibly impressed by
the conclusion that greater power was hidden
than was disclosed. Every now and then some
new discovery comes out to view, showing that
what amazed us so much was no unexpected thing
to him. To-day it may be a fresh island, on the
formation of which the coral insects have silently
been toiling for unnoticed ages. To-morrow it
may be a new sea, in which tribes of strange in-
habitants have been maturing for fitful years.
One season the coal-beds are opened, where the
far-casting foresight of God, unwatched and un-
suspected, had laid down supplies of solid fuel,
myriads of generations before even one man had
been born. Another season we discover fresh
natural agencies going forth to supplement human
industry, the most subtle elements of the air obe-
diently bearing errands of ingenuity and need.
More and more we are becojning convinced that
there is no limit to these inventions and discoveries.
Each successive disclosure of God's unique and
surprising methods of working is only a sign that
there is no end to the wisdom he has in employ.
The moment we see where his hand is uplifted, we
look instinctively to learn what the horn in the hand
is going to do ; for there is the hiding of his power.

122 SERMONS IN SONGS.

S(jine inferences. Inadequate knowledge of God.

We need go no further in mere illustration. It
is sufficiently clear that there is an infinite measure
of power in the hand of God reserved for every
exigency which may call it forth. A few infer-
ences from this fact will make the whole subject
now our own.

I. First of all, you see here, of course, the fee-
bleness and inadequacy of many of our ordinary
conceptions of our Maker.

We meditate often on omnipotence ; for it is
perhaps the most striking in its manifestations of
all the attributes of the divine Being. We are
wont to tremble in the storm ; we hush our voices
at the roar of the sea ; we are appalled by the
hurricane ; we feel new alarm at each coming of a
pestilence ; and we say confusedly, Only God is
great ! But when we pass beyond the reach of
sight, and suffer our minds to be touched by hints
and suggestions alone, how is it possible for us to
force ourselves up to that more exalted realization
of him which is based upon the unseen and un-
known ? If the notion of finite power be so sub-
duing to human thought, what shall we venture
to say concerning power which is infinite ?

Still, this is only one and the plainest of the
Divine attributes. Omnipotence, with all its in-
cludings of power in exercise and power in re-
serve, with all its surroundings and implications,
with all its stupendous inferences and possibilities,
is only one element in the conception we are to
have of our Maker. He has wisdom as well as

THE RESERVED POWER OF GOD. 1 23

All attributes in reserve. Moses in the rock-cleft.

power ; and he has, of course, reserved wisdom
as absolutely as he has reserved power. He has
goodness likewise, and so he must have reserved
goodness also. God has reserved holiness, which
we could not even comprehend now. So he has
justice in exercise, and justice in reserve. Each
one of his attributes, in like manner, doubles on
our imagination. Beyond all we learn of it, an
infinity of manifestation which none of our minds
can wholly grasp stretches away out of sight.
And just this offers us a hint as to the occupations
of heaven ; there will be much yet to learn of
Jehovah's excellence forever, when we stand in
his revealed presence.

When, therefore, we have been straining our
feeble faculties to their utmost tension, rising to
the extreme exercise of our imaginations just to
attain the one idea of almightiness, then comes a
humiliating remembrance that we have only
touched one single point in his perfections ; all
the rest remain unexhausted and untouched.
"Canst thou by searching find out God? canst
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? It
is as high as heaven ; what canst thou do ? deeper
than hell ; what canst thou know ? The measure
thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than
the sea." The most we can hope to do is to hide
in the cleft of the rock, as did Moses, and then
feel we have discovered no more than the skirts
of the train of the divine glory, while Jehovah
passed majestically by !

124 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Uncontrolled power frightens. Unexhausted stores of love.

2. Hence, in the second place, you can mark
here the comfort and the confirmation of every
true believ'er in his time of need.

The essential notion of power is not an alto-
gether welcome or agreeable one to the human
soul — that is, power outside of itself, and not sub-
ject to its own control. The child is afraid of a
panoplied soldier close by, even before it has any
reason to apprehend danger. A passing train
upon a track, the prodigious stroke of an engine-
beam, the sharp plunge of a pile-driver, chills
even a self-possessed bystander into discomfort.
But let that power be understood to be controlled
by sagacity, and to be marshaled in our own in-
terest, and it becomes all the more welcome in
proportion to its resistless force. Its very strength
renders it valuable to us.

Hence, omnipotence is a most acceptable attri-
bute in the estimation of any established child of
God. The more resources gathered into the pro-
tection his Father throws over him, the safer his
heart knows itself to be. " If God be for us, who
can be against us?" So he rests in perfect tran-
quillity. " The name of the Lord is a strong
tower ; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."

Each believer lives in the conscious conviction
that, if at any time he should be too much over-
come, there will be a sudden revealing of help
from the unexhausted stores of God's love. It
has always arrested the wonder of the world to
see this confidence. A dariny: faith moves stead-

THE RESERVED POWER OF GOD. 1 25

No help seen. Unseen help comes.

ily forward into uttermost peril. You can find
sometimes a Christian standing out alone and
aloof from other men. Villification is trying to
wound him, detraction is seeking to bring him
down. Human assistance forsakes his cause.
His arms hang weary at his side, and yet he will
not yield. The gibing community maligns and
misrepresents him. The devil plies him Avith im-
pudent temptation. You think he cannot bear
these onsets. You imagine you see signs of his
wavering now. You begin to whisper, " He is at
his wits' end already, he will break before long !"

Not so : he will hold his own. " Why, how ?"
you ask ; "no conceivable power can reach him !"
Well, perhaps so ; but inconceivable power can
reach him. Unseen help will be disclosed when
he needs it. If the hand of God fails, there are
horns coming out of the hand.

Watch a moment longer, and you v/ill see that
mountain, w^hich now appears so bleak and bare,
full of horses and chariots of fire. And in due
time that weak man will be found charging on his
foes in all the majesty of success, with the high
legions of God's host for his defence ! For they
that be for him are more than they that be against
him. All power in heaven and on earth shall be
brought into the stubborn' conflict, before one of
God's children shall die.

Let this thought sink deep into the innermost
heart of every distressed Christian. You fear
trial coming ; you apprehend it may be too severe

126 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Power enough for anything. Giant and pigmy.

for you. Cease all that needless alarm. Moses
will divide the Red Sea, Joshua will pile up the
Jordan in walls, Elijah will wield fire from
heaven, Paul will take the ship to land. If the
well-known hand of God cannot do this, the un-
known horns in the hand will do it. If power
fails, the hiding of power will supplement it. For
God is on the side of his people ; he is sure to
open his stores of xieliverance when the stress
arrives. Only remember one thing : " i\.sk, and
ye shall receive." You will find yourself reach-
ing the horns that come out of the hand, only
when you are at the moment sure you are cling-
ing to the horns of the altar !

3. And, finally, you see here the utter fruitless-
ness and folly of any rebellious sinner's further
contending with God.

Let those who are boldly impenitent still re-
member that such a contest is between forces not
at all equally matched. It is not a confronting of
power with power, but simply of a will with limit-
less force with a will it keeps in being while it
opposes its foolish violence. It is like a giant's
fighting a pigmy who stands up in his hand ; he
has only to drop him to end the derision. Oh,
my friend, you will certainly go down soon ! No
hand ever lifted here against God's hand has been
known to prosper. He proffers amnesty : " See
that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they
escaped not who refused him that spake on earth,
much more shall not we escape, if we turn away

THE RESERVED POWER OF GOD. 12/

Contending with horses. " The part of the hand."

from him that speaketh from heaven ; whose
voice then shook the earth ; but now he hath
promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the
earth only, but also heaven." " If thou hast run
with the footmen, and they have wearied thee,
then how canst thou contend with horses ? and if
in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they
wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swell-
ing of Jordan ?"

Oh, a truce to this old wild warfare with the
omnipotent God ! Cease, O man, whose breath
is in his nostrils ! This power in exercise seems
appalling enough ; but what will be the energy of
the omnipotence yet held in reserve ! Belshazzar
saw on the walls of his palace only " the part of
the hand which wrote." But it made his knees
tremble. What must have been the Arm and the
Form behind it !

XL

THE "NUNC DIMITTIS" OF SIMEON.

" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,

ACCORDING TO THY WORD." — Lukc 2 : 29.

This recital calls us back to a scene in the
Temple at Jerusalem, more than eighteen hun-
dred years ago.

The transient stay in the village of Bethlehem
was over ; Joseph and Mary had taken the new-
born child up to the sacred city in order to present
him before the Lord. They stood in the court
outside of the sanctuary. Their modest gift of
two turtle-doves had been brought, and the smoke
of the offering was curling aloft from the altar.
There rises to our view a picture of humble devo-
tion.

Our eyes seem to behold the linen-robed Levite,
the stalwart form of the Nazarene carpenter, and
the retiring figure of his modest young wife. We
see the Holy Infant lying in the arms of its
mother. No ring of light is around her head ;
no luminous effulgence shines from the child's
face. We need not be shocked at missing abso-
lutely from this scriptural description all mention
of either the aureole or the nimbus of artistic tradi-
tion. The group are just human and real like

THE "NUNC DIMITTIS OF SIMEON. I29

Second childhood and first. A new chant for the Church,

ourselves, quietly waiting until their proper sacri-
fice shall have been accomplished in an orderly
way.

At this interesting moment an old man comes
up to them. His bent form is venerable even in
its feebleness. He takes the babe in his own
arms. It seems singular to see those two faces
resting so closely together. Infancy and old age
are met ; second childhood holds first childhood
by the hand while it sings a wonderful song.

There is something more than -mere curiosity in
the feeling of interest with which we watch for
the words we expect will be spoken by such a
man as this Old Testament Christian Simeon.
Like all the rest of those whose story passes be-
fore us in this record, he casts his language into
poetry, and utters a chant that the church has in
all ages loved, and to which it has given its Latin
name from the opening words, ''Nimc dimittis" —
" Now thou lettest depart."

I, The first thing that strikes our notice here is
the shigular illustration offered of the paradox of
Christian life. How extraordinary is the disparity
between these two persons, and yet how abso-
lutely the one seems to rest in the other ! Jesus
lies safelv in Simeon's arms ; Simeon reposes his
life for all the untold future in Jesus' Messiahship,
Imagine the contrasts : the many long years of
the man — the brief entry upon life of the infant ;
the established reputation of the inspired singer —
the low peasant history of the Galilean babe.

I30 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Faith in a mere infant. The " Everlasting Father."

And still this puny weakness is accepted im-
plicitly by this mature strength. The contradic-
tions and reversals of ordinary estimates are be-
wildering, as we attempt to measure and to match
them. Yet " without all contradiction the less is
blessed of the better." Simeon's soul is held up
forever by the little child whose body he now
holds in his hands !

We could not deal with this incident profitably
if we had not in Christian history become some-
what accustomed to the wonderiul paradoxes of
believers' experience in Christ. " When I am
weak, then am I strong." The words of the
ancient father in the church, Tertullian, are sug-
gestive : " The Son of God was born," says he ;
" and that awakes no shame precisely because it
is so shameful ; the Son of God died ; that is
thoroughly credible, because it is absurd ; the
Son of God was buried and rose again ; that is
certain because it is impossible." For what else
could we expect, when we read in Isaiah's proph-
ecy that this child was the everlasting Father ?
We can explain nothing in this strange scene
without considering that Jesus was the true Mes-
siah, and the Messiah was the incarnate God.

II. So this presents another lesson : here is a
satisfactory style of piety for an unzvavering depend-
ence. There are faiths and religions, there are
rituals and creeds, there are persuasions and ex-
periences, enough almost to fill the world. Only
some of them do not meet the end for which they

THE "NUNC DIMITTIS OF SIMEON. 131

Managing a candle. Felix Neff's remark.

have been commended. " The candle of the
wicked shall be put out," and the candle of the
righteous, too, if it be an uncertain and untrust-
worthy sort of candle. Now, let us remember
that it is no time to judge of a candle in the calm
inclosure of a still room ; let it be taken out some-
time into the violence of the wind. Many a man
has what he calls his religion ; and it does very
well when shielded and sheltered, but it goes out
ignobly in darkness and betrayal under the wild
rush of discipline, or the hurricane gusts of tem-
pestuous passion.

It is evident that here in Simeon's case we find
a perfectly settled rest for any human soul. His
full content with it is edifying and unmistakable.
We are told he had been " waiting for the conso-
lation of Israel." It was " revealed unto him that
he should not see death before he had seen the
Lord's Christ." Hence, the moment he holds the
infant Redeemer in his arms, he exclaims, " My
eyes have seen thy salvation." He was willing
to take his eternal life on Christ's own terms, and
so he was perfectly satisfied. It mattered noth-
ing to him that he was an old man, and this was a
babe ; nor that he was a wise man, and this was
only a peasant infant forty days old ; he expressed
his entire contentment with the plan infinite wis-
dom had devised for human reliance.

Men may as well start with this ; they must be-
gin by accepting terms already made, and cease
trying to make new ones. Felix Neff once told

132 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A religion worth having. The purpose of the Gospel.

even a minister this : " There is much truth in
your sermon, but it lacks one important thin_2: :
you still wish men to go to Jesus with lace sleeves,
instead of going to him in rags as the}' are."

It seems best to kindle our imagination all it
will bear, so as to picture the attitude and action
of this old Jerusalem Christian vividly. Simeon
takes that child in his arms, asking no questions
whatever. He is happy enough to get Mary's
infant near his heart ; just to look down fondly
upon its forehead with an unspeakable awe and a
reverent affection. The wise old patriarch held
his divine Teacher in his tremulous embrace ; his
immortal destiny was in a Redeemer whose small
body he held poised upon the fingers of his hand.
Could he go now and lay his gray hair in the
grave, and trust this mere infant to work out for
him a sure resurrection ?

Here, then, is a religion actually worth the
having. For behold, in one flash of vast disclo-
sure, the very summit of his devotion. He says
he is satisfied to go now, ready to depart. Nay,
more ; he does depart from history on the instant.
The last sight we ever see of this venerable be-
liever is here. No record is rendered further,
how he lived, or when he died.

III. So again : we find here an intelligent and
exemplary appreciation of tlie exact purpose of the
gospel. It will be well to put alongside of this
song Simeon's prophecy, which comes just after
it. This good old man tells that young mother

THE "NUNC DIMITTIS OF SIMEON. I33

John Berridge's robe. The Ancient Hymn.

precisely what her child was "set" for, Christ
was appointed to prostrate men from self-depend-
ence, and raise them again into full union with
himself. His heart would be pierced in suffering,
an J so would Mary's, before the history should
be finished. But Christ's sufferings would work
out an atonement by which sinners might be
saved. Here comes in the old figure of a robe, a
removal and a substitution of garments ; men are
clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

" Oh, I want the fountain of Jesus' blood every
day," once wrote pious John Berridge ; " his in-
tercession every moment ; and I would not give
a groat for the broadest fig-leaves to cover me !
A robe I must have, of one whole piece, broad as
the law, spotless as the light, and richer than an
angel ever wore— the robe of Jesus himself. And
when the Elder Brother's raiment is put on me,
good Isaac will receive and bless for its sake the
lying varlet Jacob."

It is because of this feature in Simeon's testi-
mony to Jesus that the churches at large have for
so many centuries accepted it as the part of the
service most frequent and familiar. The evangeli-
cal recognition of the atonement is what gives it
its value. It is because he has seen a salvation
prepared " before the face of all people," that
this old man says he is satisfied.

The ancient Evening Hymn, to which the name
of the Ninic Diinittis has been given, appears thus
in the Apostolical Constitutions :

134 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Note variations of phraselogy. A lesson of trust.

" Praise, ye servants, the Lord ;

Praise the name of the Lord.
We praise thee, we sing hymns to thee, we bless thee

For thy great glory.
O Lord, King, the Father of the Christ, the spotless Lamb

Who teketh away the sin of the world,
Thee becomelh praise, thee becometh hymn, thee glory becometh,
The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Forever and ever. Amen.

" Now lettest thou thy servant depart, O Lord,
According to thy word, in peace ;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou didst prepare against the face of all the peoples,
A light unto revelation of Gentiles and glory of thy people
Israel."

Some few variations in the phraseology of this
translation are noticeable ; but, like the Gloria in
Excchis, which serves as a Morning Hymn in
many of the ancient liturgies, it introduces that
significant and pathetic phrase concerning the
" Lamb who taketh away the sin of the world."
Here stands the unalterable witness of the ages
that there can be salvation only through the merit
of a sacrificial atonement for sin. And that was
the end for which the Redeemer died.

IV. In the fourth place, we have here a lesson
of trust for New Testanicnt Christians from an Old
Testament believer. It is a pity that scriptural
biography is at times so poorly appreciated.
Some of us are willing to compliment the faith,
courage, or grace of the good that are gone ; and
yet we do not appear to be much influenced by it.

THE "NUNC DIMITTIS" OF SIMEON. I35

Praise and imitation. A little peasant babe !

Plutarch once said that Demosthenes was excel-
lent in praising the acts of his ancestors, but not
so good at imitating them. Such inconsistency
did not die with the Greek orator, or exhaust
itself among the classic heathen ; it may be wit-
nessed near by.

There are so-called Christians who commend
Job's patience, and then fly into a passion ; who
admire David's dumbness under affliction, and
then speak out fiercely in rebellion ; who instance
Eli's resignation, while they clamor with impa-
tience under far less calamities. And it may be
feared to-day that some will be found to admire
the sweet, serene confidence of Simeon, without
at all being disposed to accept for once and for-
ever the Saviour he trusted.

Picture just that instant in which this old man
stands gazing down upon the face of the infant for
the first time. Was this all to which mighty gen-
erations had been looking during those thousands
of years that were gone ? Was it just this weak
little peasant babe that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
had seen afar off, and been glad to see ? Was he
what the ancient prophets had descried in the dis-
tance, as they stood peering off from the watch-
towers of a militant Zion, the flashing seer-light
in their eyes as they sang ? Was this the King,
whom King David had so celebrated in his
psalms ? Alas for the poor show the new Mon-
arch now made ! Yet Simeon accepts him !

Just rernember that it was everything or noth-

136 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Everything or nothing. John Quincy Adams.

ing to this old man to make his decision. No
half-way allegiance would do. Jesus was the
Messiah or nothing. Surrender to him would
carry time and eternity with it, and he surren-
dered. Christ is always to every human being
just everything or nothing. It is useless to seek
even the slightest compromise ; it is sober busi-
ness to rest wholly in him.

V. So we reach our last lesson : here is a beau-
tiful pict2ire of readiness for death. We must note
the language carefully. Simeon does not use a
prayer in the Nunc Dimittis ; he only makes a
declaration. He does not say — now let me de-
part ; he says — now thou dost let me depart. We
feel certain that this man had been waiting a good
while. Such unusual preparedness for departure
was the gradual growth of years. It was no sud-
den explosion of experience, but must have had
its increments of spiritual increase as many and as
various as the rings of fibre in the trunk of a
palm-tree.

Of one of the fathers of this republic, an " old
man eloquent," it was once written in a verse of
genial poetry :

" His brow December, and his bosom May —

So should our hearts be, when our heads are gray."

There is an old age full of querulous complaint
and peevishness, under every on-coming of in-
firmity. It wears itself out in discontent ; it often
vanishes at the last, and makes no sign. On the

THE ''NUNC DIMITTIS" OF SIMEON. I37

Dean Alford's epitaph. The martyr Ridley.

other hand, there is an old age Kke this of the
illustrious Simeon in our lesson. The soul has
leaned its all on God, and is perfectly satisfied be-
cause it knows it is perfectly safe. So George
Herbert sings :

" What have I left that I should stay and groan ?
The most of me to heaven has fled ;
My thoughts and joys are all packed up and gone ;
And for their old acquaintance plead."

Not even severe trial can alter the permanence
of such trust. For heaven seems the only true
thing in the universe, and death is nothing but a
kind of rough way of going to it. Remember the
beautiful inscription upon Dean Alford's tomb-
stone ; how it describes a grave : " The inn of a
traveler on the way to Jerusalem !"

" Charles, our people die well !" said John Wes-
ley to his brother. Why is not that a proper test ?
We take death-bed words without an oath in a
court of justice ; a man is honest, if ever, in the
moment when the great shadow is coming. Think
of the martyr Ridley, the night before he was
burned alive at the stake. One of his pitiful
friends offered to sit up with him in the prison.
" Oh, no !" said the good man, " what would you
do with 3^ourself ? I mean to go to bed, and sleep
as quietly as ever I did in my life. My breakfast
to-morrow will be sharp and painful ; but 1 am
sure my supper will be right pleasant and sweet !"

Here, then, is that which removes all fear of

138 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Bondage to death. "Change — oh, wondrous change !"

death from the mind of those who may have been
all their lives subject to bondage. Nothing fright-
ful is left in it. It is onl}^ a transition, and salva-
tion is beyond. Our fears of what is before us in
the experience of death are intensified by our
ignorance and our guilt. We count ever)^ un-
known prospect as alarming, and we dread some
possible arraignment of divine justice the moment
we pass the veil. But when we find that " salva-
tion" has come to lighten human souls, the future
loses its hideous aspects. We rest in God, and a
little child becomes our everlasting dependence.
We are willing to go out of history, as a guest
leaves a banquet ; not despising the feast, but
contented to move away from it, because all his
hunger is satisfied. Hence, the mere act of death
counts thereafter as nothing ; Christ is beyond,
and heaven is home. Perhaps one swift pang —
then all is rest and peace forever.

" Oh, change— oh, wondrous change !

Burst are the prison bars ;
This moment there — so low
In mortal prayer — and now

Beyond the stars !
Oh, change — stupendous change !

There lies the senseless clod ;
The soul from bondage breaks,
The new immortal wakes —

Awakes with God !"

XII.
RESTING IN THE LORD.

" Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath

DEALT BOUNTIFULLY WITH THEE." — Psalm Il6 : 7.

The very first thought which arrests our minds
in considering a verse like this is concerning its
welcomeness. There is a confessed need in hu-
man history and hfe of some element to tranquil-
lize it. These restless confusions around us must
be calmed into composure. The world is at pres-
ent in a lapsed and secondary state. It was
once beautiful and serene. Sin found its way in
through the crevice of free-will. Then all the
race felt the retribution. Even the inanimate
globe was cursed by the fiat of the Almighty. A
wild erratic force has, ever since that, heaved the
primal strata into rugged ridges, and made vol-
canic rents of ruin.

We are all conscious of this unrest. We wake
every morning with a kind of vague misgiving in
our anticipation. Something will be sure to hap-
pen before nightfall to shatter a hope or defeat a
purpose. We wonder that things move on so
perversely. And when real trouble falls, nobody
seems to care anything for the catastrophe.
Mourners frequently remark how incongruously

I40 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Robert Burns's song. N. P. Willis's poem.

brilliant seems the sunshine on the day of the
funeral. Nature is vexatiouslj unsympathetic.
You remember how the Scottish bard complained
in his pathetic song that the " banks and braes"
of the bonny river he loved could " bloom so
fresh and fair," while his own heavy heart re-
mained " so weary, full of care." We feel quite
sure that all this disturbance is unnecessary and
unnatural.

" How strikingly the course of nature tells.
By its light heed of human suffering,
That man was fashioned for a happier world."

But dull as the course of nature is to all else,
there can be no possible doubting its supreme
sensitivity to sin. The rocks rended and the
ground opened when that awful ignominy of the
cross on which was crucified the Son of God
shocked the universe. All the world is suspicious
of wickedness. The one mighty disturbing ele-
ment in the wide creation is found in the setting
of a will against the divine will. It is the swing
of a loose chain, and, bereft of the anchor it car-
ried, dashing in the sides of the vessel it was in-
tended to protect. The moment justice is defied
and law broken there will certainly come violence
and vibration.

What we want, then, most of all, is some inter-
position from on high to arrest the rocking and
hold us firm to an equipoise. We cannot sustain
ourselves, much less each other. Our help must

RESTING IN THE LORD. I41

Centre of a solid wheel. God's moveless throne.

be given from without. And earliest of all, there
will have to be disclosed some centre of refer-
ence, some steady standard of strength, security,
and repose.

Scientific men tell us that in the exact middle of
every solid wheel, no matter how rapidly it whirls
on its axis, there is one slender line of iron, one
little needle of particles which really never moves
at all. You can easily see this must be so. The
atoms on the outer rim of the circumference swing
swiftly around in their career. Those lying next
circle more slowly. And hence there must be
reached finally one filament of finest metal fibre
running from end to end of the arbor, which rests
positively still, while every other atom revolves
around it. This very conception gives the im-
agination a marvelous sense of peace. It calms
one's mind to think of it ; it rests one's sensibili-
ties, like the pause of a long breath.

Here catch at least a figure. In this intricate,
complicated, and uneasy world there certainly is
one central spot of serene repose. The moveless
throne of God stands undisturbed in the white
light that falls over it. And in it sits the ineffable
majesty of that Wisdom which planned and that
Power which executed all the decrees of human
existence clear back to the far beginning. To
that all our unrest bears reference ; to that all our
rest bears relation, fixed and absolute : " Thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever."

Of course, therefore, we understand that the

142 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Condition of obtaining rest. The hand held.

condition of any sort of rest or peace for a human
soul is as simple as it is clear. That soul must in
some IV ay get baek to God. It must settle its inter-
nal discords by an external and overmastering
harmony of obedience. It must counteract its sin
with an atonement. The will wdiich acts as pilot
must out-sing the sirens with a new song of its
own. The old balance of adjustment must be
restored with fresh self-renunciation.

Just there our Maker has met us with his plan.
His own announcement is this, ' ' The work of right-
eousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteous-
7iess, quietness, and assurance forever." The
heart surrenders its rebellion, and comes back, as
a wandering star from the blackness of darkness
is restored to the sun. For, in the moment of
pardon, God's parentage is disclosed also. We
look up into the face of our Maker and discover
he is our Father. So a serene confidence settles
into our minds. We grow perfectly sure that
whatever happens will be all right in the end ;
nay, is all right now, if we could only see the
whole of it. Very brief is the conversation which
passes in this supreme act of reconciliation. God
says but one thing, and then we say one. He
says : " I, the Lord, have called thee in right-
eousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep
thee." And then we say : " Thou wilt keep him
in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusteth in thee."

Then instantly enters the experience of satisfac-

RESTING IN THE LORD. I43

Everything left with God. The woman of Tekoa.

tion and relief. No possible repose can ever have
been enjoyed like that which now the true believer
feels when he accepts, in all its mighty fulness of
meaning, that simple declaration of the Divine
Master : " Thy sins be forgiven thee, go in
peace." Infinite benevolence and grace have as-
sumed all the responsibility of reheving and man-
aging human need. Calmly one leaves his lot in
the hands of him who is perfectly equal to the task
of ordering it wisely and well. He settles back
like one delivered from long anxiety and pain,
saying to himself : " What time I am afraid, I will
put my trust in thee. I will both lay me down in
peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me
dwell in safet3^"

Still no generous soul will permit the medita-
tion to end here. We must bear in mind whence
all the favor comes. No man has a right to say,
" Return unto thy rest, O my soul," without add-
ing, in grateful ascription, "for the Lord hath
dealt bountifully with thee." Most Scripture
readers recollect that King David, righteously in-
censed by the rebellion of Absalom, punished his
recreant son with exclusion from his presence for
a period of years. Yet not everybody seems to
remember the shrewd argument employed to in-
fluence his clemency by the woman of Tekoa.
She only quoted the divine example ; but her
words sound like a gospel sermon preached in the
Old Testament time. She wanted the monarch
to bring back Absalom to the palace, and this is

144 SERMONS IN SONGS.

God bringing back his " banished." The sinking Peter.

what she said : " The king doth speak this thing
as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not
fetch home again his banished. For we must
needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground
which cannot be gathered up again ; neither
doth God respect an}^ person, yet doth he devise
means that his banislied be not expelled from
him.

Oh, the amazing freeness, the inexhaustible ful-
ness of the mercy of God ! He has devised means
so that none of us banished ones be expelled from
him. What we could not at all do for ourselves,
he has done freely for us. " He hath dealt boun-
tifully" with every soul. Just here, with every
reach and reference, the Bible shows itself as our
truest friend. It keeps reminding us that we owe
everything to God. It is a treasury of inspired
encouragement and warning. It meets us often-
times, as Jesus did the sinking Peter, with a rebuke
and a relief in the same breath. It says, " O thou
of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt !" and
then offers the divine hand for dehverance. One
wdio reads this blessed volume for the first time
will surely be arrested with the conviction that it
must have been written from the beginning to the
end for a race of weak and suffering creatures.
The promises of help, and comfort, and peace,
and rest are so many in number, and so tenderly
sympathetic in temper, that we read at once our
limitless need and God's measureless grace. We
ought to include the Bible also whenever we say,

RESTING IN THE LORD. I45

What practical purpose ? Danger of sinning.

" Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord
hath dealt bountifully with thee !"

It seems better for a moment now to gather up
the threads of discourse, in order that we may see
just whereabouts we are. We have considered
the necessity of periods of rest in an excited and
troubled world like ours, the condition of its re-
ception, and the temper in which it should be en-
joyed. There remains only for our further notice
the value there is to be found in it. The question
is : To what practical purpose may this text of
ours be put ?

Just two dangers there seem to be into which
any child of God may consciously or uncon-
sciously run — that is, if he gets rash or precipitate
under pressure of his perplexities, or if he be-
comes impetuous or impatient in feeling. These
are sinnmg and sinking. He may go too far, and
he may not go far enough. In the one case, he
will behave presumptuously ; in the other case,
he will continue anxious, and perhaps will doubt.
The remedy proffered here is precisely the same.

I. God will be sure to keep his people from
sinniiig, if they will only return unto their rest.

The soul of even the best believer may some-
times be worried into rashness. Embarrassed by
even the common events of life, many a man re-
sorts to uncalled-for and unlawful means of extri-
cation. Whereas the special rule of the divine
government is this : " He that belie veth shall not
make haste." Out of this impetuosity naturally

146 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Presumptuous demand. Cannon on merchantmen.

results transgression. The true barrier of faith is
overleaped. The Christian rushes into presump-
tuous demand. He clamors for some new and
extraordinary interposition of Providence. He
insists that relief shall be sent in his own form.
That is to say, he exhausts in one wild sweep his
entire inventory of resources, and then prays for
rhore.

It is true that the Bible contains some most
wonderful engagements covenanted by our heav-
enly Father. The soul has magnificent promises
laid up in solemn carefulness for its most awful
experiences and its severest needs. But these
are not to be dragged into frantic service on the
first alarm. They resemble those pieces of heavy
ordnance with which merchantmen are sometimes
equipped, that they may defend themselves from
cruisers. Any soul, which is so anxiously and
evermore on the alert to keep its rest, will find
that it is just its own extravagant efforts which are
breaking its rest. Just as if the solicitous and
timid officers of the ship should keep the men
wheeling out the cannon, and exploding them all
along the voyage. Anybody can see that the dis-
turbance would be owing, not to pirates, but to
the noisy and reckless discharges of reserved de-
fences. The great war-promises of God need not
be quoted in hours of mere meditative peace. No
soul can rest that is so awfully careful to guard its
rest. We are to settle reposefully back on the
common covenant, and remain quiet.

RESTING IN THE LORD. I47

Zadok and the ark. Danger of sinking.

We are sometimes set to wait on God ; and
sometimes told just to wait for him. When we
are hedged all about with difficulties, a tranquil
reliance upon divine help will be of essential ser-
vice in holding us back from overstepping legiti-
mate limits. You will remember that when David
was lonely and desolate out upon the Mount of
Olives, looking down over his lost capital, he per-
ceived a train of Levites coming out of the eastern
gate with some heavy load upon their shoulders.
As they drew nearer, he discovered that the priest
Zadok, still loyal to his king, had conceived the
bold design of removing the ark of the covenant
bodily from the temple, and taking it along with
the fugitive royalists into exile. But no exigency
seemed trying enough to the sovereign to apolo-
gize for so extraordinary a maneuver. So he
checked his adherents with the memorable words :
" Carry back the ark of God into the city ; if I
shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will
bring me again, and show me both it and his hab-
itation ; but if he thus say, I have no dehght in
thee ; behold, here am I, let him do to me as
seemeth good unto him." He was willing to rest
in God's love already pledged to him.

2. Furthermore, God will keep his people from
sinking, as well as from sinning, if they will only
fasten their faith upon his promises.

One moment more of unfaltering confidence
would have planted Simon Peter, as he walked on
the water, close at the side of Jesus. Merely be-

148 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Easy frames of feeling. Napoleon carried bodily,

cause he grew suddenly self-conscious, he wa-
vered more than the Avaves. He began to sink
ignominiously for no other reason than because he
thought he should. No one will ever know, until
he reads his whole biography from the heavenly
volumes, how many fine historic moments he has
missed, just through lack of steadiness in the
supreme pressure. He has failed merely through
the fitfulness of his easy frames of feeling. He
might have held on an instant longer, and been
safe.

There is one most beautiful engagement of help
announced in the Scriptures, couched in a figure of
even more significant aptness than usual : " The
eternal God is thy refuge, and iindcrncatJi are the
everlastitig arms. ' ' You cannot have forgotten that
most interesting incident in secular history, re-
corded of the French campaign in Russia. On the
melancholy retreat from Moscow, the emperor was
informed that the road his army must take had to
pass through a defile lined on cither side with the
heaviest artillery. At once six of his bravest sol-
diers crowded around his beloved person, and
took him bodily off his feet, carrying him quite
through the dangerous ravine. At the same mo-
ment the band struck up the fine melody of the
song, " Calm in the bosom of his family." Human,
onl}' human hands, therefore, can do much ; what
think you of the divine ? How sweet seems the
little verse we sing, to quf)tc as a motto, and hold
as an ejaculation of praj'er :

RESTING IN THE LORD. 149

•' First pure, then peaceable." Faith and courage.

" Let me hear thy voice behind me, calming all these wild alarms ;
Let me, underneath my weakness, feel the everlasting arms !"

Surely, dear Christian friends, we must see by
this time that the habit of resting in God is more
than a mere privilege ; it is one of the highest of
our duties. Fretting is ruinous to grace, as well
as to gracefulness. We are bound to cultivate the
patience of waiting. It is harder, to be sure, some-
times to stand and do nothing, than to charge and
do much. Just to hold our own in the midst of
difficulties, and put forth no effort at personal
release, is a better test of obedience than valiantly
to challenge a giant. We are to blame for
much of our chronic disquiet and perturbation.
Any anxiety on our part is a certain proof of some
want of purity or of some want of faith. " First
pure, then peaceable."

There is no effeminacy in a temper of perfect
repose, when the believing heart rests solely upon
God. It may be childlike, but it cannot be called
childish. One can always be filial without being
foolish. Indeed, it would be well if rash and
ribald men would accept this composure before
they deride it. It would be to edification if any-
body could be permitted to fasten his eyes upon
one who, from sheer fortitude amidst wild confu-
sions, such as we daily enter, can call his nights
refreshing and his days quiet, while fortunes go
to pieces, and fictions of wealth break and flash
like bubbles on the sea-beach, " a moment white,
then gone forever." Faith always stands firmer

150 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Wasted effort. A hand in a hand.

than mere courage. And down upon our excited
perturbations, like the serene chimes of Trinity
Church amid the roar of the Wall Street gold-
room, comes this sweet verse : " Return unto thy
rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bounti-
fully with thee !"

It is sad to think how much patience is ex-
hausted and how much valuable time is lost in
mere effort to hold one's self steady, when a sur-
render would instantly end all the conflict. The
English critic Ruskin, as he looks on the ocean,
exclaims, "How shall we follow its eternal
changefulness of feeling ! It is like trying to paint
a soul." Yes, an unsaved and unhelped soul,
that is said to resemble "a troubled sea which
cannot rest." The first vessel built on this con-
tinent was named " The Unrest." But when a
soul is saved, it is safe, and then it is calm.

For this peace of a Christian man, whose heart
is kind, whose sins are pardoned, whose life is hid
with Christ in God, is not that mere apathy of
desperation, which a crag may be conceived to
have in a tempest it defies ; it is just the quiet
which a living hand has, when it lies in the true
clasp of another hand, that it knows is stronger
than itself.

XIII.
THE SINGERS IN PRISON.

" And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises
UNTO God." — Acts i6 : 25.

If you were carefully to examiue the history of
the church along the early years of its conflicts
and establishment, you would find that it had not
been brought directly into antagonism with organ-
ized heathen forces until this incident occurred to
which allusion is made in the text. Hitherto the
contest had been between Judaism and Chris-
tianity. But when the gospel had gained a foot-
hold in Europe, it entered a new social and
domestic form of life. The small band (ff four
missionaries — -Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy — en-
tertained hospitably in the household of Lydia,
an Asiatic tradeswoman, would not look very
formidable as a revolutionary element in a large
city like Phihppi. But these were the men of
whom it was said, they turned the world upside
down wherever they went to work.

Already there was good doing in the Macedo-
nian capital ; religious truth was passing from lip
to lip ; and, without doubt, heart after heart
received it which the Lord opened as he did
Lydia's before. But while Paul was on his daily

152 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A demoniac pythoness. Dangerous indorsement.

rounds, he found himself decidedly annoyed by
the pertinacity of a demoniac pythoness, who in-
sisted on following him closely, uttering some
nonsense behind him as he walked through the
streets. The story is related to us thus :

" And it came to pass as we went to prayer, a
certain damsel, possessed with a spirit of divina-
tion, met us, who brought her masters much gain
by soothsaying : the same followed Paul and us,
and cried, saying. These men are the servants of
the most high God, which show unto us the way
of salvation. And this did she many days. But
Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit,
I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to
come out of her. And he came out the same
hour."

This seems to have been a slave girl, possessed
by an unclean spirit. She uttered nothing of any
worth to anybody ; but people of uneducated and
superstitious imagination had a sort of notion that
a creature whose intellect was shattered might be
under special visitation from the gods. So of the
incoherent ravings of this damsel her masters
were wont to make gain, selling her absurd pre-
dictions to those who v/ere weak enough to seek
them. It is probable that a fear arose in the
apostle's mind lest the multitude should suppose
he owned this maiden ; her delirious approval of
him and his preaching rendered her presence em-
barrassing. Perhaps he dreaded the indorsement
of so questionable and notorious a companion-

THE SINGERS IN PRISON. 1 53

Paul's exorcism. The abrupt arrest.

ship ; at any rate, he resolved to silence forever
its worst feature of outcry.

Turning abruptly upon his steps one day, he,
by a word of inspired command, in the name of
Jesus Christ exorcised the demon of possession,
bidding him come out of the girl's mind. This at
once restored her to sanity, and, of course, made
her valueless for all exhibition to those who
owned her and profited by her madness. Of the
change in their property they became immediately
aware, and angrily caused the arrest of Paul, and
with him Silas, who most likely was in his com-
pany at the moment of the rencounter. The story
runs on thus :

" And when her masters saw that the hope of
their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas,
and drew them into the market-place unto the
rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, say-
ing. These men, being Jews, do exceedingly
trouble our city, and teach customs which are not
lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being
Romans."

In the haste of their indignation, these infamous
charlatans appear not to have agreed beforehand
as to the form which their accusation should take
in the legal trial. Once on the ground, they be-
came painfully conscious that the prcetors would
demand a reason for the abrupt apprehension of
two persons upon the public highway, and they
must be ready with a reply. But surely there
was no possible Roman law which by any in-

154 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Property in madress. Scourging with " many stripes."

genuity could be made to include the healing of a
demoniac among criminal offences, no matter what
came of it. Property in mere madness could not
be recognized.

Eventually the shape in which they put their
complaint shifted its ground. They omitted the
real personal issue, and asserted that these eastern
people, foreigners, "being Jews," were injuri-
ously stirring up the city by introducing manners
and customs which were illegal for Roman citi-
zens to observe. The expression " being Jews"
loses its keen force in our rendering ; it means
" Jews, to begin with," and so contains a most
subtle appeal to popular passion. We are not
surprised at the result : " And the multitude rose
up together against them ; and the magistrates
rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat
them."

The shaft instantly struck. The authorities
waited for nothing more than this. Their preju-
dices converted such interferences from foreigners
into insults and misdemeanors at once. The
orders were given for stripping and scourging
these innocent men. Now, under Jewish law the
number of stripes was limited : thirty-nine at a
time — " forty stripes save one" — was all that
could be ini'^icted But no such restriction was
put on the Romans. Probably Silas and Paul
were whipoed with great severity ; the expres-
sion here is very strong, " many stripes." And
in one of the epistles to the Corinthian Church

THE SINGERS IN PRISON. 1 55

Thrust into the common jail. Feet in the stocks.

Paul speaks of having received "stripes above
measure." Moreover, the Romans used rods ;
the order was given to the iictors, called here
" sergeants," to beat them with their fasces, which
consisted of a bundle of birch or elm withes,
arranged around a sharpened axe in the middle,
reserved for capital punishments, the whole bound
together by a leather thong. This was not the
only time the brave apostle to the Gentiles felt
the Gentiles' wrath in this manner. He says
afterward, " Thrice was I beaten with rods."

But the trouble did not end here. The bleed-
ing men were now thrust ignominiously into the
common jail. Something of alarm, or perhaps of
extraordinary zeal to win favor with his masters,
induced the keeper to rush his victims into the
innermost cell, putting them in unusual ward, as if
he thought they were a dangerous charge : " And
when they had laid many stripes upon them, they
cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep
them safely. Who, having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison, and made their
feet fast in the stocks."

A wooden machine, hinged with iron, separated
the feet of the prisoners wide apart, closing across
the ankles with a hollowed groove. Of course,
any attempt to lie down could only result in
bringing a fresh agony to the wounds inflicted by
the rods, as the full weight of the body came
directly down upon the flooring of stone. Such
a night of suffering as this was one long to be

Is6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Singing in the midnight. Scene at Lydia's house.

remembered. Just at its depth our text comes
in : " And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and
sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard
them,"

So, then, the picture rises upon our imagina-
tion. We can discover nothing more concerning
the terrible history of that painful midnight. We
must just take our stand outside of the prison
where Luke and Timothy are lingering around
the walls. Interference was perilous and succor
was impossible ; but we can have no doubt as to
the pitiful and tearful longings of heart with
which these friends stood out under the stars until
all hope had disappeared. How the sympathetic
nature of the "beloved ph3''sician" must have
been tried as he found himself shut away from
even the privilege of attending to the wounds of
his feeble friends !

We always think first of the men who were
scourged, when we seem to hear the sound of the
awful blows in the air ; but one silent thought of
commiseration would be quite in order here con-
cerning that whole company at Lydia's house,
filled with sorrow and dismay at this catastrophe.
When these two watchers came home that night
late, and told the tale of the scourging, and the
jail, and the stocks, it was a sad and troubled
family which wept and prayed for their beloved
leaders. It is not stated that they had any
chance afterward of sending in even one word of
pity or affection. But we all believe that when

THE SINGERS IN PRISON. 1 57

An excellent prayer-meeting. Familiarity with Scripture.

the two prisoners were singing in the suffering
midnight, the small circle under the Christian
roof of Lydia kept patiently on their knees for
them.

It is time for us now to begin to seek out our
spiritual lessons, for we can linger upon the actual
histor}^ no longer. We may take up those which
lie nearest to our hand, and yet find enough.

1. For example, see here Jiow easy it is to have
an cxcclloit prayer-inccting when only the heart is
right. The circumstances in this instance were,
as we have noticed, most discouraging. But
everybody knows now what an evident success
was reached in this jail by the little prayer-meet-
ing of three persons. Three? Yes, three : Paul,
Silas, and Jesus Christ. Even the ancient Jesvs
had a saying, " Where two persons meet, there
are always three." They meant to intimate that
God was ever-present in the counsels of men.
But we have a more sure word of promise as
Christians in Christ's words : " Again, I say unto
you, That if two of you shall agree on earth, as
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be
done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in
my name, there am I in the midst of them."

2. Then again : learn here hozv fine a thing it is
to be familiar zvith the Scriptures. For what do we
conjecture Paul and Silas sang about there in the
dark, without any books and without any music?
We know the Jews all loved the ancient Psalms,

158 SERMONS IN SONGS.

What did they sing? The Hebrew Psalter.

and had in memory most of them for easy recall.
It is a pleasing- suggestion now that these tried
men found the exact hymn they wanted in the
well-remembered Psalter. Hebrew music is very
wild, plaintive, and fascinating. You can hear it
sometimes in our day as you pass the open door
of a synagogue. Match one of those grand old
lyrics to it, and it will move you like a strain from
the sky. For really there is great strength and
great fire in the inspired Jewish poems. In the
village churchyards the Covenanters sang them as
they affixed their names to the perilous parch-
ments. Oliver Cromwell's legions of soldiers
sang them as they plunged into battle. Paul and
Silas sang psalms, we have not a doubt of it ;
many of them are fashioned precisely like pra3'ers.
There is no end to those which would have
praised God with all emphasis, and 3'et have im-
plored his interposition in the most effective and
satisfactory way. Those about prisoners, those
about the oppressed, those about iniquitous
rulers, those about infinite goodness and divine
mercy never to be exhausted toward God's
chosen in their times of trouble, you will recollect
them all. Some very fine pieces were written by
Moses, and a few by Asaph also ; but David
seems to have had the most experience, and so
has furnished for other tried people the most help.
And so we feel very bold to say that he who has
learned psalm after psalm by heart, and can sing
them in the dark, has wonderful resources of in-

THE SINGERS IN PRISON. 1 59

Fitness of music for comfort. Elihu's counsel.

struction and promise for his comfort in the day
of trouble.

3. Now add to this suggestion another concern-
ing the eminent fitness of imisic as the vehicle of
spiritual enlivening and solace. It cannot be doubt-
ed that singing has an extraordinary power in
exorcising the demon of worry and discontent.
Martin Luther used to say, " The devil cannot
bear singing." This is what the psalmist himself
means when he is singing a song for other people
to sing :

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and
why art thou disquieted in me ? hope thou in
God ; for I shall yet praise him for the help of his
countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down
within me : therefore will I remember thee from
the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from
the hill Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep at the
noise of thy water-spouts : all thy waves and thy
billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will
command his loving-kindness in the daytime, and
in the night his song shall be with me, and my
prayer unto the God of my life. Why art thou
cast down, O my soul ? and why art thou dis-
quieted within me ? hope thou in God ; for I shall
37et praise him, who is the health of my counte-
nance, and my God."

You will perhaps remember the words of the
young Elihu, when he attempted to counsel and
admonish the murmuring Job. He admitted to
him that men were ready enough to cry out under

l6o SERMONS IN SONGS.

" Songs in ihe night." Uneasy Sundays.

sorrow ; " but none saith, Where is God, my
Maker, who giveth me songs in the night ?" No-
body has ever learned to sing, as he might and
ought to sing, till his verses hav^e come to be a
positive help to him. These are " the songs in
the night" about which we hear so much. And
as long as a Christian's enjoyment of them is no
more than a mere artistic or a simple cesthetic
pleasure, he is certain to fall short of appreciating
the highest office of poetry and music in this
lonely world.

4. Suppose, then, we add another lesson to
this : does it not offer a helpful hint as to the zvay
in zvhich the vacant hours of an iincasy Sunday may
be spent with young children ? The cynical moralist
Dr. Johnson says in his autobiography : " Sunday
was a heavy day to me when I was a boy. My
mother confined me in the house as often as this
came round, and made me read ' The Whole Duty
of Man,' from a great part of which I could derive
no instruction." It is no wonder that he grew up
morose and sour in his estimate of Christian life.
On the other hand, hear the pious George Herbert :

" The golden Sundays of man's life,

Threaded together on Time's string,
Make bracelets to adorn the wife
Of the eternal glorious King."

It is worth while for all well-ordered families to
cultivate a joyous spirit of song in their hearts
and homes. Set apart a portion of every Lord's
Day for music. Teach your children to sing at

THE SINGERS IN PRISON. l6l

Hymns to commit. David and Saul.

the family altar. For your own need and enjoy-
ment commit to memory an extensive variety of
psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. It was a
fine thing for Paul and Silas that they recollected
a few things alike to sing together there in the
dark without any books. A day may come when
)^our minds, weakened by sickness or old age, will
be helped just by the rhymes, when you can
recollect nothing else for a solace. Take such
pieces as, " Oh, for a closer walk with God," " I
saw One hanging on a tree," " When I survey
the wondrous cross," " There is a fountain filled
with blood," "Jesus, I my cross have taken."
Lay these up in your mind. They will furnish
you food in times of trouble. If you ever happen
to be watching beside a sick-bed, and feel at a
loss what to say, you will find such a gleam of
delight on the face of the one you watch, when
you begin to say over — or what is better, to sing
over softly — a verse or two, that your memory,
though the poorest on record, will be amply
recompensed for the outlay. Ill-humor among
children, impatience at the tediousness of a Sun-
day silence, fretfulness from in-door life, will jneld
sooner before singing than anything else. I do
believe that the harp of the young David, if he
had persistently kept up his efforts of minstrelsy,
would eventually have prevailed over the jealous
madness of Saul, and put an end to his flinging of
javelins.

5. Finall}^, let us learn here what is the one con-

l62 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Condition of Christian peace. Annals of the past.

dition of a sure success in reacJiing Cliristiaji peace :
we must just make the very best we can out of the
present posture of affairs. It seems an impossi-
bility sometimes to keep up a brave heart in our
trials. A great sense of failure must have settled
upon the minds of those abused preachers in the
Philippian prison. Why, what had they done ?
Paul had restored reason to a mad girl — a deed
which, if he had advertised as a Macedonian philan-
thropist, would have given him a proud reputa-
tion all over Greece. He had wrought a notable
miracle, too ; and this, if one of their heathen
priests had done it, would assuredly have gone to
the credit of his deity and his personal acclaim.

But this was all the messengers of the true God
got for their trouble. There they both sat in the
dark ; it was distressingly sad, it was unutter-
ably lonesome and disheartening, it was chilly,
damp, painful ; it looked hopeless and forlorn for
the future ; they had certainly been treated
shamefully, unjustly, and pitilessly. But ail they
did was to strike up a tune. Tradition says Paul
could never have been much of a singer. He had
a poor voice. But it is possible that he put in
"the spirit and the understanding," while Silas
took care of the melody. He knew that there
was a new hope coming. The Saviour's presence
was close beside them both ; eventually each
wrong would be righted, each sorrow assuaged.
For all those grand annals of the past were familiar
to them. Joseph was cast in prison, and had his

THE SINGERS IN FRISON. 163

Paul's perfect "content." Not " therewith," but " therein."

feet in the fetters ; but the stocks proved his foot-
steps to the throne. Daniel was thrust into the
hons' den ; yet a day came when he was pro-
claimed ruler in Babylon. So they sang on.
Their secret Paul reveals afterward : " I have
learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be
content."

Be careful about that word " therewith ;" the
one in the New Revision is better ; it says "there-
in." Paul did not mean to have the world under-
stand that he was content to stay in a jail ; he would
find instant release, if he could. He did not love
poverty and pain and peril. He tried all he could
in every instance to avert and escape from such
things. Yet all the while he preserved a calm
content, not "therewith," but " therein."

Content with what ? With his joys and his
hopes, with his reminiscences and his anticipations,
with his sonship in God and his communion with
Christ. It was to this very group of believers in
Philippi that he wrote about his perfect satisfaction
with all he had endured in their town ; he was
content " therewith," because Christ was preached
thus; "therein" he rejoiced. "Yea," he ex-
claims, " and will rejoice ; according to my earnest
expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall
be ashamed, but that wnth all boldness, as always,
so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life or by death."

XIV.
THE LATERAL FORCE OF PRAYER.

"And the prisoners heard them." — Acts i6 : 25.

There used to be a legend told concerning' one
of the historic battle-fields of the East ; it was said
that precisely at stroke of midnight, the heroes of
the conflict were wont to come forth upon the
plains of the fight, and there rehearse their deeds
of prowess again ; hosts would charge hosts of
shadowy beings, and phalanxes of disembodied
spirits would plunge along on steeds of fire.

You will remember that one of the mightiest
victories of history was obtained at Philippi.
There the final stand was taken by the republicans
of Rome. The world will always lay its meed of
applause at the feet of Antony for his warlike
courage and adroit advance of troops in subtle
generalship by which he won his laurels. But
how it would arrest one's imagination, if the old
legends were true of this neighborhood, and we
could stand by while the village clocks were strik-
ing twelve, and witness the weird combats on
such a mysterious field between the spirits of men
dead centuries ago !

But the chapter in the New Testament now be-
fore us records a far greater victory, and one far

THE LATERAL FORCE OF PRAYER. 165

Antony's victory at Philippi. A greater conquest.

more important in the annals of a race like ours.
The whole contest was between souls. And the
battle is repeated not only on the same spot at
midnight, but on every spot each day and hour
over the whole world. A soul was plucked out
of Satan's hand that day, and changed into a child
of God. And when even the remembrance of the
chaplet which that Roman general wore at his tri-
umph shall have faded away forever, there will
yet be one of the many crowns the Saviour is to
wear, which will remind those who behold the
King in his beauty of the bloodless waterside,
outside of the gate of the city, where Europe was
conquered for Christ's kingdom by the conver-
sion of a woman, and also of the shattered prison
in which a Roman officer was subdued by divine
grace and made a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ.

The history to which this fragment of a verse
chosen as the text now introduces us, has already
been rendered sufficiently familiar for all our
present needs. Paul and Silas were in the ward
of a Philippian jail, in pain from the scourging,
and in jeopardy of their lives. But they spent
their time in anything rather than in melancholy
forebodings or petulant regrets. The whole
verse reads thus : " And at midnight Paul and
Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God ; and the
prisoners heard them."

It was a most unusual place of prayer. Very
likely this was the first occasion on which the

1 66 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Place and posture of prayer. "They prayed, hymning God."

voice of Christian devotion had ever been heard
in precincts so positively heathen as these. That
complicated and smothering inclosure of Roman
confinement certainly was the earliest dungeon in
Europe which held a mercy-seat, although the
awful history of many martyrs has shown that it
had more than one wall. marked place of torment
to succeed it.

It was a most unusual />ostt^ re of prayer. For it
was neither standing, nor reclining, nor kneeling,
nor lying prone on one's face. Ah me ! what a
poor time of it these suffering creatures would
have had if they had been compelled to use a
formula or work themselves into an attitude. We
have every reason to believe that our God does
not care for such things when only the heart is
right, and the spirit is true, and the want is press-
ing ; he is not particular about forms and postures.

It was a most unusual kind of prayer. Much is
missed by dividing the words here ; they should
read thus: "Praying, they sang." The New
Revision has rendered the passage thus : " But
about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and
singing hymns unto God, and the prisoners were
listening to them." The Greek is idiomatic to
a fine degree : " They prayed, hymning God."
These apostles set their petitions to music. It is
of some importance to know that true prayer is
praise, and genuine praise is prayer. God is
lauded when we plead with him, and is entreated
when we celebrate his glory. Each doxology

THE LATERAL FORCE OF PRAYER. 1 6/

The direction of prayer. The triangle pictured.

pronounces a benediction ; he answers when we
say " Hallelujah ;" he is praised when a sinner
cries, " Save, or I perish !"

But now, in order to render the specific thought
of this discourse prominent, " the lateral force of
prayer," we need to remark that there was a most
singular direction to this prayer. It will perhaps
be helpful here, in order to make the meaning
clear, to employ a figure : imagine a triangle, as
if one were going to talk about what mathemati-
cians call ' ' the composition of forces. ' ' In this the
perpendicular line represents what we commonly
look upon as the direction of a Christian man's
petition ; it goes up straight toward God. But
the horizontal line represents the level pressure of
the same force, but going out toward those within
range who listen and are influenced by it. Those
prisoners, no doubt, heard the singing and the
praying of the two men in the inner ward of the
prison ; it was not addressed to them, but it
swept out toward them with an oblique or lateral
force.

Such a point as this ought to have some illus-
tration both for the sake of an unmistakable exhi-
bition of its real helpfulness, and for the sake of
its careful discrimination from what looks like it
and yet is injurious in every instance.

There is something ver}^ impressive even in the
mere sight of a pra3'ing Christian. I have read
within a little while the story of a faithful worker
in the ministry, who had been away from home

l68 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Prayer behind a tree. The one condition.

for a week assisting- in a revival. When he
started to return, he was accompanied by the
pastor and a young friend to the Umits of the
village. There on the hill-top, full of solemn
feeling, they parted with a joint supplication.
Climbing- the fence, they were hidden from the
road, and there knelt among the branches of a
fallen tree, that no eye but the All-seeing might
rest upon them. They all prayed and separated.
A few weeks thereafter, among the converts,
came a rough, honest farmer to join himself to the
people of God. He told how he was ploughing
in the field one day, and saw up by the roadside
three men kneel to pray. The very thought of it
moved him. And the more he pondered, the
more his" own prayerless life came in review.
And he found no peace till he himself became a
follower of the Saviour likewise.

This is the usual form which the thought takes
as we find it reached in ordinary life. It will be
seen that the one indispensable element of success
is found in the artlessness and unconsciousness of
those who are in the act of devotion. It is absurd
folly to suppose that supplicating God with the
view of influencing men is anything more than
mocker}^ or conceit. It is not safe to calculate
deliberately upon affecting a bystander by our
supplication ; preaching in prayers is never to be
commended ; but a life of prayer, and an uncon-
scious fervor of prayer in an individual instance,
may be useful to one who watches it.

THE LATERAL FORCE OF PRAYER. 1 69

The murdered watchman. A prayer overheard.

Take another illustration, and we shall see how
a Christian's spirit and words can become posi-
tively dramatic. It was published in the papers
not long since, and I have read it in an English
book, that there was a bridge-watchman on one
of our Western roadways, in whose hands the toll-
money was placed. He dwelt pretty much alone
in a small structure erected for his ordinary shel-
ter out over the water near the middle pier. This
faithful man was murdered by a passing vagabond
for the sake of the cash in his box ; the criminal
was caught quite soon afterward. In the open
court, on the occasion of his trial, he made this
remarkable confession : " I knew that the keeper
had received some tolls and also his month's
wages that day ; I resolved to have the money.
With a shot-gun I crept along across half of the
silent bridge. I could see through the window
only his head and shoulders ; I took aim and fired.
Then I waited a few minutes to see if the sound
of the gun had alarmed any one ; but all was still.
Then I went up to the watch-house door, and
there, down on his knees praying, I found the
keeper I had shot. Very calmly and distinctly I
heard him say : ' O God, have mercy on the man
who did this, and spare him for Jesus' sake ! ' I
could not bear to touch such a person's money ; I
turned and ran away, nowhere, anywhere, I did
not know whither I went ; his words rang in my
ear, they have haunted me ever since. I was go-
ing back to give myself up when I was arrested."

I/O SERMONS IN SONGS.

Praying for effect. A most unusual hour.

It is evident that the individual force of such an
example of forgiveness and solicitude would have
been not only lost, but perverted and reversed, if
there had been the slightest reason for suspecting
that the Christian man was praying for effect.
But out there on the lonely river under the stars,
with no one within call, with no strength for cry-
ing or crawling for help, with only the deep,
passionate wish for the pardon and salvation of
the misguided culprit who had shot him, to be his
prompting in a few words that were left him to
utter before the everlasting silence fell over his
human lips, there could be no misunderstanding.
It was the unpremeditated act of intercession, in
that desperate moment, which swept itself out
along the level of the platform, as well as aloft
beyond the sky, and struck heavily upon the dull
conscience of the murderer standing there among
the shadows, and looking at the wreck of a life he
had taken.

Two things in the action of Paul and Silas, shut
in the jail, need to be noticed in order to show
that the prayers they lifted possessed this element
of artlessness. For one thing, remember the time
was midnight. It was a most unusual hour for
supplication. We all know how strict the Israel-
ites were as to their stated seasons of devotion.
This was not the time for either the evening or
the morning oblation. These Hebrew Christians
had been trained to such habits as would have
influenced their subsequent years. But what

THE LATERAL FORCE OF PRAYER. I/I

No audience expected. John Bunyan's Pilgrim.

they prayed for now was help in their sore need.
They knew, as we know, that God neither sleeps
nor slumbers ; he is alive to his children's wants
even in what, with pathetic sobriety, we call " the
dead of night." They could pray to God then ;
but men, prisoners, jailers — ev^erybody would be
asleep ; we are told explicitly that the head man
of the prison was awaked, not b}^ the singing, but
by the earthquake. Surely we have no suspicion
that Paul and Silas were on parade when at the
midnight hour they raised their voices out of the
depth of their woe. They were praying to God,
not to the prisoners outside.

And the other thing is this : they were singing
their supplications ; and singing is more the in-
strument for expression of one's own heart than
of impression upon the hearts of others. It is
often singularly and overwhelmingly impressive ;
but this is because the singer is himself so much
lost in the exercise. In all the story of John
Bunyan there is no one thing more true to nature
than the account given of the passage of the pil-
grim through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
and especially of the moment when he seemed to
hear the voice of a man, as going before him and
singing a psalm. He was glad, and the reasons of
his gladness are given : he gathered from thence
that some who feared God were in this valley as
v/ell as himself ; then also he saw that God was
with them, though they were in that dark and
dismal state ; and, more than all else, he hoped

172 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Mere mockerj' of praise. Praying " temperance."

(could he overtake them) to have company by and
by. So he hurried along, and called to him that
was before ; but he knew not what to answer, for
that he also thought himself to be alone. He had
been keeping up his spirits by his chant, and it
confused him to be discovered as singing for
others' delectation ; so he stopped.

In the light of these two considerations, that it
was in the midnight, when no audience could be
supposed to be listening, and that they were
"hymning God," not for others but for them-
selves, we can see how inconsistent with the
whole exercise would have been the purpose of
making their own cell conspicuous by a mockery
of praise and prayer addressed to the others
around them out of sight all over the wards.
When, some years ago, a crusade was started
which had for its plan public praying assemblages
along the highways, held in front of drinking-
saloons for the sake of overawing the keepers
and salesmen by the lateral force of the voices
ostensibly and ostentatiously directed to high
heaven, it was only the positive perversion of an
excellent thing into an embarrassment and a
mockery which in the end made the plan ridicu-
lous. The curb-stone prayer-meeting was a joke
and a jibe in the mouth of those whom it hoped to
influence, and riot of exasperation was the quick
defence returned. It is likely that not one in ten
of the petitions went up straight to the Hearer of
prayer ; when one closes his eyes for communion^

THE LATERAL FORCE OF PRAYER. 1 73

Shooting round a corner. A world full of " prisoners."

with heaven, what does he see ? Christ, the In-
tercessor But in these instances what one saw
was the rumseller, who heard himself argued with
under guise of a mockery of God. And it was
well for the decorum of God's people that those
excellent although misguided Christians ceased
trying to shoot arrows from their bows of suppli-
cation around the corner at an angle.

Let it, then, be understood that prayer, faithful
and fervent, pressed directly and artlessly toward
God, has also some appreciable, and available,
and valuable lateral force ; and now at once we
see that here is a method of Christian usefulness
almost limitless in its reach. A life of prayer is
the most powerful instrument of efficiency which
the Scripture reveals.

Oh, this poor world is full of " prisoners" all
around us ! They listen while our lives sing and
pray. Just now there has been related to me the
story of an adult girl in a Bible-class, going to
witness a communion season for the first time in
her life ; in sheer curiosity she tried to find out
what all those people were at. In the providence
of God she happened to find a seat within observ-
ing distance of her own teacher. The unaffected
and sincere manner of the woman told on the
heart and conscience of the worldly scholar ; she
could not put the thought away, after she had sat
there and seen for a whole hour the infinite depth
of meaning in the countenance she knew. It was
that honest teacher's face which converted her

1/4 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Legh Richmond's mother. A soldier's countersign.

pupil ; so we were made to see when we received
her into the church, and the two sat side by side
at communion.

Legh Richmond, the author of the " Dairy-
man's Daughter," has recorded the impression
produced upon his mind, when he was six years
of age, by the behavior of his mother on the occa-
sion of his Httle brother's death, dropped by a
nurse's carelessness through a window on the
pavement ; he saw her praying frequently, and
indeed she took him with her to pray for him
several times ; and he recollected that she said in
her sweet, gentle way : "If I stop praying even
for a few minutes to-day, I am ready to sink
under this unlooked-for disaster ; but when I
pray, God comforts me and upholds me !" This
prayerfulness drew so deep a line in his character
that when he was almost an old man he recalled it.

Sometimes strange poses of life have been tested
by this very process. A soldier came to the
guard without the countersign ; he told his simple
story how it happened ; the guard gave him five
minutes for prayer before he should be shot ;
then, when he kneeled down and lifted so gentle
and so trustful a prayer, so unaffected and so
brave, so simple and affectionate, it was hardly a
surprise to him to find the guard on his knees be-
side him, and declaring, " Go your wa}^. Chris-
tian brother ; no one can pray as you do and tell
an untruth !"

Here, therefore, is the secret of usefulness.

THE LATERAL FORCE OF PRAYER, 1 75

Usefulness within reach. Lives "shut in."

Some are shut in like Paul and Silas, and the mid-
night hangs heavily over them. They can do
nothing for God? Nay, but they can live true,
brave lives, simple-hearted and consistent. That
is doing much for God. Other prisoners hear
them, when they are dauntlessly praising with
prayers that are worship, and singing with songs
that are sermons.

" Is it the Lord that shuts me in ?

Then I can bear to wait !
No place so dark, no place so poor,
So strong and fast, no prisoning door,

Though walled by grievous fate,
But out of it goes fair and broad
An unseen pathway, straight to God,

By which I mount to thee,
When the same Love that shut the door
Shall lift the heavy bar once more,

And set the prisoner free."

XV.

SECRET SINS.

" Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret

SINS IN the light OF THY COUNTENANCE." — Psalin 9O : 8.

This verse tranquilly reasserts the precise rela-
tion human behavior holds to the divine acquaint-
ance, and human guilt holds to the divine dis-
pleasure. The all-seeing Monarch of heaven and
earth knows everything, and abhors everything
distinctively evil. He sets every secret iniquity
"before him ;" then he registers its aggravations
as they appear " in the light of his countenance."

I. The moment we begin to apply the glass of
divine omniscience to the examination of private
conduct, we are tempted to do as the Hindoo
prince is reported to have done, when he was
shown by a microscope the foul creatures in the
seemingly pure water he was drinking. He
would not reject the cup, but he dashed the un-
offending instrument on the floor.

Many men would wilfully surrender belief in
the uncomfortable doctrine of omniscience if they
could. But a voice speaks in our ears with tones
of resolute calmness : " Hell and destruction are
before the Lord ; how much more, then^ the
hearts of the children of men !" In all our com-

SECRET SINS. 1 77

Mere angles in the air. Confessed " peccadillos."

mission of habitual wrong there is a conception of
vagueness and distance. The white throne of
judgment is not set yet. Heaven is out of sight.
Retribution is remote. Our spiritual vision in
one respect resembles our natural. It estimates
poorly at long ranges. Our impressions of mag-
nitude are always governed by mere angles in the
air. So we unconsciously say, " Is not God in
the height of heaven ? And behold the height of
the stars, how high they are ! How doth God
know ? Can he judge through the dark cloud ?"

More than one man can be found who would
be startled if he imagined anybody but a minister,
or any minister, save in a general way, suspected
him of being an actual law-breaker. He would
be seriously offended if he were told so anywhere
out of a pulpit. He would assert his innocence of
crime or violence. And, indeed, he may make
quite a fair show in his astonishment. For no one
of his offences may be scandalous or even extrav-
agantly gross. No swearing ; possibly he may
never have uttered one profane word. No idola-
try ; surely he never worshiped any false God.
He is neither vicious nor immoral. His purpose
is to be honest. He really intends to be generous
and manly. He proposes to be true.

To be sure, he does not set up for a model. He
confesses inadvertences in action. He acknowl-
edges peccadillos in life. He admits some gen-
eral imperfections in character. But he resolutely
asserts he has wronged no man intelligently or

178 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The divine register. Montaigne's figure.

with evil intention. It seems to him a harsh
judgment, and, not to put too fine a point on it, a
little uncivil, to insist that he must personally be
numbered among those blasphemers before God
who need an atonement to keep them out of peril
of a fiery hell.

It becomes evident, therefore, that there is a
different register of reckoning kept somewhere,
by which the number of human sins is to be
counted, as well as by which the degrees of ma-
lignity and guilt are to be settled. For what does
God himself say ? These are not careless words
of his, and we may not give them careless hearing :
" Talk no more so exceeding proudly ; let not
arrogancy come out of your mouth ; for the Lord
God is a God of knoivledgc , and by him actions are
7Ufighcd." Is it not possible that our Maker may
have a way of searching out sin superior to ours ?
And is it not possible that, beneath the plausible
exterior of even the most amiable and correct life
we meet, there may be feelings, and purposes,
and principles definitely cherished, which wilfully
injure its virtue, and perhaps vitiate its entire
worth ?

In one of the fugitive essays of Montaigne there
is found a very frank acknowledgment on this
point ; remarkable, likewise, for a figure of speech
of intense energy in the expression. He says :
" When I the most strictly and religiously confess
myself, I find that the best virtue I have has in it
some tincture of vice ; and I am afraid that Plato,

SECRET SINS. 1 79

A spiritual stethoscope. The divine standard.

in his purest virtue, if he had listened and laid his
ear close to himself, would have heard some jarring
sound of human mixture." You have seen skilful
surgeons covering the chest of a patient with a
napkin, or touching it with a wooden stethoscope,
that they might detect symptoms of hidden dis-
ease, while laying the ear heavily against the
lungs. Every man may expect to make some
fresh discoveries, if he will lay his ear of candor
alongside of the innermost seat of thought, feel-
ing, and behavior. It is better to make use of
spiritual auscultation before any one pronounces
himself healthily clean from all wrong. This
heart of ours is deceitful above all things and des-
perately wicked. Profitable listening, in order to
a cure, this might occasionally be to us all : hu-
miliating, however, no doubt. It harasses the
pride to do it much. It piques the vanity to do
it often. But no man can righteously pronounce
on his own case before God, unless he seeks to
know it as God knows. And here in our text we
are told that God sets all our " secret sins" before
him.

II. This, then, is our first lesson to-day — God's
knowledge of all our sins is thorough and exact.
It adds, now, to the force of what has been said
to learn from this verse a second particular. The
Almighty intends to make men see what he sees,
and ultimately render judgment upon themselves.

Hence he discloses clearly the standard he em-
ploys. He declares that all transgression of the

l8o SERMONS IN SONGS.

God's " countenance." " Iron sharpeneth iron."

divine law must be estimated according to the
purity of the God against whom it is committed.
The scriptural admonition has here been cast into
so striking a rhetorical form that no one can miss
its force. " Thou hast set our iniquities before
thee, our secret sins in the light of thy conntenancc."

The human face is worth a study by itself. It
is the true placard of individual character. It
announces by its rapid changes each fluctuation of
feeling, each fitful flitting of emotion and senti-
ment. Its smile is life. Its frown is death. Its
shadow is gloom. Its kindling is joy. The feat-
ures have power and office to proclaim the inner
purposes of the soul. There have been men who
knew and feared this. They drilled their facial
muscles, as they drilled their menials and their
mutes, that they should simply serve and make
no sign. But even the best discipline failed if the
pressure grew heavy. You can read the hopes
and despairs of the tempted — the knaveries of the
hypocrite, and the sorrows of the pure -the
maiden's love, and the mother's care — jealousies,
greed, and malevolence — penitent pleading, and
sorrowful regret — indeed, all the possible disclo-
sures of our mysterious nature you can read in
the lines of the countenance turned toward you.

Here, therefore, is where souls come in contact.
They deal with each other at the face. " Iron
sharpeneth iron ; so a man sharpeneth the counte-
nance of his friend." Hence Scripture uses the
liijure often. When Cain was wroth " his counte-

SECRET SINS. l8l

God's countenance is God's character. Chrysostom s remark.

nance fell. ' ' J acob looked upon ' ' the countenance
of Laban, and behold, it -was not toward him as
before." Out of this come our common expres-
sions in speech. We say we " set our faces as a
flint" to resist evil. "We say we will, or will not,
" countenance ' one another in a given behavior.
And we mean by this to announce that we delib-
erately desire our features to be read, as express-
ing our silent opinion. When this same habit is
in a trope transferred to God, we feel we shall
reach a full understanding- of the words by work-
ing up through our customary experiences, till we
attain the height of the divine perfection. God's
countenance is God's unmistakable character. Of
course, then, the standard is supreme.

All of us are conscious of the salutary check we
receive, when under the awe of some notable per-
son's presence. " The very countenance of holy
men," said old Chrysostom, " is full of spiritual
power." Coarse people instinctively hush their
voices when they enter the company of those who
are gentle and refined. And in regard to most
kinds of vice, it may be safely assumed that a
wicked person will frequently be quite deterred
for a time from words and deeds which he would
hardly ever consider shameful before his fellows
in sin, just by being put into the companionship
of the good and the true, who he knows will de-
spise them. We rightly estimate moral acts with
a becoming reference to the presence we are in.
What would be considered, possibly, a harmless

l82 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Circumstances fix moral quality. A dignified " face."

little indulgence in free company, becomes boor-
ishness unpardonable when we are on our best
behavior in state. That which is a mere famil-
iarity with our friend might be a dangerous pre-
sumption with a stranger. The manner we wear
with our equals must be more sedate and respect-
ful when we meet those who are our superiors in
)-ears or in merit. So a ribald song, or an inde-
cent story, which i-aised an applause among roy-
stering comrades, may give a young man a life-
long regret and shame, when he remembers how
he was betrayed into repeating it in better and
purer company, by the wild enthusiasm of an in-
discreet hour. Especially if he recalls the sad
and sorrov/ful face of some calm, venerable man,
who looked down upon him with pity.

Let this simple process of illustration be carried
on, and you will see that the higher the exaltation
of character, the greater the guilt — that is, the
baseness and wrong of a bad act are aggravated
by the purity of the presence which condemns it.
There are men and women whose dignity and
nobleness always seem to be an encouragement to
manliness and a rebuke to vile words and deeds.
And our sense of shame tells us instinctively that
a wrong done intentionally offensive to them is a
wrong aggravated with an insult.

Now, if you would be at the pains of looking
out those almost innumerable passages in the
Bible which speak of the " countenance" of God,
you would find that everywhere this is repre-

SECRET SINS. 1 83

The help of a countenance. " Exceeding sinful."

sented as being our choicest benediction. God's
face has no frown upon it. He is never to be
thought of as standing sternly by, to watch his
children, and frighten them, as they try to be easy
and cheerful. His presence is more like that of a
mother, who comes into company to keep the
children's courage up. You should accustom
yourselves to regard God as ever with a sweet,
grave smile on his face, looking upon you. Re-
member the prayer of the Psalmist: "Lord, lift
thou up the light of thy countenance upon us."
Then remember his thanksgiving : " When thou
saidst. Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee.
Thy face. Lord, will I seek. O my soul, hope
thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for tJie help
of his countenance ; I shall yet praise him who is
the health of my countenance, and my God !"

So you can see at a glance the meaning of that
singular expression in one of the epistles about
the exxeeding sinfulness of sin. The apostle tells
us that sin became so "exceeding sinful," be-
cause it was so palpable a perversion of our
mightiest benediction. It was presuming upon
the very forbearance of divine love. To keep to
our figure, it was as if the guilty man chose the
chance, when God's countenance was before him
for cheer and assistance, to offer gratuitous insult
as return for favor. Thus when grace and justice
presented themselves in the holy and good law
given to men for any one to disobey it was — as the
Greek phrase runs — " beyond hyperbole sinful ;"

l84 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Sin's abominableness. God " hates" sin.

inexpressibly wicked ; inconceivably malignant
and base.

From all these considerations it is evident we
shall have to change a great many of our notions
as to the nature of transgression and guilt. We
are to look upon sin not as a mere offence against
human enactment, not as a crime against social
order, not as a culpable disregard of public senti-
ment, not as a mere blunder in good breeding —
not as bad taste or coarse conduct. It may be all
this, but its inherent abominableness lies in the
fact that it is the thing God hates. He sees it all,
no matter how secret it seems. " He that planted
the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the
eye, shall he not see ? There is no darkness nor
shadow of death where the workers of iniquity
may hide themselves."

Furthermore, we must bring all sin, for its reg-
ister of quality and aggravation, directly up before
God's countenance. We are to take into consid-
eration the dignity and exaltation of his person.
He never treats a sin as an abstraction or an acci-
dent. It is an individual act, and is leveled at
him. Somebody is to blame for it. We must
remember, likewise, the absolutely spotless char-
acter of God. He will not look upon iniquity
with any degree of allowance. We are his creat-
ures, his subjects, his dependents. His power
rejects sin as weakness. His wisdom rejects sin
as folly. His holiness rejects sin as foulness and
defilement. His goodness rejects sin as an injury

SECRET SINS. 185

Owen's remark. God's paternal attitude.

and harm. Hi^ truth is pledged that his justice
will punish sin with horrible tempests and fire.
His entire nature is set irrevocably against all
kinds of wickedness. And we are to estimate its
malignity by the register he furnishes. We are to
set every iniquity in the light of his countenance.
Well said the pious Owen : " He that has slight
views of sin never yet has had great views of
God."

Of course, then, we find ourselves all con-
demned without exception and beyond all hope.
What remains ? Just here divine clemency enters
the field. God loads us with extraordinary ben-
efits. He bids us instantly put away our sins, not
by concealing and covering them, but by confes-
sion of them. Promises and admonitions hedge
up the way to any further outbreak. Hopes and
blessings adorn the path to holiness and peace.
Christ the Son of God is sent to the earth to make
an atonement.

And now to go on in sin is simply awful. It is
an offence against redeeming love. The most
wonderful picture in all the Bible seems to be that
of a Being like God, stretching out both his hands
in the gesture of imploring men to come to him
and be forgiven. " As I live, saith the Lord
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way
and live ; turn ye, turn ye from your evil wa3"S ;
for why will ye die ?"

XVI
THE "BENEDICTUS" OF ZACHARIAS.

" Blessed BE the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited

AND redeemed HIS PEOPLE." — Lttkc I : 68.

Almost every old writer who has had occasion
to comment upon this part of the New Testament
has been arrested by the evident determination
to join Luke to Malachi in the person of John
the Baptist. We have already seen how Gabriel
quotes the prediction concerning Elijah's return,
and applies it directly here to this forerunner of
Christ. And now after Zacharias has passed his
discipline of dumb silence, he suddenly comes forth
with a song, the meaning and the beauty of which
he derives from that same final chapter of the Old
Testament. " The dayspring from on high hath
visited us," is only another form of saying what
Malachi had said before : " The Sun of Righteous-
ness shall arise with healing in his wings."

We now enter upon the detailed study of an-
other New Testament psalm, the " Benedictus,"
so called from the first word in it which in Latin
means blessed. Three points of notice are sug-
gested as a sufficient analysis for use in the sermon :
the strangeness of this song-making, the spirit of
the exercise, and the brilliancy of the figure.

THE " BENEDICTUS " OF ZACHARIAS. 1 8/

Three great songs. The origin of psalms,

I. Let us recall the fact that Zacharias was not
alone in his song-making on this extraordinary
occasion. It is not wise to pass over with only
the mention of it a strange incident so full of
significance. All these people suddenly became
imaginative and musical ; and what they produced
is actually of the highest literary and devotional
character. Mary sings the Magnificat, Zacharias
sings the Benedictus, and Simeon sings the Nunc
Dimittis. And these three songs are so fine that
the churches at large have placed them in their
liturgies for sixty generations.

No one can thoughtfully read the Old Testa-
ment and the New without observing that more
was made of music and poetry than we in this day
are wont to acknowledge. To a people trained to
this habit of improvisation there would be nothing
remarkable in the incident now under our stud3^
That Zacharias did poetic work at all in this su-
preme moment of his existence would awake no
such surprise as we attach to the circumstance ;
and that he did it so well would be attributed (as
it should be) to the presence of the Holy Ghost.

It is significant that when these persons had a
fresh theme of the gospel to celebrate, they felt
themselves perfectly free to sing a song which
should exactly befit and express it, even if it
had to be composed on the instant. This was the
example David, the sweet singer of Israel, had
set before them. When he was brought up out of
the horrible pit of some convulsing experience, and

1 88 SERMONS IN SONGS.

There must be new hymns always. The Queen of Scots.

his feet were again set upon a rock, he said the
Lord " hath put a new song in my mouth." So
here : Simeon, and Zacharias, and Mary, having
a wonderful experience of what was exalted and
inspiritingbeyond anything ever before conceived,
made a new song to sing, and the Holy Ghost
gave acceptance and added inspiration.

One of the best of our modern commentators
does not hesitate to say that the Song of Zach-
arias, like that of Mary, is a charming echo from
the ancient lyrical minstrelsy of the Hebrews. It
was uttered under the immediate inspiration of
the Holy Spirit, and is marked by the priestly
character of him who uttered it. That it was,
like that of Mary, an actual, unpremeditated out-
burst of the rapt spirit of its author, is unquestion-
able. Preserved, doubtless, in the familj^ archives,
or in the family tradition, they became known to
Luke in his minute inquiries into the events of
this remarkable epoch. The two inspired hymns
are among the most natural wonders of this won-
drous period.

On the night before her execution Mary Queen
of Scots composed a short prayer, and sang it
over by herself because she could not sleep. The
words are very musical in the Latin which she used :

" O domine Deus ! speravi in te !
O care mi Jesu ! nunc libera me !
In dura catena — in misera poena —
Desidero te !
Languendo, gemendo, et genu flectendo,
Adoro, imploro, ut liberes me !"

THE " BENEDICTUS " OF ZACH ARIAS. 1 89

Madame Guyon. Augustine's estimate.

Here appears to be the passionate wish of a cap-
tive to escape. Perhaps it will show its sense
better in a free translation into English :

O Lord God Almighty ! my hope is in thee !

0 Jesus beloved, now liberate me !

In durance the drearest, in bonds the severest —
My desire is to thee !
In sighing and crying, on bended knees lying,

1 adore — I implore thou wouldst liberate me !

When Madame Guyon and her faithful maid
were imprisoned, she composed songs for her
comfort. " And then," says she, " we sang them
together, praises unto thee, O our God ! It some-
times seemed to me as if I were a little bird, whom
the Lord had placed in a cage, and that I had
nothing to do now but sing !"

It seems natural for any one to spring into song
under the stress of deep feeling. And when the
song is fine, wc are eager to learn the circum-
stances under which it was composed. It is more
than curiosity which prompts us to look up the
experimental origin of certain favorite hymns. To
a peculiarly high fitness for such an occasion
Zacharias adds the gift of inspiration.

It seems appropriate to quote just here the
testimony which the great Augustine bears to the
excellence of Zacharias's work upon this occasion :
" O blessed hymn of joy and praise ! divinely in-
spired by the Holy Ghost, and divinely pro-
nounced by the venerable priest, and daily sung

190 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The spirit of song-making. Peter Martyr's letter.

in the Church of God ! Oh, may thy words be
often in my mouth, and the sweetness of them
always in my heart ! The expressions thou usest
are the comfort of my hfe ; and the subject thou
treatest of, the hope of all the world !"

II. In the second place, having seen that this
song-making for a new experience is not so very
strange, after all, let us try to enter into the spirit
of the exercise. The enthusiasm of such an occa-
sion is very bright and cheerful. " Is any among
you merry ? Let him sing psalms." Would that
the study of this lesson might set all the wide
Christian w^orld singing the Benedictus to-day !

For there is value in a volume of voices, when
singing with the spirit and understanding also.
Bishop Jewell, writing to Peter Martyr, March,
1560, says : " Religion is now somewhat more
established than it was. The people are every-
where exceedingly inclined to the better part.
Ecclesiastical and popular music has much con-
duced to this result. For as soon as they had
once commenced to sing publicly in only one little
church in London, immediately not only the other
neighboring churches, but even the towns far dis-
tant, began to vie with each other in the same
practice. At times you may see at Paul's Cross,
after sermon, six thousand persons, old and young,
of both sexes, singing together and praising God.
This sadly annoys the priests and the devil ; for
they see that by these means the sacred discourses
sink more deeply into men's minds, and that their

THE " BENEDICTUS OF ZACHARIAS. I9I

Strange choirs. Christians on " tiptoes."

kingdom is shaken and shattered at almost every
note."

So instinctive and habitual was this exercise of
singing when multitudes were gathered together,
that all through the Old Testament we find the
highest personifications of inspired Israelitish
poets falling into musical form. Sometimes they
offer to us the suggestion of the queerest kinds of
choirs :

" Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons,
and all deeps : fire, and hail ; snow, and vapor ;
stormy wind fulfilHng his word : mountains, and
all hills ; fruitful trees, and all cedars : beasts,
and all cattle ; creeping things, and flying fowl :
kings of the earth, and all people ; princes, and all
judges of the earth : both young men and maid-
ens ; old men, and children : let them praise the
name of the Lord : for his name alone is excel-
lent ; his glory is above the earth and heaven."

It would appear that these ancient seers pict-
ured all nature as on the alert, the moment God's
praise was mentioned, to burst forth into melody.
Now we may not go so far as to call upon trees to
clap their hands, and fire and hail, dragons and
deeps, to sing a doxology ; but we assuredly may
catch the spirit of such poetry, and hold our own
hearts ready for the summons when the hour of
praise comes in.

Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that the early
Christians, when the last acclamations of their
prayers were reached in the public services,

192 SERMONS IN SONGS.

William CuUen Bryant. The Lord God " singing."

would raise themselves upon their tiptoes, as if
they desired the word " Amen" should carry up
their bodies as well as their souls to heaven. This
makes us think of Byrant's exquisite lines :

" I look forth
Over the boundless blue ; where joyously
The bright crests of innumerable waves
Glance lo the sun at once — as when the hands
Of a great multitude are upward flung
In acclamation 1"

Two texts of Scripture there are which, put to-
gether, I think, are the most wonderful in the
Bible. They do suggest a child lying in a cradle,
and a loving face is bent over it, and a sweet voice
is murmuring above its head. But I marvel with
inexpressible surprise and adoration when I find
who the Singer is and who is the child. The first
verse is found in Isaiah 65 : 13 : "As one whom
his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."
The other verse I find in Zephaniah 3:17:" The
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; he
will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he
will rest in his love ; he will joy over thee with
singing." Oh, I have thought again and again,
in my history, of this picture, and I am not too
proud to say my eyes have filled with tears of
emotion as I have tried to comprehend how the
eternal Jehovah seems to sing beside one who
loves him, as I remember my mother used to sing
restful songs of comfort beside our bed on the old
Sabbath nisfhts !"

THE *' BENEDICTUS OF ZACHARIAS. I93

Kacharias' explicit theme. The " dayspring."

III. So now we come to the explicit theme of
the Benedictiis, and we have a little time left in
which to speak of the matchless figure of speech
in which this theme is cast. Zacharias once turns
suddenly to address his song to the infant which
his faith follows into the distance. Most pathetic
are his words, as he imagines this little babe
grown up, and leading the people to that Saviour
of whom he is the appointed herald : " And thou,
child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest."
But he cannot keep far from his main subject,
which is the coming of Mary's child, and not his
own.

In describing the revelation of Christ as the
Redeemer of men, he says : " The dayspring from
on high hath visited us." This splendid figure of
speech is taken from the dawn of morning on the
night. And in order to understand fully the
force of the rhetoric, we must bear in mind one of
the natural phenomena of those eastern regions.

So pure is the atmosphere there, so far south,
that clouds in the sky are not usual save in the
rainy season. There seems really nothing to hin-
der the sun's going down, nothing to get in the
way of his rising again. When he sets, he goes
abruptly behind the adjacent hill ; when he rises,
he comes up unannounced, and in a quick moment
is altogether on hand for his daily work — that is
to say, there is positively no twilight, as we de-
scribe it, in those latitudes. The instant the day
reaches its natural close, the sun appears to slide

194 SERMONS IN SONGS.

No twilight in the East. Richter's remark.

down the sky without any leave-taking. Just so
when the dawn starts. When yesterday's mon-
arch dismisses himself, and it is time for to-da3''s
to succeed him, there he is, unheralded and
serenely unhurried, calmly seated in his shining
pavilion of clear air. Nothing surprises a tourist
more than this sudden change.

Zacharias seizes this astonishing figure, and
turns it to account. For four centuries it had
been dark — dark with sin, dark with ignorance,
dark with oppression — and now in one excited in-
stant of disclosure the Sun of Righteousness had
risen with healing in his wings. No wonder his
heart was full ; no wonder his dumbness gave
way, and his glad voice lifted such a song !

It was long ago given as a remark of Jean Paul
Richter that " mere music, without text, cannot
reproduce anything immoral." Cannot we go a
step farther to-day, and declare that music with a
text like that given us here will produce only that
which is spiritual in hope and love ? Let us keep
singing on, and always singing on about the day-
spring from on high which has visited us. The
light of the gospel is a gleam of the light of
heaven. Oh, what will the full splendor of its
noon be by and by ? When the Gauls had tasted
the wine of Italy, they began to ask where the
grapes grew, and they would never be quiet till
they came there.

XVII.
THE FIRST PSALM.

" For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous : but

THE WAY OF THE UNGODLY SHALL PERISH." — Psalni I : 6.

One of the most interesting volumes lately
issued is entitled " Gates into the Psalm Coun-
try." I venture to borrow its title a moment.
The truest theology, as well as the highest experi-
ence of spiritual life, finds its way most swiftly
and most permanently into the hymns of the time ;
and those periods in history which are most pro-
lific of excellent hymns — hymns that stand use and
continue through the ages — are what might be
called the revival seasons of Christendom. And
just so these old Psalms mark revival times.

For wisdom, pithiness, and force religious lyrics
are to every church what proverbs are to every
nation. They reach the high-water mark of pious
intelligence and fervor of their generation as a
record and register of what then could be done.
And no one will ever go sweeping through the
gates into the Psalm country, with an apprecia-
tive zest of feeling, until he has learned to bear in
mind that even these inspired songs were revival
songs. They were made slowly, and sifted severe-
ly. It is likely that many a poet thrust himself

196 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Psalms not in the Psalter. .Two " nors" and a " not."

into notice who now is utterly forgotten ; and
many a psalm made the Hebrew language ring
sonorously which has now no place in the Psalter.
Only these are retained that the Holy Ghost
prompted. One hundred and fifty are given in
the Old Testament, and remain a standing monu-
ment of the best life God's chosen people ever
lived.

So much of general remark I have indulged in
the hope of aiding a little in the external study of
the book as a whole. But my main purpose to-
day is the expository discussion of some points in
the first Psalm, which is offered as the lesson for
next Sabbath.

It is undoubtedly a sort of preface song, an in-
troduction to what comes after. As in a fine
overture the musician appears seeking to give i:s
the key-strain of the work that follows, without
anticipating and so exhausting it by an actual
transcription of that melod}^ on which he relies
for his effect — so here the author has indicated
what the whole Psalter has in charge — namely, to
show an unfailing difference between two styles
of character prevalent for all time among men ;
the " godly" are " blessed," the " ungodly" are
— by a singular turn of speech — " not so, not so."

The first surprise which will strike most readers
here is undoubtedly the negative form of descrip-
tion employed. The whole instruction turns
upon two " nors" and a " not." The righteous
is rewarded for what he does not do : " Blessed is

THE FIRST PSALM, I97

" Oh, the blesbednesses !" Eight " nots" in the Decalogue.

the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful," All the char-
acters mentioned here may have their excellences ;
the ungodly have their counsels, the sinners have a
pleasant zvay with them, the scornful have a
proud scat to sit in. They will always invite un-
wary ones to walk with them, to stand with them,
to sit with them. A wicked man may be witty ;
a worldly man may be attractive ; a sinner may be
brilliant. But this verse says distinctly, Blessed
is the soul which utterly rejects ail they have to
proffer. The language is explosive and interjec-
tional — -even the word is in the plural : " Oh, the
blessednesses of the man who has nothing what-
ever to do with such people ! But his delight is
in the law of the Lord ; and in his law doth he
meditate day and night."

We shall lose much if we do not appreciate the
exact force of this scriptural word "not." Of
the ten commandments in the Decalogue, eight
are mere precepts with a " not" in them. This
style of speech indicates a fallen and ruined na-
ture, all the activities of which need sternly to be
resisted. But the inspired Scriptures do not ex-
haust themselves in simple repression. They offer
a positive life which is worth an acceptance. To
be truly blessed, this man must delight in the law
of God, and have it for his meditation.

Such expressions call us back, with almost the
exact phraseology, to the day when the Lord

198 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Mere book-reading. God's thought of a tree.

gave charge to Joshua the new leader : " This
book of the law shall not depart out of thy
mouth ; but thou shalt meditate therein day and
night, that thou mayest observe to do according
to all that is written therein : for then thou shalt
make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt
have good success."

Let us understand that the picture here sug-
gested does not demand for its centre figure a
man sitting stiffly up with a book in his lap, en-
gaged in perpetual reading. It is no business of
an honest pulpit to waste time in rebuking carica-
ture. The meaning a sober interpreter would
find here is, that one shall see God in everything.
Some sort of perusal of God's Word is necessary ;
but it is no counsel of this Psalm that a man shall
bind himself down literally to letter-press in the
night-time and through the day. The law of the
Lord is in his providence, in his mountains and
hills around about Jerusalem, in his rainfalls and
sunshines, in his spiritual presence and his actual
government, in his sacraments and in his people.
God is in all one's thoughts when he keeps finding
an idea of God suggested in everything he sees,
or loves, or lives. " And he shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth
his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not
wither ; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

Now, the poetry begins ; for a more exquisite
image can hardly be conceived. " What a thought
was that," exclaims the great art critic Ruskin —

THE FIRST PSALM. I99

Jeremiah's similar language. Beside the Nile.

" what a thought was that, when the Almighty
first thought of a tree !" Most Bible-students
will detect the similarity here, both of sentiment
and phraseology, to that of Jeremiah : " Thus
saith the Lord ; Cursed be the man that trusteth
in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart
departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good
cometh ; but shall inhabit the parched places in
the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and
whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a
tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out
her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat
cometh, but her leaf shall be green ; and shall not
be careful in the j^ear of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit."

We saw this brilliant figure as a literal fact, on
'our way to the Pyramids in 1866. All along the
journey from the banks of the Nile clear on, the
eye ranged over reaches of sand, white and wave-
less, interminably, till it touched those masses of
masonry on the Ghizeh ledge. Near the river the
soil is wonderfully prolific, as the black mould is
flung up by the annual inundation ; but before a
great while the land begins to show the force of
the fierce sun it scorches under. Deep seams and
broad cracks are discovered in the surface. Along
the banks tall palms shoot their stems up into the
serene air. Most exquisitely have they been com-
pared, knobbed and fluted as they are, to the

200 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Knobbed and fluted. The heath in the desert.

shafts of Moorish architecture. From a distance
they seem hke pillars of some forest mosque gone
to ruin, while from their summits droop the
graceful green plumes of living foliage, hanging
listlessly in the windless sunshine.

But now, looking in the other direction, and
pushing our tedious beasts along, we found the
sea of sand closing in around us entirely ; and
far as our vision could reach, only one stretch of
verdureless and waste whiteness could be dis-
cerned. The last vestige of vegetation on the
verge of the eternal sand is a little hard, wiry
plant with a star-like radiate of yellow prickles all
about its head, so horny and so keenly acute that
not even the leanest kind of Pharaoh's kine would
be persuaded b}^ starvation itself to browse upon
it. Our very donkeys passed it superciliously by.
This weed is the lonesomest, the most desolate,
most lean and sorrowful caricature of a flower 1
ever saw. Yet that is the scriptural " heath in
the desert ;" and those glorious palms just behind
us, indolently sweeping the sky with their luxuri-
ant branches, are the "trees planted by the wa-
ters, that shall not see when the heat cometh."

Ah me, how fresh the palms seemed to us out
there in the hot air ! One can hardl}^ realize how
forcible these natural emblems become under the
contrasted presence of them both ; before his own
open eyes the splendid plumes of the trees by the
stream side, the emaciated meagreness of that
heath out in the sand. I found myself quoting the

THE FIRST PSALM. 20I

A talk to a tree. " Not so — not so !"'

Psalm, because it was more familiar than the
words spoken by Jeremiah. I glided into a kind
of dreamy conversation with the tree and the
weed. I looked over at one particular palm — the
one I have a photograph of at home now, entitled
" Study of a Tree in Old Cairo" — and talked to it
there by myself with my Bible open in my hand.
I said, " You consider yourself well off here, set
down in the richest meadow by the river ; they
keep you close, however, it seems ; I wonder if
you deem it a restriction ; you cannot be permit-
ted to walk out there in the hard paths of the
desert ; it is forbidden for you to stand in the hot
spot where the heath is ; you have no leave to go
and sit on those bleak rocks with the Pyramids ;
but it appears as if you had the best chance of
all ; you are established safely — you have been
planted ; you are nourished plentifully — you are
beside the river; you are fruitful, too — bringing
to perfection your fruit in the season ; you are
perennial — I presume your leaf never withered
since you began to grow ; you are happy in all
the splendor of joyous tree- life — whatsoever you
do prospers.''

And then I turned to the lonesome little heath
in the sands, and I remembered that three ver-
sions of the Bible — the Septuagint, the Vulgate,
and the Syriac — repeat these words of contrast,
that the negative statement might have intensity :
" Not so, the ungodly, not so/" Then I went on
talking: to the weed. And I said : " Whatsoever

202 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A talk to the heath. Analogies of chaff.

the tree has, just that you never had ; you were
not planted — you have no rights anywhere ; you
are not nourished — you are out in a waterless
waste ; you are not fruitful — you scarcely can
live from season to season ; you are not welcome —
your leaf is withered into a dryness that not a fly
could find shadow under it ; you have no promise
of a future — nothing- about you seems to prosper ;
there is no charm in the look of you, no comfort
in staying where you belong ; the palm is good
company — not so the heath, not so !"

Thus we reach the turn in the Psalm, and the
turn of the description, and the turn of the figure
also. From the consideration of the righteous
man, the Psalmist passes to the description of an-
other style and type of character : " The ungodly
are not so : but are like the chaff which the wind
driveth away."

The analogies of chaff, as a symbol of wicked
men, are singularly striking. Of itself, chaff is
totally valueless ; no service has ever been found
to which it could be put. It is, in vegetable life,
the mere envelope of each grain of wheat. It lies
just next to the kernel ; but only the kernel is
ever looked after. No thrifty farmer will even so
much as leave it around. If it is not soon blown
away from the threshing-floor, it is gathered to be
burned idly in heaps ; and then it is the ashes
which are blown away finally.

Moreover, it would be difficult to find a better
simile than is offered here of such instability of

y

THE FIRST PSALM. 203

Inevitable drifting. Where does chaff go ?

character, that has no real foundation of good.
There is a necessary drifting- of this lawless stuff
before the winds of passion, or the winds of pop-
ular opinion, or the winds of human prejudice.
Outside forces carry away into a hopeless scatter-
ing the soul which has no force of its own. Ex-
ternal companionships and internal lusts join to
render it fickle.

Whither does the wind blow the chaff it finds in
its way ? Oh, who knows, and who cares ? Any-
where— anywhere — out of your sight ! But if you
ask whither does the wind blow spiritual chaff, the
New Testament gives answer, that they shall be
punished with " everlasting destruction from the
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his
power." No figure in the Bible is laid hold of
oftener in the midst of impassioned descriptions
than this ; the suddenness of a sinner's vanishing
away, and the utterness of his disappearance,
seem to be the two thoughts on which the inspired
writers dwell repeatedly ; and the simile they use
is that of the tree and the chaff. " Wherefore do
the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in
power ? Their seed is established in their sight
with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment
go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto
God, Depart from us ; for we desire not the
knowledge of thy wa3^s. What is the Almightv,
that we should serve him ; and what profit should
we have, if we pray unto him ? Lo, their good is

204 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The candle of the wicked. A green bay-tree.

not in their hand : the counsel of the wicked is far
from me. How oft is the candle of the wicked
put out ? and how oft cometh their destruction
upon them ? God distributeth sorrows in his
anger. They are as stubble before the wind, and
as chaff that the storm carrieth away."

Oh, why will not men ponder these things !
How small a Bible David had, at the time when
he wrote this psalm ; and yet he talked about
meditating upon it day and night. The truest
style of piety is that which is Christ-like, and the
most trustworthy religion is that which is Bible-
grounded. And each of these is reached by
study, and is rendered possible by grace. Only
people refuse to give thought to what concerns
them most ; the tree grows in the night as well as
in the day ; 7iot so, the nngodly, not so ! How
vividly such images are presented by these in-
spired poets in the other Psalms : " I have seen
the wicked in great power, and spreading himself
like a green bay-tree. Yet he passed away, and
lo, he was not : yea, I sought him, but he could
not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold
the upright : for the end of that man is peace.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together :
the end of the wicked shall be cut off."

At this point the Psalm before us changes form.
There is an excited and rapid urging forward of
each thought. Over the bounds of this dispensa-
tion, across the line that separates two worlds of
experience, we find ourselves hurried in order to

THE FIRST PSALM. 205

'' The Lord knoweth." Carlyle's question.

reach results as they congeal into changeless des-
tiny : " Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in
the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous." Here that word "judgment"
falls on our ears ; and we learn all we need to
know concerning the grand gathering of the elect
of God in which no one else has any part. And
in just that delineation of a final settlement comes
the image of the chaff to view again ; the judge
himself becomes a witness : " For the Lord know-
eth the way of the righteous : but the way of the
ungodly shall perish." We are told elsewhere
that the Lord knoweth them that are his. It is
plain, therefore, that he knows all the race at
once. He makes us understand that he does not
propose to wait through any tedious process of
calling testimony to decide whether a heap of
chaff may not possibly be a living tree, after all.
No; " The Lord knoweth."

On the human side, then, the history of the
wicked man comes to an end ; " the way of the
ungodly" perishes, the trail is lost, the rivulet
dries up, the channel grasses over, silence suc-
ceeds. The name of the righteous is held in ever-
lasting remembrance, but not so, the ungodly, not
so ; the name of the wicked shall rot !

But now, on the side which is not human, man
dieth and wasteth away, and where is he ?
Thomas Carlyle, not interested in some after-
dinner speeches which were going on around the
table where a great company of scholars sat,

2o6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Where do sinners go ? * Chaff is burned up.

turned suddenly to a sceptical wiseacre sitting
next to him, and asked in a rough whisper,
" Will you be kind enough to tell me your opin-
ion as to the exact place where wicked people
really do go after death ?" What the answer was
is not given ; but the question was sharp, and yet
modest. Where do unconverted men and women
go after they die ? ISIight it not be quite interest-
ing to read over what God's Word has to reply to
this? "For behold, the day cometh, that shall
burn as an oven ; and all the proud, yea, and all
that do wickedly, shall be stubble : and the day
that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch. But unto you that fear my name shall
the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his
wings ; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as
calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the
wicked ; for they shall be ashes under the soles of
your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the
Lord of hosts. Whose fan is in his hand, and he
will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his
wheat into the garner ; but he will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire."

XVIII.
GETTING RID OF STRANGE CHILDREN.

" Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange chil-
dren, WHOSE MOUTH SPEAKETH VANITY, AND THEIR RIGHT HAND
IS A RIGHT HAND OF FALSEHOOD : THAT OUR SONS MAY BE AS
PLANTS GROWN UP IN THEIR YOUTH ; THAT OUR DAUGHTERS MAY
BE AS CORNER-STONES, POLISHED AFTER THE SIMILITUDE OF A

PALACE." — Psalm 144 : 11, 12.

Just now we happen to hear much concerning
the troLiblesomeness of children. They get the
nickname of " responsibihties. " It may seem a
poor, commonplace thought to introduce here,
but it is frightfully practical ; how difficult it is to
rent a house or to engage summer board for a
family that contains boys and girls ! It is rather
considered that they are quite in the way by some
who expect to be counted as refined people, even
by some who come regularly to communion as
the followers of Jesus Christ. But what must one
think of an incident like that recorded in the life
of the Master ?

" And Jesus called a little child unto him, and
set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I
say unto you, Except ye be converted, and be-
come as little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall
humble himself as this little child, the same is

2o8 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Stumbling-stones and millstones. Ancient usages.

greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso
shall receive one such little child in my name,
receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of
these little ones which believe in me, it were
better for him that a millstone were hanged about
his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth
of the sea."

Perhaps it is as well for us to learn the lesson at
once, so that we might accept the statement which
the words of the Saviour would teach — namely,
that little children are the true wards of the
church, and ou^ht to be welcomed, cherished,
and valued highly.

I. No one while reading the Old Testament
history can have failed to observe how carefully
children were noticed, and how providentially
their wants were forestalled.

Counsels without number are given with refer-
ence to all the younger members of the families.
They were to be solemnly' dedicated under a pre-
scribed ordinance. They were to be trained in
all the matters of the ceremonial law. Historical
and commemorative festivals were to be explained
to their understanding, so as to be fixed in their
intelligent recollection. They were not allowed
to come under the contaminating influences which
nurses of a different religion might possibly exert.
As soon as the}^ could speak, the}' were taught to
repeat sentences from the Scriptures. In the
schools the law of Moses formed one of their
common text-books. A sort of degree was to be

GETTING RID OF STRANGE CHILDREN, 209

Putting on manhood. Jesus' childhood.

taken at thirteen years old, and they received there-
after the names of " sons of the commandment."
And the settled rule in the Jewish nation was that
as soon as they were able to walk up Mount
Moriah by holding on to their fathers' hands, they
were to go to Jerusalem to keep their first passover.

All along their growing years until they were
mature, they were held under strictest guardian-
ship ; and, at the last, when one had passed out of
boyhood, he was brought officially before ten of
the picked men, and by legal act was thrown on
his own responsibility, his parents on that occa-
sion soberly laying off the charge of their cove-
nant, and thankmg God that they had been spared
to complete his education and now offer him to
God and the nation.

II. Nor under the New Testament do we find
that this definite care of the young was in any de-
gree diminished. Jesus' early history in Nazareth
affords a most pertinent example of parental faith-
fulness under many discouraging circumstances.
And in his after life, when the burden of his min-
istry was upon him, over and over again he mani-
fested publicly the interest he felt in all of tender
years. Nowhere in his history does he commend
himself and his gospel so much to our hearts as
when we find him taking children in his arms to
bless them. The apostles received from him an
unmistakable teaching in this direction, and their
epistles are crowded with counsels concerning the
care of the young.

2IO SERMONS IN SONGS.

David's prayer. Only a living cry.

Now, what does all this mean ? Is it not God's
own way of manifesting how much in earnest he
was when he made his inspired servant of old say,
" Children are an heritage from the Lord " } He
has certainly intended that his people should
cherish no more cordial wish, and utter no more
tender prayer, than that of David in the best part
of his history : ' Rid me and deliver mc from the
hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh
vanity, and their right hand is a hand of false-
hood ; that our sons may be as plants grown up
in their 3^outh, that our daughters may be as
corner-stones polished after the similitude of a
palace."

III. So we reach the easy inference that every
child is a gift from God ; a valuable gift, a gift
which the Giver himself prizes highly, and expects
to be sincerely respected.

And why should he not ? Think a moment :
what is a child ? It seems a feeble, miserable
bundle of wants and wailings. For it has only
one medium of communication with the external
world. A single articulation remains as the sign
of its wonderfully mysterious life and immortal-
ity ; it can do nothing intelligible but cry. Its
unappreciated voice has no cadence, no modula-
tion, no varying mood. It can only weep, and
moan, and murmur. Its entire gamut consists of
notes of discomfort, and the scale of its music is
minor. All its vocabulary is cast upon the regis-
ters of pain.

GETTING RID OF STRANGE CHILDREN. 211

A child's possibilities. Capabilities and susceptibilities.

But remember that child's possibilities. See
how biography lies knotted up in that twisted
little hand. See how history will work itself out
from under the involutions of that insignificant
forehead. Picture the revelations of the future ;
for something of importance was added to the
resources of the world on the day that small
being was born. There are ten more fingers
to weave in this planet's intricate work ; there
are two more feet to be henceforth busily going
on human errands ; there is one more tongue
to fill the air with the accents of omnipotent
speech.

Think also of each child's capabilities. There
are undeveloped powers of mind now silent and
dormant in that plastic brain. Perhaps, if one
were to search, he would find somewhere an artis-
tic skill with the pencil, or a musical success with
the keys, in the muscles and the gifts now so far
out of sight. It is wonderful to imagine how
much one feeble infant will by and by be able to
do of evil, or of good.

Recollect likewise that child's susceptibilities.
The full measure of what any human being can
suffer or can enjoy remains as yet locked in the
secret issues of even a babe's existence. When
the waves of the years come rocking on under it,
and the surroundings of present home-life are
broken up, then it must perforce advance into the
toil and turmoil of the world ; and some of us
know where the stings are which will reach it,

212 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The martyr Ignatius. Moses in the ark.

and where the sweet privileges lie which will give
it a new song ; and some of us do not.

Once our Lord stood holding a little boy by the
hand, while he preached to his disciples about
humility. Ecclesiastical tradition has said that
the lad grew up to be the martyr Ignatius, who
was thrown to the wild beasts in the Coliseum at
Rome. How glorious was the gladness he felt in
his Saviour, and how terrible was the pain he
experienced when the roar was heard, and the
teeth of the ravenous creatures were tearing his
limbs in pieces ! But who could have dreamed
of such a thing when the fair child stood there
unconsciously serving the Master for an exquisite
text ?

IV. Hence, each infant is to be estimated, when
one would rightly register its value, by its future,
and not by its present show. The secret lies
here : " For of such is the kingdom of heaven."

We have been just lately studying the transfig-
uration scene. One of the attendants of Jesus
there, radiant with glistering glory, was within a
remembered period down in the water of the river
Nile, an outlaw slave-child in an ark of bulrushes.
Our imagination pictures him when he was
watched only by the eyes of one little Hebrew
girl ; and it is still an undecided question whether
Miriam or Moses was the most exposed to peril.
But the lad went up to the king's palace ; learned
all there was to know in Egyptian lore ; and be-
came the leader and lawgiver of God's people.

GETTING RID OF STRANGE CHILDREN. 21 3

" Ordering" a child. Scraps of paper.

Afterward he marched through the wilderness,
smiting rocks for water, and defeating foes with
holding up his hands. Then he disappeared for
fifteen centuries, until now he came down from
heaven to talk with Elijah about the old story of
the cross. So we know he still is alive, and will
show himself again in the infinite ages after the
world is burned, and when they sing Moses' song
and the Lamb's.

It is wise to look thoughtfully upon each young
child while it waits for its growth, and remember
it is contemporaneous with God. If it be our
child — ours to love, or ours to teach — let us ask
the old question : " How shall we order the
child?" If it be the child of another, then still
let us ask the question how its future can be made
valuable.

V. It must be very melancholy to lose a child,
then, by simple neglect. We lose in the same
moment all there might have been in its history.

When I was last in the East I asked my drago-
man whether the saying I had heard quoted so
often was true, that the Mohammedans gather
carefully every scrap of paper, because possibly
the name of God may be written upon it. He
answered that no good Mussulman would ever set
his foot on a flying slip or sheet, but would pick
it up and examine it, if he had time. And if he
found it to be without any inscription, I contin-
ued, would he have the same care about it ?
"Yes," he replied, "for he would say to him-

214 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The name of Immanuel. The army on the Alps.

self, God's name can perhaps be written upon it
now, or by and by."

I find myself thinking of this same thing many a
time as these waifs of the street pass me in daily
life. Who knows that the name of Immanuel is
not written on any given child's forehead ? And
even, if confessedly not, who knows but it may
be, with the divine blessing, written there here-
after ? I confess I am surprised at the compara-
tive success of mere humanitarian efforts over gos-
pel efforts for the young. They are not always
easier. I would not have the former less, but the
latter more.

The great world around will give money in full
measure for summer excursions up the river ; but
chapels languish, mission schools lie heav}', and
real religious work goes hard. It seems as if
some Christians could be moved to sympathy
more easily over children's bodies than over their
souls. The other day I read aloud just a little
tale from French history, and half my listeners
were in tears at the end.

It was only this : One time, when the army of
Italy was crossing the Alps, threescore or more
years ago, on that famous expedition with which
all adventurous history rings, a nameless drum-
mer-boy was swept from the ranks by the sudden
dash of an avalanche, hurrying him down into a
deep hollow, lined with never- dissolving snow,
such as frequently lies along among those desolate
mountains. Singularly enough, he was not seri-

GETTING RID OF STRANGE CHILDREN. 21 5

A drummer-boy lost. What was one lad ?

ously injured by the plunge ; he had slipped and
slid over the crust of ice, and his light body had
met very few bruises, and no blows that were
fatal.

He clambered up to the top of the mass, and
waved his hand aloft to show that he was alive.
Along the giddy brink, two hundred feet above,
the advancing train slowly and wearily filed on.
His drum still hung suspended from his neck. It
could not be said just which he intended, to keep
his blood warm or to attract the notice of the
men, but he began to beat the military calls and
changes to which he had been trained. In that
clear, frosty air sound goes to an almost incredible
distance. Every stroke of the tattoo, the reveille,
the advance, the charge, was heard by every
soldier that marched on ; they commented admir-
ingly upon the pluck of the brave little musician,
v/ho patiently kept his sticks flying.

Of course the path up the mountain-side zig-
zags, in order to rise over the immense acclivity.
Thus it came to pass that for a while the v.'^hole
army would be out of sight, and then return
again, near in line, but farther up the steep. Clear
and echoing floated up that rattling drum-beat on
their ears. Hardy veterans there were, who wept
as the hours passed and they perceived they were
leaving the poor boy behind. No command
seemed likely to come now for any effort to save
his life. Word had already been sent to the em-
peror, but he had decided to leave the lad where

2l6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

His own funeral march. The grave of ice.

he was. What was one single drummer-boy to
the army of Napoleon Bonaparte ? And before
long it became evident that so the lad understood
it likewise.

He redoubled his activity. Natural fear of
freezing stimulated him for a short time to re-
newed exertions, and he vigorovisly plied his arms
to keep his life-pulses warm. Far along the thin,
bright ridge above him he saw the vanishing col-
umns growing fainter. At last he knew they did
not intend to give him rescue. Then, brave in
the midst of absolute despair, he suddenly changed
the brisk relief-call he had been beating to a
strain sadder and of a deeper meaning. He
paused a few moments, then began a funeral
march. They all heard those sober strokes of
death in the cold air, but could give no heed.

It can be well understood that every father of a
son at home among that vast host yearned over
the lad with deep suffering of agony that was
almost stifling. For as he saw the courageous
endurance, and finally the heroic surrender, when
the tired boy at last decently composed his limbs
on the snowy bank to die, with the frost for his
shroud and the falling night for his pall, he shud-
dered to think this lost lad might have been his
own.

Since that, for many a year — so the romancers
of those days tell us — the veterans of the Italian
campaign have hushed their voices at the camp-
fires as they told the tale of the drummer-boy of

GETTING RID OF STRANGE CHILDREN. 21/

Only a child ! " Sons of aliens."

the Alps, and thought of the silent solitudes where
now his slender body lay frozen beside his drum.

Only a child ! yet children have souls. Souls
are more than bodies. Immortal life is more than
temporal. Yet the calm world marches on, as if
empires hung on the balance of a moment, and
even the drum-beat of a soul calling for help
need not be heeded or heard.

VI. We are ready, therefore, to come straight
to the prayer in the text. If any Christian parent
wishes that his sons may be as plants grown up in
their youth, that his daughters may be as corner-
stones, polished after the similitude of a palace,
he must make himself to be rid and delivered
from the hand of strange children, whose mouth
speaketh vanity, and whose right hand is a right
hand of falsehood.

The real words of this verse are " the sons of
aliens ;" what is meant is, that those kept coming
in among the children of God's people who were
outsiders, uninstructed, coarse, and vicious.

David prayed to be rid of them so as to avoid
their contaminating influence. Twice does he
repeat his prayer in this same psalm. And it be-
comes serious now ; how can we in our day
accomplish the same purpose ? There seem to be
only three ways possible : we can let them die,
we can deport them bodily out of the city, we can
educate and convert them ; which of these is best ?

1 . As for letting them die, that is easy enough.
They have bad air in this great town of ours, not

21 3 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A waif's fight for life. Organized deportation.

much water, close lodgings, and hereditary vice
to help along the slow processes of nature, and so
they perish as fast as is safe without raising the
cry of murder against officials in what are called
the " charities" of the city. The fight which a
poor infant has to make in New York for bare life
would be pitiable if any one would stop long
enough to see the thing through.

But is this the best way to be rid of strange
children ? Is it with street Arabs, as some say it
is with the tribes of red men on the reserves of
the Government — " the only good Indian is a
dead Indian" ? Why, there is vast value in chil-
dren if the}^ only grow up to be able-bodied men.
And then, is it a very pleasant thing to think of,
that at the day of judgment some one will be
making inquisition for blood, and asking very sol-
emnly, " Who slew all these ?"

2. It is better to deport them out of the city,
then, you answer ; to send them bodily away
where they can have a better chance, both physi-
cally and spiritually. There are Associations
whose patrons would agree with you in that.
They have sent thousands of boys and girls to
Western homes and Eastern. Thus they have re-
lieved the city, and saved the children for good.

But this will not do for every case. Some poor
parents there are who love their offspring with a
blind fondness very much resembling our own for
our children. They are not williug to part with
them. And then, also, some of the children are

GETTING RID OF STRANGE CHILDREN. 2ig

A wise suggestion from " Lacon." Give the children a chance.

too young to go now, and the ruin will be con-
summated if we wait for them to get grown up.

3. Are you not ready now to say, in the third
place, save those who can be kept alive, send off
into Christian homes those who can and will go,
and then take the rest in God's name into schools,
and into refuges, and into hope and salvation by
the grace of Christ ?

It was a wise remark of the author of " Lacon,"
made long ago : " Subtract from a great man all
that he owes to opportunity, and all that he owes
to chance ; all that he has gained by the wisdom
of his friends, and the folly of his enemies ; and
our Brobdingnag will often become a Lilliputian. "
These "strange children" ought to have given to
them some sort of chance in the world. Educate
them, train them, care for them. It is not the
children that we need to get rid of, but the
strangeness of them ; and that will be attained
when Christ calls them " friends."

Oh, this does two of the finest things conceiv-
able, and does them at once by the same supreme
act. It rids us of the lies of the strange children,
by stopping the lying, and it helps some poor
troubled people, who could not do it without us,
to raise their children up till they look like ours,
and shine "as corner-stones polished after the
similitude of a palace !"

XIX.

"UNDER HIS SHADOW."

" I SAT DOWN UNDER HIS SHADOW WITH GREAT DELIGHT." — Sol-

omon's Song 2:3.

You know that in the figurative language of
Solomon's Song, by the Spouse is to be under-
stood the Church, or the Soul of each individual
believer, and by the Beloved, the Saviour. So in
the verse from which the text is taken are set
forth the charms of Christ as the object of every
obedient Christian's love. The Bride seems to
be picturing herself as reclining in an orchard,
surrounded by all which in that oriental land
could enliven the senses. She presents her chosen
Friend to our imagination as a tree, and says she
found in him refreshment and regalement. She
sings : " As the apple-tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat
down under his shadow with great delight, and
his fruit was sweet to my taste."

Shade is oriental luxury. That glowing cli-
mate renders some protection from the sun often
necessary and always grateful. Very naturally
under each of the wide-branching canopies there
would be found a little circidar carpet of verdure,
rich, fresh, and green, though all else was arid

"UNDER HIS SHADOW. 221

Spiritual trj'sting-places. The Lord's Supper.

and parched beneath the blaze of the noon.
Hither would intimate friends be likely to resort.
And so such spots were easily made to symbolize
the spiritual trysting-places of the Soul with
Christ, the chief of its love.

This is the reason, probably, why it has always
been so appropriate to pass over such language to
our Communion exercises. Here in this spiritual
garden we find no place of repose or satisfaction
so welcome as the ordinance of the Lord's Supper
furnishes. We see Christ in it, and we sit under
his shadow with greatest delight. Even the
words which follow this aid in transferring the
thought : " He brought me to the banqueting
house, and his banner over me Avas love."

Now, personal experiences differ widely in all
these matters according to our temperament.
And yet we all are conscious of some yearning-
desire for improvement and enjoyment in every
recurrence of these festivals. It becomes a seri-
ous question as to the possibility, for every Chris-
tian, of such an attainment. What is it that we
want, and how shall we get it ?

The answer to these inquiries is by no means
difficult. All great things are simple. Each true
believer's delight under the tree of divine ordi-
nances will bear an analj^sis. Its elements are all
familiar.

I. Reminiscence is one part of it. Think of the
old histories which this feast suggests. This is a
time of reunions. The family of God has its

222 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Pathetic reminiscence. The citron-orange tree.

meetings at his board. And each one's religious
record seems sent up for review. From the be-
ginning of our union to Christ, on to the perfect
completeness of the assurance we have reached in
him, this ordinance journeys with its burden of
significance. The early ransom paid to justice,
the pardon bestowed so freely in grace, the hope
shining in the distance, as the crisis and consum-
mation of all that is grand or glorious out in an
inexhaustible future — these are before us in the
figures employed.

So we see why a young believer is quite satis-
fied with the Communion as a fixed order of the
church, and why the aged believer desires no
more. There is a singular elasticity in the insti-
tution which adapts it to each stage of the relig-
ious life. You should mark how exquisitely this
simple point finds its illustration here in the
text. What is called by the maiden in the Song
an " apple-tree" is really a citron-tree, a sort of
lemon or orange peculiar to that country ; it is
often mentioned in the Bible. Its foliage is per-
petual, its flowers are profuse even in midwinter,
and on its branches may be seen throughout the
whole year a continual succession of blossoms
and fruit — green fruit and ripe fruit on different
boughs of the very same tree. You can see all
stages and processes of growth at a glance. And
so our figure turns very significantly ; here is a
spot for every degree of advancement in experi-
ence to find rest upon.

"UNDER HIS SHADOW." 223

" The House Beautiful." The meaning of the emblems.

2. Hence, naturally, exhilaration would be an-
other part of this delight of the Christian sitting
under the shadow of ordinance. It is carefully to
be borne in mind always that this is a feast and
not in any case a fast. The Lord's Supper is just
like every other festive occasion, designed to be
lively, hospitable, and glad. So the burdened
feeling, under pressure of which many approach
the table, is altogether out of place. A prince
has no reason to be sad of countenance in coming
to a banquet in a kingly father's palace, unless he
is conscious he is plotting wilful treason. Our
ordinance is in " the House Beautiful ;'' the
chamber of its celebration is called " Peace ;" and
the ministrants at the board to furnish food to
the guests are by name "Piety," "Prudence,"
and " Charity."

Of course we admit that some of the scenes
which the feast commemorates are exceedingly
melancholy and sorrowful. But those particular
circumstances in our Lord's career which are
outfigured in the breaking fragments of bread are
lingered upon only for the purpose of showing
that the work of atonement is done. His pains
are rehearsed to make it plain that they are now
all over forever. The bread is torn in pieces not
for a harrowing exhibition of Jesus' agony, but to
exhibit how it comes about that our souls have it
to feed upon. The wine is poured out not merely
to picture our shame for the sins which made the
shedding of Jesus' blood necessary, but also to

224 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" The cup of salvation." Agnes Beaumont.

remind us of the grand covenant it seals. Our
emotions may be mixed, but the preponderant
sensibility is that of ineffable peace.

3. Then, next to this — or rather with this —
comes a fresh impulse of affection, as we sit under
the shadow with great delight. We feel burdened
with a sense of gratitude. Certainly, we remem-
ber that our sins demanded the Lord's crucifix-
ion ; but we cannot ever forget that our Lord in-
stantly met the demand. And we find ourselves
quoting the old Psalm with a fresh and pathetic
notion of its great meaning under the New Testa-
ment :

" What shall I render unto the Lord for all his
benefits toward me ? I will take the cup of salva-
tion, and call upon the name of the Lord. I will
pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence
of all his people. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, truly I
am thy servant ; I am thy servant, and the son of
thine handmaid : thou hast loosed my bonds. I
will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and
will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay
my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all
his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the
midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord."

You might find a very touching example and
expression of this experience recorded in the
biography of John Bun3^an. On one occasion,
when he had been administering Communion, a
young woman — Agnes Beaumont by name — on

"UNDER HIS SHADOW. 22$

A feast of fat things. Eager anticipations.

going away from the table wrote this entry in her
journal : " Oh, this has been a feast of fat things !
I sat under his shadow with great delight. I
found, while at the administration, such a return
of prayer that I was scarcely able to bear up
under it. I was, as it were, carried up to heaven,
and had such a sight of my Saviour as even broke
my heart into pieces. Oh, how I then longed to
be with Christ ! How willingly would I have
died in that place, and gone immediately to
glory ! A sense of my sins and of his dying love
made me love him and long to be with him. It
was a remarkable visit which the Saviour made to
my waiting soul that day."

4. Then, again, anticipation is one of the ele-
ments of that delight with which the Christian sits
under the shadow of Communion. As yet, our
hearts acknowledge the exposure, as they have to
confess the conflict, of strife with the adversary
over the infirmities which beset us in the way.
But there is a shining of sweet light in the dis-
tance. Take for illustration any one of the
famihar incidents of Scripture history. When the
avenger was at the heels of a fleeing Hebrew,
rushing for his life toward a City of Refuge, the
frightened culprit could have thought of nothing
so much as just the sight of those blessed walls,
behind which — if he could only get there — he
would be safe. The first gleam of sunshine on
the open gate would be like the quickening of his
soul from death.

226 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Quickening out of death. An alabaster box.

Think of Naaman, coming up the final time
from the Jordan, and suddenly discovering that
his flesh had begun to return again like that of a
little child, wholesome and clean from leprosy
forever. Oh, how the fine, eager hope of free
days yet to be lived and enjoyed would kindle a
joy in his heart ! Picture a bitten Israelite look-
ing at the image of brass that Moses had lifted up
in the midst of the camp ; the invalid woman
creeping nearer in the press just to touch the hem
of Christ's garment ; the centurion receiving the
news of his child's healing ; Zacchceus called
down out of the tree at Jericho with gracious
words proposing a visit at his house ; poor old
Bartimeus trying his new eyes for the first time,
Avith looking in the face of the Master who had
opened them ; take any of these, or all of them
together ; then imagine that each of them had
some ceremony, or a recurring anniversary, or a
positive institution, that would periodically bring
his wonderful deliverance to mind, and would
confirm it also, every time it came ; what would
be his emotions when he made ready for its cele-
bration ? How he would long for its arrival, and
greet it with delight !

5. Next to this, as one of the elements of the
delight of a believer at the Lord's Table, is con-
secration. The soul longs to break an alabaster
box of perfumed offering upon the Saviour's head.
Let me rehearse, as illustrating what I mean, the
story of an individual in Scotland.

"UNDER HIS SHADOW." 22/

Janette Fraser. " Not for a dukedom !"

Some years ago all the Christian world was
full of interest in the name of Janette Fraser. It
appears that this godly woman had her home
upon an insignificant plot of land in Thornhill.
The owner of that whole section of territory — the
feudal proprietor — refused to allow free churches
anywhere on his soil. In opinion he was hostile
to the Disruption acts, and desired to thwart
them everywhere he could. Application was
made to this poor laboring woman, earning what
would be less than twenty dollars of American
money a year, to sell her garden enclosure on
which she lived, for the purpose of putting up a
house for worship. In order to head off this
proposition, the duke likewise sent his offer of
twenty-five hundred dollars for the patch of
ground. Then came this answer, which I quote
exactly, for it has become historic. The dialect
you must read for yourselves, for I cannot pro-
nounce broad Scotch so well as it deserves to be
spoken.

" No," said this firm-hearted servant of God ;
" I have devoted my all to my Maker ; and I
would not take five hundred pounds sterling — no,
nor all the dukedom, for my ground, if it is to be
kept from the Almighty." And then she turned,
and presented as her free gift the whole of it for
a church building. And there it stands to day ;
crooked and ill-shaped, for they fitted the structure
to the entire plot, so as to have as much space as
possible. It is the awkwardest monument in

228 SERMONS IN SONGS.

An awkward monument. The Free-church at Thornhill.

Scotland, but it commemorates an act of honor-
able zeal of piety never to be forgotten.

Now, I tell you this story because of one expres-
sion in the reply actually sent ; her account of the
act by which she "devoted her all to her Maker,"
she gives thus : "I sat down at the Lord's
Table ; in the address before distributing the ele-
ments, the minister repeated these words : ' But
now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O
Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear
not ; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee
by thy name ; thou art mine.' I thought they
entered my soul and lifted it up in joy which I
could hardly contain. But when the bread
passed, such alarm came upon me as that I durst
not lift it off the plate : I wished the cup might
pass likewise, if I did not belong to God ; but
observing I had missed, the minister sent an
elder back with the bread, when I admitted I
had not eaten ; I admired the providence as
much as the promise, and I have now need of
them both."

Then she goes on to tell how her heart was
kindled, and how suddenly the thought struck her
to make her cottage-plot a free gift to God. Thus
we see one, at first so humble as to be afraid to
touch the elements, when she believed the good
Lord had intended she should not be forgotten,
come forth with her absolute all to lay in tears at
his feet. She trembled as did Esther at the king's
door ; but when he held out his sceptre, her heart

''UNDER HIS SHADOW. 229

Reverence and tranquillity. Method of attainment.

broke into unutterable tenderness and consecra-
tion.

And now I was going on to speak of reverence
and of tranquillity, as elements of this delight
when one sits under the shadow of such an ordi-
nance.

But I arrest the analysis. Let us put the ques-
tion in closing, How is all this attained ? Only a
single sentence is needed to state the answer :

" That which we have seen and heard declare
we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship
with us : and truly our fellowship is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. If we say
that we have fellowship with him, and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."

" He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith
unto him (not Iscariot), Lord, how is it that thou
wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the
world ? Jesus answered and said unto him. If a
man love me, he will keep my words : and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him,
and make our abode with him."

XX.

THE TEXT-BOOK IN AFFLICTION.

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted ; that I

MIGHT learn thy STATUTES." — Psahtt Ilg : 71.

Certain singularities have always marked this
Psalm with a peculiar interest for the scholar. It
is the lengthiest in the Bible, and some peculiar
structural forms render it attractive. Yet it can-
not be known who was its author. We only un-
derstand that some saint there has once been in
history who was inspired to say what many a
saint since his day has not needed inspiration to
work out into life : " Before I was afflicted I went
astray : but now have I kept thy word. It is
good for me that I have been afflicted ; that I
might learn thy statutes."

He does not mean mere personal bereavements ;
he makes no restrictions whatsoever. And from
other parts of the psalm we infer he intended to
include all that is trying to any sensitive soul.
He mentions reproaches and slanders ; he specifies
enemies, and those who had dealt perversely with
him ; he speaks also of spiritual desertions, and
conscious uncleanness, loneliness and prostration
of heart, fears and fightings, weariness and doubt.
His forms of expression are exceedingly general.

THE TEXT-BOOK IN AFFLICTION. 23 1

A hundred and seventy-six verses. Individuality recognized.

And it is not likely we shall err if, in making a
proposition out of his extensive compend, we
should say he really intended to offer the Bible —
the whole word of God — as the text book for the
afflicted ; and that this end, simple as it may ap-
pear, is his definite aim through all the hundred
and seventy -six verses of which the psalm is com-
posed.

It would be a profitable exercise for us if we
could look down upon men once from the heaven-
side. We should have a far better notion of this
disciplinary existence of ours. The truth is, all of
God's children are at school. Our place is still
upon the primary forms, learning to read the
alphabet of the redeemed. And our chief hin-
drance to improvement is that in our dulness we
are wilfully set against hearing explanations, and
worse set against obeying orders, as we are
bound. We are over-wise, and often impatient,
and do not want to have our teaching continued,
no matter how kind is the voice that proffers it.

Still we need light deplorably, and in compas-
sion for us God himself insists on being our in-
structor. The great thing for us to feel, and come
joyously under, is the consciousness that he is
dealing with each one of us face to face, and that
he in turn recognizes the individual temperament
and disposition of his entire round of pupils. An
intense personality on his part, and an intense
personality on ours, are the characteristics of the
intercourse between us. We need, therefore, to

232 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Acquaintance with God. An appreciation of the Bible.

become acquainted with our Preceptor in order
to success in our studies. Especially is this true
when the particular difficulty of our lesson centres
upon himself.

Now the process of our spiritual education
might have been conducted, as it was with our
first parents in the garden, by means of mere oral
communication of truth and precept. But divine
wisdom has seen fit to order it otherwise. He
has given us the use of a plain text-book. And
the primary object of God's dealings with us has
been announced : it is to draw us to learn our les-
sons from the volume before us. He does not
choose to make himself known to us in mere
Nature, nor even in Nature and Providence com-
bined. He has revealed himself in the Scriptures,
and he desires us to be familiar with what is said
in them. In this sense, " he hath magnified his
Word above his Name."

Hence, the assertion is not by any means so
startling as it would at first sight seem, that the
main object of many of our worries and afflictions,
little and large, is to drive us to an intelligent
knowledge, and a fitting appreciation, of the Bible.
The Almighty God has ordered it as the medium
of intercourse with himself, and it is hardly too
much to say that he chastises no sin of man more
severely than neglect of its study.

This is, no doubt, the earliest meaning of our
text. But I apprehend that it is meant to include
more. Our trials are intended to force us to the

THE TEXT-BOOK IN AFFLICTION. 233

" The religion of the sorrowful." Rebellious questionings.

study of the Scriptures, and that for the sake of
everything which those grand oracles of truth
contain. But there can be no question that what
the Psalmist would have us clearly understand is,
that afflictions propose to introduce us to God's
word, most of all, for the sake of the specific truth
it contains concerning afflictions in particular. It
was once urged as a reproach that " Christianity
is the religion of the sorrowful." Surely, a fact
so patent need not be presented with any array of
argument. The scheme of faith and hope and
life which Jesus of Nazareth, the man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief, came to publish and
fulfil, is just the religion for the sorrowful ; and
one would think that, in a world like ours, there
would be quite room enough for it. And the
gospel, which contains the record of that system,
is certainly just what a mourner or a sufferer
from any cause desires.

Begin, if you will, with the one item of explana-
tion. The chief source of our disquiet under trials
is their mystery. We see no reason why the
children of God should be wounded and bereaved.
There is no solution of the rebellious questionings
which arise, when our hearts are broken and
stunned, outside of an immediate and authoritative
revelation from heaven. When God sends us
chastisement, only God can tell us what it is for.
And he has been pleased to do this beforehand.
The Bible discloses the entire purpose of the dis-
cipline.

234 SERMONS IN SONGS. ^

God had one Son sinless. Not even one son sorrowless.

You will recall the words of the young Elihu in
his address to the patriarch Job : " Lo, all these
things worketh God oftentimes with man, to
bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened
with the light of the living."

Here is wisdom for ourselves found in what
some consider the oldest book in the Bible. This
is only one declaration, however, among many in
God's word, all of which avow as the grand per-
vading principle of the divine government that
affliction is the chief instrument of spiritual educa-
tion for every true believer. He is to be made
perfect through suffering. That which was for-
merly the curse now becomes the means of remov-
ing the curse. Man suffers for his own sin, Christ
suffers for man's sin. Though God did have one
Son who never sinned, he never had so much as
one son who did not suffer.

There is now, however, this great reversal of
the entire office of spiritual pain : whereas it was
once penal, now it is purifying. The fire of afflic-
tion is no longer the hot, burning rain falling upon
Sodoin, or the fierce flashes of destruction sent at
the prayer of Elijah on the fifties of Ahab ; in-
deed, it is not the flame-wreaths of the pit at all.
It is the glowing of a furnace, the heat of which
none can deny, but the purpose of which is to
refine.awa}^ dross, and bring pure gold out from
its chance defilement. And even in the midst of
the flames may always be seen the form of one
like unto the Son of Man, sharing the fiercest

THE TEXT-BOOK IN AFFLICTION. 235

Chastening is teaching. Inexhaustible comfort.

fortunes of his chosen friends. " Blessed is the
man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest
him out of thy law." Chastening is just teaching.

This of itself would seem to be enough to render
the Bible of immense value to any tired believer.
If it explains his trouble it does more than any-
thing else can for him. But it goes beyond this.
There is in God's word an inexhaustible comfort
as well as explanation.

It may seem singular, but it is indisputably
true, that most afflicted Christians find their com-
fort in the doctrines of the Bible rather than in
anything else. Sorrow, just of itself, seems to
throw a flood of illumination upon those cardinal
principles of divine revelation which lie at the
very foundation of truth. Affliction, instead of
making us impatient with the deep truths of God,
those which compel us to intensity of thought,
really leads us to them with unusual preference.

When earthly hopes fail, we long to come to a
heavenly reliance. When our heart is over-
whelmed, we are ready to cry : " Lead me to the
rock that is higher than I." He who stands near
the white throne expects, being under the shadow
of the Almighty, to hear great revelations of wis-
dom. Then our reason forbears to speculate ; we
want authoritative and intelligent utterance ; we
grapple with the living realities of faith. A swim-
mer, heaved upon the sea-beach by the billows
which have wrecked his boat, will not be likely to
think much about geologic difficulties concerning

236 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Not the strata but the rock. Ararat and the ark.

the strata of the rock he clings to ; what he wants
to find is some rock which will hold when he
clings to it. So a Christian struggles after deep
and stable truth.

The doctrine of Christ's incarnation seems as
dear as it is mysterious ; for it tells us that our
God has once been truly in man's form and under-
stands man's sorrow. The doctrine of special
providence is precious enough now to write its
formulas in letters of fine gold ; for it assures us
God knows who we are, and is acquainted with
what we are undergoing. There is no likelihood
ever that real mourners will carp at, or ridicule,
that saying of Jesus concerning his note of the
sparrow's fall, or his counting the hairs of our
head. Even the doctrine of divine sovereignty
has amazing consolation in it, for it gives us such
certainty that this universe has not yet gone
a wreck fatally. Prodigious doctrine that is, and
weak human nature does not know exactly what
to do with it, except in hours like these. Its
great base may be all out of sight, deep under
the waves of mystery, as was Ararat's base under
the deluging waters of the flood ; what we want
to know, however, is not where the undiscover-
able foundation is, but if the summit is untremu-
lous where it now lies disclosed, and whether our
poor, tossing ark of faith may rest with security
upon it with the wild swirl of waters around us.

The fact is, affliction softens the heart, bends
the will, humbles the intellect, quickens trust, and

THE TEXT-BOOK IN AFFLICTION. 2^

Doctrines now preferred. Tholuck's motto.

SO renders the whole proud nature more docile
than before. It finds comfort easier by its own
search after it. There is something in pain and
disappointment which breaks opposition, hushes
cavils, and turns the eye of the believer with
wistful expectation to the cross. An indulged
boy grows less dainty over his needed food when
he has grown famished by some deprivation.
The Christian whose heart aches welcomes what
he finds in his old Bible. Then the grand central
doctrines of redemption are his delight. Real
mourners look to the crucified Immanuel. They
do not want the poetry of religion, they want the
experience of it ; and that comes better through
losfic and arofument. Men and women who turn
from didactic discussion in health will, when
they are ill, read elaborate treatises on the two
covenants, and study deeply the adjustment of
justice and mercy in the atonement. "It is the
heart that makes the theologian," and even a
broken heart sometimes gains firmest hold of
truth.

Perhaps this is enough ; there is a connection,
thus you see, my Christian friends, between trial
and truth. The Bible is the text-book for the
afflicted. There is a spiritual philosophy, not a
mere impulse, which forced this ancient, and to
us unknown, believer to say : "It is good for me
that I have been afflicted ; that I might learn thy
statutes." Two mere reiparks here in closing are
all that is needed further.

238 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A tear-drop for a lens. The Bible is larger now.

The one is this : it requires a certain prostra-
tion of feeling, a certain suffusion of soul, thor-
oughly to appreciate and understand the Bible.
Sometimes it seems a hard, dry volume ; it re-
quires a sad heart, gomg to it honestly for help,
to disclose all its tenderness. " As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, saith
the Lord of Hosts." We are told that a tear-drop
is one of the most powerful of lenses. Surely it
has a wonderful magnifying power when brought
to bear on the Bible. Often a weeping mourner
sees a whole world of beauty which dry eyes can
hardl}'^ recognize when pointed out.

The other remark is this : when the text was
written only the Old Testament was in existence,
and perhaps not all of that. Now we have, be-
sides, all the New. Oh, how full, then, for us is
the measure of consolation ! " Return unto thy
rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bounti-
fully with thee."

XXI.

NATURE AND REVELATION.

" The heavens declare the glory of God ; and the firma-
ment SHEWETH HIS HANDYWORK." — Psalm Ig : I.

The eighth psalm seems to present a night-
picture of Eastern skies, the nineteenth a day-
picture, both of which must for many years have
been familiar to David as he kept his father's
flocks on Bethlehem hills. Most critics would
say that, in construction, the psalm which we are
to study to-day is perfect as a lyric hymn, exqui-
site in figure, sublime in thought, singularly
analytic and logical in its form. It furnishes us
these natural divisions for our convenience in con-
sideration : Nature exhibits God's glory. Revela-
tion shows God's grace.

I. What does nature exhibit concerning God's
glory ? Some attributes of the divine character
come out into clear display.

I. For one thing, this material universe exhibits
the poiver of God. The very existence of these
orbs over our heads proposes the proofs of the
divine omnipotence and godhead. It simply
stuns our minds to assert that these were without
any maker ; but whoever creates worlds, he it is
that is our God. The undevout astronomer is

240 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Augustine's Confessions. Chimes in the heavens.

mad. Nature leads us up directly to its own
Creator, and points him out : " The heavens de-
clare the glory of God ; and the firmament shew-
eth his handy work. "

One of the most interesting of historic illustra-
tions has been given to us in the Confessions of
the great Augustine : " I asked the earth, and it
said, * I am not he ; ' and all that is upon it made
the same admission. I asked the sea, and the
depths, and the creeping things which have life,
and they answered, ' We are not thy God ; look
thou above us.' I asked the breezes, and the
gales ; and the whole air, with its inhabitants,
said to me, ' Anaximenes is in error ; I am not
God.' I asked the heaven, the sun, the moon,
the stars ; ' We, too,' said they, * are not the God
whom thou seekest. ' And 1 said to all the creat-
ures which surrounded the doors of my fleshly
senses, * Ye have declared to me of my God that
ye are not he ; tell me somewhat about him,*
And with a great voice they exclaimed, * He made
us.' "

2. Moreover, nature exhibits the ivisdovi of
God. There is such a harmony in the move-
ments, as there is between means and ends in the
providences of God, that we cannot help discov-
ering something almost musical in the thought
which is suggested here in the declaration of this
psalm. David seems to hear chimes in the heav-
ens which possess meaning, but have no mortal
tongue : " Day unto day uttereth speech, and

NATURE AND REVELATION. 241

Bishop Home's choirs. Pythagoras' solar system.

night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is
no speech nor language, where their voice is not
heard." Bishop Home comments upon the
verses, with vivid conception of the poetry which
offers day and night in such contrast ; he says
they resemble "two parts of a choir, chanting
forth alternately the praises of God." They have
no articulate language. Whatever communica-
tions they have to make must be given to the de-
vout and intelligent heart ; they sing with the
spirit and understanding to the spirit that under-
stands them through love and faith.

In all ages this representation of the stars as
singing aloud in their courses the harmony of
divine wisdom is found. In his astronomy Pyth-
agoras taught that the heavenly bodies revolved
in a series of crystalline spheres, at the supreme
centre of which was placed our earth. In the
outermost of these were set the thousands of fixed
stars studding the firmament, while each of the
seven planets had its own sphere to dwell in.
The transparency of each crystal sphere was per-
fect, so that the orbs in all of the exterior spheres
were visible plainly through all of the inner ones ;
and these spheres rolled round on each other in
a daily revolution — thus causing the rising and
setting of the heavenly bodies. And the old phi-
losopher said further that the motion of this vast
celestial mechanism was so sweet and beautiful
that it made harmonic sounds, to which he gave
the name of " the music of the spheres ;" this

242 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The " music of the spheres." Plutarch's " divinity-school."

filled the firmament everywhere, but it was of too
elevated a character to be heard by the souls of
dull-eared mortals.

It really appears singular that an unenlightened
heathen should have caught the same suggestion
from a study of the skies that an inspired psalmist
learned from them, as he prayed beneath their
wordless songs. " Holy silence," Tholuck says,
with exquisite appreciation of the teachings of
stillness upon a devout soul, " Holy silence itself
is a speech, provided there shall be the ear to
listen to its meaning."

3. Next to this, nature exhibits the siipremacy of
God. Over the whole universe sits this one
Sovereign, reigning at his will, and the stars sing
his glory : " Their line is gone out through all
the earth, and their words to the end of the
world." Their measuring-line reaches round the
globe ; their province or domain is co-extensive
with the earth, and they speak with full authority
to its remotest parts. Even the ancient heathen,
Plutarch, used to say, " This world resembleth a
divinity-school."

4. And then, likewise, nature teaches th^ faith-
fulness of God. In this remarkable psalm we are
now introduced to one of the most brilliant figures
of rhetoric conceivable. David sees the sunrise
as he used to see it in the cool dawning of the day
over the mountains of Moab when he was a child.
With a magnificent stroke of imagination he con-
ceives of the heavens as a tabernacle, or marriage

NATURE AND REVELATION. 243

Bells in the towers of the ages. Harvard College.

pavilion, forth from which marches the sun : " In
them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which
is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His
going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his
circuit unto the ends of it : and there is nothing
hid from the heat thereof."

We can stud}'' the elements of this comparison
by and by as we need them for our illustration of
truth. But now let us for a moment consider the
rising of the sun, and the circling of celestial
bodies in their order, as a proof of the stability
holding the universe safely beneath the bond of
God's faithful covenant. Thousands of years
drift swiftly away, but the bells God has swung
in the towers of the ages still keep time wonder-
fully.

Once as I entered the observatory of Harvard
College, at the close of the day, my friend who
had led me there asked that I might be shown the
new instrument which had just been introduced.
The professor replied courteously, " Yes ; I think
there may be time enough yet for him to see a
star, if you will find one." My companion
" found one" by looking in a worn little book of
astronomical tables lying there on the desk, and
replied quietly, "There is one at 5:20." So in
a hurried instant the covering was stripped off
from the great brass tube, and, prone upon his
back under the eye-piece, lay the enthusiastic
professor. While my friend stood by, with what

244 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A clock-tick and a star. One of God's glorious worlds,

seemed a tack-hammer in his hand, I noticed that
he kept his eye on a tall chronometer-clock near
us. Suddenly two sounds broke the impressive
stillness ; we had been waiting for the stars. One
was the word " There !" spoken by the professor,
the other was the tap of the hammer on the stone
top of the table by my companion. Both oc-
curred at the same instant — the same particle of
the instant — they were positively simultaneous.
But the man who spoke the word could not see
the clock ; he was looking at the star which came
swinging along till it touched the spider-web line
in his instrument ; and the other man who struck
the hammer-stroke could not see the star ; he
was looking at the second-hand on the dial-face.
When the index in its simplicity of regular duty
marked twenty minutes after five, there fell the
click on the stone ; and then, too, there came on
in the heavens, millions of miles away, one of
God's stars, having no speech, but rolling in on
time as he bade it ages ago !

Then I was invited to look in and see the world
of light and beauty as it swept by the next fibre
in the tube. But afterward I went curiously to
the book, and found that it had been published ten
years before, and that its calculations ran far away
into the future, and that it had been based on
calculations a thousand years old. And God's
fidelity to the covenant of nature here novv almost
three thousand years after David had made this
nineteenth psalm, had brought the glorious creat-

NATURE AND REVELATION. 245

Nature exhibits God's character. Revelation teaches God's grace.

ure of the sky into the field of Harvard College's
instrument just as that patient clock reached the
second needed for the truth of the ancient predic-
tion. Need I say that those two professors almost
wondered (so used to such things were they) at
the awestruck devotion and the hushed reverence
with which I left the room.

II. We are ready now to ask our second ques-
tion : What has revelation to teach concerning
God's grace ? We shall only have to take up the
verses of this wonderful psalm as we did before.

1. To begin with, revelation teaches the efficacy
of God's grace. It restores the fallen nature of
men, and brings them again into obedience and
love : " The law of the Lord is perfect, convert-
ing the soul : the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple," The " testimony of
the Lord is sure," in that it witnesses to all the
perfections of the Lord's character and ways.
His commandments are the revelation of his sin-
cere love of our souls. It is a curious fact that in
the Hebrew of the psalm each of these three
verses, the seventh, the eighth, and the ninth, con-
sists of ten words — ^according to the number of the
ten commandments concerning which they treat.

2. Revelation teaches the intelligence of God's
grace also ; his word converts and illumines :
" The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the
heart : the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes." One of the old stories,
true or not it matters nothing, is recorded of

246 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Bonaventura's text-books. No twilight in the Orient.

Bonaventura. Thomas Aquinas once, on a visit,
requested him to point out those books which he
used most in his studies. The tranquil scholar
led him into an inner cell, and showed him a few
of the common collections upon the seat ; but as
his guest still insisted on seeing the volumes from
which in particular he got so many wonders of
learning, he drew aside a curtain and thus dis-
played an oratory and a crucifix. " These are
my books," said the holy man ; " this is the prin-
cipal one from which I am wont to gather what I
teach and write ; here at the foot of that cross I
make what progress I have attained in the knowl-
edge of the will of God."

We may well return for a moment to the figure
the psalmist uses in the earlier verses of this
psalm. He compares truth to the rising of the
sun ; and we must remember that in that almost
cloudless land, and for many months of each year
almost rainless, there is never in the sky at dawn
anything like what we call twilight. When the
sun rises he springs straight up above the horizon
all at once, perfectly on hand, like a bridegroom
to run a race ; and then, after he is about his
business, the whole world is flooded with light ;
there is no escape from his beams all the day.
God's truth is symbolized in these particulars
perfectly. Truth comes right up into exhibition ;
there is no need of taking a dozen men with a
farthing taper in each one's hand to look up the
sun in the morning:.

NATURE AND REVELATION. 247

The straightest line in nature. A preacher's private treasure.

3. Again : revelation teaches the soimdness of
God's grace. It abides all criticism of review ;
" The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever :
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether." In the rational reverence of a re-
newed soul everything is pure and holy ; there
is nothing defiling or corrupting in the sincere
service of God. The decisions of the gospel are
in accordance with right reason, and satisfy good
conscience. Truth is like sunlight in that it
always must shine in a direct course. Artists tell
us that the straightest line in nature is that which
is drawn by the shadow of a rock across the foam
of a cataract. The beams from above will endure
no wavering or sinuousness. And so we say, that
is rigJit in morals which is straight ; a straight line
is a right line ; a rigJU angle is one which is held
between two straight lines ; and that is wrong
which is wrung, or distorted and twisted away
from the right. " That which is crooked cannot
be made straight."

4. Once more : revelation teaches the value of
God's grace. Once, on a journey, a celebrated
modern preacher was seen to put his hand mys-
teriously into his pocket and bring forth a num-
ber of packages carefully wrapped in tissue-paper.
Hour after hour, as the travel continued, he re-
mained apparently absorbed in the examination of
what his packets contained. A friend coming
suddenly near surprised him in the act of looking
at a costly ruby, and contrasting its color with a

248 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Jewels of truth. Honey more nutritious than gold.

sapphire. The clergyman quiell}^ said, " I hav^e
friends who lend these expensive things to me
when I am going off awhile ; they know how
much I enjoy them in the rough, as it were ; I
never like such jewels after they are set ; the
gold spoils them to my eye ; but I can spend
hours just in putting the bright stones alongside
of the dark ones, and so turning them over and
over, and seeing something better in each new
combination ; really, I grow attached to them."

Many a true Christian knows what this means
with the jewels of God's truth : " More to be
desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine
gold : sweeter also than honey and the honey-
comb." Some there are who can understand
what it is to prize them more than gold, but not
so clearly what it is to find them sweeter than a
honeycomb. This was the remark of one who
was long beloved in the church, made just after
he knew he was dying : " I wish I had a little
more personal faith. I think, with the psalmist,
that these things are more precious than gold,
yea, than much fine gold ; but I cannot go so well
with him in that they are sweeter also than
' honey and the honeycomb. ' 1 stick at that ;
that has often been a plague with me. The pre-
cious things were more as casketed jewels than as
meat and drink. They delight the intellect ; but
oh, I wish 1 had the loving heart ! I go mourn-
ing all the day now for the want of it."

5. Then, in the last place, revelation teaches

NATURE AND REVELATION. 249

God's grace is just. A spirit-level in a car.

ihQjjistice of God's grace. These judgments and
testimonies of the Lord establish, rather than de-
stroy, the legal principle of reward and punish-
ment in the lives of men : " Moreover by them is
thy servant warned : and in keeping of them
there is great reward." The truth is, we need
some absolute standard of reference by which to
test our conduct, even while we are living on the
divine bounty. We do not always see the ten-
dency of our behavior, nor discern the ends to
which certain indulgences may lead. Some of us
have noticed the strange suggestions of a work-
man's spirit-level, brought perchance into the rail-
way-car ; now we are on a down-grade, now on
an up-grade ; we cannot look behind or before to
know what is coming or what is left ; but here is
this little bubble creeping along unerringly under
its glass like a thing of life ; that shows our ups
and downs with no exaggerations or mistake.
Such is the law of God written on our consciences,
but more plainly given in his word.

Can we wonder, as now we reach the conclu-
sion of the psalm, after having duly considered
the teachings of nature and grace, that David
prays for the grace of God in his own soul, as
being preferable to any mere contemplation of
God's glory ? It may be enough for us all, per-
haps, that we note how earnestly he pleads for
grace to enlighten him as to his needs, to cleanse
him from his guilt, and to restore him unto com-
munion with his Maker.

250 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Provision for pardon of sin. Crosses in the Tyrol.

" Who can understand his errors ? cleanse thou
me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant
also from presumptuous sins ; let them not have
dominion over me : then shall I be upright, and I
shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation
of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,
my strength, and my redeemer."

No man can write human history without ad-
mitting and reckoning with the element of human
depravity, exposure, and curse. The gospel has
its place in the system of things as appropriately
and as fixedly as a star.

Thus, then, does this matchless poem in the
Psalter bear us up the heights of nature only to
show us in a sudden tempest the fairer heights of
grace. They say that shepherds in the Tyrol
move forward up the mountains over sunny slopes
in order to attain brilliant pastures for their flocks.
But sometimes there falls suddenly over them a
great storm of sleet and snow. Then it is that
they leave the open fields, and seek the worn
tracks of the highway. For there at every turn
stands the emblem of crucifixion, and the drifts
never overtop the shrines. With one glad cry —
"The cross! the cross!" — they know they are
safe from any further perilous straying, and are
close to a refuge secure and serene.

XXII.

THE AVAILABLENESS OF PRAYER.

" From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when

MY HEART IS OVERWHELMED : LEAD ME TO THE ROCK THAT IS
HIGHER THAN I." — Psalui 6l : 2.

The single thought to which your attention is
directed when you repeat this text is concerning
the real availableness of prayer as an instrument
of help, when one is in undoubted straits of
trouble. The analysis of the verse is quite sug-
gestive.

I. The reacJi of efficacious prayer is announced
in the words — " From the end of the earth,"

II. The occasion of importunate prayer is indi-
cated in the words — " When my heart is over-
whelmed."

III. The 7iatnre of true prayer is pointed out in
the words — " Will I cry unto thee."

IV. And even the general S7ibjcct-matter of all
prayer is given us in the words — " Lead me to
the rock that is higher than I."

Let us note these in turn. For everybody can
find a lesson here. This verse, as a whole, fur-
nishes an excellent motto for all trying experience.
God is near to all that call upon him in truth.
He waits for no selected spot to be attained.

252 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" The end of the earth." One's actual distance.

Hence his promise becomes unbounded without
being extravagant, and grows at times transcend-
ent without becoming vague.

I. First of all, we learn here that the reacJi of
prayer, as an actual and efficacious instrument of
good, is literally limitless.

The singularly chosen expression in this verse
occurs likewise in the book of Deuteronomy :
" The end of the earth, the end of the heavens."
That is to say, the line where the earth and the
heavens come in contact — the outermost verge of
what we call the visible horizon.

Prayer indeed takes no account of human meas-
urements. David had reason to believe he should
be hunted into the wildest refuges of the land.
His outlaw experiences at the cave of AduUam
may have been Avhat suggested to him here the
figure of a roek. The legions of his rebellious
subjects would be eagerly in pursuit of him the
moment the day dawned. Nor did he at all know
if he should ever again be at rest. Of only this
one thing was he certain — he could not get be-
yond " the end of the earth." And anywhere in-
side of that was within ear-shot of heaven.

I. There is an actual distance, therefore, for
which this text offers provision. One far away
from his family altar, or absent from the sanctuary
most beloved and familiar to him, feels the separa-
tion frequently with much acuteness of -pain. But
David was sure that what he wanted was God,
more than the mere house of God. If we take the

THE AVAILABLENESS OF PRAYER. 253

Providential distance. Spiritual distance.

wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the earth, even there the nearest thing in
the universe to us is the mercy-seat.

Hence the sailor on the sea, the traveler on the
mountain, the hastening courier outside of the
borders, the remotest sentinel that paces his
frontier round under the stars, is in no way con-
ceivable so easily reached by the friends who
watch and wait for him at home, as he can be
away around by the throne of grace, where sits
the good God, patient, prayer- hearing, and
prayer-answering.

2. There is also "d. providential distance for which
the text offers provision. Some of God's children
always seem to themselves to live a separated ex-
istence. Cut off by the circumstances of a nar-
rower lot, it is true they see little, and feel less, of
the great related world of pulsing life around
them.

Many a solitary man has come into this world,
and grown up into maturity, with a pathetic sense
of having never had any rights : "as for the
mighty man, he had the earth ; and the honorable
man dwelt in it ;" and between themselves these
two appeared to have divided -pretty much all
there is. So the poor man often dwells apart,
and wonders if any one except God regards him.

3. There is also a spiritual distance for which
the text offers provision. Certain seasons to all
of us there are when we feel secluded from all
human fellowship. An experience lies upon our

254 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A king's throne-room. Calvin's word " tumbled."

souls which we are persuaded no one can under-
stand. Our heavy secret remams unshared. We
walk apart. You have been caught in a crowd
sometimes when you were walking on unrecog-
nized and unheeded. There is a spiritual loneli-
ness, we all know, which grows deeper and more
pensive among thronging multitudes of strangers.
To be forced into personal contact with those
with whom we have nothing in common augments
this sense of distance.

In such moments there is sure relief in the sug-
gestion of this verse. From the outermost reach
of a conventional or spiritual seclusion we can
speak to God, just as if we were kneeling in tho-
throne-room of the palace, and before us, bending
to hear, was the king's face.

II. The next lesson of our text has reference to
particular occasions for prayer. There is intima-
tion that when one's heart is overwhelmed, and
fresh exigency arises, new measures of grace, or
increased force of help, may be expected.

The term rendered overzvhchncd is given by the
commentator Calvin in these words — " When my
spirit is tumbled." A rough rendering, he him-
self confesses ; but surely not deficient in strength.
The original Hebrew has in it a figure that seems
more to my liking still. It reads — " When my
heart is covered up." That is to say, covered as
one in great sorrow covers his face with a mantle.
And I take this clause to mean just two things —
both worth rcmemberinof.

THE AVAILABLENESS OF PRAYER. 255

Some heart of our own. But a limit reached.

1. One is this : let us understand in every case
that a real Christian is expected to keep up some Jieart
by himself. He must exhibit some available forti-
tude of his own, under the common grace of God.
Some say that the word courage comes from eor
and ago, and may mean keep -heart, or heart-
action. I am not going to settle that ; but I know
that many persons, not very courageous, are con-
stitutionally apt to make mountains out of their
mole-hills of trial. For this I am not at all cer-
tain the Bible has any sort of respect. I have
never been able to discover any help whatever for
a merely hypochondriac mind, cherished by a
converted person. There is so much real trouble
in the world that inspiration has not seemed will-
ing to waste force in soothing what is only imag-
inary. Cheerful courage will enable us, under
divine love, to meet most of the minor worries of
life.

2. The other suggestion to be noted just here is
this : there is an actual limit to Jiuman endurance.
There is a point beyond which even the truest and
bravest Christian is not expected to go without
special succor. When our Lord rebuked the sea,
as the frightened disciples waked him up with the
absurd remark, " Master, carest thou not that we
perish?" he paused to rebuke them first. He
seemed to think they ought to have stood the
tempest longer before making such an ado about
it. To the last extreme and strain of Christian
endurance we are to hold on. But when the

256 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" Strong crying and tears." The Mount of Olives.

heart is overwhelmed, there is not an hour to be
lost. Then God will certainly come in with an
irresistible re-enforcement of grace and power,
and will plant us up high out of peril, in an in-
stant of sublime interposition.

III. But our text takes us forward a step be-
yond this. It gives us, in the third place, a lesson
concerning the nature of true prayer. It is called
explicitly here a cry.

1. We admit the word is a strong one. But it
finds its parallel and explanation in our Saviour's
history, as he exercised his priestly office. We
are told that in the days of his flesh " he offered
up pra3^ers and supplications, witJi strong crying and
tears, unto him that was able to save him from
death, and was heard in that he feared." Alas,
how rarely is the stillness of this world's apathy
broken nowadays by any wrestling of supplica-
tion which could be called a real cry of the soul —
" strong crying and tears" in the shadows !

2. It adds to this parallel of language to find that
Christ, the second David, uttered his cry pre-
cisely on the same spot where the psalmist Avas
now sitting. Jesus was a king ; but he went out
from the capital across the same little ravine, into
the same mountain, the night of his betrayal. He
knelt in the midnight of a quite similar desertion.
He suffered the fierce agony of treachery under
the same olive-trees. He toiled up the same
slope with but three chosen companions that
duns: to him. He looked off from the elevation

THE AVAILABLENESS OF PRAYER. 257

Both Davids prayed. John Knox's cry.

upon the same insurgent city that rejected him.
He felt he was an outcast and a fugitive in the
world where he had a right to reign. But both
the Davids prayed. Each of these royal sufferers
turned instinctively for succor to the same divine
source, and each found it. When the human soul
feels its real need, it does not wait to construct
petitions in order ; it simply cries.

3. It is our opportunity that fails us in the hour
of need. We do not cry unto God, None stir-
reth himself up to lay hold on God. When Brit-
ain was all in agitation, and the papacy conspired
with the feudal lords to put down the Reforma-
tion, late one night John Knox was seen to leave
his study, passing out into an apartment behind
it. A friend followed him, listening at the door.
The grand old man fell heavily on his knees, and
waited for a few moments in utter silence. Soon
a series of convulsive sobs alone, as his form
swayed to and fro, broke upon the stillness.
Then they began in deep murmuring accents to
frame themselves into articulate form — " O God,
give me Scotland, or I die !" And then that
strong spirit was bowed to the very floor in
wrestling. Once more the same cry burst forth
from his lips — " Oh, give me Scotland, for thee
and for thy glory !" Again the room was silent.
And after another hush, anew and with intenser
pathos, arose that unvarying petition, " O Lord,
give me Scotland, or I die !"

Can anybody doubt that God eventually gave

258 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The rock that is higher. We go — the rock waits.

Scotland to John Knox's prayers ? Such cries of
the importunate soul are never turned back unan-
swered on its wishes.

IV. There remains only one other clause in our
text ; that is the actual petition with which it is
closed — " Lead me to the rock that is higher than
I !" This will suggest a lesson concerning the
subject-matter of prayer.

We need not suppose King David was giving
us anything like a fixed formula with which to ap-
proach God for help. Nor shall we gain anything
by a cool analysis of the figure he employs. Of
course we understand that the Rock is God him-
self. It is his help, his care, his protection, we
implore. No doubt the chastened imagination of
each spiritual believer will deal better with these
Avords by simply saying them over and over.
There are times when the heart rejects mere lit-
erary exposition, and revels in the hidden analo-
gies of a trope. But we may call your attention
to a few intimations in this prayer not exactly
lying on its surface.

I. For instance, this: if a man prays, "Lead
me to the Rock," he admits that the rock is not to be
led to him.

He must be willing to go at once where the
rock is. In all the allotments of divine provi-
dence it is our purposes, not God's, which are to
change. We must adjust our will to his ; he re-
mains the same. We go — the rock Avaits. When
we propose definitely to put ourselves under the

THE AVAILABLENESS OF PRAYER. 259

The rock is unalterable. The rock is extensive.

protection of the Almighty, it will be necessary
that we just enter into his entire counsel. And
this may involve immediate surrender of some
favorite plans.

2. Again : Observe carefully if a man prays,
" Lead me to the Rock," he must not expect to re-
model the rock.

It is the Rock of Ages, and cannot be con-
structed according to human counsel. We are
never to venture on asserting before the all-wise
God what particular form of defence, relief, or
extrication we desire. Every rock throws just
its own shape into the sheltering shadow it casts.
It is enough if we may sit under it and be safe.
We hide ourselves in it till our calamities be over-
past. In the Song of Solomon the Spouse ad-
dresses the Bride — Christ speaks to the Church — ■
the Saviour whispers to the soul, " Oh, my dove,
thou art in the clefts of the rock. ' ' There is allu-
sion in all such symbolism of the Scriptures to the
suffering of our crucified Lord, by which the
atonement v/as made. It must never be forgot-
ten that it is only because the Rock of Ages has
been cleft that any soul has safety in it. The
shadow outside is providence ; anybody can be
permitted a while to rest in that ; the security in-
side is grace. And the deeper the trouble, the
further into the recess of love we may creep.

3. Understand, likewise, that if a man prays,
" Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I," he
is not to expect he can see all around it at once.

26o SERMONS IN SONGS.

Help to obtain help. Anonymous hymn.

God sometimes hides us in the secret of his
pavilion, sometimes covers us with his hands.
Our best repose will always be found in simple
trust. We bend our will — then wait. We say,
somewhat ostentatiously, Here we are ! And
God replies quietly, Well, remain there. The
processes of providence will then move on undis-
turbedly over our heads. And possibly, under
our secure retreat, we shall never* even hear the
intricate sounds of their tread.

4. And note, finally, from this exquisitely
worded prayer, that if a man asks, " Lead me to
the Rock," Jte admits he cannot certainly find the
way alone always.

So he is imploring help to obtain help. It is a
fine thing to do sometimes — to pray to be taught
to pray. The prince-adversary of all good labors
very hard to break our confidence. He begins
afar off to ply us with temptation. He dulls our
faith. He benumbs our anxiety. He undermines
our hope. But every saint is permitted to pray
for more liveliness in prayer. When we want
most to go to the rock, we may pray, Lead me.
And the moment we gain a little encouragement
from being under its shadow, we may hurry into
the cleft.

" So near — so very near — to God, nearer I cannot be ;
For in the person of his Son I am as near as he !
So dear — so very dear — to God, dearer I cannot be ;
The love wherewith he loves his Son is the love he bears to
me !"

XXIII.

GUIDANCE BY THE EYE.

" I WILL INSTRUCT THEE AND TEACH THEE IN THE WAY WHICH
THOU SHALT GO; I WILL GUIDE THEE WITH MINE EYE." — Psalm

32 :8.

In the beginning of this psalm David seems to
be bewailing the stress into Avhich he had been
brought by some calamities of his, intensified by
some sins. He is tracing out his line of experi-
ence, from guilt to penitence, from penitence to
prayer, from prayer to deliverance, from deliver-
ance to praise.

Then God speaks. He says he is going here-
after to take his servant's case in hand. He
promises unremitting care and guidance. This
seems to cheer David almost unusually ; and so
his spiritual song closes in strains of exuberant

joy.

We can have no hesitancy in extending to all
believers the engagement here proffered to David ;
for the psalm is entitled Maschil, and is the earliest
of a most interesting group which bear that name.
The word means "to give instruction;" and it
cannot be doubted that its reach is wide enousfh
for all ages, when we remember that the apostle
Paul quotes it in the New Testament.

262 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A remarkable figure. A horse or a mule.

The main thought in the text is concerning
the guidance, which is covenanted in difficult
times, by the Almighty himself. And this attracts
our notice specially by reason of a most delicate
and remarkable figure of language under which
the promise appears. It is not with the usual form
of articulate speech ; it is not with the force of one
leading by the extended hand ; it is not by mere
mute guide-boards of enactment, like the upright
posts on Jewish highways ; it is not by any or-
dinary methods at all that Jehovah proposes to
bring his people forward in the way which they
should go. He says he will do it with a look.
The words are most singular : " I will guide thee
with mine eye ; I will instruct thee and teach thee
in the way."

If any one becomes discouraged at such an an-
nouncement, and apprehends that here is a form
of expression so tenuous and poetic as to baffle his
study, surely it needs only to be said to him that
there is presented in the following verse a con-
trast in language, and an alternative in experi-
ence, not only quite unimaginative in detail, but
possessed of a certain rude decisiveness of utter-
ance, so as to render clear the meaning of the en-
tire counsel. For when the engagement has been
made the admonition is added. The Lord sa3'S
he will give you delicate direction, unless you
prefer to receive rough. " I will guide thee with
mine eye. Be ye not as the horse or as the mule,
which have no understanding ; whose mouth

GUIDANCE BY THE EYE. 263

Two ways of guiding. Alacrity of obedience.

must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come
near unto thee." Of course the intimation is un-
mistakable. God offers to become our instructor
if we will be his pupils. And then he declares he
has two ways of guiding and governing ; one by
the eye, and the other by the whip and curb, and
that he prefers we would choose the first.

The relationship assumed in such a figure as
this must surely be one of great intimacy. It can-
not all be centred in the teacher, for it demands
a certain carefulness of observation and alacrity of
obedience which only the scholar can possess. If
God spoke audibly, some inattention could be for-
given ; for a voice would break in upon listless-
ness, or even arouse from slumber. But an eye
must be seen to be understood, and must be
watched for its expressions whenever they shift.

We all know that whereas not a few parents
there are who never seem able to govern even
their own household without violence and noise,
there are others who are accustomed to bend their
children to obedience by a mere flitting mystery
of countenance which they read. Part of the ex-
cellence of this beautiful discipline belongs to the
skill of the father, part to the disposition of the
child. Even the youngest in such a family be-
comes unconsciously trained to appreciate a note
of warning or approval, without so much as wait-
ing for any S3dlables to be spoken, a mere turn of
the face, simply the gesture of a silent feature,
sufficing quite as well as a command. So that

264 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A proper family. " Eyes right ! Attention.!"

almost all of us can remember some attractive in-
stance of family association in which it verily
seemed as if the children perused looks and ex-
pressions, as if they knew the eye quite as well as
the tongue ; and in sweet mood of noiseless ac-
quiescence and loving zeal hurried on their errands
at hints of suggestion as unnoticed to others as
they were final to them.

We have seen something of this also in military
life. In the high ambition of excellence in arms
many a regiment seems to become aware of its
commander's orders by a kind of inarticulate in-
stinct. The eyes of the platoons are constantly
ordered to the full front ; yet do they almost mi-
raculously manage to keep the captain's face be-
fore them, and read, in a flash of curious intelli-
gence, what he would next have them produce in
the intricacies of their evolutions. " Eyes right !
Attention !"

Now I do not intend to reply to any one who
comments upon the extreme difficulty of receiv-
ing guidance from an eye, that it can be done
easily, carelessly, and off-hand. I am sure it de-
mands not only the utmost attention, but even a
strong solicitude to know what is in the inmost
mind of him who guides. The men who prefer
the bit and the bridle are those who possess some-
thing of the exquisite dulness of the horse and
the mule, or they would not willingly choose their
discipline.

You need not go any further for a fresh illus-

GUIDANCE BY THE EYE. 265

Signals from a baton. Wilfulness destructive.

tration of what is intended by this figure than to a
choir of singers, or an orchestra of instrumental-
ists. The difficulties of the music may demand
their utmost attention, and the unintelligent tubes
and strings, upon which their best genius is bent,
may require the arrest of every kind of diversion.
And yet you shall mark with wonder how each
performer in the whole band will manage to read,
from a passing flash of a glance of the leader's
eye, time and tone, whispering hush or mighty
crescendo. A whole vocabulary of signals is in
the rapid look which follows the baton.

I must needs press the point here of an instan-
taneous obedience to the direction which is found.
We have no question as to the roughness of dis-
cipline that musician would receive whose wilful-
ness interposed objection, and whose hand inter-
jected discord. He will be the best among the
company whose alertness even anticipates the
leader by knowing his tastes and becoming used
to his habits beforehand. But one essential thing
must be borne in mind : to all guidance by the
eye immediate acquiescence is necessary. Ques-
tions of supremacy of will are decided by the bit
and bridle.

It seems best to fall back upon the simple state-
ment of the text. It appears that God is our in-
structor, and he is not only teaching us by his eye,
but skilling us how to read his eye. We may have
noticed in many of our well-trained academies
these beautiful signals passing between the desk

266 SERMONS IN SONGS.

So in a school. Delicate direction.

and the benches. Lessons were nowhere better
learned, and yet study was never disturbed by
boisterousness of request or command. Yet, if
any one asks, How can a child study to advan-
tage when he is compelled to keep watch of his
teacher? theanswer must be made thus : A coarse
instructor might be expected to have a band of
rude scholars. But a refined and gentle instructor
will soon establish between himself and his classes
a new and delicate instrumentality of communi-
cation. A hand uplifted, even a finger bent in
beckoning, will in no instance pass unseen. Minds
will grow acute under slight and tenuous lines of
intercourse. Delicate hints refine the disposition
and render the attention alert to quick apprecia-
tion : " Spirits are not finely touched save to fine
issues."

The entire figure of our text receives its expla-
nation in this principle. A full-hearted, solicitous,
alert, obedient Christian, accustomed to inquire
constantly of God for direction in the performance
of his duty, will early find that the Holy Ghost
responds with new means of communion. So cer-
tain is this answer, that any truly prayerful child
of God may generally rely upon the exercise of
his own affectionate judgment, his own right rea-
son, to tell him whether he is going in the wrong
or right course.

No affectionate father will be likely to visit with
severe reproach even the mistakes of his children,
if he sees they are trying with all their hearts to

GUIDANCE BY THE EYE. 26/

Habitual reference to God. Where is God's eye ?

understand him and obey him. And our Father
in heaven will look leniently and lovingly on any
one who habitually asks him for help, and then
moves resolutely on doing the best he knows how.
Nor will such a believer find himself forsaken.
There will be hints of unexpected suggestion
arising ; the Holy Spirit will give him an inward
witness, confirming him and informing him in
every true conviction of duty.

I am sorrowfully aware just at this point that
some who hear me will not be able at first to
comprehend the reach of this promise. They
will think that the expression in our text upon
which we are laying so much stress is very pretty
as a poetic conceit, but helps no one in hours of
perplexity. Here, for example, is a discouraged
Christian, who exclaims : " I pray, but I get no
wiser ; I seek, but I receive no answer ; I have
very vague notions about divine guidance any
way ; and surely this figure does not make it any
clearer; where is God's eye ?" To such inquiries
there needs to be given an intelligible reply. It
has pleased our Maker to reveal himself in two
ways to bewildered men — by Revelation and Provi-
dence.

The Word comes first. " Thy word is a lamp
unto my feet, and a light unto my path." In a
general way, we all see and admit this. It is re-
served to God's intimate friends to discover that
some of the finest things in the Bible do not lie on
the surface at all. Some of the most helpful

268 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Revelation comes first. A mother's letter.

counsels come out sidewise, and indirectly, as if
our heavenly Instructor had purposely meant to
have us grow quick at inference. There is hardly
a single promise in the Old or New Testament
the significance of which is exhausted in one sit-
ting. We are not to read the word in a chance
or superstitious way, as if one were to say — Now
I will obey the first text my eye catches: and then
opens the book at random. Nothing can be fool-
isher than a consultation of the Bible like this.
We happen to know that the not very edifying
result was in one case reached thus: "Adam,
Sheth, Enosh," out of which came neither repose
nor information.

I am so anxious that no one shall miss the mean-
ing of a declaration so precious that I will at-
tempt by an illustration, as accurate as it is
homely, to render it plain. You may suppose a
faithful mother, called upon to undergo extended
absence from her family, leaves a long written
series of directions for them how to proceed in
daily duty. It is evident that these children, in
the use of her letter, will pass through three
stages or steps of experience.

They will have no difficulty with those specific
counsels which answer their questions in direct
terms. That is, they will be perfectly satisfied,
when they are asking : " How shall we act in
such or such a case?" to find her words reply-
ing, " In such a case you are to act thus." This
is perfectly easy.

GUIDANCE BY THE EYE. 269

The children's interpretation. Instinctive recognition.

The next step will have t() be taken when they
are in doubt concerning- an exigency which in its
own form they cannot find she has ever mentioned.
They will have to draw an inference from some-
thing else. And we shall all agree in asserting-
that it will be — not necessarily the oldest or most
intelligent child — but certainly the most affection-
ate and observing of them all, who will lead the
way out of the dilemma by saying : " I know that
if she thought in that other case we ought to do
thus and so, she would be sure to think, in this
case, we ought to do thus and so." Now this
step is not so easy as the first, but it is not at all
impossible.

Then comes a third. Here in the letter, as they
read it over, they keep finding things that some
of them cannot possibly understand. They com-
ment a good deal ; but it generally turns out that
one of them remembers a little hint of caution
giv^en long ago about a fault of hers ; or another
of them perceives that in her case there is room
for improvement ; or another of them finds tears
of joy in her eyes, tears of unaffected joy, as she
says, I know I do not deserve an3'thing, but it
would not be honest for me to deny that I think
she meant me when she put in that sweet sentence
of comfort and affection ; and I have not a doubt
there is more than one for each of us, if we stud}'^
for them."

Is it not plain that those affectionate children
will prefer to find their mother's face almost look-

270 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A prepared surprise. Then comes Providence.

ing up at them out of the letter — will love her the
more, because she has put things a little out of
sight ; will say now and then, as they read, *' Oh,
how like her that seems," because a slight turn of
expression in the sentence shows like a twinkle in
her e3^e ?

Now we have God once saying to us in exact
terms : " As one whom his mother comforteth, so
will I comfort you." And I have no hesitancy at
all in asserting that the unfailing promises of this
dear old Bible are the nearest things in the world
to a mother's letters any desolate heart can find.
And really the sweetest thing about them is often
their indirection — their hints of helpful sympathy
— their mere suggestions of care and confidence.
For they seem to show God in a light so deli-
cately kind and thoughtful, because he comes tow-
ard us with a prepared surprise and in a round-
about way.

Providence comes next. Put with the Word
now the general providential arrangements of our
life beneath God's care. These all seem common-
place, until we learn that they have a lesson to
teach. When rehearsing some histories of good
people, the Apostle once said : " These things hap-
pened unto thevi for our examples. ' ' Man}^ of us
are very dull pupils ; and, singularly enough, God
sometimes teaches us by making us monitors for
a day. We learn our lessons better by trj^ing to
teach other people to learn theirs. It may require
much penetration to see how cutting down ad-

GUIDANCE BY THE EYE. 2/1

Three unalterable conditions. Michael Angelo.

vances ; how hindrances help ; how defeat in-
spirits ; how captivity forces ; how humiliation
uplifts ; how heavily loading hastens human pace.
These we learn actually more quickly out of
others' discipline than our own. Still they are
all in our own, and many other lessons than these.

Let me restate the three unalterable conditions
of understanding God : i. Watch him attentively ;
2. Study him affectionately ; 3, Obey him imme-
diately.

This is the meaning of that wonderful verse,
" Then shall we know, if we, follozv on to know the
Lord." Providence will frequently open a way
most mysteriously and unexpectedly, if we rely
upon him to do it. Nay, more ; oftentimes there
is a way wide open already, only we perversely
will not see it. Some Christians never seem to
catch any information from experience. They do
not conceive of God as being present and reveal-
ing himself in the ordinary events of their lives.
Others, again, know instantly and intuitively
whether a way is hedged up or open. And the
difference is only in the habit of looking for what
God would say to them. Our duty is to push on
straight tov/ard what seems to us is God's will.

It is related of Michael Angelo that when he
came down from the scaffolding, from which for
some weeks he had been painting the frescoes on
a high ceiling, he had become so accustomed to
looking upward that it was with real pain he forced
himself to turn his eyes to the ground. Oh,

2/2 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Earthly education. Heavenly fruition.

blessed entanglement of these spiritual orbs of
ours ! Would that they might evermore be so
arrested, habituated, held by the guiding Eye of
divine love, that we could never be satisfied to
turn them from his face ! " My heart is fixed, O
God, my heart is fixed : I will sing and give praise.
My heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

And now we shall all do well to remember that
it is thus and thus alone that the true believer
makes the disciplines of this life most serviceable
in fitting him for the delights of the life to come.
It is reckoned among the choice felicities of
heaven that all the members of Christ's household
are to be gathered into his immediate presence :
"they shall see his face." No longer will warn-
ing be needed concerning a bit or a bridle. The
communions of that blessed existence are to be
conducted by glances of intelligent love. Hence,
when the Lord says," I will guide thee with mine
eye," we can be content to answer, " Thou shalt
guide me by thy counsel, and afterward receive
me to glory."

XXIV.
THE EUCHARIST HYMN.

"And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into
THE Mount of Olives." — MarJz 14 : 26.

Strange thought is this which is forced in upon
our minds by the continuous record of the last
week of our Lord's life. He seems to be singing
very much of the time. He quotes one of the
psalms in the very act of dying. And now we
find that he starts out upon his journey to Geth-
semane with a hymn upon his lips. We should
like to know more of this experience ; let us take
up our questions one by one,

I. The scene would be more picturesque if we
could settle a few of the particulars. For example,
ivhere luas this singing done ?

Some expositors say that on the walk to the
garden where Jesus foreknew he was to be ap-
prehended, out in the air as the company moved
down the path toward the Kidron, this hymn
from the passover service received its new birth
and baptism as a Christian institution. Hardly
had they passed through the door, over which
ma}' have trailed the vine which had given Jesus a
figure of speech when he said, " Arise, let us go
hence," just as they were leaving the Upper

274 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Where did they sing? Nature unconsciously favoring crime.

Chamber in which he had with his disciples kept
the feast, so it has been conjectured, the Master
began to murmur this strain of music ; and then all
the band of his friends took it up with him, and
sang it through to the end ; in responsive strains,
it may have been. Thus some very devout people
in modern times interpret the text ; they reall}^
like the thought that the march to the passion was
so commenced, and they look upon this singing as
a kind of solemn processional on the way to the
cross.

One thing is clear : they had moonlight that
night to guide them, as they entered the garden,
and passed along under the shadows of the vener-
able olives. For the Passover was always cele-
brated at the full of the moon. Sad as the reflec-
tion may be, we have to admit that the same clear
shining pointed out the path for another train,
the one led by a traitorous disciple toward the
same serene spot hallowed already, as Judas well
knew, by the memory of many a prayer. How
unconscious nature seems ever to be of evil plans
that are formed by the wicked, and how inno-
cently sometimes her very best favors are lent for
the consummation of crime ! This world was
fashioned for a better life than it is living now,
and men might be happier than they are.

But still most of us prefer to think, with the
larger part of the church in all time, that this
hymn was at least started at the table itself, before
the company went forth from the room. We

THE EUCHARIST HYMN. 2/5

Why did they sing then ? David's parallel experience.

think it essential that it should be considered as
the end of the Passover service and the beginning
of the gospel feast which took its place.

2. But now it must be confessed that such an
exercise appears in some measure incongruous :
ivJiy was this hymn to be sung tJicn ?

Probably our Saviour felt that there would be
along the ages the same need for believers to en-
courage their hearts that there had previously
been. Certainly, at the time when this singing
took place, the weight of a great sorrow was on
the spirits of the disciples. None of that company
was ignorant now of the trial which was just at
hand. The supreme suffering of the Saviour was
at the moment impending. Singing kindles.
Music is at once the expression and the awaken-
ing of emotion.

The Scriptures furnish us with another vivid
illustration of the same thought, some of the cir-
cumstances of which are almost parallel. You
remember that David, king at once and father of
the rebel Absalom, who with armed bands forced
him to flee from his throne in this very city of Je-
rusalem, went out into the Mount of Olives as he
retreated. Possibly he passed through this same
gate, over this slender rill Kidron, into the same
deep shadows which lay in weird forms along the
terraces and up the slopes of the hill. Jesus, the
second David, sang his hymn before he went out ;
but David, his ancestor, composed the one he sang
on the spot. It will be worth while to read over

2/6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The fifty-fifth Psalm. The Jesuits' dread of hymns.

the fifty-fifth psalm sometime, and remember that
it was made on the summit of Mount Olivet as
the royal poet sat there waiting in the midnight-
It gives significance to the words to know that
both of these sufferers found their solace in
song after betrayal. For we instinctively lay
one strain beside the other, and then we find they
both had a single purpose and meaning. For the
sovereign said, " Cast thy burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain thee ;" and' the Saviour said,
"Not my will, but thine, be done." To this
height of submission each in turn seems to have
come through the very singing of his own song
of trust.

And so we easily learn our lesson. I am sorry
for those Christians who do not know how much
comfort there is in singing when the excited heart
stands under the shadow of some great pain, just
coming or just gone. It refreshes the drooping
spirits, and strengthens the wavering courage.
In the days of the Reformation the monks forbade
the people the use of the grand old German music.
"Why," exclaimed one of the shrewdest of the
Jesuits, " the hymns of Luther have enticed away
more souls than all his writings and sermons !"
Especially did these wily ecclesiastics reprobate
that choral beginning, " My God, be gracious to us
now," that which Gustavus Adolphus sang with all
his army on the morning of the battle of Lutzen.
So the Puritans used to rush into conflict with
the psalms of the temple-service ringing forth

THE EUCHARIST HYMN. 277

The song at the guillotine. The closed instrument.

from their lips. Such heroes lit the fires of their
military ardor with the flames of the ancient in-
spiration which flashed along the ages.

You have not forgotten, possibly, while you
were standing beside the Obelisk in the centre of
Paris, the story of some martyr women in the
Revolution who marched from their prison to the
guillotine chanting the old hymn, " Veni, Creator."
The voices were strong and full at the start.
Over and over again went the solemn music, as
they kept the step through the streets ; by and by
they reached the open space where the knife hung
in the air. One after another the rapidly thinning
band ascended the scaffold ; and the undaunted
choir held on to the chosen strain. And the song
did not cease until only a single singer remained ;
and even then that one clear voice pealed forth its
notes till it was silenced by the dropping over
it of the eternal shadow.

Sing on, then, ye who are sad, or apprehensive,
or bereaved ! It is not wise to refuse help so
graciously vouchsafed to melancholy mortals.
Open the closed instrument as usual ; even funeral
associations you can afford to break up gently ;
let the sense of loss be healed with dear old
home songs taken up again into life. They will
often refine the heart, mitigate the sorrow, keep
alive the affections, awake the soul to duty, set it
looking forward, and become the foretaste of that
hour in which all will be surely restored.

3. Yet another question. We have seen where

278 SERMONS IN SONGS.

What did they sing ? The Great Hallel.

Christ and his disciples sang, and wh}' the}' sang :
let us try to find out zvJiat they sang.

I wish I could prove what I imagine, when I
seem to look in upon the gathering in the upper
room. This was the last time that Christians ever
celebrated the Passover, and the first time they
ever celebrated the Lord's Supper. That closing
hymn marked the transition forever from one dis-
pensation over into another. The law now gave
place to the gospel. All the institutions of the
Jewish ritual were henceforth to be supplanted by
the simpler forms of obedience of the New Testa-
ment church. The Hebrew Moses now yielded
to the Messiah who had actually come. Right
here, on the dividing line, the two economies seem
to have met and recognized each other as being
one and the same in substance and in spirit. And
I can almost be willing to persuade myself that the
song the disciples sang might, not unfittingly, bear
the name which one of their number afterward
gave to that which he heard when he saw in a
sublime vision at Patmos the real feast that this
only typed ; for, in one grand sense, it was " the
Song of Moses and the Lamb."

It is likely that we all know now that the Jews
were wont at the Passover to chant what they
called the " Great Hallel," a long canticle made
up of those psalms which in our Scriptures are
numbered from the one hundred and thirteenth to
the one hundred and eighteenth. There is no
doubt, I suppose, concerning the statement that

THE EUCHARIST HYMN. 279

Some original songs. Communion a fresh institution.

the first communion song- was that, or part of that.
Surely, if you will read it over, you will find it
exceedingly appropriate under the circumstances.
But it does not follow that they had nothing else
on this occasion. It is not an inconceivable thing,
if any one prefers to hazard the conjecture, that a
hymn was composed for their use at this earliest
communion.

Hannah made one, you remember, when Samuel
was born. Mary broke forth into the Magnificat
after her greeting from her kinswoman Elisabeth.
Zacharias sang a new song at the naming of the
infant John the moment his dumbness was re-
moved. Simeon gave us an exquisite strain in
commemoration of his sight of Jesus in the temple.
And, not long subsequent to this day, some one
of these very disciples composed an actual poem,
and they all sang it together as they came out of
prison. These believers, imder the Old Testa-
ment and the New, did not seem to think that they
were shut up to the psalms of David. Finding
nothing just fitting to their case, they had no
scruples whatsoever in seeking elsewhere, or in
fashioning a lyric of praise for themselves.

Let us be frank in admitting that there are
moods of evangelical feeling for which no precise
psalm can be found in the Psalter as we now have
it. Communion service is a fresh institution in
the church. We see here that our Lord himself
accepted the fact of singing ; it may be, if any one
really wishes to think so, that there was a new

28o SERMONS IN SONGS.

Hymns outside of the Bible. Who was it that sang then?

hymn sung just before the company started for the
Mount of OHves, although none of us can pretend
there is found any record of it. At all events,
believers would be deprived of some of the most
efficient means of Christian edification, if they
should refuse to sing anything outside of the Bible.
The sacramental lyrics of the church at large are
in all tongues the very wealth of gospel teaching
and comfort. It does seem as if Christians would
be quite safe in obeying what an inspired apostle
took such pains to say in two instances :

" Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
" Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord."

4. Once more : it will serve our present pur-
pose if we ask alsort'/^*? it zt>as tJiat sa?ig the hymn at
this first communion service.

The record says simply " they." It is natural
to suppose that the entire company joined in it.
Can we imagine that a select body of choristers did
the singing for all the rest ? It seems more befit-
ting to insist that each person did what he could to
help the song along in such an instance as this.
There was John, you remember, so gentle and af-
fectionate that some called him " the disciple whom
Jesus loved," and yet so manly withal that Christ
called him a " son of thunder." James was there

THE EUCHARIST HYMN. 28 1

Only the eleven sang. Did Jesus sing ?

too ; we conceive of him as a somewhat solemn
and venerable man ; it hardly strikes us that one
so benignant and sober, so practical and unen-
thusiastic, could have been much of a musician.
Simon Peter was there also, and no doubt fore-
most, as usual, in everything, moving on with the
impulses of a great, brave heart. There must have
been a good deal of energy in his style, and some-
what of explosiveness, if the tune was a strong
one. It is likely the eleven all sang then.

The eleven — Judas was gone. You can never
help being glad that the traitor was dismissed be-
fore the sacrament. It is a pleasant thing to think
he did not sing the hymn ; he was off on his way
now to meet the chief priests at the rendezvous.
He had " no music in himself ;" he was engaged
in what he was fit for, " treasons, stratagems and
spoils." There was another Judas present ; how
pathetic is the description given of him long after-
ward in the discrimination, " not Iscariot."

But did Jesus sing ? Doubtless he did ; why
not ? It really seems a precious thought that
those disciples heard his voice. We have never
been told that our divine Lord loved music ; but
he loved everything always that was beautiful
and true — lilies, and streams, and faithful men
and little children. The Jews said of him once :
" never man spake like this man ;" we think we
might add to that, never man sang like this
Saviour. Christ surely knew all the words which
had been put as a prediction in the mouth of the

282 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" Jesus wept, but never smiled." The songs of dying believers.

Messiah, for he was the Messiah himself. He
could sing, as once he talked with Moses and
Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, " of the
decease he should accomplish at Jerusalem."

There are some who love to repeat the saying
that, although we read of Jesus as being often in
tears, we never find the record asserting that he
laughed or smiled. I think religious people can
afford to admit this statement as a fact, while we
brace ourselves with rigid stubbornness and re-
pellency against the coarse inference which is sly-
ly insinuated as following from it, namely, that
Christian sedateness requires nothing of emotion
but its sadness, and tolerates nothing of sensi-
bility except its solicitude. It better meets my
form of spiritual experience to believe, as I do
most sincerely, that our Lord was human and sym-
pathetic in everything which belongs to any one
else as a man. I like to think of him as gentle and
cheerful and happy. It gives me gladness to feel
that he sometimes was glad. I am not ready to
say that this communion hymn was doleful and
heavy ; I would rather believe that he sang that
night strain of rejoicing in jubilant anticipation
of his work accomplished and a speedy entrance
into glory.

We have been told, and we believe, that dying
persons sometimes sing with a generous freeness
of exquisite emotion, just because nature is yield-
ing, the world is in full retreat, and grace sweeps
into sway. And I find myself thinking often

THE EUCHARIST HYMN. 283

Who listened to this hymn ? Impressions for good,

that, while there was no weakness of dissolution
in our Saviour's experience, there must have been
a matchless sweetness and exhilaration in the final
song that he sang, for a festival so significant
rehearsed his whole purpose and triumph.

5. Yet another question : ivJio listened zvJicn this
hymn was sung ? The disciples heard each other ;
was any one else present with them ?

In the story as it runs on there is no hint of an
audience ; but it seems quite likely, when we look
in upon the picture, that the man in whose guest-
chamber the Passover feast was prepared might
have entered the assembly for awhile. He had
seen too much of this Jesus of Nazareth already to
suppose he was a mere common personage. And
that man-servant likewise whom the disciples met,
bearing his pitcher of water in from the fountain,
must have been struck with the authoritative way
in which they asked for an apartment. Perhaps
he was there, and some of his fellow-servants may
have been with him. When the company began
to sing the music must have sounded through the
rooms around them. The Jews were not very
quiet when they shouted forth their grand old
Passover anthems. Paul and Silas, you remem-
ber, once sang so loud in the jail at Philippi that
all the prisoners heard them.

Suppose this communion hymn was heard
within and without the apartment, would it not be
very impressive for good ? It is true that we
never hear of any of these persons again ; but

284 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Power of communion Iiymns. Will that hymn be sung again ?

may we not hope that at least a few of them be-
came the friends of the Redeemer ? There is a
great power in a true hymn, and people say that
Christians never sing so well as when they are
sitting at the Lord's Table ; then it is that they
think of the past mercy, they realize the present
grace, they anticipate the future glory. Each
communicant seems ready to repeat the old words
of the psalmist : " I waited patiently for the
Lord ; and he inclined unto me, and heard my
cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible
pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings. And he hath
put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our
God : many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust
in the Lord."

6. And now we reach the last question we need
to ask : ^vill that hymn zvhich jfcsiis and his disciples
sang ever be sung again ?

This inquiry is interesting to us because of cer-
tain peculiarities of experience of Christians at the
Lord's Supper. Communion hymns are wonder-
fully suggestive of the memory of those who used
to love and sing them. And what we would like
to know is whether the voices, which keep drop-
ping away at each celebration while the years
drift along, are by and by going to renew the
strain. Shall the poet really find again her " lost
chord" in heaven? Yes: all this, yes. "The
children of God," said a pious man to his friend
at parting, " never meet for exactly the last time."

THE EUCHARIST HYMN. 285

Such songs foretastes of heaven. Not the " Creation," but the " Messiah."

Christ told his disciples that he should no more
drink of the wine they used that day till he
should drink it new with them in the kingdom of
God. And he might have added that he should
never sing another hymn with them till he
should have returned to his place in his Father's
throne. But this would assume that he certainly
expected to meet them again, and keep his prom-
ises which he had made to them.

To me communion songs seem the surest thing
we shall have in the fruitions of heaven. There
will be no preaching there ; prayer will be no
longer needed ; reading the Scriptures will have
reached its end. Only praise, and that will be
done by singing, will be perpetual. Still, com-
munion songs can be sung only by redeemed men
and women and children. Angels can sing the
" Creation," but saints alone can sing the " Mes-
siah." Even the seraphim never knew the joys of
redemption ; Christians are to have their chance
to render the song of Moses and the Lamb while
every voice beside theirs will be silent, and the
universe will listen.

Try to picture that scene now for a moment.
Room will be made in the highest courts of God's
celestial temple for a new choir coming, for a fresh
anthem to be heard. Clear, loud and strong,
like the supreme voice of many waters, will those
thousands and tens of thousands of singers pour
forth the strains of wondrous harmony as they
make the heavens ring with the communion hymn

286 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Christ's coronation song. Jeremy Taylor's prayer.

which will then be recognized as the coronation
song for their King, now wearing his many
crowns.

So, when we sing our closing piece to-day, let
us try to feel how glad we shall be when we sing
it on the golden floor ! Dear voices, evermore
silent here on the earth, will be ready to join in it
again there : the same, perhaps, which sang
Bethlehem songs by your cradle, are going to sing
the Calvary song by your throne ; for we ail shall
be kings and priests unto God, and shall reign for-
ever and ever.

'* O God, whose days are without end, and
whose mercies cannot be numbered ; make us, we
beseech thee, deeply sensible of the shortness and
uncertainty of human life ; and let thy Holy Spirit
lead us through this vale of misery, in holiness
and righteousness, all the days of our lives : that,
when we shall have served thee in our generation,
we may be gathered unto our fathers, having the
testimony of a good conscience ; in the commun-
ion of the invisible Church ; in the confidence of
a certain faith ; in the comfort of a reasonable, re-
ligious, and holy hope ; in favor with thee, our
God, and in perfect charity with the world. All
which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen."

XXV.
GOD'S THOUGHTS OF US.

" But I AM POOR and needy ; yet the Lord thinketh iiroN

ME : thou art my help and my deliverer ; MAKE NO TARRYING,

O MY God." — Psalm 40 : 17.

When we study the fortieth psalm we are to
remember that it has no special incident upon
which it is founded. It records the permanent ex-
periences of its inspired author ; it is applicable
to the whole stormy period of his career. And,
beyond all this, we are to recollect that it does not
record David's experiences alone ; it is a song for
the ages ; it is plainly evangelical and Messianic,
and is quoted concerning Christ in the Epistle to
the Hebrews. Hence, we may expect to find
grace and help from it as it proffers the love of
God to all his children. The great force of it,
as is the case in many of the most spiritual psalms,
is crowded into the closing verse. This will sup-
ply us now with a very welcome analysis. First,
there is a pathetic description of human expe-
rience ; then, there is a comforting disclosure
of divine providence ; then, there is a legitimate
ground for full assurance of aid ; then, there is
an affectionate prayer for the faith of appropria-
tion in ourselves.

I. " But I am poor and needy :" this is the

288 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Ignorance, impotence, guilt. The common element.

description given us of our human nature under
its ordinary conditions of life.

1. Some are poor and needy through ignorance.
We cannot understand ourselves : we often pray
for what would be our ruin if God granted it just
as we asked for it ; we cannot understand others :
we toil to make our minds acquainted with those
nearest to us, and still they manage to elude our
penetration ; we never can understand God : his
providences are an unceasing mystery.

2. Some are poor and needy through impotence.
That is to say, we are surrounded by difficulties,
and find we are not masters of the position ; our
perplexing cares master us. The ordinary mat-
ters of commonplace support are out of our con-
trol ; our children try our patience beyond our
strength ; the most willing and industrious man
cannot always find remunerative work to do.

3. Some are poor and needy through guilt.
Conscience has been on the alert, and has dis-
co v-ered sin crouching at the door. Human sin-
fulness is like a check on the bank ; it may go far
and remain in circulation long ; but it will come
back eventually to the man who is responsible for
it, and will be presented for immediate payment.
And then, when the guilty soul sits thinking
away from help and confidence, and knows not
what to do, it will be willing to say at the least,
" I am poor and needy," under an uneasy fear,
and a solemn sense of condemnation before God.

Now the one common element in all these

god's thoughts of us.

289

Loneliness of the soul.

Albert of Polanda.

troubles is found in the loneliness into which the
soul settles under them. When such feeling of
desolation comes over us it really seems as if
the whole universe had given us the go-by. We
are certain that we must have help from outside
somewhere, or we shall perish in our hunger and
weakness. Human instincts, in such a case, look
upward for aid. Our souls can neither fly nor
go. Duke Albert of Polanda, so runs the old
story, bore on his armor the emblem of entire
trust : just the hull of a ship, having only the
mainmast and its top-piece, without any tackling
or canvas whatever. But there was this motto
underneath : Dcus dabit vela: " God will furnish
the sails." Thus he claimed that heavenly forces
would be supplied with divine instrumentality
when need should arrive.

II. "I am poor and needy ; yet the Lord
thinketh upon me :" here, in the second place, is
the comforting assurance of divine aid. On the
heavy background of this universal need shines
out the full revelation of God's forethought and
carefulness.

I. God tJiinks about tis. "We are not at all for-
gotten then. " Many, O Lord my God, arc thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy
thoughts which are to us-ward : they cannot be
reckoned up in order unto thee : if I would de-
clare and speak of them, they are more than can
be numbered." It would seem as if we ought to
have remembered this. The high and holy One

290 SERMONS IN SONGS.

God thinks about us. " Pain du bon Dieu."

of Israel never sleeps nor slumbers. The Lord
has always been mindful of his own. He created
us ; he has fed, sustained, clothed us.

Simpler minds than ours are often more truly
devotional : the Savoyards have the beautiful
name for one of their finest mountain-flowers,
''Pain du boii Dicii :" "the bread of the good
God ;" for they say it reminds them by its white
and delicate blossoms of the manna feeding Israel
in the wilderness.

2. God thhiks a great deal about us. His thoughts
are so many that " they cannot be reckoned up in
order." He thought of the poor widow in
Elisha's time when she had nothing in the famine-
struck house but her little cruse of oil. He
thought of Simon Peter in the prison, of Daniel
in the lions' den, of the infant Moses in the bul-
rush ark, as well as of David in the great stress of
his trouble, whatever it was, Avhen he wrote this
psalm : " I waited patiently for the Lord ; and
he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He
brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of
the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and
established my goings. And he hath put a new
song in my mouth, even praise unto our God :
many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the
Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord
his trust, and rcspccteth not the proud, nor such
as turn aside to lies."

There are two verses in another psalm which
tell us this acrain :

god's thoughts of us. 291

" Sums" in the plural. Promises are thoughts stored up.

" How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,
O God ! how great is the sum of them ! If I
should count them, they are more in number than
the sand : when I awake, I am still with thee."
This acknowledgment is unusually strong. For
the word " sum" is in the plural in the Hebrew ;
" how great are the sums of them."

3. God thinks about us ahvays very kindly. David
gives a significant name to the thoughts he is re-
ceiving ; he calls them " tender mercies," given by
God's " lovingkindness" and " truth :" " With-
hold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord :
let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually
preserve me. For innumerable evils have com-
passed me about : mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up ;
they are more than the hairs of mine head : there-
fore my heart faileth me."

God's thoughts are not at all as our thoughts,
any more than his ways are as our ways ; " for
as the heavens are higher than the earth," so are
his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts
than our thoughts. Promises are just God's
thoughts stored up for men.

" One blessed word of holy meaning cometh to me o'er and o'er,
And the echoes of its music linger ever — evermore :
Trust— no other word we utter can so sweet and precious be,
Tuning all life's discords into heavenly harmony."

HI, " I am poor and needy ; yet the Lord
thinketh upon me : thou art my help and my

292 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Assurance of aid. God not so far away.

deliverer :" here, in the third place, is a legiti-
mate ground for full assurance of aid.

David turns suddenly from addressing believers
to a direct address unto God in person ; he takes
occasion to speak confidentially and confidently
to his heavenly Friend. We cannot help thinking
that he had in mind some in this world who habit-
ually make vast mistakes in reasoning, Avhose want
of logic shows the heart's perversity.

I. Some say that God is too far away to think of
us here. Once, when a sailor had come in, saved
from shipwreck, he said to those who asked him
about his days and nights out on the waters of the
lonely sea that their greatest alarm was that
God could not be made to hear up so high in the
sky, beyond even the stars. Now, it is of no use to
reason about this. We must just let the Lord tell
us the truth in the matter ; he knows, and he
declares :

" The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon
him, to all that call upon him in truth. Surely
liis salvation is nigh them that fear him ; that glory
may dwell in our land. This poor man cried,
and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all
his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and delivereth
them."

One of the boldest and strongest figures of
speech in the Bible has been given us to show how
close God's children are to him : " The Lord is
nigh unto them that are of a broken heart ;

god's thoughts of us. 293

Is God too great ? Is God too holy ?

and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall
abide linder the shadow of the Almighty."

2. Then, again, some say that God is too great to
think of us here on his footstool. We conceive
of him as the Monarch on the throne of the uni-
verse. Needy petitioners like us must not expect
to have an audience with him. We are abashed
at the suggestion of intruding our petty cares
upon his notice. It might do perhaps in the case
of a kingdom going to pieces, or a ship driving
on the rocks, or a dynasty breaking ; but not in
our vexations, not in our daily disquiets.

Here, as before, our logic is utterly at fault.
The argument goes exactly in the other direction.
God is great ; indeed, he is so great that he can
look placidly down upon each one of us, as we
keep coming to him, ever kindly bidding us a
morning and evening welcome ; no more forget-
ful, no more impatient, no more worried, than are
we when our own boys approach us with their
questions or their difficulties. Now, when we
think of it, it seems as if we conceived of God in a
most mean and contemptuous manner, if we begin
to assert that he is hurried or fatigued, displeased
or burdened, by our affectionate inquiries of him
what we are to do. God is so great in his pa-
tience that it does not fret him to see his children.

3. So again : some say that God is too holy to
think of us here. We are sinners and full of
defilement ; it is almost natural for us to conclude

294 SERMONS IN SONGS.

God never indifferent. Is God too happy ?

he could not want to have anything to do with such
a class of his creatures. When we think of him
as residing in the shadowless purity of heaven
itself we are hardly willing to believe he cherishes
any thought for rebels like men.

But then we certainly know that he hates sin :
that is one point gained, at all events ; for if we
are sinners, God cannot possibly be indifferent to
us. He will strike at sin, for its own offensive
sake. He cannot bear to have one speck of moral
defilement anywhere within the borders of his
realm. So he is gently and tenderly on the side
of every man who wishes to be pure. A mere
look upward to him attracts attention ; and when
one speaks, saying, " See, here is a sinner
struggling with sin," that will not fail to be the
surest way of securing instantaneous succor.

4. Once more : some say that God is too Jiappy
to think of us here. He does not need us. Why
should he bestir himself or disturb himself in
any way in our behalf? And least of all, if our
excellences are of no account, how can our
troubles hope to interest him ?

Such questions show how poorly we reason. It
is true that God is happy ; but something makes
him happy ; he is infinitely and constantly
happy, but not unintelligently happy in any case.
His enjoyment has grounds for its exercise ; it
has a society of companions to share it and con-
tribute to it. And because he desires it to con-
tinue and to increase he is alwavs among the

god's thoughts of us. 295

God joys "with singing." Daily harassments.

worlds beneficent and active, making- himself
happy, everywhere sowing sunlight that he may
harvest gladness from each field of the wide uni-
verse. VVe are told by one of the prophets, " The
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; he
will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy ;
he will rest in his love ; he will joy over thee
with singing." '

IV. " I am poor and needy ; yet the Lord
thinketh upon me : thou art my help and my
deliverer ; make no tarrying, O my God." Here,
in the fourth place, is the prayer for the faith of
appropriation in ourselves. If God really wishes
to help us, and we wish to be helped, why should
there be any delay on either side ?

I. Why should we not now, at once, trust God to
take away all our daily Jiarassnients ? He has said
that we are to have " no thought for the morrow,"
because he has all the " thoughts" that belong to it
in our behalf. One day, when the young lad
Goethe came from church, where he had listened
to a sermon in which an attempt was made to
justify the divine goodness, his father asked him
what he thought of the explanation. " Why," said
this extraordinary youth, "the matter may be much
simpler than the minister thinks ; God knows very
well that an immortal soul can never receive any
injury from a mortal accident." Why do we not
open our hearts to such a conviction ? These frets
will not harm us ; our Father in heaven will see
us through them into peace in his time. We

296 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Unnecessary apprehensions. Spiritual conflicts.

have only to pray, " Make no tarrying, O my
God."

2. Then again : why do we not trust our
heavenly Friend to banish all our tinnccessary appre-
Jiensions at once ? What has rendered the world
more unhappy than anything else has always been
some great worry anticipated which never hap-
pened after all. A misgiving that we shall not be
able to hold our own under these pressures only
unfits us for steadiness. It is said that Shake-
speare once thought himself no poet, and Raphael's
heart grew silent and discouraged, so that he was
overheard to say he should never be a suc-
cessful painter. He who has an all-powerful
helper above needs only to look to him for the
help he has engaged. We have only to keep
praying, " Make no tarrying, O my God."

" Who would be God's must trust, not see, not murmur, fear,
demand ;
Must wholly by him guided be, lost in that loving hand ;
Must turn where'er he leads, nor say —
' Whither, oh, whither points the way ? ' "

3. Once more : why do w^e not trust God to
hush all our spiritual conflicts ? Without are fight-
ings, and within are fears ; but these might be
composed in an instant if we would only cast our
cares on him who cares for us. God seems some-
times to put before the defeated faith the end
which it has been listlessly seeking, as a city to be
besieged, which city has been lost hitherto through

GOD S THOUGHTS OF US. 297

Send back spent arrows. One essential condition.

indolence. And now the prize seems unutterably
valuable, simply because it has to be reached by
a series of regular approaches. Prone on the
sward the industrious soul lies digging in the low
trenches ; there even the Almighty God appears
to fire at it, as Christ did at the Syrophenician
woman. But now notice ; this is his way of sup-
plying ammunition to the archer. We have only
to pick up the spent arrows and send them back
in our prayers. A thoroughly alert Christian will
sometimes discover that all the fightings he really
has are with himself ; he is resisting a God, who
is on his side all the time trying to aid him. Let
him surrender to a friend, and pray, " Make no
tarrying, O my God !"

Only one condition lies behind all this : " tJie
sign of the cross is the countersign to night.'' Do
you know the story ? It was in the war twenty
years ago. The sentry challenged one who was
creeping within the lines: " Who goes there?"
rang out sharp and strong in the midnight, and a
feeble voice answered : " A tired friend." " Ad-
vance, then, and give the countersign," was next
heard in the air. Now came the necessity of
closer explanation. A worn-out man slowly drew
near, unarmed, and almost staggering in unmis-
takable weakness. He said he was a Union sol-
dier, just escaped from prison ; he had threaded
the woods in the night, and been swimming the
riv^ers in the day, until he was well-nigh in the
depths of exhaustion. There was no need of

298 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The soldier's countersign. Penitence and faith before pardon.

doubting his pathetic tale, but the sentinel could
only reply : " The orders are peremptory to-
night that ever}' man coming to the line without
the countersign must be shot in his tracks ; you
must die within a few minutes ; you know the
rules," he added, sorrowfully ; " men must do
their duty." The man hesitated : " I did not ex-
pect this ; I am not ready to die ; I must have
time to pray." And the soldier answered that he
might have five minutes' respite. A Christian
himself, he hoped much from the delay. Would
not God interpose, if this was a true man and
good ? Then the fugitive knelt on the sward, and
began to talk quietly to his Father in heaven.
But, while he was praying, he made tJie sigji of the
cross in the air, as if strengthening himself with
the thought of a dying Saviour. The sentry saw
it, and with a cry of gladness clasped a brother
in his arms : " You are saved, and so am I," he
exclaimed ; " the sign of the cross is the counter-
sign to-night !"

Oh, ye men and brethren who hear me ! listen
only to this open secret ; the condition of all peace
in God is found in atonement ; reconciliation be-
fore favor ; penitent faith before graces of protec-
tion ; ' ' the sign of the cross is the countersign
to-nio-ht !"

XXVI.

OFF AND ON.

" 1 HAVE PUT OFF MY COAT ; HOW SHALL I PUT IT ON ?" — Solo-
mon S Song 5:3.

Not long since, coming" home from a sea-side
trip, during the days of which I had chanced upon
a camp-meeting, I came in contact upon the boat
with a somewhat loud-speaking and busy exhorter.
He wanted to keep singing, and managed to do so
most of the way. His manner was exceedingly
fresh and open with every one on deck. All of
us were questioned in turn about our souls. At
last I said to him : " You have had long experi-
ence in attendance on such meetings as these in
the grove?" He mentioned a number of occa-
sions so very high in the reckoning that I assumed
he was habitually there in the season ; so I con-
tinued : " You must have been a Christian for a
long time?" And he answered : " Why, yes — off
and on, now, about eleven years, I should say,
since I was first converted !"

Such expressions are valuable for their frank-
ness, to say the least ; and their oddness makes
them easy to remember. So I choose the phrase-
ology for a moment in order to remark that there
is altogether too much of this " off and on" re-

300 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" Off and on for eleven years." The Bride in the song.

lig-ion in the churches at this present day. And I
am afraid it is not because it happens so by reason
of some extraordinary ing-athering- of hypocrites
into the g"Ospel-net, but because it is conceived
by many that this is exactly the normal way of
procedure in the divine Hfe. The theory may not
be strange to all people that personal piety con-
sists in a series of ups and downs, offs and ons,
revivals and backslidings, in which every Chris-
tian must be allowed to take his turn. It is often
deemed quite unnecessary that pastors should
grow anxious about their hearers ; for these peri-
odic moods are only like the local phenomena of
malaria in a district where he is more or less a
stranger. He is considered to be over-much con-
cerned when the heats and chills come on ; these
are the ordinary manifestations, and do not really
harm anybody.

'i. Let us come now straight to the phraseology
of the text I have chosen. Its figure is also quaint
and sharp, and can readily be fastened in one's
mind. And our first question will naturally be
this : What is it to have taken one's religious
coat off ?

The context shows that it is the person called
the Bride here in Solomon's Song who is repre-
sented as speaking. She is awakened in the
night-time by the sound of her lover's voice at
the doorway. He asks her to open to him, that
he may come in. But she is plainly no more
than half-aroused. She lingers listlessly on her

OFF AND ON. 30I

A stupid inquiry. The practical exhibition.

couch, for her garments have been laid aside ; so
she stupidly inquires of herself how she can get
up, put them on again, and go to the door.

The great advantage of having Christ at the
portal ready now to enter is unappreciated, be-
cause the heart is dull, and hates to take the
trouble of rising to duty. An opportunity, which
may never occur so clearly again, is declined for
the sake of personal indulgence of ease. So the
upshot is that God is daringly asked to wait upon
mere human convenience for his admission to
one's heart.

Let us bring the whole experience to a plain
and practical exhibition. It might almost be said
that there are few members of the visible church
who do not, at some periods of their lives, find
themselves secretly questioning the existence of
divine grace in their souls. It is a shame that any
of us should even for a moment fall into such a
folly of confusion ; but the fact cannot be denied
that many more persons than ever publicly con-
fess it do actually begin to doubt whether it was
a wise thing for them to have openly stood before
the community to connect themselves with the
people of God at the time when they did so. Now
that affections are dulled, and duties become irk-
some, it is one of our unhealthy impulses to seek
to break out from under the orderly restrictions
of our church membership. And very likely
there might be discovered a somewhat astonish-
ing, and even formidable number in every com-

302 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Throwing up one's profession. Does this prove unregeneration ?

munion, who, if they only had their way, would
abruptly and joyously dissolve this relationship,
and throw up their entire profession for good.

If they had their way — thus 1 choose my words
carefully ; for they certainly perceive that they
cannot have their own way in covenant engage-
ments where there are two parties engaged. As
affairs now stand, there is a positive church law
in the path : in every denomination of Christians
public membership is thoroughly respected and
heavily sanctioned : in most cases our theory ad-
mits of no withdrawal without a process of actual
disciphne. One cannot get his name off the roll
except by trial for crime and consequent excom-
munication. Thus held by unwilling bonds, it be-
comes a serious question — What is a person to do
in order honestly to relieve the vexatious embar-
rassments of his position ? Shall he tear his coat
off?

Now, let me say just at this point, to avoid any
misconception, it does not necessarily follow, in
every case of irresolution like this, that those who
are so harassed by such agitating doubts and pain-
ful suspicions of themselves must have been hypo-
crites during the past history they deplore, or
that they are h3^pocrites now because they keep
their perplexities a secret, and remain tranquil
where they are. It is no more a proof that one is
unregenerate because he desires to be out of the
church when he is in it, than it is a proof that one
is reerenerate because he desires to be in the

OFF AND ON. 303

Painful and perilous searchings. Morbid conscientiousness.

church when he is out of it. Such painful and peril-
ous searchings need sometimes themselves to be
searched. They may possibly be nothing more
than mere wiles of the devil aimed against God's
saints.

For these people may possibly be only morbidly
conscientious. Sometimes health fails, and one's
entire being is under an unnatural depression.
Sometimes circumstances of exterior domestic or
social life may have combined to bewilder the
judgment, or to benumb the heart. Sometimes a
wrong counsel from the pulpit or an enthusiastic
book, understood or misunderstood, sways the
emotion into a sudden violence, and awakes a mis-
giving, which Satan perverts into conviction and
urges into an outbreak. There are histories in
every-day life of sons who have been estranged from
their parents for years, and have burst all family
bonds, and left the home roof for wild wandering
over the earth, and yet whose mistake has been
that of the head and not that of the heart. An
explanation of just one misunderstanding, which
has been carried painfully for half a lifetime, has
made all right again ; and then it has been seen
that the affectionate soul has been loyal from the
start. And it is not impossible that many a true
Christian has been beguiled in just this way. He
imagines it is his church-membership which is gall-
ing him, when perhaps it is only one of a hundred
matter-of-fact things, belonging to daily existence,
which has destroyed his comfort.

304 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Wherein lies the wrong? Jeremiah's figure.

But though this must be admitted, so as not to
work any injustice, I cannot go so far as to ac-
knowledge that it Avould change elementally the
moral character of such wicked attempts to rid
one's self of the covenant ; for the difficulty lies
below the surface.

II. So, then, we reach a second question, which
as before I prefer to cast into the phraseology of
the text : Wherein rests the wrong of taking one's
religious coat off and laying it aside?

Suppose the inquiry assumes this shape : admit
that a man thinks he made a mistake in joining the
church at all ; and that now, even although he is
reckoned as a professor of religion in good and
regular standing, he is not a truly regenerate per-
son : is he under obligation to perform the duties
of membership ? Is he bound to come to the
ordinances, just as if all were clear in his own
heart ? That question is not to be trifled with.
And I will say for a general answer that there
must be always times of indecision and self-search-
ing in reference to any relationship which involves
the two particulars of internal experience and ex-
ternal contract. Let us just turn for a moment to
a passage in the prophec}' of Jeremiah : " My
covenant they brake, although I was an husband
unto them, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding
children, saith the Lord ; for 1 am married unto
you."

The Word of God here parallels one perplexity
by another ; and it happens that this other is

OFF AND ON. 305

Husband and wife. Paul's expostulation.

familiar to almost every mind. Jehovah is plainly
addressing his ancient people, and charging them
abruptl}^ with unfaithfulness to him. Neverthe-
less, he avows himself solicitous for their recovery ;
and in the course of his appeal and argument he
introduces the similitude of a wedding covenant,
showing that he has claims as well as anxieties ;
he is a /msband, they are bound to him as a wife to
her lord.

Once this figure has been taken up, it is curious
to note how rapidly and extensively it hurries into
the phraseology of the Old and New Testaments
alike. We find it in one of the epistles drawn
out with greatest care. Paul, as if to show us
that such forms of expression Avere not merely
Jewish and national, uses the same intense illus-
tration with the name of the parties ; he speaks
" concerning Christ and the Church :" admitting
both relations to be a mystery, he yet claims that
in each case illumination is flung upon the one re-
lationship by the other :

" Would to God 3'e could bear with me a little
in my folly ! And indeed bear with me. For I
am jealous over you with godly jealousy : for I
have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I
fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtilty, so )'our minds should be
corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

Such language may seem extravagant ; but
really, the Christian apostle does no more than

3o6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Marriage is consent. No release admissible.

echo and repeat the promise of God himself,
spoken by one of the ancient prophets :

" And I will betroth thee unto me for ever ;
yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness,
and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in
mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faith-
fulness : and thou shalt know the Lord."

Accepting these forms of representation, it will
not be difficult to give an answer to the questions
with which we set out just now. The soul of
every professor of religion is married to Christ its
Saviour. Here are the two elements of relation-
ship : the internal experience and the external
bond. The definition admitted under our laws is
— marriage is consent. When, therefore, parties
of proper age and intelligence are voluntarily
married, they are firmly bound to each other as
long as they both shall live ; neither of them has
any release save by a legal process which assumes,
proves, and punishes crime.

There is no need of entering upon an argument
on such a point. I feel quite certain that a suffi-
cient reply to this inquiry which we are consider-
ing will be exactly what it would be if it were put
into words thus : What shall a wife do who is
thoroughly convinced that she married under a
mistake, and who now esteems her legal relation-
ship an annoyance and a burden ? Persons of can-
dor would say in answer to this : " Why, the
woman is married to the man ; that is the end of
it. If she has lost her love for her husband she

OFF AND ON. 307

Marrying in haste. No change in God.

must not also lose her sense of duty, or her sense
of shame : she cannot leave him. She must adjust
her purposes to her lot. She swore on the wed-
ding-day that she did love him, and she gave con-
sent before the altar. She also swore that she
would live and die, and wanted to live and die,
bearing his name. Certainly, she cannot retreat
a step out of that without breaking an oath. The
likelihood is, she will learn a lesson that she ought
to be wise enough to pass on to her children —
that they do not marry in haste, and then be com-
pelled, like herself, to find time for repentance at
their sorrowful leisure.

But, you urge, the man may have changed since
those promises were made ; he may have become
unmanly and unworthy. Still, all we can say is —
so much the worse for her ; there is no relief at
hand.

But now, I take it that just there is the only
point at which this figure does not hold in its pres-
ent application. It is not a possible thing that
God, as an object of love and desire for every
human soul, should ever become less attractive
and less worthy. A Christian, who has professed
to love him, and then in the lapse of months and
years has ceased so to do, has evidently under-
gone some change in himself ; he is a backslider,
but God is the same.

III. Thus we reach the third question, indeed,
the main question, suggested in the text : " I have
put off my coat ; how shall I put it on ?"

308 SERMONS IN SONGS.

How put on the coat ? It must be put on again.

Yes indeed : that is the question — " How shall
I put it on ?" For there can be no release from
his perplexities to any one who- feels his religious
responsibilities and duties to be a burden, except
in going straight back to the love which made
every yoke easy and every burden light. I have
said enough already to render this assumption
clear and legitimate — that the coat must go on
again.

Shall such a church-member continue to attend
services as usual on the Lord's Day ? Certainly ;
why not ? Shall he lead in ordinary meetings for
public prayer ? Yes, if he has been accustomed
openly to do so, if he be called upon, and can do
it to edification. Shall he persist in keeping up
his family altar? No sort of doubt about that.
Shall he come to the Lord's Table at communion ?
That is clear, too ; he is to come just the same as
ever. So of each duty in turn. It makes no dif-
ference whatever what his feelings are. He is to
find release from his perplexities by a return and
not by a departure : he must not make a derelic-
tion at one point apologize for a dereliction at
another. If his heart is chilled, then thrusting off
his outward profession is the very last thing to do
in order to warm it. He must get back somehow,
and the way to get back into Christian life is just
to turn sharply around and go back.

For the end of this " off and on" religion is
simply — dcatJi. I do not know any pictures of
the Scriptures more vivid or more violent than

OFF AND ON. 309

Ezekiel and Paul. A lost professor.

those which assert the utter ruin of an apostate,
thus :

" When the righteous turneth away from his
righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth
according to all the abominations that the wicked
man doeth, shall he live ? All his righteousness
that he hath done shall not be mentioned : in his
trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that
he hath sinned, in them shall he die." " For it is
impossible for those who were once enlightened,
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have
tasted the good word of God, and the powers of
the world to come, if they shall fall away, to re-
new them again unto repentance ; seeing they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and
put him to- an open shame. For the earth which
drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and
bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is
dressed, receiveth blessing from God : but that
which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing ; whose end is to be burned."

The very conception of hell as a place of retri-
bution is awfully alarming. But the worst feat-
ure of it all is found in the thought of a professor
of religion finally lost — a church-member in among
the demons who will forego no chance to taunt
him be3'ond the rest. " Oh, yes ! you are the
fluent man who used to make such nice talks !
You recommended religion as such a good thing !
Oh, we love such an honest hypocrite as you have

3IO SERMONS IN SONGS.

The ruin is needless. God stands pleading.

shown yourself to be ! This is exactly the place
for you ! Such salt never loses its sweetness for

us

Meantime all this wreck and ruin seems so need-
less and so sad ! Oftentimes it is just this stub-
born fidelity to duty which, persisted in, avails
most in restoring the heart-life. One who prays
meekly for form's sake is, at least, in the best pos-
ture for praying- for love's sake. One who is will-
ing to be honest in confession is the nearest like
one who is getting pardon for wrongs he is con-
fessing. Sometimes the gracious Spirit of God
makes use of such considerate moods of mind in
renewing his help ; he is like some thoughtful man
who tries to make it easy for his friend to come
back after a long estrangement ; and his kindness
wins more than ever. The worst mistake possible
is that of one wildly rushing away from a cove-
nant.

For look — there stands God waiting to be gra-
cious ! Oh, the picture is wonderful in that verse
I quoted awhile ago ! Like some magnanimous,
affectionate husband, infinite Love in the pres-
ence of the dull and stony Soul — Psyche pleaded
with by Amor — God stands kindly entreating :
" Surely, as a wife treacherously departeth, so
have ye dealt with me : turn, O backsliding chil-
dren, saith the Lord ; for I am married unto you."

XXVII.
THE ARGUMENT OF EXPERIENCE.

" Be thou my strong rock . . . for thou art my rock." —
Psalm 31 : 2, 3.

By his generous prowess David had delivered
the city of Keilah from the Philistines. For a
little while he was permitted to find sanctuary,
and catch rest within its walls. But his indefati-
gable pursuer, Saul, ever on the alert to entrap
him, soon discovered his temporary retreat, and
so David knew he must once more enter upon the
wild chases of his venturous life.

But before he went out into new exposures he
somehow found time to pen a new psalm. He re-
minded himself of his former history. He recalled
a series of deliverances which he had had in sea-
sons of equal peril. Hence, when he puts on his
armor again, he takes his harp also in hand. If
he must be a soldier, he can nevertheless sing.
And while we, in our New Testament age of the
world, have no heart to say we are glad that this
wonderful man suftered, we may rejoice that out
of his dangers there came so often these anthems
of acknowledgment and praise. They are like
some jewels which a bride wears on her fingers ;
she will not deny that she is glad to receive them,

312 SERMONS IN SONGS.

A bride's rings. Off-look at Hebron.

even though she knows that there was a wound in
some living creature for each distinct pearl.

The one peculiarity about this psalm is its force-
fulness of logic. More than one commentator has
called our attention to the fact of David's pressing
God all the time with his " fors " and his " there-
fores." He argues like a polemic. He insists on
conclusions issuing out from premises. He lights
his helpful torch of hope from the old camp-fires
of conflict. " Be thou my rock, for thou art my
rock." He writes this exquisite song while his
whole heart is pitifully mournful in its lonely de-
pression ; but in itself it is one of the most exhil-
arant he furnished for the Psalter, fairly crowded
with thankfulness and joy.

Why does David talk so much about a rock?
You remember where, at the time, he was linger-
ing. The situation he was in was singularly for-
tunate for such picturesque meditations. From
the elevated outlook all around Hebron, off from
the high country along the ridge, he could quite
possibly see the precipitous banks of that awful
ravine, down at the bottom of which the turbid
rainfall of the Kidron forced its tortuous way. He
could distinguish many a lonesome, but unfortu-
nately familiar spot near the Dead Sea. That thin
line of emaciated hills had become a home sight
with him. More than once, with the half-mad king
on his track, he had taken shelter in the craggy
cliffs of Engedi. It was his grateful recognition
of help rendered that made him say " rock."

THE ARGUMENT OF EXPERIENCE. 313

Meary vicissitudes. Changeless verities of divine love.

Now, as he goes forth to weary vicissitudes
again, it seems perfectly natural for him to think
of his former retreats. And if at any time he
speaks of aid from Ahnighty God, we should ex-
pect him to cast the forms of his phraseology into
the figures of his experience, reasoning out from
nature into grace. So he petitions and asserts in
the same breath and with the same symbols :
" Bow down thine ear to me ; deliver me speed-
ily : be thou my strong rock, for a house of de-
fence to save me. For thou art my rock and
my fortress ; therefore for thy name's sake lead
me, and guide me."

I. Of course the very earliest and best thought
we can catch, in so swift an utterance, is concern-
ing the absolute unchangeableness of God.

If our Maker, infinite and eternal as he is, has
ever helped us once, we may confidently expect
him to help us again. If he has already been to us
a rock of refuge, we may reason with exact logic
that he will be a rock of refuge continually. For
he has no frames of feeling as we have. The
argument of experience is simply unalterable and
irrefragable. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
to-day, and forever.

We have our spiritual elations and depressions ;
but, really, neither of them have anything to do
with the changeless verities of divine love. And
no safety is so certain for an}'- menaced and dis-
tressed believer as that of the soul which has sur-
rendered everything to Christ. Our foolish diffi-

314 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Children in dark recesses. Closer intimacy inside the rock.

CLilty lies in our own want of trust. Most of us
can recall some childish years of sport, when we
were wont to hide ourselves in a dark recess,
leaving our pursuers standing in the narrow door,
peering into the shadows after us. It did seem as
if they must see our very faces, we could see theirs
so perfectly. And we found it impossible to keep
quiet, and just silently trust the dusk we were in.

" No man hath seen God at any time." To tell
a timid Christian that he must hold his confidence
implicitly in his Saviour seems sometimes little
more or less than mockery. For we insist that
we ought to have something more around us than
an impalpable presence. We can appreciate our
dangers so clearly that we imagine we must cer-
tainly be fully exposed. But let any child of God
once pass a season of real peril, and learn in de-
lightful experience how he has been watched and
at last, delivered ; then his cheerful song will be
like David's : " Be thou my rock . . . for thou art
my rock."

2. Then comes another thought from the text,
which gives a fresh delight : he who is shut up to
God is the one who learns most of God.

The moment any little child feels real safety in
the presence and protection of its parent, after a
time of terror, it falls instinctively into expressions
of affection. It begins to caress the hand it holds.
And, very much in the same way, the filial believer,
finding himself safe in Christ, is moved toward in-
timate communion. He loves the more, the more

THE ARGUMENT OF EXPERIENCE. 315

Paul's ladder. Patience, experience, hope.

he trusts. " Tribulation worketh patience ; and
patience, experience," He wonders how he could
■ever have been frightened ; he will not again ;
*' experience worketh hope."

Meantime, to every utterance of tenderness the
Holy Spirit responds. A voice may be heard in
the stillness of the soul like that of the Spouse to
the Bride in the Song of Songs ; indeed, the Sav-
iour seems to come near to seek his own : " O
my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the
secret places of the stairs, let me see thy counte-
nance, let me hear thy voice ; for sweet is thy
voice, and thy countenance is comely."

There can be no doubt at all that every true
Christian learns of Jesus his Redeemer in the hours
of such communion more than anywhere else in
the world. Let me feel, in some day of deep de-
pression, that I am poor, and shall fall into want ;
that I am ill, and shall never be well again ; that
I am maligned, and shall never be able to make
my righteousness appear ; or that my temper has
got the better of me, and I can never control
it ; that my loose tongue has spoken reckless idle-
ness of words, and I shall be unable to put on its
bridle in all the long years ; no matter what may
be my trial ; let me be borne upon, and borne
down, till I am alarmed, desolate, demoralized
and forlorn. Then let me, in one supreme act of
trust, with a mighty and masterful faith, call upon
God, and rest in him. Let me creep into the
shadow of the rock. Let me see my calamities go

3l6 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Hounds rushing by. The instinct of seeking.

harmlessly by, like rushing hounds in full pursuit,
with the sight and the scent lost. Now I know
I am free and safe.

In the mysterious economy of redemption these
are the moments chosen by the Holy Ghost for
his most striking disclosures of truth to each soul.
Theology is learned in spiritual conflict far better
than in comfortable peace. The deepest experi-
ences of gospel help are invariably taught in war-
fortresses. Shut up to God's companionship, we
begin to strive after closer communion with him.
He meets us more than half-way. There is a gen-
uine palpable experience of his nearness to us.
We find we can understand things we considered
inexplicable before, that we are interested in
promises we used to deem wearisome and dry.
The Bible appears like a new revelation to a
Christian who is driven into some narrowness or
darkness with God. This must have been what
old Thomas a Kempis meant when he said once
so simply : " I have no rest except in a nook with
the Book."

Furthermore : all our emotions and sensibilities
are awakened to a fresh instinct of seeking after
him whom our soul loves. We may not be pre-
cisely certain where he is going to be found near-
est at hand ; but we push out the tendrils of our
affection in each direction —

" Like plants or vines, which never see the sun,
But dream of him, and guess where he may be,
And do their best to climb and get to him."

THE ARGUMENT OF EXPERIENCE. 317

Moist and gloomy times. God is managing affairs.

Thus it comes to pass that moist and gloomy
times are often growing and fruit-bearing times.
Each disciplinary worry of life constitutes a sort
of soul's college. There is a marvelous educat-
ing power to be found in overcast skies. Gifts
and graces flourish among damp shadows as they
do not always out in dry sunshines. And, in-
deed, we ought to remember that this is really a
low level to live upon, which we deem oftentimes
the most important — that of mere activity and
conspicuous duty-doing. Advancement, in knowl-
ledge of God and experience of grace, is much
higher. That surely was an excellent counsel
once given by an aged divine when he said :
" One of the most unequivocal signs of ripeness in
Christian character is a growing fondness for the
doctrines of the gospel, as distinguished from the
mere perfunctory obedience to precepts." It is
not successes a true believer needs, it is thoughts ;
it is not opinions, it is truth ; it is not philosophy,
it is revelation ; it is not even religion, it is God-
likeness ; it is not achievement, it is Christ !

3. Beside these two lessons suggested in the
text, there is another : seasons of uttermost ap-
parent peril are generally the safest.

After all, it is a great comfort to recollect that
God is managing the universe, even when the sky
is full of thunder. And the one indispensable
condition of repose is found in an instant surrender
to the management of God. He seeks no counsel
of ours, and \vc are alwavs verv weak and foolish

3l8 SERMONS IN SONGS.

The ended voyage. Noah in the deluge.

to keep offering him help. When the sea-captain
has brought the ship fairly and finely into the haven
we have generally found that our sleeping-chamber
was saved with the rest of it, and we were in a
comfortable condition, unless we had grown ill
through anxiety.

Here among these verses occurs one which
seems very familiar to our ears : " Into thine hand
I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O
Lord God of truth. ' ' At least three persons in Bible
history are known to have repeated it in seasons
of utmost extremity — David, Stephen, and Jesus
of Nazareth on the cross. It is the unequivocal
language of uttermost relinquishment of self-pres-
ervation. Saul flings javelins at David. The
mad populace pelt Stephen with missiles of stone.
The soldiers drive nails through the limbs of
Christ. Apparently without any release or refuge,
each of these sufferers in his extremity exclaims
that he puts his case out of his own hands, soul and
body. With one vast letting go of personal effort,
they fall upon the everlasting arms underneath.
In the supreme moment of being lost they are safe.

There are other instances like these. Think of
Noah in the deluge. A very slight imagination
would draw the picture of him at the instant
when, having shut him in the ark, the Almighty
sent the rains and rivers pouring around and under
the huge vessel with its awkward freight. Re-
member those human beings inside with the dumb
beasts could not look out upon the hills and plains

THE ARGUMENT OF EXPERIENCE. 319

Safe on Ararat. Daniel, Peter, Jonah.

to see what was going on. There was only one
window in the structure ; that was overhead, and
opened on the sky straight upward. When the
wooden world began to writhe and creak through
all its seams and planks, to totter and sway as it
rose from the solid earth ; when they felt them-
selves cut loose from bearings and moorings, and
lifted up, hour after hour, on the awful swirls of
the water ; it might possibly be that the}^ grew
solemn and thoughtful, all of them, in the extrem-
ity of their admitted exposure. But we know
now, and they themselves believed then, that they
were the only secure persons in the whole world.
They were held in the hollow of their Father's
hand. God shut them in the ark, then set the
ark high up on Ararat.

Think of Daniel : there was no spot so safe for
him on earth as was that den of lions ; not an
enemy could get at him all the night of peace.
Think of Simon Peter : a whole platoon of sol-
diers, and the four walls of a prison, protected
him from Herod ; he was absolutely secure.
Think of Jonah : how utterly impossible it was to
shipwreck him again while the Lord was bring-
ing him ashore, fathoms under the waves. It is
always the same story : he is the safest of us all
whom the Lord cares for. When one is driven
into the rock he finds God is himself the rock.

4. So we reach our final lesson : our duty is to
urge the argument of experience constantly against
the onsets of the devil's distrust.

320 SERMONS IN SONGS.

" The palace of Christ." Divine interpositions remembered.

That is, we must keep repeating such a text as
this : " Be thou my strong rock . . . for thou art
my rock." This settled rest of a soul in God is
what Augustine calls "the palace of Christ, the
temple of the Holy Ghost, the paradise of delight,
the standing Sabbath of the saints." Nowhere
else can any believer find tranquillity or serene re-
pose.

If, instead of brooding and repining over sad
prospects, instead of imagining pains to come, in-
stead of foreseeing and predicting dismay and dis-
appointment, instead of always looking on the
dark side, we would only count up our mercies
which \vc have received, and argue logically from
them fresh deliverances sure to be vouchsafed by
God from on high, we should be happier and far
more useful. There has been no man or woman
living in this world, among really believing peo-
ple, whose history can possibly be barren of divine
interpositions. Providence and grace are alike
full of instances of God's love. Once there was
sickness in our home ; then came loss ; then came
abuse or misrepresentation ; we seemed just going
into wreck and ruin. Suddenly a hand seemed
actually stretched out from the sky overhead, and
all was right and clear again. Once there was
fire, and then there was flood ; but strange helps
and succors showed themselves at the critical in-
stants, and the accidents were warded off marvel-
ously. Then there were pestilences in the air,
and awful temptations in the business world, and

THE ARGUMENT OF EXPERIENCE. 32 1

The text a fine motto. Cowper's hymn.

bereavements in the family. But always, always,
God showed himself our strong rock.

Why cannot we keep saying- so ? Is there any
one in all the world who cannot remember some
matchless providence of his Maker which molded,
aided, and swayed his entire career ? These su-
preme deliverances it is our duty to rehearse over
and over again to ourselves and to our neighbors.
They are our arguments. Do you remember that
quaint little stanza in one of our familiar hymns,
with which the singer rebukes faint-hearted and
complaining believers for their doubts and misgiv-
ings ? He seems to think it a great waste of time,
and a tedious use of profitless words, to wail forth
our cries, as if we had a case against God :

" Were half the breath thus vainly spent
To heaven in supplication sent,
Our cheerful song would oftener be,
Hear what the Lord hath done for me !"

My Christian friends, suffer me now, in closing
the sermon, to suggest this text as your motto of
religious life to meet your sudden wants and
needs. I soberly propose to you, as a habitual
repetition of prayer, this one request with the plea
to back it : "Be thou my strong rock . . . lor
thou art my rock." Ever}^ experience in your his-
tory hitherto logically bears on the history that re-
mains. Consider under this simple figure each
disclosure of divine love in interposition. Call it
your "rock." If God ever gave you a comfort

322 SERMONS IN SONGS.

Not your old troubles. But your old mercies.

in sorrow, a relief in illness, a rescue in danger, or
a help in feebleness, think it over, and argue from
it that you will have others like it. Be habitually
recalling, not your old troubles, but your old
mercies. Choose out of your remembrance at this
moment, now as we separate, your most striking
and illustrious instance of God's watchful love
that was ever shown to you. Let it rise up before
your imagination, where you can actually seem to
see it as David could see the great rifted rock of
Engedi ; and then, in view of it say to your cove-
nant-keeping Maker : " Be thou my strong rock
. . . for thou art my rock.

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