in our midnights and in our noons. Thou wilt not leave us to the
loneliness of self-communion, but Thou wilt hold fellowship with
us along the way. Come to us as the Lord Jesus came to the men
who were journeying to Emmaus, and make our hearts burn within
us in the revelation of light and grace. Especially in these
bewildering times wilt Thou steady our minds with Thy councils
and inspire our hearts in the assurance of Thy sovereign love.
Lead us along our troubled road. Let the heavenly light break
upon our darkness. Help us to believe in Thy peace even when the
world is at strife. Let Thy kingdom come. Even when the world is
filled with the smoke of battle may we discern the presence of
the Lord. Save us from the sin of unbelief. Reveal to us, we
humbly pray Thee, the sin in which this strife has been born,
and help the nations to turn from it in new consecration to
Thee. In this gracious purpose wilt Thou possess our services.
Help us to look beyond the seen into the strength and glory of
the unseen. Cheer us with Thy consolations. Uphold us with Thine
hand, and impart to us the gift of Thy gracious peace. Amen._
XI
THE INVISIBLE COMMANDER ON THE FIELD
"And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will
hiss unto them from the end of the earth." Isaiah 5:26.
"And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss
for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of
Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria." Isaiah
7:18.
That was a startling word to fall upon the ears of the people of Judah.
It shocked them into confusion. It was an altogether revolutionary word.
It played havoc with their traditional beliefs. It smashed up all their
easy securities. It turned their world upside down, and all their
ancient confidences were broken. Let us try to feel the shock of the
message. The people had come to regard their land as a sort of divine
reservation, and they looked upon their nation as a specially favoured
instrument in the hand of the Lord. They esteemed themselves as being in
the friendly grip and fellowship of the Lord of hosts. All their
movements were the inspirations of His counsels, and in the strength of
His providence their nation's progress and destiny were assured. They
lived in the assumption that every step in their national life was
foreseen, and planned, and provided for, and that they were always being
led towards divinely appointed goals. There was nothing of chance in
their journeyings, and nothing of uncertainty in their ends. For them
there was no blind groping in the darkness, for the Lord of hosts had
charge of their national life; and "the sure mercies of David" would
secure it from calamity and destruction.
That was what they thought about themselves. What did they think of the
nations beyond their frontier? That was quite another story. They looked
upon other nations as struggling blindly, and in their dark rage
imagining vain things. These other nations had the promptings of
passion, but they had no divine and mystic leadership. They moved
hither and thither, but it was under no divine appointment, and a
thousand traps were laid for their unhallowed feet. Yonder was Assyria,
full of strength and full of movement, expressing herself in the might
of tremendous armies, but she was under no divine command or
inspiration. Assyria was like a boat in unknown waters, without a pilot,
and she was marked for inevitable destruction. And yonder was proud
Egypt, swelling with her power and renown, colossal in her material
achievements, but she had no divinely enlightened eyes, she was blind in
her goings, and her marching was in reality a staggering towards doom.
And yonder were other nations from afar; but they were all just chance
masses, looked upon as existing outside the frontier line of divine
favour and enlightenment. They dwelt in some hinterland of life where
God's gracious decrees do not run. They were beyond the orbit of divine
thought and grace. Now that was the kind of thinking which the prophet
had to meet. Judah regarded herself as nestling within the home circle
of Providence, and all other nations were outcasts living beyond the
sacred pale.
And now perhaps we shall be able to feel something of the astounding
effect of the prophet's words. "And the Lord shall lift up an ensign to
the nations from far." Far-away peoples are to move under the impulse
and inspiration of the Lord, and in the light of His guiding command.
"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the
rivers of Egypt." A far-away nation, thick as flies, is to move under
the touch and ordination of God! "The Lord shall hiss for the bee that
is in the land of Assyria." A far-away nation, thick as a hive of bees,
is to move under the controlling purpose of the Lord! Can you feel the
shock of the prophet's words? It is the shock of a larger thought which
shakes the nations out of their small and cosey contentment. They had
conceived the divine Providence as being confined exclusively to Judah's
particular guidance and defence. They had thought within the limits of a
country; they are now bidden to cross the frontier and conceive a
Providence which encircles a continent and a world. The fly in Egypt,
and the bee in Assyria, raising their wings at the touch of the
Lord,--it staggered them into incredulity!
Now we can see what the prophet was doing. He was seeking to enlarge
their sense of the orbit of the divine movement. For the little ripples
on their pool he was substituting the ocean tides. For the circle of
their native hills and valleys he was substituting a line which embraced
the uttermost parts of the earth. And that is what I wish to do in this
meditation. I wish to proclaim the vastness of the divine orbit, the
tremendous sweep of the divine decrees, and I wish to emphasize the
teaching of this great prophet, that momentous destinies may be born in
far-away places, even at the very end of the world. "The Lord shall hiss
for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and
for the bee that is in the land of Assyria."
Well then, under the power of this teaching, let us think in wider
orbits of the divine inspiration of nations. For we are apt to imprison
our thought within very narrow and artificial restraints. Much of our
thought about providential movements shuts God up to the circle of
so-called Christian nations: But what if a fierce and decadent
civilization is to be corrected by the inspired influence of such
peoples as are described by Rudyard Kipling as "lesser breeds without
the law?" What if our God will hiss for the fly and the bee among just
such peoples as we are inclined to patronize or despise? Let us imagine
some modern Isaiah standing up in London or New York and uttering words
like these;--"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost
part of China, and for the bee that is in the land of India." I know
that such a doctrine shocks our national susceptibilities, just as a
similar doctrine shocked the national pride of the ancient Jews. But
such a doctrine offers the only true interpretation of the range of the
divine orbit. It may be that the reinforcements of civilization are to
come from the movements of the stagnant waters of China. It may be that
rivers of vitality are to flow into our life from the meditative,
contemplative, philosophic, mystic races of India. Just think of their
quiet, lofty, serious brooding, stealing into our feverish materialism
and sobering the fierceness of the quest. I cannot but wonder what the
good Lord, in the vastness of His orbit, is even now preparing for the
world on the far-away plains of India and China.
Let your imagination exercise itself again in the larger orbit, and
think of some modern prophet standing up in London with this message
upon his lips;--"The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the
uttermost parts of Russia." The message strikes us as incredible, but it
is only because, like the people of Judah, our conception of the divine
orbit is so small and circumscribed. I for one am watching with
fascinated eyes the movements of Russia. I am wondering what is coming
to us from that great people, so long and patiently sad, so full of
reverence, going on long, weary pilgrimages to bow at holy shrines.
Superstition? Yes, if you please. But I am wondering what is going to
happen when the dogged strength of that superstition becomes an
enlightened faith. I am wondering what will happen when that rich,
fertile bed of national reverence begins to bear the full and matured
fruits of the Spirit. What then? I know it is not easy to think it. It
is not easy to widen the orbit of one's thought. It is never easy to
stretch a neglected or unused muscle. But the wider thought is the orbit
of our God, and in the mysterious land of Russia untold destinies may be
even now at the birth.
And so do I urge that we think in vaster orbits of the divine
inspiration of nations. Let us reject the atheism of incredulity, and
let us encourage ourselves in the boundless hope of an all-encompassing
God of the human race. The great God journeys on in His tremendous
orbit, and who knows from what unlikely peoples the rejuvenation of the
world is to come? "The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the
uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the
land of Assyria."
Now I want to go further, and under the power of the prophet's teaching
I would urge that we think in wide orbits of the divine raising of the
heroic leaders of men. In what wide and mysterious sweeps the great God
works when He wants a leader of men! The man is wanted here at the
center, but he is being prepared yonder on the remote circumference! God
hisses for the fly or the bee, and He calls it from very obscure and
unlikely fields.
Here is ancient Israel. Her altars are defiled, and her balances are
perverted. She is hollow in worship, and she is crooked in trade, and
the people are listless in their debasement. A leader is wanted to awake
and scourge the people. Where shall he be found? The Lord hisses for a
fly in Tekoa, a wretched little village, in a mean and scanty setting;
and the fly was a poor herdman, following the flock, and eking out his
miserable living by gathering the figs of the sycamore. And this Amos
was God's man! A prophet of fire was wanted in Bethel, and God prepared
him in Tekoa! But what an orbit, and who would have thought that Tekoa
would have been a school of the prophets?
Stride across the centuries. The religion of Europe has become a gloss
for indulgence. Nay, it has become an excuse for it. The Father's house
has become a den of thieves. The doctrines of grace have been wiped out
by a system of man-devised works. Religion is devitalized, and morals
have become dissolute. Wanted, a man, who shall be both scourge and
evangelist! Where shall he be found? "The Lord hissed for the fly" that
was in Eisleben, in the house of a poor miner, and Martin Luther came
forth to grapple with all the corruptions of established religion. But
what an orbit! A fire was wanted to burn up the refuse which had
accumulated over spiritual religion, and the fire was first kindled in a
little home, in a little village, far away from the broad highways of
social privilege and advantage. Again, I say, what an orbit!
March forward again across the years. Here is England under the
oppression of a king who claims divine sanction for his oppression.
There is no tyranny like the tyranny which stamps itself with a holy
seal. And in those old days of Charles I, tyranny wore a sacred badge.
Tyranny carried a cross. It was tyranny by divine right. Wrong was
justified by grace. I say, of all tyrannies, this is the most
tyrannical. Wanted, a man to meet and overthrow it! Where will he be
found? Will he be found in some national centre of learning where
wealthy privilege holds her seat? Oh, no! The Lord hissed for a fly on
the fens, from a little farm at Huntington, and Oliver Cromwell
emerged, to try swords with the king on his throne! Let me give the
familiar glimpse which Sir Philip Warwick offers us of Cromwell making
his first speech in the House of Commons. "I came into the House one
morning, well clad, and perceived a gentleman speaking whom I knew not,
very ordinarily appareled, for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed
to have been made by an ill country tailor. His linen was plain and not
very clean, and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band,
which was not much larger than his collar. His hat was without a
hat-band. His stature was of a good size; his sword stuck close to his
side; his countenance swollen and reddish; his voice sharp and
untunable, and his eloquence full of fervour." And there is God's man!
But what an orbit! A man was wanted for the defence of liberty and
spiritual religion, and God prepared this man in the obscurity of a
little farm among the fens. What an orbit is marked by the goings of the
Lord. The Lord hissed for the fly on the fen.
March forward across the centuries. Here is slavery in the American
republic. In spite of the noble words of the Declaration of
Independence: "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"--in spite of these ringing
human claims slavery nestled beneath the American flag. Well, wanted a
man to deal with it! Where will he be found? Will he be found in some
university centre? Will he be a paragon of intellectual learning and
accomplishment? Oh no! The Lord hissed for a fly in Harden, in a scraggy
part of Kentucky, Harden with its "barren hillocks and weedy hollows,
and stunted and scrubby underbush,"--and there in a dismal solitude, and
in a cheerless home, and in the deepest poverty, the great God made His
man, and Abraham Lincoln came forth to cross swords with the great
wrong, and to ring the bells of freedom from the "frozen North to the
glowing South, and from the stormy waters of the Atlantic westward to
the calmer waters of the Pacific Main." But what an orbit of divine
providence! Who would have guessed that just there, in that poor,
unschooled, and unprivileged family the great God was doing His
momentous work? And I wonder where now in the vast orbit of His
providence He is rearing the leaders of to-morrow? Our God moves in
mighty sweeps, and He is even now at work in the mysterious ministries
of His grace. "The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost
part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of
Assyria."
And then, under the influence of the prophet's teaching I want once more
to urge that we think in wider orbits of the divine presence in the
individual life. For instance, in what sweeping orbits the Lord moves on
His journeys in seeking to bring us to Himself, and to fashion us into
the strength and beauty of His own image. He lifts an ensign to some
remote circumstance, and from afar there comes an influence which sets
me on the road to God. He calls a ministry from distant Egypt, or from
far off Assyria, and my life is turned to the home of my Lord.
Here is a careless young son of wealth in Cambridge University. Life for
him is just an idle sport, a careless revel, a jaunty outing, an
enjoyable extravagance. Life is just a shallow, shimmering pool; not an
ocean with momentous tidal forces, and with the voice of the great
Eternal speaking in its mighty tones. Wanted a man to awake this
indolent son of wealth! And in what an orbit God moved to find the man!
The Lord hissed for a fly in Massachusetts, and there, in Northfield,
was a poor homestead, encumbered with mortgage; and a poor widow with
seven children, so poor that the very kindling wood was taken by the
creditors from the shed. And there in that poor woman's house God made
His man, and Dwight Moody came forth, and went to Cambridge University,
and proclaimed the evangel of grace, and by the love of God won this
young fellow from a loose and jaunty and indifferent life, and kindled
in him a passionate devotion to Christ which is now blazing away on the
Southern Soudan in a campaign to light a line of Christian beacon-fires
which shall stretch from coast to coast! But what an orbit! From a poor
widow's homestead in Northfield to a sporting young fellow in Cambridge
University!
I met a cultured man the other day, a man who has enjoyed all the
academic advantages that money can provide, a man of university culture
and distinction, but whose life has been spiritually indifferent, and
who has held coldly aloof from God and the Kingdom of God. And in the
vast orbit of His providence the great God brought this man into
communion with Billy Sunday, and all the stubble of his neglected life
was burned up in the consuming fire of his kindled love for the Lord.
But just think of the orbit! The Lord hissed for His fly, and from the
apparently incredible circumstance of a slangy evangelist this man was
brought to his Father's House in reconciliation and peace. Again I say,
what an orbit! "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not," and
under His wide and mysterious leadership the blind find themselves at
home.
And so, my friends, our God is still moving in these vast orbits. He
hisses for a disappointment, and it comes and throws its shadow upon our
life, but the shadow is purposed to be one of the healing shadows of
grace. "I will command the clouds, saith the Lord." Yes, even our cloudy
experiences move under command. They travel in the tremendous orbit of
His providence. "I will command the ravens, saith the Lord God." Yes,
there are diverse circumstances that come to us on wings,--kind words,
cheering messages, bright inspirations, and they are the commanded
ministers of God's providence. They are God's messengers on wings!
We can never tell in what remote circumstances the good Lord is even now
preparing our to-morrow. But of one thing we may be perfectly sure, the
great Lord is at work, and He is at work over wide fields. "Rest in the
Lord, and wait patiently for Him." "The Lord is thy keeper.... The Lord
shall keep thee from all evil, He shall keep thy soul. The Lord shall
keep thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for
evermore."
XII
THE SOLDIER'S FIRE
_Heavenly Father, may we experience that deepest of all joys
which is born of holy communion with Thee. Lead us into new
fields of our wonderful inheritance in Christ. May we have new
surprises of grace. May some fresh revelations of Thy love break
upon our astonished vision. Remove the scales from our eyes, so
that we may see clearly the things which are waiting to be
unveiled. Graciously make known to us what Thou wouldst have us
be in order that we may then more clearly apprehend what Thou
wouldst have us do. Help us to remember what we ought not to
forget, and help us to forget what we ought not to remember. May
our minds be the servants of Thy truth. Let the beams of
heavenly light chase out the darkness of error and let it be all
glorious within. We humbly pray Thee to deliver us from our
selfishness, and enlarge and refine our sympathies until they
express themselves in willing sacrifice. May we feel the pains
of others, and carry their burdens and share their yokes. May
the circles of our compassion grow larger every day. Let the
ends of the earth be at our own doors, and so may we hear the
cry which is very far off. Illumine our lives in this service,
and send us forth to enlighten and kindle the lives of others.
Make us missionaries of Thy truth and ambassadors of Thy grace
and love. May we be quick to discern opportunity, and ready to
use it in the service of the King. Amen._
XII
THE SOLDIER'S FIRE
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
Matthew 3:11.
Such is the divine promise. Let me read the story of its fulfilment.
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one
accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a
rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were
sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them." Do not let us become victims of the
letter and become entangled in the symbolism. It is possible so to
regard material signs as to lose their spiritual significance. A musical
word may conceal its own thought. Words are purposed to be the vehicles
of mind. Symbols are intended to be transparencies, losing themselves
in something better. They are ordained to be thoroughfares through which
we pass to nobler destinations. The sign is to be the servant of its own
significance.
Here then are men and women who are about to receive the promised gift
of the Spirit of God. They have been waiting as their Master directed,
waiting in prayer, and in prayer incalculably strengthened by community
of desire, waiting in trembling watchfulness and expectation. Then the
much-hoped-for day arrives and their spirits receive the infinite
reinforcement of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We have a very pale reflection of this experience when two human spirits
are given to each other in deep and vital communion. When David received
the gift of Jonathan's spirit, and Jonathan received the gift of David's
spirit, each of them obtained immeasurable enrichment. When Robert
Browning received the gift of Elizabeth Barrett's spirit, and Elizabeth
Barrett received the gift of Robert Browning's spirit, who can calculate
the wealth which each of them found in the other's possession?
But these examples, and others even more sacred which we could gather
from our own experience, are only pale and wan and shadowy, compared
with the wonder which breaks upon the soul when the spirit of man
receives the gift of the Spirit of God, and the two dwell together in
mystic and glorious communion. What happens to the human spirit is
suggested to us under the familiar symbols of wind and fire. "Like unto
a rushing mighty wind;" "like unto fire." Do not let us be enslaved by
any hampering details in the figures. Let us seek their broad
significance. And what is the characteristic of a rushing mighty wind?
It dispels the fog. It freshens the atmosphere. It gives life and
nimbleness to the air. It is the minister of vitality. And the breath of
God's Spirit is like that; it clears the human spirit, and freshens it,
and vitalizes it; it acts upon the soul like the air of a spiritual
spring. And as for the symbol of the fire; fire is the antagonist of all
that is frozen; it is the antagonist of the torpid, the tepid; it is the
minister of fervour, and buoyancy, and expansion. The wind changes the
atmosphere, the fire changes the temperature; and the holy Spirit of
God changes the atmosphere and temperature of the soul; and when you
have changed the atmosphere and temperature of a soul you have
accomplished a mighty transformation. It is about this change in the
moral and spiritual temperature that I want to meditate, the gift of
fire which we receive in the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If the spirit of
man and the spirit of God come into blessed communion, and the fire of
God is given, how will it reveal and express itself? For if there be a
gift of fire in the soul we shall most surely know it. Fire is one of
the things which cannot be hid. You can hide a painted sun in your
parlour and no one will know it is there, but you cannot hide a glowing
fire. A man can hide a denominational label, he cannot possibly hide the
holy fire of God. How, then, shall we know that the fire is there?
First of all I think I should look for the holy fire on the common
hearthstone of human love. If the fire of God does not warm up the
affections I fail to recognize what its heat can be worth. The first
thing to warm up is the heart. The intimate friend of the Holy Spirit
is known by the ardour of his affections. He loves with a pure heart
fervently. He is baptized with fire. Now I need not seek to prove the
existence of cold hearts among us. I am afraid we must accept them
without question. Whether there are hearts like fire-grates without a
spark of fire I cannot tell. Personally, I have never met with anyone in
whose soul the fire of love had gone quite out. I think that if we
sought very diligently among the gray dusty ashes of any burnt-out life
we should find a little love somewhere. Yes, even in Judas Iscariot, or
in the dingy soul-grate of old frozen-out Scrooge. But there are surely
souls so cold, and so destitute of love, that the poor fire never leaps
up in dancing, cheering, welcome flames. Their temperature is zero.
There are other souls with a little fire of love burning, but it is very
sad, very sodden, very sullen, very dull. There is more smoke than fire.
There is more surliness than love. Their fire is not inviting and
attractive. There is a little spitting, and spluttering, and crackling,
but there is no fine, honest, ruddy glow. Their temperature is about
ten above freezing. They are not frozen but they are not comforting.