We may observe that it is only of God's people that Micah in our text
applies the words 'for ever and ever.' 'The peoples'' worship perishes.
They walk for a time in the name of their god, but what comes of it at
last is veiled in silence. It is Jehovah's worshippers who walk in His
name for ever and ever, and of whom the great words are true, 'Because I
live ye shall live also.' We may be sure of this that all the divine
attributes are pledged for our immortality; we may be sure, too, that a
soul which here follows in the footsteps of Jesus, which in its earthly
life walked in the name of the Lord its God, will continue across the
narrow bridge, and go onward 'for ever and ever' in direct progress in
the same direction in which it began on earth. The imitation, which is
the practical religion of every Christian, has for its only possible
result the climax of likeness. The partial likeness is attained on earth
by contemplation, by aspiration, and by effort; but it is perfected in
the heavens by the perfect vision of His perfect face. 'We shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' Not till it has reached its goal
can the Christian life begun here be conceived as ended. It shall never
be said of any one who tried by God's help to walk 'in the name of the
Lord' that he was lost in the desert, and never reached his journey's
end. The peoples who walked in the name of any false god will find their
path ending as on the edge of a precipice, or in an unfathomable bog;
loss, and woe, and shame will be their portion. But 'the name of the
Lord is a strong tower,' into which whoever will may run and be safe,
and to walk in the name of the Lord is to walk on a way 'that shall be
called the Way of Holiness, whereon no ravenous beast shall go up, but
the redeemed shall walk there,' and all that are on it 'shall come with
singing to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.'
'A DEW FROM THE LORD'
'The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew
from the Lord, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons
of men.'--MICAH v. 7.
The simple natural science of the Hebrews saw a mystery in the
production of the dew on a clear night, and their poetic imagination
found in it a fit symbol for all silent and gentle influences from
heaven that refreshed and quickened parched and dusty souls. Created by
an inscrutable process in silence and darkness, the dewdrops lay
innumerable on the dry plains and hung from every leaf and thorn, each
little globule a perfect sphere that reflected the sun, and twinkled
back the beams in its own little rainbow. Where they fell the scorched
vegetation lifted its drooping head. That is what Israel is to be in the
world, says Micah. He saw very deep into God's mind and into the
function of the nation.
It may be a question as to whether the text refers more especially to
the place and office of Israel when planted in its own land, or when
dispersed among the nations. For, as you see, he speaks of 'the remnant
of Jacob' as if he was thinking of the survivors of some great calamity
which had swept away the greater portion of the nation. Both things are
true. When settled in its own land, Israel's office was to teach the
nations God; when dispersed among the Gentiles, its office ought to have
been the same. But be that as it may, the conception here set forth is
as true to-day as ever it was. For the prophetic teachings, rooted
though they may be in the transitory circumstances of a tiny nation, are
'not for an age, but for all time,' and we get a great deal nearer the
heart of them when we grasp the permanent truths that underlie them,
than when we learnedly exhume the dead history which was their
occasion.
Micah's message comes to all Christians, and very eminently to English
Christians. The subject of Christian missions is before us to-day, and
some thoughts in the line of this great text may not be inappropriate.
We have here, then,