CHAPTER VI.

"Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments,

which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them

in the land whither ye go to possess it: that thou mightest fear the

Lord thy God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I

command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of

thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O

Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that

ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised

thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel:

The Lord our God is one Lord."

We have here presented to us that great cardinal truth which the

nation of Israel was specially responsible to hold fast and confess,

namely, the unity of the Godhead. This truth lay at the very

foundation of the Jewish economy. It was the grand centre around which

the people were to rally. So long as they maintained this, they were a

happy, prosperous, fruitful people; but when it was let go, all was

gone. It was their great national bulwark, and that which was to mark

them off from all the nations of the earth. They were called to

confess this glorious truth in the face of an idolatrous world, with

"its gods many, and lords many." It was Israel's high privilege and

holy responsibility to bear a steady witness to the truth contained

in that one weighty sentence, "The Lord our God is one Lord," in

marked opposition to the false gods innumerable of the heathen around.

Their father Abraham had been called out from the very midst of

heathen idolatry, to be a witness to the one true and living God, to

trust Him, to walk with Him, to lean on Him, and to obey Him.

If the reader will turn to the last chapter of Joshua, he will find a

very striking allusion to this fact, and a very important use made of

it, in his closing address to the people.--"And Joshua gathered all

the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel,

and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and

they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the

people, 'Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the

other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of

Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and _they served other gods_. And I

took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him

throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave

him Isaac.'"

Here Joshua reminds the people of the fact that their fathers had

served other gods--a very solemn and weighty fact most surely, and one

which they ought never to have forgotten, inasmuch as the remembrance

of it would have taught them their deep need of watchfulness over

themselves, lest by any means they should be drawn back into that

gross and terrible evil out of which God, in His sovereign grace and

electing love, had called their father Abraham. It would have been

their wisdom to consider that the self-same evil in which their

fathers had lived, in the olden time, was just the one into which they

themselves were likely to fall.

Having presented this fact to the people, Joshua brings before them,

with uncommon force and vividness, all the leading events of their

history, from the birth of their father Isaac, down to the moment in

which he was addressing them; and then sums up with the following

telling appeal: "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in

sincerity and in truth; and _put away the gods which your fathers

served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt_; and serve ye the

Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this

day whom ye will serve; whether _the gods which your fathers served

that were on the other side of the flood_, or the gods of the Amorites

in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the

Lord."

Mark the repeated allusion to the fact that their fathers had

worshiped false gods; and further, that the land into which Jehovah

had brought them had been polluted, from one end to the other, by the

dark abominations of heathen idolatry.

Thus does this faithful servant of the Lord, evidently by the

inspiration of the Holy Ghost, seek to set before the people their

danger of giving up the grand central and foundation truth of the one

true and living God, and falling back into the worship of idols. He

urges upon them the absolute necessity of whole-hearted decision.

"Choose you _this day_ whom ye will serve." There is nothing like

plain, out-and-out decision for God. It is due to Him always. He had

proved Himself to be unmistakably for them in redeeming them from the

bondage of Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness, and planting

them in the land of Canaan; hence, therefore, that they should be

wholly for Him was nothing more than their reasonable service.

How deeply Joshua felt all this for himself is evident from those very

memorable words, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Lovely words! Precious decision! National religion might, and, alas!

did, go to ruin; but personal and family religion could, by the grace

of God, be maintained every where and at all times.

Thank God for this! May we never forget it. "Me and my house" is

Faith's clear and delightful response to God's "Thou and thy house."

Let the condition of the ostensible, professed people of God, at any

given time, be what it may, it is the privilege of every true-hearted

man of God to adopt and act upon this immortal decision: "As for me

and my house, we will serve the Lord."

True, it is only by the grace of God, continually supplied, that this

holy resolution can be carried out; but we may rest assured that where

the bent of the heart is to follow the Lord fully, all needed grace

will be ministered, day by day; for those encouraging words must ever

hold good, "_My_ grace is sufficient for _thee_; for My strength is

made perfect in weakness."

Let us now look for a moment at the apparent effect of Joshua's

soul-stirring appeal to the congregation. It seemed very promising.

"The people answered and said, 'God forbid that we should forsake the

Lord, to serve other gods; for the Lord our God, He it is that brought

us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of

bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved

us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through

whom we passed: and the Lord drave out from before us all the people,

even the Amorites which dwelt in the land; therefore will we also

serve the Lord, for He is our God."

All this sounded very well, and looked very hopeful. They seemed to

have a clear sense of the moral basis of Jehovah's claim upon them for

implicit obedience. They could accurately recount all His mighty deeds

on their behalf, and make very earnest and no doubt sincere

protestations against idolatry, and promises of obedience to Jehovah,

their God.

But it is very evident that Joshua was not particularly sanguine about

all this profession, for he "said unto the people, 'Ye cannot serve

the Lord: for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not

forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and

serve strange gods, then He will turn and do you hurt, and consume

you, after that He hath done you good.' And the people said unto

Joshua, 'Nay; but we will serve the Lord.' And Joshua said unto the

people, 'Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you

the Lord, to serve Him.' And they said, 'We are witnesses.' 'Now

therefore put away,' said he, '_the strange gods which are among you_,

and _incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel_.' And the people

said unto Joshua, 'The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will

we obey.'"

We do not now stop to contemplate the aspect in which Joshua presents

God to the congregation of Israel, inasmuch as our object in referring

to the passage is to show the prominent place assigned, in Joshua's

address, to the truth of the unity of the Godhead. This was the truth

to which Israel was called to bear witness, in view of all the nations

of the earth, and in which they were to find their moral safeguard

against the ensnaring influences of idolatry.

But, alas! this very truth was _the_ one as to which they most

speedily and signally failed. The promises, vows, and resolutions made

under the powerful influence of Joshua's appeal soon proved to be like

the early dew and the morning cloud, that passeth away. "The people

served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders

that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord,

that He did for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the

Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old.... And also all that

generation were gathered unto their fathers; and there arose another

generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works

which He had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in

the sight of the Lord, _and served Baalim_; and they forsook the Lord

God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt,

_and followed_ other gods, of the gods of the people that were round

about them, _and bowed themselves unto them_, and provoked the Lord to

anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth."

(Judges ii. 7-13.)

Reader, how admonitory is all this! how full of solemn warning to us

all! The grand, all-important, special, and characteristic truth so

soon abandoned! The one only true and living God given up for Baal and

Ashtaroth! So long as Joshua and the elders lived, their presence and

their influence kept Israel from open apostasy; but no sooner were

those moral embankments removed than the dark tide of idolatry rolled

in and swept away the very foundations of the national faith. Jehovah

of Israel was displaced by Baal and Ashtaroth. Human influence is a

poor prop, a feeble barrier. We must be sustained by the power of God,

else we shall, sooner or later, give way. The faith that stands merely

in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God, must prove a poor,

flimsy, worthless faith. It will not stand the day of trial; it will

not bear the furnace; it will most assuredly break down.

It is well to remember this. Second-hand faith will never do. There

must be a living link connecting the soul with God. We must have to do

with God for ourselves individually, else we shall give way when the

testing-time comes. Human example and human influence may be all very

good in their place. It was all very well to look at Joshua and the

elders, and see how they followed the Lord. It is quite true that "as

iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend." It

is very encouraging to be surrounded by a number of truly devoted

hearts--very delightful to be borne along upon the bosom of the tide

of collective loyalty to Christ--to His Person and to His cause. But

if this be all,--if there be not the deep spring of personal faith and

personal knowledge,--if there be not the divinely formed and the

divinely sustained link of individual relationship and communion, then

when the human props are removed,--when the tide of human influence

ebbs,--when general declension sets in, we shall be, in principle,

like Israel following the Lord all the days of Joshua and the elders,

and then giving up the confession of His name and returning to the

follies and vanities of this present world--things no better, in

reality, than Baal and Ashtaroth.

But, on the other hand, when the heart is thoroughly established in

the truth and grace of God,--when we can say--as it is the privilege

of each true believer to say--"I know _whom_ I have believed, and am

persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him

against that day," then, although all should turn aside from the

public confession of Christ,--although we should find ourselves left

without the help of a human countenance or the support of a human arm,

we shall find "the foundation of God" as sure as ever, and the path of

obedience as plain before us as though thousands were treading it with

holy decision and energy.

We must never lose sight of the fact that it is the divine purpose

that the professing church of God should learn deep and holy lessons

from the history of Israel. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime

were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of

the Scriptures might have hope." Nor is it by any means necessary, in

order to our thus learning from the Old-Testament scriptures, that we

should occupy ourselves in searching out fanciful analogies, curious

theories, or far-fetched illustrations. Many, alas! have tried these

things, and instead of finding "comfort" in the Scriptures, they have

been led away into empty and foolish conceits, if not into deadly

errors.

But our business is with the living facts recorded on the page of

inspired history. These are to be our study; from these we are to draw

our great practical lessons. Take, for example, the weighty and

admonitory fact now before us--a fact standing out in characters deep

and broad on the page of Israel's history from Joshua to Isaiah--the

fact of Israel's lamentable departure from that very truth which they

were specially called to hold and confess--the truth of the unity of

the Godhead. The very first thing they did was to let go this grand

and all-important truth, this key-stone of the arch, the foundation

of the whole edifice, the very heart of their national existence, the

living centre of their national polity. They gave it up, and turned

back to the idolatry of their fathers on the other side of the flood,

and of the heathen nations around them. They abandoned that most

glorious and distinctive truth on the maintenance of which their very

existence as a nation depended. Had they only held fast this truth,

they would have been invincible; but in surrendering it, they

surrendered all, and became much worse than the nations around them,

inasmuch as they sinned against light and knowledge--sinned with their

eyes open--sinned in the face of the most solemn warnings and earnest

entreaties, and, we may add, in the face of the most vehement and

oft-repeated promises and protestations of obedience.

Yes, reader, Israel gave up the worship of the one true and living

God, Jehovah-Elohim, their covenant-God; not only their Creator, but

their Redeemer--the One who had brought them up out of the land of

Egypt, conducted them through the Red Sea, led them through the

wilderness, brought them across the Jordan, and planted them in

triumph in the inheritance which He had promised to Abraham their

father--"a land flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all

lands." They turned their backs upon Him, and gave themselves up to

the worship of false gods; "they provoked Him to anger with their high

places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images."

It seems perfectly wonderful that a people who had seen and known so

much of the goodness and loving-kindness of God--His mighty acts, His

faithfulness, His majesty, His glory, could ever bring themselves to

bow down to the stock of a tree; but so it was. Their whole history,

from the days of the calf at the foot of Mount Sinai, to the day in

which Nebuchadnezzar reduced Jerusalem to ruins, is marked by an

unconquerable spirit of idolatry. In vain did Jehovah, in His

long-suffering mercy and abounding goodness, raise up deliverers for

them, to lift them from beneath the terrible consequences of their sin

and folly. Again and again, in His inexhaustable mercy and patience,

He saved them from the hand of their enemies. He raised up an Othniel,

an Ehud, a Barak, a Gideon, a Jephthah, a Samson--those instruments of

His mercy and power--those witnesses of His deep and tender love and

compassion toward His poor infatuated people. No sooner had each judge

passed off the scene than back the nation plunged into their besetting

sin of idolatry.

So, also, in the days of the kings; it is the same melancholy,

heart-rending story. True, there were bright spots here and

there--some brilliant stars shining out through the deep gloom of the

nation's history; we have a David, an Asa, a Jehoshaphat, a Hezekiah,

a Josiah--refreshing and blessed exceptions to the dark and dismal

rule. But even men like these failed to eradicate from the heart of

the nation the pernicious root of idolatry. Even amid the unexampled

splendors of Solomon's reign, that root sent forth its bitter shoots,

in the monstrous form of high places to Ashtaroth, the goddess of the

Zidonians; Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Chemosh, the

abomination of Moab.

Reader, only think of this. Pause for a moment, and contemplate the

astounding fact of the writer of the Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and

Proverbs bowing at the shrine of Molech! Only conceive, the wisest,

the wealthiest, and the most glorious of Israel's monarchs burning

incense and offering sacrifices upon the altar of Chemosh!

Truly, there is something here for us to ponder. It was written for

our learning. The reign of Solomon affords one of the most striking

and impressive evidences of the fact which is just now engaging our

attention, namely, Israel's complete and hopeless apostasy from the

grand truth of the unity of the Godhead--their unconquerable spirit of

idolatry. The truth which they were specially called out to hold and

confess was the very truth which they first of all and most

persistently abandoned.

We shall not pursue the dark line of evidence further, neither shall

we dwell upon the appalling picture of the nation's judgment in

consequence of their idolatry. They are now in the condition of which

the prophet Hosea speaks--"The children of Israel shall abide many

days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice,

and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim."

"The unclean spirit of idolatry has gone out of them," during these

"many days," to return, by and by, with "seven other spirits more

wicked than himself"--the very perfection of spiritual wickedness. And

then will come days of unparalleled tribulation upon that long

misguided and deeply revolted people--"the time of Jacob's trouble."

But deliverance will come, blessed be God! Bright days are in store

for the restored nation--"days of heaven upon earth"--as the same

prophet Hosea tells us, "Afterward shall the children of Israel

return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall

fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days." All the promises

of God to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David shall be blessedly

accomplished; all the brilliant predictions of the prophets, from

Isaiah to Malachi, shall be gloriously fulfilled. Yes, both promises

and prophecies shall be literally and gloriously made good to restored

Israel, in the land of Canaan; for "the Scripture cannot be broken."

The long, dark, dreary night shall be followed by the brightest day

that has ever shone upon this earth; the daughter of Zion shall bask

in the bright and blessed beams of "the Sun of Righteousness;" and

"the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the

waters cover the sea."

It would indeed be a most delightful exercise to reproduce upon the

pages of this volume those glowing passages from the prophets which

speak of Israel's future; but this we cannot attempt; it is not

needful; and we have a duty to fulfill which, if not so pleasing to us

or so refreshing to the reader, will, we earnestly hope, prove not

less profitable.

The duty is this: to press upon the attention of the reader (and upon

the attention of the whole Church of God) the practical application of

that solemn fact in Israel's history on which we have dwelt at such

length--the fact of their having so speedily and so completely given

up the great truth set forth in Deuteronomy vi. 4, "Hear, O Israel;

the Lord our God is one Lord."

We may perhaps be asked, What bearing can this fact have upon the

Church of God? We believe it has a most solemn bearing; and further,

we believe we should be guilty of a very culpable shirking of our duty

to Christ and to His Church if we failed to point it out. We know that

all the great facts of Israel's history are full of instruction, full

of admonition, full of warning, for us. It is our business, our

bounden duty, to see that we profit by them--to take heed that we

study them aright.

Now, in contemplating the history of the Church of God as a public

witness for Christ on the earth, we find that hardly had it been set

up, in all the fullness of blessing and privilege which marked the

opening of its career, ere it began to slip away from those very

truths which it was specially responsible to maintain and confess.

Like Adam in the garden of Eden; like Noah in the restored earth; like

Israel in Canaan; so the Church, as the responsible steward of the

mysteries of God, was no sooner set in its place than it began to

totter and fall. It almost immediately began to give up those grand

truths which were characteristic of its very existence, and which were

to mark off Christianity from all that had gone before. Even under the

eyes of the apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, errors and

evils had begun to work which sapped the very foundations of the

Church's testimony.

Are we asked for proofs? Alas! we have them in melancholy abundance.

Hear the words of that blessed apostle who shed more tears and heaved

more sighs over the ruins of the Church than any man that ever lived.

"I marvel," he says, and well he might, "that ye are _so soon_ removed

from Him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another

gospel: which is not another." "O foolish Galatians, who hath

bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes

Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?"

"Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service to them which by

nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather

are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements,

whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days and months

and times and years;" Christian festivals, so called, very imposing

and gratifying to religious nature; but, in the judgment of the

apostle, the judgment of the Holy Ghost, it was simply giving up

Christianity and going back to the worship of idols. "I am afraid of

you"--and no wonder, when they could thus so speedily turn away from

the grand characteristic truths of a heavenly Christianity, and occupy

themselves with superstitious observances. "I am afraid of you, lest I

have bestowed upon you labor in vain." "Ye did run well; who did

hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh

not of Him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole

lump."

And all this in the apostle's own day. The departure was even more

rapid than in Israel's case; for they served the Lord all the days of

Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua; but in

the Church's sad and humiliating history, the enemy succeeded almost

immediately in introducing leaven into the meal, tares among the

wheat. Ere the apostles themselves had left the scene, seed was sown

which has been bearing its pernicious fruit ever since, and shall

continue to bear till angelic reapers clear the field.

But we must give further proof from Scripture. Let us hearken to the

same inspired witness, near the close of his ministry, pouring out his

heart to his beloved son Timothy, in accents at once pathetic and

solemn. "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned

away from me." Again, "Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of

season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but

after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having

itching ears; and _they shall turn away their ears from the truth_,

and shall be turned unto fables."

Here is the testimony of the man who, as a wise master-builder, had

laid the foundation of the Church. And what was his own personal

experience? He was, like his blessed Master, left alone, deserted by

those who had once gathered around him in the freshness, bloom, and

ardor of early days. His large loving heart was broken by Judaizing

teachers, who sought to overturn the very foundations of Christianity,

and to overthrow the faith of God's elect. He wept over the ways of

many who, while they made a profession, were nevertheless "the enemies

of the cross of Christ."

In a word, the apostle Paul, as he looked forth from his prison at

Rome, saw the hopeless wreck and ruin of the professing body. He saw

that it would happen to that body as it had happened to the ship in

which he had made his last voyage--a voyage strikingly significant and

illustrative of the Church's sad history in this world.

But here let us just remind the reader that we are dealing now only

with the question of the Church as a responsible witness for Christ on

the earth. This must be distinctly seen, else we shall greatly err in

our thoughts on the subject. We must accurately distinguish between

the Church as the body of Christ, and as His light-bearer or witness

in the world. In the former character, failure is impossible; in the

latter, the ruin is complete and hopeless.

The Church as the body of Christ, united to her living and glorified

Head in the heavens, by the presence and indwelling of the Holy Ghost,

can never, by any possibility, fail--never be smashed to pieces, like

Paul's ship, by the storms and billows of this hostile world. It is as

safe as Christ Himself. The Head and the body are one--indissolubly

one. No power of earth or hell--men or devils can ever touch the

feeblest and most obscure member of that blessed body. All stand

before God, all are under His gracious eye, in the fullness, beauty,

and acceptability of Christ Himself. As is the Head, so are the

members--all the members together--each member in particular. All

stand in the full eternal results of Christ's finished work on the

cross. There is, there can be, no question of responsibility here. The

Head made Himself responsible for the members. He perfectly met every

claim, and discharged every liability. Nothing remains but love--love,

deep as the heart of Christ, perfect as His work, unchanging as His

throne. Every question that could possibly be raised against any one

or all of the members of the Church of God was raised, gone into, and

definitively settled, between God and His Christ, on the cross. All

the sins, all the iniquities, all the transgressions, all the guilt,

of each member in particular, and all the members together--yes, all,

in the fullest and most absolute way, was laid on Christ and borne by

Him. God, in His inflexible justice, in His infinite holiness, in His

eternal righteousness, dealt with every thing that could ever, in any

possible manner, stand in the way of the full salvation, perfect

blessedness, and everlasting glory of every one of the members of the

body of Christ--the assembly of God. Every member of the body is

permeated by the life of the Head; every stone in the building is

animated by the life of the Chief Corner-Stone. All are bound together

in the power of a bond which can never--no, never be dissolved.

And furthermore, let it be distinctly understood that the unity of the

body of Christ is absolutely indissoluble. This is a cardinal point

which must be tenaciously held and faithfully confessed. But obviously

it cannot be held and confessed unless it is understood and believed;

and, judging from the expressions which one sometimes hears in

speaking on the subject, it is very questionable indeed if people so

expressing themselves have ever grasped in a divine way the glorious

truth of the unity of the body of Christ--a unity maintained on earth

by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

Thus, for example, we sometimes hear people speak of "rending the body

of Christ." It is a complete mistake. Such a thing is utterly

impossible. The Reformers were accused of rending the body of Christ

when they turned their backs upon the Romish system. What a gross

misconception! It simply amounted to the monstrous assumption that a

vast mass of moral evil, doctrinal error, ecclesiastical corruption,

and debasing superstition was to be owned as the body of Christ! How

could any one with the New Testament in his hand regard the so-called

church of Rome, with its numberless and nameless abominations, as the

body of Christ? How could any one possessing the very faintest idea of

the true Church of God ever think of bestowing that title upon the

darkest mass of wickedness, the greatest masterpiece of Satan the

world has ever beheld?

No, reader; we must never confound the ecclesiastical systems of this

world--ancient, medieval, or modern; Greek, Latin, Anglican; national

or popular, established or dissenting--with the true Church of God,

the body of Christ. There is not, beneath the canopy of heaven, this

day, nor ever was, a religious system, call it what you please,

possessing the very smallest claim to be called "the Church of God,"

or "the body of Christ." And, as a consequence, it can never be

rightly or intelligently called schism, or rending the body of Christ,

to separate from such systems; nay, on the contrary, it is the bounden

duty of every one who would faithfully maintain and confess the truth

of the unity of the body to separate, with the most unqualified

decision, from every thing falsely calling itself a church. It can

only be viewed as schism to separate from those who are unmistakably

and unquestionably gathered on the ground of the assembly of God.

No body of Christians can now lay claim to the title of the body of

Christ, or Church of God. The members of that body are scattered every

where; they are to be found in all the various religious organizations

of the day, save such as deny the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. We

cannot admit the idea that any true Christian could continue to

frequent a place where his Lord is blasphemed. But although no body of

Christians can lay claim to the title of the assembly of God, all

Christians are responsible to be gathered on the ground of that

assembly, and on no other.

And if we be asked, How are we to know--where are we to find this

ground? We reply, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be

full of light." "If any man _will do_ His will, he shall know of the

doctrine." "_There is a path_" (thanks be to God for it!) though "no

fowl knoweth, and the vulture's eye hath not seen it. The lion's

whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it."

Nature's keenest vision cannot see this path, nor its greatest

strength tread it. Where is it, then? Here it is: "_Unto man_"--to the

reader and to the writer, to each, to all--"He said, 'Behold, _the

fear of the Lord_, that is wisdom; and _to depart from evil_ is

understanding.'" (Job xxviii.)

But there is another expression which we not unfrequently hear from

persons from whom we might expect more intelligence, namely, "Cutting

off the members of the body of Christ."[22] This, too, blessed be God,

is impossible. Not a single member of the body of Christ can ever be

severed from the Head, or ever disturbed from the place into which he

has been incorporated by the Holy Ghost, in pursuance of the eternal

purpose of God, and in virtue of the accomplished atonement of our

Lord Jesus Christ. The divine Three in One are pledged for the eternal

security of the very feeblest member of the body, and for the

maintenance of the indissoluble unity of the whole.

[22] The expression, "Cutting off the members of Christ's body" is

generally applied in cases of discipline; but it is quite a

misapplication. The discipline of the assembly can never touch the

unity of the body. A member of the body may so fail in morals or err

in doctrine as to call for the action of the assembly in putting him

away from the table, but that has nothing to do with his place in the

body. The two things are perfectly distinct.

In a word, then, it is as true to-day as it was when the inspired

apostle penned the fourth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians,

that "there is one body," of which Christ is Head, of which the Holy

Ghost is the formative power, and of which all true believers are

members. This body has been on earth since the day of Pentecost, is on

earth now, and shall continue on earth until that moment, so rapidly

approaching, when Christ shall come and take it to His Father's house.

It is the same body, with a continual succession of members, just as

we speak of a certain regiment of her majesty's army having been at

Waterloo, and now quartered at Aldershot, though not a man in the

regiment of to-day appeared at the memorable battle of 1815.

Does the reader feel any difficulty as to all this? It may be that he

finds it hard, in the present broken and scattered condition of the

members, to believe and confess the unbroken unity of the whole. He

may feel disposed, perhaps, to limit the application of Ephesians iv.

4 to the day in which the apostle penned the words, when Christians

were manifestly one, and when there was no such thing thought of as

being a member of this church or a member of that church, because all

believers were members of _the_ one Church.[23]

[23] The unity of the Church may be compared to a chain thrown across

a river; we see it at each side, but it dips in the middle. But though

it dips, it is not broken; though we do not _see_ the union in the

middle, we _believe_ it is there all the same. The Church was seen in

its unity on the day of Pentecost, and it will be seen in its unity in

the glory; and although we do not see it now, we nevertheless believe

it most surely.

And be it remembered that the unity of the body is a great practical,

formative truth; and one very weighty practical deduction from it is

that the state and walk of each member affect the whole body. "If one

member suffer, all the members suffer with it." A member of what? Some

local assembly? Nay; but a member of the body. We must not make the

body of Christ a matter of geography.

But, we may be asked, are we affected by what we do not see or know?

Assuredly. Are we to limit the grand truth of the unity of the body,

with all its practical consequences, to the measure of our personal

knowledge and experience? Far be the thought. It is the presence of

the Holy Ghost that unites the members of the body to the Head and to

one another; and hence it is that the walk and ways of each affect

all. Even in Israel's case, where it was not a corporate but a

national unity, when Achan sinned, it was said, "Israel hath sinned;"

and the whole congregation suffered a humiliating defeat on account of

a sin of which they were ignorant.

It is perfectly marvelous how little the Lord's people seem to

understand the glorious truth of the unity of the body, and the

practical consequences flowing from it.

In reply, we must protest against the very idea of limiting the Word

of God. What possible right have we to single out one clause from

Ephesians iv. 4-6, and say it only applied to the days of the

apostles? If one clause is to be so limited, why not all? Are there

not still "one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and

Father of all"? Will any question this? Surely not. Well, then, it

follows that there is as surely one body as there is one Spirit, one

Lord, one God. All are intimately bound up together, and you cannot

touch one without touching all. We have no more right to deny the

existence of the one body than we have to deny the existence of God,

inasmuch as the self-same passage that declares to us the one declares

to us the other also.

But some will doubtless inquire, Where is this one body to be seen? Is

it not an absurdity to speak of such a thing, in the face of the

almost numberless denominations of christendom? Our answer is this: We

are not going to surrender the truth of God because man has so

signally failed to carry it out. Did not Israel utterly fail to

maintain, confess, and carry out the truth of the unity of the

Godhead? and was that glorious truth, in the smallest degree, touched

by their failure? Was it not as true that there was one God, though

there were as many idolatrous altars as streets in Jerusalem, and

every housetop sent up a cloud of incense to the queen of heaven, as

when Moses sounded forth, in the ears of the whole congregation, those

sublime words, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord"? Blessed

be God, His truth does not depend upon the faithless, foolish ways of

men. It stands in its own divine integrity; it shines in its own

heavenly, undimmed lustre, spite of the grossest human failure. Were

it not so, what should we do? whither should we turn? or what would

become of us? In fact, it comes to this: if we were only to believe

the measure of truth which we see practically carried out in the ways

of men, we might give up in despair, and be of all men most

miserable.

But how is the truth of the one body to be practically carried out? By

refusing to own any other principle of Christian fellowship--any other

ground of meeting. All true believers should meet on the simple ground

of membership of the body of Christ, and on no other. They should

assemble, on the first day of the week, around the Lord's table, and

break bread, as members of the one body, as we read in 1 Corinthians

x, "For we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we are all

partakers of that one loaf." This is as true and as practical to-day

as it was when the apostle addressed the assembly at Corinth. True,

there were divisions at Corinth as there are divisions in christendom;

but that did not in any wise touch the truth of God. The apostle

rebuked the divisions--pronounced them carnal. He had no sympathy with

the poor, low idea which one sometimes hears advocated, that divisions

are good things, as superinducing emulation. He believed they were

very bad things--the fruit of the flesh, the work of Satan.

Neither, we feel persuaded, would the apostle have accepted the

popular illustration that divisions in the Church are like so many

regiments, with different facings, all fighting under the same

commander-in-chief. It would not hold good for a moment; indeed, it

has no application whatever, but rather gives a flat contradiction to

that distinct and emphatic statement, "There is one body."

Reader, this is a most glorious truth. Let us ponder it deeply. Let us

look at christendom in the light of it. Let us judge our own position

and ways by it. Are we acting on it? Do we give expression to it, at

the Lord's table, every Lord's day? Be assured it is our sacred duty

and high privilege so to do. Say not there are difficulties of all

sorts, many stumbling-blocks in the way, much to dishearten us in the

conduct of those who profess to meet on this very ground of which we

speak.

All this is, alas! but too true. We must be quite prepared for it. The

devil will leave no stone unturned to cast dust in our eyes, so that

we may not see God's blessed way for His people. But we must not give

heed to his suggestions or be snared by his devices. There always have

been, and there always will be difficulties in the way of carrying out

the precious truth of God; and perhaps one of the greatest

difficulties is found in the inconsistent conduct of those who profess

to act upon it.

But then we must ever distinguish between the truth and those who

profess it--between the ground and the conduct of those who occupy it.

Of course, they ought to harmonize, but they do not; and hence we are

imperatively called to judge the conduct by the ground, not the ground

by the conduct. If we saw a man farming on a principle which we knew

to be thoroughly sound, but he was a bad farmer, what should we do? Of

course, we should reject his mode of working, but hold the principle

all the same.

Not otherwise is it in reference to the truth now before us. There

were heresies at Corinth, schisms, errors, evils of all sorts. What

then? Was the truth of God to be surrendered as a myth, as something

wholly impracticable? was it all to be given up? Were the Corinthians

to meet on some other principle? were they to organize themselves on

some new ground? were they to gather around some fresh centre? No,

thank God! His truth was not to be surrendered for a moment, although

Corinth was split up into ten thousand sects, and its horizon darkened

by ten thousand heresies. The body of Christ is one; and the apostle

simply displays in their view the banner with this blessed

inscription: "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

Now, these words were addressed, not merely "unto the church at

Corinth," but also "to all that in every place call upon the name of

Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." Hence, the truth of the

one body is abiding and universal. Every true Christian is bound to

recognize it and to act on it, and every assembly of Christians,

wherever convened, should be the local expression of this grand and

all-important truth.

Some might perhaps feel disposed to ask how it could be said to any

one assembly, "Ye are the body of Christ." Were there not saints at

Ephesus, Colosse, and Philippi? No doubt; and had the apostle been

addressing them on the same subject, he could have said to them

likewise, "Ye are the body of Christ," inasmuch as they were the

local expression of the body; and not only so, but, in addressing

them, he had before his mind all saints, to the end of the Church's

earthly career.

But we must bear in mind that the apostle could not possibly address

such words to any human organization, ancient or modern. No; nor if

all such organizations, call them what you please, were amalgamated

into one, could he speak of it as "the body of Christ." That body, let

it be distinctly understood, consists of all true believers on the

face of the earth. That they are not gathered on that only divine

ground, is their serious loss and their Lord's dishonor. The precious

truth holds good all the same--"There is one body," and this is the

divine standard by which to measure every ecclesiastical association

and every religious system under the sun.

We deem it needful to go somewhat fully into the divine side of the

question of the Church, in order to guard the truth of God from the

results of misapprehension, and also that the reader may clearly

understand that in speaking of the utter failure and ruin of the

Church, we are looking at the human side of the subject. To this

latter we must return for a moment.

It is impossible to read the New Testament with a calm and

unprejudiced mind and not see that the Church as a responsible witness

for Christ on the earth has most signally and shamefully failed. To

quote all the passages in proof of this statement would literally

fill a small volume; but let us glance at the second and third

chapters of the book of Revelation, where the Church is seen under

judgment. We have, in these solemn chapters, what we may call a divine

Church-history. Seven assemblies are taken up, as illustrative of the

various phases of the Church's history, from the day in which it was

set up, in responsibility, on the earth, until it shall be spued out

of the Lord's mouth, as something utterly intolerable. If we do not

see that these two chapters are prophetic, as well as historic, we

shall deprive ourselves of a vast field of most valuable instruction.

For ourselves, we can only assure the reader that no human language

could adequately set forth what we have gathered from Revelation ii.

and iii., in their prophetic aspect.

However, we are only referring to them now as the last of a series of

Scripture proofs of our present thesis. Take the address to Ephesus,

the self-same church to which the apostle Paul wrote his marvelous

epistle, opening up so blessedly the heavenly side of things, God's

eternal purpose respecting the Church--the position and portion of the

Church, as accepted in Christ and blessed with all spiritual blessings

in the heavenlies in Him. No failure here; no thought of such a thing;

no possibility of it. All is in God's hands here. The counsel is His;

the work His. It is His grace, His glory, His mighty power, His good

pleasure; and all founded upon the blood of Christ. There is no

question of responsibility here. The Church was "dead in trespasses

and sins;" but Christ died for her; He placed Himself judicially where

she was morally; and God, in His sovereign grace, entered the scene

and raised up Christ from the dead, and the Church in Him. Glorious

fact! Here all is sure and settled. It is the Church in the heavenlies

_in_ Christ, not the Church on earth _for_ Christ,--it is _the body_

"_accepted_," not _the candlestick judged_. If we do not see both

sides of this great question, we have much to learn.

But there is the earthly side as well as the heavenly--the human as

well as the divine--the candlestick as well as the body. Hence it is

that in the judicial address in Revelation ii. we read such solemn

words as these: "_I have against thee_, that thou hast left thy first

love."

How very distinct! Nothing like this in Ephesians; nothing against the

body, nothing against the bride; but there is something against the

candlestick. The light had even already become dim. Hardly had it been

lighted ere the snuffers were needed.

Thus, at the very outset, symptoms of decline showed themselves,

unmistakably, to the penetrating eye of Him who walked amongst the

seven golden candlesticks; and when we reach the close, and

contemplate the last phase of the Church's condition--the last stage

of its earthly history, as illustrated by the assembly at

Laodicea--there is not a single redeeming feature. The case is almost

hopeless. The Lord is outside the door.--"Behold, I stand at the

door, and knock." It is not here as at Ephesus, "I have somewhat

against thee." The whole condition is bad. The whole professing body

is about to be given up.--"I will spue thee out of My mouth." He still

lingers, blessed be His name, for He is ever slow to leave the place

of mercy, or enter the place of judgment. It reminds us of the

departure of the glory, in the opening of Ezekiel. It moved with a

slow and measured pace, loth to leave the house, the people, and the

land. "Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood

over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the

cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory."

"Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the

house, and stood over the cherubim." And finally, "the glory of the

Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain

which is on the east side of the city." (Ezek. x. 4, 18; xi. 23.)

This is deeply affecting. How striking the contrast between this slow

departure of the glory and its speedy entrance, in the day of

Solomon's dedication of the house in 2 Chronicles vii. 1. Jehovah was

quick to enter His abode in the midst of His people; slow to leave it.

He was, to speak after the manner of men, forced away by the sins and

hopeless impenitence of His infatuated people.

So also with the Church. We see in the second of Acts His rapid

entrance into His spiritual house. He came like a rushing mighty wind

to fill the house with His glory. But in the third of Revelation, see

His attitude: He is outside. Yes; but He is knocking. He lingers, not

indeed with any hope of corporate restoration, but if haply "_any man_

would hear His voice and open the door." The fact of His being outside

shows what the church is. The fact of His knocking shows what He is.

Christian reader, see that you thoroughly understand this whole

subject: it is of the very last importance that you should. We are

surrounded on all sides with false notions as to the present condition

and future destiny of the professing church. We must fling these all

behind our backs, with holy decision, and listen, with circumcised ear

and reverent mind, to the teaching of holy Scripture. That teaching is

as clear as noonday. The professing church is a hopeless ruin, and

judgment is at the door. Read the epistle of Jude; read 2 Peter ii.

and iii.; read 2 Timothy. Just lay aside this volume and look closely

into those solemn scriptures, and we feel persuaded you will rise from

the study with the deep and thorough conviction that there is nothing

whatever before christendom but the unmitigated wrath of Almighty God.

Its doom is set forth in that brief but solemn sentence in Romans xi.,

"Thou also shalt be cut off."

Yes; such is the language of Scripture.--"Cut off"--"spued out." The

professing church has utterly failed as Christ's witness on the earth.

As with Israel, so with the Church, the very truth which she was

responsible to maintain and confess, she had faithlessly surrendered.

Hardly had the canon of New-Testament scripture closed, hardly had the

first set of laborers left the field, ere gross darkness set in, and

settled down upon the whole professing body. Turn where you will,

range through the ponderous tomes of "the fathers," as they are

called, and you will not find a trace of those grand characteristic

truths of our glorious Christianity. All, all was shamefully

abandoned. As Israel in Canaan abandoned Jehovah for Baal and

Ashtaroth, so the Church abandoned the pure and precious truth of God

for puerile fables and deadly errors. The rapid departure is perfectly

astounding; but it was just as the apostle Paul forewarned the elders

of Ephesus.--"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the

flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed

the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. For I

know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in

among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among your own selves

shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples

after them." (Acts xx.)

How truly deplorable! The holy apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ almost immediately succeeded by "grievous wolves" and teachers

of perverse things; the whole Church plunged into thick darkness; the

lamp of divine revelation almost hidden from view; ecclesiastical

corruption in every form; priestly domination with all its terrible

accompaniments. In short, the history of the Church--the history of

christendom is the most appalling record ever penned.

True it is, thanks be to God, He left not Himself without a witness.

Here and there, from time to time, just as in Israel of old, He raised

up one and another to speak for Him. Even amid the deepest gloom of

the middle ages, an occasional star appears upon the horizon. The

Waldenses and others were enabled, by the grace of God, to hold fast

His Word and to confess the name of Jesus in the face of Rome's dark

and terrible tyranny, and diabolical cruelty.

Then came that gracious season, in the sixteenth century, when God

raised up Luther and his beloved and honored fellow-laborers to preach

the great truth of justification by faith, and to give the precious

volume of God to the people, in their own tongue wherein they were

born. It is not within the compass of human language to set forth the

blessing of that memorable time. Thousands heard the glad tidings of

salvation--heard, believed, and were saved. Thousands, who had long

groaned beneath the intolerable weight of Romish superstition, hailed,

with profound thankfulness, the heavenly message. Thousands flocked,

with intense delight, to draw water from those wells of inspiration

which had been stopped for ages by papal ignorance and intolerance.

The blessed lamp of divine revelation, so long hidden by the enemy's

hand, was permitted to cast its rays athwart the gloom, and thousands

rejoiced in its heavenly light.

But while we heartily bless God for all the glorious results of what

is commonly called the reformation, in the sixteenth century, we

should make a very grave mistake indeed were we to imagine that it was

any thing approaching to a restoration of the Church to its original

condition. Far--very far from it. Luther and his companions, if we are

to judge from their writings--precious writings, many of them--never

grasped the divine idea of the Church as the body of Christ. They did

not understand the unity of the body; the presence of the Holy Ghost

in the assembly, as well as His indwelling in the individual believer;

they never reached the grand truth of ministry in the Church, "its

nature, source, power, and responsibility;" they never got beyond the

idea of human authority as the basis of ministry; they were silent as

to the specific hope of the Church, namely, the coming of Christ for

His people--the bright and morning Star; they failed to seize the

proper scope of prophecy, and proved themselves incompetent rightly to

divide the word of truth.

Let us not be misunderstood. We love the memory of the reformers.

Their names are familiar household words amongst us. They were dear,

devoted, earnest, blessed servants of Christ. Would that we had their

like amongst us in this day of revived popery and rampant infidelity.

We would yield to none in our love and esteem for Luther, Melanchthon,

Farel, Latimer, and Knox. They were truly bright and shining lights in

their day; and thousands--yea, millions will thank God throughout

eternity that they ever lived and preached and wrote. And not only

so, but, looked at in their private life and public ministry, they put

to shame many of those who have been favored with a range of truth for

which we look in vain in the voluminous writings of the reformers.

But, admitting all this, as we most freely and gratefully do, we are

nevertheless convinced that those beloved and honored servants of

Christ failed to seize, and therefore failed to preach and teach, many

of the special and characteristic truths of Christianity; at least, we

have failed to find these truths in their writings. They preached the

precious truth of justification by faith; they gave the holy

Scriptures to the people; they trampled under foot much of the rubbish

of Romish superstition.

All this they did, by the grace of God, and for all this we bow our

heads in deep thankfulness and praise to the Father of mercies. But

Protestantism is not Christianity; nor are the so-called churches of

the reformation, whether national or dissenting, the Church of God.

Far from it. We look back over the course of eighteen centuries, and

spite of the occasional revivals, spite of the brilliant lights which

at various times have shone upon the Church's horizon--lights which

appeared all the brighter in contrast with the deep gloom that

surrounded them--spite of the many gracious visitations of God's

Spirit, both in Europe and America, during the past and present

century--spite of all these things, for which we most heartily bless

God, we return with decision to the statement already advanced, that

the professing church is a hopeless wreck; that christendom is rapidly

hastening down the inclined plane, to the blackness of darkness

forever; that those highly favored lands, where much evangelical truth

has been preached, where Bibles have been circulated in millions, and

gospel tracts in billions, shall yet be covered with thick

darkness--given over to strong delusion to believe a lie.

And then?--ah, what then? _A converted world?_ Nay, but a _judged

church_. The true saints of God, scattered throughout christendom--all

the true members of the body of Christ, will be caught up to meet

their coming Lord--the dead saints raised, the living changed, in a

moment, and all taken up together to be forever with the Lord. Then

the mystery will rise to a head in the person of the man of sin--the

lawless one, the Antichrist. The Lord Jesus shall come, and all His

saints with Him, to execute judgment on the beast, or revived Roman

empire, and the false prophet, or Antichrist--the former in the west,

the latter in the east.

This will be a summary act of direct warrior judgment, without any

judicial process whatever, inasmuch as both the beast and false

prophet shall be found in open rebellion and blasphemous opposition to

God and the Lamb. Then comes the sessional judgment of the living

nations, as recorded in Matthew xxv. 31-46.

Thus, all evil having been put down, Christ shall reign, in

righteousness and peace, for a thousand years. A bright and blessed

time! the true Sabbath for Israel and the whole earth--a period marked

by the grand facts, Satan bound and Christ reigning. Glorious facts!

The very reference to them causes the heart to overflow in praise and

thanksgiving. What will the reality be?

But Satan shall be loosed from his thousand years' captivity, and

allowed to make one more effort against God and His Christ.--"And when

the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his

prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four

quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to

battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.[24] And they

went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the

saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of

heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast

into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false

prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever."

(Rev. xx. 7-10.)

[24] The reader must distinguish between the Gog and Magog of

Revelation xx. and those of Ezekiel xxxviii. and xxxix. The former are

post-millennial; the latter, pre-millennial.

This will be Satan's last effort, issuing in his eternal perdition.

Then we have the judgment of the dead, "small and great"--the

sessional judgment of all those who shall have died in their sins,

from the days of Cain down to the last apostate from millennial glory.

Tremendous scene! No heart can conceive, no tongue--no pen set forth,

its awful solemnity.

Finally, we have unfolded to the vision of our souls the everlasting

state--the new heaven and the new earth wherein righteousness shall

dwell, throughout the golden ages of eternity.

Such is the order of events as set forth, with all possible clearness,

on the page of inspiration. We have given a brief summary of them in

connection with the line of truth on which we have been dwelling--a

line, as we are fully aware, by no means popular; but we dare not

withhold it on that account. Our business is to declare the whole

counsel of God, not to seek popularity. We do not expect the truth of

God to be popular in christendom; so far from this, we have been

seeking to prove that just as Israel abandoned the truth which they

were responsible to maintain, so the professing church has let slip

all those great truths which characterize the Christianity of the New

Testament. And we may assure the reader that our one object in

pursuing this line of argument is to arouse the hearts of all true

Christians to a sense of the value of those truths, and of their

responsibility, not only to receive them, but to seek a fuller

realization and a bolder confession of them. We long to see a band of

men raised up, in these closing hours of the Church's earthly history,

who shall go forth, in true spiritual power, and proclaim, with

unction and energy, the long-forgotten truths of the gospel of God.

May God, in His great mercy to His people, raise up such and send

them forth. May the Lord Jesus knock louder and louder at the door, so

that many may hear and open to Him, according to the desire of His

loving heart, and taste the blessedness of deep personal communion

with Himself, while waiting for His coming.

Blessed be God, there is no limit whatever to the blessing of the

individual soul who hears Christ's voice and opens the door; and what

is true of one is true of hundreds or thousands. Only let us be real

and simple and true, feeling and owning our utter feebleness and

nothingness, laying aside all assumption and empty pretension, not

seeking to be any thing or to set up any thing, but holding fast

Christ's word and not denying His name, finding our happy place at His

feet, our satisfying portion in Himself, and our real delight in

serving Him in any little way. Thus we shall get on harmoniously,

lovingly, and happily together, finding our common centre in Christ,

and our common object in seeking to further His cause and promote His

glory. O that it were thus with all the Lord's beloved people in this

our day! we should then have a very different tale to tell, and

present a very different aspect to the world around. May the Lord

revive His work.

It may perhaps seem to the reader that we have wandered a long way

from the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy; but we must remind him, once

for all, that it is not merely what each chapter _contains_ that

demands our attention, but also what it _suggests_. And further, we

may add that, in sitting down to write, from time to time, it is our

one desire to be led by God's Spirit into the very line of truth which

may be suited to the need of all our readers. If only the beloved

flock of Christ be fed, instructed, and comforted, we care not whether

it be by well-connected notes or broken fragments.

* * * * *

We shall now proceed with our chapter.

Moses having laid down the grand foundation-truth contained in the

fourth verse--"Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord," proceeds

to press upon the congregation their sacred duty in respect to this

blessed One. It was not merely that there was _a_ God, but He was

_their_ God. He had deigned to link Himself with them, in

covenant-relationship. He had redeemed them, borne them on eagles'

wings, and brought them unto Himself, in order that they might be to

Him a people, and that He might be their God.

Blessed fact! Blessed relationship! But Israel had to be reminded of

the conduct suited to such a relationship-conduct which could only

flow from a loving heart. "Thou shalt love the Lord _thy_ God with

_all_ thy _heart_, and with _all_ thy soul, and with _all_ thy might."

Here lies the secret of all true practical religion. Without this, all

is valueless to God. "My son, give me thine heart." Where the heart is

given, all will be right. The heart may be compared to the regulator

of a watch, which acts on the hair-spring, and the hair-spring acts on

the main-spring, and the main-spring acts on the hands, as they move

around the dial. If your watch goes wrong, it will not do merely to

alter the hands, you must touch the regulator. God looks for real

heart-work, blessed be His name! His word to us is, "My little

children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and

in truth."

How we ought to bless Him for such touching words! they do so reveal

His own loving heart to us. Assuredly, He loved us in deed and in

truth, and He cannot be satisfied with any thing else, whether in our

ways with Him or our ways one with another: all must flow straight

from the heart.

"And these words which I command thee this day, shall be _in thine

heart_"--at the very source of all the issues of life. This is

peculiarly precious. Whatever is in the heart comes out through the

lips and in the life. How important, then, to have the heart full of

the Word of God--so full, that we shall have no room for the vanities

and follies of this present evil world. Thus shall our conversation be

always with grace, seasoned with salt. "Out of the abundance of the

heart the mouth speaketh." Hence we can judge of what is in the heart

by what cometh out of the mouth. The tongue is the organ of the

heart--the organ of the man. "A good man out of the good treasure of

the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil

treasure bringeth forth evil things." When the heart is really

governed by the Word of God, the whole character reveals the blessed

result. It must be so, inasmuch as the heart is the main-spring of

our entire moral condition; it lies at the centre of all those moral

influences which govern our personal history and shape our practical

career.

In every part of the divine volume, we see how much importance God

attaches to the attitude and state of the heart, with respect to Him

or to His Word, which is one and the same thing. When the heart is

true to Him, all is sure to come right; but on the other hand, we

shall find that where the heart grows cold and careless as to God and

His truth, there will, sooner or later, be open departure from the

path of truth and righteousness. There is, therefore, much force and

value in the exhortation addressed by Barnabas to the converts at

Antioch--"He exhorted them all, that with _purpose of heart_ they

would cleave unto the Lord."

How needful then, now, always! This "purpose of heart" is most

precious to God. It is what we may venture to call the grand moral

regulator. It imparts a lovely earnestness to the Christian character

which is greatly to be coveted by all of us. It is a divine antidote

against coldness, deadness, and formality, all of which are so hateful

to God. The outward life may be very correct, and the creed may be

very orthodox; but if the earnest purpose of heart be lacking--the

affectionate cleaving of the whole moral being to God and His Christ,

all is utterly worthless.

It is through the heart that the Holy Ghost instructs us. Hence, the

apostle prayed for the saints at Ephesus, that "the eyes of their

_heart_ [καρδίας, not διανοίας] might be

enlightened;" and again, "That Christ may dwell in your _heart_ by

faith."

Thus we see how all Scripture is in perfect harmony with the

exhortation recorded in our chapter, "And these words which I command

thee this day, shall be in thine heart." How near this would have kept

them to their covenant-God! How safe, too, from all evil, and

specially from the abominable evil of idolatry--their national sin,

their terrible besetment! If Jehovah's precious words had only found

their right place in the heart, there would have been little fear of

Baal, Chemosh, or Ashtaroth. In a word, all the idols of the heathen

would have found their right place, and been estimated at their true

value, if only the word of Jehovah had been allowed to dwell in

Israel's heart.

And be it specially noted here how beautifully characteristic all this

is of the book of Deuteronomy. It is not so much a question of keeping

up a certain order of religious observances, the offering of

sacrifices, or attention to rites and ceremonies. All these things, no

doubt, had their place, but they are by no means the prominent or

paramount thing in Deuteronomy. No; THE WORD is the all-important

matter here. It is _Jehovah's word_ in _Israel's heart_.

The reader must seize this fact if he really desires to possess the

key to the lovely book of Deuteronomy. It is not a book of ceremonial;

it is a book of moral and affectionate obedience. It teaches, in

almost every section, that invaluable lesson, that the heart that

loves, prizes, and honors the Word of God is ready for every act of

obedience, whether it be the offering of a sacrifice or the observance

of a day. It might so happen that an Israelite would find himself in a

place and under circumstances in which a rigid adherence to rites and

ceremonies would be impossible; but he never could be in a place or in

circumstances in which he could not love, reverence, and obey the Word

of God. Let him go where he would--let him be carried, as a captive

exile, to the ends of the earth, nothing could rob him of the high

privilege of uttering and acting on those blessed words, "Thy Word

have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee."

Precious words! They contain, in their brief compass, the great

principle of the book of Deuteronomy, and, we may add, the great

principle of the divine life, at all times and in all places. It can

never lose its moral force and value: it always holds good. It was

true in the days of the patriarchs, true for Israel in the land, true

for Israel scattered to the ends of the earth, true for the Church as

a whole, true for each individual believer amid the Church's hopeless

ruins. In a word, obedience is always the creature's holy duty and

exalted privilege--simple, unhesitating, unqualified obedience to the

Word of the Lord. This is an unspeakable mercy for which we may well

praise our God, day and night. He has given us His Word, blessed be

His name, and He exhorts us to let that Word dwell in us

richly--dwell in our hearts, and assert its holy sway over our entire

course and character.

"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine

heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and

shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou

walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be

as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the

posts of thy house, and on thy gates."

All this is perfectly beautiful. The Word of God hidden in the heart;

flowing out in loving instruction to the children, and in holy

conversation in the bosom of the family; shining out in all the

activities of daily life, so that all who came inside the gates or

entered the house might see that the Word of God was the standard for

each, for all, and in every thing.

Thus it was to be with Israel of old, and surely thus it ought to be

with Christians now. But is it so? Are our children thus taught? Is it

our constant aim to present the Word of God, in all its heavenly

attractiveness, to their young hearts? Do they see it shining out in

our daily life? do they see its influence upon our habits, our temper,

our family intercourse, our business transactions? This is what we

understand by binding the Word as a sign upon the hands, having it as

a frontlet between the eyes, writing it upon the door-posts and upon

the gates.

Reader, is it thus with us? It is of little use attempting to teach

our children the Word of God if our lives are not governed by that

Word. We do not believe in making the blessed Word of God a mere

school-book for our children; to do so is to turn a delightful

privilege into a wearisome drudgery. Our children should see that we

live in the very atmosphere of Scripture; that it forms the material

of our conversation when we sit in the bosom of the family, in our

moments of relaxation.

Alas! how little is this the case! Have we not to be deeply humbled in

the presence of God when we reflect upon the general character and

tone of our conversation at table, and in the family circle? How

little there is of Deuteronomy vi. 7! How much of "foolish talking and

jesting, which are not convenient"! How much evil-speaking of our

brethren, our neighbors, our fellow-laborers! How much idle gossip!

How much worthless small talk!

And from what does all this proceed? Simply from the state of the

heart. The Word of God, the commandments and sayings of our Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ, are not dwelling in our hearts; and hence they

are not welling up and flowing out in living streams of grace and

edification.

Will any one say that Christians do not need to consider these things?

If so, let him ponder the following wholesome words: "Let no corrupt

communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the

use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." And

again, "Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms

and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart

to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the

Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Eph. iv. 29; v. 18-20.)

These words were addressed to the saints at Ephesus; and, most

assuredly, we should apply our hearts diligently to them. We are

little aware, perhaps, of how deeply and constantly we fail in

maintaining the habit of spiritual conversation. It is specially in

the bosom of the family, and in our ordinary intercourse, that this

failure is most manifest. Hence our need of those words of exhortation

which we have just penned. It is evident the Holy Spirit foresaw the

need, and graciously anticipated it. Hear what He says "to the saints

and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse,"--"Let the peace of Christ

rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and

be ye thankful. 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." (Col.

iii.)

Lovely picture of ordinary Christian life! It is but a fuller and

higher development of what we have in our chapter, where the Israelite

is seen in the midst of his family, with the Word of God flowing forth

from his heart in loving instruction to his children--seen in his

daily life, in all his intercourse at home and abroad, under the

hallowed influence of Jehovah's words.

Beloved Christian reader, do we not long to see more of all this in

our midst? Is it not, at times, very sorrowful and very humbling to

mark the style of conversation that obtains in the midst of our family

circles? Should we not sometimes blush if we could see our

conversation reproduced in print? What is the remedy? Here it is--a

heart filled with the peace of Christ, the word of Christ, Christ

Himself: nothing else will do. We must begin with the heart, and where

that is thoroughly preoccupied with heavenly things, we shall make

very short work with all attempts at evil-speaking, foolish talking,

and jesting.

"And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into

the land which He sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to

Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildedst not,

and houses full of all good things which thou filledst not, and wells

digged which thou diggedst not, and vineyards and olive-trees which

thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; then

beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the

land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." (Ver. 10-12.)

Amid all the blessings, the mercies, and the privileges of the land of

Canaan, they were to remember that gracious and faithful One who had

redeemed them out of the land of bondage. They were to remember, too,

that all these things were His free gift. The land, with all that it

contained, was bestowed upon them in virtue of His promises to

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Cities built and houses furnished, flowing

wells, fruitful vineyards and olive-yards, all ready to their hand,

the free gift of sovereign grace and covenant mercy. All they had to

do was to take possession, in simple faith, and to keep ever in the

remembrance of the thoughts of their hearts the bounteous Giver of it

all. They were to think of Him, and find in His redeeming love the

true motive-spring of a life of loving obedience. Wherever they turned

their eyes, they beheld the tokens of His great goodness--the rich

fruit of His marvelous love. Every city, every house, every well,

every vine, olive and fig-tree, spoke to their hearts of Jehovah's

abounding grace, and furnished a substantial proof of His infallible

faithfulness to His promise.

"Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him, and shalt swear by

His name. Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people

which are round about you; (for the Lord thy God is a jealous God

among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee,

and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."

There are two great motives set before the congregation, in our

chapter, namely, "love," in verse 5, and "fear," in verse 13. These

are found all through Scripture; and their importance in guiding the

life and forming the character cannot possibly be too highly

estimated. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." We are

exhorted to be "in the fear of the Lord all the day." It is a grand

moral safeguard against all evil. "Unto man He said, 'Behold, the fear

of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is

understanding.'"

The blessed Book abounds in passages setting forth, in every possible

form, the immense importance of the fear of God. "How," says Joseph,

"can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" The man who

walks habitually in the fear of God is preserved from every form of

moral pravity. The abiding realization of the divine presence must

prove an effectual shelter from every temptation. How often do we find

the presence of some very holy and spiritual person a wholesome check

upon levity and folly; and if such be the moral influence of a

fellow-mortal, how much more powerful would be the realized presence

of God!

Christian reader, let us give our serious attention to this weighty

matter. Let us seek to live in the consciousness that we are in the

immediate presence of God. Thus shall we be preserved from a thousand

forms of evil, to which we are exposed from day to day, and to which,

alas! we are predisposed. The remembrance that the eye of God rests

upon us would exert a far more powerful influence upon our life and

conversation than the presence of all the saints upon earth and all

the angels in heaven. We could not speak falsely, we could not utter

with our lips what we do not feel in the heart, we could not talk

folly, we could not speak evil of our brother or our neighbor, we

could not speak unkindly of any one, if only we felt ourselves in the

presence of God. In a word, the holy fear of the Lord, of which

Scripture speaks so much, would act as a most blessed restraint upon

evil thoughts, evil words, evil ways, evil in every shape and form.

Moreover, it would tend to make us very real and genuine in all our

sayings and doings. There is a sad amount of sham and nonsense about

us. We frequently say a great deal more than we feel. We are not

honest; we do not speak, every man, truth with our neighbor; we give

expressions to sentiments which are not the genuine utterance of the

heart; we act the hypocrite one with another.

All these things afford melancholy proof of how little we live, move,

and have our being in the presence of God. If we could only bear in

mind that God hears us and sees us--hears our every word and sees our

every thought, our every way, how differently we should carry

ourselves! What holy watchfulness we should maintain over our

thoughts, our tempers, and our tongues! What purity of heart and mind!

What truth and uprightness in all our intercourse with our fellows!

What reality and simplicity in our deportment! What happy freedom from

all affectation, assumption, and pretension! What deliverance from

every form of self-occupation! O, to live ever in the deep sense of

the divine presence! to walk in the fear of the Lord all the day long!

And then to prove the "vast constraining influence" of His love! To be

led out in all the holy activities which that love would ever

suggest! To find our delight in doing good! To taste the spiritual

luxury of making hearts glad! To be continually meditating plans of

usefulness! To live close by the fountain of divine love, so that we

must be streams of refreshing in the midst of this thirsty scene--rays

of light amid the moral gloom around us! "The love of Christ," says

the blessed apostle, "constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if

one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that

they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto

Him which died for them, and rose again."

How morally lovely is all this! "Would that it were more fully

realized and faithfully exhibited amongst us! May the fear and love of

God be continually in our hearts, in all their blessed power and

formative influence, that thus our daily life may shine to His praise

and the real profit, comfort, and blessing of all who come in contact

with us, whether in private or in public. God, in His infinite mercy,

grant it, for Christ's sake!

The sixteenth verse of our chapter demands our special attention.--"Ye

shall not tempt the Lord your God, as ye tempted Him in Massah." These

words were quoted by our blessed Lord when tempted by Satan to cast

Himself from the pinnacle of the temple.--"Then the devil taketh Him

up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple,

and saith unto Him, 'If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down; for

it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee; and

in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy

foot against a stone.'"

This is a very remarkable passage. It proves how Satan can quote

Scripture when it suits his purpose. But he omits a most important

clause--"To keep Thee in all Thy ways." Now, it formed no part of the

ways of Christ to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. It was

not the path of duty. He had no command from God to do any such thing,

and hence He refused to do it. He had no need to tempt God--to put Him

to the test. He had, as a man, the most perfect confidence in God--the

fullest assurance of His protection.

Moreover, He was not going to abandon the path of duty in order to

prove God's care of Him; and herein He teaches us a most valuable

lesson. We can always count on God's protecting hand when we are

treading the path of duty; but if we are walking in a self-chosen

path--if we are seeking our own pleasure or our own interest, our own

ends or objects, then to talk of counting on God would be simply

wicked presumption.

No doubt, our God is very merciful, very gracious, and His tender

mercy is over us, even when we wander off the path of duty; but this

is another thing altogether, and it leaves wholly untouched the

statement that we can only count on divine protection when our feet

are in the pathway of duty, if a Christian goes out boating for his

amusement, or if he goes clambering over the Alps merely for

sight-seeing, has he any right to believe that God will take care of

him? Let conscience give the answer. If God calls us to cross a stormy

lake to preach the gospel, if He summons us to cross the Alps on some

special service for Him, then, assuredly, we can commit ourselves to

His mighty hand to protect us from all evil. The grand point for all

of us is, to be found in the holy path of duty. It may be narrow,

rough, and lonely; but it is a path overshadowed by the wings of the

Almighty and illumined by the light of His approving countenance.

Ere turning from the subject suggested by verse 16, we would briefly

notice the very interesting and instructive fact that our Lord, in His

reply to Satan, takes no notice whatever of his misquotation of psalm

xci. 11. Let us carefully note this fact and seek to bear it in mind.

In place of saying to the enemy, You have left out a most important

clause of the passage which you undertake to quote, He simply quotes

another passage, as authority for His own conduct. Thus He vanquished

the tempter, and thus He left us a blessed example.

It is worthy of our special notice that the Lord Jesus Christ did not

overcome Satan in virtue of His divine power. Had He done so, it could

not be an example for us. But when we see Him as a man using the Word

as His only weapon, and thus gaining a glorious victory, our hearts

are encouraged and comforted; and not only so, but we learn a most

precious lesson as to how we, in our sphere and measure, are to stand

in the conflict. The Man Christ Jesus overcame by simple dependence

upon God and obedience to His Word.

Blessed fact! A fact full of comfort and consolation for us. Satan

could do nothing with one who would only act by divine authority, and

by the power of the Spirit. Jesus never did His own will, though, as

we know, (blessed be His holy name!) His will was absolutely perfect.

He came down from heaven, as He Himself tells us, in John vi, not to

do His own will, but the will of the Father that sent Him. He was a

perfect servant, from first to last. His rule of action was the Word

of God; His power of action, the Holy Ghost; His only motive for

action, the will of God; hence the prince of this world had nothing in

Him. Satan could not, by all his subtle wiles, draw Him out of the

path of obedience, or out of the place of dependence.

Christian reader, let us consider these things; let us deeply ponder

them; let us remember that our blessed Lord and Master left us an

example that we should follow His steps. Oh, may we follow them

diligently during the little while that yet remains. May we, by the

gracious ministry of the Holy Ghost, enter more fully into the great

fact that we are called to walk even as Jesus walked. He is our great

Exemplar in all things. Let us study Him more profoundly, so that we

may reproduce Him more faithfully.

* * * * *

We shall now close this lengthened section by quoting for the reader

the last paragraph of the chapter on which we have been dwelling; it

is a passage of singular fullness, depth, and power, and strikingly

characteristic of the entire book of Deuteronomy.

"Ye shall _diligently_ keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and

His testimonies, and His statutes, which He hath commanded thee. And

thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord;

that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess

the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers; to cast out all

thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. And when thy

son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies and

the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded

you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in

Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and

the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon

Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes; and He brought

us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land

which He sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all

these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He

might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our

righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the

Lord our God, as He hath commanded us."

How prominently is the Word of God kept before the soul, in every page

and every paragraph of this book! It is the one great subject on the

heart and in all the discourses of the revered lawgiver. It is his one

aim to exalt the Word of God, in all its aspects, whether in the form

of testimonies, commandments, statutes, or judgments; and to set forth

the moral importance, yea, the urgent necessity of whole-hearted,

earnest, diligent obedience, on the part of the people. "Ye shall

_diligently_ keep the commandments of the Lord your God." And again,

"Thou shalt do that which is _right_ and _good_ in the sight of the

Lord."

All this is morally lovely. We have here unfolded before our eyes

those eternal principles which no change of dispensation, no change of

scene, place, or circumstances can ever touch. "That which is right

and good" must ever be of universal and abiding application. It

reminds us of the words of the apostle John to his beloved friend

Gaius--"Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is

good." The assembly might be in a very low condition; there might be

very much to try the heart and depress the spirit of Gaius; Diotrephes

might be carrying himself most unbecomingly and unwarrantably toward

the beloved and venerable apostle and others; all this might be true,

and much more--yea, the whole professing body might go wrong. What

then? What remained for Gaius to do? Simply to follow that which was

right and good; to open his heart and his hand and his house to every

one who brought _the truth_; to seek to help on the cause of Christ in

every right way.

This was the business of Gaius in his day, and this is the business of

every true lover of Christ at all times, in all places, and under all

circumstances. We may not have many to join us; we may perhaps find

ourselves, at times, almost alone; but we are still to follow what is

good, cost what it may. We are to _depart_ from iniquity--_purge_

ourselves from dishonorable vessels--_flee_ youthful lusts--_turn

away_ from powerless professors. And what then? "Follow righteousness,

faith, love, peace"--How? In isolation? Nay. I may find myself alone

in any given place for a time, but there can be no such thing as

isolation so long as the body of Christ is on earth, and that will be

till He comes for us. Hence we never expect to see the day in which we

cannot find a few that call on the Lord out of a pure heart; whoever

they are and wherever they are, it is our bounden duty to find them,

and, having found them, to walk with them in holy fellowship "until

the end."

* * * * *

_P.S._--We must reserve the remaining chapters of Deuteronomy for

another volume. May the Lord be graciously pleased to grant His rich

blessing upon our meditations thus far. May He clothe these pages with

the power of the Holy Ghost, and make them to be a direct message from

Himself to the hearts of His people throughout the whole world. May He

also grant spiritual power to unfold the truth contained in the

remaining sections of this most profound, comprehensive, and

suggestive book.

We earnestly beseech the Christian reader to join us in prayer as to

all this, remembering those most precious words, "If two of you shall

_agree_ on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall

be done for them by My Father which is in heaven."

_C. H. M._

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.

Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained

except in obvious cases of typographical error.