i. 4. _A people laden with iniquity._
_A very surprising description:_ "A people laden with _iniquity._" On
account of their punctilious and costly observance of the Mosaic
ritual (see vers. 11-15), the Jews imagined that they deserved the
commendation of Heaven; but God pronounced them to be "a people laden
with iniquity." _Men_ often form very different estimates of the same
thing; _e.g.,_ buyer and seller (Prov. xx. 14). There is often as
marked a difference between the divine and human estimates of
character (Luke xviii. 11; Rev. iii. 17). This is so because God and
men judge by different standards; men take into account only their
occasional good actions; God judges by that feature of their
character which is predominant.[1] So judging, He condemned these
most "religious" Jews. What is His estimate of _us?_
_A very instructive description:_ "A people _laden_ with iniquity."
The conception is that of a nation that has gone on adding sin to
sin, as a man gathering sticks in the forest adds fagot to fagot,
until he staggers beneath the load; that which was eagerly sought
after becomes an oppressive burden. How true this is! There are many
national burdens; despotism, an incapable government, excessive
taxation, &c., but the worst and most oppressive of all is a nation's
iniquities.
The iniquities of a nation constitute a burden that impede it--1. _In
its pursuit of material prosperity._ With what desperate intensity
this English nation toils! and for what end? Chiefly that it may
accumulate wealth. How greatly it is impeded in this pursuit by its
costly government! But how much more by its costly vices! On strong
drink alone this nation expends a larger sum than the whole amount
both of imperial and local taxation--more than one hundred millions
annually! Other vices that are nameless, how much they cost, and what
a hindrance they are to the nation in its pursuit of wealth! 2. _In
its pursuit of social happiness._ What a crushing burden of sorrow
the nation's iniquities impose upon it! 3. _In its pursuit of moral
and intellectual improvement._ According to a monkish legend, the
church of St. Brannock's, in Braunton, Devon, could not be erected on
its original site, because as fast as the builders reared up the
walls by day, by night the stones were carried away by invisible
hands. A like contest goes on in our own land. The nation's virtues
are toiling to elevate the national character morally and
intellectually, using as their instruments the school, the church,
the press; but as fast as the virtues build, the vices pull down. In
all these respects the nation's iniquities constitute its heaviest
burden.
_Consequently,_ 1. To give a legal sanction to vices, or to connive
at what promotes them, for the sake of certain additions to the
national revenues, is suicidal folly of the grossest kind. 2. Those
are the truest national benefactors who do most to abate the national
iniquities. The palm for truest patriotism must be awarded, not to
"active politicians," but to faithful preachers, Sunday-school
teachers, temperance reformers, &c. 3. Vices of all kinds should be
branded, not only as sins against God, but as treasons against
society; and all good men should, in self-defence, as well as in a
spirit of enlightened patriotism, band themselves together for their
overthrow. That is a mistaken spirituality which leads some good men
to leave imperial and local affairs in the hands of the worldly and
the vicious. We are bound to labour as well as to pray that God's
will may be done "on earth as it is in heaven," and that "His
kingdom" may come in our own land.[2]
That which is true of nations is true also of individuals; the
heaviest burdens which men can take upon themselves are vices. Vices
lay upon men a burden--1. _Of expense._ Even so-called "indulgences"
are costly; many professing Christians spend more annually on tobacco
than they give to the cause of missions. Vices keep millions poor all
their lives.[3] 2. _Of discredit._ 3. _Of sorrow,_ clouding all the
present. 4. _Of fear,_ darkening all the future.
There is this terrific feature about the burden of iniquity--there is
none so hard to be got rid of. It is hard to inspire a nation or a
man with the desire to get rid of it. How nations and men hug their
vices, notwithstanding the miseries they entail! It is still harder
to accomplish the desire! Society is full of men who stagger and
groan under this burden, from which they strive in vain to free
themselves. In them the fable of Sinbad, unable to rid himself of the
old man who he has taken upon his shoulders, has a melancholy
realisation. These men feel themselves to be helpless, and their case
would indeed be hopeless were it not that God has laid help for us on
One who is mighty to save. Cry to Him, ye burdened ones, and obtain
release!