xxix. 7, 8. _Shall be as a dream of a night vision, &c._
The reference in these two verses is to the threatened attack on
Jerusalem by the Assyrian invasion in the reign of Hezekiah. They
take us to the time the invader had taken all the other fortified
places in the kingdom; and now his general, Rabshakeh, was encamped
before the capital, with the confident expectation of easily taking
it. It would seem as if, the requisite preparations having been made,
that immense army had retired to rest, with the intention of making
the assault on the next day. We can imagine them in their dreams
picturing to themselves the scenes of the approaching capture, the
shouting, the onset, the slaughter, the devastation, the prisoners,
the booty, the triumph, the glory--scenes, however, _these_ which
they were destined never to witness! For, in the dead of night, the
Destroying Angel went forth, and in the morning nothing remained of
185,000 of them but their lifeless corpses. So ended their dreams!
Even as the army of Sennacherib was dreaming of a conquest which had
no real existence, _so are there multitudes of persons now dreaming
that they are accomplishing the great object of their existence who
are no more doing so than if they lay wrapped in the slumbers of the
night._ I propose to speak of such persons under three heads of
PLEASURE, WORK, RELIGION.
I. PLEASURE. I am not condemning pleasure. Pleasure has its place in
every human life, just as truly as work and religion. I am speaking
of a life _devoted_ to pleasure. Nor do I speak of the grosser
pleasures--these shock us at once, others delude us--but of those
whose great aim in life is to please _themselves:_ who, in respect to
any proposed course of action, never think of asking, "Is it my
_duty?_" But what is there to show that such a life is only a
dream-like substitute for real life? 1. _It leaves our best faculties
unused._ Can it be believed that God made us "a little lower than the
angels" that we might spend our lives in pursuits which hardly
require the faculties of a man? 2. A life of pleasure is a _selfish
life._ Where pleasure is the habitual object of pursuit there _must_
be selfishness. Wherever pleasure is the great object of life, _the
interest of others will be held in low esteem._ 3. A life of pleasure
also exposes to temptation. 4. It unfits men for another world. We
shall never be ready for heaven if we never think seriously about it;
and pleasure pre-eminently withdraws our thoughts from that world
(H. E. I., 5059).
II. Another form of the dream is the impression that WORK, _i.e.,
secular occupation, is the great business of life._ Work is not to be
spoken of without respect. 1. The _Bible praises work._ "Six days
shalt thou labour." 2. _It keeps us from dependence on others._
3. _It benefits those dependent upon us._ 4. It is good as enabling a
man _to help his neighbours._ 5. Good as giving a man _influence_ by
means of the wealth it produces. 6. Good _as keeping us out of much
evil._ Intemperance is usually the vice of the idle. So of other
vices. But still it has its dangerous side. It shuts out the other
world by the undue prominence it gives to this. It diminishes our
sympathy with the suffering, and makes us unconcerned about the
kingdom of Christ. Noble as work is when compared with idleness, it
is not the great business of life. God did not endow us with
intellect, heart, and spirit, with relations to Himself, to our
fellows, and to immortality, that we might spend our lives in a
practical denial of them all. A life of mere work is a dream as truly
as a life of pleasure.
III. Another thing which men are apt to consider the great business
of life is RELIGION. In many cases "religion" is little more than
amusement; in others superstition; in others mere sentiment. There is
a "religion" which is merely an affair of the intellect; another
where it is hereditary, where a man follows a form of religion
because his fathers did so before him. It is forgotten that religion
is a life. Religious knowledge, beliefs, feelings, exercises are but
the scaffolding and not the building; means to an end, not the end
itself. The great end of life is not to be _religious,_ but to be
_good._ True religion has two sides: it first puts us right with God
and then with our fellow-men. We love God first, and only then do we
love man and work for his good.
The prophet tells us how the dreams of these Assyrians vanished. Even
such will be the disappointment of those who are dreaming away the
grand possibilities of the present life.--_B. P. Pratten, B.A.:
Christian World Pulpit,_ vol. iii. pp. 187-191.