"Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?"--AMOS
6:12.
THESE expressions are proverbs, taken from the familiar sayings of the
east country. A proverb is generally a sword with two edges, or, if I
may so say, it has many edges, or is all edge, and hence it may be
turned this way and that way, and every part of it will have force and
point. A proverb has often many bearings, and you cannot always tell
what was the precise meaning of him who uttered it. The connection would
abundantly tolerate two senses in this place. An ancient commentator
asserts that it has seven meanings, and that any one of them would be
consistent with the context. I cannot deny the assertion, and if it be
correct it is only one among many instances of the manifold wisdom of
the Word of God. Like those curiously carved Chinese balls in which
there is one ball within another, so in many a holy text there is sense
within sense, teaching within teaching, and each one worthy of the
Spirit of God.
The first sense of the text upon which I would say just a word or two is
this: The prophet is expostulating with ungodly men upon their _pursuit
of happiness where it never can be found_. They were endeavoring to grow
rich and great and strong by oppression. The prophet says, "Ye have
turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock."
Justice was bought and sold among them, and the book of the law was made
the instrument of fraud. "Yet," says the prophet, "there is no gain to
be gotten in this way--no real profit, no true happiness. As well may
horses run upon a rock, and oxen plough the sand; it is labor in vain."
If any of you try to content yourselves with this world, any hope to
find a heaven in the midst of your business and your family without
looking upward for it, you labor in vain. If you hope to find pleasure
in sin, and think that it will go well with you if you despise the law
of God, you will make a great mistake. You might as well seek for roses
in the grottoes of the sea, or look for pearls on the pavements of the
city. You will find what your soul requires nowhere but in God. To seek
after happiness in evil deeds is to plough a rock of granite. To labor
after true prosperity by dishonest means is as useless as to till the
sandy shore. "Wherefore do you spend your money for that which is not
bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not?" Young man, you are
killing yourself with ambition; you seek your own honor and emolument,
and this is a poor, poor object for an immortal soul. And you, too, sir,
are wearing out your life with care; your mind and body both fail you in
endeavoring to amass riches, as if a man's life consisted in the
abundance of the things which he possesses; you are ploughing a rock;
your cares will not bring you joy of heart or content of spirit; your
toil will end in failure. And you, too, who labor to weave a
righteousness by your works apart from Christ and fancy that with the
diligent use of outward ceremonies you may be able to do the work of the
Holy Spirit upon your own heart, you, too, are ploughing thankless
rock. The strength of fallen nature exerted at its utmost can never save
a soul. Why, then, plough the rock any longer? Give over the foolish
task.
So far, I believe, we have not misread the text, but have mentioned a
very probable meaning of the words; still another strikes me, which I
think equally suitable, and upon it I shall dwell, by God's help.
It is this. _God will not always send his ministers to call men to
repentance._ When men's hearts remain obdurate, and they do not and will
not repent, then God will not always deal with them in mercy. "My Spirit
shall not always strive with man." There is a time of ploughing, but
when it is evident that the heart is wilfully hardened, then wisdom
itself suggests to mercy that she should give over her efforts. "Shall
horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?" No, there is
a limit to the efforts of kindness, and in fulness of time the labor
ceases, and the rock remains unploughed henceforth and for ever.
I. Taking that sense, we shall speak upon it, and remark, first, that
MINISTERS LABOR TO BREAK UP MEN'S HEARTS; the wise preacher tries by the
power of the Holy Ghost to break up the hard clods of the heart, so that
it may receive the heavenly seed.
Many truths are used like sharp ploughshares to break up the heart. Men
must be made to feel that they have sinned, and they must be led to
repent of sin. They must receive Christ, not with the head only, but
with the heart; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.
There must be emotion; we must cut into the heart with the ploughshare
of the law. A farmer who is too tender-hearted to tear and harrow the
land will never see a harvest. Here is the failing of certain divines,
they are afraid of hurting any one's feelings, and so they keep clear of
all the truths which are likely to excite fear or grief. They have not a
sharp ploughshare on their premises, and are never likely to have a
stack in their rickyard. They angle without hooks for fear of hurting
the fish, and fire without bullets out of respect to the feelings of the
birds. This kind of love is real cruelty to men's souls. It is much the
same as if a surgeon should permit a patient to die because he would not
pain him with the lancet, or by the necessary removal of a limb. It is a
terrible tenderness which leaves men to sink into hell rather than
distress their minds. It is pleasant to prophesy smooth things, but woe
unto the man who thus degrades himself. Is this the spirit of Christ?
Did he conceal the sinner's peril? Did he cast doubt upon the
unquenchable fire and the undying worm? Did he lull souls into slumber
by smooth strains of flattery? Nay, but with honest love and anxious
concern he warned men of the wrath to come, and bade them repent or
perish. Let the servant of the Lord Jesus in this thing follow his
Master, and plough deep with a sharp ploughshare, which will not be
balked by the hardest clods. This we must school ourselves to do. If we
really love the souls of men, let us prove it by honest speech. The hard
heart must be broken, or it will still refuse the Saviour who was sent
to bind up the broken-hearted. There are some things which men may or
may not have, and yet may be saved; but those things which go with the
ploughing of the heart are indispensable; there must be a holy fear and
a humble trembling before God; there must be an acknowledgment of guilt
and a penitent petition for mercy; there must, in a word, be a thorough
ploughing of the soul before we can expect the seed to bring forth
fruit.
II. But the text indicates to us that AT TIMES MINISTERS LABOR IN VAIN.
"Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?" In a
short time a ploughman feels whether the plough will go or not, and so
does the minister. He may use the very same words in one place which he
has used in another, but he feels in the one place great joy and
hopefulness in preaching, while with another audience he has heavy work,
and little hope. The plough in the last case seems to jump out of the
furrow; and a bit of the share is broken off now and then. He says to
himself, "I do not know how it is, but I do not get on at this," and he
finds that his Master has sent him to work upon a particularly heavy
soil. All laborers for Christ know that this is occasionally the case.
You must have found it so in a Sunday-school class, or in a cottage
meeting, or in any other gathering where you have tried to teach and
preach Jesus. You have said to yourself every now and then, "Now I am
ploughing a rock. Before, I turned up rich mould which a yoke of oxen
might plough with ease, and a horse might even run at the work; but now
the horse may tug, and the oxen may wearily toil till they gall their
shoulders, but they cannot cut a furrow; the rock is stubborn to the
last degree."
There are such hearers in all congregations. They are as iron, and yet
they are side by side with a fine plot of ground. Their sister, their
brother, their son, their daughter, all these have readily felt the
power of the gospel; but _they_ do not feel it. They hear it
respectfully; and they so far allow it free course that they permit it
to go in at one ear and out at the other, but they will have nothing
more to do with it. They would not like to be Sabbath-breakers and stop
away from worship; they therefore do the gospel the questionable
compliment of coming where it is preached and then refusing to regard
it. They are hard, hard, hard bits of rock, the plough does not touch
them.
Many, on the other hand, are equally hard; but it is in another way. The
impression made by the word is not deep or permanent. They receive it
with joy, but they do not retain it. They listen with attention, but it
never comes to practice with them. They hear about repentance, but they
never repent. They hear about faith, but they never believe. They are
good judges of what the gospel is, and yet they have never accepted it
for themselves. They will not eat; but still they insist that good bread
shall be put on the table. They are great sticklers for the very things
which they personally reject. They are moved to feeling; they shed tears
occasionally; but still their hearts are not really broken up by the
word. They go their way, and forget what manner of men they are. They
are rocky-hearted through and through; all our attempts to plough them
are failures.
Now this is all the worse, because certain of these rocky-hearted people
have been ploughed for years, and have become harder instead of softer.
Once or twice ploughing, and a broken share or two, and a disappointed
ploughman or two, we might not mind, if they would yield at last; but
these have since their childhood known the gospel and never given way
before its power. It is a good while since their childhood now with some
of them. Their hair is turning gray, and they themselves are getting
feeble with years. They have been entreated and persuaded times beyond
number, but labor has been lost upon them. In fact, they used to feel
the word, in a certain fashion, far more years ago than they do now. The
sun, which softens wax, hardens clay, and the same gospel which has
brought others to tenderness and repentance has exercised a contrary
effect upon them, and made them more careless about divine things than
they were in their youth. This is a mournful state of things, is it not?
Why are certain men so extremely rocky? Some are so from a _peculiar
stolidity of nature_. There are many people in the world whom you cannot
very well move, they have a great deal of granite in their constitution,
and are more nearly related to Mr. Obstinate than to Mr. Pliable. Now, I
do not think badly of these people, because one knows what it is to
preach to an excitable people, and to get them all stirred, and to know
that in the end they are none the better; whereas some of the more
stolid and immovable people when they are moved are moved indeed; when
they do feel they feel intensely, and they retain any impression that is
made. A little chip made in granite by very hard blows will abide there,
while the lashing of water, which is easy enough, will leave no trace
even for a moment. It is a grand thing to get hold of a fine piece of
rock and to exercise faith about it. The Lord's own hammer has mighty
power to break, and in the breaking great glory comes to the Most High.
Worse still, certain men are hard because of their _infidelity_--not
heart-infidelity all of it, but an infidelity which springs out of a
desire not to believe, which has helped them to discover difficulties.
These difficulties exist, and were meant to exist, for there would be no
room for faith if everything were as plain as the nose on one's face.
These persons have gradually come to doubt, or to think that they doubt,
essential truths, and this renders them impervious to the gospel of
Christ.
A much more numerous body are orthodox enough, but hard-hearted for all
that. _Worldliness_ hardens a man in every way. It often dries up all
charity to the poor, because the man must make money, and he thinks that
the poor-rates are sufficient excuse for neglecting the offices of
charity. He has no time to think of the next world; he must spend all
his thoughts upon the present one. Money is tight, and therefore he must
hold it tight; and when money brings in little interest, he finds
therein a reason for being the more niggardly. He has no time for
prayer, he _must_ get down to the counting-house. He has no time for
reading his Bible, his ledger wants him. You may knock at his door, but
his heart is not at home; it is in the counting-house, wherein he lives
and moves and has his being. His god is his gold, his bliss is his
business, his all in all is himself. What is the use of preaching to
him? As well may horses run upon a rock, or oxen drag a plough across a
field sheeted with iron a mile thick.
With some, too, there is a hardness, produced by what I might almost
call the opposite of stern worldliness, namely, a _general levity_. They
are naturally butterflies flitting about and doing nothing. They never
think, or want to think. Half a thought exhausts them, and they must
needs be diverted, or their feeble minds will utterly weary. They live
in a round of amusement. To them the world is a stage, and all the men
and women only players. It is of little use to preach to them; there is
no depth of earth in their superficial nature; beneath a sprinkling of
shifting worthless sand lies an impenetrable rock of utter stupidity and
senselessness. I might thus multiply reasons why some are harder than
others, but it is a well-assured fact that they are so, and there I
leave the matter.
III. I shall now ask everybody to judge whether the running of horses
upon a rock and the ploughing there with oxen shall always be continued.
I assert that IT IS UNREASONABLE TO EXPECT THAT GOD'S SERVANTS SHOULD
ALWAYS CONTINUE TO LABOR IN VAIN. These people have been preached to,
taught, instructed, admonished, expostulated with, and advised; shall
this unrecompensed work be always performed? We have given them a fair
trial; what do reason and prudence say? Are we bound to persevere till
we are worn out by this unsuccessful work? We will ask it of men who
plough their own farms; do they recommend perseverance when failure is
certain? Shall horses run upon the rock? Shall one plough there with
oxen? Surely not for ever.
I think we shall all agree that labor in vain cannot be continued for
ever if we consider _the ploughman_. He does not want to be much
considered; but still his Master does not overlook him. See how weary he
grows when the work discourages him. He goes to his Master with, "Who
hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
"Why hast thou sent me," says he, "to a people that have ears but hear
not? They sit as thy people sit, and they hear as thy people hear, and
then they go their way and they forget every word that is spoken, and
they obey not the voice of the Lord." See how disappointed the preacher
becomes. It is always hard work when you appear to get no forwarder,
although you do your utmost. No man, whoever he may be, likes to be set
upon work which appears to be altogether a waste of time and effort. To
his own mind it seems to have a touch of the ridiculous about it, and he
fears that he will be despised of his fellows for aiming at the
impossible. Shall it always be the lot of God's ministers to be trifled
with? Will the great Husbandman bid his ploughmen spill their lives for
nought? Must his preachers continue to cast pearls before swine? If the
consecrated workers are so bidden by their Lord they will persevere in
their painful task; but their Master is considerate of them, and I ask
_you_ also to consider whether it is reasonable to expect a zealous
heart to be for ever occupied with the salvation of those who never
respond to its anxiety? Shall the horses always plough upon the rock?
Shall the oxen always labor there?
Again, there is _the Master_ to be considered. The Lord--is he always to
be resisted and provoked? Many of you have had eternal life set before
you as the result of believing in Jesus; and you have refused to
believe. It is a wonder that my Lord has not said to me, "You have done
your duty with them; never set Christ before them again; my Son shall
not be insulted." If you offer a beggar in the street a shilling and he
will not have it, you cheerfully put it into your purse and go your way;
you do not entreat him to have his wants relieved. But, behold, our God
in mercy begs sinners to come to him, and implores them to accept his
Son. In his condescension he even stands like a salesman in the market,
crying, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money; come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price." In another place he says of himself, "All day long have I
stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying generation." If
the Lord of mercy has been refused so long in the sight of you who
reverence him, does not some indignation mingle with your pity, and
while you love sinners and would have them saved, do you not feel in
your heart that there must be an end to such insulting behavior? I ask
even the careless to think of the matter in this light, and if they do
not respect the ploughman, yet let them have regard to his Master.
And then, again, there are so many _other people_ who are needing the
gospel, and who would receive it if they had it, that it would seem to
be wise to leave off wearying oneself about those who despise it. What
did our Lord say? He said that if the mighty things which had been done
in Bethsaida and Chorazin had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented. What is more wonderful still, he says that if he had
wrought the same miracles in Sodom and Gomorrah which were wrought in
Capernaum, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. Does it not
occur to us at once to give the word to those who will have it, and
leave the despisers to perish in their own wilfulness? Does not reason
say, "Let us send this medicine where there are sick people who will
value it?" Thousands of people are willing to hear the gospel. See how
they crowd wherever the preacher goes--how they tread upon one another
in their anxiety to listen to him; and if these people who hear him
every day will not receive his message, "in God's name," saith he, "let
me go where there is a probability of finding soil that can be
ploughed." "Shall horses run upon the rock? Will one plough there with
oxen?" Must I work always where nothing comes of it? Does not reason
say, let the word go to China, to Hindostan, or to the utmost parts of
the earth, where they will receive it; for those who have it preached in
the corners of their streets despise it?
I shall not lengthen this argument, but shall solemnly put the question
again. Would any of you continue to pursue an object when it has proved
to be hopeless? Do you wonder that when the Lord has sent his servants
to speak kind, gracious, tender words, and men have not heard, he says
to them, "They are joined unto their idols; let them alone"? There is a
boundary to the patience of men, and we soon arrive at it; and assuredly
there is a limit, though it is long before we outrun it, to the patience
of God. "At length," he says, "it is enough. My Spirit shall no longer
strive with them." If the Lord says this can any of us complain? Is not
this the way of wisdom? Does not prudence itself dictate it? Any
thoughtful mind will say, "Ay, ay, a rock cannot be ploughed for ever."
IV. Fourthly. THERE MUST BE AN ALTERATION, then, and that speedily. The
oxen shall be taken off from such toil. It can be easily done, and done
soon. It can be effected in three ways.
First, the unprofitable hearer can be removed so that he shall no more
hear the gospel from the lips of his best approved minister. There is a
preacher who has some sort of power over him; but as he rejects his
testimony, and remains impenitent, the man shall be removed to another
town, where he shall hear monotonous discourses which will not touch
his conscience. He shall go where he shall be no longer persuaded and
entreated; and there he will sleep himself into hell. That may be
readily enough done; perhaps some of you are making arrangements even
now for your own removal from the field of hope.
Another way is to take away the ploughman. He has done his work as best
he could, and he shall be released from his hopeless task. He is weary.
Let him go home. The soil would not break up, but he could not help
that; let him have his wage. He has broken his plough at the work; let
him go home and hear his Lord say, "Well done." He was willing to keep
on at the disheartening labor as long as his Master bade him; but it is
evidently useless, therefore let him go home, for his work is done. He
has been sore sick, let him die, and enter into his rest. This is by no
means improbable.
Or, there may happen something else. The Lord may say, "That piece of
work shall never trouble the ploughman any more. I will take it away."
And he may take it away in this fashion: the man who has heard the
gospel, but rejected it, will die. I pray my Master that he will not
suffer any one of you to die in your sins, for then we cannot reach you
any more, or indulge the faintest hope for you. No prayer of ours can
follow you into eternity. There is one name by which you may be saved,
and that name is sounded in your ears--the name of Jesus; but if you
reject him now, even that name will not save you. If you do not take
Jesus to be your Saviour he will appear as your judge. I pray you, do
not destroy your own souls by continuing to be obstinate against
almighty love.
God grant that some better thing may happen. Can nothing else be done?
This soil is rock; can we not sow it without breaking it? No. Without
repentance there is no remission of sin. But is there not a way of
saving men without the grace of God? The Lord Jesus did not say so; but
he said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that
believeth not shall be damned." He did not hint at a middle course or
hold out a "larger hope;" but he declared "He that believeth not shall
be damned," _and so he must be_. Dream not of a back door to heaven, for
the Lord has provided none.
What then? Shall the preacher continue his fruitless toil? If there is
only half a hope left him, he is willing to go on and say, "Hear, ye
deaf, and see, ye blind, and live, ye dead." He will even so speak this
day, for his Master bids him preach the gospel to every creature; but it
will be hard work to repeat the word of exhortation for years to those
who will not hear it.
Happily there is one other turn which affairs may take. There is a God
in heaven, let us pray to him to put forth his power. Jesus is at his
side, let us invoke his interposition. The Holy Ghost is almighty, let
us call for his aid. Brothers who plough and sisters who pray, cry to
the Master for help. The horse and the ox evidently fail, but there
remains One above who is able to work great marvels. Did he not once
speak to the rock, and turn the flint into a stream of water? Let us
pray him to do the same now.
And, oh, if there is one who feels and mourns that his heart is like a
piece of rock, I am glad he feels it; for he who feels that his heart is
a rock gives some evidence that the flint is being transformed. O rock,
instead of smiting thee, as Moses smote the rock in the wilderness and
erred therein, I would speak to thee. O rock, wouldst thou become like
wax? O rock, wouldst thou dissolve into rivers of repentance? Hearken to
God's voice! O rock, break with good desire! O rock, dissolve with
longing after Christ, for God is working upon thee now. Who knows but at
this very moment thou shall begin to crumble down. Dost thou feel the
power of the Word? Does the sharp ploughshare touch thee just now? Break
and break again, till by contrition thou art dissolved, for then will
the good seed of the gospel come to thee, and thou shalt receive it into
thy bosom, and we shall all behold the fruit thereof. And so I will
fling one more handful of good corn, and have done. If thou desirest
eternal life, trust Jesus Christ, and thou art saved at once. "Look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," says Christ, "for I am
God, and beside me there is none else." He that believeth in him hath
everlasting life. "Like as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
O Lord, break up the rock, and let the seed drop in among its broken
substance, and get thou a harvest from the dissolved granite, at this
time, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.