Life of lives, and goal of all our longings.
Think lovingly of a God whose name is Love,
Who joys in rewarding, and come on secure of fear:
Whence I am I behold you, undying spirits like myself,
And see that our lot is one, and you as I."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXVIII.
Jonah's Gourd.
WE look on a dry and withered thing, killed by the worm, shrivelled
by the heat. Not so appeared the plant when its broad leaves, full of
life and beauty, afforded a cool green shade to the prophet Jonah. The
gourd formed a kind of bower, under the shadow of which the weary could
rest, and was thus a beautiful emblem of that charity which "covereth a
multitude of sins."
It was a worm at the root which destroyed it; and when we read in the
sacred story how, with Jonah himself, charity was so dried up and
withered that God's mercy to thousands could afford him pain instead
of joy, we naturally ask,—What was the worm at the root with him? If
we search a little under the surface, we shall find that the worm was
"pride;" and that, not only with Jonah, but too often with ourselves,
hidden pride eats the life out of charity, and leaves but a dry,
sapless skeleton, worthless in the sight of God and His angels.
There is something to admire, but little to love, in Jonah, as his
portrait stands in the gallery of Scripture, drawn by his own vigorous
hand. We admire the straightforward truthfulness of the man who
softens not one harsh feature, but represents his own defects with
unsparing fidelity. We admire Jonah's calm courage when he bade the
mariners fling him into the raging billows, and save their own lives by
sacrificing his. We admire the faith which sustained him, and made him
look towards God, even When the depth closed him round about, and the
weeds were wrapped about his head.
But we shrink from the severity of character which marked this prophet,
who could contemplate the destruction of a large heathen city with
stern satisfaction, and betray irritation because the mercy of God far
exceeded his own. We imagine that, if Jonah had lived in these days,
though he would have been a man of spotless integrity and unblemished
life, he would probably have appeared as a severe master, or a hard
landlord, far more just than merciful; that little ones, who "cannot
discern between their right hand and their left," would not have clung
to his neck, or smiled up into his face, reading there—as children
intuitively do —the impression left there by a spirit of kindliness.
We contrast the character of Jonah with that of St. Paul; the hardness
of the prophet with the intense desire of the apostle that sinners
might be spared, and his readiness to spend and be spent for others:
"To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made
all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." Paul's
charity, like the gourd of miraculous growth, spread its glorious
branches far and wide; nor did opposition, cruelty, or ingratitude,
destroy its vigour or wither its leaf.
Perhaps the chief cause of St. Paul's tender indulgence and yearning
sympathy towards sinners, is to be found in his deep sense of personal
sin. When he was a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, we find in him
no trace of mercy towards those who differed from him in religious
opinions. We have no reason to suppose that the perishing state of the
Gentile world ever then cost him a sigh. Saul might have seen a Nineveh
destroyed with as much cold indifference as Jonah himself would have
done. But he who deemed himself the least of saints and the chief of
sinners, loved much, because he had been forgiven much; he delighted
in dwelling on the free grace which had saved his own perishing soul;
he felt that that grace alone had made him to differ from others, and
his heart's desire was that Jew and Gentile should participate in the
blessing.
Now, this deep sense of sin does not appear in Jonah. He confessed,
indeed, to the sailors, that the storm was a judgment upon his flight
from duty; but we discover in him none of the lowly humiliation on
account of sin which marked a David, a Peter, or even a righteous Job.
Perhaps the very nature of his punishment rather fostered the pride
than abased the spirit of the prophet. The elements were moved on his
account; his transgression had raised a storm—his generous sacrifice
quelled it. God wrought a special miracle for his preservation from
death. Then, scarcely had Jonah declared the Almighty's message to
Nineveh, than the whole mighty city repented in dust and ashes. When
did the voice of preacher ever command more sudden, more marvellous
success? Truly, Jonah was set on a very high pinnacle indeed! He was
reverenced by monarch and people as the inspired oracle of God. We
cannot marvel that pride was fostered in the heart of Jonah; and are
less surprised that it had such an effect upon his charity—that, to
maintain his lofty position as a prophet, he would have been content
that the judgments which he had threatened should all be terribly
fulfilled.
How gently did God, in His love and wisdom, deal with the haughty
Jonah! He who had seemed to grasp the thunderbolt was taught that he
was but man—but a weak, sinful man. The bodily frame, once miraculously
preserved, was shown to be subject to pain and fatigue, even like those
of others; the mere force of the wind, the mere heat of the sun, were
sufficient to exhaust its strength. Jonah was ready to faint. The soul
that had been so lofty and firm in the prospect of instant death, was
prostrated and brought to despair by the withering of a gourd!
Where was his courage—where his power of endurance? Jonah, under a
common form of trial, shows, not the dignity of a prophet, but the
impatient querulousness of a child. It must have been with shame that
he afterwards recorded the almost impious complaints which bodily
discomfort drew from his lips.
The story is abruptly ended. Jonah tells not the effect on his own mind
of the gentle rebuke of the Lord; but we may trust that it caused him
to bow down in shame, and search for the worm at the root, and learn to
extend to others that mercy which he found that he so greatly needed
himself.
What are our feelings towards "them that are without," those whom
we deem grievous sinners, like the men of Nineveh? Is there a cold,
self-righteous complacency, in the thought that we are not as they
are-something of satisfaction in the belief, that, though they may
revel in prosperity now, judgment will ere long overtake them? When the
tower of Siloam falls, are we eager to show that those crushed beneath
it were sinners above all that dwell at Jerusalem?
Let us beware of a censorious spirit, ready to judge and to condemn. If
we see the leaf of our charity shrivelling, let us search for the worm
at the root. Many a sorrow and many a fall may God permit His servants
to suffer, in order to humble and to prove them, and to teach them,
as He taught Jonah, that they are but dust. The most exalted saints
have nothing wherein to glory but the Cross of Christ; through which
alone they, as well as the lowest and worst of transgressors, can be
delivered from the righteous judgments of God.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXIX.
The Fetters of Manasseh.
WE bless the Lord for our creation, preservation, and all the
blessings of this life; but how strange are some of the things which
the white-robed saints on high will number amongst these blessings!
There may be heard a Nebuchadnezzar praising for the blessing of
madness; a pardoned thief for the torments of a cross; and a Manasseh,
remembering, in a song of loud thanksgiving, those Babylonish fetters
of which the iron entered into his soul!
Manasseh, King of Judah, had perhaps descended into lower depths of
depravity than any other sinner of whose conversion we read in the
Bible. He might have been thought beyond reach even of the mercy of
God, so deep had he sunk in the pit of iniquity. Dr. Kitto thus sums up
the list of the transgressions of this most wicked man: "The crimes of
all former kings seem light in comparison with those which disgraced
his reign. He upheld idolatry with all the influence of the regal
power, and with such inconceivable boldness, that the pure and holy
ceremonies of the temple were superseded by rites of an idol image, set
up in the very sanctuary . . . The practice which was, of all others,
the most abhorrent to Jehovah, the king sanctioned by his own atrocious
example, for he devoted his own children by fire to strange gods, in
the blood-stained valley of Ben Hinnom. Wickedness reigned on high,
and, as usual, persecuted righteousness and truth; so that, by a strong
but significant hyperbole, we are told that innocent blood flowed in
the streets of Jerusalem." It is said that the prophet Isaiah was
martyred by the command of Manasseh, and underwent a terrible death, by
being sawn asunder!
"God spoke unto Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not
hearken." Who could have marvelled, then, if the sentence had gone
forth, "Manasseh is joined to idols—let him alone?" "He that, being
often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and
that without remedy."
But Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, had doubtless been the child of many
prayers, and the Spirit of his heavenly Father yearned still over this
worse than prodigal son. God sent other messengers, to whom Manasseh
could not choose but hearken. The Lord brought on him "the captains of
the King of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound
him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon." Those chains were as the
cords of love, with which mercy would draw the wretched sinner back
from the gulf of destruction into which he was plunging.
"When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled
himself greatly before the God of his fathers." The prayer attributed
to Manasseh, though not contained in the inspired record, nor perhaps
written by Manasseh himself, well expresses what must have been
the feeling of his broken and contrite heart. "I have sinned above
the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are
multiplied, my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy
to behold and see the height of heaven, for the multitude of my
iniquities. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift
up my head, neither have any release; for I have provoked Thy wrath,
and done evil before Thee. I did not Thy will, neither kept I Thy
commandments. I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences.
Now, therefore, I bow the knee of my heart, beseeching Thee of grace.
I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge my iniquities.
Wherefore, I humbly beseech Thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and
destroy me not with mine iniquities . . . For Thou art the God, even
the God of them that repent; and in me Thou wilt show all Thy goodness,
for Thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to Thy great mercy."
"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." The history of
Manasseh is a most striking comment upon such a text as this. If "he"
was saved, who need despair? If "he" was granted true repentance, what
heart so dead in sin that it cannot be quickened by the Spirit of Life!
When God released the prisoner from captivity, and brought him again to
Jerusalem to reign on the throne of his fathers, Manasseh proved the
sincerity of his contrition by the change in his life. "He took away
the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all
the altars that he had built, and cast them out of the city. And he
repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings
and thank-offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of
Israel."
We believe that amongst the ransomed of Christ, Manasseh will at the
last day be found with the pious Hezekiah his father, and the holy
prophet Isaiah, whose inspired words were so touchingly fulfilled in
the case of his own cruel murderer. "Though your sins be as scarlet
they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool."
The history of Manasseh is fraught with hope and comfort, not only for
those bowed down under the weight of manifold sins, but for parents
enduring that anguish which is only second to that of remorse, grief
for the wickedness of a child. Hezekiah was a man of prayer; he had,
we doubt not, often fervently prayed for his boy, and long after his
own decease his prayers were abundantly answered. The supplications of
Hezekiah may have helped to forge these fetters for Manasseh, they may
have helped to draw the Assyrians upon him.
Let us close our meditations upon this most striking history of God's
abounding grace, in the words of one who was himself a miracle of
pardoning love,—"Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of.
The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXX.
The Deed of Purchase.
A LIFE of bitter trial was that of Jeremiah, the messenger of wrath
and of woe, the prophet who announced evil tidings of disgrace and
ruin to a profligate court and a wicked people. Jeremiah stood like
a light-house on a desolate rock, exposed to the fury of the blast
of calumny, the fierce billows of persecution. What would be the
position of a seer, even in these days, who should announce the utter
devastation of our land by famine and sword, who should declare amongst
us that we should become "an execration and an astonishment, a curse
and a reproach," who should pronounce a sentence of death upon monarch
and noble, bid our soldiers sheath their swords, and our volunteers
submit to a foreign foe without so much as a struggle? Jeremiah has
recorded his own sufferings in language which shows how deeply he
felt them. "I am the man that hath seen affliction. He hath made me
desolate. I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the
day."
Nor were hatred and mockery all that the prophet had to endure. His
liberty was taken away; his life was in imminent peril;—it is said that
he fell at last a victim to his countrymen's hatred. When we consider
also that the ruin of his nation was the source of deep affliction
to one who was a patriot as well as a prophet, that—like the blessed
Saviour—Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem while he foretold her destruction,
we shall conclude that amongst God's saints few drank more deeply of
the cup of sorrow and will scarcely wonder that in his anguish Jeremiah
cursed the day of his birth.
But the deed of purchase which we are now contemplating reminds us of
an occasion when a gleam of joy may have shone on the darkened path of
the prophet, a drop of sweetness have been mixed in his cup. The whole
transaction connected with it is very remarkable.
When Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the prison at Jerusalem,—when
the Chaldeans were investing the doomed city which he knew must fall
into their hands—then received he an intimation from God that he should
purchase a field in his native place Anathoth, of which the right of
redemption was his.
"What have I to do with buying land!" may have been the first thought
of the wondering seer; "is this a time to receive olive-yards and
vineyards? I am a prisoner and cannot get forth; Anathoth is now in the
hands of the enemy, and soon will Jerusalem be so also. My people will
be led into captivity; the Gentiles will rule in the land: what profit
can there be in this field to me or to mine!"
But if such a thought arose, Jeremiah's faith suffered it not to
influence his conduct. The purchase was to be made as a pledge and
token that the captivity of Judah was not to last for ever; that the
ransomed of the Lord should return to Zion; that Anathoth of Benjamin
should again belong to the chosen race. Jeremiah would not live to see
the return of his people, but he foresaw it by faith, and in faith
bought the field as the Lord had appointed. We see the prisoner with
calm thankfulness weighing out the seventeen shekels * of silver in the
balances; a small sum, and yet probably deemed by many a desponding
Jew too large to be thrown away upon what might seem to be a worthless
claim. Mocking smiles may have been interchanged between the witnesses
to so strange a transaction, when the prisoner subscribed and sealed
the deed, and gave it to the faithful Baruch to be carefully preserved
for a time yet remote. But Jeremiah had full assurance that such a time
would arrive; for thus said the Lord of hosts to His prophet: "Houses
and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land . . .
for I will cause their captivity to return."
* Not much above forty shillings. See note in D'Oyly and Mant's Bible.
We look upon Jeremiah's deed of purchase as a type of that claim
which both Israel and Judah hold still on the land of their fathers.
Jerusalem, with all the inheritance bestowed by God upon Abraham, is
now in the possession of the followers of the false prophet; Judea,
for the sins of her people is again in captivity, and her sons are
scattered abroad amongst the Gentiles. The olive-yards and vineyards of
Palestine are now—and for many ages have been the spoil of strangers.
But it shall not be so for ever. Not by purchase but by promise is
the whole land reserved for the sons of Abraham. The deed has been
carefully preserved, not—as Jeremiah's—in an earthen vessel, but in
God's own Book. The whole deed is too long for transference to these
pages, but a portion may be transcribed, gathered from various books
of the Old Testament Scriptures; each prophet, as it were, setting his
seal to the precious document.
"I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall
look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as
one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as
one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." *
"Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with
all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy
judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the
Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more." †
"At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather
you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the
earth." ‡
"All nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome
land, saith the Lord of Hosts." §
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among
all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least
grain fall upon the earth. And I will plant them upon their land, and
they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given
them, saith the Lord thy God." ¶
* Zech. xii. 10. † Zeph. iii. 14, 15. ‡ Zeph. iii.20
§ Mal. iii. 12. ¶ Amos ix. 9, 15.
"And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when
My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." *
"At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and
all the nations shall be gathered unto it." †
"He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall
blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." ‡
* Ezek. xxxvii. 28. † Jer. iii. 17. ‡ Isa. xxvii. 6.
St. Paul, himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, looked with faith and hope
on this deed, and thus subscribed himself as a witness: "Blindness in
part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come
in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall
come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from
Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their
sins." §
Yes, the time is coming, and now may be near, when it shall be said,
"Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love
her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her"; ¶ when the
gathering of her people shall be "as life from the dead." ║
§ Rom. xi. 25-27. ¶ Isa. lxvi. 10. ║ Rom. xi. 15.
Christian brethren, is this nothing to us? Shall we be cold and
indifferent, nor strive to hasten the time of Israel's restoration by
our prayers, and by such efforts as God may enable us to make? Oh!
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee."
The word of the Lord to Israel still standeth firm, "blessed is he that
blesseth thee!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXXI.
Jehoiakim's Knife.
IF the shadow of a curse could ever be said to lie on the inanimate
instrument employed by man to work his evil will, surely it lies upon
this, the first, as far as we know, ever used in the attempt to destroy
a portion of God's holy Word.
On the dethronement of his brother by the King of Egypt, Jehoiakim
had mounted the throne of his father Josiah, and for eleven years he
reigned in Jerusalem. The sins of this wicked monarch drew down upon
himself and his people the wrath of the Lord. For many years had the
Prophet Jeremiah uttered the voice of solemn warning; sadly had he
foretold the coming desolation. "The harvest is past, the summer is
ended, and we are not saved. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes
a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of
my people! This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment,
and these nations shall serve the King of Babylon seventy years."
At the command of the Lord the prophet dictated to Baruch the scribe
all the words of his prophecies against Israel and Judah, and they were
written down upon a roll. The prophet confided the roll to Baruch, and
bade him read it aloud in the ears of the people in the house of the
Lord.
"It may be," said Jeremiah, "they will present their supplication
before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great
is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this
people."
The solemn announcement of coming ruin, though it led not, as in the
case of Nineveh, to national repentance, yet excited interest and
alarm. The princes of Judah sent for Baruch, and at their desire, he
again, in their presence, read aloud the prophecies of Jeremiah. Fear
fell on the nobles; "we will surely tell the king of all these words,"
said they unto Baruch. But aware of the storm of anger which might be
roused in the monarch's breast, the princes counselled that both the
prophet and the scribe should conceal themselves, and let no man know
their hiding-place.
Then was Jehoiakim informed of the prophecies written against himself
and his guilty land; and he sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and read it
in his presence where he sat in his winter palace, with all his princes
assembled around.
Striking and solemn must that scene have been! There would be deep
stillness in the royal chamber, broken only by the voice of the reader,
uttering words of living power, which would fall on the ears of such of
the silent listeners as had faith in prophecy, much as the voice of the
judge pronouncing sentence of death falls on the ear of the criminal.
The nobles would watch the effect of the reading on the countenance of
their king; would he, like Ahab, rend his clothes and put sackcloth
on his flesh, and by humbling himself before God avert the threatened
judgments at least for a time? Would he, like Josiah his father, go up
into the house of God, call around him the priests and the people, both
small and great, and read to them the Word of the Lord, honouring it,
and mourning because of the curses written in the Book?
To Josiah a message had been sent, "Because thine heart was tender,
and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words
against this place . . . behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and
thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes
see all the evil that I will bring upon this place."