and humiliation, anger and stubborn resistance to the will of the
Almighty might be read on the darkening countenance of the King of
Judea. He would not even suffer Jehudi to read to the end of the roll;
Jehoiakim grasped it, and cut it with his knife, and not satisfied with
this open insult to the Word of God, this defiance of the terrors of
the Almighty, the king flung the mutilated roll into the fire which
was burning before him, as if with the blackening parchment he could
destroy that Word which abideth for ever! In vain two of the nobles
present endeavoured to stay the rash hand of the king, entreating him
not to burn the prophetic roll; the rage of Jehoiakim was not satisfied
by the crime which he had committed, he wished to wreak his fury on
the living witnesses for God, as well as upon His inspired Word; he
commanded the seizure of both Jeremiah and Baruch, but the Lord hid
them from the anger of the king.
What availed it to the wretched Jehoiakim that he had consumed to ashes
the writing of the prophet against him? The Word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, saying, "Take thee again another roll, and write in it all
the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the King
of Judah hath burned, and thou shalt say to Jehoiakim, King of Judah,
'Thus saith the Lord; thou hast burned this roll . . . therefore thus
saith the Lord of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, he shall have none to sit
upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the
day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.' Then took Jeremiah
another roll, and gave it to Baruch, who wrote therein from the mouth
of Jeremiah all the words of the Book which Jehoiakim had burned in the
fire, and there were added unto them many like words."
Such was the result of this first attempt to mutilate the Scriptures,
and stop the free course of the Word of God. It may have been the
first, but it assuredly was not the last effort of that kind.
Jehoiakim's knife and Jehoiakim's fire have but been precursors of
other instruments used for the same unhallowed purpose, notwithstanding
the awful warning which is found almost at the close of the Revelation.
"If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life."
Superstition has been actively employed from early ages in using the
knife to mar and mutilate the Scriptures; she has tried to cut away
the Second Commandment, to rend from the roll all the texts on which,
as emblazoned in light, are written the doctrine of justification by
faith. Nay, when she has found, like Jehoiakim, the knife insufficient
for the work, she has literally cast the Bible into the flames, and
not only the Book, but the bodies of many of those who counted its
doctrines more precious than life! But superstition has had no power to
destroy one inspired sentence, "The Word of the Lord endureth for ever."
Heresy, also, has diligently plied the knife on various parts of the
sacred roll. Here one would cut away the testimony to the Divinity
of Him "whose goings forth are from everlasting," here another would
deprive us of the consolation to be derived from the truth that Christ
"was in all points tempted as we are" though "without sin." But vain
has been every wild attempt to destroy any part of the sacred Book, let
man or Satan do what they may, "The Word of the Lord abideth for ever!"
In the present day many an eager hand is stretched out to grasp the
knife. Now this part—now that part—of God's truth is fiercely assailed.
Unbelief would cut away the record of miracles, would cast aside much
of those sacred writings of which He who is the Truth itself said,
"Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and
they are they which testify of Me." Sceptics and unbelievers may, like
Jehoiakim, draw down on themselves a heavy doom; but they will find at
last that the so-called wisdom of man is foolishness with God, and that
they have no more power to destroy His Scriptures than passing clouds
have to extinguish the sun which shineth in glory far far above them!
"The Word of the Lord endureth for ever!"
Is there no danger of our falling into the sin of mutilating Scripture,
though not, like Jehoiakim, with the knife? If we search the Bible in
order to "confirm" our own views on religion instead of to "form" them,
passing lightly over everything there which clashes with our notions,
almost secretly wishing that some passages in sacred Writ were not to
be found there, do we truly honour God's Word? There were parts of
Jeremiah's roll which probably even Jehoiakim would have willingly
preserved. All would gladly keep the promises, could they put out of
sight the warnings and threats.
And so likewise in matters of doctrine: one treasures all the texts
which proclaim free salvation through faith, another lets his mind
only dwell upon such as enforce the necessity of a holy life and good
works. I was once surprised at the dissatisfied feeling with which an
excellent man regarded the Epistle written by St. James, who has been
called "the apostle of duty." The Christian did not seem to realize
the truth which has been well illustrated by one who represented St.
James and St. Paul as soldiers fighting "back to back," under the
same banner, against the same foes to the truth, but necessarily from
their position facing different errors; each soldier strengthening and
supporting his comrade by guarding him from strokes "from behind,"
where the enemy might have taken him at disadvantage.
Let us receive—honour—and keep the Bible in its integrity, deeming no
portion superfluous which God hath thought fit to preserve; waiting for
more light from above to reveal its hidden mysteries, and being assured
that though heavens and earth may pass away, yet "the Word of the Lord
endureth for ever!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXXII.
The Rags of Ebedmelech.
WHO can doubt that the God of Love notices the minutest act of
kindness done to His servants, when even these rags of the Ethiopian
are carefully preserved in the Scriptures, memorials of considerate
thoughtful tenderness shown to His afflicted prophet.
Let us review one of the most interesting passages in the history of
Jeremiah.
The miserable Jehoiakim fell into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, by
whose command he was bound with fetters and ordered to be carried to
Babylon. As no account is given in Scripture of Jehoiakim's death, it
is surmised that the prophecy which foretold that his burial should be
as "the burial of an ass," was fulfilled by his dying on the way to
Babylon, and his corpse being thrown into a ditch, exposed to the heat
of the day and the frost of the night.
For three months Jeconiah (or Coniah), a youth of eighteen, reigned
in the place of his father Jehoiakim. Of him Jeremiah had prophesied,
"Thus saith the Lord . . . I will give thee into the hand of them that
seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and into the hand of
the Chaldeans."
And even so came it to pass that the young king and his mother, his
officers and princes, and thousands of warriors and artizans were
carried away captive to Babylon, with the vessels of Solomon's Temple.
Zedekiah (the son of Josiah), the last native monarch of Judah, then
mounted the throne of David, to suffer one day a fate even more
terrible than that which had befallen his two brothers and his nephew,
who had successively reigned before him. Zedekiah sought help from
Egypt, and, as it appeared at first, with success, as on the approach
of Pharaoh's army, the Chaldeans, who were besieging Jerusalem,
retired. If the heart of Jeremiah had shared in the joy which this
gleam of returning hope had caused in Jerusalem, it must have been to
him a task all the more bitter to quench that hope in utter darkness.
Anguish must have been his when he thus declared the message of God!
"Behold Pharaoh's army which is come forth to help you, shall return
to Egypt into their own land; and the Chaldeans shall come again, and
fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire."
After uttering this terrible prophecy, Jeremiah made an attempt to quit
Jerusalem, and return to his native land of Benjamin; but he was seized
as a traitor by a captain of the ward, brought before the princes as
one taken in the act of falling away to the Chaldeans, maltreated, and
thrown into prison. For a time, the rigour of Jeremiah's captivity was
softened by the king, who appears never to have doubted the innocence
of the prophet. But Jeremiah's enemies were not satisfied with his
imprisonment; they were determined to have his life, and to destroy
him by a death of lingering suffering. Abusing the weakness of King
Zedekiah, who delivered the prophet into their hands, the princes of
Judah cast Jeremiah into a dungeon, or rather pit, in the court of the
prison, which had mire at the bottom, in which their victim partially
sank, and there his merciless foes seem to have left him to perish by
inches from hunger and damp.
Such would probably have been the fate of Jeremiah, but for the
intervention of Ebedmelech, not one of his own countrymen, but an
Ethiopian in the service of the king. This African went to Zedekiah,
and roused him to make an effort to save his innocent subject from so
cruel a death. "My lord the king," said Ebedmelech, "these men have
done evil in all that they have done to the prophet, whom they have
cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place
where he is."
Ebedmelech succeeded in obtaining the king's order that he should take
thirty men, and release the prophet from his dreadful situation. And
here occurs the little trait of womanlike tenderness in the African,
which God hath deemed worthy of record. Ebedmelech knew that Jeremiah
must be drawn out of the pit by cords; he knew that in his probable
state of weakness and emaciation the ropes would be likely to gall and
hurt him. So he "went into the house of the king under the treasury,
and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down
by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. And Ebedmelech the Ethiopian
said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under
thine armholes under the cords." And Jeremiah did so, and was safely
drawn to the top.
The Lord did not fail to requite the deed of the Ethiopian, to whom
was granted a special promise of deliverance in the coming time of
trouble. "Thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom
thou art afraid." And here the African disappears from our view, and
we know nothing further of Ebedmelech; but the soft wrappings which
he collected to put over the rough ropes may afford us a pleasant and
profitable subject for our reflections.
Ebedmelech not only did a substantial service to Jeremiah, but he
did it in a tender considerate way; he did not, as most men would
have done, hurt the prophet even in helping him. The complaint of the
ingratitude of those who have received great benefits is very common in
the world, but we shall often find that ingratitude has been caused by
the want of delicacy in the benefactor who complains; he has supplied
the "ropes" but neglected the "wrappings."
For instance, a sufferer is sunk in the pit of poverty; he has seen
better days, his feelings are tender, the very means used to raise him
are likely to wound him, to gall even while they relieve. But Christian
love must regard the feelings as well as the outward wants of the
sufferer; it should bestow a gift almost as if it were asking a favour;
it should smooth what is rough, soften what is hard, and let down the
wrappings with the rope.
Again, there is the same, and even greater, delicacy to be observed
when he whom we would help is sunk in the pit, not of poverty, but
of sin. We earnestly desire to draw him forth, for we know that if
he stay, he must perish. Fervent exhortation, faithful reproof, may
be as the cords in our hands, and with a prayer for success we use
them; but our efforts will be far more likely to avail, if gentleness,
consideration, and tenderness accompany earnest effort; if, shrinking
from galling pride, or giving one needless pang, we let down the
wrappings with the rope.
Nothing is really insignificant that affects the happiness or the
character of men; a look or a word may awaken far more kindly feeling
than the gift of a purse of gold, and that reproof is usually most
effectual which is uttered in a tone of love.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXXIII.
The Golden Sceptre.
VERY different is the object of our present contemplation from the
last—the gold from the tatters, the sceptre of a powerful monarch from
the rags of an African servant—and even so our theme rises from man's
mercy to that of God, from the kindness of Ebedmelech to the free grace
of our Lord.
For it is not on the history of Esther herself that we will now dwell,
except so far as she appears an emblem of the Church, the queen "all
glorious within," whose clothing is "of wrought gold." Let us muse on
how she, and with her every individual believer, dares to approach Him
who is of "purer eyes than to behold iniquity," the great and terrible
God, "who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted
out heaven with the span."
There is, indeed, far too little of reverence in the way in which
we too often enter by prayer the presence of our Lord. The careless
posture, the wandering thought, the hastily-uttered supplication, seem
to denote that Christians little realize how solemn a thing it is to
draw nigh to the King of kings. Not thus did Esther approach the throne
of Ahasuerus. If the traditional account preserved in the Apocrypha be
true, her heart was in anguish for fear, she turned pale, and fainted,
and fell. Not that God wills that such terrors should oppress His
redeemed; they are permitted to "come boldly" to the throne of grace,
they are commanded to draw near with a true heart, "in full assurance
of faith;" but a certain degree of holy awe should be mixed with holy
confidence; "let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God;
God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few."
But for the golden sceptre of grace held out to us through the mercy
and merits of Christ, the sentence of death would indeed go forth
against us when we appear before Him. "For our God is a consuming
fire." "The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth
is burned at His presence. Who can stand before His indignation, and
who can abide in the fierceness of His anger?" But the love of Persia's
king for his bride was but a faint shadow of the love of the Lord for
His Church. "What wilt thou, Queen Esther? and what is Thy request? it
shall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom."
Such were the gracious words of Ahasuerus to the trembling supplicant
before him; and so the Church hears the tender assurance of her King,
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find. Whatsoever ye
shall ask the Father in My name He will give it to you."
And what was it that Esther came to entreat, when the golden sceptre
of Ahasuerus was stretched out towards her? In the first place, the
presence of the king at her banquet, and, beyond this, the preservation
from destruction of herself and her people. Much the same as hers is
the petition of Christ's Church to her heavenly King, only with the
loftier blessings implored their order is reversed. The Church prays
first for salvation, deliverance from death eternal, and then for the
presence of her Lord—not for an hour or a day—but even for ever and
ever.
If Esther, an orphan exile, born to bondage and sorrow, was able in
royal garments to approach her lord, and invite him to a sumptuous
banquet which she had prepared in a palace, the robes which she wore,
the feast which she spread, were all the gifts of his love. She could
but offer him of his own. How strikingly does this exemplify the
position of the Church in regard to her Lord! By free grace He holds
out to her the sceptre of pardoning mercy; by free grace He clothes her
with the royal garments of righteousness; by free grace He enables her
to welcome Him and minister unto Him. He is more ready to hear than she
to pray, more ready to grant than she to implore. He has loved and will
love her for ever, will save her from all her enemies, and crown her
with joy everlasting.
Such are some of the comforting thoughts suggested to us by the golden
sceptre, thoughts of mercy, grace, and love. It is a "sceptre," the
emblem of power and dominion; a "golden" sceptre, reminding us of the
word spoken of Christ our King, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." It
is a token of free salvation; they to whom it is extended shall live
in the presence of God, shall stand accepted before Him; and it is a
sceptre held out to every one who, in lowly faith, approaches Him who
loved and gave Himself for us.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXXIV.
A Vessel of the Temple.
BITTER must have been the shame and grief of the Jews when
Nebuchadnezzar, King of Assyria, plundered the glorious building which
they had raised, the Temple which, eleven years later, was itself given
to the flames. Well was it for the good King Hezekiah that he lived
not to see that day when his precious things, his silver and his gold,
with the consecrated gold of the Temple, were carried away to Babylon,
according to the word of the Lord spoken by the Prophet Isaiah. Great
was the quantity of sacred vessels taken from Jerusalem, even if Ezra's
list of those restored comprises them all. Thirty chargers and twenty
basins of gold; a thousand chargers of silver. "All the vessels of gold
and of silver were five thousand and four hundred." It was a humbling
day to the captives from Jerusalem when the treasures of the sanctuary,
the pride of their fathers, were placed as trophies in the idol temple
of the Gentiles.
But we conceive yet stronger indignation excited in the breasts of
Jewish exiles, when the sacred vessels were brought forth to add to
the magnificence of the feast of King Belshazzar, when the heathen in
riotous mirth quaffed wine out of those splendid chargers, and praised
their own gods of silver and gold, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of
stone! It was a sacrilegious hand that Belshazzar laid on the golden
cup before us, a blasphemous lip that pressed its brim; and God at
once avenged the insult to His Majesty. Part of a man's hand appeared
writing on the wall terrible mysterious characters that no one present
could read, and the king's countenance was changed, he trembled, his
knees smote one another with fear. On that night was proud Babylon
taken by the Persians under that Cyrus who subsequently restored to
the Jews the vessels of their Temple, to be once more devoted to the
service of the one true God.
The image of a vessel is repeatedly employed in the New Testament to
represent human beings. St. Paul writes of God making known the riches
of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had before prepared unto
glory; he describes a believer as "a vessel unto honour, sanctified,
meet for the Master's use," and he was himself spoken of by the Lord as
"a chosen vessel." It does not appear improbable that in each instance
the idea was suggested by the vessels of the Temple. It seems as if
some light might be thrown by the use of this simile upon the subjects
of baptism and conversion.
In baptism every Christian adult or child becomes a vessel solemnly
consecrated to God, even like the treasures of the Temple dedicated by
Solomon to the Lord. Happy those who are never suffered to fall into
the hand of the Enemy! What myriads of babes will there be in Heaven,
little vessels of mercy that have never been defiled by wilful sin,
but which have been safely laid up in the treasury above! But there
are many baptized beings whose history is like that of the golden
charger on which the mental eye now rests. They were indeed once
solemnly devoted to God, but the world has them now, Satan has carried
them away, they are no longer used in the Master's service. They are
given to idols, they are filled with iniquity, and though some in the
sight of men may be precious and beautiful still, they are no longer
"vessels unto honour." They need to be washed, and cleansed, and given
back—restored to their lawful Owner, and to their rightful use, and
when God's grace has accomplished this, we call the blessed restoration
"conversion."
It is therefore with feelings of grief, yet not unmingled with hope
(like those which the Jews of old must have experienced in regard to
their Temple plate), that believers should look upon the unconverted
around them. It is not with loathing and contempt that the drunkard or
the thief should be thrust aside; it is not with proud disgust that
the Christian should turn from the multitude whose daily course of
life proves them to be under the dominion of the Prince of this world,
though they were baptized in childhood. These are all precious vessels,
once dedicated to God, and which may be restored to His service still.
They are in Babylon now, but they may be rescued from thence; that
which has been filled with iniquity may yet overflow with grace; saved
from the idol temple, snatched from the revel and the riot, they may
yet be reserved to shine in glory amongst the jewels of their Lord.
What marvellous instances of such conversion have formed themes for the
songs of rejoicing angels! Such men as John Newton and Vine Hall, and
many others besides, were as vessels grasped by Satan himself and held
up on high in unhallowed triumph: but they were to be wrenched from his
hold, filled with grace and filled with glory, and made chosen vessels
of the heavenly Temple which is built not by man but by God.
Fervent should be our prayers for the unconverted, whether they be
those whom the world condemns or the world admires. There are some
amongst them whose characters seem to bear no dark stain or spot: all
acknowledge the metal to be precious and the form to be fair: they
are so goodly—so bright—that it is hard to believe that they are not
"vessels of honour." But alas! If they be not truly devoted to God's
service and receiving His grace, they are like the golden chargers of
the feast of Belshazzar, they are yet but "vessels of wrath." They are
like beautiful chalices made to hold the wine of blessing, but taken
from the church to the godless banquet. It is profanation when any
baptized being is given up to the service of the world; the familiar
sound of his own Christian name should remind him that he has once been
devoted to God.
Let us close our meditation with the words of the apostle: "Every one
of you should know how to preserve his vessel in sanctification and
honour . . . And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, . . .
faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXXV.
The Trumpet of Nehemiah.
THE trumpet of Nehemiah is one of the objects in what we may call the
sacred museum of Scripture, on which the mind rests with pleasure. It
tells of earnestness and unanimity in a great work; its sound was a
call to God's servants to help one another in a time of difficulty and
of danger, when the Jews, after their return from Babylonish captivity,
rebuilt the wall of their Zion. What a scene of anxious and yet joyful
labour rises before us as connected with that trumpet!
We picture to ourselves the brave men of Judah, with the tool in one
hand and the weapon in another, toil-drops beading their sun-burnt
faces, labouring from the rising of the morn till the stars appeared;
some, as we know, not even putting on their clothes at night, but
throwing themselves down in their garments to snatch needful rest, till
dawn should rouse them to fresh exertions. We picture to ourselves not
only the men bending their strong backs under the burden, and straining
their muscles to lift great weights, but the matrons and maidens of
Zion, nay, even the little children, lending what help they might,
trying to make up by zeal for want of physical power, bringing food
and water to the workers; bearing, perhaps, the lighter burdens, or
carrying rubbish away, and speaking those words of encouragement which
would add new strength to the strong, and energy to the active.
We hear them repeating one to another the rousing call of their leader
when bidding them prepare for attack from their foes: "Be not ye afraid
of them; remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for
your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your
houses."