individuals; for in truth a very little knowledge is enough for
teaching a man his duty: and, since Scripture is intended to teach us
our duty, surely it was never intended as a storehouse of mere
knowledge. Discoveries then in the details of morals and religion, by
means of the inspired volume, whether possible or not, must not be
looked out for, as the expectation may unsettle the mind, and take it
off from matters of duty. Certainly all curious questions at least are
forbidden us by Scripture, even though Scripture may be found adequate
to answer them.
This should be insisted on. Do we think to become better men by
knowing more? Little knowledge is required for religious obedience.
The poor and rich, the learned and unlearned, are here on a level. We
have all of us the means of doing our duty; we have not the _will_, and
this no knowledge can give. We have need to subdue our own minds, and
this no other person can do for us. The case is different in matters
of learning and science. There others can and do labour for us; we can
make use of _their_ labours; we begin where they ended; thus things
progress, and each successive age knows more than the preceding. But
in religion each must begin, go on, and end, for himself. The
religious history of each individual is as solitary and complete as the
history of the world. Each man will, of course, gain more knowledge as
he studies Scripture more, and prays and meditates more; but he cannot
make another man wise or holy by his own advance in wisdom or holiness.
When children cease to be born children, because they are born late in
the world's history, when we can reckon the world's past centuries for
the age of this generation, then only can the world increase in real
excellence and truth as it grows older. The character will always
require forming, evil will ever need rooting out of each heart; the
grace to go before and to aid us in our moral discipline must ever come
fresh and immediate from the Holy Spirit. So the world ever remains in
its infancy, as regards the cultivation of moral truth; for the
knowledge required for practice is little, and admits of little
increase, except in the case of individuals, and then to them alone;
and it cannot be handed on to another. "As it was in the beginning, is
now, and ever shall be," such is the general history of man's moral
discipline, running parallel to the unchanging glory of that
All-Perfect God, who is its Author and Finisher.
Practical religious knowledge, then, is a personal gift, and, further,
a gift from God; and, therefore, as experience has hitherto shown, more
likely to be obscured than advanced by the lapse of time. But further,
we know of the existence of an evil principle in the world, corrupting
and resisting the truth in its measure, according to the truth's
clearness and purity. Whether it be from the sinfulness of our nature,
or from the malignity of Satan, striving with peculiar enmity against
Divine truth, certain it is that the best gifts of God have been the
most woefully corrupted. It was prophesied from the beginning, that
the serpent should bruise the heel of Him who was ultimately to triumph
over him; and so it has ever been. Our Saviour, who was the Truth
itself, was the most spitefully entreated of all by the world. It has
been the case with His followers too. He was crucified with thieves;
they have been united and blended against their will with the worst and
basest of mankind. The purer and more precious the gift which God
bestows on us, far from this being a security for its abiding and
increasing, rather the more grievously has that gift been abused. St.
John even seems to make the greater wickedness in the world the clear
consequence and evidence of our Lord's having made His appearing.
"Little children, it is the last time" (i. e. the time of the Christian
Dispensation): "and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even
now are there many Antichrists, _whereby we know_ that it is the last
time[3]." St. Paul drew the same picture. So far from anticipating
brighter times in store for the Church before the end, he portends evil
only. "This know" (he says to Timothy), "that in the last days
perilous times will come. . . . . Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived[4]." In these and other
passages surely there is no encouragement to look out for a more
enlightened, peaceful, and pure state of the Church than it enjoys at
present: rather, there is a call on us to consider the old and original
way as the best, and all deviations from it, though they seem to
promise an easier, safer, and shorter road, yet as really either
tending another way, or leading to the right object with much hazard
and many obstacles.
Such is the case as regards the knowledge of our duty,--that kind of
knowledge which alone is really worth earnest seeking. And there is an
important reason why we should acquiesce in it;--because the conviction
that things are so has no slight influence in forming our minds into
that perfection of the religious character, at which it is our duty
ever to be aiming. While we think it possible to make some great and
important improvements in the subject of religion, we shall be
unsettled, restless, impatient; we shall be drawn from the
consideration of improving ourselves, and from using the day while it
is given us, by the visions of a deceitful hope, which promises to make
rich but tendeth to penury. On the other hand, if we feel that the way
is altogether closed against discoveries in religion, as being neither
practicable nor desirable, it is likely we shall be drawn more entirely
and seriously to our own personal advancement in holiness; our eyes,
being withdrawn from external prospects, will look more at home. We
shall think less of circumstances, and more of our duties under them,
whatever they are. In proportion as we cease to be theorists we shall
become practical men; we shall have less of self-confidence and
arrogance, more of inward humility and diffidence; we shall be less
likely to despise others, and shall think of our own intellectual
powers with less complacency.
It is one great peculiarity of the Christian character to be dependent.
Men of the world, indeed, in proportion as they are active and
enterprising, boast of their independence, and are proud of having
obligations to no one. But it is the Christian's excellence to be
diligent and watchful, to work and persevere, and yet to be in spirit
_dependent_; to be willing to serve, and to rejoice in the permission
to do so; to be content to view himself in a subordinate place; to love
to sit in the dust. Though in the Church a son of God, he takes
pleasure in considering himself Christ's "servant" and "slave;" he
feels glad whenever he can put himself to shame. So it is the natural
bent of his mind freely and affectionately to visit and trace the
footsteps of the saints, to sound the praises of the great men of old
who have wrought wonders in the Church and whose words still live,
being jealous of their honour, and feeling it to be even too great a
privilege for such as he is to be put in trust with the faith once
delivered to them, and following them strictly in the narrow way, even
as they have followed Christ. To the ears of such persons the words of
the text are as sweet music: "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the
ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and
walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."
The history of the Old Dispensation affords us a remarkable
confirmation of what I have been arguing from these words; for in the
time of the Law there was an increase of religious knowledge by fresh
revelations. From the time of Samuel especially to the time of
Malachi, the Church was bid look forward for a growing illumination,
which, though not necessary for religious obedience, subserved the
establishment of religious comfort. Now, I wish you to observe how
careful the inspired prophets of Israel are to prevent any kind of
disrespect being shown to the memory of former times, on account of
that increase of religious knowledge with which the later ages were
favoured; and if such reverence for the past were a duty among the Jews
when the Saviour was still to come, much more is it the duty of
Christians, who expect no new revelation, and who, though they look
forward in hope, yet see the future only in the mirror of times and
persons past, who (in the Angel's words) "wait for that same
Jesus: . . . . so to come in like manner as they saw Him go into
heaven."
Now, as to the reverence enjoined and taught the Jews towards persons
and times past, we may notice first the commandment given them to
honour and obey their parents and elders. This, indeed, is a natural
law. But that very circumstance surely gives force to the express and
repeated injunctions given them to observe it, sanctioned too (as it
was) with a special promise. Natural affection might have taught it;
but it was rested by the Law on a higher sanction. Next, this duty of
reverently regarding past times was taught by such general injunctions
(more or less express) as the text. It is remarkable, too, when Micah
would tell the Jews that the legal sacrifices appointed in time past
were inferior to the moral duties, he states it not as a new truth, but
refers to its announcement by a prophet in Moses' age,--to the answer
of Balaam to Balak, king of Moab.
But, further, to bind them to the observance of this duty, the past was
made the pledge of the future, hope was grounded upon memory; all
prayer for favour sent them back to the old mercies of God. "The Lord
_hath been_ mindful of us, He _will_ bless us[5];" this was the form of
their humble expectation. The favour vouchsafed to Abraham and Israel,
and the deliverance from Egypt, were the objects on which hope dwelt,
and were made the types of blessings in prospect. For instance, out of
the many passages which might be cited, Isaiah says, "Awake . . . O
arm of the Lord, _as in the ancient days, in the generations of
old_[6]." Micah, "Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine
heritage, which dwell solitary in the wood, in the midst of Carmel; let
them feed in Bashan and Gilead, _as in the days of old_; according to
the days of thy coming out of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous
things[7]." The Psalms abound with like references to past mercies, as
pledges and types of future. Prophesying of the reign of Christ, David
says, "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, I will bring My
people again from the depths of the sea," and Moses too, speaking to
the Israelites--"_Remember the days of old_, consider the years of many
generations; ask thy father and he will show thee, thy elders, and they
will tell thee[8]." Accordingly, while a coming Saviour was predicted,
still the claims of past times on Jewish piety were maintained, by His
being represented by the prophets under the name and character of
David, or in the dress and office of Aaron; so that, the clearer the
revelation of the glory in prospect, in the same degree greater honour
was put upon the former Jewish saints who typified it. In like manner
the blessings promised to the Christian Church are granted to it in the
character of Israel, or of Jerusalem, or of Sion.
Lastly, as Moses directed the eyes of his people towards the line of
prophets which the Lord their God was to raise up from among them,
ending in the Messiah, they in turn dutifully exalt Moses, whose system
they were superseding. Samuel, David, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Daniel,
Ezra, Nehemiah, each in succession, bear testimony to Moses. Malachi,
the last of the prophets, while predicting the coming of John the
Baptist, still gives this charge, "_Remember ye the law of Moses_, My
servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the
statutes and judgments[9]." In like manner in the New Testament the
last of the prophets and apostles describes the saints as singing "the
song of Moses, the servant of God" (this is his honourable title, as
elsewhere), "_and_ the song of the Lamb[10]." Above all, our blessed
Lord Himself sums up the whole subject we have been reviewing, both the
doctrine and Jewish illustration of it, in His own authoritative
words,--"If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead[11]." After this sanction, it
is needless to refer to the reverence with which St. Paul regards the
law of Moses, and to the commemoration he has made of the Old Testament
saints in the eleventh chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews.
Oh that we had duly drunk into this spirit of reverence and godly fear!
Doubtless we are far above the Jews in our privileges; we are favoured
with the news of redemption; we know doctrines, which righteous men of
old time earnestly desired to be told, and were not. To us is revealed
the Eternal Son, the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. We are branches of the True Vine, which is sprung out of the
earth and spread abroad. We have been granted Apostles, Prophets,
Evangelists, pastors, and teachers. We celebrate those true Festivals
which the Jews possessed only in shadow. For us Christ has died, on us
the Spirit has descended. In these respects we are honoured and
privileged, oh how far above all ages before He came! Yet our honours
are our shame, when we contrast the glory given us with our love of the
world, our fear of men, our lightness of mind, our sensuality, our
gloomy tempers. What need have we to look with wonder and reverence at
those saints of the Old Covenant, who with less advantages yet so far
surpassed us; and still more at those of the Christian Church, who both
had higher gifts of grace and profited by them! What need have we to
humble ourselves; to pray God not to leave us, though we have left Him;
to pray Him to give us back what we have lost, to receive a repentant
people, to renew in us a right heart and give us a religious will, and
to enable us to follow Him perseveringly in His narrow and humbling way.
[1] 1 Kings iv. 33.
[2] 1 Cor. iii. 11.
[3] 1 John ii. 18.
[4] 2 Tim. iii. 13.
[5] Ps. cxv. 12.
[6] Isa. li. 9.
[7] Micah vii. 14, 15.
[8] Deut. xxxii. 7.
[9] Mal. iv. 4.
[10] Rev. xv. 3.
[11] Luke xvi. 31.
END OF VOL. VII.