It is deeply interesting and instructive to mark the actings of Josiah
when his heart and conscience had been brought under the powerful
influence of the word of God. He not only bowed down under that Word
himself, but he sought to lead others to bow likewise. This must ever
be the case where the work is real. It is impossible for a man to feel
the weight and solemnity of truth and not seek to bring others under
its action. No doubt a quantity of truth may be held in the
intellect--held superficially--held in a merely speculative, notional
way; but this will have no practical effect; it does not tell upon the
heart and conscience after a divine, living fashion; it does not
affect the life and character. And inasmuch as it does not affect our
own souls, neither will our mode of presenting it be very likely to
act with much power upon others. True, God is sovereign, and He may
use His own Word even when spoken by one who has never really felt its
influence; but we are speaking now of what may properly and naturally
be looked for; and we may rest assured that the best way in which to
make others feel deeply is to feel deeply ourselves.
Take any truth you please. Take, for example, the glorious truth of
the Lord's coming. How is a man most likely to affect his hearers by
the presentation of this truth? Unquestionably by being deeply
affected himself. If the heart be under the power of that solemn word,
"the Lord is at hand,"--if this fact be realized in all its solemnity
as to the world, and in its sweet attractiveness as to the believer
individually and the Church collectively, then it will assuredly be
presented in a way calculated to move the hearts of the hearers. It is
easy to see when a man _feels_ what he is saying. There may be a very
clear and clever exposition of the doctrine of the second advent, and
of all the collateral truths; but if it be cold and heartless, it will
fall powerless on the ears of the audience. In order to speak to
_hearts_, on any subject, the heart of the speaker must feel it. What
was it that gave such power to Whitefield's discourses? It was not the
depth or the range of truth contained in them, as is manifest to any
intelligent reader. No. The secret of their mighty efficacy lay in the
fact that the speaker _felt_ what he was saying. Whitefield wept over
the people, and no marvel if the people wept under Whitefield. He must
be a hardened wretch indeed who can sit unmoved under a preacher who
is shedding tears for his soul's salvation.
Let us not be misunderstood. We do not mean to say that anything in a
preacher's manner can of itself convert a soul. Tears cannot quicken:
earnestness cannot regenerate. It is "not by might, nor by power, but
by My Spirit, saith the Lord." It is only by the powerful action of
the Word and Spirit of God that any soul can be born again. All this
we fully believe, and would ever bear in mind; but at the same time,
we as fully believe and would also bear in mind that God blesses
earnest preaching, and souls are moved by it. We have far too much
mechanical preaching--too much routine work--too much of what may
justly be called _going through_ a service. We want more earnestness,
more depth of feeling, more intensity, more power to weep over the
souls of men, a more influential and abiding sense of the awful doom
of impenitent sinners, the value of an immortal soul, and the solemn
realities of the eternal world. We are told that the famous Garrick
was once asked by a bishop how it was that he produced far more
powerful results by his fiction than the bishop could by preaching
truth. The reply of the actor is full of force. "My lord," said he,
"the reason is obvious: I speak fiction as though it were truth,
whereas you speak truth as though it were fiction."
Alas! it is much to be feared that too many of us speak truth in the
same way, and hence the little result. We are persuaded that earnest,
faithful preaching is one of the special wants of this our day. There
are a few here and there, thank God, who seem to _feel_ what they are
at--who stand before their audience as those who consider themselves
as channels of communication between God and their fellows--men who
are really bent on their work--bent, not merely on preaching and
teaching, but on saving and blessing souls. The grand business of the
evangelist is to _bring_ the soul and Christ together; the business of
the teacher and pastor is to _keep_ them together. True it is, most
blessedly true, that God is glorified and Jesus Christ magnified by
the unfolding of truth, whether men will hear or whether they will
forbear; but is this fact to be allowed to interfere, in the smallest
degree, with the ardent desire for _results_ in reference to souls? We
do not for a moment believe it. The preacher should look for results,
and should not be satisfied without them. He should no more think of
being satisfied to go on without results than the husbandman thinks of
going on from year to year without a crop. Some preachers there are
who only succeed in preaching their hearers away, and then they
content themselves by saying, "We are a sweet savor to God." Now, we
believe this is a great mistake, and a fatal delusion. What we want is
to live before God for the results of our work--to wait upon Him--to
agonize in prayer for souls--to throw all our energies into the
work--to preach as though the whole thing depended upon us, although
knowing full well that we can do just nothing, and that our words must
prove as the morning cloud if not fastened as a nail in a sure place
by the Master of assemblies. We are convinced that, in the divine
order of things, the earnest workman must have the fruit of his labor;
and that according to his faith, so shall it be. There may be
exceptions, but as a general rule, we may rest assured that a faithful
preacher, will, sooner or later, reap fruit.
We have been drawn into the foregoing line of thought while
contemplating the interesting scene in the life of Josiah presented to
us at the close of 2 Chronicles xxxiv. It will be profitable for us to
dwell upon it. Josiah was a man thoroughly in earnest. He felt the
power of truth in his own soul, and he could not rest satisfied until
he gathered the people around him, in order that the light which had
shone upon him might shine upon them likewise. He did not, he could
not, rest in the fact that he was to be gathered to his grave in
peace--that his eyes were not to see the evil that was coming upon
Jerusalem--that he was to escape the appalling tide of judgment which
was about to roll over the land. No; he thought of others, he felt for
the people around him; and inasmuch as his own personal escape stood
connected with and based upon his true penitence and humiliation under
the mighty hand of God, so he would seek, by the action of that Word
which had wrought so powerfully in his own heart, to lead others to
like penitence and humiliation.
"Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and
Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all
the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests,
and the Levites, and all the people, great and small; and he read in
their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in
the house of the Lord. And the king stood in his place, and made a
covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His
commandments and His testimonies and his statutes _with all his heart_
and _with all his soul_, to perform the words of the covenant which
are written in this book. And he caused all that were present in
Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of
Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their
fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the
countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that
were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And
all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of
their fathers."
There is a fine moral lesson in all this for us--yea, many lessons to
which we, with all our light, knowledge, and privilege, may well sit
down. What first of all strikes us at this moment is the fact that
Josiah felt his responsibility to those around him. He did not put his
light under a bushel, but rather allowed it to shine for the full
benefit and blessing of others. This is all the more striking,
inasmuch as that great practical truth of the unity of all believers
in one body was not known to Josiah, because not revealed by God. The
doctrine contained in that one brief sentence, "There is one body and
one Spirit," was not made known until long after the times of Josiah,
even when Christ the risen Head had taken His seat at the right hand
of the Majesty in the heavens.
But although this truth was "hid in God," nevertheless there was the
unity of the nation of Israel. There was a national unity, though
there was not the unity of a body; and this unity was always
recognized by the faithful, whatever might be the outward condition of
the people. The twelve loaves on the table of show-bread in the
sanctuary were the divine type of the perfect unity and yet the
perfect distinctness of the twelve tribes. The reader can see this in
Leviticus xxiv. It is full of interest, and should be deeply pondered
by every student of Scripture and every earnest lover of the ways of
God. During the dark and silent watches of the night, the seven lamps
of the golden candlestick threw their light upon the twelve loaves
ranged by the hand of the high-priest according to the commandment of
God upon the pure table. Significant figure!
It was on this grand truth that Elijah the Tishbite took his stand,
when on Mount Carmel he built an altar "with twelve stones, according
to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word
of the Lord came, saying, 'Israel shall be thy name'" (1 Kings xviii).
To this same truth Hezekiah had regard when he commanded "that the
burnt-offering and the sin-offering should be made for _all Israel_"
(2 Chron. xxix. 24). Paul, in his day referred to this precious truth,
when in the presence of king Agrippa he spoke of "our twelve tribes,
instantly serving God day and night" (Acts xxvi. 7).
Now, if any one of those men of faith had been asked, "Where are the
twelve tribes?" could he have given an answer? could he have pointed
them out? Assuredly he could; but not to sight--not to man's view,
for the nation was divided--its unity was broken. In the days of
Elijah and Hezekiah there were the ten tribes and the two; and in the
days of Paul, the ten tribes were scattered abroad, and only a remnant
of the two in the land of Palestine, under the dominion of Daniel's
fourth beast. What then? Was the truth of God made of none effect by
Israel's outward condition? Far be the thought! "Our twelve tribes"
must never be given up. The unity of the nation is a grand reality to
faith. It is as true at this moment as when Joshua pitched the twelve
stones at Gilgal. The word of our God shall stand forever. Not one jot
or tittle of aught that He has spoken shall ever pass away. Change and
decay may mark the history of human affairs,--death and desolation may
sweep like a withering blast over earth's fairest scenes, but Jehovah
will make good His every word, and Israel's twelve tribes shall yet
enjoy the promised land, in all its length, breadth, and fulness. No
power of earth or hell shall be able to hinder this blessed
consummation. And why? What makes us so sure? How can we speak with
such absolute certainty? Simply because the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. We may be more sure that Israel's tribes shall yet enjoy
their fair inheritance in Palestine than that the house of Tudor once
held sway in England. The former we believe on the testimony of God,
who cannot lie; the latter on the testimony of man only.
It is of the utmost importance that the reader should be clear as to
this, not only because of its special bearing upon Israel and the land
of Canaan, but also because it affects the integrity of Scripture as a
whole. There is a loose mode of handling the word of God, which is at
once dishonoring to Him and injurious to us. Passages which apply
distinctly and exclusively to Jerusalem and to Israel are made to
apply to the spread of the gospel and the extension of the Christian
Church. This, to say the least of it, is taking a very unwarrantable
liberty with divine revelation. Our God can surely say what He means,
and as surely He means what He says; hence, when He speaks of Israel
and Jerusalem, He does not mean the Church; and when He speaks of the
Church, He does not mean Israel or Jerusalem.
Expositors the students of Scripture should ponder this. Let no one
suppose that it is merely a question of prophetic interpretation. It
is far more than this. It is a question of the integrity, value, and
power of the word of God. If we allow ourselves to be loose and
careless in reference to one class of scriptures, we are likely to be
loose and careless as to another, and then our sense of the weight and
authority of all Scripture will be sadly enfeebled.
But we must return to Josiah, and see how he recognized, according to
his measure, the great principle on which we have been dwelling. He
certainly proved no exception to the general rule, namely, that all
the pious kings of Judah had regard to the unity of the nation of
Israel, and never suffered their thoughts, their sympathies, or their
operations to be confined within any narrower range than "our twelve
tribes." The twelve loaves on the pure table were ever before the eye
of God and ever before the eye of faith. Nor was this a mere
speculation--a none-practical dogma--a dead letter. No; it was in
every case a great practical, influential truth. "Josiah took away
_all_ the abominations out of _all the countries that pertained to the
children of Israel_." This was acting in the fullest harmony with his
pious predecessor, Hezekiah, who "commanded that the burnt-offering
and the sin-offering should be made for _all Israel_".
And now, Christian reader, mark the application of all this to our own
souls at this present moment. Do you heartily believe, upon divine
authority, in the doctrine of the unity of the body of Christ? Do you
believe that there is such a body on this earth now, united to its
divine and living Head in heaven by the Holy Ghost? Do you hold this
great truth from God Himself, upon the authority of Holy Scripture? Do
you, in one word, hold as a cardinal and fundamental truth of the New
Testament the indissoluble unity of the Church of God? Do not turn
round and ask, "Where is this to be _seen_?" This is the question
which unbelief must ever put, as the eye rests upon Christendom's
numberless sects and parties, and to which faith replies, as the eye
rests upon that imperishable sentence, "There is one body and one
Spirit." Mark the words!--"There _is_." It does not say there _was_ at
one time and there shall be again "one body." Neither does it say
that such a thing exists in heaven. No; but it says, "There _is_ one
body and one Spirit" now on this earth. Can this truth be touched by
the condition of things in the professing Church? Has God's Word
ceased to be true because man has ceased to be faithful? Will any one
undertake to say that the unity of the body was only a truth for
apostolic times, and that it has no application now, seeing that there
is no exhibition of it?
Reader, we solemnly warn you to beware how you admit into your heart a
sentiment so entirely infidel as this. Rest assured it is the fruit of
positive unbelief in God's Word. No doubt, appearances argue against
this truth; but what truth is it against which appearances do not
argue? And say, is it on appearances that faith ever builds? Did
Elijah build on appearances when he erected his altar of twelve
stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob?
Did king Hezekiah build on appearances when he issued that fine
commandment that the burnt-offering and the sin-offering should be
made for _all Israel_? Did Josiah build on appearances when he carried
his reformatory operations into all the countries that pertained to
the children of Israel? Surely not. They built upon the faithful word
of the God of Israel. That Word was true whether Israel's tribes were
scattered or united. If God's truth is to be affected by outward
appearances, or by the actings of men, then where are we? or what are
we to believe? The fact is, there is hardly a truth in the entire
compass of divine revelation to which we could with calm confidence
commit our souls if we suffer ourselves to be affected by outward
appearances.
No, reader; the only ground on which we can believe anything is this
one eternal clause, "_It is written_"! Do you not admit this? Does not
your whole soul bow down to it? Do you not hold it to be a principle
entirely vital? We believe you do, as a Christian, hold, admit, and
reverently believe this. Well, then, _it is written_, "There is one
body and one Spirit" (Eph. iv.). This is as clearly revealed in
Scripture as that "we are justified by faith," or any other truth. Do
outward appearances affect the saving, fundamental doctrine of
justification by faith? Are we to call in question this precious truth
because there is so little exhibition of its purifying power in the
lives of believers? Who could admit such a fatal principle as this?
What a complete upturning of all the foundations of our faith is
necessarily involved in the admission of this most mischievous line of
reasoning! We believe because it is written in the Word, not because
it is exhibited in the world. Doubtless it ought to be exhibited, and
it is our sin and shame that it is not. To this we shall afterward
refer more fully; but we must insist upon the proper ground of belief,
namely, divine revelation; and when this is clearly seen and fully
admitted, it applies as distinctly to the doctrine of the unity of the
body as it does to the doctrine of justification by faith.