Canaan, they were indebted to one family (the Kenites) for kindness and
help[593]. The head of that family was Jethro, the father-in-law of
Moses, high-priest of Midian,--in which land the LORD, from the burning
bush, had commissioned the future Lawgiver of Israel to redeem His
people from the bondage of Egypt. Jethro met them in the Arabian desert;
became their guide[594] till they reached the promised Land; and with
them entered the borders of their future possession. It was a covenant
between the two races that they should share the goodness of JEHOVAH.
Accordingly, the Kenites made their settlement amid the Royal tribe of
Judah; and it is easy to foresee how close a bond would spring up
between the alien family and their avowed protectors, when, to the
memory of past dangers shared together, was superadded the consciousness
of present blessings;--especially in an age when the law of hospitality
was held most sacred. How strong the bond became, the sequel of the
story convincingly shews[595]. The children of Israel, at the end of a
hundred and fifty years, find themselves cruelly oppressed by the most
powerful of the Kings of the conquered but not extirpated race. GOD
promises deliverance: and Deborah is raised up to organize the
resistance against Jabin, "the captain of whose host was Sisera." Now,
while Heber the Kenite is gone with the rest to the battle,--(for he had
pitched his tent, remember, by Kedesh; and it was from Kedesh[596] that
Deborah "sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam;")--while Heber, the
husband, I say, is gone to the battle, and Jael the wife is left alone,
distracted with anxiety, in the tent;--when, weak and unprotected woman
as she is, she beholds the Captain of the hateful oppressor of GOD'S
people hastening to her tent, slumbering at her feet, and unexpectedly
within her power:--will you pretend that _she_, a Midianitess, is to
blame if she yields to the strong impulse which prompts her to compass
the man's downfall, as speedily as she may? "There was peace between
Jabin the King of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite[597]," you
will remind me. True: (between _Jabin_,--not between _Sisera_, by the
way:) without this, the whole incident would not have happened. Sisera
presumed on the peaceful relations which existed between his lord and
Heber; and supposed that the sympathy of one alien race for another was
to outweigh every other consideration. Yet, how stood the case? Heber
had thrown in his lot, irrevocably, with the people of GOD; while Jabin
had already utterly violated the conditions of peace. For twenty weary
years, had Jael and her family shared the hardships of that sacred line
which Jabin had "mightily oppressed." All her life long[598], the
highways have been unoccupied; and travellers have had to walk through
by-ways; and the villages have been deserted by their inhabitants.
Archers have infested the very places of drawing water[599]. Meanwile, a
sure word has gone forth from the Prophetess who dwells under the
palm-tree between Ramah and Bethel on Mount Ephraim[600], to the effect
that GOD will give a mighty victory this day to His people[601].
Moreover, Deborah, (to whom the children of Israel go up for judgment,)
has foretold that the LORD will "_sell Sisera into the hand of a
woman_[602]". How _can_ you marvel at the rest!... With a faith strong
and undoubting as Rahab's, Jael,--weak woman as she is,--seizes the
wooden tent-pin and the mallet, (the only weapons which are within her
reach!); and, (somewhat as David afterwards employed a stone and a sling
for the slaughter of the Philistine,) with these vile instruments, at
one blow, she smites to the earth the enemy of God's people.... O, it
was _not_ because she was treacherous, or because she was cruel!
Treachery and cruelty were not the vices to which a dweller in tents
(and she a woman!) was prone, when a thirsty soldier begged a draught of
water; and most assuredly, had she been either, she would not,--she
_could_ not, have won praise from God! (Witness GOD'S wrath against
David in the matter of Uriah, because _he_ had no pity[603]; as well as
dying Jacob's denunciations against Simeon and Levi because "instruments
of cruelty" were "in their habitations[604].") O no! It was because she
beheld in the slumbering captain at once the enemy of her own afflicted
race,--and of GOD'S oppressed people,--and above all of GOD Himself.
_That_ was why "she put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the
workman's hammer!" ... The fight, you are requested to remember, had
been a tremendous fight; and the battle, as she thought, was yet raging.
Reuben, and Dan, and Asher had kept aloof from the encounter;--the
first, in his rich pasture-land east of the Jordan, abiding "among the
sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks;" the two others, intent
on their maritime pursuits. Only some of Ephraim, Benjamin, and
Manasseh[605], had been found willing to throw in their lot with the two
northern tribes of Zebulun, and Naphtali,--who had "jeoparded their
lives unto the death." And the battle which these had fought had been
the LORD'S; and as many as had taken part with them, were considered to
have come "_to the help of the LORD_." Such then was the quarrel which
Jael had made her own; and such the spirit in which she had done her
wild deed of unassisted prowess!
To appreciate her constancy and courage, you may not overlook how
fearful were the odds against the cause she was espousing: on the
oppressor's side, nine hundred chariots of iron; whereas, "was there a
shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?" It had been so
terrific a day, that if the LORD had not been on their side,--if the
stars in their courses had not fought for Israel,--how could Sisera have
possibly been overcome? But the very river was employed to sweep the
enemies of Israel away,--"that ancient river, the river Kishon!" ... Now
I boldly ask you, if the Angel of the LORD may curse bitterly the
inhabitants of Meroz, "because they came not to the help of the
LORD,"--(pray mark that phrase; for it shows exactly in what light the
conflict was regarded!)--"_to the help of the LORD_ against the mighty;"
shall we wonder if, by the Spirit of GOD, Deborah the prophetess
proclaims "blessed above women in the tent" Jael the wife of Heber the
Kenite to be;--the undaunted one by whose right hand the captain of all
that mighty host had been slain? Find me another "_woman in the tent_"
who may be compared with _her!_ ... Or rather, (for _that_ is the only
question,) shall these words embolden us to impeach the morality of Holy
Writ?... I am sure there is not one of you all who really thinks it. She
was--was she not?--a courageous, a faithful, and (according to her
light,) a strictly virtuous woman. She was content to risk _all_, "as
seeing Him who is invisible:" and to _believe_ that "they that be with
us are more than they that be with them[606]." From the unmistakeable
evidence of her uncompromising boldness in a good cause, her unwavering
faith, her readiness to cast in her lot with the people of GOD,--no one
but a hypocrite will turn away to criticize the details of her deed by
the Gospel standard of Grace and Truth. "He asked for water, and she
gave him milk." What would you have had her do? It is by no means
certain that she foresaw the deed which was to follow, and which
_cannot_, (from the nature of the case,) have been the result of a
preconcerted plan. The impulse to terminate the tyranny of Canaan, and
the sufferings of her adopted people, as well as to decide the fortune
of that critical day, by slaying one whom she regarded as the enemy of
GOD Himself, may have seized her while she stood in the door of the
tent,--weighing Sisera's petition against Deborah's prophecy. Be this
as it may,--would you have had the woman connive at Sisera's
escape,--the enemy of GOD'S people, when GOD Himself had unexpectedly
put him into her power?
It will assist us to understand this story, that we should bear in mind
how it fared with Ahab, King of Israel, in the matter of Ben-hadad, King
of Syria, as recorded in the xxth chapter of the First Book of Kings.
"Thus saith the LORD," (was the Divine sentence,) "_Because thou hast
let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction_,
therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his
people[607]." It is quite evident that as the _enemy of GOD_, in the
strictest sense, each fresh oppressor of Israel was regarded; and that,
as the enemy of the LORD GOD of Israel, Sisera was summarily slain by
the Kenite's wife.
Be so good as to remember also, that forgiveness of enemies is strictly
a _Christian_ duty. You have no right to expect to find the brightest
jewels of the kingdom of Heaven glittering on the swarthy brow of an
Arabian wife in the days of the Judges. "Grace and _Truth_ came by JESUS
CHRIST[608]." You cannot expect to find the wife of Heber the Kenite
more truthful than Sarah, and Rebekah, and Rachel,--or even than
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and David: neither should you be so
unreasonable as to expect that the GOD of Truth will award praise and
blame to His creatures by a higher standard of Morality than He has seen
fit, at any given period, to allow. A perfectly enlightened conscience,
no doubt, will never consent to lie. A Christian woman in Jael's place,
ought not, of course, to be guilty of Jael's deed. But you are
forgetting the time of the world in which _your_ lot is thrown. I say
nothing of the circumstances of terror under which _she_ acted,--_she_
was _forced_ to act. How could she tell that Sisera would not awake ere
she should strike the blow,--or at least before she could achieve his
death? What if a company of Jabin's host should come up to the
tent-door, the instant she had done the deed, and inquire after Sisera?
Suppose the issue of that day's encounter should prove disastrous, what
would be her own and Heber's fate?... Feel a little for the poor
wife,--for the lonely, helpless "woman in the tent,"--_not_ entirely for
the fierce soldier against whom you have heard the LORD'S decree of
death!... O ye, who, living in the full blaze of Gospel light, in cold
blood can reject the doctrine of the Atonement, and deny the LORD who
bought you, and teach that the Bible is "like any other book;" who can
make light of its Inspiration, and evacuate its Prophecy, and idealize
its Miracles; who with your lips can profess the Church's doctrines, and
with your pens can deny them;--go _ye_ and prate of Morality, and
Honesty, and Truth! _We_ shall heed mighty little your opinion of Jael's
conduct, and of the Divine Commendation which it met with. I believe
that, instead of suspecting the morality of the Bible in this instance,
there is hardly an honest Christian heart among us, but cries out, on
the contrary,--"_So_ let _all_ Thine enemies perish, O LORD! But let
them that love Him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might."
2. There is no time to consider, as I fain would, any other story; that
of Jacob for example. It is quite amazing to hear the presumptuous
speeches concerning that great Saint, in which good men sometimes permit
themselves: as if the sum total of Jacob's history were _this_:--that
he once obtained an ungenerous advantage over his Brother, and then
shamefully deceived his blind and aged Father. Whereas those were the
two great blots in an otherwise holy life! actions which were followed
by severe, aye lifelong punishment.--But I must not enter on Jacob's
history,--even to shew you that a careless reader overlooks certain
circumstances which go a very long way indeed to excuse the actions just
alluded to. I prefer reminding you that since, at Bethel, GOD blessed
the exile's slumbers with a glorious vision, and most comfortable
promise, on his first setting out for Haran; and again at Jabbok, as
well as at Mahanaim, blessed him with a vision of Angels, and a renewal
of the blessing, on his return; _from this point_, as before, it will be
our wisdom to reason; and we shall reason backwards. Had Scripture been
quite silent in all other respects, such proofs of the Divine approval
ought to be enough to convince a believing heart that the only thing
wanting must be fuller details,--more evidence,--in order to shew us
that the Patriarch _deserved_ the SPIRIT'S praise. But in truth, in
Jacob's case, the details are abundant and the evidence decisive.
3. Of all the other (so called) difficulties which occur to my
memory,--as the extinction of the Canaanites, (who yet were _not_
extinguished,)--the Sacrifice of Isaac, (who yet was _not_
sacrificed,)--the life of David;--I have only to say that before you can
pretend to have an opinion upon the subject you must be sure that you
"know the Scriptures:" else, I make bold to say, you will inevitably err
in your cogitations concerning them. Thus, men are heard to insinuate
astonishment that the King who so basely compassed Uriah's death should
have been "a man after GOD'S own heart:" whereas the Hebrew original,
(as they would know, _if they knew the Scriptures_,) conveys nothing of
the kind; while the murder of Uriah is found to have drawn down upon
David unmitigated wrath and terrible punishment from the right Hand of
Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.
II. Turn we now, briefly, to the physical Marvels which are described in
the Bible; and chiefly those which occur in the Old Testament.
I am about to speak of Miracles in general; but it may be convenient to
say a few words first about certain mighty transactions which eclipse,
by their vastness or their strangeness, most isolated events. Thus, as
the Nativity, Temptation, Transfiguration, Resurrection, Ascension, of
our LORD, together with the Coming of the HOLY GHOST, eclipse in a
manner the other Miracles of the New Testament,--so the Temptation of
our first Parents, the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and the fate of
Lot's wife, the burning bush, the Plagues which prepared the way for the
Exode, the crossing of the Red Sea, the Manna, and the brazen Serpent;
Balaam's ass, and the fate of the walls of Jericho; the history of
Jonah, and of Daniel among the lions:--events like these stand out from
the Old Testament narrative and challenge astonishment.
Of all these latter events, viewed as difficulties,--(for it is as
difficulties _in the way of Revelation_ that we are now expected to look
on Miracles,)--you are requested to observe that they enjoy, one and
all, the confirmation of _express citation in the New Testament_. I am
saying that either St. Paul, or St. Peter, or St. James, or (above all)
our Blessed LORD Himself, appeal to, or else explain, every one of
these marvellous passages in Old Testament History. And this is the only
remark I propose to offer concerning any of them. It will certainly
prove unavailing to convince a certain class of persons of the
historical reality of the Deluge, to find that our SAVIOUR, that St.
Peter, and St. Paul, have all spoken of it as an actual event:--Men who
are disposed to reject the story of the dumb ass speaking with man's
voice, will not perhaps believe it one whit the more because they find
it appealed to by St. Peter[609]:--and the Divine exposition offered by
CHRIST Himself of Jonah, three days and three nights in the fish's
belly, will not, it may be feared, reconcile others to an event which
strikes them as being too improbable to be true. But _this_, at least,
will infallibly result from the discovery:--men will perceive that they
must positively make their election; and either accept the Bible as a
whole, or else reject it as a whole; for that there is no middle course
open to them. The New Testament stands committed irrevocably to the Old.
Every Book of the Bible stands committed to all the other Books. Not
only does our LORD quote the Canon in its collected form, and call it
"the Law and the prophets,"--or simply =hê graphê=, "the Scripture,"--and
so set His seal upon it, as one undivided and indivisible roll of
Inspiration; but He and His Apostles single out the very narratives
which the imbecility of Man was most likely to stumble at, and employ
them for such purposes, and in such a manner, that escape from them
shall henceforth be altogether hopeless. To eliminate the marvels of
Scripture, I say, is impossible; for a Divine Hand has been laid upon
almost every one of them. The subsequent references are not only most
numerous, but they run into the very staple of the narrative,--and will
not,--_cannot_ be eradicated.
I question whether all students of the inspired page are aware of the
extent to which what I have been saying holds true. Let me only invite
you to investigate the structure of the Bible under this aspect, and you
will be astonished at the result. For you will find that the system of
tacit quotation and allusive reference is so perpetual, that it is as if
the design had been that the fibres should be incapable of being
disentangled any more. Balaam's story for example in the Book of
Numbers, is found alluded to in Deuteronomy, in Joshua, in Micah, in
Nehemiah; by St. Peter, by St. Jude, and by St. John in the
Apocalypse[610].--The Exodus, with its attendant wonders, is alluded to
in Joshua, and in Judges, and in Job, and in the Psalms; in Amos, and
Isaiah, and Micah, and Hosea, and Jeremiah, and Daniel; in Kings, in
Samuel, in Nehemiah; and in the New Testament repeatedly[611]. The
Evangelists quote one another times without number. In the Epistles, the
Gospels are quoted upwards of fifty times; and St. Peter quotes St. Paul
again and again. It is a favourite device of these last days to hint at
the allegorical character of the beginning of Genesis. But I find
upwards of thirty references in the New Testament to the first two
Chapters of Genesis[612]. Certain parts of Daniel have incurred
suspicion,--for no better reason, as it seems, than because certain
persons have found it hard to believe that Prophecy can be "an
anticipation of History[613]." Now it is strange certainly to find a
thing objected to for being what it is: and "Prophecy is nothing _but_
the history of events before they come to pass,"--as Butler remarked
long ago[614]. Waiving this, however, you are requested to observe that
our SAVIOUR quotes from _those very parts of Daniel which have been
objected to_. You cannot get rid of those parts of Daniel therefore. You
are not to suppose that the Bible is like an old house, where a window
may be darkened, or a door blocked up, according to the caprice of every
fresh occupant. The terms on which men dwell there are that every part
of the structure shall be inhabited; and that every part shall be
retained in its integrity. What I am insisting upon is, that the sacred
Writers plainly say,--We stand or we fall together. They reach forth
their hands, and they hold one another fast. They rehearse comprehensive
Genealogies,--they furnish a summary view of long histories,--they
enumerate the various worthies of old time, and cite their deeds in
order. They recognize one another's voices, and they interpret one
another's thoughts, and they adopt one another's sayings. Verily the
Bible is _not_ "like any other Book!" The prophets and Apostles and
Evangelists of either covenant reach out one to another; and lo, among
them is seen the form of One like the SON of GOD.... How far it may be
rational _to reject the Bible_, I will not now discuss: but it is
demonstrable that a man cannot accept the Bible, and straightway propose
to omit from it one jot or one tittle of its contents. As for
abstracting from Scripture the marvels of Scripture, it is precisely
for the protection and preservation of _them_, as I have been shewing,
that the most curious and abundant provision has been made.
1. The miracles, properly so called, whether of the Old or New
Testament, have lately been cavilled at with exceeding bitterness[615].
That they are sufficiently attested, is allowed[616]; the objection is a
(so called) Philosophical one, and is briefly this,--that the Laws of
Nature being fixed and immutable, it is contrary not only to experience,
but also to reason, to suppose that they have ever been suspended, or
violated, or interrupted. Events "contrary to the order of
Nature,"--events which would introduce "disorder" into Creation,--are
pronounced incredible.--This is a very old objection; but it has been
lately revived. I will dispose of it as briefly as I can.
You are requested to observe then, that this difficulty,--(such as it
is,)--is entirely occasioned by the terms in which it is stated. _Who_
ever asserted that Miracles are "violations of natural causes[617]?"
"suspensions of natural laws[618]?" Who ever said that the effect of
Miracles is to "interrupt"--"violate"--"reverse,"--the Laws of Nature?
Why assume "contrariety" and "disorder" in a =kosmos= which seems to
have had no experience of either?
But GOD is, I suppose, superior to His own Laws! He is not the creature
of circumstances,--even of His own creating. Supreme is He in
Creation,--albeit in a manner which baffles thought. He does not even
suspend His Laws, perhaps, so much as fulfil them after a Diviner
fashion;--somewhat as He was fulfilling the Mosaic Economy even while He
seemed to be violating one or other of its sanctions. He does not
reverse or disorder the fixed course of Nature, so much as rise above
it, and shew Himself superior to it. He does not disturb anything, but
our notions of His mode of acting. GOD coming suddenly to view in
Nature, (which is an essential part of the notion of a miracle,)
occasions perplexity, it is true; but only because we do not understand
fully either Nature or GOD. "We know Him not as He is, neither indeed
can know Him." While of Nature, we know nothing but a few Laws which we
have discovered by a long and laborious induction of phenomena. In fact,
this whole manner of speaking concerning the Creator of the Universe,
with reference to the Laws which He is found to have prescribed to
things natural, has, I suspect, some great foolishness in it: for, even
if we do not so far dishonour GOD as to imagine that He is subject to
Law, yet we seem to imply that we think ourselves capable of
understanding the relation in which He stands to Law. Whereas, the very
notion of Law may be utterly inapplicable to GOD,--who is not only its
first Author, (as He is indeed the first Author of all things,) but the
very source and _cause_ of it also. So that what are Laws to ourselves
may be not so much as Law at all to GOD; but, (if I may so speak,)
something which depends on "the counsel of His will," and which,
(considered as a restraining cause,) is to Him as if it were not. There
can be no miracles with GOD[619]!
Briefly then:--That He who, (surely I may say _confessedly_,) is above
Law, when He manifests Himself in the midst of Creation, should act in a
manner which defies conception; and yet should disturb nothing, reverse
nothing, violate nothing;--(except to be sure, possibly, certain
preconceived notions of His rational creatures;)--in _this_, I say,
there is surely nothing either incredible or absurd.
2. So much, to say the truth, seems to be admitted, by all but professed
Atheists. But then, certain formulæ have been invented to bridge over
the difficulty, which Miracles are supposed to occasion, which I cannot
but think are just as objectionable as unbelief itself.
By way of saving the credit of "the Laws of the Universe," a kind of
compromise has been discovered; to which I do not find that GOD has been
made any party.
The idea of Law, which has been falsely declared to be only now
"emerging into supremacy in Science[620]," seems to have usurped such a
dominion over the minds of a few persons, superficially acquainted with
Physical studies, that Miracles can be only tolerated on the supposition
that they are "the exact fulfilment of much more extensive Laws than
those we suppose to exist[621]." We are kindly assured that what we call
a Miracle is not "an exception to those laws which we know, but really
the fulfilment of a wider Law which we did not know before[622]." Men
are eager to remind us that this is the view of Bp. Butler[623], (whom
every one, I observe, is fond of having for an ally.) Thus, a very
recent writer says,--"What we call interferences may, (as Bp. Butler
observed long ago,) be fulfilments of general laws not perfectly
apprehended by us[624]."--But I cannot find that Bp. Butler anywhere
says anything of the sort. What Butler says, is,--that we know nothing
of the laws of storms and earthquakes,--tempers and geniuses;--yet we
conclude, (but only from analogy,) that all these seemingly accidental
things are the result of general laws. Now, (he proceeds,) since it is
only "from our finding that the course of Nature, in some respects and
so far, goes on by general laws, that we conclude this of the rest;"--it
is credible "that GOD'S miraculous interpositions may have been, all
along, in like manner, _by general laws of WISDOM_." Butler says that it
"may have been by _general laws_," "that the affairs of the world, being
permitted to go on _in their natural course_ so far, should, just at
such a point, have a new direction given them _by miraculous
interposition_." He does not say, you observe, that those "miraculous
interpositions" are "the exact fulfilment of _much more extensive Laws_
than those we suppose to exist;" (as if _a larger induction_ were all
that was needed, in order to get rid of the obnoxious word
"Miracle:")--not, that Miracles may be "fulfilments of general laws _not
perfectly apprehended by us_;" (as if the only thing wanted, were an
enlargement of the human formula, in order to bring a miraculous
interposition within the definition of an extraordinary phenomenon.)
Such notions belong altogether to the inventors of calculating machines;
whose speculations, even concerning Divine things, clearly cannot soar
above their instrument[625]. It is called the "argument from laws
intermitting[626];" and evidently reduces a miracle to a phenomenon of
periodical recurrence. The aloe, watched for ninety-nine years and
observed to blossom in the hundredth, is (according to this view) an
emblem of the constitution of Nature at last interrupted by a Miracle.
I will not waste your time further with this view of the subject, having
exposed its fallacy. Station yourself, in thought, at the grave of
Lazarus; and see him that was dead and had been four days buried, come
forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes;--and then prate of any
"general Laws," except those "OF WISDOM," to as many as you can get to
listen to you. A "miraculous interposition," (as Butler phrases it,) has
given a new direction to affairs which, so far, had been permitted to go
in their natural course. That "general Laws" of inscrutable Wisdom
determined such a "_miraculous interposition_"--is a position which, so
far from objecting to, I embrace with both the arms of my heart[627].