than they were, they had outward miracles, we too have miracles, but
they are not outward but inward. Ours are not miracles of evidence,
but of power and influence. They are secret, and more wonderful and
efficacious because secret. Their miracles were wrought upon external
nature; the sun stood still, and the sea parted. Ours are invisible,
and are exercised upon the soul. They consist in the sacraments, and
they just do that very thing which the Jewish miracles did not. They
really touch the heart, though we so often resist their influence. If
then we sin, as, alas! we do, if we do not love God more than the Jews
did, if we have no heart for those "good things which pass men's
understanding," we are not more excusable than they, but less so. For
the supernatural works which God showed to them were wrought outwardly,
not inwardly, and did not influence the will; they did but convey
warnings; but the supernatural works which He does towards us are in
the heart, and impart grace; and if we disobey, we are not disobeying
His command only, but resisting His presence.
This is our state; and perhaps so it is that, as the Israelites for
forty years hardened their hearts in the wilderness, in spite of the
manna and the quails, and the water from the rock, so we for a course
of years have been hardening ours in spite of the spiritual gifts which
are the portion of Christians. Instead of listening to the voice of
conscience, instead of availing ourselves of the aid of heavenly grace,
we have gone on year after year with the vain dream of turning to God
some future day. Childhood and boyhood are past; youth, perhaps middle
age, perhaps old age is come; and now we find that we cannot "love the
thing which God commandeth, and desire that which He doth promise;" and
then, instead of laying the blame where it is due, on ourselves, for
having hardened ourselves against the influences of grace, we complain
that enough has not been done for us; we complain we have not enough
light, enough help, enough inducements; we complain we have not seen
miracles. Alas! how exactly are God's words fulfilled in us, which He
deigned to speak to His former people. "O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What
could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it?
wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it
forth wild grapes[2]?"
Let us then put aside vain excuses, and, instead of looking for outward
events to change our course of life, be sure of this, that if our
course of life is to be changed, it must be from within. God's grace
moves us from within, so does our own will. External circumstances
have no real power over us. If we do not love God, it is because we
have not wished to love Him, tried to love Him, prayed to love Him. We
have not borne the idea and the wish in our mind day by day, we have
not had it before us in the little matters of the day, we have not
lamented that we loved Him not, we have been too indolent, sluggish,
carnal, to attempt to love Him in little things, and begin at the
beginning; we have shrunk from the effort of moving from within; we
have been like persons who cannot get themselves to rise in the
morning; and we have desired and waited for a thing impossible,--to be
changed once and for all, all at once, by some great excitement from
without, or some great event, or some special season; something or
other we go on expecting, which is to change us without our having the
trouble to change ourselves. We covet some miraculous warning, or we
complain that we are not in happier circumstances, that we have so many
cares, or so few religious privileges, or we look forward for a time
when religion will come easy to us as a matter of course. This we used
to look out for as boys; we used to think there was time enough yet to
think of religion, and that it was a natural thing, that it came
without trouble or effort, for men to be religious as life went on; we
fancied that all old persons must be religious; and now even, as grown
men, we have not put off this deceit; but, instead of giving our hearts
to God, we are waiting, with Felix, for a convenient season.
Let us rouse ourselves, and act as reasonable men, before it is too
late; let us understand, as a first truth in religion, that _love_ of
heaven is the only _way_ to heaven. Sight will not move us; else why
did Judas persist in covetousness in the very presence of Christ? why
did Balaam, whose "eyes were opened," remain with a closed heart? why
did Satan fall, when he was a bright Archangel? Nor will reason subdue
us; else why was the Gospel, in the beginning, "to the Greeks
foolishness"? Nor will excited feelings convert us; for there is one
who "heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;" yet "hath no
root in himself," and "dureth" only "for a while." Nor will
self-interest prevail with us; or the rich man would have been more
prudent, whose "ground brought forth plentifully," and would have
recollected that "that night his soul" might be "required of him." Let
us understand that nothing but the love of God can make us believe in
Him or obey Him; and let us pray Him, who has "prepared for them that
love Him, such good things as pass man's understanding, to pour into
our hearts such love towards Him, that we, loving Him above all things,
may obtain His promises, which exceed all that we can desire."
[1] John xi. 47, 53.
[2] Isa. v. 3, 4.
SERMON VII.
Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"_Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before
the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and
against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation
and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have
heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto
thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and
thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this
place._"--2 Kings xxii. 19, 20.
King Josiah, to whom these words are addressed, was one of the most
pious of the Jewish kings, and the most eminent reformer of them all.
On him, the last sovereign of David's house (for his sons had not an
independent rule), descended the zeal and prompt obedience which raised
the son of Jesse from the sheep-fold to the throne, as a man after
God's own heart. Thus, as an honour to David, the blessing upon his
posterity remained in its fulness even to the end; its light not waxing
"dim," nor "its natural force abating."
Both the character and the fortunes of Josiah are described in the
text, his character, in its saying that his "heart was tender," and
that he feared God; and his fortunes, viz. an untimely death, designed
as a reward for his obedience: and the text is a part of the answer
which the Prophetess Huldah was instructed to make to him, when he
applied for encouragement and guidance after accidentally finding the
book of Moses' Law in the Temple. This discovery is the most
remarkable occurrence of his reign, and will fitly serve to introduce
and connect together what I wish now to set before you concerning
Josiah.
The discovery of Moses' Law in the Temple is a very important
occurrence in the history, because it shows us that Holy Scripture had
been for a long while neglected, and to all practical purposes lost.
By the book of the law is meant, I need scarcely say, the five books of
Moses, which stand first in the Bible. These made up one book or
volume, and were to a Jew the most important part of the Old Testament,
as containing the original covenant between God and His people, and
explaining to them what their place was in the scheme of God's
providence, what were their duties, and what their privileges. Moses
had been directed to enforce the study of this law on the Israelites in
various ways. He exhorts them to "lay up his words in their heart and
in their soul, and to bind them for a sign upon their hand, that they
might be as frontlets between their eyes." "And ye shall teach them
your children," he proceeds, "speaking of them when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down,
and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts
of thine house, and upon thy gates[1]." Besides this general
provision, it was ordered that once in seven years the law should be
read to the whole people assembled at the feast of tabernacles[2]. And
further still, it was provided, that in case they ever had kings, each
king was to write out the whole of it from the original copy which was
kept in the ark. "And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein
all the days of his life . . . that his heart be not lifted up above
his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the
right hand or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in
his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel[3]."
However, considering how soon the nation fell into a general disregard
of the law and worship which God gave them, it is not wonderful that
these wholesome precepts were neglected, which could not be performed
without testifying against their multiplied transgressions. And much
more when they took to themselves idols, did they neglect, of course,
to read the law which condemned them. And when they had set a king
over them against the will of God, it is not strange that their kings,
in turn, should neglect the direction given them to copy out the law
for themselves, such kings especially as fell into idolatry.
All this applies particularly to the age in which Josiah succeeded to
the throne, so that it is in no way surprising that he knew nothing of
the law till it was by chance found in the Temple some years after his
accession. The last good king of Judah before him was Hezekiah, who
had been dead sixty or seventy years. That religious king had been
succeeded by his son Manasseh, the most profane of all the line of
David. He it was who committed those inexpiable sins which sealed the
sentence of Judah's destruction. He had set up an idol in the Temple;
had made his son pass through the fire; had dealt with familiar spirits
and wizards; had "shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled
Jerusalem from one end to another," in a word, had "done wickedly above
all that the Amorites did which were before him[4]." On his return
from captivity in Babylon, whither he was taken captive, Manasseh
attempted a reformation; but, alas! he found it easier to seduce than
to reclaim his people[5]. Amon, who succeeded him, followed the first
ways of his father during his short reign. Instead of repenting, as
his father had done, he "trespassed more and more[6]." After a while,
his subjects conspired and slew him. Josiah was the son of this wicked
king.
Here, then, we have sufficient explanation of Josiah's ignorance of the
law of Moses. He was brought up among very wicked men--in a corrupt
court--after an apostasy of more than half a century; far from God's
Prophets, and in the midst of idols.
In such times was Josiah born; and, like Manasseh, he came to the
throne in his boyhood. As if to show us that religion depends on a
man's self (under God, who gives grace), on the state of his heart, not
on outward circumstances, Manasseh was the son of the pious Hezekiah,
and Josiah was the son of wicked Amon. Josiah was but eight years old
when his father was slain. We hear nothing of his boyhood; but
scarcely was he of age to think for himself, and to profess himself a
servant of the true God, but he chose that "good part which could not
be taken away from him[7]." "In the eighth year of his reign" (i.e.
when he was sixteen years of age), "while he was yet young, he began to
seek after the God of David his father[8]." Blessed are they who so
seek, for they shall find. Josiah had not the aid of a revealed
volume, at least not of the Law; he was surrounded by the diversities
of idol-worship, the sophistries of unbelief, the seductions of sinful
pleasure. He had every temptation to go wrong; and had he done so, we
might have made allowances, and said that he was not so bad as the
other kings, for he knew no better, he had not sinned against light.
Yes, he would have sinned against light--the event shows it; for if he
had light enough to go right (which he had, for he did go right), it
follows, that if he had gone wrong, it would have been against light.
Not, indeed, so strong and clear a light as Solomon disobeyed, or
Joash; still against his better knowledge. This is very important.
Every one, even the poorest and most ignorant, has knowledge enough to
be religious. Education does not make a man religious: nor, again, is
it an excuse for a man's disobedience, that he has not been educated in
his duty. It only makes him less guilty than those who have been
educated, that is all: he is still guilty. Here, I say, the poorest
and most unlearned among us, may take a lesson from a Jewish king.
Scarcely can any one in a Christian land be in more disadvantageous
circumstances than Josiah--nay, scarcely in a heathen: he had idolatry
around him, and at the age he began to seek God, his mind was unformed.
What, then, was it that guided him? whence his knowledge? He had that,
which all men have, heathen as well as Christians, till they pervert or
blunt it--a natural sense of right and wrong; and he did not blunt it.
In the words of the text, "his heart was _tender_;" he acknowledged a
constraining force in the Divine voice within him--he heard and obeyed.
Though all the world had told him otherwise, he could not believe and
would not, that he might sin without offence--with impunity; that he
might be sensual, or cruel, after the manner of idolaters, and nothing
would come of it. And further, amid all the various worships offered
to his acceptance, this same inward sense of his, strengthened by
practice, unhesitatingly chose out the true one, the worship of the God
of Israel. It chose between the better and the worse, though it could
not have discovered the better of itself. Thus he was led right. In
his case was fulfilled the promise, "Who is among you that feareth the
Lord; that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness,
and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay
upon his God[9]." Or, in the Psalmist's words, "The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do
His commandments[10]." Or (as he elsewhere expresses it), "I
understand more than the ancients, because I keep Thy precepts[11]."
Such was the beginning of Josiah's life. At sixteen he began to seek
after the God of his fathers; at twenty he commenced his reformation,
with a resolute faith and true-hearted generous devotion. From the
language of Scripture, it would seem, he began of _himself_; thus he is
left a pattern to all ages of prompt obedience for conscience' sake.
Jeremiah did not begin to prophesy till _after_ the king entered on his
reformation, as if the great prophet's call were delayed on purpose to
try the strength of Josiah's loyalty to his God, while his hands were
yet unaided by the exertions of others, or by the guidance of inspired
men.
What knowledge of God's dealings with his nation and of His revealed
purposes Josiah had at this time, we can only conjecture; from the
priests he might learn much generally, and from the popular belief.
The miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's army was not so long since,
and it proved to him God's especial protection of the Jewish people.
Manasseh's repentance was more recent still; and the Temple itself, and
its service, contained much doctrine to a religious mind, even apart
from the law or the prophets. But he had no accurate knowledge.
At twenty, then, he commenced his reformation. At first, not having
the Book of the Law to guide him, he took such measures as natural
conscience suggested; he put away idolatry generally. Thus he set out,
not knowing whither he went. But it is the rule of God's providence,
that those who act up to their light, shall be rewarded with clearer
light. To him that hath, more shall be given. Accordingly, while he
was thus engaged, after a few years, he found the Book of the Law in
the course of his reformations. He was seeking God in the way of His
commandments, and God met him there. He set about repairing the
Temple; and it was in the course of this pious work that the high
priest found a copy of the Law of Moses in the Temple, probably the
original copy which was placed in the ark. Josiah's conduct on this
discovery marks his character. Many men, certainly many young men, who
had been so zealous as he had already shown himself for six years,
would have prided themselves on what they had done, and though they
began humbly, by this time would have become self-willed,
self-confident, and hard-hearted. He had already been engaged in
repressing and punishing God's enemies--this had a tendency to infect
him with spiritual pride: and he had a work of destruction to do--this,
too, might have made him cruel. Far from it: his peculiar praise is
singleness of mind, a pure conscience. Even after years of activity
against idolatry, in the words of the text, "his heart was tender," and
he still "humbled himself before God." He felt full well the
immeasurable distance between himself and his Maker; he felt his own
blindness and weakness; and he still earnestly sought to know his duty
better than he did, and to practise it more entirely. His was not that
stern enthusiasm which has displayed itself in some so-called
reformations, fancying itself God's peculiar choice, and "despising
others." Here we have the pattern of reformers; singleness of heart,
gentleness of temper, in the midst of zeal, resoluteness, and decision
in action. All God's Saints have this union of opposite graces;
Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Nehemiah, St. Paul: but in which of them
all is the wonder-working power of grace shown more attractively than
in Josiah? "Out of the strong came forth sweetness[12];" or perhaps,
as we may say more truly, Out of the sweet came forth strength.
Observe, then, his conduct when the Law was read to him: "When the king
had heard the words of the book of the law, _he rent his clothes_[13]."
He thought far more of what he had not done, than of what he had done.
He felt how incomplete his reformation had been, and he felt how far
more guilty his whole people were than he had supposed, receiving, as
they had, such precise guidance in Scripture what to do, and such
solemn command to do it; and he learned, moreover, the fearful
punishment which was hanging over them; for in that Book of the Law
were contained the threats of vengeance to be fulfilled in case of
transgression. The passages read to him by the high priest seem to
have been some of those contained in the Book of Deuteronomy, in which
Moses sets good and evil before the people, to choose their portion.
"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and
evil. . . . . I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing[14]."
"A blessing and a curse; a blessing if ye obey the commandments of the
Lord your God: . . . a curse if ye will not obey[15]." And there was
more than the mere words to terrify him; there had been a fulfilment of
them. Samaria, the ten revolting tribes, the kingdom of Israel, had
been led away captive. Doubtless he already knew that their sins had
caused it; but he found in the Book of the Law that it had been even
threatened them beforehand as the punishment; and he discovered that
the same punishment awaited his own people, should they persist in sin.
Nay, a judgment had already taken place in Judah; for Manasseh, his
grandfather, had been carried away into Babylon, and only restored upon
his repentance.
In the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, you will see what was to
be the curse of disobedience: or again, consider the words of the
twenty-ninth chapter: "Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord
your God . . . that thou shouldest enter into covenant with Him, and
into His oath; . . . neither with you _only_ do I make this covenant
and this oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day before
the Lord our God, and _also_ with him that is not here with us this
day: . . . lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or
tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God" (alas!
as it had happened in the event, even all _ten_ tribes, and then the
whole twelve had fallen away) "to go and serve the gods of these
nations, lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and
wormwood; and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse,
that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though
I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His
jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are
written in this book shall lie upon him, . . . so that . . . the
strangers that shall come from a far land . . . when they see the
plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon
it . . . that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth
therein, . . . even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done
thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then
men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God
of their fathers, . . . for they went and served other gods, . . . and
the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger, and cast them into
another land." These words, or such as these, either about the people
or relating to his own duties[16], Josiah read in the Book of the Law,
and thinking of the captivity which had overtaken Israel already, and
the sins of his own people Judah, he rent his clothes. Then he bade
the priests inquire of God for him what he ought to do to avert His
anger. "Go," he said, "inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that
are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that
is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon
us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after
all that is written in this book[17]."
It is observable, that not even yet does he seem to have known the
prophets Jeremiah or Zephaniah, though the former had been called to
his office some years. Such was God's pleasure. And the priests and
scribes about him, though they seconded his pious designs, were in no
sense his guides: they were unacquainted with the Law of Moses, and
with the prophets, who were interpreters of that Law. But prophets
were, through God's mercy, in every city: and though Jeremiah might be
silent or might be away, still there were revelations from God even in
Jerusalem. To one of these prophets the priests applied. Shallum was
keeper of the king's wardrobe--his wife Huldah was known to be gifted
with the spirit of prophecy. To her they went. She answered in the
words of which the text forms a part: "Thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to Me, Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants
thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath
read; because they have forsaken Me, and have burnt incense unto other
gods . . . My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not
be quenched. But to the king of Judah, which sent you to inquire of
the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
as touching the words which thou hast heard; because thine heart was
tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou
heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants
thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast
rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the
Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou
shall be gathered into thy grave in peace: and thine eyes shall not see
all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the
king word again."