Chapter 11

5. The first lie dug the first grave, and has never ceased to dig others. We have often imagined the scene when Abel was missed--when his mother questioned his murderer as to where he had last seen his brother. How they would listen for his step, until suspense could be no longer borne, and the father would go out, only to find the corpse of his beloved child! Can we not hear the mother cry out, as she touches the cold clay--"Would to God I had died the day I believed the lie!" What a picture for a painter like Rembrandt would that first funeral be! And what are churchyards and cemeteries but the proofs that the devil lied? Have you a grave? Does the clay cover the form once dearer than life to you? Let it plead with you to believe God and his word, rather than to trust to the old serpent.

Let us be thankful that the seed of the woman is the Saviour of Men. Eden is not all shadow, even after the loss of purity. There is a promise yet to be fulfilled. "'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' saith the Lord." The devil is to be cast into the bottomless pit, and even those whom he has deceived may go to a paradise where the trail of the serpent shall be no more seen. "The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil," and the time is coming when war, slavery, ignorance, tyranny, hunger, and sin shall be among the dark clouds that roll away, as the sun which shall never set rises above the horizon to make glad the children of men. Then shall the prophecy of the poet become history--

"In Him the tribes of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost."

LIX. WHAT WAS LEARNED IN GOD'S HOUSE. ISAIAH vi.

NOT SEEN BY EVERYONE THERE.--Isaiah had his eyes opened. The same awful Person had been present before, but had not been seen, and He is still there, but how few of us are conscious of His presence. How differently the church and chapel-goers would look next Sunday morning as they come home, if only they realised what had been going on in the place where they had spent the last hour.

I. A LESSON FROM HISTORY.--"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord." The King of Judah was dead, but the King of Saints lives for ever. Whatever changes go on, whatever crown shifts to another head, GOD remains the same. In no battle is our General slain. In no national disgrace is He humbled. Uzziah had died a leper, his brilliant history ended in disgrace. Not so with Him whom we delight to honour. Of Him it is more true than of anyone else, "The path of THE JUST shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

II. A LESSON IN WORSHIP.--We see how the angels behave when in God's house. "Covered his face." Contrast this with the way the average church-goer acts. To look at the listless faces, the slovenly way in which men and women pray, the want of reverence, often in choirs, and sometimes in pulpits, makes us think there must be either a want of intellect or a lack of faith. If these people believe there is a God, how limited their power to conceive what He is like! But, knowing many of them to be shrewd in business or personal matters, we are led to think there is often more infidelity in places of worship than is thought for. The conduct of the Seraphims makes us blush for many services we have attended. If the thoughts of our hearts were spoken during our prayers, what a revelation there would be! Let us not forget that they are taken down, and are already in print, ready for the day of trial, when the books shall be opened!

III. A LESSON IN MORALS.--Words defile us! "I am a man of unclean lips." And it is a question if even swearing defiles a man's mouth more than words of prayer which are not meant. Would not any one of us rather be abused than cajoled? Who likes to think that men are lying when they praise us? Must we not pray for a watch to be set on our lips? If there could be a physical effect caused, as there is a moral, would not there be a sad disfigurement? Men and women with lips blacker than coal! It is a wise prayer, "Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord." Deceit, flattery, formalism in prayer are abominable to God. It would be well if, when in church or chapel, we could see it in plain letters, "The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain."

IV.--A LESSON IN GRACE.--Sin may be forgiven and guilt removed, and this to the certain knowledge of the penitent. One of the devil's lies is that either you are too wicked to be saved, or, if saved, you cannot hope to know it in this life; the one drives men to despair, the other prevents enjoyment of salvation. Isaiah knew that his sins were forgiven, and we have yet to learn that the cross of Jesus has made it less possible for us. It was from the altar the coal came that touched the lips. It is still true that it is sacrifice that takes away guilt. We have an altar, a sacrifice, a benediction such as Isaiah never knew for himself; we understand his sayings as he could not. "By His stripes we are healed." Reader, do you long for pardon, for conscious forgiveness? Wait on the Lord! Think of what He suffered, and why He suffered, and you shall sing with joyous lips--

My pardon I claim, For a sinner I am, A sinner believing in Jesu's name. He purchased the grace, Which now I embrace; O Father, thou knowest He hath died in my place.

V.--A LESSON IN THEOLOGY.--"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?' What does this mean? Is it bad grammar or good theology? It sounds like "And God said, Let Us make man in our image?" "And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of Us." In John xii, 40, 41, we find that the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, was the Lord who spoke the words we read in verses 9 and 10. In Acts xxviii. 25 we are told it was the Holy Ghost who spake by Isaiah. What does this mean but that the Divine Three in One and One in Three was the Lord whom the prophet saw?

VI.--A LESSON TO WORKERS.--When iniquity is purged away there is a willingness to be sent on God's errands. The lips that had been touched said, "Here am I, send me." If we are not willing to go, it is because there is still need of cleansing. Let those of us who find our feet slow to move on God's errands come again to the place of burning. We shall do well to say with Charles Wesley, in one of his less known poems--

Ah! woe is me, immerst in sin, A man of lips and life unclean! How shall I with Thy message run, Or preach the pardoning God unknown? Unless my God vouchsafe to cheer His guilty, trembling messenger, My fears disperse, my sins remove, And purge me by the fire of love!

O wouldst Thou teach my lips once more, The comfort of Thy grace restore; Assure me, Lord, that mine Thou art, And stamp forgiveness on my heart; Then should I, in my Jesu's name, Glad tidings of great joy proclaim: Of grace, which every soul may find, And glory, bought for all mankind.

CHRISTIAN, YOUR GREATEST DIFFICULTIES WILL COME FROM YOUR OWN SIDE. IT WAS NOT PHAROAH WHO KEPT MOSES OUT OF CANAAN.

LX. PAUL AT SEA. ACTS xxvii. 22-25.

"There's no hope," said the captain, "the ship cannot live in such a storm." "There's no hope," said the military officer, "we shall never see Rome." "There's no hope," said the prisoners, "we shall die at sea instead of on the scaffold." One prisoner, however, had hope, and in the long run made all his companions to hope. Paul cried out,

"BE OF GOOD CHEER, FOR THERE STOOD BY ME THIS NIGHT THE ANGEL OF GOD, WHOSE I AM, AND WHOM I SERVE, SAYING, FEAR NOT, PAUL, THOU MUST BE BROUGHT BEFORE CAESAR, AND LO, GOD HATH GIVEN THEE ALL THEM THAT SAIL WITH THEE."

What a ring there is in the words, "Whose I am, and whom I serve." How Paul delighted in the fact that he was the servant of God. Often he used to say, "Paul, a servant of God," or rather "Slave of God," for that is what it means. And is it not still true that

SERVICE IS THE BADGE OF SONSHIP?

A man has no right to call himself a child of God who does not work for Him. Was it not so with Christ himself? Did He not, even when a boy, say, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" and the work of God is the delight of the heir of God. We do not join the church merely for what we can get, but for what we can do. How is it with you? Do you say, "What can I do?" That's the way Paul began--"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Too many of us think--How can I enjoy myself? What can I do to increase my happiness? If we would prove that we are the legitimate children of God, we must find out the best way of carrying out the wishes of God. If we set Christ before us as our example--and after all He was the best servant His Father ever had, for while He was in this world He went about doing good, and we could have tracked His footsteps by the cessation of suffering, and the increase of comfort--let us set about the same work. It is our business, if we would live godly, to dry up tears, and make smiles take the place of groans. If you are not at this glorious employment, begin to doubt if after all you are one of the elect. There are numbers of low-spirited Christians who would soon be among those who dance for joy if only they would look out for the one nearest to them who is sad, and who requires sympathy and help.

What should you think of a man who wore the Queen's uniform, and yet who fought in the rank of her enemies; or if he did not fight against his own countrymen, assisted the foe to get provisions and ammunition? But this is the position of some who call themselves Christians. If they do not oppose Christianity in person, they help on the other side, and by the way they spend their money, and occupy their time, put all their influence in the wrong scale. Depend upon it when wages are paid, we shall find that each Master will claim those who served him. We know where Paul will be that day. Let us be in the same crowd!

While all this is true, we must not forget that

SERVICE BEINGS STORMS.

If Paul had been the kind of Christian some of us are, he would have had a much easier time of it. However, that was not what he looked for. He did not want his heaven in this world, and so he had a rough time. Depend on it we are not going to have too much heaven down here, if we are to be crowned with immortality some day. There were in Paul's day not a few who escaped peril by being polite to the devil and all his crew, but that is something you and I cannot afford to do. John Wesley might have become a "College Don," and have flourished at Oxford, and perhaps if he had been strong enough of body, become an authority as to the quality of port wine. Who knows? There was a suit of purple and fine linen for him, if he would have worn it, instead of the rusty black cassock he was obliged to wear. But, then, he chose affliction with the people of God, and won by hard work a place among the four-and twenty elders who sit nearest to the Lamb.

And it holds true yet that if we will only be quiet and give Satan a bit of peace he will let us alone. Why could not Paul have been still, he would have kept out of that doomed ship; and so with thee my brother, thou mayest have a quiet life if thou wilt only pray less and be content to allow sin to have its own way. What are you most like? A barge or a brig? For there are some Christians whose course through life is like a canal-boat's path, smooth and level, with nothing more exciting than a lock, while others have to put out to sea and run the risk of tempest and wreck. Yet who does not feel that there is a nobility about a sailor which a bargeman cannot claim? Besides there's no room for promotion aboard a "flat," no more than there is the likelihood of a storm.

As we read this story we feel that Paul was the true master-mariner that day. His angelic visitor lifted him to command, and this leads us to say,

"STORMS CANNOT SEPARATE US FROM HEAVEN."

"The angel stood by me." He made no mistake, he flew to the side of the real Commander, and it is sweet to know that come what will, nothing can come between us and the God we serve.

What a different man Moses was when he stood by the Red Sea, to what he was when he was before the burning bush. Here are the sheep patiently and quietly browsing, there is the angry mob crying out "Were there no graves in Egypt?" Here there is the sign of God from whence comes the voice, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people," but yonder is the pillar of cloud shewing the way over the waves of the yet undivided sea. How much more noble is the Moses of the people than the Moses of the sheep! It is true that he had to encounter the storm, but then there was the triumph waiting to succeed the tempest. He who fears the contest should not covet the crown, but let the man who means to wear the conqueror's diadem know that in the fiercest part of the struggle the Lord Himself shall cheer His man! Besides,

STORMS CANNOT ALTER THE PROGRAMME.

God meant Paul to appear before Caesar. He was a notable illustration of the saying of Solomon, "Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings." Paul, the slave of God, made judges tremble, and his chained hands ruffled the imperial purple. If only we sail with Jesus, storms become our slaves. The Lord meant to have Christianity planted at Malta, and therefore Euroclydon must drive the wreck to that shore, but still _en route_ to Rome. Take the so-called misfortunes out of the history of religion, and you put it back into commonplace. Persecution has pushed on the cause it has striven to hinder, and heroes are made by hindrances. "Why do the heathen rage? The Lord shall have them in derision." This was never so true as it was when the time came for Jesus to die. It seems as though Satan would have made a good Socinian. He saw not in the Scripture either the Saviour's Divinity or His atoning work, and so he hastened to have Him slain, and thereby carried out the programme of God. Have you ever noticed the prayer that was offered when the servants of God returned from jail? (See Acts iv. 26 28). The enemy "gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done!" It shall yet be seen that no one has done so much for the truth as he who was a liar from the beginning!

IT PAYS TO RIDE WITH JESUS CHRIST'S MEN.

The angel brought the message, and Paul soon gave it out to all abroad: "GOD HATH GIVEN THEE ALL THEM THAT SAIL WITH THEE." It is yet true that religion is a great enemy to waste of life. Give us men who serve Christ to be our servants, and we need less police and a smaller fire brigade. Let Christ be King, and hospitals will not be needed as they are now. If Jesus is Lord, the alms-house would take the place of the Union. There is less peril where there is piety. Every man aboard the ship was to be saved, because Paul was there. Danger waits on the disobedient, but Providence yet says to the good, all shall come safe to land who sail with Paul.