v. 9), that we may be brought into more perfect sympathy with Him who

hates sin but desires and seeks to save the sinner.

FOOTNOTES.

[1] A preacher who is not in some way a seer is not a preacher at all. You can never make people see religious realities by correct definitions. They will not believe in the reality of God on the word of a man who merely demonstrates it to them. You must see such things yourself if you are going to help others to see them. This is the secret of all the preaching that ever was good since preaching began.--_Beecher._

PROPHECY THE VOICE OF GOD.

i. 2. _The Lord hath spoken._

Thus at the very outset of this book Divine authority is claimed for the utterances contained in it. Three views may be taken of the writings of the Hebrew prophets. 1. They are the writings of men who knew they were uttering that which is false when they claimed to be messengers of the Most High. 2. They are the writings of enthusiasts who mistook the ecstasies of their excited imaginations for Divine inspirations. 3. They are the writings of holy men who were inspired by the Holy Ghost.

Against the first of these views is to be set the fact that the whole influence of the prophets was exerted on behalf of national righteousness and individual virtue; that for these things they suffered; that for these things some of them died. Is it credible that men who _so_ sought to promote _such_ ends would begin and continue their mission with a blasphemous lie?

Against the second is to be set the fact that many of their predictions have been fulfilled--fulfilled after intervals, so long, and with such minute accuracy, that sceptics have sought to account for such fulfilments by asserting that the prophecies were written subsequently to the events to which they refer; an assertion which the most competent scholars repel even with contempt.

There remains then only the third view; and in support of it may be urged--in addition to the _conclusive_ fact just named--such considerations as these: 1. That their conceptions of God and of human duty are such as to satisfy the loftiest demands of the most enlightened reason and the best instructed conscience. Give examples (ch. xl. 12-26; lviii. 3-7, &c.) 2. That their conceptions of God and of human duty have not been surpassed by those of the sublimest poets or the ablest philosophers of any subsequent age. 3. That their sublime conceptions of God and of human duty, which still stand as the Alps or Himalaya of human thought, were given to the world in an age when, with the exception only of the prophets and those who accepted their teaching, the whole human race was given over to the most debasing idolatries and superstitions. 4. That the Hebrew prophets stood out in regard to these conceptions not only distinct from the men of their own age, but from the men of their own nation, from whom they had only words of rebuke, and against whose most cherished convictions and steadfast tendencies they set themselves in resolute opposition. Give examples (ch. i. 11-15; lxvi. 1, 2, &c.) If due weight be given to these considerations, we shall see that there is no escape from the conclusion that the Hebrew prophets owed their conceptions of God and duty to God Himself. They spake and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

If this be so, then--1. We should earnestly study the prophetic utterances. How mentally as well as morally debased is the man who is not alert and concerned to hear and understand what "the LORD hath spoken"! 2. Such of their utterances as are predictive should kindle within us confident and joyful hopes. They are the promises of Him who cannot lie, and who has ample power to perform. 3. To those which are preceptive we should give prompt, comprehensive, and careful obedience. To withhold such obedience, is to array against ourselves omnipotent power; to yield it, is to secure for ourselves eternal rewards (ch. iii. 10, 11).

AN APPEAL AND AN ARGUMENT.

i. 2, 3. _Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider._

+I. The unnaturalness of sin.+ The heavens and the earth obey the laws to which they have been subjected; the very beasts are faithful to their instincts; it is only man who falls in duty and goes astray. +II. The baseness of ingratitude:+ as displayed--1. By man to man;[1] 2. By children to their parents;[2] 3. By men to their Heavenly Father.[3] +III. The reasonableness of God's claim to their obedience and love.+ 1. He is our Father.[4] 2. To all parental duties He has been faithful. 3. He has been more than faithful; He has caused our cup to run over with His lovingkindness.[5] +IV. Privilege is the measure of responsibility and the aggravation of guilt.+ The point of the condemnation in these verses does not lie in the contrast between the conduct of animals and men, but in the contrast between the conduct of animals and that of God's people. "_Israel_ doth not know, _my people_ doth not consider!" This is the wonder and the monstrosity. That privilege is the measure of responsibility and the aggravation of guilt, is a very familiar truth; a truth often forgotten; and yet absolutely certain and tremendously important (Luke xii. 48; Heb. vi. 7, 8). What need _we_ have to lay it to heart!

FOOTNOTES:

[1] All should unite to punish the ungrateful: Ingratitude is treason to mankind.--_Thomson._

He that's ungrateful has no guilt but one; All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.--_Young._

[2] Sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child.--_Shakespeare._

[3] An ungracious soul may be burdened with many sins; but she never makes up her full load till she hath added the sin of unthankfulness. He leaves out no evil in a man who calls him unthankful. Ingratitude dissolves the joints of the whole world. A barren ground is less blamed, because it hath not been dressed. But till it with the plough; trust it with seed; let the clouds bless it with their rain, the sun with his heat, the heavens with their influence, and then if it be unfertile, the condition is worse; before it was contemned, now it is cursed (Heb. vi. 8).--_Adams,_ 1654.

Some are such brutes, that, like swine, their nose is nailed to the trough in which they feed; they have not the use of their understanding so far as to lift their eye to heaven, and say, "There dwells that God that provides this for me, that God by whom I live."--_Gurnall._

You would count it a sad spectacle to behold a man in a lethargy, with his senses and reason so blasted by his disease that he knows not his nearest friends, and takes no notice of those that tend him, or bring his daily food to him. How many such senseless wretches are at this day lying upon God's hands! He ministers daily to their necessities, but they take no notice of His care and goodness.--_Gurnall,_ 1617-1679.

The frozen snake in the fable stingeth him that refreshed it. Thus is it with all unthankful men: God leadeth them daily with benefits and blessings, and they load Him with sins and trespasses.--_Stapleton,_ 1535-1598.

[4] It is an excellent representation of St. Austin: if a sculptor, after his fashioning a piece of marble in a human figure, could inspire it with life and sense, and give it motion and understanding and speech, can it be imagined not the first act of it would be to prostrate itself at the feet of the maker in subjection and thankfulness, and to offer whatever it is, and can do, as homage to him? The almighty hand of God formed our bodies. He breathed into us the spirit of life, and should not the power of love constrain us to live wholly to His will?--_Bates,_ 1625-1629.

[5] We find the fiercest things that live, The savage born, the wildly rue, When soothed by Mercy's hand will give Some faint response of gratitude.

But man!--oh! blush, ye lordly race!-- Shrink back, and question thy proud heart! Dost thou not lack that thankful grace Which ever forms the soul's best part?

Wilt thou not take the blessings given, The priceless boon of ruddy health, The sleep unbroken, peace unriven, The cup of joy, the mine of wealth?

Wilt thou not take them all, and yet Walk from the cradle to the grave Enjoying, boasting, and forget To think upon the God that gave?

Thou'lt even kneel to blood-stained kings, Nor fear to have thy serfdom known; Thy knee will bend for bauble things, Yet fail to seek its Maker's throne.--_Eliza Cook_

GOD'S INDICTMENT AGAINST ISRAEL.

i. 2-6. _Hear, O heavens, &c._

God sometimes speaks to man abruptly; when this is done, the truth expressed demands the most profound attention. In our text the heavens and the earth are suddenly called to attend to what is about to be said; God is charging the human race with fearful wrongs; the matter at issue is between the creature and Creator, child and Parent. Our attention is called to--

+I. The Fatherhood of God.+ "I have nourished," &c. Divine paternity is a truth which runs through the whole Bible, here and there shining out with resplendent lustre, as in our text. The fatherhood of God was manifested towards Israel--1. In _supply._ As it affected the Jewish nation this declaration (I have nourished, &c.) pressed with tremendous force. Their supplies were marked by miracle, at least all the time they were in the wilderness; and the utterance has weight to-day. All nature is made to minister to man's necessities. 2. In _guardianship._ "Brought up children." This should have been sufficient to strike the ear as a thunderclap, seeing how far they had strayed from Him. Out of a mean, despised, and enslaved people He had developed a wealthy, mighty nation; and His guardianship reaches to all to-day. 3. In _defence._ The early history of these people was one unbroken chain of Divine interpositions. From the first day Moses stood before the king, until they were fully established in Palestine, God's arm was stretched out to defend them. The blood on the door-post, their sea-path, and the sea-grave of the Egyptians, together with the hovering cloud in the wilderness, all speak of strong defence; and still there are evidences of defence in the life of every man.

+II. The wickedness of man.+ Men are universally the same; as the father so is the son, as the Jew so is the Gentile; and hence in this chapter we have a true picture of the whole human family. Let us mark some of the many features of guilt: 1. _Degeneracy._ God bears with weaknesses and infirmities, but wilful backsliding He abhors. The Jews were evil-doers; they went astray from God and all that was good. It is the wilful sinning of men that now grieves Him. 2. _Insensibility._ Wrong-doing is sure to produce wrong feeling, or, what is worse, no feeling at all. A sinful life results in a dark heart. Here is a people more insensible of good bestowed than the stupid ox or more stupid ass; and there are still persons to be found less acquainted with the source of their supplies than the dumb, unconscious brute.[1] 3. _Defiance._ They rebelled against God. Fear ceased to check them, and hatred led them to bold, defiant deeds. The day was to them as the night, and oppression and murder were but small sins to be indulged in. So it is with many to-day; they have no shame, remorse, or compunction for sin, openly defying the living God.

+III. The purpose of Divine chastisement.+ No true parent finds any pleasure in chastising his children, and any pain inflicted without pure motives would be an evil. God corrects--1. _To restrain from Sin._ This explains much that happened to the Israelites, and also much that transpires in the history of all men. God sees the danger, the leaning to wrong, and with Him prevention is better than cure.[2] 2. _To show the consequences of sin._ Men profess to be practical, and wish to be practically dealt with; hence they say: "Words are not enough; there must be blows." The transgressor must feel as well as hear, or he will run mad. God has always taught men that His laws are more than mere word-rules; there is force in them, and he that breaks them must suffer. 3. _To bring to Himself._[3] Hence we often hear Him say, "Why will ye be stricken any more?" Remonstrance always precedes the lash to show His love and tenderness.--_Charles Jupe._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The stall-fed ox, that is grown fat, will know His careful feeder, and acknowledge too; The generous spaniel loves his master's eye, And licks his fingers though no meat be by; But man, ungrateful man, that's born and bred By Heaven's immediate power; maintained and fed By His providing hand; observed, attended, By His indulgent grace; preserved, defended, By His prevailing arm; this man, I say, Is more ungrateful, more obdure than they. Man, O most ungrateful man, can ever Enjoy Thy gift, but never mind the Giver; And like the swine, though pampered with enough, His eyes are never higher than the trough.--_Frances Quarles._

[2] The consequences of sin are meant to warn from sin. The penalty annexed to it is, in the first instance, corrective, not penal. Fire burns the child, to teach it one of the truths of this universe--the property of fire to burn. The first time it cuts its hand with a sharp knife, it has gained a lesson which it will never forget. Now, in the case of pain, this experience is seldom, if ever, in vain. There is little chance of a child forgetting that fire will burn, and that sharp steel will cut; but the moral lessons contained in the penalties annexed to wrong-doing are just as truly intended to deter men from evil, though they are by no means so unerring in enforcing their application. The fever, in the veins and the headache which succeed intoxication are meant to warn against excess. On the first occasion they are simply corrective; in every succeeding one they assume more and more a penal character, in proportion as the conscience carries with them the sense of ill-desert.--_F. W. Robertson,_ 1816-1853.

[3] If a sheep stray from his fellows, the shepherd sets his dog after it, not to devour it, but to bring it again: even so our Heavenly Shepherd, if any of us, His sheep, disobey Him, sets His dog of affliction after us, not to hurt us, but to bring us home to consideration of our duty towards Him.--_Cowdray._

As the child, fearing nothing, is so fond of his play that he strays and wanders from his mother, not so much as thinking of her; but if he be scared or frighted with the sight or apprehension of some apparent or approaching danger, presently runs to her, casts himself into her arms, and cries out to be saved and shielded by her: so we, securely enjoying the childish sports of worldly prosperity, do so fondly dote on them that we scarce think of our Heavenly Father; but when perils and dangers approach, and are ready to seize upon us, then we flee to Him, and cast ourselves into the arms of His protection and providence, crying and calling to Him by earnest prayer for help and deliverance in this our extremity and distress.--_Downame,_ 1644.

THOUGHTLESSNESS.

i.3. _The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider._

It is clear from this chapter that the Lord views the sin of mankind with intense regret. Israel in this case is not so much a type of believers as a representative of sinners in general. The greatest difficulty in the world is to make men think. Consider--

+I. The common but serious fault here condemned.+ Men are most inconsiderate--1. Towards God;[1] 2. towards their own best interests;[2] 3. towards the claims of justice and gratitude.[3]

+II. Some things that make the commonness of this fault surprising.+ 1. Men live without consideration upon a matter in regard to which nothing but consideration will avail. Nothing can stand in lieu of thoughtfulness in religion. In regard to other matters we can employ others to think for us. But in this matter we must think for ourselves. Religion is a spiritual business, and if a man lives and dies refusing to consider, he has put away from him all hope of being saved; for grace comes not into us by mechanical process, but the Holy Spirit works upon the mind and soul. 2. This inconsideration is practised in regard to a subject the consideration of which would be abundantly remunerative, and would lead to the happiest results.[4]

+III. Some of the aggravations which attend it.+ 1. It is fallen into by those of whom better things might reasonably have been expected. "_Israel_ doth not know, _my people_ doth not consider." It is not the heathen who act more stupidly than the brutes, but those whom God has called to Himself, on whom He has conferred light and knowledge, &c. 2. They have had their attention earnestly directed to the topics which they still neglect. 3. They have also been chastised, in the gracious endeavour to arouse them from their thoughtlessness. 4. Many of them are very zealous in regard to outward religion, as were those whom the prophet rebuked. 5. They have been most earnestly and affectionately invited to turn to God by gracious promises (such as ver. 18). 6. They have ability enough to consider other things.

+IV. Some of the secret causes of this widespread fault.+ 1. In the case of many thoughtless persons we must lay the blame to the sheer _frivolity of their nature_. 2. In every case the bottom reason is _opposition to God Himself_. 3. Upon some minds the tendency to _delay_ operates fearfully. 4. Some make an excuse for themselves for not considering eternity, because _they are such eminently practical men_. They are living for realities of the nature of hard case, and will not be induced to indulge in fancies and notions.[5] 5. Many are _prejudiced,_ because some Christian professor has not lived up to his profession, or they have heard something which is said to be the doctrine of the gospel of which they cannot approve. 6. In most cases men _do not like to trouble themselves,_ and they have an uncomfortable suspicion that if they were to look too narrowly into their affairs, they would find things far from healthy.[6]--_C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit,_ vol. xviii. pp. 373-384.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] One would pardon them if they forgot many minor things, and neglected many inferior persons; but to be inconsiderate to their Creator, to their Preserver, to Him in whose hand their everlasting destiny is placed, this is a strange folly as well as a great sin. Whoever a courtier may neglect, he is sure to consider his king. Men when they start their sons in business will bid them mind the main chance, and attend to the principal point, and especially take care to stand well with such a man who has the power to help or to ruin them. Men, as a general rule, are far too ready to seek the assistance of those who are in power, and this makes it all the more strange that the all-powerful God, who lifteth up and casteth down, should be altogether forgotten, or, when remembered, should still be dishonoured by mankind. If it were only because He is great, and we are so dependent upon Him, one would have thought that a rational man would have acquainted himself with God, and been at peace; but when we reflect that God is supremely good, kind, tender, and gracious, as well as great, the marvel of man's thoughtlessness is much increased. Every good man desires to be on good terms with the good; unusual goodness wins admiration, and an invitation to associate with the eminently excellent is usually accepted with pleasure; yet in the case of the thrice holy God, whose name is Love, it is not so. All attractions are in the character of God, and yet man shuns his Maker. If God were a demon, man could hardly be more cold towards Him.--_Spurgeon._

[2] When we ask men to attend to matters which do not concern them, we are not astonished if they plead that they have no time, and little thought to spare. If I were to address you upon a matter which affected the interests of the dwellers in the Dog-star, or had some relation to the inhabitants of the moon, I should not marvel if you were to say, "Go to those whom it may concern, and talk to them; but as for us, the matter is so remote, that we take no interest in it." But how shall we account for it that man will not know about himself, and wilt not consider about his own soul? Any trifle will attract him, but he will not consider his own immortality, or meditate upon the joy or the misery that must be his portion. It is in very truth a miracle of human depravity--what if I say insanity--that man should be unmindful of his best self.--_Spurgeon._

[3] I have known men who have said, "Let the heavens fall, but let justice be done:" and they have scorned in their dealings with their fellow-men to take any unrighteous advantage, even though it were as little as the turning of a hair. I have known some also who, if they were called ungrateful, would indignantly spurn the charge. They would count themselves utterly loathsome if they did not return good to those who have done them good; and yet it may be these very same persons have been throughout life unjust towards God, and ungrateful towards Him to whom they owe their being, and all that makes it endurable. The service, the thankfulness, the love which are due to Him, they have withheld.--_Spurgeon._

[4] We should not marvel at men if they would not think upon topics which made them unhappy; but albeit there are some who have suffered frightful depression of spirits in connection with true religion, yet its general and ultimate fruit has ever been peace and joy through believing in Christ Jesus, and even the exceptions could be easily accounted for. In some melancholy spirits their godliness is too shallow to make them happy; they breathe so little of the heavenly air that they are distressed for want of more. In others the sorrow occasioned by gracious reflection is but a preliminary and passing stage of grace; there must be a ploughing before there can be a harvest; there must be medicine for the disease before health returns, and the newly-awakened are just in the stage and the condition of drinking bitter medicine. This will soon be over, and the results will be most admirable. A great cloud of witnesses, among whom we joyfully take our place, bear witness to the fact that the ways of the Lord are ways of pleasantness. Our deepest joy lies now in knowing God, and considering Him.--_Spurgeon._

[5] I only wish that those who profess to be practical were more nearly so, for a practical man will always take more care of his body than of his coat, certainly; then should he not take more care of his soul than of the body, which is but the garment of it? If he were a truly practical man, he would do that. A practical man will always consider matters in due proportion; he will not give all his mind to a cricket-match and neglect his business. And yet how often your practical man still more greatly errs; he devotes all his time to money-making, and not a minute to the salvation of his soul, and its preparation for eternity! Is this practical? Why, sir, Bedlam itself is guilty of no worse madness than that! There is not in all your wards a single maniac who commits a more manifest act of insanity than a man who spends all his force upon this fleeting life, and lets the eternal future go by the board.--_Spurgeon._

[6] They are like the bankrupt before the court the other day who did not keep books. Not he. He did not know how his affairs stood, and, moreover, he did not want to know; he did not like his books, and his books did not like him. He was going to the bad, and he therefore tried to forget it. They say of the silly ostrich that when she hides her head in the sand, and does not see her pursuers, she thinks she is safe; that is the policy of many men. They spread their sails, and get up the steam, and go with double speed straight ahead. What, not look at the chart! No, they do not want to know whether there are rocks and breakers ahead. Arrest that captain, put him in irons, and find a sane man to take charge of the vessel. Oh for grace to arrest that folly which is the captain of your bark, and put sound sense in command, or else a spiritual shipwreck is certain.--_Spurgeon._

INCONSIDERATENESS.

i. 3. _My people doth not consider._

+I. Inconsiderateness is one of the commonest of all human characteristics.+[1] +II. While apparently a comparatively harmless thing, it is the source of nearly all the evils by which man is afflicted, and of the sins by which God is grieved and made angry.+--1. "Presumptuous sins" are comparatively rare. 2. Look at some of the evils to which a want of consideration leads in the various spheres of life: educational, domestic, social, commercial, political, religious.[2]

APPLICATION.--1. _Cultivate the habit of considering the issues of various courses of conduct._ We should regard our thoughts, words, and actions as the farmer regards his seeds--as the germs of a future harvest; and we should remember that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." This will lead to a wise caution in regard to the seeds we sow. 2. _Consider the relations in which you now stand to Almighty God._ You _must_ be either a rebel, exposed to His vengeance, or a pardoned child, shielded by His love. Which is it?

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Silly man is like the foolish chickens, though the kite comes and takes away many of their fellows, yet the rest continue pecking the ground, never heeding their owner, never minding their shelter. Death comes and snatches away one man here, a second there; one before them, another behind them, and they are killed by death, undone for ever; yet they who survive take no warning, but persist in their wicked, ungodly ways (Job. iv. 20, 21).--_Swinnock,_ 1673.

A plough is coming from the far end of a long field, and a daisy stands nodding, and full of dew-dimples. That furrow is sure to strike the daisy. It casts its shadow as gaily, and exhales its gentle breath as freely, and stands as simple and radiant and expectant as ever; and yet that crushing furrow, which is turning and turning others in its course, is drawing near, and in a moment it whirls the heedless flower with sudden reversal under the sod! And as is the daisy, with no power of thought, so are ten thousand thinking sentient flowers of life, blossoming in places of peril, and yet thinking that no furrow of disaster is running in toward them--that no iron plough of trouble is about to overturn them. Sometimes it dimly dawns upon us, when we see other men's mischiefs and wrongs, that we are in the same category with them, and that perhaps the storms which have overtaken them will overtake us also. But it is only for a moment, for we are artful to cover the ear, and not listen to the voice that warns us of danger.--_Beecher._

[2] The wounds I might have healed! The human sorrow and smart! And yet it never was in my soul To play so ill a part: But _evil is wrought by want of thought, As well as want of heart!_--_Hood._

THINGS TO BE CONSIDERED.

i. 3. _My people doth not consider._

The universe is regulated by fixed laws, by which God preserves and governs all things. Man is endowed with rational powers, intellectual faculties, capable of apprehending these laws, whether they become known to him by revelation or by his own discoveries, and of using them as his guides. His well-being depends upon his harmony with them, and his dignity and bliss on the right application of his mental powers. One of Satan's main stratagems is to endeavour to hinder him from using them aright; to induce him to act without forethought or reflection, and to incite him to act merely on impulse, feeling, or passion.[1] As a result of these artifices, the great mass of mankind live without thought, and are borne in stupid insensibility to the eternal world. Thus God complains of the infatuation of Israel, "My people doth not consider." To consider is to think deliberately, to reflect maturely. There are many subjects to which our consideration should be attentively and diligently given. We should consider--+I. The character and will of God.+ His _words_ should lead us to this. If you see a beautiful picture, or piece of sculpture or mechanism, you naturally direct your thoughts to the artist or mechanist who has produced it. The grandeur of the divine works surrounds you, and ought you not to consider the wondrous Architect of the whole? His _relationship to you_ should induce it. Your existence is derived from Him, and He fashioned you, and bestowed on you all your endowments. He is your Father, your bountiful Preserver. Besides, you are ever in His hand, ever before His eyes, He surrounds you. And He is great, wise, powerful, holy, and just. His love and favour are heaven; His anger and frowns are hell. +II. Ourselves.+ What are we? What our powers? our capabilities? our end and destination? the claims of God? our duties to others? the improvement we should make of the present? the preparation we should make for the future? Are we answering the end of our being? &c. +III. Our spiritual state before God.+ Is it one of ignorance, or of knowledge? folly, or wisdom? guilt, or pardon? condemnation or acceptance? alienation, or sonship and adoption? safety, or imminent peril? Are we heirs of wrath or perdition, or of God and salvation? +IV. The importance of life.+ Life is the seedtime for eternity, the period of probation, the only opportunity of securing eternal blessedness. How short it is, how fragile, how uncertain! How criminal to waste it, to pervert it! &c. +V. The solemnities of death+ (Deut. xxxii. 29). Consider its certainty, its probable nearness, its truly awful character. Try to realise it. Consider if you were now dying, &c.[2] +VI. The great concerns of eternity.+ The judgment-day. Heaven, with its eternal glories; hell, with its everlasting horrors. Eternity itself, how solemn, how overwhelming! How blissful to the saint! how terrific to the sinner! ETERNITY! +VII. That salvation which will fit us for living, dying, and for eternity.+ Provided by the mercy of God, obtained by the Lord Jesus Christ, revealed in the gospel, offered to every sinner, received by simple faith, and which delivers from guilt, pollution, fear, and everlasting wrath. +VIII. Our present duty and interest.+ Men are supposed to care naturally for these. But their care usually relates merely to the body, and the things of time. Consider whether it is not your _duty_ to obey and serve God; whether it is not your _interest_ (1 Tim. iv. 8). +IX. That there is no substitute for religion+ (Jer. ii. 13).

_Application._--Urge consideration upon all present. 1. _Some have never considered._ Now begin. Retire and reflect; weigh and consider these things. 2. _Some have considered occasionally_--in church, or when sick, in the house of bereavement, &c. Cultivate the _habit_ of consideration,[3] and carry into effect the conclusions to which you will inevitably come. 3. _There is hope for all who will consider._ 4. _They are hopeless who will not consider._[4]--_Jabez Burns, D.D., Pulpit Cyclopædia,_ vol. ii. pp. 34-37.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Satan doth his utmost, that sinners may not have any serious thoughts of the miserable state they are in while they are under his rule, or hear of anything from others which might the least unsettle their minds from his service. Consideration, he knows, is the first step to repentance. He that doth not consider his ways what they are, and whither they lead him, is not likely to change them in haste. Israel stirred not until Moses came, and had some discourse with them about their woful slavery and the gracious thoughts of God towards them, and then they begin to desire to be gone. Pharaoh soon bethought him what consequence might follow upon him, and cunningly labours to prevent it by doubling their task. "Ye are idle, ye are idle, therefore ye say, Let us go, and do sacrifice unto the Lord. Go therefore and work." Thus Satan is very jealous of the sinner, afraid every Christian that speaks to him, or ordinance that he hears, will inveigle him. By his good-will he should come at neither; no, nor have a thought of heaven or hell from one end of the week to the other, and that he may have as few as may be, he keeps him full-handed with work. The sinner grinds, and he is filling the hopper that the mill may not stand still. Ah, poor wretch! was ever slave so looked to? As long as the devil can keep thee thus, thou art his own sure enough. The prodigal "came to himself" before he came to his father. He considered with himself what a starving condition he was in; his husks were poor meat, and yet he had not enough of them; and how easily he might mend his commons if he had but grace to go home and humble himself to his father! Now, and not till now, he goes.--_Gurnall,_ 1616-1679.

[2] The sand of life Ebbs fastly to its finish. Yet a little, And the last fleeting particle will fall Silent, unseen, unnoticed, unlamented. Come, then, sad thought, and let us meditate, While meditate we may. We have now But a small portion of what men call time To hold communion.--_H. K. White._

[3] He sat within a silent cave, apart From men, upon a chair of diamond stone; Words he had not, companions he had none, But steadfastly pursued his thoughtful art; And as he mused he pulled a slender string Which evermore within his hand he held; And the dim curtain rose which had concealed His thoughts, the city of the immortal king: There, pictured in its solemn pomp, it lay A glorious country stretching round about, And through its golden gates passed in and out Men of all nations, on their heavenly way. On this he mused, and mused the whole day long, Feeding his feeble faith till it grew strong. --_George Craly._

[4] No man is in so much danger as he who thinks there is no danger. Why, when the bell rings, when the watchman rends the air with cries of "Fire! _Fire!_ FIRE!" when in every direction there is the pattering of feet on the sidewalk, and when the engines come rattling up to the burning house, one after another the inmates are awakened, and they rush out; and they are safest that are most terrified, and that suffer most from a sense of danger. One only remains behind. He hears the tumult, but it weaves itself into the shape of dreams, and he seems to be listening to some parade, and soon the sounds begin to be indistinct in his ear, and at length they cease to make any impression upon him. During all this time he is inhaling the deadly gas with which his apartment has become filled, gradually his senses are benumbed, and finally he is rendered unconscious by suffocation. And, in the midst of peril, and the thunder of excitement, that man who is the least awake, and the least frightened, is the very man that is most likely to be burned up.--_Beecher._

RELIGIOUS CONSIDERATION.

i. 3. _My people doth not consider._

In a former discourse we noticed that one of Satan's chief devices was to keep men from consideration, and we referred to a variety of subjects upon which it is important that we should reflect. We now call your attention to _the true character of religious consideration._

+I. It should be serious and earnest.+ The subjects are too solemn and weighty to be hastily dismissed. It must not be a mere cursory survey, a rapid glance at these great concerns, but a careful, deliberate contemplation of them; just as a prisoner about to be tried for a capital offence would consider his defence, or a wrecked mariner how he shall escape a watery grave, or a traveller how to accomplish some momentous journey or voyage. If it be done lightly and hastily, it will not profit us or please God. +II. It should be prayerful.+ The exercise will be irksome to the natural heart. We shall be disposed to give it up, or do it slightingly. The grace of God alone can give the spirit necessary for the right discharge of it. Therefore begin, continue, and follow it out with prayer. +III. It should be pursued in connection with a diligent use of the public means of grace.+ Hearken to the Divine Word as it is read in the sanctuary, and to the preaching of the gospel, Christian conversation, &c. Consideration will not profit us if God's means and ordinances are neglected. All are needful to the soul, as wind, sun, rain, and dew are all needful to the ripening of fruit. +IV. It should be continued and persevering.+ Not too much to devote a portion of every day to it. The first and last moments would be thus profitably exercised,[1] _and it must be followed out._[2]

In conclusion, notice +some reasons why you should consider.+ 1. _Because you have powers to do so._ God made you for this end, that you should consider. In neglecting this, you despise your own souls, you sink to below the level of the brute creation. They do answer the end of their existence, and obey their several instincts. "The ox knoweth his owner." Nearly every creature disposes of its time and means wisely; but an inconsiderate man defaces the faculties within him. 2. _Because it is your duty._ God enjoins it--He urges, expostulates. To neglect it is, therefore, to despise God and rebel against Him. 3. _It is essential to the possession of true religion._ Various are the ways in which God brings man to Himself; by a variety of instruments and means, but none without consideration. Manasseh in prison--Jonah in the belly of the whale--the prodigal in his misery, &c. It is the first great step towards saving religion. 4. _By prudent men, it is never neglected in worldly things._ In entering upon any contract, in buying and selling, in all business engagements, in all secular pursuits. We consider, in reference to the body, our houses, food, and raiment, our families, &c. Are the soul's eternal concerns the only things not deserving of it? 5. _God may compel you to consider._ By bereaving you of the dearest objects of your hearts, by afflicting your bodies, by embittering all earthly good. Is it not better to avoid these corrections, sorrows, and griefs? 6. _You may consider when it is too late._ Perhaps on the verge of eternity, if not in eternity itself. The foolish virgins considered when the cry was heard: the rich man considered too late; the wicked will consider in the great day of Christ's wrath, when they cry to the rocks and hills, &c. The consideration of the lost in eternity will be in vain--will be bitter beyond description--will be everlasting, and as horrible as it is durable. Therefore, consider _now,_ while consideration may yet profit you.--_Jabez Burns, D.D., Pulpit Cyclopædia,_ vol. ii. pp. 37-39.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Make up your spiritual accounts daily; see how matters stand between God and your souls (Ps. lxxvii. 6). Often reckonings keep God and conscience friends. Do with your heart as you do with your watch--wind it up every morning by prayer, and at night examine whether it has gone true all that day, whether the wheels of your affections have moved swiftly toward heaven. Oh call yourself often to account; keep your reckonings even, and that is the way to keep your peace.--_Waters,_ 1696.

[2] The end of all arts and sciences is the practice of them. And as this is to be confessed in all other arts, so it cannot be denied in divinity and religion, the practice whereof doth in excellency surmount the knowledge and theory, as being the main end whereunto it tends. For to what purpose do men spend their spirits and tire their wits in discerning the light of truth, if they do not use the benefit of it to direct them in all their ways? (Ps. cxix. 59.)--_Downame,_ 1642.

INIQUITY A BURDEN.

i. 4. _A people laden with iniquity._

_A very surprising description:_ "A people laden with _iniquity._" On account of their punctilious and costly observance of the Mosaic ritual (see vers. 11-15), the Jews imagined that they deserved the commendation of Heaven; but God pronounced them to be "a people laden with iniquity." _Men_ often form very different estimates of the same thing; _e.g.,_ buyer and seller (Prov. xx. 14). There is often as marked a difference between the divine and human estimates of character (Luke xviii. 11; Rev. iii. 17). This is so because God and men judge by different standards; men take into account only their occasional good actions; God judges by that feature of their character which is predominant.[1] So judging, He condemned these most "religious" Jews. What is His estimate of _us?_

_A very instructive description:_ "A people _laden_ with iniquity." The conception is that of a nation that has gone on adding sin to sin, as a man gathering sticks in the forest adds fagot to fagot, until he staggers beneath the load; that which was eagerly sought after becomes an oppressive burden. How true this is! There are many national burdens; despotism, an incapable government, excessive taxation, &c., but the worst and most oppressive of all is a nation's iniquities.

The iniquities of a nation constitute a burden that impede it--1. _In its pursuit of material prosperity._ With what desperate intensity this English nation toils! and for what end? Chiefly that it may accumulate wealth. How greatly it is impeded in this pursuit by its costly government! But how much more by its costly vices! On strong drink alone this nation expends a larger sum than the whole amount both of imperial and local taxation--more than one hundred millions annually! Other vices that are nameless, how much they cost, and what a hindrance they are to the nation in its pursuit of wealth! 2. _In its pursuit of social happiness._ What a crushing burden of sorrow the nation's iniquities impose upon it! 3. _In its pursuit of moral and intellectual improvement._ According to a monkish legend, the church of St. Brannock's, in Braunton, Devon, could not be erected on its original site, because as fast as the builders reared up the walls by day, by night the stones were carried away by invisible hands. A like contest goes on in our own land. The nation's virtues are toiling to elevate the national character morally and intellectually, using as their instruments the school, the church, the press; but as fast as the virtues build, the vices pull down. In all these respects the nation's iniquities constitute its heaviest burden.

_Consequently,_ 1. To give a legal sanction to vices, or to connive at what promotes them, for the sake of certain additions to the national revenues, is suicidal folly of the grossest kind. 2. Those are the truest national benefactors who do most to abate the national iniquities. The palm for truest patriotism must be awarded, not to "active politicians," but to faithful preachers, Sunday-school teachers, temperance reformers, &c. 3. Vices of all kinds should be branded, not only as sins against God, but as treasons against society; and all good men should, in self-defence, as well as in a spirit of enlightened patriotism, band themselves together for their overthrow. That is a mistaken spirituality which leads some good men to leave imperial and local affairs in the hands of the worldly and the vicious. We are bound to labour as well as to pray that God's will may be done "on earth as it is in heaven," and that "His kingdom" may come in our own land.[2]

That which is true of nations is true also of individuals; the heaviest burdens which men can take upon themselves are vices. Vices lay upon men a burden--1. _Of expense._ Even so-called "indulgences" are costly; many professing Christians spend more annually on tobacco than they give to the cause of missions. Vices keep millions poor all their lives.[3] 2. _Of discredit._ 3. _Of sorrow,_ clouding all the present. 4. _Of fear,_ darkening all the future.

There is this terrific feature about the burden of iniquity--there is none so hard to be got rid of. It is hard to inspire a nation or a man with the desire to get rid of it. How nations and men hug their vices, notwithstanding the miseries they entail! It is still harder to accomplish the desire! Society is full of men who stagger and groan under this burden, from which they strive in vain to free themselves. In them the fable of Sinbad, unable to rid himself of the old man who he has taken upon his shoulders, has a melancholy realisation. These men feel themselves to be helpless, and their case would indeed be hopeless were it not that God has laid help for us on One who is mighty to save. Cry to Him, ye burdened ones, and obtain release!

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Men are to be estimated, as Johnson says, by the mass of character. A block of tin may have a grain of silver, but still it is tin; and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin, but still it is silver. The mass of Elijah's character was excellence; yet he was not without the alloy. The mass of Jehu's character was base; yet he had a portion of zeal which was directed by God to great ends.--_Cecil._

[2] As Christians are to think of living for awhile in the world, it is not unreasonable for them to be affected with its occurrences and changes. Some plead for a kind of abstracted and sublimated devotion, which the circumstances they are placed in by their Creator render equally impractical and absurd. They are never to notice the affairs of government, or the measures of administration; war, or peace; liberty, or slavery; plenty, or scarcity,--all is to be equally indifferent to them; they are to leave these carnal and worldly things to others. But have they not bodies? Have they not families? Is religion founded on the ruins of humanity? When a man becomes a Christian, does he cease to be a member of civil society? Allowing that he be not the owner of the ship, but only a passenger in it, has he nothing to awaken his concern in the voyage? If he be only a traveller towards a better country, is he to be told that because he is at an inn which he is soon to leave, it should not excite any emotion in him whether it be invaded by robbers or consumed by flames before the morning? In the peace thereof ye shall have peace; and are not Christians to provide things honest in the sight of all men? Are they to detach themselves while here from the interests of their fellow-creatures; or to rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep? Is our religion various affected by public transactions? Can a Christian, for instance, be indifferent to the cause of freedom, even on a pious principle? Does not civil liberty necessarily include religion? and is it not necessary to the exertions of ministers, and the spreading of the gospel?--_Jay._

[3] "What are you going to take that for?" said an old labourer to a young one who was about to drink a glass of ale. "To make me work," was the reply. "Yes," answered the old man, "you are right; that is just what it will do for a certainty: I began to drink ale when I was about your age, and it has made me work until now!"

TRANSMITTED DEPRAVITY.

i.4. _A seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters._

Transmitted depravity is--+I. A doctrine of Scripture. II. A fact in human life.+[1] _Application_--1. God will not fail to make allowance for it in dealing with us. 2. We should make allowance for it in judging our fellow-men. Our censures should be mingled with compassion. 3. By self-restraint and a life of virtue we should endeavour as far as it is possible to cut off from our children this and entail. A bias towards good may be transmitted as a bias towards evil.[2] 4. In the _education_ of our children, we should be especially solicitous to check and prevent the development of the faults we have transmitted to them, that so, though they are "a seed of evil-doers," they may not themselves be "corrupters."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] As colour and favour, and proportion of hair and face and lineament, and as disease and infirmities of the body, so, commonly, the liabilities and dispositions and tempers of the mind and affections become hereditary, and run in the blood. An evil bird hatches an evil egg, and one viper will breed a generation of vipers. Most sins pass along from the father to the son, and so downward, by a kind of lineal descent, from predecessors to posterity, and that for the most part with advantage and increase, whole families being tainted with the special vices of their stock. John the Baptist speaks of "a generation of vipers;" and if we should but observe the condition of some families in a long line of succession, might we not espy here and there even whole generations of drunkards, and generations of swearers, and generations of idolaters, and generations of worldlings, and generations of seditious, and of envious, and of riotous, and of haughty, and of unclean persons, and of sinners in other kinds.--_Sanderson,_ 1587-1662.

Original or birth sin is not merely a doctrine in religion, it is a fact in man's world acknowledged by all, whether religious or not. Let a man be providing for an unborn child: in case of distribution of worldly property, he will take care to bind him by conditions and covenants which shall guard against his fraudulently helping himself to that which he is to hold for or to apportion to another. He never saw that child; he does not know but that child may be the most pure and perfect of men; but he knows it will not be safe to put temptation in his way, because he knows he will be born in sin, and liable to sin, and sure to commit sin.--_Alford,_ 1810-1871.

[2] While children are the children of Christian parents, as _they_ were children of Christian parents, the presumptions are that they will turn out right; not without parental training, but, that being implied, the presumptions are that they will, by the force of natural law, tend in that direction. All the presumptions are that the children of moral and sensible parents will become moral and sensible. Only the grossest neglect and the most culpable exposure to temptation will overrule the presumption and likelihood that the children of good parents will be good. There may be opposing influences; there may be temptations and perversions that shall interrupt the natural course of things; but this does not invalidate the truth that there is a great law by which like produces like. And I say that under this law the Christian parent has a right to this comforting presumption--"My children have all the chances in their favour by reason of the moral constitution which they have inherited."

I know multitudes of families in which the moral element is hereditary; and it is not surprising that the children of these families are moral. Moral qualities are as transmissible as mental traits or physical traits. The same principle applies to every part of the human constitution. And where families have been from generation to generation God-fearing, passion-restraining, truth-telling, and conscience-obeying, the chances are ninety-nine in every hundred in favour of the children.--_Beecher._

FORSAKING THE LORD.

i. 4. _They have forsaken the Lord._

How many souls are guilty of forsaking the Lord? They forsake Him by yielding to what are called "little sins."[1] Then they are further removed from Him by habitual wickedness.

+I. This conduct is surprising.+ Is it not most surprising that men should forsake the great God, their Creator and Benefactor? He is all-powerful. He is all-wise. He is all-loving. The soul cannot have a better helper in difficulty, or a truer and wiser friend in sorrow. From the Godward aspect of the case nothing is more surprising than that men should forsake God; but from the manward aspect of things this is not surprising, for man is carnal, and the carnal mind is enmity against God. Satan draws the soul from God. It chases a phantom into the great darkness, and finds in the end that it has wandered from the Infinite Being.

+II. This conduct is criminal.+ We should esteem it criminal to forsake a parent, to forsake a benefactor, to forsake a master. But this offence is small compared to that of the soul when it wanders from the Lord. It exhibits _insubordination._ It rejects the Supreme Moral Ruler of the universe. It exhibits _ingratitude._ It forsakes its Redeemer. It exhibits _folly,_ for away from Christ the soul cannot obtain true rest.

+III. This conduct is inexcusable.+ The soul can give no true reason, or valid excuse, for such unholy conduct. The Lord has dealt bountifully with it, and therefore it has no ground of complaint. He is attractive in character. He is winning in disposition. He is kindly in the discipline of life. He gives holy influences to draw the soul to Himself. Hence man has no excuse for forsaking God.

+IV. This conduct is common.+ The world of humanity has forsaken God. One by one souls are returning, and are being welcomed to Christ and to heaven. Many agencies are at work for the return of souls to the heavenly kingdom. Let us seek to make them efficient. Let us pray that they may be successful. Have you forsaken God?--_J. S. Exell._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] There is many a man who evinces, for a time, a steadfast attention to religion, walking with all care in the path of God's commandments, &c., but who, after awhile, declines from spirituality, and is dead, though he may yet have a name to life. But how does it commonly happen that such a man falls away from the struggle for salvation? Is it ordinarily through some one powerful and undisguised assault that he is turned from the faith, or over one huge obstacle that he falls not to rise again? Not so. It is almost invariably through little things. He fails to take notice of little things, and they accumulate into great. He allows himself in little things, and thus forms a strong habit. He relaxes in little things, and thus in time loosens every bond. Because it is a little thing, he counts it of little moment, utterly forgetting that millions are made up of units, that immensity is constituted of atoms. Because it is only a stone, a pebble, against which his foot strikes, he makes light of the hindrance; not caring that he is contracting a habit of stumbling, or of observing that whenever he trips there must be some diminution in the speed with which he runs the way of God's commandments, and that, however slowly, these diminutions are certainly bringing him to a stand.

The astronomer tells us, that, because they move in a resisting medium, which perhaps in a million of years destroys the millionth part of their velocity, the heavenly bodies will at length cease from their mighty march. May not, then, the theologian assure us that little roughnesses in the way, each retarding us, though in an imperceptible degree, will eventually destroy the onward movement, however vigorous and direct it may at one time have seemed? Would to God that we could persuade you of the peril of little offences! We are not half as much afraid of your hurting the head against a rock, as of your hurting the foot against a stone. There is a sort of continued attrition, resulting from our necessary intercourse with the world, which of itself deadens the movements of the soul; there is, moreover, a continued temptation to yield in little points, under the notion of conciliating; to indulge in little things, to forego little strictnesses, to omit little duties; and all with the idea that what looks so light cannot be of real moment. And by these littles, thousands, tens of thousands, perish. If they do not come actually and openly to a stand, they stumble and stumble on, getting more and more careless, nearer and nearer to indifference, lowering the Christian standards, suffering religion to be peeled away by inches, persuading themselves that they can spare without injury such inconsiderable bits, and not perceiving that in stripping the bark they stop the sap.--_Melvill._

MORAL OBDURACY.

i. 5. _Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more._

+I. The danger of despising the Divine chastisements.+ Heedlessness destroys the very power of taking heed. +II. The terribleness of the peace which is often the portion of the wicked.+ Like the cessation of pain in a sick man, which indicates that mortification has set in, it may be only a sign that God has given them up as irreclaimable (Hos. iv. 17).[1] +III. The folly of expecting sanctification as the inevitable result of suffering.+ Contrary to the expectation of the Universalists, the sufferings of the lost may only confirm them in their impenitence (Rev. ii. 9, 11, 21).[2]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] While God visits us at all, it is a sign He thinks of us. The present life is not the time for punishment devoid of mercy. While the debtor is on his way to prison, he may agree with his adversary, and escape the messenger's hands. While the sick man feels pain, there is vitality and activity in his constitution, and he may recover. And therefore I think it must be a terrible thing to have one's perdition sealed; to have the process already closed; both depositions and sentence, and laid up in God's chancery, as an irreversible doom, and so him who is its object troubled no further, but allowed the full choice of his pleasures,--as one permits a man, between sentence and execution, his choice of viands, in full certainty that when his hour hath tolled the terrible law will take its course. How smoothly glides along the boat upon the wide, unruffled, though most rapid stream that hurries it onward to the precipice, over which its waters break in thunder! How calm, and undisturbed by the smallest ripple, slumbers its unreflecting steersman! Or for one rock in the midst of its too smooth channel, against which it may be dashed and whirled about, to shake him from this infatuated sleep! It is the only hope that remains for him. Woe to him if to the end his course be pleasant! That end will pay it all!--_Wiseman._

[2] Afflictions leave the wicked worse, more impenitent, hardened in sin, and outrageous in their wicked practices. Every plague on Egypt added to the plague of hardness on Pharaoh's heart; he that for some while could beg prayers of Moses for himself, at last comes to that pass that he threatens to kill him if he come to him any more. Or, what a prodigious height do we see some come to in sin after some great sickness or other judgment! Oh, how grossly and ravenous are they after their prey, when once they got off their clog and chain from their heels! When physic works not kindly, it doth not only leave the disease uncured, but the poison of the physic stays in the body also. Many appear thus poisoned by their afflictions.--_Gurnall,_ 1617-1679.

Trust not in any unsanctified afflictions, as if these could permanently and really change the condition of your heart. I have seen the characters of the writing which the flames had turned into a film of buoyant coal; I have seen the thread which has been passed through the fire retain, in its cold grey ashes, the twist it had got in spinning; I have found every shivered splinter of the flint as hard as the unbroken stone: and let trials come, in Providence, sharp as the fire and ponderous as the crushing hammer, unless a gracious God send along with these something else than these, bruised, broken, bleeding as thy heart may be, its nature remains the same.--_Guthrie._

NEEDLESS STRIPES.

i. 9. _Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more._

That sin should not go unpunished is a law of our own hearts, and it is a law of God. Punishment is intended to be remedial;[1] but remedies that are intended to cure sometimes irritate, and God's remedies may act in two ways--they may make a man better, or they may make him worse.[2] There are those who "kick against the pricks," and as the result of afflictions which their own sins have brought upon them, become desperate. Chastisement is then of no further use, and like a father weary of correcting the child who has proved irreformable, God may say, "Why should," &c. (Hos. iv. 17). Terrible meaning, then, may lurk in these words: they may speak of that state in the sinner's career when his moral malady has become incurable, when the Good Physician feels that His severest and most searching remedies are of no avail, when God withholds His hand, and says, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still."[3] So some here understood these words.

But a more gracious meaning may be contained in them; they may be the first note of that tender Divine invitation which is fully expressed in ver. 18. For mark, God begins here to reason with men,--bids them look at themselves, their situation, the fatal folly of sinning when sin brings its own sure punishment. What need of these disasters? Note: the first aim of the Gospel is to make the sinner understand that sin and its torments are alike of his own seeking; repentance cannot come until he feels this.

These words may then be regarded as implying--+I. That there is no inherent necessity that sinners should continue to be stricken.+ 1. There is no reason _in the nature of God_ (Ezek. xviii. 23). God is love. Love may ordain laws for the general security and safety, the breaking of which may be attended with terrible consequences; but yet God has no delight when these consequences overwhelm the transgressor. He pities even while He punishes, and is on the outlook for the very first beginnings of penitence, that He may stay His hand.[4] 2. There is no reason _in the nature of man._ As man is not impelled by any inherent necessity to sin, but in every sin acts by deliberate choice, so neither is he compelled to repeat his transgressions. Even when he has done wrong, his consciousness testifies that he might have done right, and it is precisely on this account that his conscience condemns him! +II. That a way of avoiding the merited punishment is open.+ We know what that way is. The prophet saw it afar off, and rejoiced (ver. 18; ch. liii. 5, 6). "Why should ye be stricken any more," when Christ has been stricken for you? The way of reconciliation is open: avail yourselves of it with patience, with thankful joy!--But if men despise the offered grace, let them know that when the doom from which they _would not_ be delivered comes crashing down upon them, they will neither have nor merit any pity. Even the Angel of Mercy will answer them, "Ye have destroyed yourselves!"--_W. Baxendale._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] When Almighty God, for the merits of His Son, not of any ireful mind, but of a loving heart towards us, doth correct and punish us, He may be likened unto a father; as the natural father first teacheth his dear beloved child, and afterwards giveth him warning, and then correcteth him at last, even so the Eternal God assayeth all manner of ways with us. First He teacheth us His will through the preaching of His Word, and giveth us warning. Now if so be that we will not follow Him, then He beateth us a little with a rod, with poverty, sickness, or with other afflictions, which should be esteemed as nothing else but children's rods, or the wands of correction. If such a rod will not do any good, and his son waxeth stubborn, then taketh the father a whip or a stick, and beateth him till his bones crack; even so, when we wax obstinate, and care neither for words nor stripes, then sendeth God unto us more heavy and universal plagues. All this He doth to drive us unto repentance and amendment of our lives. Now truth it is, that it is against the father's will to strike his child; he would much rather do him all the good that ever he could. Even so certainly, when God sendeth affliction upon our necks, there lieth hidden under that rod a fatherly affection. For the peculiar and natural property of God is to be loving and friendly, to heal, to help, and to do good to His children, mankind.--_Wermullerus,_ 1551.

The surgeon must cut away the rotten and the dead flesh, that the whole body be not poisoned, and so perish; even so doth God sometimes plague our bodies grievously, that our souls may be preserved and healed. How deep soever God thrusteth His iron into our flesh, He doeth it only to heal us; and if it be so that He kill us, then will He bring us to the right life. The physician employeth one poison to drive out another; even so God in correcting us useth the devil and wicked people, but yet all to do us good.--_Wermullerus,_ 1551.

[2] Sorrow is in itself a thing neither good nor bad; its value depends on the spirit of the person on whom it falls. Fire will inflame straw, soften iron, or harden clay; its effects are determined by the object with which it comes in contact. Warmth develops the energies of life, or helps the progress of decay. It is a great power in the hothouse, a great power also in the coffin; it expands the leaf, matures the fruit, adds precocious vigour to vegetable life; and warmth, too, develops with tenfold rapidity the weltering process of dissolution. So, too, with sorrow. There are spirits in which it develops the seminal principle of life; there are others in which it prematurely hastens the consummation of irreparable decay.--_F. W. Robertson._

[3] As long as the physician hath any hope of the recovery of his patient, he assayeth all manner of means and medicine with him, as well sour and sharp as sweet and pleasant; but as soon as ever he beginneth to doubt of his recovery, he suffereth him to have whatever himself desireth. Even so the heavenly Physician, as long as He hath any hope to recover us, will not always suffer us to have what we most desire; but as soon as He hath no more hope of us, then He suffereth us for a time to enjoy all our own pleasure.--_Wermullerus,_ 1551.

[4] It is harder to get sin felt by the creature, than the burden, when felt, removed by the hand of a forgiving God. Never was tender-hearted surgeon more willing to take up the vein, and bind up the wound of his fainting patient, when he hath bled enough, than God is by His pardoning mercy to cast the troubled spirit of a mourning penitent.--_Gurnall,_ 1617-1679.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

i. 5-8. _The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city._

By these powerful figures the prophet sets forth the moral corruption and its impending calamities of the people to whom he ministered. [Note that in vers. 7, 8, the prophet speaks as if the future were already present; so clear and vivid is his view of it.] +I. A whole nation may become morally corrupt.+ Vice may defile and degrade all classes of society. +II. The natural tendency of national corruption is not to abate, but to spread and increase.+ Vices are "_putrefying_ sores." As in the body physical a disease or wound in one member may poison the whole body, so in the body politic the vice of any one class tends to spread through all society.--These two considerations should lead us--1. _To pray constantly and earnestly for our country._ "Christian England" left to itself, and unrestrained by Divine grace and mercy, would soon become as Sodom and Gomorrah. 2. _Not to be selfishly indifferent to the sins of the classes of society to which we do not happen to belong._ This were as foolish as it would be for a man to give no heed to the fact that his neighbour's house was on fire, in forgetfulness or the other fact that fire spreads; or as if in the body the head were indifferent to the fact that the foot had received a poisoned wound. 3. _To put forth earnest efforts for the repression of public vices._ Mere passive reprobation of them will be of no avail. Nor can we reasonably hope that time will abate and lessen them. No; these "sores" are _"putrefying;"_ and if the body politic is ever to be restored to moral health, they must be "closed, bound up, and mollified with ointment." In some cases this "ointment" must be moral suasion, in other cases legal coercion. This principle is already recognised in regard to cockfighting, the sale of indecent books and pictures, &c. +III. In a modified sense, the declarations of our text are true of every human being.+ The doctrine of "total depravity" has been preached in such a manner as to discredit it, and statements have been made in exposition of it which would imply that every child comes into the world as wicked as Nero left it (not only depraved in every faculty, but in every faculty totally depraved!) This representation of the doctrine is contrary both to Scripture (2 Tim. iii. 13; 1 Pet. iv. 4, &c.) and to fact. But our rejection of this exaggerated form of it must not lead us to reject the doctrine itself. Our whole personality has been "depraved"--debased and deteriorated--by sin; the whole man--his affections, passions, understanding, reason, imagination, and will--has been impaired by the "fall;" just as by certain diseases _all_ the functions of the body are disordered.[1] The natural tendency of this inborn corruption is not to lessen with increasing years, but to intensify; as a matter of fact, _aged_ sinners are always the vilest and most malignant. These facts--1. _Disclose man's need of a redemptive power external to himself._ Our moral corruption is not like one of those minor diseases which are best left to "nature;" it is like a cancer or a malignant fever--if it is left to run its course, it will kill us. There is in us no _vis medicatrix_ capable of overcoming and expelling it. If we are to be restored to moral soundness, it must be by a Power external to us. 2. _Should lead us to accept with gratitude the proffered help of the Great Healer._ We all need His help. Without it we shall grow worse day by day. His help will avail for us, however desperate may be our case; as it was in the days of His flesh physically, so it is now morally and spiritually (Matt. iv. 23, 24; xiv. 36). +IV. Moral depravity brings on physical misery.+ The desolation set forth in vers. 7, 8, was the natural consequence of the depravity denounced in vers. 5, 6. By an everlasting and most righteous decree a bad character and a bad condition are linked together, and can be only for a very little while disassociated. This is true both of nations and individuals. Sin inevitably leads to sorrow. Of this fact we have ten thousand evidences in this present world. Hence also the realm of unrelieved wickedness in the realm of unmitigated woe. Were man always reasonable beings, the fearfulness and the certainty of the consequences of sin would be sufficient and prevailing arguments for repentance and amendment of life. Let them prevail with us (Ezek. xviii. 30, 21).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is not only the inferior powers of the soul which this plague of sin has seized, but the contagion has ascended into the higher regions of the soul. The most supreme, most spiritual faculty in man's mind, the understanding power of man, is corrupted, and needs renewing. To a carnal understanding not enlightened by the Word, this always has been and is the greatest paradox. Indeed, when blind reason, which thinks it sees, is judge, it is not strange that this corruption of the understanding should be a wonder to it. The reason, being the supreme faculty of all the rest, which judges all else, and is judged by none but itself, because of its nearness to itself, it least discerns itself. As a man's eye, though it may see the deformity of another member, yet not the bloodshot that is in itself, but it must have a glass by which to discern it. And so, though even corrupt nature discerns the rebellions of the affections and sensual part of man by its own light, as the heathens did, and complained thereof, yet it cannot discern the infection and defilement that is in the spirit itself, but the glass of the Word is the first that discovers it; and when that glass is also brought, there had need by an inward light of grace, which is opposite to this corruption, to discover it.--_T. Goodwin,_ 1600-1679.

GOD'S RELUCTANCE TO PUNISH.

i. 9. _Except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah._

God had humbled His people because of their transgressions, but He had not utterly destroyed them, as He might have done in strict justice. This reminds us--1. That the punishments that befall wicked men in this world frequently fall short of their deserts. 2. That this disproportion between guilt and chastisement occurs because God is not so much concerned to punish sin as to reclaim sinners. God chastises, in the first instance, that He may correct, and it is with reluctance that He increases the severity of His strokes.[1]

These facts should lead us--1. _To adore the divine benignity._ How worthy of our love and worship is this God who is no mere vindictive avenger of broken law, but a loving Father who chastens us, not for His pleasure, but for our profit! 2. _To gratefully acknowledge the mercy that has mingled with the judgments which our sins have drawn down upon us_ (Lam. iii. 10).[2] 3. _To shrink with abhorrence from any abuse of the divine long-suffering._ The fact that God is so reluctant to punish, instead of encouraging us in rebellion, should incite us to prompt and loving obedience. Nothing can be more _base_ than to "turn the grace of God into lasciviousness;" and nothing could be more dangerous[3] (Prov. xxix. 1).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See note [1] from outline "Needless Stripes," page 18.

[2] If in an affliction we would pour forth to God such acceptable prayers as may obtain comfort in our crosses and deliverance from all our calamities, we must confess our sins, and humbly acknowledge that we deserve to be overwhelmed with much more heavy plagues and punishments. And so the Lord will excuse us when we accuse ourselves, remit our sins when we remember them, and absolve us from punishment when in all humility we acknowledge that we have justly deserved the fearfullest of His plagues. For if we, who have but a little of the milk of mercy, are moved with compassion when either our sons or our servants acknowledge their faults, and offer themselves of their own accord to suffer that punishment which they have deserved, how can we doubt that God, whose love and mercy towards us are infinite and incomprehensible, will be pitiful and ready to forgive us when He sees us thus humbled?--_Downame,_ 1644.

[3] Take heed of abusing this mercy of God. Suck not poison out of the sweet flower of God's mercy: do not think that because God is merciful you may go on in sin; this is to make mercy your enemy. None might touch the Ark but the priests, who by their office were more holy: none may touch the ark of God's mercy but such as are received to be holy. He that sins because of mercy shall have judgment without mercy. Mercy abused turns to fury (Deut. xxix. 19, 20). "The mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear Him." Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not. God's mercy is a holy mercy; where it pardons, it heals.--_Watson,_ 1696.

THE SUMMONS TO JERUSALEM.

i.10. _Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah._

The prophet being about to make a still more terrible announcement, puts forth a renewed call for attention. It is well worthy of our study. We find in it--

I. A STARTLING DESCRIPTION. "Rulers of Sodom, . . . people of Gomorrah." What an astonishing declaration is this, that Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jerusalem are synonymous terms! It reminds us--+1. That man may be morally alike to those from whom they think themselves the furthest removed.+ Many a Protestant who hates the very name of Rome is himself a little Pope: he never doubts his own infallibility, and is ready to anathematise all who dare to dissent from him. Many a man who has never stood in the felon's dock is a thief at heart.[1] The people of Jerusalem were ready to thank God that they were not as Sodom and Gomorrah, whereas they really resembled the people they despised. For, like the inhabitants of those guilty cities, they had been living--(1) _In habitual self-indulgence._ Self-indulgence may vary in its forms, but in its essential nature it is ever the same. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah had pandered to the lusts of the body, the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the lusts of the mind (see vers. 17, 23; iii. 16, &c.) (2) _In habitual defiance of God._ The sins of which they were guilty were as plainly condemned in God's Word as were those by which the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah polluted themselves. All sin is rebellion against God,[2] and the manner in which we sin is comparatively unimportant (James ii. 10). If we rebel against God, it does not matter much with what weapons we fight against Him. +2. That men may be utterly unconscious of their own real character.+ Self-delusion as to character is almost universal. Man can live in the practice of gross sin without any compunction of conscience. Laodicea and the foul criminal David are at peace until the rebukes of God begin to crash like thunders over their heads (Rev. iii. 17; 2 Sam. xii. 7). As such delusion is most common, so also it is most disastrous. It renders reform impossible. It sends men blindfolded into eternity to the most appalling surprises.[3] The remedy for it is earnest, searching, prayerful self-examination, conducted in the light of God's Word.[4] +3. That God describes men according to their essential character.+ He does not take men according to their own estimates of their character and conduct, and ticked them accordingly. His description of man is often precisely the opposite of that which they would give of themselves, and even of what men would give of them. His neighbours as well as himself would doubtless have described the prosperous farmer (Luke